Week of December 09, 2007 to December 15, 2007

In my discussions with other writers, most of them will write an article and then forget about it. They move on to the next one. By managing your article business in this way, you are leaving a lot of money on the table. You should take a lesson from the larger successful sites. Many large and small submission sites make money
by placing ads on our articles. Xomba and Helium do it quite successfully. They are making money with articles that authors have written long ago. Unless you are a billionaire and write just for fun, why not copy successful article income techniques from the big boys?

I strongly recommend that you keep good records for the articles you write. There are several article submission sites that provide excellent information regarding how your articles have performed. Make sure you keep a copy of the resource box, summary, and keywords, as well as the body of each article submitted. It’s also very important to keep track of page views, URL clicks, and ezines published. This research can keep your article business growing on a regular basis.

As an article marketing specialist, I do a lot of research reading other peoples articles. Recently I’ve seen a number of affiliate sales articles that I found a little disturbing. They suggested that you should seek out the affiliate products with the highest commission and recommend them to your customers. I retired after twenty-two years as a financial adviser and I can say this is absolutely WRONG!

Are your articles getting as many page views as they deserve? Are we submitting our work to the best sites for the niches we write for? Many of us who write articles tend to be a little lazy when it comes to submitting our work. We submit articles to the same sites over and over because we’ve always used those sites. Or maybe we read somewhere that the sites we use are the best out there. Do a little research and take a fresh look at your submission sites; you might see a substantial increase in your page views.

Are you using a list to grow your article business? It is an important part of your long-term success. Having a good list can double the amount of income you generate over time. For that reason, it is important to maximize the number of visitors who subscribe to your list.

In order to achieve this, you need a good opt-in (squeeze) page. A squeeze page is a web page where visitors sign into your list. The better your squeeze page, the higher your opt-in percentages. Following, in reverse order, are the top 10 ways to substantially increase your opt-in numbers:

What is it that makes an article great? Greatness is in the eye of the beholder. In my opinion, a great article is one that achieves massive amounts of page views, lots of URL clicks, and produces a large volume of traffic to my website. That, in my opinion, is a great article.

More importantly, how do you create a great article? Or how do you create lots of great articles? In my experience, all great articles have 4 things in common.

1) Great articles have a really good title that attracts readers.

That’s right, I said Article Business. You can make significant money writing articles, six figures plus. But make no mistake; if you want to be truly successful writing articles, you have to treat it like a business. That means you have to write and submit, over and over again. You’ll know more about what is required to be successful as you read this article. For right now, know that you have to write and submit lots of articles.

Marketing an affiliate program is an ideal business. There is no physical product to handle so you don’t need carry a supply of the product you sell. Therefore, your inventory costs are zero! You don’t have the hassles of dealing with the public. The merchant deals with all customer issues such as, inquiries, fulfillment (mailing out product), and refunds. And last, but not least, you are not tied down. My articles, websites, blogs, ads, and banners continue to work just as hard regardless of whether I’m at my computer or on vacation.

Because I write a lot of articles, I do quite a bit of research. I try to read as much as I can in the field of article marketing because it is how I make my living. I’m also very good about keeping records. I take notes on articles and keep records on how my articles perform. Each day, I log the page views, number of Ezines published, and URL clicks. By keeping track of these details, I can see which articles are working for me and which ones are not.

Many article submission site do not offer a separate resource box for you to fill out. I am not sure why they do this, but a number of sites use this format. Unfortunately, many writers will just shrug their shoulders and submit their article. I’m sure this is the case because a large number of articles that I see from those sites do not include any links from the authors.

Most people write articles to generate traffic to their website. I like to write articles for cash. There is a subtle difference between the two writing methods. When writing for traffic, you have to target your article to the content on your website. Always. You should never deviate from that. It does you no good to get traffic looking for birdseed if you sell widgets. The people will stay a few seconds, determine that they have no interest in your product, and click out.

When writing an article, always have your reader in mind. Look at your article with a critical eye and think how your reader would interpret it. Don’t think of it as an article, think of it as a sales piece.

Before writing an article, write down your goals for the article. Do you merely want to provide information and let people know you are knowledgeable in the field? Do you want to generate web traffic or would you prefer it if readers click on your links? It is imperative that you develop a goal for each article you write.

It seems like it would be a simple matter. Write an article of two and then sit back and wait for the cash to roll in. Like they say, LOL. In reality, there are a lot of details to take care of. And if you really want to be successful writing articles for income, you need to focus on these details.

Building article directories is all the rage now. Practically every time I submit an article I get a pop-up asking me if I’d like to build an article directory like the one I’m visiting. But I have no interest in that. I like to write and submit articles.

Everyone knows that you should optimize your website in order to obtain the highest possible traffic from the major search engines. But did you know that you can use that same strategy for your articles?

Do a Google search on the title of your article and see how many listings you get on the first page. I have seen some my articles listed in nine of the first ten items on Google’s first page. One of the reasons for this is the efficient use of the optimizing techniques described below.

Make no mistake about it, making money writing articles can be tremendously profitable. But the real money, the consistent money, the massive profits, come from your list. List
building is one area where size really does matter, the bigger your list, the bigger your income. And the better your squeeze page, the higher your opt in percentages. A squeeze page is web page where people sign into your list.

Writing articles can be a very profitable exercise if you focus on the details. One of the most important details of your article is the author’s Resource Box. Many authors mistakenly use it to market themselves. They talk about their education, their background, and their accomplishments. Unless you are a famous individual, no one really cares where you went to school, where you grew up, or any of your fabulous accomplishments. Don’t waste precious space in the Resource Box to brag.

Many sites languish and fail to earn meaningful income. Due to the lack of earnings, webmasters lose interest and the site gets stale. If your site falls into this category and you want to super-charge your earnings, read on. There are numerous reasons for a lack of sales but we’ll cover a few of the major points in this article. Follow these 7 easy techniques to jump-start your website earnings.

One tool that is an absolute necessity in generating income from articles is a good autoresponder. The reason is simple. Very few people will make a purchase on their initial viewing of your article. Most people will not buy until the fifth, sixth, or seventh contact. For that reason, you need a tool to stay in touch with them on a regular basis. That tool is the autoresponder. You can set it up to contact the people on your list as often as you like. I find it kind of annoying if I’m contacted every day, but every two or three days is fine.

Impossible? Never. Many people complain that they haven’t made any money writing articles. The main reason this is the case is because most people give up after writing just a few articles. If you only write ten articles, you will not make any money. Period. However, if you are extremely lucky, you might get one or two affiliate sales. In that unlikely case, you might make $30.