As a result of the last post I have received many enquiries about the best tools for copywriters. I fear my answer has disappointed some who I think were looking for something only a little short of magic ink!

To write copy for the web there are just two essential tools. An HTML editor and your swipe file.

HTML editors can be downloaded free of charge or they can be purchased. Choice is yours. For writing copy, very few bells and whistles are required so the free editors are normally more than adequate. Ideally look for an HTML editor which has a WYSIWYG interface so you don’t have to mess around and learn code. It’s always good to have an understanding of HTML, so you can do your own trouble shooting, but you don’t need a master’s degree in the subject.

A swipe file is the copywriter’s treasure trove. A good swipe file quickly becomes the most consulted resource in the office and it grows on a daily basis with examples of good and bad copy. It is never too late to start your own swipe file. You’ll find the examples you harvest from around the net provide an endless source of inspiration for your own copywriting.

Now, one thing is worth saying here. You are not collecting a swipe file so you can simply regurgitate the work of others. You are gathering examples of copywriting as a way of teaching yourself to be a copywriter. You are learning your craft. It is no different from reading instructional manuals. You would not copy huge chunks out of a book (no, you would not do that….) and you would not copy huge chunks from someone else’s copy. You are reading, learning, getting ideas and inspiration.

Expert copywriters recommend that you re-write the examples harvested for your swipe file in your own handwriting. I think the effectiveness of this exercise will depend on your particular learning style but it is worth considering. Copywriting is not something you can do by numbers. You need to grasp what is going on ‘in between the lines.’ Anything you can do, that helps you to join the conversation already going on in your customer’s head, will help you to become a better copywriter.

So these are the two essential tools for copywriters. Simpler than you thought?

At the end of the day, copywriting is simply marketing with words.

In good copywriting the words are persuasive and seductive, whilst at the same time promoting a company, product or service. A picture may indeed speak a thousand words, and images are vital to advertising, but it is the words used in marketing campaigns which create a desire in the reader.

Copywriting describes the process of producing crafty slogans and those long sales letters (which I personally hate) and everything in between. It is arguably one of the most important aspects of marketing and anyone who wants to run a successful marketing campaign for a product, service or company needs to understand the basics of good copywriting if their campaign is to be a success.

The purpose of producing marketing copy is to sell - to create a desire to buy within the reader. In addition, any copy that is to be used on the WWW has the added task of attracting good search engine rankings for the appropriate key phrases featured within the copy.

Good copywriting is compelling; it draws the reader in from the headline and keeps them reading right the way down to the most wanted action. It allows no means of escape. As each sentence or paragraph finishes there is a hook which maintains the reader’s attention and ensures they read on.

A good copywriter knows how to use words to their own advantage. They know how to sow seeds in the reader’s subconscious mind, which rapidly germinate and bloom into a desire to buy.

Good copywriting stirs up a desire so strong that there is no question in the reader’s mind left unanswered, no doubts - they just have to do what the copywriter wants them to do.

Running a web based business is challenging. The WWW is a large place, which is growing on an hourly basis. To enjoy success of any kind it is essential that your business attracts the attention of likely customers. Having attracted a stream of visitor traffic to your business website still does not guarantee success; those visitors need to be converted into customers.

It is the website copy which distinguishes one business from another. By populating their website with carefully crafted, effective marketing copy, successful business owners can

• find their site promoted in the organic search engine listings, thereby increasing traffic volumes
• reduce visitor bounce rate, meaning visitors stay on the site for longer
• increase conversion rates, turning a higher percentage of their website traffic into customers

Effective copy speaks to the target audience - it offers something of value that captivates them.

When writing copy put yourself in the shoes of your target audience. Think about the language they might use. Write words which will be meaningful to  them - if you don’t, they will simply click away. In many ways, the quality of your product or service is secondary. If you cannot encourage people to buy through your use of language you are not going to have any customers to worry about.

