Getting someone to find your website is one thing. Encouraging them to read your content while they are there is something entirely different.

If you market your business online you probably spend hours producing content that is designed to promote you and your business and build links.

To target your audience you would have done a mountain of research to come up with a list of topics for your blog posts, articles and website copy.

Once you’ve uploaded your fantastic value-laden information and hit publish…

…absolutely nothing happens.

No matter how often you check there are no tweets (not even a re-tweet), no comments, no nothing.

Your immediate reaction is probably “Argh! My writing must really suck.”

But don’t despair – your style of writing is probably fine. It is more likely that the structure of your articles and blogs is leaving your readers bemused.

When writing for the web the best thing you can do is forget everything your dear old English teacher taught you.

You need to spend less time writing and more time thinking about how you structure your work.

Writing online

When reading from the web people tend to scan read rather than read every word.That’s because they are searching for information and if they can’t find it quickly, they’ll move on to another website.

So if you want to keep them engaged you have to rethink your writing style.

1. Snappy

The length of your writing should be just long enough to cover what you want to say without waffling.

If you’re writing about a very complex issue it may be worth breaking it down into several posts. Not only will that make it much easier for your reader to follow, it will also encourage them to come again for your subsequent posts.

Plus start at the end – with your conclusion. That might sound odd by that way you are immediately giving your readers what they want. The all you have to do is provide supporting evidence point by point.

2. White space

If your text is in one long wall of text or several long paragraphs it won’t look very inviting.

Lighten it by increasing the amount of white space on your page. Break it down into small paragraphs (no more than 3 or 4 sentences each). Or you could go really mad and use a single sentence paragraph.

3. Sub headings

Inserting informative sub headings between your paragraphs will help your reader get the gist of your post while they are scanning the page.

4. Bullets

• Using bullet points creates interest
• Highlights important points
• Are instantly scan-able
• Draw the reader’s eye as they break up the rest of the text

5. Links

By all means link to your own website through your posts but don’t forget external information sources too. This will show your reader that your information is well considered (and it may also generate a link from your source too).

6. Bold

Use bold text to pick out important concepts within your post. These, coupled with the sub headings, should help your reader fully understand the topic you are covering and whether it will be of interest to them.

7. Numbers

Some people have said that the days of the numbered posts—such as “8 Top Tips to Improve Your Copywriting” are gone. But reader’s still love them.

8. Check and check again

Before publishing read through your work to make sure it makes sense, This will also check for rhythm, typos and other errors.

Writing informative posts is one thing but if you want people to read them they must be presented in a way that:

• Gets your concept over immediately
• Looks attractive and readable
• Gets to the point

STOP – LOOK – LISTEN

Those three words were probably drilled into you when you were a child.

You would also do well to remember them when copywriting.

That might seem a strange thing to say but when creating sales and marketing content, many people just dive straight in. That’s because it’s usually one of those jobs that is squeezed in between other projects.

And there’s the problem – content creation shouldn’t be seen as one of those jobs you have to fit in now and then. It’s vital for your business from an SEO perspective and for getting your message out to your audience effectively.

Stop

Before you start to put pen to paper or finger to keyboard, stop and think about what you are doing and why. Every piece of copy must have a purpose so ask yourself:

• What is going to be the best platform for your message?
• What do you want to achieve from your copy?
• How do you want your audience to react?
• What do you want to tell your audience?
• What end result do you want to achieve?

Creating content is like creating a new product. You wouldn’t dream of making a new product without carrying out R&D first, so why just sit down and cobble together some half hearted sales copy?

Look

Although your content is important, so too is how it looks.

If it doesn’t have instant readability appeal, no one will read it. In which case there wasn’t a lot of point in writing it in the first place.

Using headings, subheadings, bullet points and images will make your content more attractive and accessible. A solid wall of text is a real turn off but a page with plenty of white space, bullet points and small chunks of text, is a far more interesting prospect.

Listen

You not only have to listen to the needs of your business and customers, you also need to listen to yourself.

Your content has to tell your reader what’s in it for them and represent the voice of your business.

Once you’ve written your content, read it out loud. This will help you make sure it flows, makes sense and will provoke an emotional response in your reader.

As you can see, content creation is much more than just stringing a few sentences together. A lot of thought, planning and shaping has to go into every piece of content you produce.

