Wordtracker Masterclass: Article Marketing. The Write Way to Build More Links. Karon Thackston. Not for distribution

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1 Wordtracker Masterclass: Article Marketing The Write Way to Build More Links Karon Thackston

2 Contents Introduction 5 Chapter 1: Who are you writing to? (And why it matters) 8 Chapter 2: Choose article styles that deliver the best results 16 Chapter 3: Planning your content and creating an endless list of topics 82 Chapter 4: Optimizing articles for the search engines 89 Chapter 5: Structuring your articles for easy completion 97 Chapter 6: Creating enticing titles and opening paragraphs 110 Chapter 7: Writing articles that beg to be reprinted 121 Chapter 8: Publishing your work: The right and wrong way to distribute article 133 About Karon Thackston 147 Wordtracker Masterclass: Article Marketing 2

3 Also published by Wordtracker: Link Building How to build links to your website for SEO, traffic and response. Click here to learn more. Ecommerce Copywriting A pactical, no-nonsense guide to writing profitable ecommerce content. Click here to learn more. The Web Content Recipe Book Learn the Secret Recipe for outstanding website content. Click here to learn more. Blogging for Business 50 Steps to Building Traffic and Sales A real world guide to creating, writing and promoting a successful blog. Click here to learn more. 50 Kick-Ass Keyword Strategies Learn 50 simple, smart and speedy ways to attract more customers online. Click here to learn more. Writing Kick-Ass Website Sales Copy Copywriting guru Nick Usborne reveals his secrets for writing sales-exploding website copy. Click here to learn more. Wordtracker Masterclass: Article Marketing 3

4 The Wordtracker Academy Free articles, case studies, tips and tricks to help you grow your online business through effective keyword research, pay per click advertising and search engine optimization (SEO). Gain a clear advantage over your competitors by becoming an expert at Google AdWords, SEO and keyword research. We ve commissioned some of the world s best online marketing and SEO professionals to be your guides. Go to the Wordtracker Academy Wordtracker Masterclass: Article Marketing 4

5 Introduction If you think about it, it s just a reinvention of the mouse trap. Writing articles for promotion has been going on for decades. Whether it was publicists pitching their clients as experts for reporters to interview, or business owners writing under the title of guest journalist for a magazine, having your name in print has always gone a long way to building a business. When the internet became mainstream, however, this popular promotional tool took on a new twist. Website owners quickly saw that articles could become knights in shining armor in a world where content was king. Because everyone was clamoring for articles for their websites and ezines (the blogs had yet to make its mark at this point), it became clear that quality articles were to be prized. But a major change in the landscape of article writing took place when link building became a household word in the internet marketing world. Personally, I denote this as the primary point of decline in the quality of online articles. When the masses discovered that Google (and other engines) valued keyword rich anchor text back links, quality was almost instantaneously sacrificed for quantity. All of a sudden, professional-grade articles that had been researched, well written and proofread were transformed into third-grade level pages of gobbledegunk whose sole purpose was to garner just one more link. Funny no one seemed to understand that it was the quality of the articles that made them desirable to link to in the first place. Quality vs quantity You ll hear me shout it from the rooftops: Quality trumps quantity every time when it comes to writing articles! Wordtracker Masterclass: Article Marketing 5

