Utilizing Articles For Your Business

This article was inspired by my recent Christmas Giveaway – I actually first sent an email just to all of my subscribers giving each one a chance to email me and grab a free 400-600 word ghostwritten article from me. At the same time, I did a post on the blog for the first 10 people to post a comment would get a free article.

At the time of writing, Only 8 people responded to the blog and about the same emailed me directly. A bit perplexed as to why this is I was thinking about why this might be.

Honestly I was sitting there sweating before hitting that send button because I thought for sure I would have tons of subscribers responding to my free offer. This simply just did not happen.

I got to thinking about all of this and came to the conclusion that maybe people don’t realize the power of one article. So I figured I would put together something for you to help you realize the potential one article can do for your business.

Submitting articles to relevant websites, online magazines and article directories is a fantastic way to drive traffic to your website.  It’s a low cost method with a fairly high return on investment.

For example, if you pay to have a writer create an article, you publish the article on a relevant website you will increase your exposure automatically.  Additionally, readers will click through to your website and buy your products or services.  Depending on the price of your product or service all it takes is one purchase to make the article investment worth the cost and effort.

There are three basic locations to submit your articles.  They include:

– Article directory
– Magazine (online or print)
– Relevant websites

The benefits for each are the same however the process varies depending on the medium.  For example, if you’re submitting to an online or print magazine you’ll need to query the editor before you write the article.

If you’re submitting to an article directory, they usually have their specifications published on their website and the process of approving your article is typically swift and painless.  Let’s take a look at each of the article mediums you may want to submit to and discuss the benefits and the process.
How To Submit Your Article

Article Directories – Article directories are the easiest tools to drive traffic to your website.  The good news is that there are literally thousands of article directories to choose from.  That’s also the bad news.

Deciding which article directory is right for you and your article marketing purposes can be a bit of a headache.  There are two basic types of article directories:  Niche directories which only publish articles on a specific subject and broad article directories which offer hundreds of article categories to choose from.

These typically range from business to pet care, gardening to investment banking.
You may decide to publish in one niche directory and one broad scope directory to see which produces the best results.  Niche directories may have a smaller more targeted audience however the broad directories will most often have a larger audience.

When submitting your article look for the following things:

• Word count
• Signature box – you must be able to place a link to your website here.
• Are text links allowed?
• Categories – do they provide categories which will accurately represent and describe your content?  It’s important to make sure your article will be easily found
• Do they provide tracking statistics?  You want to know how many reads, publications, and click throughs your article is receiving.

Magazines – Submitting to a magazine is a bit more labor intensive however publication in this format will provide you with more credibility than publication in an article directory.

Step one is to explore your online and offline magazine possibilities.  If you’re in the pet care industry you obviously don’t want to be submitting article proposals to a magazine devoted to investing for retirement.

Step two is to choose one or two publications and find out what their submission or querying procedures are.  Some magazines welcome article submissions while others prefer that you query them to see if they’re interested in your article topic.  If it’s a publication that allows submissions find out what their submission procedures are.

1. Can you email your submission?
2. Does it need to be formatted a specific way?
3. Do you send the entire article or only a portion of it?  Whom do you send your submission to?
4. What subject line do you put in your email?

If they do not accept submissions but would rather see a proposal or query first then it’s time to create your one page proposal.  Identify what your article would be about, why their readers would find it beneficial and why you’re the one to write it.  Again, read their procedures to make sure you’re querying the correct person and following their specified protocol.

This may sound like a bit of work however imagine the credibility you’ll have when you can say, “Published in Money Magazine.”  It opens up a whole new world of clients and audience awareness.
Relevant Websites -  The third and final place to submit articles to are relevant websites.  For example, let’s say you have a consulting business where you help small retailers choose the right point of sale software for their store.  You could publish articles on your own site about the selection process.

You could publish articles in magazines and article directories.  However think for a minute about your client’s selection process.  Many retailers visit the websites of point of sale software manufacturers as they’re doing their research.  This research process can take days, weeks, and even years.  The decision process is difficult because it is often an expensive and sometimes very technical product.

Now if you place your article about how to choose software on the websites of selected software developers now you’re capturing the attention of people who are knee deep in this process and probably need your help. 

Great idea, right?

The trick, however, is to convince these software developers to publish your articles.  In order to stay unbiased this may involve some careful tap dancing.  In the case of the POS software you could swap and give them the opportunity to publish an article on your website.  You can make sure you list them in your choice of software options you provide your clients and so on.

The benefits of article publication are ENORMOUS.  When creating your strategy, decide what your goals are, determine a budget, and then start writing.

So are you up for the Power of One Article Challenge? What are some ways do you think you’ll utilize to grow your exposure for business with articles this year?