So remember - stop, look and listen before you publish.

If you’re into search engine optimisation the chances are you’re also a keen article marketer as it’s one of the most effective ways of boosting your web presence.

Not only will it help you ‘own more of the web’, it will also position yourself as an expert in your field and generate those all important back links to your website.

But your article marketing will only be effective it if is quality content that you’re putting out. It must be:

• Well written
• Written to addresses the needs of your readers
• Something that gives value

In a rush to produce shed loads of links, some companies become hung up on quantity rather than quality. They’d rather spend only a few pounds per article (these are written by writers who are frequently based abroad and for whom English is not their first language) than pay a decent fee and hire a professional copywriter.

It shouldn’t be a numbers game

It’s true that you need a lot of articles to build links but it’s better practice to submit quality, well written articles over a period of time than bulk submitting sub-standard ones.

Putting a considered, well researched and well written article together isn’t about scanning the internet and cutting and pasting bits from other articles. A copywriter will take the time to discover:

• What topic is to be discussed
• The focus of the discussion
• Who your audience is
• What they are looking for
• What tone should be used
• What do you want to achieve with the article

It’s your reputation at the end of the day

If you are entering into the article marketing world, what you submit and its quality are very important.

You’re putting your name to it; you’re using them as a way of establishing yourself as an expert. Sub standard articles will just make you look foolish.

Remember that your articles aren’t just about link building—people are actually going to read them. Can you really afford to be that careless with your brand?

You get what you pay for

As with all things in life, you get what you pay for so if you want quality you’re going to have to pay for it.

If you are more interested in your reputation, traffic and quality you’ll pay for it.

You’ll want to get the most from your marketing budget, but just make sure you also think about your reputation.

Every marketer’s dream is to come up with a piece of collateral that markets their business forever.

Wouldn’t that be amazing?

Well, not only is it an amazing thought, it is also possible to achieve.

Don’t believe me?

Read on.

Eternal online marketing

In years gone by most of your marketing would have been done off line – so we’re looking at things like leaflets, brochures, magazine adverts…that sort of thing.

The main problem with these are they only reach a limited audience and they are soon forgotten about. Once your brochure is binned or the magazine recycled, your content is lost forever.

But the beauty of online marketing means your article, website or blog post is there forever. Plus if you weave a little SEO magic into it, it can continue to attract traffic for eternity. How powerful is that?

Make the most of your online presence

You might think “Yeah great, but where am I supposed to get the material from to create all these amazing online posts?”

The simple answer is your computer. If you have a trawl through your files I bet you’ll find a stack of old articles, blog posts, PDFs…all sorts of things that can be repurposed into SEO rich new articles and posts. With regards to the PDFs just adding them to your website won’t really help as PDFs have limited SEO abilities. But changing the content into an HTML format and incorporating within your website will give you loads of opportunities to exploit their SEO potential.

The world on online marketing is all about owning as much of the web as possible. The easiest way to do that is blog and submit articles. This will attract  links, expose your company to a vast audience and position you as an expert in your field.

You don’t have to be a copywriter to achieve great things through online marketing. Writing interesting, informative posts and articles will add value to your readers. With a splash of search engine optimisation magic, they’ll continue to add value for years to come.

Writing articles is a great way to promote your business and to position yourself as an expert in your field.

But it does take time which puts off many people.

But what would you rather do? Spend loads of money on ineffective advertising or spend a bit of time putting together some articles which will drive traffic to your website and elevate your position within your industry?

As a copywriter I have been using article marketing for quite some time. As a result mine is a known name within my industry and approximately 80% of my work comes directly through my website – not bad.

So just in case you’re still wavering about whether to try your hand at article marketing or not, here are just some of the benefits you’ll enjoy if you take the plunge:

Free advertising

The submission of articles doesn’t cost anything, only time. But because they’ll remain on the sites forever, they’ll drive long term traffic to your website therefore lasting much longer than any advert will.

Expert status

As well as promoting your business, your articles will also be promoting you. Your name will become synonymous with your field – something that money simply can’t buy.

Attract sales

Although your articles shouldn’t be direct adverts, they will generate traffic which in turn will generate sales. Hyperlink your keywords within your article to send people to your sales site.

