Publish or Perish
Self-Promotion Using Articles - a Tutorial
This publishing tutorial establishes the basis and principles of one type of online publicity: spreading the word about your product or service by publishing articles. Of course, you don't always write directly about your product or service. What you do is provide useful, reliable information (in the online world called "content") that establishes you as a helpful person who has also written a book, produced a play or invented a killer sausage recipe.
This tutorial will be followed by step-by-step instructions for publishing on various sites that solicit content from people like you.
PURPOSE AND OVERVIEW
Promote yourself, your brand, your products and services by writing authoritative articles for free distribution on the Internet. Often your article will be picked up and republished by several sites within minutes. Some article services syndicate your articles themselves. Few, if any, require exclusivity, meaning you can submit the same article to multiple syndicates.
The purpose is to associate your name (brand or service, etc.) with keywords--the words people looking for what you have will type into their search engines.
In addition, such article distribution channels allow one or more links either within or below your article, links you can use to guide people to a specific page on your website (all primary pages need "link love").
It is critical to adhere to the guidelines of each website. Not doing so will ensure your article is rejected. Some websites keep track of how well/poorly you do on your first 20 or so articles. Behave to be wealthy.
Preparation
Not only in academia, but in all pursuits of excellence, publicity is essential. If you are a one-person organization, the you are also the publicist.
Step 1: Topic
Decide what you want to write about, or choose a page from your website or past writing to form a basis for a new article. Though you want your articles to be representative of your brand, it is not essential they be perfectly written, since the main purpose is to point to your website and get you some visitors.
Step 2: Linking
Which page will you link to? Your home page will get plenty of traffic, but your products or services page, even your why (About) page can use some link love. Vary your links. Post your main links in your work area, because the Internet is unforgiving on typos.
For example: http://www.letyourmortgagemakeyourich.com/secret-revealed. You can't take a chance on getting one letter wrong.
Step 3: Keywords
The rationale for choosing your link-to page before writing (or rewriting) the article is selecting your keywords. Keywords are the words people search for.
For example, if you're writing about "cutting your mortgage interest," in addition to that term you'll want to use words like early mortgage payoff, save interest, how to pay mortgage sooner, etc. You may also include names of any competitors that are bigger than you are, or concepts people might associate with you, such as your name or location. Write these down before working with the article. Two or three per article are fine. Stay focused and with the main words people would use to find that aspect of a business, even when they do not know it is you for whom they are looking.
Sample Planning Sheet
Topic, Link-To and Keywords are almost more important than the article itself. What words will people who want your information be using to search for you? Include competitors (if any) and common misspellings, such as "finacial," and "mortage."
Step 4: Write
A good length is 500 words. More is fine, but don't waste your strength. Fewer words might cause trouble with certain article distribution sites that prefer 500 words or more.
- Would very long articles serve you better broken into two separate pieces (two articles published under different titles)?
- Have you given great content to the public so that they feel rewarded that you delivered on your promises?
Step 5: join
Join the sites on which you wish to publish. You may join and publish as yourself or under one or more pen names. Whether or not to use a pseudonym is a separate discussion, but on the topic of publicity, five "people" linking to your site is stronger than one person. However, make sure you can keep up with frequency before splitting yourself off into random elements.