Article Marketing - Did I Do It All Wrong?

I confess that when I started writing articles and submitting them to Ezine Articles I had no idea what SEO was, no real concept of how to use keywords, didn’t know the best way to put together a bio box, didn’t care about the length of the articles, and submitted only my best work.  So I guess you could say I went for quality, not quantity, and many article marketers would tell you I was doing it all wrong.

I have a little story to share with you regarding one of these articles.

Last week I was wondering why I was suddenly getting more than the usual number of opt-ins to one of my newsletters when Google Alerts told me why.  One of the first articles I wrote, in April 2007, was picked up and published on a website that has a page rank of 4.   Here is the fallout from that article getting published this time…

• 79 new opt-ins to my newsletter, and more still coming in
• 2 immediate sales
• 10 nice comments posted about the article (warm fuzzies for me :))
• extra $ in AdSense income

This isn’t the first time this article has been republished, but these are the best results I could track.  The article is 2 1/2 years old and it blows my mind that it’s still out there and kicking!  I’m probably more excited about the opt-ins than anything because they are warm, targeted subscribers, not just people fishing at a Giveaway event.

So, if I was inclined to add a moral to this story, it might be “Write quality articles because you never know who might read them, how long they will circulate with your name on them, and how much money you might make from them.”

When You Don’t Feel Like Writing a Blog Post…

See that last post I wrote? 

From a reader’s standpoint it was informative, educational, and had some value, right?  It was the kind of post fitting for a blog about internet marketing, wasn’t it?

That post was PLR.

I took a PLR article and posted it on my blog.  But I didn’t just throw it up there, I did a few things to it first.

1.  I renamed the article and added my keyword phrase to the title, the first and last paragraphs and somewhere in-between. 

2.  I rewrote the first paragraph. You know how when you search for something in Google and you see the same first paragraph in your search choices?  Don’t be one of those. Change your first paragraph for sure so people will be interested in reading what you have to say.

3. I beefed up the main section by adding to it and explaining some of the points further.  I rewrote some sentences too, but this was a well-written piece of PLR so it didn’t require lots of editing.  In these cases I’m happy to just add to it rather than spend my time fixing sentences that are horrible.

4.  I rewrote the last paragraph to point to an affiliate product I wanted to promote.  I also linked it to a post I’d written 10 months ago about this product to show people how much I believe in it. 

5.  I added a visual, a screenshot of the promotional product.

I chose this particular PLR article because I was able to tie it in nicely with a promotion.  Sometimes it works well, sometimes you have to rearrange the article more, and sometimes you’ll just post the article without affiliate links because it’s such an informative article.

Using well-written PLR can make all the difference.  As you know, I write PLR, but maybe you didn’t know I also use PLR - mostly for my non-im niches.

Do you use PLR on your blogs?

Tips on Creating an Ebook

You’ve probably heard it a zillion times… creating an ebook, your very own ebook, and selling it is a one way to make money.  This is the digital information marketing business model and it has been successful for many people.  If you’ve never written an ebook before, it may seem a daunting task.

While there is more to it than this, I’ve got some tips her on how to create an ebook to get you started.  Mind you, it’s one way to put together an ebook, not the only way.

Pick your niche first.
Some people pick a niche according to their passions or knowledge and others pick a huge competitive market because they know money is being made there.  Come up with a few ideas, making sure they’re not too broad or too narrow.  Too broad means too much competition from the big boys and too narrow means there might not be enough to the topic to continuously create content around.  Too narrow also means there won’t be a huge pool of people interested in the topic.  Even though you might be super passionate about art created from seagull feathers, for example, that doesn’t mean many other people are and it’s probably not the best subject for creating an ebook around.

Find your keywords.
Ideally, you want keyword phrases that are highly sought after and yet have little competition.  That’s in a perfect world, but get as close as you can.  Do take some time here.

Make sure the keywords are money-makers.
This means there should be some AdSense ads on the right side of the page when you put your keywords in Google search.  If there are ads, it’s a good sign.  That means there is money to be made, or the people footing the bill for the ads would take their little ads elsewhere.

Find the questions people in your niche are asking.
You can go to Yahoo Answers and see what people are asking easy enough.  You can also go to a few forums in your niche and see what problems people are having.  Find 5-7 questions or problems to work with.

Research the answers to these questions. 
Each question and answer will be a chapter in your ebook.  You can do an online search for answers and also look through the top article directories.  Write the ebook, one chapter at a time, in your own words.  If you feel the writing is beyond your abilities, you can outsource it.  But instead of paying out the nose for a ghostwritten ebook, you can outsource each chapter as if it were an article.  You will pay less for 10-20 articles and you may even get a discount for a bulk order and for handing them your research links too. 

Put the book together.
Make sure it flows from chapter to chapter.  Add disclaimer and privacy blurbs as well as a table of contents.  Also include any affiliate links in the body of the ebook and/or a resources page at the end.  Include perceived value by adding stock photos, screen shots, borders, and tips or quotes in boxes.

Turn the ebook into a PDF.
You can use Open Office or maybe your computer already comes with a PDF converter.  Once you have it as a PDF you upload it to your site, create a sales page, and get to work driving traffic to your new masterpiece.  Remember to use your keywords in everything you do!

So those are some of my tips on creating an ebook.  You’ve probably noticed there is a lot of research involved when getting started.  I have a handy dandy tool I use that helps me do all the necessary research faster.  I’ve blogged about it before, and I’m excited to tell you that the product creators have come out with a new version with even more features.  I got to test the new version to see if I could break it. ;)  They were relieved to know I could not.

As you can see from the picture, IM Research Power Tool is like a one-stop shopping center for research.  I can look at articles in article directories, Squidoo lenses, and through Twitter links.  It’s even got Yahoo Answers right there.  Of course, I also use it to check what’s on Amazon and Clickbank… and Google of course.  If I want to only look at pdfs on a particular topic, there’s a button for that too. 

Enough gushing, if you like what you see, go for it.  IM Research Power Tool    

Disclaimer - Yes, that’s my affiliate link and I’m darn proud of it.  I do stand to profit if you order from that link.  I really like and use this tool myself, and although it saves me time in my online business, I haven’t really put a dollar figure on my saved time.  Oh, and I did purchase the tool myself back in January 2009 and have been using it ever since.