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The Power Of Informative Articles
By: Jim Conley II, MerchantSeek.com

Writing for publicity is actually one of THE most effective
ways to promote your business. This tactic you may be
familiar with but haven't allotted the time to implement it in
your marketing campaign. Let's take a look at what makes it
so effective and how you can use it to boost traffic to your
site. How much traffic? Well depending on how many
publications you submit to and how many subscribers they
have, you can probably expect to pick up anywhere from a
few hundred to a few thousand or more visitors to your site
over the next three to four days after it's published.

One WARNING I want you to be aware of before I go on.
Be prepared to be inundated with a load of e-mail from
people who've read your article. Some will be comments,
others questions, some will be from people wanting to post
your article in their e-zine or on their site. And yes, every
once in a while you'll get a complaint from an unhappy
reader. While it may seem that getting lots of e-mail is
great, it can be a headache if your not prepared to take it on
when it starts flowing in. Now with that said, here's what
you need to know.

Articles add instant credibility. As you know I'm a stickler
for emphasizing good credibility. It's the basis of having a
continued upward sales curve. Writing articles makes you
an "expert" in what you're writing about. When people read
your article they automatically think, "this guy/gal knows
what he/she is talking about." It opens the doorway to
instant credibility and trust.

You may be thinking, "But I'm not a good writer." To be
honest with you it's not hard at all. Granted it does take a
little practice. After writing a few articles you'll really get
the hang of how to do it and things will just flow. A good
way to see if your article is written well is to pass it around
to a few friends and associates to see what they think. Ask
for suggestions.

OK, we've discussed how writing articles adds credibility
and hopefully we've eased your fears of not being a good
writer. Now lets talk about what you should write about.
The key to making this marketing technique work really well
is to write about what you know best, your business. For
example, lets say you run an online coffee shop. An article
you might want to write about is the coffees of Brazil. In
this article your going to focus all your efforts on talking
about coffees originating from Brazil. The thing to
remember is to write articles that focus on different topics
related to your business.

Write an article, not a sales letter. I've worked with quite a
few people on writing articles for their business and all too
often they send me pieces to review that look and sound just
like a sales letter. If you write a sales letter and try to submit
it for publication it will be thrown out. Editors don't want
sales letters, they want informative articles about topics
associated with their publication. Write to educate the
publications readers. Don't mention your company in the
article at all, I'll explain where you can later.

Here are some important tips you should remember when
writing your article:

* Always include a good introduction and conclusion. The
first few lines of your introduction will determine whether or
not the reader will continue to read your whole article.

* Incorporate a good title. This too is extremely important.
Make sure your article has a good title that will draw in your
reader.

* Keep your sentences short and write in small paragraph
blocks.

* Always have your article proofread before submitting to
editors for possible publication. Trust me, you don't want to
get e-mails from editors commenting on your poor grammar
skills. It's very embarrassing and your credibility plummets.

* Format your article to be no wider than 65 characters and
keep your article between 500 - 700 words unless the editor
specifies otherwise.

* Don't mention your company in the article, and write to the
reader directly not like to a group of people.

Alright so now you know how you should write your
article and what to write about. Now how do you gain
traffic? There's no link in the article to your website! I'm
glad you asked. Behold the power of the byline. This is also
referred to as a signature, resource box or biography.
Whatever you call it, in order to gain traffic you have to
include it at the very bottom of your article. Here's an
sample byline:

Article by Joe Johnson of Widgets Intl.
(http://www.widgets.com). They offer low cost and highly
reliable widgets for your everyday office needs. FREE
shipping with every order. Visit us today at
http://www.widgetsintl.com.

Get the idea? Good. Here's some tips for writing your
byline:

* Keep your byline between 2 - 5 lines. Go over 5 lines and
the editor may throw out your article.

* Use the word FREE if you can in your byline, it will
attract more attention.

* If you offer a newsletter you may want to include the e-
mail address to sign-up for your publication. This is a good
way to gain readers for your own e-zine.

Now your article is totally finished and ready to be
submitted to editors who are eagerly awaiting to include
guest articles. First you need to locate e-zines and
newsletters to send your article to. Target your article at
publications that compliment what you're talking about. If it's
about health, send it to an e-zine on health related topics. If
it's about marketing, send it to e-zines focused marketing.
You get the point. To locate a few appropriate e-zines visit
these different sites:

http://www.ezinesearch.com
http://www.liszt.com
http://www.zinesearch.com

Here are some tips on submitting your article to editors:

* Before submitting subscribe to a few different e-zines that
focus on your articles topic. Read a few of the issues to get
a feel for them.

* Look for article submission instructions in the publication
before submitting. If none are listed, e-mail the editor and
ask if they allow for article submissions and for any specific
guidelines you should follow.

* Use the editors first name when sending your article and/or
asking for more information about submitting. This shows
genuine interest in the e-zine. Don't use "Dear Editor."

* Don't attach your article to the e-mail unless that is the
specified submission method. It's best to include it right in
the e-mail itself. (Hint: Make sure the article is formatted to
65 characters wide before sending.)

* Some e-zines may require a photo. It's a good idea to have
someone equipped with a digital camera get a snapshot of
you just in case you need to use it in the future. (Hint: Dress
professionally and don't forget to SMILE!)

Here's an example of a letter you could use when sending
out your article:

Dear Mike,

I really enjoyed your last issue of The Widgets Gazette. As
a subscriber to your e-zine I thought I would write an article
for it to better educate your readers on the importance of
everyday use of widgets in the office. You'll find the article
under my closing for your review. I hope you find it
informative and wish to include it in a future issue of The
Widgets Gazette.

If you have any questions Mike, be sure to let me know. I
look forward to hearing from you and keep up the great
work!

Best Regards,
Joe Johnson
Widgets International
http://www.widgets.com

(Article inserted here)

Well, I do believe I've covered everything from beginning to
end on how to effectively write and distribute an informative
article. If you follow these tips and guidelines you'll be sure
to have an article that will result in huge amounts of traffic
for your site. Though the traffic from this technique is short
lived, if you continue to write at least one new article a
month and submit it to a number of different e-zines, you'll
be sure to continually gain traffic for months and years to
come. As with all marketing techniques, this one too comes
with a price tag, time. You can expect to spend from
between a few hours to a few days writing your article. But
I believe the fruits you will gain from your hard work will
certainly pay off. So I encourage you to get writing and start
brainstorming about different topics to write about. And
lastly, be prepared for a surge of traffic and sales like you've
never seen before!

-----------------------------------------
Jim Conley II is the CEO/Founder of MerchantSeek. MerchantSeek
allows merchants from around the world to search FREE for a
Merchant Account Provider that best fits their businesses needs
and budget. Visit us at http://www.merchantseek.com/