Article Marketing -- Writing for the Internet

Article marketing incorporates writing carefully and concisely for a target audience on the Internet. While all writing begins with good grammar, accurate spelling and compelling content, there are several differences between print writing and online writing in both structure and purpose. Online articles tend to be shorter than printed text, as do the individual sentences that make up the text. Readers usually skim what they see online, so articles are not only shorter, but often broken up into small sections rather than presented as a large block of text.

Writing online articles for the purpose of article marketing involves targeting a specific audience and providing them with relevant content that is usually intended to drive them to another resource by way of a link.

Internet Writing and SEO

Search Engine Optimization, or SEO, is a strategy for increasing traffic to a website using organic search engine results. In terms of article marketing, this means creating an article that is targeted around keywords readers might use to search for your content in the search engines. In order to drive targeted traffic to the content of the article, the article will need to rank high in the search engines. To do this, your desired keywords must be sprinkled generously throughout the text in a natural way that doesn't make the content seem like a sales pitch.

Search engines use programs that scan the content of a website by sending "spiders" to crawl every bit of information on the site. The most widely-used search engines place a great deal of importance on backlinks, or links to a site from other websites. Article marketing helps to get these links because you have inserted them in the author's bio at the end of the article. They point to your site for readers interested in your content as well as spiders crawling the web searching for relevant linked-up websites.

An Emphasis on Quality

Quality content is one of the most important aspects of successful article marketing. Providing your readers with relevant information that delivers what they are searching for will drive not just traffic to your site, but targeted, trusting readers who respect what you have to offer. Furthermore, many article directories have quality control measures that protect against low quality articles. Misinformation or invalid content often will not be listed on these directories, let alone indexed by the search engines.

The Importance of Effective Titles

The title of an online article is essential to the success of the marketing campaign. A title that contains targeted keywords not only helps readers find the content they need, but also boosts the article's search engine rankings. Choosing the title of an online article is a balancing act that involves drawing in potential readers with clever catchiness but also satisfying the search engines' ranking system.

Straightforward and Uncluttered

Online readers tend to scan what they read online and need their text broken up into small logically flowing chunks. As a result, the body of the text may be divided by headlines or broken up into short paragraphs. Using sub-headings, lists, bullet points and bold key phrases are effective ways to create an article that is easy enough to read so that you will not lose your audience. The importance of keyword usage still remains, but splitting up the text into snackable chunks can hook readers and ease them from the first word to the last.

Get Grammar Guidance

Writing effective articles for the Internet takes time, research and practice to become an expert. Here are a few tips:
• When writing to your audience, write using the active voice to make your words more direct, clear and concise.
• Always use proper grammar and avoid slang.
• Always run your text through a spell-checker to avoid simple but glaring errors.
• If your text includes any specialized terms, define them for your audience so their read is easy and enjoyable.
• Do not, under any circumstances, copy text from another source. This is not only wrong, it will make your article plummet in the search engine rankings due to duplicate content.

If you want to learn more about writing there are many good books available. A great one to start with is William Zinsser's On Writing Well: the Classic Guide to Writing Nonfiction.

Outsourcing

If you don't feel that you can produce high-quality articles yourself, one solution is to outsource the work to freelance writers. While this can be an efficient way to get your articles written, you must make sure to find trustworthy writers who can produce content at the level of quality you desire. Outsourcing can work only if you identify a resource or company that provides writers at a cost effective rate with consistent and reliable delivery of high quality content.

Article marketing can be a powerful strategy for generating targeted traffic and backlinks to your site. It can increase both your credibility and your search engine rankings. But to be successful, you need to employ the unique style of writing specific to the Internet. Online writing is different from print writing in structure and content, but successful online writing is guaranteed to help your business's bottom line.