Writing Articles For Increased Traffic

Writing articles for increased traffic is about writing successful articles that cover hot topics, have a magnetic title and follow the AIDA principle.

Here's a favorite article of mine written by Jason Potash, the creator of ArticleAnnouncer, on what you need to know in order to create articles that the search engines will recognize and will prompt readers to click over to your website. 

7 Keys to Writing Successful Articles

A Simple Secret To Seducing The Search Engines...

In the Internet Marketing community, "traffic" and search engine mastery are hot topics these days...

People will do almost ANYTHING just to get their site indexed by Google faster... to boost their Page Rank quicker... to drive more traffic immediately... and to get a ton of incoming links to their website right away...

Yes, even if it involves handing over $137 for the latest push-button traffic software or search engine trick.

Why all the fuss?

In this article, I'm going to reveal to you a simple, no cost way to make the search engines crawl all over your website like ants on a melted popsicle.

PLUS... you will start to get laser-targeted traffic and boost your search engine rankings almost instantly. Not to mention, you'll have (at least) 100 quality links back to your website within a week.

And this doesn't involve any SEO hocus-pocus, buying into some new "killer" traffic booster software, or trying out the latest scheme to fool Google, Yahoo, or MSN.

Nope. This stuff is 100% legit, above-board, and has already worked for years.

Let me give you a quick example. Recently I created a little "test" website.

The search engines didn't know about it. It had no incoming links. No traffic. No SE rankings...ZIP!

Fast forward 7 days... My website was indexed by Google, Yahoo and MSN, it got well over 200 incoming links and started to generate traffic... shortly thereafter, Google granted my site a Page Rank 3.

Again, this did not cost a penny, just a few hours of my time.

So, how can you get these same kind of results? I wish I could make this sound more complicated but, all that you need to do is simply submit one article to a handful of Article Directories.

Writing and submitting articles has long been a proven, time-tested strategy for increasing traffic, subscribers and sales.

But now in 2005, articles have re-emerged in a BIG way, thanks to recent information leaked by Google within their US Patent Application 20050071741.

We now know that quality content and incoming links are essential (now, more than ever) to the survival of your websites within the search engines.

Bottom line. You need to start creating and submitting articles to get all the benefits I just outlined above.

In fact, Google is practically telling you to do so!

But, where do you start? Where should you submit your articles?
 

Here's a blueprint that outlines the 7 keys to writing successful articles...

Follow these 7 keys and you are guaranteed to get more traffic, more incoming links and higher search engine rankings and page rank, by simply distributing your articles across the Internet.

Let's get started.

Key #1: Choose a HOT Topic

You'll need to do a little research on this one. If you are already familiar with the target market for your article, this should come easy. Research, spy, observe. Do whatever it takes to understand your target market. What issues are hot? What topics currently appear within top ezines, messageboards, ebooks? What keywords are they using to search online?

It's also a good idea to frequently visit article directories and content sites. These sites contain current articles on a variety of popular topics. Often, you can view the most popular article topics (or clicks) as well.

Here's a short list of article directories:

http://www.ezinearticles.com
http://www.certificate.net/wwio
http://www.ideamarketers.com
http://www.goarticles.com
http://www.netterweb.com
http://www.jogena.com

Key #2: Choose a "Magnetic" Title

Magnetic title? That's right. Your article title is your headline. If it doesn't pull the reader into the article, nothing will. Just think ... what if I called this article:

"Get More Traffic In The Search Engines", "Easy Search
Engine Tips", or "Free Traffic Generation Strategies".

BLAH! See what I mean? These don't pack much "punch", do they?

Your title is just like a classified ad. Look at it this way. If your article title is crowded on a webpage with 100 others, what will make it jump off the page?

Key #3: Use The AIDA Principle

Attention Interest Desire Action (AIDA)

This universal formula applies to your articles as well. Once you've enticed your reader to read your article (via a great title), you need to keep them reading.

The first paragraph of your article is critical. If it's dull, boring and lifeless, your reader will surely bail out. You must keep their interest right from the start. Try using short paragraphs, sentences and words. This will keep the tempo upbeat and make your article much easier to read (or skim, as most do online).

Key #4: Create Several Sub-Headings

To better organize your thoughts, divide your article into sub-headings. At times, writing a 500-700 word article can seem insurmountable. Sub-headings make things easier. Instead of tackling the entire article at once, try writing one paragraph at a time.

Key #5: "Close The Sale" With A Resource Box

One of the worst things you can do is to leave your reader hanging. They've just read your great article, now what? A resource box appears at the very end of your article. It's the last line that your reader sees. It's your chance to set the next step.

Make sure that your resource box is compelling. Make the reader jump over to your website, sign up for your ezine, download your latest ebook, claim their free gift -- get creative!

Also, the resource box allows you to include a direct link back to your website. Sit back and watch your link popularity soar!

Key #6: Poofread Your Work

Did you catch that? It should have read, "Proofread". Nothing hollers out amateur, newbie, or just plain unprofessional than an article filled with typos and bad grammar. If you don't have an English major in the family, hire a proofreader. Their rates are reasonable and they can save you from damaging your reputation online.

Key #7 - Promote, promote, promote

Let's make one thing clear. Without key #7, keys 1-6 are a waste of time. No one will read your article if you keep it stored on a floppy disk in your desk. You've got to promote it!

How can you promote your article? There are close to 90 article directories, article banks, free content sites, article announcement lists, and article syndication services out there. And the best part is ... 95% of them are FREE!

Plus, there are thousands of ezines, websites and blogs that are looking for article submissions.

Develop a list of contacts in your target market. Next, e-mail each ezine publisher, blog owner, or webmaster a copy of your latest article. There are countless stories of individuals who have succeeded using this exact same approach.

Jason Potash makes it easy to create and blast out your articles all over the Internet using his ingenious new ArticleAnnouncer Article Marketing System. Find out just how this program can do for YOU!