6 Introduction Today, many people are resorting to article-generating software that illegally searches millions of websites and harvests bits of text from them so it can patch together a new piece. These programs sell themselves under the pretense of fair use under US copyright laws (which simply isn t true). And why? All so the over-zealous author can crank out 100 articles a week in order to flood the internet with yet more content on the history of toasters or some other lame topic. Article spinners (that slightly change an original article into several different versions) are also popular. What s their purpose? To save the world from the dreaded Duplicate Content Penalty (which doesn t exist, as Google explained way back in 2008). If you re not going to write quality articles and your only goal is to garner links by any means possible - I have bad news for you. It won t work. At least not in the long term. Article promotion works because someone reads an article you ve written and wants to reproduce it on their website. If the articles you re writing are junk, nobody will want to republish them on their blogs or websites. You ll have spent the time and energy to produce pieces that are of no use to you or anyone else. What s more, if you use automated article-writing software and get caught plagiarizing or violating the copyright of someone else s work, there are serious legal ramifications. You could be hit with fines of up to $25,000 per instance in the US plus the removal of your site from Google and the deletion of your web page (or entire site) at the hand of your web hosting company through a process of filing a simple DMCA complaint. In order to get quality links from well-respected sites, you have to produce quality, well-respected articles that they will want to reprint. Getting back links from scrapper blogs that have no PageRank does little if any good. So, which kind do you want to write? Feature vs editorial articles Generally speaking, there are two different types of articles (both of which have several variations). Feature articles are written from an unbiased point of view frequently by someone outside the industry. Think of a reporter interviewing a person for a story. The reporter is not an expert in the stock market (for example), but he or she interviews professionals and does research to develop and write the piece. Editorial articles are most often what you find published on the internet and they will be the focus of this e-book. Editorials are written from your point of view (or, if you re ghostwriting the article for a client, the client s point of view). They usually Wordtracker Masterclass: Article Marketing 6

7 Introduction don t include interviews with others since the author (you) is considered the expert. Editorials make a point, teach something or otherwise take a position on a topic. These types of articles are not self-promotional All the promotion happens at the end of the article in what is referred to as the about the author section (aka, the bio or resource box). As we work through the chapters, we ll cover what makes a great article, headlines and opening paragraphs, the body text, optimizing for the search engines and what to be aware of when distributing articles. So without further delay let s get started! Wordtracker Masterclass: Article Marketing 7

8 Who are you writing to? (And why it matters) Chapter 1 Before you do anything else you have a choice to make. Are you writing to attract a search engine spider or a human being? Both, you say? Then you have a balancing act you ll need to master in order to do it successfully. But still, if you had to choose one, which one would it be? My advice pick the human.

9 Chapter 1 Who are you writing to? (And why it matters) As much value as I place on search engine optimization and SEO copywriting, I can honestly say that you will never make any money if getting good rankings is your sole priority. That s because no search engine bot in the history of search engine bots has ever clicked a link in the bio of an article, visited a website and bought anything. Human beings, on the other hand: that s a different story. My suggestion to anyone who asks is primarily to make your articles enticing to people. Yes, keyword inclusion is a necessity if you re hoping to improve your link popularity (or that of a client you are writing for), but everything else should be laser focused on producing content that attracts and converts visitors. Which humans are you writing for? Now that you ve (hopefully) decided to write for people first, you ll need to know which people you re writing for. Follow along with me for a moment and I ll show you what I mean. Imagine yourself sitting down at your computer to write a new article. The topic? Laptop computers. What would you say in your article? You might start by explaining the benefits of laptops vs desktop computers, the features available and the newest technological advances. But if you stop to think about these three points, you ll quickly see that they radically change depending on which of several types of people the article is written to. For instance, laptops are now available in a huge array of sizes. From handheld devices to 10 netbooks to 20 desktop-replacement models, laptops run the gamut of dimensions. Sure, you could include information on every size and give tips on who might choose which, but that would produce a really broad article that wasn t of particular interest to anyone. What good is that? With a bit of research and forethought, you would quickly be able to write a piece that piques the interest of one specific group of people (your target audience or a segment of your target audience). What most people do is put fingers to keyboard and start rambling on about what they want to say. Unfortunately, frequently the intent is to generate a quick piece of content that includes specific keywords and put that article up on a website as fast as possible. There is no thought about the individual human beings who might actually read this article. Truly a shame. Which do you believe would achieve the best results long term? A shallow article with little useful information (mostly a wide range of fluff)? Or an article written with one Wordtracker Masterclass: Article Marketing 9

