Esther C Kane » article writing

Article Marketing – Can You Do It?

eckweb — Wed, 23 Jul 2008 18:20:55 +0000

Article marketing is by far the best, easiest, cheapest, most effective type of Internet marketing. The website owner has total control and can write as many articles as they wish. So, what’s the glitch? Many website owners don’t think they can do it.

I just got off the phone with a client who is just terrified of having to write! She’s so concerned with getting “just the right” text, making sure the grammar is perfect, etc. It’s so overwhelming that she doesn’t do any writing at all!

What’s my comment? “Can you talk?” – If you can talk, then you can write.

I’m no master writer, (as you can tell). But I know my business, I know SEO and Internet marketing and talking about that is not a problem. So, if I can talk about it, I can absolutely write about it. I just imagine myself at a networking group, in front of someone, talking about whatever the topic of the article is. That’s it. No magic, no panel of reviewers, nothing. Just me and the keyboard and my imagination.

How do I know what to write about? That’s easy too. I go to Google News and type in a word or phrase. For me that would be something like, “Internet marketing”, or “seo”, or “search engine optimization”. I then sort the articles by date and I get a list of updated news on the topic. I also keep a list of blogs that I read daily which help to keep up with the news in my industry as well.

Writing articles doesn’t have to be daunting or overwhelming. Keep it simple and focused on your topic. You can do it.

So, what do you think? Is article marketing for you? It should be.

Name Tags – How Creative

eckweb — Sat, 23 Feb 2008 13:23:57 +0000

One of the most difficult aspects of Internet marketing is the constant flow of new articles that really should be written on a regular basis. It’s not so easy to come up with the kind of creative writing that is needed in Internet marketing. But if you find the right person to help you, it can make all the difference in the world. Well, at least in your pocket book!

So, a few weeks ago a new client signed up with me for Internet marketing services. This new client sells name tags and name badges. Not very exciting, true but still a popular product.Anyway, he wanted to have some articles created for the purpose of marketing on the Internet. A friend of mine had been working with a new copywriter, Taylor DiMeglio from TheWordTaylor.com. My friend loved her work so I thought I would give her a try.

I gave Taylor the phone number for my name tag client and she took care of the rest. And boy did she ever!Below is her work.Nano Name Tag Saves Law-Mart (Again)

Our hero, Nano Name Tag, that underdog of underdogs, was spotted once again going into Law-Mart. What his mission was, we couldn’t be sure, but you can bet Niddlybot News was determined to find out.

First spotted in the candy aisle, Nano Name Tag for once looked idle, maybe even depressed. He was staring at a Snickers® bar twice his size. Poor Nano. He can’t eat without a mouth. After all, he is just a name tag.

But, not just any name tag. Nano reminded us of that moments later when he straightened up in high alert. A situation was brewing, and he was on the case.

A red-haired lady looked around anxiously, two sets of bedsheets in her hand. Obviously, she needed help, twisting her head about as she was, looking for a Law-Mart employee. And, there was Ed, right in front of her-—without his employee name tag.

An indignant Nano Name Tag launched himself into the air, sweeping upward in a full arc, his pin landing squarely on the top of a passing shopping cart. For a moment, he looked proud. They were headed right for Ed and the red-haired lady. Nano struggled to pull his pin out of the cart in preparation for his jump.

It wouldn’t be easy. Nano Name Tag would have to jump backwards across a space of three feet to land on the right spot of Ed’s shirt. Now we were anxious, wondering if he’d make it.

Ready, set…there he went! Propelling himself off the cart with furious, gasping effort, Nano flew through the air. Oh, no! Ed was starting to move away, at just that critical second. Would Nano impale the shower curtains?!

But, no, he made it, and just in time, too. The red haired lady looked perturbed. Was there no one in this store to help her? And, then she spotted Nano Name Tag on Ed’s shirt. “Hi, My name is Ed” it proclaimed.

Was that there this whole time? she seemed to wonder. Never mind. She was relieved, and Nano Name Tag stayed still, acting the perfectly ordinary employee name tag. That Nano.

For his part, Ed jerked at the sharp but momentary poke of Nano Name Tag’s pin. But clearly, it reminded him—-customers were more important than the shower curtain rings he held in his hand. He put them down.

“May I help you?” he asked.

It all went smoothly from there. Amid the smiles and conversation, Nano Name Tag held quiet. He didn’t want to intrude. When the red haired lady walked away with the right bedsheets, Ed looked down at Nano.

“Where did you come from, Nano?! I can’t believe I forgot my employee name tag again. Thank goodness you spotted me before Mr. Dinkins did.”

“It’s no trouble,” a blushing Nano Name Tag spelled out.

“Thank you, Nano Name Tag. Thank you!”

A little reluctantly, Ed pulled Nano Name Tag off his shirt, set him on the floor, and replaced him with his own employee name tag. (He’d had it in his back pocket this whole time.)