There is a fine balance to be achieved when writing copy. You of course want to tell your reader about the features of your product or service but make that information meaningful by attaching clear benefits. A reader may not care that your gizmo’s engine operates at 600rpm but they will understand that means they can complete a task in half the time when compared to using other gizmos. Make it easy for the reader to appreciate the benefits by spelling them out.

Be enthusiastic and articulate in your copy. You don’t have to use long words or blind your readers with science. Be yourself and let your passion for your product or service shine through.

Be prepared to write and rewrite your copy. It’s unlikely your first attempt will be up to scratch. Keep writing different variations of your copy, mixing and matching the content until you are not just happy with the result, but very happy! Have at least two versions of your finished copy as you will be split testing the conversion rates of these to see which best ’speaks’ to your readers.

You can of course hire a copywriter to write your copy. Don’t be intimidated into outsourcing this job. Have a go first. There is nothing quite as compelling as copy written by someone who really knows and understands their product or service. You may surprise yourself at how well your efforts turn out. You will never know what your copywriting skills can achieve, unless you try….

Mention has been made of split testing copy and this is an essential part of the testing and tracking process. Unfortunately, it’s not a case of simply writing copy and forgetting all about it. You will need to constantly monitor the results, measure traffic, calculate conversion rates and tweak the copy until you reach a point of diminishing returns.

So that’s copywriting - or at least a whistle stop tour. There is a lot of fuss about copywriting for many reasons - not least of which is the extraordinary amounts some professional copywriters claim to earn. If you are marketing your own products and services I would urge you to have a go at writing your own copy and see for yourself what the fuss is all about!

The word on the street is that article marketing is the way to gain organic listings in the search engines thereby increasing traffic numbers to your websites.

That’s the good news. But, what are the disadvantages to embarking on an article marketing campaign?

Well, first and most obviously, the articles need to be written. Either you or someone else will need writing skills in order to produce the materials. Most people are more than capable of writing an article, they simply lack confidence or time.

For those who wish to outsource this fundamental skill, hiring a ghostwriter is a possibility but this involves a cost and you may want to weight up the pros and cons of  spending your funds on a Pay Per Click advertising campaign instead.

It is important that you choose the right ghost writer for the job. Don’t be tempted to base your decision on cost alone as that can prove to be false economy.

Once you have your articles written you will need to do something with them and this is the second drawback to article marketing campaigns.

Your articles will need to be posted to your own sites in addition to article directories. For the best results each article needs to be individual meaning that each article needs to be revised multiple times to produce multiple unique pieces of work.

There are pieces of software available that can automate this task for you but many of the best article directories ban automated aubmissions.

Of course, article submission is another task that can be outsourced, although there is an associated cost, as you might expect.

I believe article marketing is a viable way of building an organic traffic stream to your web site. Of course, whether that traffic then enters into a commercial transaction with you will depend on the copy on your site and your offer.

However, unless you have the time and skills to write and submit your own articles, article marketing as a process has a cost and only you can weigh up whether it is better to use your budget for this purpose or whether to go down the pay-per-click advertising route.

There are times when, even if you can write, it is not good use of your time and you look for one or more ghostwriters to provide your articles. If you require a large number of articles in a short period of time hiring a ghostwriter (or two) may be the only way of keeping to your deadline.

Whatever your reason for outsourcing, the hardest part comes when you try to find a good, affordable ghost writer.

There are a number of freelance ‘matching’ sites which allow you to post details of your job to attract bids from writers.  www.elance.com, www.rentacoder.com and www.ifreelance.com are examples of such sites. But, just because you attract bids from writers does not mean you will find a writer capable of producing good quality articles.

In my humble opinion, one of the major problems you will almost certainly encounter at these sites is caused by nothing more than greed. I’m sorry if that sounds harsh.

Purchaser’s of services are attracted by the painfully low rates offered by writers living in non-English speaking Countries. It seems that the price is more important than the quality. Because the writers do not speak or write English to a high standard, the articles are of extremely poor quality.

You only have to spend a short amount of time surfing the web before you discover sites populated by such articles.

The writer may be intelligent, articulate and able to produce a high quality article in their own language but they simply do not know enough English to provide the content you need.

Unfortunately, because of the low rates demanded by purchasers, plagiarism is often another problem you will find at these sites. There is no excuse for it, but you have to think it through. A 500 word article, properly researched, checked and edited will take between 30 and 40 minutes to produce. (A professional writer producing material on a subject with which he or she is familiar may take less time). If you are only seeking to pay $3 per article, this is an hourly rate of between $4.50 and $6. I cannot condone plagiarism but I can understand the temptation for that rate of pay.

To protect yourself, if you purchase articles from a writer at a freelance site, run the finished work through the facility at www.copyscape.com to make sure the work is original - my advice would also be to advise the writer, at the commencement of the project that this is your intention.

If you are going to make regular use of a ghostwriter look for one whom you can use exclusively for all of your writing needs. Yes, most of these writers are more expensive, but you will save time and money in the long term as you will find yourself taking delivery of good articles at a reasonable price.

When setting up a project with a ghostwriter be absolutely clear about your requirements. Be sure that you communicate, in detail, your needs and expectations. Be prepared to provide the ghostwriter with a list of keywords, topics or titles for the articles; be clear about word count and the purpose for which the articles are required. This amount of detail allows the writer to fully understand your project and to provide exactly what you are looking for.

A professional writer will give you a delivery date for your articles - and stick to it. The time to delivery will depend upon how many articles you need, how much research the writer must do and how many other projects are in the writer’s diary before yours.

Be prepared to make some payment up front, especially if this is your first ghostwriting project with a particular writer - but think carefully before paying the full amount. It’s important that both parties to the transaction are comfortable and have some protection. The benefit of finding a ghostwriter and establishing a long term relationship with them is that once that working relationship is established they will usually allow you to pay upon completion.

Outsourcing your article writing tasks to a ghostwriter will undoubtedly save you time provided you pick your ghostwriter carefully and are prepared to pay realistic rates. If you outsource to the cheapest price point you may well find the exercise costing you a whole lot more in time and money to bring the articles up to an acceptable standard.

Article marketing provides an inexpensive way for small businesses to establish their web site firmly on the internet map.

Marketing with articles is also one of the relatively easy and profitable business generation activities from which you can see gratifyingly quick results.

Done correctly, article marketing = profits.

So, here are my 6 tips to improve your article marketing strategy and increase those profits.

1. It’s a fact of life that not everyone writes well enough to convince readers to act.  There’s no shame in that. We all have different skills and gifts. Always have someone evaluate your articles and give you honest feedback on their reaction - before you post those articles anywhere. Don’t ask a friend who will tell you what they think you want to hear! Ask someone whom you can rely on to be impartial and honest. If the feedback is less than positive, and you have given it your best shot, get someone else to write your articles for you. Barter if you don’t have the cash. But, don’t risk your business and reputation with a less than convincing article.

2. Always test. Yes, I know it takes time but it is time well spent. Test article title and also test your author’s resource box. Prepare a number of alternative ‘about the author’ paragraphs and test them. You are looking for the one that attracts the most click-throughs.  Conduct enough trials to be sure it is your resource box content that is working and not just the article itself.

3. If your articles are not driving people to your website, ask yourself ‘why?’ If you cannot be objective, ask someone else why. Is the article dry and uninteresting? Is there no compelling call to action at the end? Have people fallen asleep before they finish reading the article? Start tweaking and testing. Don’t be afraid to be provocative in your articles. Spark a debate or a thought process in your reader. Also try to give your reader something new. Don’t just spend 500 words telling them what they already know.

4. Whilst there are many tools and scripts that claim to be able to post your article to directories, it’s worth making manual submissions to those that really provide the links. www.ezinearticles.com springs to mind as being one of the best article directories and, because of the high standards maintained by Christopher Knight and his staff, the quality of the articles on the site can be relied upon totally. Don’t risk your relationship with them by trying to save yourself a few minutes in article submission. Yes, there are many article directories that will not mind automated submissions but decide which ones you want to establish a strong relationship with and take the time to submit your articles manually.