Build your mailing list

The potential readership for your articles is vast. By adding your link within the body of your article or your author biography, you can encourage people to sign up to your newsletter therefore building your in-house mailing list.

Opening doors

The sky’s the limit. Publicising yourself and your business through articles could open the door to all sorts of opportunities for you. Joint ventures, new projects and new partners could all be possible. But if you don’t write about what you do or your industry, how will they know you exist?

So there you do, writing articles is a valuable marketing tool for driving traffic to your website and raising your own profile. The more you write, the more you’ll enjoy it and the better your articles will become.

I’m sure you know the importance of a list.

No?

OK – quick run down – the best way to market your business is through a list of people who have signed up for your newsletter. But to get people to part with their email address, you have to give them something. For example, it can be a free report, eBook or ‘How to…’ article -something of value.

Right, now that’s explained let’s tackle a problem I know many people have head on.

I need more subscribers!

Let me guess – you’re list isn’t growing. You’ve listed your website on every free advertising site there is out there and you’re even paying for advertising, but the new sign-ups aren’t forthcoming.

Well, you’re not alone. To grow your list you need to employ a long term strategy. One of the best ways of doing this is through article marketing.

Every website and blog owner out there is looking for new content to share with its visitors. A lot of these find what they are looking for from article directories which are a bit like libraries full of free articles they can use (so long as they give due credit to the original author). You’ve probably heard of sites like these – one example is Ezine Articles.

All you need to do is write and submit quality articles to these sites (which, by the way, also generate those all important one way back links to your website which will help your search engine optimisation).

Once you’ve written your article and completed your author biography (like the one I’ve added at the bottom of this post) make sure it links back to the page where you have your sign-up box.

Now, when someone reads your article and wants to know more about you, they’ll follow the link in your bio. This will take them to your page with your sign up box and, with a bit of luck, they’ll like what you have to say and enter their email address.

As a result your list will go and your reputation will spread. And that’s how you can get more subscribers.

Sally Ormond, Briar Copywriting, is a professional freelance copywriter with extensive experience in both b2b and b2c markets. For more information on how her copywriting services will help your business grow, email her at sally@briarcopywriting.com for call on +44 1449 779605.

Writing a diary for yourself is one thing – the only audience is you (unless someone takes a sneaky look at your inner most thoughts) so the process of writing is fairly straight forward. But writing for other people is a different ball game. You have to make your opinions and views entertaining and interesting enough for them to take time out of their day to read them.

When writing for publication you are putting yourself forward as an expert in your field. That comes with a lot of responsibility. What you write has to be of good quality because there’s a lot of competition on the internet.

If you are serious about article marketing it is important you are aware of one of the key elements to successful article marketing – high quality articles and lots of them.

How to write articles quickly

You’ve all heard the old saying that you should only write about things you have actual knowledge of. So that seems a good place to start.

This is a good way to gain confidence and quickly gather a library of articles that can be used on various sites. But before you begin, even if you are writing about something you know well, research your subject. That way your writing will be factually correct.

As your confidence grows you’ll be ready to tackle other subjects. But if that worries you, look at your own field and write articles about every aspect of your experience, comment on industry news and other articles. You’ll find a huge amount to write about before you even have to consider another subject.

Knowing your subject is one way of being able to produce articles quickly. The other is practice.

Writing regularly will not only help develop your writing style, it will also help your confidence grow.

Of course, article writing also calls for organisation. Make sure you adopt a cohesive structure. This blue-print will then be the basis for all your articles:

· An introduction to the topic

· Paragraphs that deal with the topic

· A conclusion to the topic

It sounds really simple but it is a winning formula that lets you convey your message properly to your readers.

Finally, I am constantly harping on about the important of keeping it simple. If your article is easy to understand it is more likely to be read so resist the urge to use complex words and sentences. Just keep it simple.

Sally Ormond – freelance copywriter

Article marketing is an excellent way to promote your business and elevate yourself to expert status within your field. With that comes trust and increased sales - but it doesn’t happen over night.

As it is one of the cheapest ways to market yourself, it seems mad that so many businesses shy away from it.

Getting started

The hardest part of article writing is getting started. How do you come up with ideas? When you have the idea, how do you start the article?

If it’s any comfort, once you’re over those hurdles you’ll get a great feeling when you’ve finished it.

