Submitting Article - Article Writing for Affiliates Day 6

Day 6 - Submitting Your Article

If you have followed all of the steps in the course, you now have a complete article to submit. Review your article at least one time before submitting it to the article directories. Check your spelling, grammar and flow.

The easiest way to do this is to read your article out loud. You will catch about 70 percent of your grammar mistakes by using this step.

If you aren't a very good speller, you may want to have someone else proofread your article before you submit.

Use the Best Practices Guide to Article Marketing prior to submitting your article to make sure you have formatted your article correctly. Also make sure you have included everything you need to include in your article (The 8 Minute Article Writer will also help you with this).

Next, sign up for an account with Article Marketer. If you are on a tight budget, then you can sign up for a free account. This account allows you to submit up to three articles a week to 29 article directories and 11,000+ publishers. This is an excellent way to get started with article submission.

If your budget is a little less tight, the upgraded account allows you to submit unlimited articles to over 5,000 article directories and over 67,000 publishers. This includes a one-day turnaround on your article.

If you prefer to submit your articles manually, see the distribution list at Article Marketer for more details.

This completes the course. You now have all of the tools you need to make money writing and submitting your articles.

Summaries, Beginnings and Conclusions - Article Writing for Affiliates Day 4

Day 4 - Summaries, Beginnings and Conclusions

Once you have written the heart of the article, it's time to put the finishing touches on it.

You can write these parts in any order you like. What's important is that you put these parts in the right place in the articles.

Your summary is not actually part of the article. The summary is usually what readers see when they visit article directories or blogs where the excerpt function is used.

The purpose of your summary is to entice readers to read the article. A good summary is no more than 400 characters long. It should contain your keyword phrase you are using, and you want to give readers a taste of the actual article. "Sell" them on reading the article.

The beginning is the opening of your article. It is very similar to the summary in that its purpose is to tell the readers what your article is about. It is an extension of the title. In other words, it gives a little more detail than the title.

How long you make your beginning is up to you. It's really not necessary to write anything longer than one or two paragraphs and then lead into the article.

The conclusion summarizes your article and belongs at the end. It is also a lead in to your resource box where you tell others about your business.

Each of these elements should contribute to getting readers to click through to your site.

Keep your summaries, beginnings, and conclusions short and sweet. To write an effective article, you want to keep it within word guidelines, which is 400 - 700. Give your readers a taste of what you offer on your site. This will get you the click.

Get the most from your articles. Read the Best Practices Guide to Article Marketing. This guide will help you get the most from your article submission because you'll write articles the article directories want and readers will love.

Writing Tools Recommendation

Stylewritter plain english writing software can help you improve your article writing skill.

Whitesmoke 2009 english grammar software is the best grammar & spelling check software for ESL

Ready for the next lesson?

Go to Day 5 - "How to Write Your Resource Box"

How to Write Your Resource Box - Article Writing for Affiliates Day 5

Day 5 - How to Write Your Resource Box

Although every element of your article is important, the most important are the title and the resource box. The title will determine if your readers read the article. The resource box will determine whether or not visitors click through to your site.

The resource box is like a mini ad for your business. You don't want to write something that is too commercial. You want to create a resource box that gets your article readers to click through to your website.

There are two types of resource boxes you need to create: a text resource box and an HTML resource box. The text resource box is plain text, something you could write in a text editor like Notepad. Text resources boxes are no more than 250 to 300 characters long. You create this resource box for sites that only accept a text resource box.

In an HTML resource box, links to your sites are made clickable. This means that when readers click on the link, it will take them to your website. You will need to write a small piece of code to create an HTML resource box. An HTML resource box is no longer than 500 characters.

What do you include in your resource box?

1. Establish your knowledge of the topic in some way. Tell others you have more information on your site. If you offer an e-book, newsletter, e-course, or some other resource, you can use this.

2. A link or links to your websites. One link to a website is good; two links is even better provided both links are relevant to the topic.

For example, if you own two websites, a hair loss resource and a gardening resource, you don't want to send readers to your gardening site if the article is about hair loss. The purpose of your resource box is to lead your readers to your site. Make the links you include relevant to your topic.

3. Don't give your life history. Unless your article is about child care, potty training, or another topic where it would be relevant, readers don't care about things like how many children you have. Your resource shows others you know what you are talking about. What you say in your resource box must be relevant to your article.

4. Don't include affiliate links in your resource box. You already know not to do this with your article. The same principle applies to your resource box unless the site you are submitting to accepts affiliate links.