5. It may sound obvious, but you need to schedule time into your working day to write and submit articles.  If you are serious about using article marketing to generate valuable backlinks to help your SEO efforts, you need to have a determined article marketing campaign, writing and submitting articles on a daily basis - and I don’t mean spamming the directories, I mean excellent quality thoughtful articles that provide unique and valuable content. Once you have submitted a new article every day for a month, you can reduce your submissions to weekly and then monthly but you will need that boost in the beginning. Ensure you allow sufficient time in your day to do the required writing.

6. Good spelling and grammar are essential.  Never submit an article until you have checked it at least twice for spelling errors and grammatically incorrect sentences.  Don’t always rely on spell checkers - they may not save you. Print your articles off and read them out loud. You’ll be surprised at the errors you spot! Write your articles and leave them overnight so you can return to them with fresh eyes - once again you’ll spot previously unseen typos and mistakes.

So there you have 6 very simple tips which, if followed, will improve your article marketing results. They are not rocket science. They are not ’secrets revealed’. They are just good, old fashioned common sense that we implement at Philoscribe every day - simply because they work.

How do you decide what to write about (this becomes your niche) and how do you then research your niches?

It’s a question pondered by many!

You could decide to “go with your passions”, or you could just look for the niches with the highest search count Or, perhaps you just focus on those niches which have little competition?

Researching your niche market is probably the key activity that can make your online business succeed or fail. Why do you think large organisations spend $millions on market research?? Because they get a return on that investment.

If you are not already making a decent income from Adsense or affiliate programs, you
should probably need to re-think the way you do your niche research.

I have just reviewed a report called “A Simple, Step-By-Step Formula to Uncover Red-Hot Niches” that tells you how the author, Myleena Phan, makes a living online by finding profitable niches, on which to write her articles and build her websites.

At first, I was surprised to learn that Myleena doesn’t have hundreds of websites.

In fact, the last time I asked her, she had only 6 sites, and each one of them is making an
average of $15 per day. That doesn’t sound like much, but it doesn’t take long to realize how it can all add up to over $15,000 per month.

Myleena says her secret is not unusually high traffic, nor sneaky SEO tactics, but simply in how she chooses her niches.

In her free report, she explains how she first starts with a broad idea, puts it into the free
Wordtracker Keyword Suggestion tool, and analyzes sub-keywords until she finds “the” golden nugget.

She says that finding a profiable niche is not about luck, nor finding keywords with hundreds of thousands of searches per month, but about starting with a big list and eliminating counter-productive topics until you are left with the best.

What I like the most about the report is that it gives you a systematic approach to niche hunting.

Not only will you learn how to use a set of filters to select your niches, but also WHY and
HOW you should do it.

It’s not a “trust me, it works” method as you will learn the whole logic behind the system. You don’t have to take my word for it - you can see for yourself by downloading it now!

By the way, Myleena’s report is absolutely free to download. But you must act fast before Myleena comes to her senses and decides to sell it!

www.philoscribe.com

Is everyone now blogging? It seems that it’s hard to find anyone who does not blog. (Well, actually, my mother doesn’t blog - yet!)

The popularity and simplicity of blogging has made it easy for everyone to do.

Whether you host your own blog or use one of the free blog hosting companies (www.blogger.com and www.wordpress.org spring to mind) the most important thing is to attract visitors.

If you don’t mind sharing your articles, you can provide an RSS feed to allow others to reproduce your content on their on blogs. This can provide you with links back to your own blog which visitors can follow.

Have your ‘ping’ services set up properly and your blog software will automatically notify the wider world whenever your post.

You can comment, appropriately and responsibly, on the blogs of others and hope that they leave such links live for others to follow back. NEVER try to post your own article on someone else’s blog unless you are invited to act as a guest blogger there!

Make use of the new service Entrecard to network with fellow bloggers and exchange advertisements with them. Also, register at www.blogrush.com and include their widget on your sidebar.

Register for a Twitter account (www.twitter.com) and with the Twitter plug in you can publicise your posts through the Twitter network .

