Give Them What They Want - Online Promotion Strategy

By Bill Platt (c) 2008 the Phantom Writers

Some people find great success with article marketing, while others think its proponents are full of bull. The difference between the winners and the losers in article marketing is most frequently defined when the writer sits down and begins to write. That is right.

Success and failure is most often determined by the writers' motivation, and more importantly, by the writers' commitment to the reader.

Flawed Strategies
In 2005, a few of the Internet Marketing gurus took notice of the success people were having with article marketing, and they passed this news to the Internet Marketing newbies of the world. But, there was something missing from the advice given.

In a lot of cases, the people preaching the power of article marketing hadn't used the technique themselves. Even today, few of my article distribution competitors utilize reprint articles to promote their own businesses. Most of my competitors rely upon affiliate marketing to promote their websites.

Unfortunately, the Internet Marketing newbies of the world were given a lot of bad advice. It was said that:

The only purpose of article marketing was to build links, and link popularity for search engine rankings;

The writer only needed to write enough words to meet the minimum word count requirements of publishers;

It wasn't necessary for the content to be well-written, since the publishers do not
read the articles they approve for publication;

Anything that can be done to reduce the time/cost of article writing would benefit the marketer.

The only suggestion that bore any resemblance to the truth was the first item about
"building links for link popularity", but the error in this statement was to assume that there was no other purpose for article marketing.

The Bigger Picture
I have been using article marketing to promote my own websites since 1999, and I have offered article-marketing services professionally since 2000 and under my current domain since 2001. I had been using article marketing and providing services for at least five years,before the gurus started leading the uninitiated Internet Marketers astray in 2005.


As one of the pioneers in this industry, I have always attributed three benefits to article marketing, in this order:

1. Publication in a newsletter ensures that thousands, perhaps hundreds of thousands
of readers, can read ones' article when it is published. (Frequently, publication
day for my articles will generate phone calls from many potential customers and multiple sales, sometimes thousands in sales.)

2. Publication on a website increases the likelihood that your article will be found
and read on websites that have targeted and loyal visitors.

3. Building links for link popularity and improved search rankings.

I haven't ever denied the ability to use articles to build ones' link popularity and
to improve ones' ranking in the search engines. In fact, my website ranks in the top 20 results in Google for hundreds of keywords.


About The Author
Bill Platt has been helping online marketers with article ghostwriting and article distribution services since 2001, through his website: thephantomwriters.com . If your small business finances are being pinched during this era of high gasoline prices, get your copy of the ebook, "How to íncrease the Fuel Mileage Of Any Vehicle" to learn how to improve your gas mileage by 30% or better: