WebMaster Solutions
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Content
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by Mike Banks Valentine
It is extremely
effective to write articles for distribution.
This is the method that has brought more traffic
and more sales for WebSite101 than any other
technique. It always leads to ezine
subscriptions, which then lead to more sales,
more and better advertising in the my own
Reading List and more exposure. It is a
self-feeding loop that grows your business
non-stop.
If I were to stop
writing articles and submitting them to other
publishers, my advertising costs would skyrocket
in order to maintain the same exposure and
visibility for WebSite101. Having articles
accepted by large circulation ezines and
published on high traffic web sites is of far
more value than having an ad appear below the
article.
Subscribers of ezines may look at those ads, but
they are reading the articles far more often
than the ads!
There is another
method rarely used by website owners that is
very effective as well -- Participation in
discussion lists targeted to your peers! It is
inevitable that each web business owner will
have their own ezine because it is such a well
recognized method of establishing a relationship
with web site visitors and *maintaining* a
relationship with customers and clients.
Your peers are always looking for content for
their ezine, sometimes they will include an
article on their website permanently if it deals
directly with an issue of interest to their
visitors! I have done the same with topics of
interest to my own visitors, I have reproduced
articles submitted by my peers on my own site
just because a particular piece so clearly deals
with matters of importance to my site visitors.
I have established article swapping with some
groups of publishers where we all agree to run
articles by each of the others in a discussion
list or professional organization.
Recently each of
the members of Paul Siegel's "Learning Fountain
Network" contributed both articles and ads to
each other over several weeks to be run in the
ezines of each of the members of that
organization. It leads to a great sort of
cross-pollination of ideas and the growth of
each of our lists. Of course the main benefit
included several new members for the Learning
Fountain Network when readers of those lists
discovered the viewpoints of the members of LFN.
Instead of placing
ads meant to distract and sell, I am writing
articles meant to instruct and entertain! They
are both means to an end, but the latter
establishes rapport and respect from the readers
(ideally) while the former interrupts and often
annoys us with hyperbole and sales pitch.
Obviously those who purchase products and
services based on informative articles will be
far more willing customers than those that were
cajoled and convinced by crafty headlines in
advertisements.
I'll go so far as
to argue that good writing is far more important
to small web businesses than good advertising
is! Would you rather read 500 words of reason or
one paragraph of exaggerated claims when both
serve the same end but produce vastly differing
results?
These 500 words
have more to say than the 50 in a carefully
crafted classified advertisement.
Here are a few
great places to submit your expertise:
http://www.coolpick.com/way/cool/submit1.html
http://www.osopinion.com/submitopinion.html
http://certificate.net/wwio/ideas.shtml
http://www.web-source.net/articlesub.htm
There are dozens
more places to submit your writing to. Get Busy! |