Don’t just write an article and post it and hope for the best! Do what you can to ensure others have an opportunity to read your words - it’s all rather a waste of time otherwise!

So, if I haven’t managed to convince you just yet that article marketing and article writing is straightforward perhaps someone else can!

I came across this book sometime ago. It is written in a no-nonsense style and provides a step by step guide that will allow you to produce articles quickly and easily.

Even though I am probably putting myself out of a job here, I think it is well worth your taking a look. I have even organised  TWO little surprises for you!

1. There is a further discount on the advertised purchase price - you’ll find out more about that when you click through to buy.
2. You will also have resell rights to the package.

If you can’t yet afford the services of a ghost writer but you are at a loss to know how to write your own articles I recommend you take a look at The Lazy Man’s Guide to Article Writing - I think you’ll find it very worthwhile!

Technorati Tags: Article Writing Guide

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The concept of article marketing is one with which experienced internet marketers are familiar.

However, the idea of having to write articles to promote their business can be daunting for the new web entrepreneur so let’s examine what’s involved.

Article marketing begins with the production of one or more articles.

Some people choose to write their own articles and others employ a ghostwriter. You can expect to pay a ghostwriter around $10 for a 500 word article that is adequate. Below that amount and it is likely to be written by someone for whom English is not a first language so proofreading and editing will be required.

If you want high quality, well researched articles that are going to offer a meaningful message to your readers you can expect to pay in excess of $20 per article.

You pay your money and you take your choice.

The whole idea of article marketing is NOT make the content sound like a sales letter. Of course we are marketing. You know that, your reader knows that, but you will find people a lot more receptive to your commercial offers if you have bothered to allow them to get to know you through your writing.

At the end of your articles you append a resource box. This is your opportunity to provide more information about yourself and your business. You will be allowed to include one or more links to your web site in order that readers can seek you out. Even if the article is written by a ghost writer you have a right to append your details as the author (provided of course you have fully settled your invoice! Full rights usually transfer on full payment.)

You can include a statement of rights underneath your resource box. This is where you give permission (or not) for your article to be used by others - with all links intact of course.

Don’t be fearful of allowing others to use your material. This really helps your work to be seen by a much wider audience and is a good thing.

Your article can be posted with directories and offered to ezine editors. Once published in these places you will find you have a generous number of backlinks to your site developing.

The submission of articles can be time consuming. There are certain techniques you can employ to reduce the tedium; you could employ someone to attend to this activity for you or you could try using one of the many article submission software scripts there are on the market. The caveat with the last suggestion is that many article directories are not happy with automated submission services and you may find your articles rejected.

If you can afford to pay someone else to do the submission work, you will have more time overall to concentrate your efforts on other marketing tasks, including producing more articles!

So that is article marketing in a nutshell. In another article we’ll look at how you decide on the subject matter of your article and which keywords to use. I hope you now have a better understanding of the process and are encouraged to try article marketing for your own business. It really does work!

Darcy

www.philoscribe.com

Technorati Tags: article marketing

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You have several options when it comes to obtaining articles without writing them yourself:

1. Use the services of a ghostwriter
2. Purchase private label rights to the articles of others
3. Conduct an expert interview with someone interesting and have that interview transcribed into text
4. Borrow another writer’s article - being sure to do this with their permission and also leaving the credits intact
5. Use public domain articles where permission isn’t required but it helps to build trust if you acknowledge your source
6. Collate and report on survey results. Conduct your survey through the free service provided by www.surveymonkey.com
7. Use Government produced information as the basis for your content. Most of this is in the public domain (check to be sure)
8. Re-purpose and ebooks or reports to which you have rights. Break the content down into article size chunks
9. Make a podcast and get it transcribed into an article
10. Barter your skills for writing skills. If you are able to produce graphics why not offer a trade with someone who is happy to write?

So there are at least 10 ways of you obtaining the articles you need without necessarily having to write them yourself. You now know how - will you choose to take action?

Darcy

www.philoscribe.com

Technorati Tags: writing articles, article writing

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