by Bea Fields, Certified Guerrilla Marketing Coach and President of Five Star Leader

What would you say if we told you that you could drive thousands of visitors to your website in 30 minutes by simply sharing your ideas and thoughts with people who are surfing the web? Would that get you excited? You bet it would!

As Guerrilla Marketing Coaches, we talk to business owners every day who are struggling to drive traffic to their websites by paying out the wazoo for pay per click or expensive online advertising that quite often don’t work. What we have found is that while these strategies can be effective, they are not neceesarily the golden egg. Hear us loudly and clearly…you don’t have to spend gobs of money to get traffic to your

Over the last decade, we have discovered a beautiful secret…the secret of online article submission. The simple yet elegant strategy of online article submission can literally drive thousands of prospects to your website while building credibility with your target market.

Let’s play out a scenario for you.

You’re online searching for the most current, hottest investment tips. You start by doing a Google (what we call google-izing). You start out of sheer curiosity, wondering about how you are going to invest that $10,000.00 that Aunt Sue left you in her will. You type in “investment tips” and suddenly, you are now viewing hundreds of articles and tip sheets written by financial experts from around the globe.

You begin to click on the links. These links take you to the various websites owned by the authors of the investment tips articles.

You are particularly interested in an article written by John Doe, Financial Planner, and you begin to peruse his website. You are intrigued. You go back several times and read more. John seems pretty darn sharp…he seems like he knows what he’s talking about. You pick up the phone and call John for a consultation, and if you like what you hear, you are probably going to hire him. It’s that simple.

You may be reading this and wondering how to get started. In this section, we are going to teach you how to exponentially increase your web traffic by submitting articles online through thousands of online article submission site.

Step 1: Choose a compelling topic.

We believe that every single human being has something great to say to the world, yet we also know that the web and hard copy publications are overloaded on information. Your topic needs to be compelling and relevant to today’s world. We have discovered that the hottest topics to address in online article writing include:

Business
Finance
Finances and Investments
Health and Wellness
Home Decorating
Leadership
Marketing
Personal Development/Self Improvement
Pets
Relationships
Spiritual Topics
Travel
Writing

Step 2: Choose the article format

There are multiple article formats, and the one point that we want to make about writing online articles is brevity. The attention span of the average visitor is limited, so we highly recommend that your articles be no longer than 500-700 words in length.

Interviews with experts
Narrative stories
Short case studies
Tips articles

Step 3: Create a rough draft for your article

When writing your first draft, you will want to write out everything you know about your topic. Allow your writing to flow…stream of consciousness, making a list of everything you know about your topic.

Step 4: Write the most important points in five short paragraphs

Once you have created a rough draft, go back with a highlighter, and highlight the five most important points about your article, and expand each point into a short paragraph. These can be tips or a question and answer process for expert interviews. If you have more than five points, split your article into Part 1, Part 2, etc.

Step 5: Write a powerful introduction.

Remember: The typical web visitor has a short attention span, so you want your introduction to be very powerful. Spell out the benefits the reader will gain by reading your article.

Step 6: Write a powerful close.

The close of your article should let the reader know that you are winding down the article.

Step 7: Write the resource box (About the Author paragraph)

Your resource box is your opportunity to let the public know about you, your website and any other information which will enhance your credibility. Make sure that you create links back to your website or to a program or book you are currently selling.

Benefits of Publishing Online

1) Free publicity
2) Increased crediblity
3) Your work will be published
4) Establish yourself as an expert in your field
5) Increase your chances of getting picked up in hard copy (many hard copy magazines are now using the web to find fresh content)
6) Increases your Google ranking
7) Reach your target market with much less effort
8) Build an online network of other professionals who are interested in you and your work

Publishing Online Do’s

1) When publishing articles online, it is important to submit your article through sites which have a high Google ranking (at least 5/10) and who are syndicating articles to other sites. The more your articles are syndicated, the more times your website will be linked, and Google loves this. My Google ranking jumped from 2-5 in 3 months after submitting articles online.

2) Make your article brief and easy to read. Remember: The attention span of a web surfer is quite short. Powerful bullet points are great, because the reader can get a quick glimpse of your material and can quickly connect with you, because you have solved their problem of the day.

3) Publish frequently. We recommend that you publish an online article at least two times per month. You want the public to continue seeing your name over and over again so that your visibility is enhanced.

4) Double check for spelling. Enough said.

5) Include keywords in your article which are targeted to the market you most want to reach. The keywords in your article will determine who lands on your article. The goal here is to not include so many keywords that the article loses its focus on the reader. Write your article first to benefit the reader, and then go back and add in keywords which will help boost your search engine ranking.

6) Use an online submission service such as www.SubmitYourArticle.com or . These services are super simple to use and automatically distribute your articles across the internet, to automated submission sites and vis e-mail to category-specific websites which are visited by your target market. While you can certainly do this manually, this requires hours and hours, and the online submision sites do this automatically for you.

7) Make sure your articles are original. Take a great topic, and write it with a slant that is tied to a current event (a political election, a new hot business issue or a social issue).

8) Get creative with your resource box and make sure that your author biography is relevant to the topic you are writing. If you are writing an article on copywriting, create a compelling call to action such as “If you are ready to learn how to write copy that will knock the socks off the visitors to your website, visit John Doe today at www.yourwebite.com.

9) If you feel like you’re not a strong writer, hire a ghostwriter to write your first few articles. We highly recommend www.Guru.com for a list of well respected ghostwriters. On the same note, we believe that the best way to become a great writer is to both read and write. The more you read and the more you write, the better your writing will become.

10) One of the best ways to get tons of traffic quickly is to place a bid on an article site such as http://IdeaMarketers.com. By purchasing a top bid placement, your article automatically moves to the top of this website, which is visited by over 60,000 visitors each month.

11) Each time you submit an article, always, always make sure that this article is also available on your website. You want people coming directly to your website as a source of current information.

Publishing Online Don’ts

1) Don’t advertise in your articles. If your article is filled with hype, your articles will not be picked up by online publishers.

2) Don’t use affiliate links in your articles. This is generally not accepted in the world of online publishing, and it just quite frankly ticks people off.

3) Don’t make your resource box a sales pitch. Simply state who you are, what you do and how folks can visit your webiste or learn about something else you have authored.

4) Don’t overuse keywords. Occasionally, online writers will focus more on keywords than on providing value. Your goal with online article writing is to provide information and position yourself as a credible resource. People are smart and savvy. If you overuse keywords, they will see right through it.

(c)2007 Bea Fields
Be can be reached at: www.FiveStarLeader.com

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