Six Easy Steps to Marketing Your Business With Articles - Part 2

by Adam Urbanski

If you missed the first part of this article you can read it here.

STEP FOUR – WRITE THE ARTICLE

This is another place where even those with best intentions get stuck. Many of us have such a strong “internal editor” that putting that first word on a piece of paper appears to be “mission impossible.”

While eventually you will find your own way of getting started there are some strategies that seem to make the process easier for everyone.

Begin with listing ideas you want to cover, write down key words and phrases you would like to use. Write as much and as quickly as you can – without stopping to analyze or edit your writing. Don’t worry about any specific order, neatness or spelling – this is just to get the information out of your head. The more you write the better – it’s easier to edit it down then to write more later.

Next, write a paragraph on each idea or key word you listed. Add examples and stories to illustrate your points, list additional resources. Just keep writing – include anything that makes your ideas easier to understand and makes your article more interesting to read and the information more valuable.

Don’t worry about making it all sound good right now – just keep writing everything that comes to mind. Your goal is to get this out of your head as quickly as possible – before you start editing your thoughts and questioning yourself.

Once this is done, you will likely have more content than you need for a good article. Now you can move things around and make sure the whole thing reads wells and makes sense. Spend time creating a strong opening and a good summary or call to action to close your article.

There are a couple more things to consider: tone and format. Both will depend on your target market and where you intend to publish the article.

Casual, conversational tone makes articles easy to read. Unless you are writing on highly technical subjects and your readers are engineers or doctors – use simple language that any sixth-grader could easily read and understand.

Informative, how-to articles are always popular. They have an easy to follow format:

• BRIEF OPENING. Start with a story, statement or a startling statistic to get readers interested in reading further.
   
• PROBLEM STATEMENT. Describe the problem readers are dealing with; explain what causes it and why some of the popular solutions fail to solve it,
   
• HELPFUL TIPS. Outline your solution/approach/process/opinion and give a few examples,
   
• RESOURCES. If possible tell readers how they can find additional resources,
   
• CALL TO ACTION. Conclude with a brief summary and encourage them to take their next step right away!

As a matter of fact, if you take a look at this article - it follows this exact model.

STEP FIVE – EDITING

I know you’ve done a lot of hard work to get to this point. But before you start looking for a place to publish your article there is just one final step – editing. Proof read what you wrote. Do it a few times. Print it out and read it in the printed form.

In addition – have someone else edit it for you. Often we get too attached to the stuff we created and it’s hard to evaluate it objectively or catch basic mistakes. Even if it’s just one of your colleagues or a friend – it’s a good idea to have an extra pair of eyes scanning your article before you send it out.

STEP SIX – GETTING IT PUBLISHED

It won’t matter one bit how great your article is if you are the only person reading it. It’s time to complete what you started and get your article in front of other people.

Submitting your articles for print in hard copy publications may take a while and the process is a lot different than publishing online. (Perhaps I will make this a subject of my next tip.) To begin with it’s much easier and faster to have your article picked up by online publications.

• Find web sites that attract your potential clients and then see if those sites accept article submissions – you’ll find that many do.
   
• Look for online newsletters whose subscriber base matches your target market and ask if they accept guest articles. Again, you will find that quality articles are always in demand.
   
• Finally, a quick search on “article submissions” will point you to dozens of web sites that are actively looking for new article submissions.

To make things even easier, here is a short list of 11 article submission sites to get you started right away:

http://ezinearticles.com

http://www.submityourarticle.com ($37/month)

http://www.ideamarketers.com

http://www.goarticles.com

http://www.articlecity.com

http://www.articledashboard.com

http://www.easyarticles.com

http://www.articlecube.com

http://www.isnare.com ($2/article)

http://articlealley.com

http://articlesfactory.com

And let’s not forget one of the best ways to get your articles out - publish your own ezine or newsletter. Since you are taking the time to express you expertise in writing you might as well take the extra step and invite people to receive your articles directly from you.

If this entire process still sends the shivers down your spine here are a couple of ultimate shortcuts.

Sometimes when we sit down to write this “big article” it’s impossible to shut up our “internal editor”. But for most people it’s much easier to talk their ideas out. So just let yourself talk out-loud and record your ramblings. Have the recording transcribed and edited – and voila – out pops your new article.

Finally, you can get other people to write articles for you. Just give them the topic and some basic ideas. There are people out there who will research the topic and create your masterpiece for you. And you will be amazed how cheap it is!

Depending on your topic you can have your articles written for you for as little as $10 each. (Yeah, I know – it blew me away, too!) Visit http://www.elance.com and post your project – I know you will be surprised by some of the bids and the good quality of the freelancers eager to help you out!

Well, there you have it – Marketing Your Business with Articles 101! Like with any new skill it will take a little practice to get good at it. But all the recognition, credibility, extra visibility, and getting pre-qualified prospects to call you - believe me - it's definitely worth the hassle.

If you still doubt if you can do this - just remember this - if a guy who barely got his high-school diploma and who 15 years ago couldn’t put together one sentence in English can do it – so can you! Happy writing!

(c) 2004 Adam M. Urbanski

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Adam Urbanski, the Marketing Mentor, helps Independent Service Professionals and Small Business Owners attract more clients. For more promotional tips and a FREE 32-page marketing guide go to http://www.themarketingmentors.com

NOTE: Are you looking for fresh content for your ezine or web site? Feel free to reprint this article as long as it's kept intact and unaltered (including the “about the author” info at the end), and you send a copy of your reprint to adam@themarketingmentors.com
 

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