Building one’s prospects list using attractive content in one’s articles may seem to be a no-brainer to the seasoned internet marketer but there may be some practices that you may not be aware of that may result in unattractive content in your internet offerings that can diminish your presence on the world wide web. What then constitutes attractive and unattractive content is the subject of this article. The article of course will also recap what we all know to be attractive content but there are many subtle or not too obvious practices that constitute unattractive content which I wish to point out. If you find that this subject is of interest to you then please read on.

Building one’s list of prospects comes principally from knowing one’s target market and understanding its needs. You must then express this understanding using the right words and be able to provide continuous value to this market in the form of solutions to problems, strategies or approaches for the building of enterprises and possibly the appropriate training or literature that will provide the capabilities that your prospects need.

In a practical sense you have to use Search Engine Optimization (SEO) for your web offering to become accessible to prospects searching for your solution. Once they find it, you then have to obtain their contact information using an appropriate lead capture page and then commence providing continuous valuable content that can give them what they require.

This then is the sequence of what is now called attraction marketing - first, prospects find your offering on the internet, second, they then give you permission to provide them with a continuous stream of valuable content and third, these communications build relationships of trust which can have them pre-sold on your products or services

As an internet marketer, these then are the practical things that you have to do in order to effectively grow your prospects list:-

1) Your have to create a body of valuable content which you will be transmitting to your prospects using email marketing techniques. Your body of content should ideally be at least thirty (30) articles talking to the various aspects of the solutions you are providing. These articles can either be written by yourself or hired writers (which is surprisingly inexpensive). The articles should be search engine optimized with the appropriate keywords and posted on such social marketing vehicles as Ezine Articles, Squidoo, Hub Pages, or on a Blog or website that you have set up for this purpose.

2) These articles should be linked to your lead capture pages so that you can obtain your prospects contact information. Somewhere within your later articles you should provide a link to your sales pages to begin monetizing your offering.

3) Within your posted articles you should also provide links to other featured articles (not necessarily your own) that speaks and gives greater value to the same subject matter. This ‘link building’ improves your page rank and exposure with the search engines.

4) The marketing of your articles do not stop here but must continue with getting on such social networking sites such as Facebook, Twitter, Digg, Stumble Upon, etc.

5) You must from time to time review your marketing efforts by determining which content and keywords are bringing in the best results. This then provides the basis for future improvements to your articles, keywords and links, so that your page ranking on the search engines can improve continuously.

We can now turn to what constitutes attractive and unattractive content. The worst form of unattractive content is spam. We have all been subjected to spam and we all know how unattractive this is. Spam is flooding of one’s inbox with many copies of the same message in an attempt to force a sale of a product or service on you which you would not otherwise wish to receive. Spam as we know is against the law and one can be heavily penalized or even banned from the internet for this indiscretion.

Another form of unattractive content is when one overly promotes one’s message of the benefits of one’s product or service particularly when using the social media. Many of the Web 2.0 social media sites such as Hub Pages, Squidoo, Ezine Articles, Digg, Stumble Upon, etc., have very strong rules against this and users are heavily reprimanded or even out-rightly banned for transgressions regarding this. These social media sites are not against the sale of one’s product or service but are only in favor of it if the message is one of offering value to the consumer rather than a sales pitch.

There can be a subtle difference between promoting and offering value and the writer has to know this subtle difference. Attractive content is then deemed to be value based and this can occur if one slants one’s message by sharing experiences or offering insight, etc. Unattractive content is deemed to be overly promotional and often referred to as spam. In modern social media marketing it is not socially acceptable to sales pitch your product or service, it is much like going to a party or social setting and doing the same. What you can do is offer insight, educate, or provide solutions to problems or concerns expressed and over time relationships and trust are built up which naturally leads to an interest in your product or service.

Let us now have a look at the specific areas of your content to see how best one can convey value rather than promotion. The title of your content can be slanted such that you are reviewing rather than promoting a product or service and this can be done by sharing insight or a personal experience with same. For example you can word your title thus - Is Product X or Service Y worth the money? This approach is deemed more valuable to the prospect than a straight promotional approach.

In a general sense you can score more points if your overall offering reads like a review, a shared experience, an insight or an educational expose. If it reads like a billboard, it will be clear that you are trying to sell something and may infringe the rules of social media etiquette. Another tip is to make your articles longer rather than shorter. Shorter articles tend to be promotional in nature and is always perceived as such. Break your articles into sections with bolded sub-headings and place as many illustrations and pictures as you can in them. These approaches create the perception of value.

An important factor which has a large bearing on whether your article is perceived as promotional or value based is that of anchor text and links. The appearance, wording and frequency of your anchor text and links are very important in this regard. If your article is a short one with many links, this tend to be perceived as promotional. The more works in your anchor text, the more the perception of promotion. It is better to shorten the wording but still indicate where the link is going to.

If all your articles link to the same sales page, this also increases the perception of promotion. Some of your articles ideally should not be about business at all. This would give balance to the perception that you are not all about business. You can write about your hobbies, other issues of the day or even a review about a person or a book but with links to features not related to business or sales at all.

When using links it is not ideal to have them clustered in one part of your article. Some media only allow a maximum or two or three links and these are recommended only towards the end of the article (at least the sales page link).

Finally before joining a group or forum of any social media, you need to determine what the social protocol or rules of the group are. What are the rules of the group? What level of promotion will they tolerate? In any event it is always the best manners if you provide an abundance of value in your offerings before even contemplating promoting anything.

A full discussion on all these issues together with workshops and webinars are available at the Renegade Professional whose link is below, should you be interested in finding out more about attractive and unattractive content in your internet offerings.

Thank you for your attention.

Nigel Gittens.