How to Use Articles as an Internet Marketing Tool

Writing articles is a great internet marketing technique.

Most people use the internet to search for information on many different things such as news, business, health, and personal development just to name a few. The list is unending as new discoveries are added each day.

Even those who go online for entertainment like playing games, listening to music or watching videos are engaged in looking for information such as what games are available to play, the best sites to listen to or download music, and what cool new videos have been added in the last few days.

So, basically the way it works is that people who have information share it with others on the internet either for free or for a fee. Reading articles is one of the best ways to get information for free. But if you write articles and let others read them for free, how do you make money? That's a good question, and you'll learn the answer as you continue reading :)

Write articles that relate to the product or service you want to market on the internet

One of the most common questions is what should I write about? The most obvious answer is that you should write articles about the product or service that you're promoting on the internet. That way you give your potential customers a preview of what you're selling. Another term for it that's commonly used in the internet marketing world is pre-sell.

Just remember that you don't want to give out too much information about what you're marketing in your articles. Otherwise, why would anyone spend extra money on information that they already got for free? However, you need to give enough valuable information in your articles so that your readers want more.

Since you'll want to write more than one article pertaining to your product or service, you should think of other things you can write which are still relevant to what you're marketing on the internet. Writing an article that's completely irrelevant would not be very effective.

For example, if your product is about golfing, you can write articles about golf balls, golf clubs, or how to improve your golfing techniques. However, you should not write an article about how to make the best barbecue chicken. Save that one for another product or service related to cooking.

Once you have written several articles on one particular topic (e.g. golfing), people will regard you as an authority on that subject. This is important so that you will gain their trust, and they will be willing to spend money on additional information or service you provide or promote.

This is sort of reversing the technique. In the previous case you already have a product or service in mind and you use article marketing to promote whatever you're trying to sell online.

In case you don't already know what to sell, you can first as yourself a few questions such as

• What are you knowledgeable about? This can relate to your current or previous job or profession, the type of education or training you have gone through, or certain skills that you have.
• What are your interests or hobbies? There's nothing better than creating a product or service to market on the internet based on something that you have a strong interest in. That way everything will always be fun instead of a drudgery. This is essential because you don't want your internet marketing business to be like another job that you do just because you need the money.
• What interesting event did you recently attend? Was it a concert by your favorite musician or band? Was it an inspiring personal development seminar? What did you learn? How can you share your experience with others and help enhance their lives?

Get someone else (a ghost writer) to write articles for you

Writing articles may not be for everyone. Some just don't enjoy it or find it difficult or time consuming to get their ideas written down. I used to be that way myself but have gotten better as I wrote more and more articles. Don't despair. There are at least a couple of ways you can submit articles with your name on them even if you didn't write them yourself!

Your first option would be to hire a ghost writer. They would write articles for you which you can claim as your own, attach your name to them, and do whatever you like with them such as using them as an effective internet marketing tool ( e.g. submitting them to article directories or posting them to your blog). A good place to find people to write articles for you is Elance.com

Your second option would be to get private label rights (PLR) articles. These are also articles written by ghost writers but they're distributed to many other people besides yourself usually through a paid membership site or given away by internet marketers as an incentive or bonus for joining their list or purchasing their product. There are web sites where you can get free PLR articles. Just do a search. However, the quality of those articles may not be very good. You get what you pay for.

One thing you need to remember is that these PLR articles are not unique since a lot of people have the same ones. If you want to submit them to article directories and use them as internet marketing tools, you need to change them quite a bit. In fact, you should completely re-write them to make them unique. Well, at least it will be easier than starting from scratch since you already have the basic idea.

If you want to join a PLR article membership, I strongly recommend Article Underground. You get 400 PLR articles per month on various topics. But that's just the beginning. There are tons of training material to help you establish and grow your internet marketing business, great tools to promote your web site including numerous high quality blogs you can post to, and a fantastic forum where you can seek help and support with article marketing as well as other things related to running an online business.

At the end of each article you submit to the article directories there is a resource box (create your own if it's not already provided by the directory) where you can tell your reader a little bit about yourself and your product or service, and include a link to your website.

Whoever reads your article can directly click on your link and go to your web site where they can either join your list or purchase whatever you're marketing online.

Most of the article directories are ranked highly by the search engines. So, placing your link on their sites is very valuable in terms of SEO. Besides, when other people use your articles on their web sites, that gives you additional incoming links (through your resource box) which is what the search engines love. That way you will eventually get plenty of free search engine traffic to your site.

Now you can see why writing articles can indeed be a great internet marketing tool. Start writing those articles!

What better way to write your articles than using a state-of-the-art netbook or laptop! You can carry it whenever and wherever you travel, and use it to read and write emails, check your stats, and capture the great ideas you occasionally come up with to create great articles. A perfect companion to a successful internet entrepreneur!