Guide To Affiliate Marketing

One of the most effective methods of generating traffic to your website is writing articles and submitting them to the article publishers. The efforts of the next few days may not drive any real traffic to your website but writing articles and submitting them will serve you well in the future and it is in your best interest to use this technique to your advantage. While you may not think you have any writing talent, you are probably incorrect. You may not be the next John Grisham, but you can effectively write about your website and products that you sell. Of course you need to know the rules for writing articles effectively. The number one rule is that the headline or title HAS To contain keywords pertaining to your website or product. This will be the determining factor when E-zine publishers or website owners decide if they want to publish your article. This is because they are aware of how much importance the search engines place on keywords in searches.

* Note: The search engines are the method by which people find products or information that they are looking for on the Internet. To find those products or that information, they type key words into the search boxes of the search engines. For example; they might type in fish bait or fishing lures. The results that the search engines provide are based on the key words that the searcher uses.

Another thing of importance regarding the headline or title of the article is that it MUST draw attention. Using something simple like Car Parts won’t do. Your title MUST be interesting enough to grab the reader’s attention and keep him reading. “Car Parts for Your Mercedes”…well, that isnt really great either. How about, “Car Parts for your SL-600″ or “Car Parts For Your SL That The Women Can’t Resist”? These last two headlines should encourage someone looking for parts their Mercedes to continue reading the article.

After the title, the next most important words in your article are in the first line. Experienced internet surfers are well known for having a short attention span and rarely read anything word for word unless it is information that they think will meet their needs, solve a problem they have or make life better for them. So…the title…and the first line become the bait and the hook that is used to lure the reader to truly read the complete article. If the first line contains the key words it must also be be attention getting. “The customers were begging for more tips after the first line!” If you were an internet marketer, wouldn’t you keep reading?

One more thing about your articles is that they need to be short if you intend to submit them to article banks. Very short! No more than 400 words but closer to 300 words would be more appropriate. Sometimes we can get carried away and all of a sudden have an article that is 1000 words or more. This can happen if you are writing about a subject in which you are interested and knowledgeable about. When this happens just break a long article down into a couple of shorter articles.

Short sentences and short paragraphs will keep the reader’s attention better than long wordy sentences or paragraphs. Your article should be a joy to read.

Go easy on the exclamation points, as well. One exclamation point indicates importance or excitement… a half a dozen are just rude.

Your resource box which comes at the end of the article is the most important part of all. Anyone who downloads and reproduces your article is required to include your resource box. And this box should contain your full name, your contact information and, most importantly, the link to your website. That link is the reason you are writing this article anyway. It is to help increase traffic for you.

Warning! Do NOT word-wrap your url! It must be typed out in full, http://www.whatever.com. Not all E-zine editors send out their newsletters and E-zines using email programs that support word-wrapped links so it is possible to ruin your own purpose by word-wrapping your website url.

Submitting Articles: You can find article banks and article repositories on the Internet by simple doing a search for them using your favorite search engine. When you have located them, you must submit your articles according to the guidelines that each site sets forth.

You will likely be told that there is software available that you can use to automatically submit your articles to banks and repositories…and there is, in fact, such software. The problem with the automated submission software is that most of the larger (and more effective) banks and repositories dont accept automated submissions. So, while this software can in fact save you time by submitted to the smaller sites, it isnt going to help you much with the bigger sites.

Of course, submitting articles yourself is boring, tedious and time consuming work but it can provide you with a lot of targeted traffic. Each person reading your article will also be exposed to the link to your site. If your article is helpful and it provides good information, then these people will visit your site. Some may buy what you are selling or opt-in to your mailing list… or maybe some will do both. It is possible to find services that will submit your articles for you. For a fee of course.

One solution I use is Unique Article Wizard. UAW can submit unique articles to hundreds of article banks at the click of a mouse. Spend one to two hours setting up your article, click Submit and sit back and watch the traffic build to your site.