Six Common Pitfalls of Article Marketing

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by: ddavalos
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If you're not seeing the results you want with your article marketing campaign, you may be falling prey to any of the common mistakes people make. We're all pressed for time these days and it's easy to discount the importance of things like providing unique content, using good spelling and grammar and avoiding black hat SEO tactics. But the fact that your time is so precious should make it all the more important to you to use that time wisely by producing articles that are more likely to be published around the Web. To do that, you'll want to avoid these six common mistakes.

In your rush to get as many articles as possible out there in the world, you may be tempted to resort to using a PLR (private label rights) article or other regurgitated material, slap an about the author box on it and send it on its way. This is a big mistake.

Publishers want unique, compelling articles, filled with information their readers can't find in thousands of other places. Reputable article distribution services such as Article Marketer will not even distribute PLR articles and other duplicate content. Do yourself a favor and write something original. If you just don't have the time, hire someone else to do it for you. The money will seem well spent when you see the results of your efforts.

Good content is virtually worthless if it's full of spelling and grammatical errors. Running a spell-checker software is a good start, but for real accuracy you need to enlist the help of a human. Having someone else read your articles is a great way to catch mistakes. If no one is available to help you, walk away for a few hours, or even a few days, and come back and look at it with fresh eyes. You will catch little errors you missed the first time.

Avoid being too sales-y. Remember what publishers are looking for: informative, engaging articles that capture readers' interests and help them in some way. If you want to post an advertisement you're going to have to pay for the privilege. The only advertising you should ever do in an article marketing campaign is in the about the author box. That's your opportunity to sell yourself.

Don't act like spam. Underhanded tactics such as keyword stuffing will have publishers dropping your article like a hot potato. Similar to being too sales-y, keyword stuffing is another way to alienate publishers and readers alike.

Write for the reader. You're not writing the article for you, you're writing for the hundreds of people who come upon your article. Avoid referring to your business or website constantly throughout the article. Remember, it's not an ad.

Dish up something they haven't seen before. Everyone has unique experiences, mistakes they've learned from, things they find inspiring or advice they can offer. Do that and you'll get more readers. And more readers translate into more traffic for your site. Don't do it and you're limiting your publication possibilities.

Even if you avoid all the common pitfalls, you'll never realize your internet marketing potential if you don't track your results. The web is a unique marketing forum in that it readily allows you to see exactly where your back links appear.

Then you can go back to your site and analyze your traffic statistics. Are you seeing more traffic? Are more people subscribing to your newsletter? Is your forum seeing more activity? Use all the measurements you can to determine the impact of your marketing strategy. Then tweak as necessary.

Article Source: http://www.ArticleStreet.com/

About the Author

Dana Davalos, graphic designer and online biz whiz, shares her thoughts on internet marketing, design and life in general at her blog, Groovy Graphix. She is a frequent contributor to Article Marketer, a highly popular article distribution service. http://www.articlemarketer.com

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