Article Marketing - An Interview with Steve Gillman
I was recently interviewed about article marketing, which
is the use of articles to promote websites. This is essentially
how my wife and I have made a living for years now. The basic
idea is to write short (400 to 800-word) articles, include a
link to one's website in the "about the author" information
at the bottom, and the distribute these to directories, which
further distribute them to any webmaster who wants to use them
on their websites (with the link active). Here are the ten questions
asked, along with my replies.
Please introduce yourself to our
readers...
My name is Steve Gillman, and my wife Ana and I have been
making a great living with our websites for years, largely through
article marketing. I created the websites "www.IncreaseBrainpower.com,"
"www.UsingWhatYouHave.com" and many others.
When, how and why did you get
started with article marketing?
Six months into our business we were making just five dollars
daily from our websites. At that point I was introduced to the
use of articles to promote our sites and decided to give it a
try. My first article probably took me hours to write and rewrite,
but soon I was able to write some articles in thirty minutes
or less. Traffic - and revenue - started to grow rapidly once
I had distributed a few dozen articles to various article directories.
How long did it take you to get
you to where you are now, and what would you say to our readers
who are already tired and frustrated of not seeing any results
from their article marketing?
We were paying the bills within a year of starting online,
and our income doubled the next year, and doubled again the year
after that.
What are the TOP areas I should
concentrate on in article marketing?
Make sure you optimize each article for a decent keyword,
so people will find it in the search engines. Give the reader
a reason to read the article and a reason to click through to
your site using the link in the author's resource area at the
bottom. Distribute to the best directories, starting with EzineArticles.com.
Do you have a formula for writing
irresistible article titles?
My formula - if you can call it that - is to look at the title
and decide if it would make me want to read that article.
What would you say is the one
most important thing you've learned about writing articles that
get spread?
Keyword optimize and write well. The latter comes with experience,
but anyone can make a point to put the primary keyword in the
title, first line and last paragraph of the article. Webmasters
want content, which is why they take your articles from the directories
for use on their sites. But they also want to articles that can
actually bring in new search traffic, so they need at least one
good keyword properly targeted.
What's the biggest mistake you
made publishing articles on the Internet?
Not thinking about the fact that once the articles are distributed
they are out there forever. I would like to have been more careful
about the typos and sloppiness early on.
How do you make money with your
article content? What are your "secrets?"
Traffic is the easy answer, but it comes from articles in
several ways. The links created in the article directories help
boost your ranking in the search engines, which means your pages
get better placement in the results pages, so you get more traffic.
Some directories also result in a lot of direct traffic from
readers. You also get better rankings and direct traffic from
other websites when your articles are used there. The secrets
then, are to put good articles in good directories, and then
have a way to make money when the people visit your site. Plus,
it helps to write A LOT of articles (or have them written for
you if that's a problem).
What tools and resources would
you say are essential to article marketing?
Really all you need to start is any word processing program
that can spell-check your work. A system for keeping track of
which articles you have sent out and where is a good idea too,
and can be accomplished with files on your computer or even notes
on paper.
Could you share one of your most
successful articles… the results it generated [in terms
of views and clicks in the resource box] and the reason why it
took off?
My article "Cheap Homes in Great Towns," has had
more than 100,000 views in just one article directory, resulting
in thousands of visitors (I don't track the traffic from all
directories, but this one does the tracking for me). Add to that
the fact the use of that article by others has resulted in numerous
back links to my site "www.HousesUnderFiftyThousand.com,"
which has boosted the rankings and resulted in more traffic.
There is no way to say how much revenue one article brings in,
but I would guess that I made hundreds of dollars for the hour
I spent writing and distributing this one. And we could live
off the revenue from this "houses" site alone, which
is just one of many active sites we have.
As for why it took off, I think it helped that I wrote it
just before the real estate market crashed, when home prices
were at their highest. People are always looking for a cheaper
way to get what they want, of course.
Resources
You Can Make Money Writing
- Steve Gillman's book about article marketing and other ways
to make your writing pay.
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