Using Article Submission To Create Publicity - Part Two

Last week I promised specifics in regards to using article submission as a marketing tool. Here are the specifics.

Trust

I know you are getting tired of me talking about this subject, but I am attempting to reinforce this in your mind. If you are going to use article submission to put yourself out there as an 'expert' in your field, building trust with your potential client or customer is of primary importance. You begin to build that trust by being aware of the overall 'tone' or 'feel' of the article.

I love scenarios. So let us look at two scenarios to illustrate my point:

Scenario One

Suppose for a moment you are standing at a party. One of your friends points to an extremely well dressed man across the room who is surrounded by a group of people hanging on his every word, some even taking notes. 'That is Joe Smith," says your friend. "He is an author. He shows people how to sell millions of books on the Internet. He has done it for others 1000 times over."

So you saunter on over to the crowd surrounding Mr. Smith. Eventually you get a word in edgewise, introduce yourself and coyly ask, "So how does one sell a million copies of a book on the Internet?"

"Oh, it's very simple," replies Mr. Smith, "ridiculously simple. It can be done in with very little effort whatsoever and takes no time at all. All you must do is . . " Just then someone taps Mr. Smith on the shoulder and whispers in his ear. "Sorry, I must leave," states Mr. Smith, "it was nice meeting you." He walks away.

How would you feel?

You might feel like kicking yourself for not getting to Mr. Smith sooner. You might stay awake all night, tossing and turning. Mr. Smith has the answer and it is very simple. He was willing to give you the answer, the answer you want, the answer you need! But now it is too late.

Come Monday, you call Mr. Smith's office and are informed that it takes 18 months to get an appointment. You offer to pay a little extra, if you can be squeezed in somehow. The answer is a firm no. Now how do you feel?

Mr. Smith has the answer. The answer you want! The answer you need! But now it will be at least 18 months before you can get it.

You have been left hanging. You are in a state of extreme curiosity. You are ready to take action.

Scenario Two

You are sitting in your office when the phone rings.

"Hello," says a voice on the other end, "my name is Fred Jones. I show people how to sell millions of books using the Internet. I would like to show you how. The cost is only $400 per month, this week only!"

"No, thank you," you reply politely.

"But wait," says Mr. Jones, a hint of desperation in the voice, "I have done this for many of my clients. I have had a lot of training. I go to great lengths and offer many free services. Just tell me what you need and I promise I will be able to help you. . . "

"No, thank you," you reply, a bit more forcefully. "But wait, you don't understand . . . " you hear Mr. Jones saying as you hang up the phone . . .

Now think about it for a moment. If you were going to have surgery, would you choose a surgeon who:

a. has a waiting list a month long OR

b. calls you every day and begs you to use his services?

You want to give the reader the impression that you are Mr. Smith, NOT Mr. Jones. The sad fact is that most of the articles I read give the impression that the writer is Mr. Jones. This is not an impression you want to create, either in your articles or on your website. Giving TOO MUCH information creates the impression of ‘neediness’. Your potential buyers pick up on this quite quickly and simply click away.

Trust is created by the attitude, the tone, the feel of your writing.

All other things being equal, people will only do business with people they trust. What is being sold matters not at all. And, conversely, if a potential buyer does not trust you, they will NEVER do business with you. YOU MAKE OR BREAK THAT TRUST IMMEDIATELY IN THE FIRST PARAGRAPH OF THE FIRST ARTICLE your potential buyer reads. You make or break that trust INSTANTANEOUSLY when your website flickers onto the screen. If your article and/or your website does not create INSTANT TRUST and CREDIBILITY, you are dead in the water.

Assuming that you are savvy enough to get beyond the initial trust hurdle, everything you present from this point on will either ADD TO or SUBTRACT FROM the initial trust created.

OK. Let's assume you have fine-tuned the article to not only create trust, but also to not SUBTRACT from it. Let us also assume your article contains the all-important, subtle calls to further action. What then? I have spent a good deal of time conversing with site owners. Here are some other important considerations.

How Many Sites and/or Postings?

As many as reasonably possible. As mentioned previously, submitting articles is extremely time intensive. Submit one article to one hundred sites. You will see what I mean. Your fingers are going to hurt before it's all over.

A good rule of thumb is this: Submit ¾ of your articles to the top 5 to 7 article sites. These are sites that have high Google page rank. Submit the other ¼ of your articles to 30-40 medium to high page rank sites.

The advantage to doing this is that it will keep duplication to a minimum, but will initially give you a quick boost in the number of readers hitting your site. (see next topic)

Different Versions of the Same Article?

Are you penalized for redundant content by the search engines? Do you want to have 15 articles on page 93 of the search engine results? Or would you rather have 1 article listed many times on the first page of the search engine results?

Redundancy is an important topic in regards to article submission. I read posts over and over from those who believe that posting the same article to hundreds of sites results in hundreds of backlinks to YOUR site, raising your ranking in the search engines. Well, yes and no.

Remember always that the purpose of the search engines is to help people find what they are searching FOR. Suppose the above theory were to hold true, and you posted several hundred versions of the exact same article with the term ‘Widget’ in the title.

Joe Citizen now goes to Google and types in the search term ‘widget’. The search engine then returns page after page after page of nothing but YOUR article. How do you think Joe might feel?

Not happy. The search engine is not going to index your article hundreds of times. It will index a few and then simply drop the rest, as this information IS redundant. If you went searching for ‘widget’, would you appreciate seeing your competitions listing over and over again on page after page of search engine results? No indeed.

This is why you want to post that article to only 5-7 of the top sites. This is all that will be indexed and ‘stick’ anyway. When you post the other 25% of your articles in the same vein, there will be a short period of time when they will all be indexed. These will drop away quickly as the search engine catches up. In the meantime, you WILL get traffic from these redundant articles.

To clarify, lets suppose you post 4 articles per week (or per month). Post article 1, 2, and 3 to the top 5-7 sites. Post article 4 to 30-40 mid to highly ranked sites. Then begin a new round of articles.

Submission Software?

There are advantages and disadvantages here. Submission software takes you from site to site, automatically logs you on, sends the article to the site, enters all other information and then logs off and moves to the next site. This is great, in theory. The problem is that most don’t work too well. Some sites flat out refuse to accept articles from authors using these programs. The computer cannot think. It can only do. For this reason, some of these programs can cause nightmares for the person using them.

I am personally of the opinion that you should retain complete control of each submission. This allows you to fine tune the article specifically for the given site and for the given categories on the myriad number of sites out there.

The subtle change of a word or two here or there can make a major difference in the message to the highly targeted audience.

Sites?

Different sites cater to different audiences. Don't submit a self-improvement article to a marketing site.

Categories?

Different sites have differently targeted categories. One of the major beefs site owners have is incorrect category submission (putting a religious article in a transmission repair category). Remember that your article will be reviewed for quality, content, categorization, etc.

Site 'popularity'

This matters a bit. However, these numbers change nearly as quickly as search engine rankings. However the top sites generally do not change much. They are very quick to get your article out there. They are perceived to be expert sites. The links THESE sites create back to your site are valuable indeed.

How often?

Regularly and continually, keeping in mind that the process is somewhat akin to planting seeds. You may not see immediate results, but eventually you will have a field full of plants. Some will be annuals, some biennials, and some perennials.

'Quality' of the article

Nothing will kill the trust and credibility factor more quickly than a shoddily written article, catchy, worn out industry specific phrasing, insincere language or an article containing a blatant sales pitch. Try this experiment. Visit an article site, pick a topic and read through 5-10 articles. Notice anything? What you will notice is that you will have an intuitive impression that will tell you whether a particular writer truly knows the topic. Remember that this is what people will be doing with YOUR article.

PLEASE don't pretend to be an expert if you are not an expert. If you really don't know what you are writing about, nothing will destroy trust more quickly than the fact that you really don't know what you are writing about. Be honest at all times. If you don't know something, say so. If you do know, say so.

And Finally . . .

Article submission, done properly, is a valuable tool in your free marketing arsenal. There are other free marketing tools you will also want to utilize. Press releases, used correctly (see previous posts) may lead to your article being submitted for publication in newspapers or magazines, (also radio interviews, television coverage, etc.). This concept can lead to you being chosen as a regular contributor.

Don't ignore that large segment of the population that, (believe it or not), does not yet own a computer or perhaps owns a computer and simply does not know how to operate the thing. These are the folks who, when looking for a life-coach, will type in the search phrase 'coach' rather than the phrase 'life coach specialization depression'.

So, how does one use article submission to drive insane traffic to one's website?

"Oh, it's very simple, ridiculously simple. It can be done easily and takes practically no time at all. All you must do is . . "

Sorry. . . I have to go . . .