4 Key Points to Cover When Writing Your Article

by : Claude Pelanne

Article writing should be part of the mix in traffic building strategy of any internet marketing program. Articles have the benefit of driving traffic of qualified motivated visitors to your site if you offer quality information that offers a solution to their problem. This will have a direct bearing on how the search engines rank your site and your rank will determine the volume of visitors you will draw to see what your site has to offer.

Writing your article requires some research and careful attention to good, solid content. It also requires that you cover key points to ensure that your readers finds you and stays with you for the present and well into the future.

1. Quality Content

Your first and most important step is to commit to your reader and his/her underlying need or problem. The reader should be finding what they are looking for in the content of your article and should take away the satisfaction of a solution that will make his or her life easier. What you want to get on your end is not just customer satisfaction, but customer loyalty. You want that visitor to look to you as trusted resource to whom they can return anytime they need information or a product that will satisfy a need.

Write for your audience and write using content that has substance. Use a natural style that reflects your personality and natural approach to people. Be who you are and that will translate into a comfortable tone and style that makes you a non threatening and trusted source of information. Proper grammar, correct syntax and well structured sentences are a given. If the article calls for it include facts, figures, statistics, charts and any kind of visual imagery to prove your points. All of this will establish your authority and build confidence with your audience.

2. Keywords and Keyword Phrases

Your article should be very clear as to the purpose and intent of your product, service or solution. Keywords and keyword phrases play an important role in showing you know what you are talking about and are offering a solution. Your reader will be typing those keywords and keyword phrases when they set about looking for the product or service to help them with a need they have. So your article should use these keywords and relate directly to the purpose of your Web site. Each page of your Web site has to be keyword or keyword phrase driven. That helps your reader find what they are looking for. Your article should point them there with keywords and keyword phrases linked to the page with the solution.

3. Keyword Density

Keyword density refers to the use of keywords and keyword phrases in the copy of your article. The presence of these keywords and keyword phrases allows for the search engines to find in your articles markers that will rank your article and put it in front of a Web visitor who is looking for that information. If someone is looking for copyrighting information and your article has the right density of that term in its title or paragraph content, chances are that reader will find you in the search results and click to read your content.

How often you use the keywords and keyword phrases is a matter of judgment. Over use of keywords or keyword phrases will look like a spam message and turn off your reader and the search engine. Too little use and you will not be found in the search process. A rule of thumb is 2-3 keywords per 500 words of content. Something in the title of the article, maybe two mentions in the body of the text. The main point is to use your keyword density wisely and you will reap the benefit of increased authority and trust.

4. Article Signature

Articles are obviously posted in blogs and newsletters but they are also submitted to article directories for more general distribution. This allows for you to get widespread recognition throughout the Web and increase your reach and potentially increase your traffic. It is a great way to establish affiliate marketing program and brand yourself as an expert.

One thing to bear in mind is that article distributors and directories are becoming more strict about writing original material and about self promotion. An increasing number will not allow any material you may have bought from an article reseller. Many do not allow any mention of affiliate marketing or affiliate links in the body of the content. So you will not be allowed to use anchor text to cross sell an affiliate product. You can still have keywords and keyword phrases but you simply cannot link to an affiliate site. This leads to the following point.

There is one area where directories still allow links to appear and that is in the signature or biography box where you present information about yourself. This is where you can put links, usually no more than two, to your affiliate product or service. Now again, some directories will not allow a raw affiliate link. They will allow a link to a site you own. So you can link to your own site or sites and simply forward to an affiliate site from there. That is why it is important you write a signature for your articles that will link to your solution based site. That is what sends you traffic and grow your internet marketing program.

These are four important elements to cover and understand as you design your article marketing plan for your affiliate marketing business. Master these and you will see results in the growth of traffic to your site and growth in profits in your bank account.