Hope Writes

Article Marketing Is A Long-Term Strategy

Posted by Hope

One common misconception about article marketing is that you can write and submit a handful of articles and receive a large influx of benefits (web traffic, sales, etc.). This simply isn’t true. Couldn’t be further from the truth.

As you begin to build your own stock of information products to sell online, you may decide to use article marketing as part of your marketing process. It’s free and you already write, so what better way to market your products, than with article marketing.

Article marketing requires the 3 Ps: Persistence, Patience, and Passion. Let’s take a look at these…

Persistence

As I stated earlier, some people have the wrong idea that you can write and submit a few articles to reap big benefits. In the early days of article marketing this may have held true, but now you have to put more work into it than that.

You can’t write a few articles, then give up and quit if you don’t see immediate results. Some article marketers claim that some of their earlier articles they wrote 2+ years ago still net them web traffic and sales today. Why is that?

In most cases, when you begin article marketing, the more you write and submit, the greater your following will become. Also, as you become more well-known online, your readers will search for more articles from you in the search engines as well.

If you are going to market with articles, you must have a long-term plan. Otherwise, you won’t see much benefits from doing so. The most important thing you can do is set goals for yourself, including weekly, monthly, and even yearly goals.

How many articles can you reasonably write and submit over the course of one week? If you only have time for two, don’t set a goal of ten. You’ll only be setting yourself up for failure. Be reasonable, but be persistent. By writing and submitting those two articles every week, you’ll create a habit. Once you have that habit established, you can build upon it by adding an additional article each month. Soon, you’ll be writing and submitting 10+ articles every week.

You must have a plan.

Patience

I think this is the one that trips many who are just starting out with article marketing. Maybe you get the writing and submitting down pat, but you still aren’t seeing much results from your efforts. Lots of writers have stopped submitting their content to the article directories because they think their efforts aren’t paying off.

Here’s the key: You can’t expect overnight results.

Article marketing requires diligence and patience. Stop checking your article stats every three hours. Just submit your articles, and leave them alone.

Patience is a virtue I have yet to perfect as well. But you’ll only end up frustrated and irritated if you become obsessive about your article stats. Sure, you want to check in and see what’s happening with your articles. But don’t spend more time worrying about your articles than you do actually writing more articles to submit.

I read something last week on the Warrior Forum that grabbed my attention regarding this very topic. Another marketer said (paraphrasing) that article marketing shouldn’t be your end-all marketing tactic. You need to have other marketing techniques in play, in addition to article marketing. And I agree.

If you’re only using article marketing to promote your product or service, it will take a lot longer to get the word out. This should only be one portion of your marketing efforts.

Passion

Finally, you have to be passionate about the topic(s) you write about. Your passion will shine forth in the articles you write. Likewise, if you don’t really care about the topic, your readers will pick up on that as well.

Passion connects you with your readers. It forges a bridge between you and your readership, to help build long-term relationships.

Have you ever read an article or blog post online and felt it resonate deep within you? What did you do after you finished reading that one? You probably looked for more articles by the same author.

The same happens when you write passionate articles to submit to article directories. Some article marketers say they don’t put a lot of thought and effort into their articles, submitting the bare word minimum. But I strongly believe in writing high quality, passionate articles that your reader will not only enjoy, but want more of.

Do you use article marketing as part of your marketing strategy?

Popularity: 25% [?]

3 Responses to “Article Marketing Is A Long-Term Strategy”

1. Of Note: HopeWrites.com Says:
   March 15th, 2008 at 10:02 am

   […] Article Marketing Is A Long-Term Strategy - This post examines three P’s that will help you successfully market your own articles. […]

2. Jim Says:
   March 18th, 2008 at 4:18 pm

   I think you make some good points… There are also some key parts to article marketing that act like multipliers:

   You need lots and lots of publishers, don’t rely on the big article directories. Produce good quality content that people actually want to read and not just stuff to try and get links from the search engines.

3. Hope Says:
   March 20th, 2008 at 12:35 pm

   Thanks for your sound input, Jim! You’re right on the mark.

Leave a Reply

Name (required)

Mail (will not be published) (required)

Website

Enable CommentLuv which will try and get your last blog post, please be patient while it finds it for you

Notify me of follow-up comments via e-mail