Article Marketing
Karon Thackston
Wordtracker Masterclass:
The Write Way to Build More Links
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Introduction 5 Chapter 1: Who are you writing to? (And why it matters) 8
Chapter 2: Choose article styles that deliver the best results 16
Chapter 3: Planning your content and creating an endless list of topics 82
Chapter 4: Optimizing articles for the search engines 89
Chapter 5: Structuring your articles for easy completion 97
Chapter 6: Creating enticing titles and opening paragraphs 110
Chapter 7: Writing articles that beg to be reprinted 121
Chapter 8: Publishing your work: The right and wrong way to distribute article 133
About Karon Thackston 147
Contents
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The Wordtracker AcademyFree articles, case studies, tips and tricks to help you grow your online business
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When the internet became mainstream, however, this popular promotional tool took
on a new twist. Website owners quickly saw that articles could become knights in
shining armor in a world where content was king. Because everyone was clamoring
for articles for their websites and ezines (the blogs had yet to make its mark at this
point), it became clear that quality articles were to be prized. But a major change in
the landscape of article writing took place when “link building” became a household
word in the internet marketing world.
Personally, I denote this as the primary point of decline in the quality of online
articles. When the masses discovered that Google (and other engines) valued
keyword rich anchor text back links, quality was almost instantaneously sacrificed
for quantity. All of a sudden, professional-grade articles that had been researched,
well written and proofread were transformed into third-grade level pages of
gobbledegunk whose sole purpose was to garner just one more link.
Funny… no one seemed to understand that it was the quality of the articles that made
them desirable to link to in the first place.
Quality vs quantity
You’ll hear me shout it from the rooftops: Quality trumps quantity every time when it comes to writing articles!
If you think about it, it’s just a reinvention of the mouse trap. Writing articles for promotion has been going on for decades. Whether it was publicists pitching their clients as experts for reporters to interview, or business owners writing under the title of “guest journalist” for a magazine, having your name in print has always gone a long way to building a business.
Introduction
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Today, many people are resorting to article-generating software that illegally searches
millions of websites and harvests bits of text from them so it can patch together a
“new” piece. These programs sell themselves under the pretense of fair use under US
copyright laws (which simply isn’t true). And why? All so the over-zealous author can
crank out 100 articles a week in order to flood the internet with yet more content on
the history of toasters or some other lame topic.
Article spinners (that slightly change an original article into several different versions)
are also popular. What’s their purpose? To save the world from the dreaded Duplicate
Content Penalty (which doesn’t exist, as Google explained way back in 2008).
If you’re not going to write quality articles and your only goal is to garner links by any
means possible - I have bad news for you. It won’t work. At least not in the long term.
Article promotion works because someone reads an article you’ve written and wants
to reproduce it on their website. If the articles you’re writing are junk, nobody will
want to republish them on their blogs or websites. You’ll have spent the time and
energy to produce pieces that are of no use to you or anyone else. What’s more, if you
use automated article-writing software and get caught plagiarizing or violating the
copyright of someone else’s work, there are serious legal ramifications. You could be
hit with fines of up to $25,000 per instance in the US plus the removal of your site
from Google and the deletion of your web page (or entire site) at the hand of your web
hosting company through a process of filing a simple DMCA complaint.
In order to get quality links from well-respected sites, you have to produce quality,
well-respected articles that they will want to reprint. Getting back links from scrapper
blogs that have no PageRank does little if any good.
So, which kind do you want to write?
Feature vs editorial articles
Generally speaking, there are two different types of articles (both of which have
several variations). Feature articles are written from an unbiased point of view
frequently by someone outside the industry. Think of a reporter interviewing a person
for a story. The reporter is not an expert in the stock market (for example), but he or
she interviews professionals and does research to develop and write the piece.
Editorial articles are most often what you find published on the internet and they
will be the focus of this e-book. Editorials are written from your point of view (or, if
you’re ghostwriting the article for a client, the client’s point of view). They usually
Introduction
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don’t include interviews with others since the author (you) is considered the expert.
Editorials make a point, teach something or otherwise take a position on a topic.
These types of articles are not self-promotional
All the promotion happens at the end of the article in what is referred to as the ‘about
the author’ section (aka, the bio or resource box).
As we work through the chapters, we’ll cover what makes a great article, headlines and
opening paragraphs, the body text, optimizing for the search engines and what to be
aware of when distributing articles.
So without further delay… let’s get started!
Introduction
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Who are you writing to? (And why it matters)
Chapter 1 Before you do anything else you have a choice to make. Are you writing to attract a search engine spider or a human being? Both, you say? Then you have a balancing act you’ll need to master in order to do it successfully. But still, if you had to choose one, which one would it be? My advice… pick the human.
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As much value as I place on search engine optimization and SEO copywriting, I can
honestly say that you will never make any money if getting good rankings is your sole
priority. That’s because no search engine bot in the history of search engine bots has
ever clicked a link in the bio of an article, visited a website and bought anything. Hu-
man beings, on the other hand: that’s a different story.
My suggestion to anyone who asks is primarily to make your articles enticing to peo-
ple. Yes, keyword inclusion is a necessity if you’re hoping to improve your link popular-
ity (or that of a client you are writing for), but everything else should be laser focused
on producing content that attracts and converts visitors.
Which humans are you writing for?
Now that you’ve (hopefully) decided to write for people first, you’ll need to know
which people you’re writing for. Follow along with me for a moment and I’ll show you
what I mean.
Imagine yourself sitting down at your computer to write a new article. The topic?
Laptop computers. What would you say in your article? You might start by explaining
the benefits of laptops vs desktop computers, the features available and the newest
technological advances.