Nano jostled himself forward as best he could without any arms or legs. A few feet away, he howled suddenly, rubbing his backside against a stack of towels.

Ed ran over, “What is it Nano? Are you okay?!”

“It’s nothing,” said Nano. “Just poked myself with my pin is all. All in a day’s—”

But, Ed had already moved on. He’d spotted another customer needing help a few aisles over.

“All in a day’s work,” said Nano.

Nano Name Tag, you’ve done it again.

If you’re searching for quality, custom name tags that perform Super Hero work, visit Name-Tags.net

How To Use Articles For Marketing

eckweb — Sat, 09 Feb 2008 18:04:53 +0000

I’m sure you’ve seen the advertisements, “Learn How To Use Articles For Marketing“. Promising you tons of traffic just for writing something down.

They make it seem so easy. Write an article, publish it on the Internet via a website, a blog, press release and BOOM, you’ve got traffic and sales and money!!!

Yeah right! If you believe this, I’ve got a bridge I’d like to sell ya.

Articles DO bring in traffic. Absolutely! But, it’s not as easy as 1-2-3. There’s just a little bit more to it. Difficult, not really. If you really want to learn how to use articles for marketing, here are the steps:

1) Decide on a keyword phrase. Yep, one keyword phrase. But know, that just any keyword phrase won’t do. You want a keyword phrase that is popular yet has little Internet competition. If you know how to choose the best keyword phrase for Internet marketing, great. If not, consult with an SEO marketer.

2) Write your article based on this keyword phrase. Use the keyword phrase in the title of your article, in the body of text of your article, in the beginning, in the middle and in the end of the body of text. Bold and/or italicize your keyword phrase here and there. If possible use your keyword phrase as an anchor text link.

3) Speaking of anchor text links. Try to incorporate anchor text links in your article, pointing back to your website. Believe it or not, this is the number on most important technique in the art of how to use your articles for marketing. It’s the anchor text linking that Google is looking for.

4) You want your article to have some unique content. That means you don’t want to grab someone else’s text and use it as your own. The search engines frown on duplicate content. They really do.

5) Once your article is completed, submit it to as many article submission sites as possible. You can even re-write the article as a press release and submit it to as many online press release sites as possible. When it comes to using articles for marketing, you need exposure. Submitting your article gives you that exposure.

6) Here comes the hard part. WAIT! Yep, wait. Your article can be on the Internet within 5 days. But, it will take longer for it to get indexed and be useful and point back to your website. It can take 30 days, it can take 365 days.

7) So, what’s the point? If article writing doesn’t bring in traffic quickly why bother? I’ll tell you why. An article you write today can get indexed in 30 days through one website. A few days or months later, other websites will index it. So on and so on and so on. I still see articles that I wrote more than 2 years ago just getting picked up and indexed by directories and search engines.

That means more links to my website.
That means higher placement possibilities in Google.
That means more traffic.
That means more customers.

All from something I wrote once.

Want to track your article’s indexing? Go to Google’s Alert service. It’s a free service that alerts you by email whenever certain text or a website is indexed by any online publication. (This includes search engines, directories, websites, etc.) This is how I know that my articles are still getting published.

So, that’s it. No secrets, no miracles, no magic potions. I’ve laid out the steps for you on how to use articles for marketing. Go ahead, get started. You’ll reap the rewards, I’m positive!

The REAL Secret To Internet Marketing

eckweb — Tue, 18 Dec 2007 17:55:38 +0000

Whenever I meet anyone for the first time and I tell them that I do Internet Marketing, inevitably one of the very first questions I get is “What’s the real secret to internet marketing?“. It doesn’t matter if I’m speaking at a group or if I’m meeting someone at a social event. They always get to that question.

What’s my answer? My answer is that there really is no secret, it’s just hard work. But if there were a trick that I could (and do) recommend to everyone, it would be ARTICLES!!!!

You don’t believe me? Why not conduct an experiment and test it for yourself. Write one article a month for 6 months. Submit that article to online press release programs, online article submission sites, your blog and if appropriate on your website. Make sure the article is optimized for the keyword phrase you are marketing. After 6 months, check your website logs. If your articles are optimized correctly, you’ll see people coming in to your website via those articles. You’ll also see people coming to your website via those keyword phrases.

How do I know it works? Because I do it for my own websites. I admit that it does take time. It takes at least 3 months for the articles to begin showing up on the top 50 and about 6 months for them to begin bringing in traffic. But, I also admit that I don’t pay for press releases or article submission sites. I use all the free versions.

There’s a good book called “Turn Words Into Traffic” by Jim and Dallas Edwards. The subtitle of the book is “Finally! The Secret To Non-Stop Free Targeted Traffic”. What’s the “Secret”? Writing articles!

Well, go ahead, give it a try. You’ve got nothing to lose but a little bit of time.

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Unported.