How to promote your website by writing articles
Sharing knowledge on the web can be a very powerful way to establish your online presence and credibility. First, you write a thoughtful and informative article on a topic in your area of expertise. He then submits it to e-zines for the general public to read and possibly republish on other websites.
Attached to the end of your article is a resource box that contains a short promotional message with a link to your website. Webmasters who wish to reprint your article on their sites should include your resource box along with direct links to your site.
For example, an article written by me might have the following resource box:
Article by Oudam Em. Oudam is the webmaster of Web Launch, http://www.nexcomp.com/weblaunch, a free resource for website promotion and search engine optimization. Visit his site for more tips and free tutorials on how to create traffic and generate income on your site.
The benefit you get from your article is double. First, visitors to the e-zine site will read your article. If they find it useful and interesting, they will probably visit your website to see what else you have to offer. Second, webmasters who find your article useful to their visitors can republish it on their sites, giving your article additional exposure.
Every time your article is republished on a website, you get an additional one-way link to your site via the live link in your resource box. This adds to your link popularity and ultimately increases your search engine rankings. As you can see, the true potential of your article lies in its ability to spread virally in cyberspace.
For your article to spread virally, it needs to attract both readers and webmasters. Keep in mind that your goal is to hold your readers’ attention long enough for them to reach the resource box. If your article is boring and uninformative, few people will read it beyond the first or second paragraph.
Here are some tips to keep in mind when writing an article:
1. Give your article a catchy title.
Your headline is the first and often the only thing visitors see when they flip through a list of articles on an e-zine page. Give some thought to coming up with a headline that grabs the reader’s attention right away. Words like “Secrets”, “Free” and “Successful” tend to attract more attention than others.
2. Your article should not read like an advertisement.
Most people read articles to find information they can use, not to see a pitch about your products or services. If they see your article as nothing more than a shameless act of self-promotion, they’ll shut down and hit the “back” button right away. Put yourself in the place of the reader. What benefits do you want to get from reading an article? Satisfy your reader’s interests rather than your own.
3. Offer lots of free and useful information.
Following on from the last tip, keep in mind that your readers are looking for specific “how to” instructions to help them accomplish a certain goal. Offer lots of tangible information that is immediately useful to them. Don’t take them through hoops just to land on a $29.95 order form “Make $50,000 in 30 days or your money back!” ebook.
4) Avoid tricks.
While it may be true that a sucker is born every minute, most Internet users are sophisticated enough to know what is legitimate and what is not. Write with the intention of offering something substantial to the reader. Be honest and direct. Your article should not make the reader think, “What is this guy trying to sell me?”
5) Be brief.
Get to the point quickly, preferably in the first or second paragraph. Avoid long paragraphs. Use plenty of white space to separate paragraphs to make them easier to read.
6) Your article should not be too short.
Certainly, it is possible to write a good article packed with useful information using only a few hundred words. However, if your article is too short, some webmasters may hesitate to reprint it on their sites. Instead, they can borrow your ideas and write their own article, gaining authorship without having to give you credit for their ideas.
What length should your article have? I suggest at least 800 words, preferably longer. Longer articles give webmasters the impression that you have put thought and effort into your work and therefore deserve publicity on their sites.
7) Use live (clickable) links in your resource box.
Many e-zines allow clickable links in resource boxes. However, many authors waive this privilege simply by spelling out their URLs. Whenever allowed, you must spell out your URL and make it clickable (for example, http://www.nexcomp.com/weblaunch). The advantages of a clickable URL are (1) readers can go to your site simply by clicking on it and (2) more importantly, search engines will be able to register it as a link to your site. website, increasing your link popularity and search engine rankings.
8) Avoid overdoing it in your resource box.
Your resource box, while promotional in nature, should be brief and tasteful. The purpose of your resource box is not to sell something to your readers, but rather to lead them to your website, which is what really sells. Your resource box should contain your name, your company name, a brief description of your products or services, your website URL, and a clickable link to your site.
9) Put some thought and effort into your writing.
E-journals have different standards for accepting articles, with some accepting and publishing all submissions without any human review. However, this does not mean that you should write an article just because it is published somewhere. If your article comes out halfway, readers may make a similar assumption about you and your business practices.
10) Submit your article to as many ezines as possible.
There are dozens of e-zines on the web that accept submissions from independent authors. Ideally, you’ll want your item to be displayed on as many of them as you can. But it takes time to register and send to each of them. Therefore, I recommend that you submit to just a handful of the most popular ones.
