Hill Holler

Ask a roomful of webmasters how best to promote your site and prepare to be deafened by the collective yell back – “article marketing!”.

What is this magical formula? It sounds so easy – write an article, add a short bio and your link then distribute it to article directories. Webmasters worldwide, thrilled you deigned to impart words of wisdom, trample over each other to be the first to post your article on their site. You put your feet up and sigh contentedly, thinking about the millions of links to your site now spread throughout the internet. And that’s how it works, right?

Err … not exactly.

You see, not all webmasters are created equal. What some consider unacceptable in terms of article quality, others will be happy to add to their site. The former we’ll come back to in a bit. The latter don’t care how appalling the content is. It’s adding another page to their website.

Simple – because an interesting, relevant and engaging article generates interest. The number one reason to write not only a good but an excellent one is this: your articles are a reflection on you and by association, your business. You’re marketing your skills to a global audience with every word.

Think about why you’re submitting articles anywhere. Is it to drive traffic to your site so that you can sell a product or service? Do you want to be seen as an authority in your chosen niche and raise your profile on the internet? Most webmasters use article marketing as a promotional tool for those reasons.

Whatever the reason, a good article will go farther and be more flexible than some shoddy piece. For example, a poorly constructed, yawn enticing article gathering dust in a directory doesn’t do you much good. Aim to create an article suitable for inclusion in a newsletter with a wide distribution base. The only way to attain and get the most out of that kind of coverage is to write articles of superior quality. You’ll find that if you impress them the first time, they’ll always be hungry for more.

No one is going to follow your link if your article’s rubbish nor will some of the more discerning webmasters want it on their site either. I should also point out there are superior standard article directories too that a poor article won’t get accepted into. With substandard work, you’re shooting yourself in the foot at every turn and closing more doors than you’re opening.

What’s the secret?

It’s commonsense. If you want your article and link on a high PR site, your writing needs to be worthy of placement there. One of the main reasons sites gain a high PR is because when they attract visitors, the visitors want to stay. They go all over the place, reading more and more pages. Nothing makes a visitor click away faster than poor content and all the smoke and mirrors in the world can’t disguise that.

Whichever way you as an article writer choose to go can affect your success. Good and bad articles have backlinks in article directories simply due to inclusion, that’s true. But you can do so much more and raise the bar on your article marketing strategy with quality work. You’re writing it anyway so why not put in that bit more effort while you’re at it? Otherwise you’re not only selling the reader short but also yourself.

Write a polished, interesting article and distribute it to article directories either yourself or via outsourcing. After that you can find ezines and communities within your target audience that accept article submissions and send it to them too. The better your article is, the further it will spread and before you know it, interested parties will be knocking down your door with job offers. That’s the magical part.

Wait…you mean I need to work at it?!

Yes, you do! Have no illusions – the magic is within you, not out there. And you don’t even need a wand.