How to Write Effective Content for Article Marketing

Writing content to be used for article marketing is quite simple and only differs slightly than other content (articles, blogs posts, etc) commonly written for the Internet. As a writer, you may find it stressful to write your first article to be used for article marketing. Luckily, once you learn how to properly write for article marketing, you'll realize it's a piece of cake.

If you've never heard of article marketing and aren't sure what it's for, you're in for a treat. Article marketing is arguably one of the best ways to get backlinks. Internet marketers and SEO experts often obtain backlinks from a number of sources, but backlinks from articles, HubPages hubs, Squidoo lenses, etc, have a considerable amount of weight to them.

An important factor in the planning process is where you will be publishing your articles. Since you will most likely want to spread your articles around the Internet, you'll want to look up information about what kind of content each publishing platform accepts.

The types of things you will be on the lookout for are:

• Article length - You need to know how long articles need to be before you start writing. Stretching sentences by breaking up contractions and rehashing ideas are bad ideas.
• Type of article - If the publishing platform is something like ehow, you will want to publish a how to article.

One thing that should be noted is that your article should be related to your backlink. If you have a website that sells antique dolls, writing an article about how oranges are grown in Florida isn't going to help your site very much. Google places more weight on backlinks if the article is related to the content on the site you're linking to.

One of the biggest obstacles that article marketers face is coming up with an article topic that will interest readers and work with their list of keywords. Keywords can really cramp your style! In the past I've done contract writing work and it is seriously rough putting words that don't make sense together in a sentence. Here is some homework for you:

• Put "acai berry truth" in a sentence. You can't say "the truth about acai berries." I mean "acai berry truth" as an exact phrase!
• Pretend you're a marketer and you've got a client who sells office furniture in Miami. Your keyword is "office furniture Miami." You aren't allowed to write an article comparing different office furniture companies. You can't talk about the company because this really isn't a press release.
• Take that above article and make it interesting. Make it something that someone will want to read. (Good luck with that!)

That's some rough homework! Writing around keywords is a tough job. Fortunately, you can get by with only using the keyword as an exact phrase in your backlink if you produce a well-written article. Google gets the gist of your article from other related words you use, so you don't have to keyword stuff. If you partake in the awful act of keyword stuffing, no-one will read and backlink your article.

Before you dive in and start writing, it's really important to learn more about your target audience so that you can make your article shine. Even though you may just wish the search engines to be your target audience, you should highly consider making your article appealing for both search engine spiders and real people. This is why it's a good idea to produce content called "linkbait."

The word "linkbait" sounds pretty scary. It might sound to you like a blackhat SEO technique, but it is actually the opposite. Linkbaiting is so whitehat that it's like the Clorox bleach of whitehat SEO. This technique is not only awesome for the website you're marketing but also seriously is the livelihood of content publishers such as Squidoo and HubPages.

What is linkbait? Well, it's awesome content (in a way.) While it's much easier to just throw something together quickly and publish it, you have a higher chance of success with article if you write something that readers love. By writing an article that is full of great information, fun facts & figures, has a visual appeal, etc, you have a great chance that someone will link to your article. This, in turn, gives the backlinks on your article more weight. These types of well-written articles that naturally attract backlinks are called linkbait.

It baffles me that linkbaiting has such a scary name. Maybe it's because it does kind of make use of consumer psychology in order to get your readers to make a call to action. Perhaps it's sort of sneaky to write something awesome so that people will link to you. But isn't this how marketing works as a whole? Does it make you less sneaky to produce a "blah" article that no-one wants to read? I don't know about you, but I like reading interesting things... even if they were written for the sole purpose of grabbing my interest.

Your article absolutely has to be at least somewhat related to the content on the site you're linking to. Finding a way to make the subject matter of your site interesting doesn't have to be impossible.

If you're a marketer, chances are the topic you are writing about is extremely boring to you. Try to work on a way to make that topic interesting to you. Come up with some topics and article titles that appeal to you. Put yourself in the shoes of people who are interested in that topic. What kind of stuff would they like to read?

Almost anything can be written in an interesting way (except acai.) People love how-to articles, lists, etc, so try presenting information in those ways. If you're trying to market a web design site and article like "How to Design a Trendy Logo" may go over well. Have a stationery company you're marketing? "How to Make Confetti out of Unused Wedding Invitations" is a great example of a fun and unique topic that readers will enjoy while allowing you to stay true to what you're marketing!

After coming up with the topic, make sure you present all your information in an interesting way so that your audience stays captivated. Make use of different types of link bait, but stay true to the topic of your article by offering real information. Don't just say something so that you can get a backlink, no-one likes fake information.

While writing for article marketing can definitely be a lot of fun, it still can be a lot work. Take plenty of breaks and be sure to read over your work to make sure you're conveying your ideas in an interesting, but accurate way.