I had a reminder this week why “article marketing” is so effective. If you read my blog with any regularity you know that I am a big believer in this exciting marketing technique.

I received a call this week from MSNBC asking me to join a panel on “Niche Marketing”. A TV producer had read one of my articles on the web and clicked through to my website (which is the call to action with every article that I publish). A quick telephone interview followed and I will be taping the show on Tuesday.

There is no way a self published author like me could afford to buy this type of national publicity. Book publicists charge tens of thousands of dollars to make this type of “event” happen on radio and TV. The really cool part about getting on MSNBC is that I made it happen all by myself and so can you.

Article marketing is easy. If you are not familiar with article marketing, it is the process of writing short (250-500 word) feature articles for the web that are posted on internet magazines, commonly called e-zines. You may recall doing a search when you entered in some key words on a subject of interest and found these informative articles written by subject matter experts. At the end of the article was a byline with the author’s name and an URL for you to click on for more information.

There are many benefits to on-line article marketing. Articles are sticky; once an article is accepted on an e-zine website, it can stay listed for months or years. When your articles are posted on numerous e-zine websites, the search engine spiders pick this up; this sends your website ranking sky high the organic way (i.e. no S.E.O. fees!). By writing the articles you are positioned as a subject matter expert, which creates sales leads coming to you instead of you chasing them.

The articles themselves tend to be “all about” or “how to” summaries about a specific topic; think niche and be specific. Article readers are looking for help with a problem or they want to learn more about a subject. Remember, the article is not an advertisement, although the author gets credit.

I don’t mean to sound boastful, but this stuff really works.

John Bradley Jackson
© Copyright 2007 All rights reserved.

P. S. See me on November 25 at 7:30 AM EST and December 1 at 6:30 AM EST on “YOUR BUSINESS” on MSNBC, a weekly Small Business television show hosted by J.J. Ramberg. The subject of the panel discussion will be “Niche Marketing”. For more information please visit http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/13561213/ .

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5 Comments
  1. Good pull Greg. The people are the same but the tools keep changing.

    JBJ

  2. Readers,

    Two more tips on articles:

    1. Always proofread. The secret to good writing is proofreading. Read it aloud to catch errors. Better yet, have someone else read it.

    2. Always end on a positive note with a call to action. People look for the ending to the story and want to know what they should do next.

    JBJ

  3. John,

    Great article and way to go you are a rock star to all of us small business owners. Thanks for the great articles- keep them comming.

    Regards,

    Scott Olpin
    Olpin Group
    http://www.olpingroup.com

  4. Thanks Scott.

    Article marketing is a very powerful marketing method on the web today.

    JBJ

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