If you do include affiliate links, you may be able to bypass this rule by using a redirect page. A redirect page will make the link look like the page is part of your site instead of leading to a different site. Some sites allow this, and others don't. Check the guidelines before submitting.

If all else fails, you'll need to buy a new domain and point it to the affiliate site you are marketing. Your best bet is to simply build a content site and send readers to it. Point readers to relevant pages within your site that offer more information.

Once you've completed your resource box, the only other element to consider is your keywords. If you chose keywords for your article at the beginning, you've already completed this step.

In our next lesson, it's time to submit your masterpiece to the article directories.

Get the most from your articles. Read the Best Practices Guide to Article Marketing. This guide will help you get the most from your article submission because you'll write articles the article directories want and readers will love.

Ready for the next lesson?

Go to Day 6 - "Submitting Your Article"

Writing the List Article - Article Writing for Affiliates Day 3

Day 3 - Writing the List Article

The list article is the easiest type of article to write. It is a list of related things.

For example:

Top 7 Article Writing Tips for Affiliates
Top 10 Tips for Getting More Business Now
Top 7 Ways to Start a Business

If you use the 8 Minute Article Writing software, each of the steps is clearly laid out for you. You have the ability to "jump around" in the software, add your tips, and then write your explanations.

Before writing your list article, write your title. You need to know how many tips you will need.

We will use the "Top 7 Article Writing Tips for Affiliates" to write an article.

Your first step is to create a list of tips. All of your tips must be related to your topic. In this case, we are writing an article about article writing as it relates specifically to writing articles for affiliates.

For example:

1. Choose a product.
2. Create a title.
3. Write your list of tips.
4. Write an explanation of each tip.
5. Write the beginning, conclusion, and summary for your article.
6. Create a resource box.
7. Submit your article.

Now that we have a list of tips, we want to write one or two paragraphs to further explain each tip.

***********************

For example:

1. Choose a product.
As an affiliate marketer, you have a large amount of products to choose from to sell. To choose the right product to promote, you want to select a product that solves your potential customers' problems.

You also want to consider the amount of commission you will make, whether or not the product fits your topic, and how you will promote the product.

***********************

Next, go through each of the tips and write one to two paragraphs to explain each tip. Keep your words, sentences, and paragraphs short. Remember, your article only needs to be 400 - 700 words. Keeping your article short and answering your readers' questions will get them to click through to your site.

Don't forget to use your keyword phrase you have chosen throughout the article. Three to five times is enough. This will help you further optimize your article for the search engines.

In the next lesson, we will finish writing the article. Lesson five covers Beginnings, Conclusions, and Summaries.

Get the most from your articles. Read the Best Practices Guide to Article Marketing. This guide will help you get the most from your article submission because you'll write articles the article directories want and readers will love.

Ready for the next lesson?

Go to Day 4 - "Summaries, Beginnings and Conclusions"

Crafting an Irresistible Title - Article Writing for Affiliates Day 2

Day 2 - Crafting an Irresistible Title for Your Article

How you craft the title of your article is up to you. You can create a swipe file of good titles you have found and model your title after these titles.

Don't copy these titles. If you do, you will have a hard time finding your article in the search engines. You want to make your article title as original as possible.

There are four types of titles we will examine here. You can use these title ideas to help you write your own title. Remember, the purpose of a good title is to get your reader to read your article and click through to your site.

1. The Question

The purpose of the question title is to engage your readers. You want them to get involved in the topic of your article. With all good article titles, you want to present the problem and then the solution. You will elaborate these points in the body of your article.

An example would be:

Are You Losing Your Hair? Avoid These Three Things

2. The Statement

In the statement title, you make a statement of fact. Use a statistic. Be specific.

For example:

27% of Men Are Losing Their Hair...What to Do to Keep Your Hair Without Losing Your Mind

3. The List

The list is a list of related items. It's very similar to the How-To because you use a list of tips.

For example:

Top 7 Small Business Start Up Tips

4. The How-To

With the how-to, you are telling others how to do something. It's like a recipe. You are teaching them how to do one thing.

For example:

How to Double Your Investments in 30 Days

When writing your titles, include your keywords. This will help you with search engine optimization. Keywords are an easy way to optimize your articles for the search engines. Don't overdo it.

Keep a swipe file of your title ideas. With a swipe file, it's easier to avoid writer's block. Write down all of your title ideas and review them when you want to write a new article. It will make it easier for you to get started writing your article and stay on track.

