Confessions of an Article Marketer

I have a slight confession to make...

I am highly addicted to article marketing. You can try and entice me with a number of other internet marketing strategies, but article marketing will always be my favorite.

You probably know about the many benefits of article marketing. Syndicating your articles will increase your targeted traffic, turn you into an expert in the field of your choice, brand your name, and help you build your opt-in list. However, article marketing boasts a number of other benefits left mostly undiscovered and I want to share with you some additional ways that you can benefit.

Get Your Article and Your Photo Into Google News

Want to get your article and even your picture into Google News? Well, your entrance stands only a few clicks away. The key is getting published on a website that is syndicated on Google News. American Chronicle is one of those web sites.

First, click over to www.americanchronicle.com, scroll down to the very bottom of the page and click on the link that says "submit work". From there you can sign up to be a contributor.

If accepted as a contributor, you will then be able to submit articles along with your picture. Most of their articles are syndicated on Google News and will be available to the millions of searchers who go to Google News each and every day.

I have been published in Google News multiple times and am still amazed at how easy it is.

Using Blogs and RSS to Auto-Syndicate Your Articles

Blogs are a very powerful tool for marketing your online business. When they first appeared on the scene, blogs were thought of nothing more than just a tool for people to express their rants, feelings, and personal interests. However, blogs quickly blossomed into a tool that can be used for marketing, branding, selling, and promotion.

Good blog software automatically produces an rss feed. With an rss feed, you can instantly allow people to tune in and subscribe to your content. In addition, a webmaster could simply take that link and use it on their own website to publish your latest article headlines. Each article headline would contain a link back to your blog to allow people to read the entire article.

Simply by allowing publishers to feed your content to their website visitors, you can reach a new audience that otherwise would never find you.

If you really want to kick this technique into overdrive, you could even exchange your rss feeds with other webmasters. You both receive quality content that you can share with your visitors as well as 5 or so incoming links to your site.

Exclusive Reports and Articles

By writing exclusive reports and articles, you can get incoming links to your site from VERY high traffic private membership sites or even on free content sites that seek original content rather than rehashed information. The trick here is that you are offering the webmaster an exclusive article that will only be published on THEIR site. You will not be able to publish your article anywhere else or even on your own site. However, I think you will find it well worth your while. This method holds the power to get you in front of some very large, captive audiences.

Using this technique puts a unique twist on your marketing approach. To make this work you must find highly targeted, high-traffic sites to write for. If you begin to offer them exclusive, quality content, they may very well want you to become a regular contributor to their publication. This would mean lots of targeted traffic for you. So, don't take this advanced tactic for granted.
Turn a Series of Articles into a Podcast

This is one of my favorite methods for recycling my article content. You simply turn your articles into a podcast. If you know anything about podcasting, then you know that it's big and it's growing. The last time I checked, podcasts boasted a listener base of well over 20 million listeners. You should be getting a piece of this traffic and with the methods I'm about to teach you, I know that you will.

All you need to do is take 4-5 of your articles that are related to the same topic and turn them into an audio recording. Now, we will not be going into the technical aspects of podcasting, but if you want to get started quickly, I suggest you head on over to www.podcastautocue.com. They provide some free podcast software of great quality.

Once you create your recording, you automatically have your very own podcast ready to load up to a variety of podcast directories, including Yahoo, iTunes, Odeo, and iPodder.org. Each one of these directories can create additional traffic streams to your website. So, what are you waiting for, get recording and start receiving some extra web site promotion!

Promote Your Articles on Squidoo

Squidoo is one of the largest growing websites on the internet. So, why not take advantage. Squidoo developed an online platform that makes it easy for anyone to build lenses on topics that they are passionate about. You can even inject your own style and personality into your lens, making them a great tool for branding.

So, whenever you write an article, go ahead and post it to your squidoo lens. Better yet, just post your rss feed onto your lens. Don't worry about the technical side, Squidoo provides plenty of tutorials that explain everything in detail. So, start creating your own lenses and get some free exposure.

However, if you decide to create a Squidoo lens, make sure that you create a lens of excellent quality. You don't want any of your marketing efforts to send a negative message. Just like your articles, your squidoo lens must provide your readers with quality information.

Provide Your Articles to Your Affiliates

If you want to boost your affiliate program, you must provide your affiliates with all the right tools. Make it extremely simple for them to promote your website and they are much more likely to do so.

Articles are one of the best resources you can provide them. Encourage your affiliates to post your articles on their website or in their ezine. You do this by sending them the article preformatted, with their affiliate link already inserted in the resource box. Their only job is to copy, paste, and promote.

You now know some advanced article marketing strategies that will help take your promotional efforts to the next level. I urge you to take action on these powerful, yet simple, ideas.

There is nothing more motivating than seeing the results of our marketing efforts... and believe me, with article marketing, they can be quite fruitful.