Below is a list of ezines along with their Google PageRanks (PR). The higher the PR of an e-zine, the higher its online visibility.
Amazones – http://www.amazines.com – PR4
Article Alley – http://www.articlealley.com – PR5
Article City – http://www.articlecity.com – PR6
Article Emporium – http://www.article-emporium.com – PR4
Articles Factory – http://www.articlesfactory.com – PR5
Article Finders – http://www.articlefinders.com – PR5
ArticleSubmissions.com – http://www.articlesubmissions.com – PR3
ArticleWarehouse – http://www.articlewarehouse.com – PR4
AuthorConnection.com – http://www.authorconnection.com – PR5
Business Knowledge – http://www.businessknowhow.com – pr6
BusinessToolchest.com – http://www.businesstoolchest.com – pr3
Buzzle.com – http://www.buzzle.com – PR6
Common Connections – http://www.commonconnections.com – PR3
Connectionteam.com – http://www.connectionteam.com – PR3
Constant Content – http://www.constant-content.com – PR6
Createonlinebusiness.com – http://www.createonlinebusiness.com – PR3
Digital Women.com – http://www.digital-women.com/submitarticle.htm – PR5
Ezine Articles – http://www.ezinearticles.com – PR7
Family-Content.com – http://www.family-content.com/articles – PR4
Free content – http://www.certificate.net/wwio – PR5
FreeTrafficTip.com – http://www.freetraffictip.com – PR4
FreeZineSite.com – http://www.freezinesite.com – PR2
Fresh-Articles.com – http://www.fresh-articles.com – PR
GoArticles.com – http://www.goarticles.com – PR
Home-Business-Directory.com – http://www.home-business-directory.com – PR3
Home Based Business Opportunities – [http://www.home-based-]
business-opportunities.com – pr5
Home Business Tips Newsletter – http://www.home-business-tips-newsletter.com – PR3
HowToAdvice.com – http://www.howtoadvice.com – PR4
IdeaMarketers.com – http://www.ideamarketers.com – PR5
isnare.com – http://www.isnare.com PR5
Jogena’s – http://www.jogena.com – PR4
jorbins.com – http://www.jorbins.com – PR5
Li’l Engine – http://www.lilengine.com – PR7
LinkSnoop.com – http://www.linksnoop.com – PR3
Main Street Mom – http://www.mainstreetmom.com – PR5
pitbull marketing – [http://www.marketingpitbull.com] -PR2
NetterWeb.com – http://www.netterweb.com – PR4
OpportunityUpdate.com – OpportunityUpdate.com – PR3
Organic-Rankings.com – http://www.organic-rankings.com – PR3
PromoteNewz.com – http://www.promotenewz.com -PR4
PromotionWorld.com/articles.html – http://www.promotionworld.com -PR4
World Masters Sales – [http://www.sales-masters-world.com] – PR5
SearchWarp.com – http://www.searchwarp.com -PR4
SmartAds.info – http://www.smartads.info/articles – PR4
StoreBuilder.co.uk – http://www.storebuilder.co.uk – PR4
Graphix T&I – [http://www.tigrafix.com/articles.htm] – PR3
TheEzine.net – http://www.theezine.net – PR4
Top-Web-Marketing.com – [http://www.top-web-marketing.com/article] -PR3
Web Hosting Industry Review – http://www.thewhir.com/find/articlecentral – PR5
UniTerra.com – uniterra.com -PR3
upromote.com – http://www.upromote.com – PR3
The Warrior Forum – http://www.warriorforum.com/forum – PR4
Web Hosting Industry Review – http://www.thewhir.com/find/articlecentral – PR5
WebMomz.com – http://www.webmomz.com – PR3
WebProNews.com – http://www.webpronews.com – PR7
WebsiteFuel.com – http://www.websitefuel.com – PR3
site-promotion-ranking-services.com – [http://www.website-promotion-ranking-services.com/article.htm] – PR4
Web-Source.net – http://www.web-source.net -PR6
Woman-Net – womans-netnews.com – PR4
WorkAtHomeArticles.net – http://www.workathomearticles.net -PR3
Work-From-Home-Jobs-Iowa.com – http://www.work-from-home-jobs-iowa.com -PR3
Work911.com – http://www.work911.com – PR4
Xongoo.com – http://www.xongoo.com – PR6
zinos.com – http://www.zinos.com -PR6