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How to get free qualified leads with Article Marketing

Posted on 09. Jun, 2011 by Beki Dunmire in Marketing

I have to admit before we even get started that I am very biased in favor of article marketing.  It really has a lot of things going for it.  The first and best thing is that it’s absolutely free.  All it takes is your knowledge and time.  The second thing I like about articles is that it will establish you as a “person who knows” or an expert on the subject matter (provided your article is stuffed to the gills with useful information).  Articles tend to hang around on the internet for a long time.  You write one article and you may be generating leads off that one article for years to come.  It’s not that hard to write an article but it does take time and a little attention to detail.

There are a couple things that could be considered downsides to article marketing but it really depends on what kind of results you’re looking for.  Article marketing does take consistency and patience – meaning that you need to post at least one article every day for an amount of time in order to start generating leads.  It’s unrealistic to think you can write one article and build a $50,000 per month business off of that one single piece of marketing.  (If you figure out how to make this work, please let me know how!)  If you consistently produce quality, informative articles over a period of time – usually about 2-3 months – your hard work will pay off.

Some of you may be discouraged by the idea of writing an article.  Here are some questions and answers to help you out.

What should I write about? That’s pretty simple.  Write about what you know.  If you read a book or watch a webinar that teaches you something, put it in your own words and presto! You’ve got an article.

How should I put it all together? Put it together in a way that is easy to read.  One of the easiest ways to do this is to draft a basic outline with the main points and then use that as the template for your article – fleshing out each point as you write.

How long does it have to be? The standard rule for how long an article should be will vary depending on subject matter but for most intents and purposes 500-700 words is a great length.  This works out to about 1 page single spaced in Times New Roman font 12.  For a plan to write an article in 15 minutes, check out this post.

Where do I put it? The “go to” site is ezinearticles.com but there are lots of free article sites that you can post your content on.  Find sites that your target market is likely to visit and post to those first.  It’s also a great idea to post the article on your blog first and then include a link in the signature box of your article that links back to the original post on your blog.  This is the easiest way for people to connect with you outside of the article site.  You may also want to post the article on a generic lead generation site like MyLeadSystemPro and include another link in your signature box to the article on that site.

Once you get the basics down, you can move on to more advanced techniques like doing keyword research for search engine optimization.  There are free ways to do this.  One of the tools you can use is the Google Keyword tool.  This will help you identify the popularity of keywords relating to your subject matter.  When you include a keyword throughout your article, you are making it easier for the search engines to find your content – aka search engine optimization.

If you’re looking for a much more advanced method for aggressive article marketing, you can purchase software like Marketing Samurai for keyword research and article spinning tools like Automatic Article Submitter or Article Marketing Robot or Unique Article Wizard.  Spinning an article is simply using different words or phrases to convey the same message so that when the article is posted to multiple sites, it doesn’t register as the same exact article.  This helps keep your article in the top of search results when done properly.

Some people choose to outsource their article marketing which is a way to utilize this technique without really being involved.  The downside is that it costs money to do this – not ideal if you’re looking for a free lead generation method – and you don’t have full control over the content.

The best way to get involved in article marketing is simply to jump in with both feet and refine your technique along the way.  You’ll get a better feel for how things should go once you get writing.  Now get busy!

What other article marketing questions do you have?  Let me know.  I would love to answer them in another post.

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Tags: article marketing, articles, free leads, generate free leads, generate free traffic, generate traffic, mlm, mlm leads, mlm marketing, traffic