10 Chapter 1 Who are you writing to? (And why it matters) group of people in mind, aimed at answering their specific questions and at giving them detailed information that is especially useful in their decision-making process? I think the question answers itself. Let s look back at our broad laptop computer example. How would that article change if it was written for senior citizens (generally people over 55 years old)? First, you d need to outline the concerns and preferences senior citizens have with regard to laptops. You can use the worksheet at the end of this chapter to help you do this task with future articles you write. What does the older set want from a laptop computer? What do they hope to avoid? Many seniors are hesitant about technology: what concerns or fears does your reader have? Regardless of the article topic, you need to outline: who your reader is his/her relationship to the subject matter (where do they stand now?) your readers attraction to the subject matter (why are they interested in it?) his/her fears/skepticisms/anxieties about the topic (what makes them hesitant about it?) The more you know about the target audience the more engaging your writing will be to your readers. But what if the target audience isn t yours? What if you re writing a guest article? Creating guest articles that strike a chord Whether you initiate the conversation or you re approached by someone with a request, writing articles for other people s newsletters, magazines, blogs and more is an exceptional way to promote. Before you put fingers to keyboard and begin to write just as you would when approaching your own readers, you d be wise to pause and give some thought to the situation. Even if you re writing about the same topic, depending on who you re approaching, you may want to put an entirely different spin on your subject matter. Here s a quick example. Wordtracker Masterclass: Article Marketing 10

11 Chapter 1 Who are you writing to? (And why it matters) To clarify who your new audience is and how you can best help them, use the process above, but with a twist. Instead of answering the questions yourself, ask the publisher of the magazine or blog about their subscribers/followers. In addition, ask these questions as well: 1. What are the top five questions you get asked about [THE SUBJECT MATTER]? 2. Have you had others write articles on this topic? Did your subscribers/followers offer comments or other feedback? Can I see it? 3. Are there any particular points you want me to explain during the article? Giving due diligence to the discovery process of this new audience will allow you the insights to create articles they ll truly relate to. Because you ll be writing specifically to them, they ll be elated with the information and show their appreciation with more clicks to your site. Researching your target audience How do you find out about the people you re writing to? It s easier than you might think. Thanks to the internet, you literally have a world of information at your fingertips. Here are my top five ways of learning more about your readers. 1. Forums - There are forums for practically everything these days from acting to zebra-lovers! You can surely find a forum that represents the target group you re writing to. Take a look around. You don t have to post: just read what others have to say. Are members of the forum asking specific questions? Answer them in your article. Do they have rants and complaints about the subject in general? That s great information to use when writing. Are there particulars that regularly get praised on forums? Excellent! More great details to include. Senior Living magazine, CNET and many others just so happen to have forums with posts about seniors buying laptops. On the following page is just one example. Wordtracker Masterclass: Article Marketing 11

12 Chapter 1 Who are you writing to? (And why it matters) Senior Living Magazine 2011, All Rights Reserved 2. Social media - Search Twitter or Facebook or your favorite social media site. Being able to publically eavesdrop on others conversations about the topic of your article is primo marketing intelligence. 3. Blogs - More popular than forums perhaps, blogs are another form of interactive information/communication that will allow you an inside look at your reader. Just check out on the following page what this quick search on Google produced. Wordtracker Masterclass: Article Marketing 12

13 Chapter 1 Who are you writing to? (And why it matters) 4. Read - Pick up a few industry or topic-related magazines or other publications from your local newsstand. Or sign up for several online newsletters that attract those interested in the subject matter of your article. 5. Yahoo! Answers - This and other sites like it (including Facebook) allow visitors to submit questions that other people in the community respond to. It s quick and easy to use and you don t have to join if you only plan to read and not to ask questions. Wordtracker Masterclass: Article Marketing 13

14 Chapter 1 Who are you writing to? (And why it matters) Take the worksheet for this chapter with you as you surf the net. Jot notes about who you find out your reader is as well as their relationship and attraction to and fears about the topic you re writing about. EXERCISE: Here s a little assignment to help you practice what we ve just discussed. Make copies of the worksheet for this chapter and complete it for the same topic of laptop computers. Instead of senior citizens, however, fill out the information as if you re writing the article for business professionals who travel a lot. Wordtracker Masterclass: Article Marketing 14

15 Chapter 1 Who are you writing to? (And why it matters) Worksheet 1 Target audience discovery Article topic: Who is your reader? What is your readers relationship to the subject matter (where do they stand now)? What is your reader s attraction to the subject matter (why are they interested in it)? What are your readers fears/skepticisms/anxieties about the topic (what makes them hesitant)? Wordtracker Masterclass: Article Marketing 15