10 Ways Article Writing Can Stack the Deck in Your Favor

I was talking with a email coaching client about some ways to shortcut the challenges of article writing. And then it occurred to me that I hadn't really laid out the benefits of article writing. There was no "so what" to it. Anyway, I thought it might be a good idea to take a look at why this is STILL one of the most beneficial, powerful and profitable ways to market your business online.

1. Generates Traffic That Can't Be Turned Off By writing and submitting articles to other sites, over time you're creating a source of website traffic that can't be turned off (unless ALL of those sites happen to go away…unlikely). If you're currently getting most of your web traffic from a single source (Google, Stumbleupon, AdWords, etc.), what would happen if that source of traffic dried up? If Google de-indexed you or your rankings dropped? If the AdWords costs became too much? You get the point. Writing articles helps hedge against some of those low-likelihood, high-impact scenarios.

2. Can Be Repurposed Into Other Formats This is one that a lot of people overlook. If you have a really well-written article, it could become the basis for a whole series of other products in a variety of formats. This is especially true if you tend to write "tips" articles.

For instance, say you have an article on 21 traffic generation tips. In addition to that being a killer article for your site, you could easily create a CD out of that info and go into more detail. Same goes for a quick Camtasia video or DVD on the subject, maybe showing more of a step-by-step guide to what was discussed in the article. How about a teleseminar that's recorded and offered as a freebie to build your list? How about an EBook, or "real book"? If you can get into a bit more detail, you can repurpose that same content into any number of formats…all from one simple, little article.

3. Establishes Your Expertise We all know that one of the (irrational) measuring sticks we use regarding "experts" is that a lot of us give more credibility to someone who has written a book. I would argue that the same holds true, in a more limited sense, when it comes to article writers. Maybe not if someone just wrote a handful of articles on a subject. But if you come across an entire website or blog full of articles written by someone about a particular topic, chances are you'll be more inclined to pay attention.

So flip that around…by having your own articles, you're establishing your expertise, showing that you know what you're talking about. It also forces you to synthesize all the info in your head into a concise, usable format. That makes you even more knowledgeable about your area of expertise since it forces you to do some "critical thinking" about your topic.

4. Helps Maintain Contact With Your Visitors, Subscribers, and Customers Writing articles for submission to other webmasters (or as posts to your own website) not only helps you get new visitors, subscribers and customers but also helps you keep in contact with them. That's key since online, it's so easy to click off to someplace else and never go back to that page again. Maintaining contact and giving them a reason to return is one way to guard against that.

5. Can Educate Your Visitors or Customers (Pre- or Post-Sale) If you create your own products or offer affiliate products, more than likely you'll have a set of frequently asked questions that your customers or website visitors ask. Those can be a great basis for an article. Not only is it valuable content that people are wondering about, but it can also reduce your support requests since those answers are already covered. You can just refer people to the FAQ. In addition, an educated customer is usually a better customer.

6. Makes Info Easy For People to Digest and Use Articles are typically short and are easy for people to take in. Some topics call for more in-depth info…a special report or book might be more appropriate to cover things in detail. But an article can serve as a great way to give an overview for people to get the basics or as a quick refresher for a specific topic. It's something they can take in quickly and move on, but if done correctly, they'll be back for more. 7. Increases Backlinks / SEO Benefits I'd be remiss if I didn't mention the fact that articles on other sites can also lead to backlinks pointing to your site. No need for a drawn out discussion of the search engine optimization benefits here, but to oversimplify it, more links are generally better and articles are one way to get them. However, that shouldn't be your main focus for writing them.

8. If Done Correctly, Provides Good Bang for the Buck for Your Time Using the right software, such as Unique Article Marketing, you can really get the most out of your time by writing articles for submission to publishers, article directories (if you choose to submit there) and your own site all at once. Other software allows you to mass-submit as well, but they typically don't get around the duplicate content issues that Unique Article Marketing solves. There's nothing stopping you from adding your own email address(es) to your external publishers list. That way, you get sent a unique, "Unique-ified" article too…perfect for your blog, newsletter, etc.

9. Gets You Noticed Within Your Target Market Having your articles appearing on sites throughout your market helps get your name out there. I won't get into a debate on the merits of personal branding, but no one can argue the benefits of being recognized in your particular market. Such exposure could lead to JV's or other partnerships or just general networking and building contacts.

10. Can Lead to Other Article/Product Ideas Another one that people overlook. Most likely, as you're writing your article(s), you'll come up with ideas for other topics to write about, or ideas for how you could go into more detail on a specific point you're trying to make. That can lead to another great article idea and helps get over the writer's block that many of us face when trying to come up with fresh content. Just be sure to capture those ideas somewhere, like creating a list of article topics to write about.

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