But if you stop to think about these three points, you’ll quickly see that they radically
change depending on which of several types of people the article is written to. For
instance, laptops are now available in a huge array of sizes. From handheld devices to
10” netbooks to 20” desktop-replacement models, laptops run the gamut of dimen-
sions.
Sure, you could include information on every size and give tips on who might choose
which, but that would produce a really broad article that wasn’t of particular interest to
anyone. What good is that? With a bit of research and forethought, you would quickly
be able to write a piece that piques the interest of one specific group of people (your
target audience or a segment of your target audience).
What most people do is put fingers to keyboard and start rambling on about what they
want to say. Unfortunately, frequently the intent is to generate a quick piece of content
that includes specific keywords and put that article up on a website as fast as possible.
There is no thought about the individual human beings who might actually read this
article. Truly a shame.
Which do you believe would achieve the best results long term? A shallow article with
little useful information (mostly a wide range of fluff)? Or an article written with one
Chapter 1 | Who are you writing to? (And why it matters)
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group of people in mind, aimed at answering their specific questions and at giving
them detailed information that is especially useful in their decision-making process?
I think the question answers itself.
Let’s look back at our broad laptop computer example. How would that article change
if it was written for senior citizens (generally people over 55 years old)? First, you’d
need to outline the concerns and preferences senior citizens have with regard to lap-
tops. You can use the worksheet at the end of this chapter to help you do this task with
future articles you write.
What does the older set want from a laptop computer? What do they hope to avoid?
Many seniors are hesitant about technology: what concerns or fears does your reader
have? Regardless of the article topic, you need to outline:
• who your reader is
• his/herrelationship to the subject matter (where do they stand now?)
• yourreaders’attraction to the subject matter (why are they interested in it?)
• his/herfears/skepticisms/anxietiesaboutthetopic(whatmakesthem
hesitant about it?)
The more you know about the target audience the more engaging your writing will be
to your readers.
But what if the target audience isn’t yours? What if you’re writing a guest article?
Creating guest articles that strike a chord
Whether you initiate the conversation or you’re approached by someone with a re-
quest, writing articles for other people’s newsletters, magazines, blogs and more is
an exceptional way to promote. Before you put fingers to keyboard and begin to write
just as you would when approaching your own readers, you’d be wise to pause and give
some thought to the situation.
Even if you’re writing about the same topic, depending on who you’re approaching,
you may want to put an entirely different spin on your subject matter. Here’s a quick
example.
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To clarify who your new audience is and how you can best help them, use the process
above, but with a twist. Instead of answering the questions yourself, ask the publisher
ofthemagazineorblogabouttheirsubscribers/followers.
In addition, ask these questions as well:
1. What are the top five questions you get asked about [THE SUBJECT MATTER]?
2. Haveyouhadotherswritearticlesonthistopic?Didyoursubscribers/followers
offer comments or other feedback? Can I see it?
3. Are there any particular points you want me to explain during the article?
Giving due diligence to the discovery process of this new audience will allow you the
insights to create articles they’ll truly relate to. Because you’ll be writing specifically
to them, they’ll be elated with the information and show their appreciation with more
clicks to your site.
Researching your target audience
How do you find out about the people you’re writing to? It’s easier than you might
think. Thanks to the internet, you literally have a world of information at your finger-
tips. Here are my top five ways of learning more about your readers.
1. Forums - There are forums for practically everything these days from acting to
zebra-lovers! You can surely find a forum that represents the target group you’re writ-
ing to. Take a look around. You don’t have to post: just read what others have to say.
Are members of the forum asking specific questions? Answer them in your article. Do
they have rants and complaints about the subject in general? That’s great information
to use when writing. Are there particulars that regularly get praised on forums? Excel-
lent! More great details to include.
Senior Living magazine, CNET and many others just so happen to have forums with
posts about seniors buying laptops. On the following page is just one example.
Chapter 1 | Who are you writing to? (And why it matters)
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© Senior Living Magazine 2011, All Rights Reserved
2. Social media - Search Twitter or Facebook or your favorite social media site. Being
able to publically eavesdrop on others’ conversations about the topic of your article is
primo marketing intelligence.
3. Blogs - More popular than forums perhaps, blogs are another form of interactive in-
formation/communicationthatwillallowyouaninsidelookatyourreader.Justcheck
out on the following page what this quick search on Google produced.
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4. Read - Pick up a few industry or topic-related magazines or other publications from
your local newsstand. Or sign up for several online newsletters that attract those inter-
ested in the subject matter of your article.
5. Yahoo! Answers - This and other sites like it (including Facebook) allow visitors to
submit questions that other people in the community respond to. It’s quick and easy
to use and you don’t have to join if you only plan to read and not to ask questions.
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Take the worksheet for this chapter with you as you surf the net. Jot notes about who
you find out your reader is as well as their relationship and attraction to and fears
about the topic you’re writing about.
EXERCISE: Here’s a little assignment to help you practice what we’ve just discussed.
Make copies of the worksheet for this chapter and complete it for the same topic of
‘laptop computers.’ Instead of senior citizens, however, fill out the information as if
you’re writing the article for business professionals who travel a lot.
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Chapter 1 | Who are you writing to? (And why it matters)
Worksheet 1 – Target audience discovery
Article topic:
Who is your reader?
What is your readers’ relationship to the subject matter (where do they stand now)?
What is your reader’s attraction to the subject matter (why are they interested in it)?
Whatareyourreaders’fears/skepticisms/anxietiesaboutthetopic(whatmakesthemhesitant)?
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