| By :
Steve Shaw
Many times when people are marketing with articles, they have the mistaken impression that the purpose of their article is to bring attention to their business, website or products. Nothing could be further from the truth. The actual article (title, article body, and article summary) is for the reader. That is where you offer information that will improve your target reader's life. It is only in the resource box that you can turn the spotlight on you and your business. You may be thinking, "That sounds a bit lopsided. The article is big, and the resource box is small. How does this work out in my favor?" That's a great question--let's address it. Appealing To Publishers First of all, before you can get any sort of payoff from your articles, they need to be picked up for publication. Most quality publishers have guidelines that articles need to abide by in order to make it on to their site. A very common guideline is that an article must not be sales-oriented or promotional. That means that no one should get the idea from the article that it was written to help sell something that benefits the author. So, when you are writing your articles, you need to give the publishers the type of content that they want. They want educational articles that serve their website's readership. They do not want to publish sales letters for your business or products. Giving Readers What They Want In writing your online content, you also have to give your readers what they want. Online readers are searching for solutions to problems. They are not looking for sales pitches or advertisements. If you were reading an article and realized that it was recommending a product, service, or website that belonged to the author of the article, how would you feel? When an article is slanted to promote the business of the author, the article loses its credibility and turns readers off. Knowing Your Audience You have to write articles that will appeal to both publishers and readers. If you don't, your articles won't be read or republished, which defeats the purpose of article marketing. How in the world can you accomplish your marketing goals without hitting your readers upside the head with a sales pitch? Consider this: Many home improvement stores offer classes on how to do DIY home repairs, like tiling a bathroom or installing a faucet. The classes are free, and people show up to learn a new skill. The person who is teaching the class shows the participants exactly what to do, and then after the class he answers questions. He is not a sales person. He is an expert. He gives you all the information you need to get started, and then he says, "Here's my business card--don't hesitate to call me if you run into any questions." Then, what do the participants do? They go around the store gathering the supplies they need, and they buy the supplies. What does this have to do with article marketing? Your article is like a home improvement store's free class. Your resource box is the time after the class where the teacher answers questions and gives you his contact information. This is a marketing strategy that works. Do you see why it's incredibly powerful not to try to sell anything in your article? Your article is the place where you give away your knowledge. The resource box is the spot where you get to "take"--you take by tooting your own horn about your business, products, services and website. Take less, and you will get more. It is a proven fact with article marketing.
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