An E-Newsletter of Profitable Advice about Writing
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March 2009
Volume II, Issue 3
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Article Submission - A Hot Marketing Strategy
In previous issues of this newsletter I've pointed out how writing a book can increase your visibility, credibility, and profitability. In this issue we'll talk about how you can achieve many of the same benefits by writing articles. Read on to find out why article submission is one of today's hottest marketing strategies.  Michael J. Dowling Freelance Professional Writer, Editor, and Ghostwriter
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How to Increase Your Success by Writing
and Publishing Articles
A Brief Introduction to This Hot Marketing Strategy
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Publishing articles
- both print and on-line - is a terrific way to promote your business and enhance
your reputation.
When you become an
author, your credibility instantly increases. People see you as an expert.
More invitations to speak and present seminars come your way.
Published articles
give you and your ideas broad exposure. Readers will see your name and
contact you about your products and services.
Articles containing links to your website that you publish
on-line will boost your search engine
rankings and drive traffic to your
site.
"Writing and posting informative online articles to your website, as
well as submitting them to others, is one of the best methods for increasing
your website's traffic quickly and dramatically."
Jay Conrad Levinson, Author
Guerrilla Marketing on the
Internet
Don't Know How to Get Your Articles
Published?
Not to worry! Magazines, websites, e-zines, blogs,
newspapers, and other outlets are hungry for good content.
Regional or national
magazines are good places to publish, especially if they target your niche
market. Buy reprints of the article when it is published and use them as part
of your marketing efforts.
Websites and e-zines are
also excellent outlets for your articles. It's easy to reach them when you go
through on-line directories. For a list of the most popular directories, visit http://www.bookmarket.com/onlinearticles.htm.
When you submit an article to an on-line article directory,
it goes through a review process (in most cases both computerized and manual).
If the article is informative (not self-promotional) and if it's properly
formatted, the directory normally will accept it and make it available free to websites
and e-zines.
You don't get paid for your article, but you do get valuable
exposure and multiple one-way links back to your website. That tends to
increase your website's rankings with search engines. Also, when people read
your article and like the content, they may buy your product or service.
An Effective Marketing Concept
On-line article submission is a popular marketing strategy these days. To see just how popular, Google "article marketing"
and watch how many listings come up. Unfortunately, its effectiveness has created
some problems.
Lots of people are using article marketing primarily as a
way to increase their search engine rankings, rather than as a way to
disseminate useful information and promote their businesses. Their goal is to push out as many articles
as possible so they can get links back to their websites. Quantity becomes more
important than quality.
That's spurred the development of automated programs that "spin" one article
into numerous new articles simply by substituting different words or phrases
here and there.
Why would someone want to "spin" an article? Because directories reject
duplicate articles. Spinning "fools" the directories so they accept essentially
the same article more than once.
I'm against spinning. It compromises quality and overloads the system, which in the
end will hurt everyone. I think it's better to utilize on-line article
submission primarily for sharing your knowledge and promoting your business,
and only secondarily for boosting your search engine rankings.
Need Something to Write
About?
That's easy. Write about your area of expertise. What
information and experiences do you have that will be useful to others? What do
you know that will help your customers or clients?
Your articles don't have to be related to your career. Think
about what interests and excites you. Have you had experiences that would
enlighten or entertain others? Do you have observations and insights that
others would value?
If you're writing a book, create one or more articles based
on the content of the book and get them published. In addition to getting your
message out, they'll promote sales of your book.
And by the way, don't worry if you're not a great writer. Simply
think of the ideas and hire a competent ghostwriter to put them on paper.
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Vocabulary Quiz
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Which one of these is NOT an English word?
(a) Aver (b) Probity (c) Sesquipedalian (d) Alot
(Answer at the end of this newsletter)
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WHAT'S YOUR GRAMMAR PET PEEVE?
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Al Kennedy writes from Newnan,
GA, "How about an article on
'take' vs. 'bring.' One of my pet peeves is when someone says, for example, 'I'll
bring it to the store.'"
Before I comment on "take" vs. "bring," perhaps I should mention
in the interest of full disclosure that Al and I went to high school together
in Columbia, Tennessee, which was (and still is) famous as the "Mule Capital of the World."
Al wasn't one of the 15,000 or so folks who actually lived in Columbia.
He was from Culleoka, a little hick town out in the
sticks. That's why I'm surprised "take" vs. "bring" bothers Al so much. The rest of the people from Culleoka didn't
seem to care. They avoided the whole problem by using the word "brung," as in,
"I brung it to the store."
But to get back to Al's pet peeve, whether you use "take" or "bring"
depends on your point of reference for the action. Generally speaking, you ask
people to bring things to where you
are, and you take things to the place
you are going.
But there's an
interesting exception to this rule. If you're imagining you are in
a different location, it's acceptable to use the word "bring" when you normally
would say "take." For example, suppose someone telephones and
invites you to dinner. If you don't like the person's cooking you can answer, "I'd love to come to dinner, and I'll bring my own food."
I hope this helps, Al. As an expression of my appreciation for
your question, I'm sending you a copy of my book, Boosting Your Pet's Self-Esteem, a humorous satire of the
self-esteem craze.
And readers, anytime you have a pet peeve or other issue you'd
like to air in this newsletter, brung it to me.
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Congratulations to Joan Walsh!
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...on the publications of her latest book, Blazing Your Own Trail, A Guide for Women on the Way Up.
In this useful book, Joan addresses the key challenges professional women face and offers concrete advice about how to overcome them. It can be purchased at http://www.blazingyourowntrail.com.
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Answer to Vocabulary Quiz
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The answer is (d). "Alot" is is not a word, even though people write alot a lot.
Aver (uh VUHR) - v. - means to assert or prove (e.g., He averred he was innocent.)
Probity (PRO buh tee) - n.
- means integrity, honesty (e.g., His financial probity was unquestioned.)
Sesquipedalian (SESS kwuh puh DAL yun) - adj. - means given to using long words (such as sesquipedalian!)
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Michael J Dowling
The Writer, Editor & Ghostwriter Who Uses Both Sides of His Brain!
133 Worthing Road, St. Simons Island, GA 31522
Phone: 912.230.5051 Fax: 912.634.5777
E-mail: MJD@MichaelJDowling.com Website: www.MichaelJDowling.com
LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in/michaeljdowling
Clear, concise, creative, and convincing writing and editing to enable individuals and organizations
to accomplish their goals and increase their visibility, credibility, and profitability.
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