wordtracker masterclass: article marketing · them desirable to link to in the first place. quality...

Article Marketing

Karon Thackston

Wordtracker Masterclass:

The Write Way to Build More Links

Not for distribution

Wordtracker Masterclass: Article Marketing | 2Wordtracker.com

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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Blogging for Business 50 Steps to Building Traffic and SalesA real world guide to creating,

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50 Kick-Ass Keyword StrategiesLearn 50 simple, smart and

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Writing Kick-Ass Website Sales CopyCopywriting guru Nick Usborne

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http://www.wordtracker.com/ebooks/ecommerce-book

http://www.wordtracker.com/ebooks/web-content-book

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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



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


http://googlewebmastercentral.blogspot.com/2008/09/demystifying-duplicate-content-penalty.html


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


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.



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)



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.




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.




© 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.




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.




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.





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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