20 Nov 09 Article Marketing Guidelines

Article marketing is a potent source for getting backlinks and traffic. This is the reason why so many article directories have come into existence. Writing for each one of these directories (I am talking about good ones) is different from writing for other good directories, and there are some guidelines that we need to follow to increase our acceptance rate. Every article directory has different guidelines, but there are some points in the guidelines that are common to all. I am listing is below:

Quality Content: In context of article marketing, quality content means non-duplicate, error-free, exclusive content. Do not submit a PLR, ripped-off, or any other kinds of duplicate content. The article must be informative in order to get published. Quality of your content also plays a big role in whether independent publishers will pick the article or not.
Resource Box: The resource box should contain a brief bio of author, and 2 to 3 links. You can also have your head-shot photograph in the resource box.
No Self-serving article: You should not have a self-serving, that is to say, you cannot have advertising, promotional material, press releases, or sales letter, etc., submitted in the name of article.
Abstain from pornography, racism, terrorism, hacking tips, violence, personal attack, etc. None of the article directories are going to publish your article, if your article contains any of these.
Abstain from using special characters, long dashes, curly quotes, HTML codes (some of them are accepted), hard line-break, Tabs, etc.
Number of articles: You should at least write 10 articles to get good quality backlinks and substantial traffic.
Grammar and punctuation: Though an article directory is not a bunch of strict grammarian, nonetheless, you need to use proper grammar and punctuation in order to make readers understand what you are saying.

Tags: Acceptance Rate, Article Directory, Article Marketing, Backlinks, Dashes, Grammar And Punctuation, Grammarian, Hacking Tips, Independent Publishers, Line Break, Personal Attack, Photograph, Plr, Pornography, Potent Source, Promotional Material, Proper Grammar, Quality Content, Racism, Substantial Traffic

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12 Oct 09 Article Marketing – Why We Need Article Marketing

Before we establish the need for article marketing, let us first find out what is article marketing. To explain in simplest term, Article marketing refers to the article written for an article directory with an objective to get backlinks and visitors for the writer’s website from the resource box.

What is a resource box?

The text written at the bottom of an article that talks about the author is known as resource box. A resource box contains a brief bio of the author, 2 to 3 links to the author’s home page and an author’s photograph. A resource box may look like the following:

Resource-box

Why we need Article Marketing

The ultimate goal of an article written for article directories is to get backlinks and visitors for the author’s website. But it has two intermediary goals as well. The first one is to get the article picked by various online publishers, and second is to establish oneself as an expert in the chosen field.

These two goals are worthy because the more people will pick your article the more backlink you will get. And the more established as an expert you will become for your field the more reliable your advices will be. This, in turn, will result in more visitors and more sales.

Generally, author of an article in this case is the webmaster who owns the website to which the article is linking.

What is article directories

An article directory is a website where an author can submit his or her articles. The article directories are often free, and they generate revenue by placing ads in the articles published under its domain. Some of the best known article directories are:

In the coming posts, I will discuss about different aspects of article marketing, so stay tuned.

Tags: Advices, Article Directory, Article Ezine, Article Marketing, Backlinks, Dashboard, Directories, Ezine Articles, Marketing Article, Objective, Photograph, Placing Ads, Publishers, Term Article, Who Owns The Website

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30 Aug 09 Freelance Writing Checklist Part -3

In the last two articles of the series, I shared things that you need to do to prepare yourself for the freelance writing career. In this article, I will tell you what you should do once your résumé is in place, you have written a good cover letter, and you have built your portfolio.

How much do you deserve?

This is going to be tricky. You have two big giants to tackle: The pay rate in the niche you have chosen to write and the amount paid to new writers like you. For this, you will have to do some research. Ask as many people as you want to ask, and go through as many project postings as you can and see the bid people have made there. This will give you an idea about how much your niche pays.

Visit freelance forums and blogs

Freelance forums and blogs are the goldmines of resources. Hence, you should consider being regular on one or more freelance forums and blogs.

What are the best practices?

Not knowing the best practices of the industry and not applying it are two different things. You should research and find out not only the rates, but the prevailing best practices of the industry as well. You also need to know the payment terms used by the genuine employers.

Find Jobs

This is what you were preparing for all along. Visit different blogs, freelance exchange websites and get yourself registered, if asked to, and start applying for the jobs that interest you.

Fill in all the details in the form, when registering into freelance exchanges. I would recommend uploading your image as well, and not any avatar or any funny picture. You should look professional, in the photograph. I prefer it this way because a photograph tells the prospective clients about you, and on the Internet, everyone prefers doing business with an idiot whom they know then any undercover genius about whom the clients have no clue.

Research your clients

To safeguard your interest, you need to do some research on the clients before you accept the job proposal sent to you. Not every client is created equal. Some are crooks as well.

Read, Read and Read

It comes at the end of everything, isn’t it? That is why it is important. You will have to read as much as you can: read about freelancing tips, read some authors from your field, read how things are changing, etc.

This brings us to the end of the Freelance Writing Checklist series. I wrote three articles in this series, links to which are provided below:

Freelance Writing Checklist part -1

Freelance Writing Checklist part -2

Freelance Writing Checklist part -3

Hope you liked the series, your views and reviews are welcome. You can either use the comment box to share or view or you can mail me on bikramksingh [at] gmail [dot] com. waiting to hear from you.

Tags: Avatar, Best Practices, Blogs, Cli, Clue, Cover Letter, Doing Business, Exchange Websites, Forums, Freelance Writing Career, Giants, Goldmines, Job, Niche, Photograph, Project Postings, Proposal, Prospective Clients, Two Different Things, Undercover Genius

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20 Nov 09 Article Marketing Guidelines

12 Oct 09 Article Marketing – Why We Need Article Marketing

What is a resource box?

Why we need Article Marketing

What is article directories

30 Aug 09 Freelance Writing Checklist Part -3

How much do you deserve?

Visit freelance forums and blogs

What are the best practices?

Find Jobs

Research your clients

Read, Read and Read

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