One reason many people put forwards as an excuse not to write articles is that they don’t think their writing is good enough. But remember, it’s only an article - you’re not trying to bag yourself a huge advance for the next best selling novel series.

Don’t put so much pressure on yourself - no one is perfect. Yes, I hate to admit it, but I am not perfect – pretty damn close though.

Discipline

However much you hate that word, discipline is important if you are serious about article writing and marketing as part of your marketing. Without it, nothing will get done or written. Having discipline causes any writer, especially those who write articles for the internet, to think clearly so the focus is on the output and not on the ego. Basically it helps you leave the creative writer at home so the business writer can focus clearly on the subject and how they want their reader to react to the article.

Discipline helps to:

• Maintain focus
• Break a topic down – smaller subject chunks are easier to get your head round
• Let go – don’t force your writing, natural writing is easier to read
• Write – ignore distractions
• Stop you editing as you go along– your first draft is the place to let your ideas flow. Editing comes at the end of the process.
• Make you read and review the article
• Relax – leave the article for a while after writing it for at least a day, it’s best reviewed with fresh eyes

Discipline will help you make article marketing a regular and effective part of your online marketing strategy. Whether it is for a company blog or publishing on article sites, working on best practice will help your confidence and sales.

Sally Ormond – freelance copywriter

The writing of articles and article marketing is one of the best and fastest ways to market your business. As a copywriter it is something I have been doing for sometime to great effect.

Don’t believe me? OK then, I’ll prove it. I have put together 7 ways you can benefit from articles. Are you ready?

1) Articles quickly position you as an expert in your field

By writing articles you’ll be setting yourself apart from your competition. You’ll never have to grab a chair, climb on it and yell "listen to me, I’m an expert!" Your articles do that for you.

2) Articles are an army of 24/7 salespeople

Once your articles are published on the internet you’ll have a 24 hour, 7 day a week, 365 day a year international sales team working specifically for you. Not bad eh?

3) One article can have many uses

In other words, leverage. One article can be used as a free report, a newsletter feature, it can become part of an online e-course, part of a book, etc. The possibilities are endless.

4) Articles spread the word about your business and your services

Online articles have a very long shelf life. They can be picked up by anyone at anytime and anywhere.

5) Marketing articles is simple, easy and inexpensive

It costs you nothing to write an article (apart from your time). It also costs you nothing to have it listed on article directories.

6) Articles can help you build a mailing list

Once you have a few articles out there, people will click through to your site and sign up for your newsletter building a mailing list worth its weight in gold which can be used over and over again.

7) Articles let you stay in touch with clients and sell more products

On average it takes 7 contact for a new prospect to be ready to become a client. Articles let you to stay in touch with prospects and provide them with quality information.

I could go on - article writing and marketing really is a fantastic and cost effective way to your business. What are you waiting for? Give it a go.

I’m willing to bet you have probably wasted valuable time and money trying to promote your online business. Buying ads on ezines and websites often leads to disappointing results.

There’s a better way to advertise your business or website – do you want to know what it is?

Article Writing

This is an ideal marketing tool for those who want great benefits without a huge price tag - so that’s just about everyone.

By submitting quality articles to online directories you’ll get loads of exposure and publicity without a financial investment. As I’m sure you’re aware, the internet is about information, so content brings visitors to your site. That’s a no-brainer.

Consider the possibilities of regularly writing for the internet:

• Your work may be seen by millions.
• Your articles can quickly appear on over 100 websites.
• Search engines are constantly looking for new content – make it yours.
• Your targeted traffic will increase.
• By writing regularly you’ll build a valuable bank of back links
• Your articles will be permanently displayed on the internet.

By simply writing and posting articles your reputation can spread over the internet and beyond. You’ll become known as an expert in your field - how amazing is that?

When submitting your work to directory sites such as ezinearticles, keep in mind that top-ranking sites are crawled by Google more often than other sites. When these sites publish your writing, you’ll soon see results.

An author’s work is often kept permanently on websites, so one keyword-rich article can bring thousands of hits for years to come. And of course, Google will love the one-way links you’ll achieve.

Your new expert status will help build credibility and trust. Your words can create your own brand for your website and business.

Writing articles can open surprising doors to success! Try is, it’s certainly helped my profile as a freelance copywriter, so it can help yours too.