Dave Kotecki – Road To Freedom

Excellent question. I’m glad you asked. The first skill that any marketer who wants to be an internet Rockstar should master is….

Article Marketing.
Yes, really.

Why? Because writing is a skill that was taught to everyone who went to school. That’s most people. And when you set out to write an article, you’ll have to research the subject you’re writing about. That’ll help you teach yourself more about the subject. The more you know about marketing, the more effective you’ll be at helping your team succeed.

Not only that, you’ll have to consider what keywords are best for your target market. What’s that? You don’t know who your target market is? Well, a little bit of time figuring out which keywords you want to use will give you a pretty good idea of who you’re going to attract with your marketing. That’s your target market.

I know, that’s in reverse order of how most people say it, but it works both ways. It’s always good to get a fresh perspective on things.

Let’s say you want to use the keyword phrase “Article Marketing”. Your first step will probably be to go to your Google account and use their free keyword tools to find different variations of the keyword. But let’s just leave it at “Article Marketing” for the time being.

Now, you just start surfing around looking for information about your subject. I know it’s old school, but your local library still has hidden treasure buried in those dusty old bookshelves. If you spend just a couple of hours researching any subject, you’ll know more about that subject than 90% of the population. You’ll be an expert in their eyes.

How much information do you need to write a 500 word article anyway? I bet this one is at least that long already. Or close, anyway. The point is, you don’t have to go on and on about your subject until your reader is begging silently in their head for you to just wrap it up. Just give them some good info and tell them where to go to find more like it.

Once you’ve got your article, you’re ready to post it on your blog or in a forum. Don’t post your article directly to the discussion on a forum. Give them a little taste, then a link to the rest of the article. People who insist on posting an article in a forum are broadcasting the fact that they don’t think their stuff is interesting enough for people to go looking for. Besides, I think it’s rude.

One more thing. If you post a link in your teaser, you’ll have a link to your article, and a link to your blog in the forum thread. Plus you’ll have more traffic to both. it’s just good SEO strategy.

You’ll also want to look at article spinners and posting your articles to directories.

I spent 6 months and thousands of dollars trying to find someone who could write an article good enough for me. I just couldn’t find anyone. I looked at a dozen different spinners and submitters. They were all crap. After all that time, money and frustration, I finally hired a full-time writer. Now I’m good, right? Wrong. I still had to train her to write an article specifically for marketing. Now she’s incredible.

But I’m always on the lookout for anything that will help my business get bigger and better. Not too long ago, I came across my new friend James. He’s an independent programmer that has built the only article directory, spinner and submission site that I recommend.

You can find James here:

My Favorite  Article Directory And Submission Site

If you’re brand new, you probably don’t want to just rush right out and buy any program. Learn to find your best keywords, research your subject, write an article and post to directories. There’s lots to learn before you turn on the juice.

But once you’re ready, make use of the tools you find to supercharge your business and automate your efforts.

Now get out there and write an article. Article Marketing is a foundational strategy that every marketer should use from day one in their business. It takes a bit of time to get the ball rolling, but soon you’ll have hundreds of articles out there inviting people to your blog.

And that adds up to some serious traffic.