If you haven't downloaded the 8 Minute Article Writer software, do so now. This software will make it much easier for you to write your article. Download it here.

We also recommend you browse Article Marketer University for additional help, including Maria Marsala's audio, "The 8 Minute Article."

You may also want to listen to Ewen Chia's Affiliate Article Mastery for more tips on making the most of your articles.

In the next lesson, we will examine the easiest type of article to write.

Writing Tools Recommendation

Stylewritter plain english writing software can help you improve your article writing skill.

Whitesmoke 2009 english grammar software is the best grammar & spelling check software for ESL

Ready for the next lesson?

Go to Day 3 - "Writing the List Article"

How to choosing your topic - article writing for affiliates day 1

Day 1 - Choosing Your Topic

Whether you are new to affiliate business or you have been around for a while, you probably already know what topics you will use to choose the products you sell. These same topics can be used to write your articles.

We covered keyword research in the main affiliate marketing course. For those who haven't read that course yet, we will briefly touch on keyword research here.

First, you need to choose about three general topics in which you are interested. If you choose more than three topics, you may want to consider writing under different pen names. You are less likely to be taken seriously by readers if are considered a know-it-all on too many topics.

Since you are selling affiliate products, you have a wide range of choices for products as well as for topics.

If you aren't sure what you want to sell, there are plenty of resources to help you find topics and products to write about. Here are three:

1. Lycos Top 50 - The Lycos Top 50 will tell you what is getting the most buzz each week.
2. eBay Pulse - Offers a list of the hottest selling products on eBay.
3. Yahoo Buzz - The latest news by category.

If you already know what topics you are interested in, you can go to your favorite search engine and research those topics.

To help you find out what others are searching for, you can use tools like:

Google Adwords Keyword Research Tool

SEOBook Keyword Research Tool

Keyword Discovery Keyword Research Tool

WordTracker Keyword Research Tool

Compile a list of keyword phrases. Using these keyword phrases to write your articles will help you rank well in the search engines.

Checklist

1. Choose at least one product to market.
2. Choose at least one topic to write about.
3. Create a list of keywords to use in your article writing campaign.

Our next lesson is about creating your title. The title is one of the most important elements of your article because it tells the reader within seconds whether or not they should read your article.

Article Writing Tools Recommendation

Stylewritter plain english writing software can help you improve your article writing skill.

Whitesmoke 2009 english grammar software is the best grammar & spelling check software for ESL

Ready for the next lesson?

Go to Day 2 - "Crafting a Title"

Article writing for affiliates: 7 days mini course

In this seven-day course you'll learn how to write unique, interesting articles that get widely distributed and build those backlinks. Writing those articles is easy when you follow this step-by-step system.

Table of Contents

• Introduction
• Day 1 - Choosing Your Topic
• Day 2 - Crafting a Title
• Day 3 - Mastering the List Article
• Day 4 - Summaries, Beginnings and Conclusions
• Day 5 - Writing your Resource Box
• Day 6 - Submitting Your Article

Introduction to Article Writing for Affiliates

Internet marketer Travis Sago calls it "bum marketing". Whatever you decide to call it, writing articles to promote affiliate programs is one of the most effective ways to promote affiliate programs. In fact, it's one of the best ways to promote any product or service.

There are several reasons article writing is superior to other methods of promotion:

1. You don't have to know anyone to create an effective promotion.
2. You don't have to know search engine optimization, although learning how to research keywords helps.
3. Article writing is more viral than most other methods of promotion. Write a good article on your topic, and it will promote the product for you for years.
4. It is an easy marketing technique to automate. Write an article a day or a couple of articles a week, submit them, and Article Marketer's automated submission takes care of the rest.
5. You are building value into your product. By providing helpful information to your potential customers, you influence their buying decisions. They are more likely to buy from you than someone who just posted an ad.
6. You don't need a website. Although it is easier to market affiliate programs with one, you can improvise. You can easily create a free blog or Squidoo lens to promote your affiliate products.
7. You don't have to be a writer or a copywriter to write great articles. Writing great articles is about sharing information with your reader in a conversational manner.

Anyone can write an article. Knowing something about your topic certainly helps. For those who don't know how to write an article, this course will teach you.

In the next lesson, you'll learn how to choose an appropriate topic for your article.

Ready to get started?

Start with Day 1 - "Choosing Your Topic"