Guide to make money online!

Over the years I've learned so much about how to do an effective article marketing campaign, so I thought it might be helpful to gather some of my best tips and just list them all in one spot.

Since you wouldn't get very far in the tips without first knowing the basics, I'll give you some preliminary info on what article marketing is and how it works:

What is Article Marketing?

With Article Marketing you write and syndicate free reprint articles via article directories, ezine editors, and announcement groups. A key element of Article Marketing is the author resource box, which contains a short author bio and a link back to the author's website. Through submitting free reprint articles that are picked up by online publishers, a website owner can effectively build links, increase search engine ranking, drive traffic to his website, and establish himself as an expert in his niche.

How does it work?

Each time an author submits an article, he includes his resource box. A resource box is a short author bio, which also includes a link back to the author's website. Every time a website owner decides to publish a free reprint article, he also includes the author's resource box. So, every time the article is picked up for publication the author's name and a link back to the author's website are published also. In this way the author builds links and increases exposure for his website. The people clicking through to his website will be doing so because they found his article helpful, and since his article is on the same topic of his website the article generates targeted traffic.

And now, without further ado, here are your tips for executing a successful article marketing campaign:

1) Be consistent with your submissions. With a consistent article submission campaign:

*The more articles you write, the more web sites will choose to publish your article(s) online, the more inbound links your site will receive that will generate long-term traffic directly as well as boost your search engine rankings over the long-term, which in itself will of course generate traffic.

*The more articles you write, the more publishers will get used to your name, the quality of your articles, and the topics you cover, and the more likely it is that your article will be selected for publication.

*The more articles you write, the more your reputation and credibility is established, which in itself further encourages publishers to publish your articles, in order to benefit their readership with your expertise.

2) Use Google to see where your article is being published. If you're ever curious about where your articles are being published, just go to Google and type your article title in the search box (putting the title in quotes). Since articles are usually not immediately published by publishers, you might want to give it 2-3 days before doing a search like this. Also, know that as time goes on it's likely that the number of publishers who pick up your article will increase.

3) Give it a chance to work. Since search engines will usually take several months to adjust rankings based on incoming links, it may be 3-4 months before you notice the impact your article marketing campaign is having on your website. Patience has its rewards–when you're first starting out, implement ways to check your progress so you'll have an objective and well-balanced frame of reference.

4) It's not just about links. Remember that you're writing for real people. Spend the time and effort to write quality articles that are useful to your target market.

5) Edit each article carefully, avoiding typos and spelling mistakes like the plague.

6) Write articles on the topic of your website.

7) Submit completely original articles (rather than PLR articles). It might be tempting to take a short cut and just buy some duplicate articles that have been prepared for yourself and countless others over which you and others have been given rights to claim 'authorship', but that's not the road you want to take. Quality publishers and your potential readers are looking for unique and valuable content, so if you're serious about article marketing you need to either write the articles yourself from scratch or employ a ghost writer to write articles exclusively for you (articles for which you and you alone are the 'author').

8) Pay attention to your word count. Try to make your articles around 700-800 words long if you can, but at the very least between 450-1500 words.

9) 'How-to' and 'step-by-step' type articles are popular, along with articles that break down topics into 'tips', for example '5 Top Tips For…' Basically any type of list article is a good bet.

10) Make your articles short, snappy and to the point (but not too short–remember, 700-800 words is optimal).

11) Use title case for your titles - this means you should Cap First Letter Of Each Word In The Title for maximum chance of publication.

12) Re-read your article several times, especially 24 hours or more after initially 'completing' it, you'll be surprised how many improvements you can make after leaving it for a while. And the better it reads, the more chance it will have of being published.

13) Ask yourself - would you be happy to publish your article on your web site or in your ezine? Remember, in publishing your article, ezine editors and web site owners are effectively endorsing it - is your article of a suitable quality?

14) Space out your submissions during the month rather than submitting bunches all in one day.

15) Not all publishers will acknowledge use of or let you know their intention to publish your article - you should not consider such an acknowledgement to be a condition of their use of your article, but rather appreciate the effective publicity their use of your article can bring to you and your web site. Some publishers will let you know when they've picked your article up for publication, while many won't.

16) When you submit an article, don't expect it to show up immediately at the directory(ies). Most quality publishers review each and every article to be sure it adheres to their editorial guidelines. Depending on how many articles are being reviewed and how many editors are on staff, it may take anywhere from 2-3 days to a week or more for an article to be published on a website.

17) Spend time crafting a strong resource box. Really, the resource box is just as important as the article, so don't fall into the habit of just throwing one together at the last minute. Take your time, customize your resource box to suit your article, and you'll be rewarded.

18) Limit your links in your article body and in your resource box. If at all possible, it would be great if you could have a link free article. In your resource box, I advise using a single link, since you don't have space to convince a reader to go to multiple websites.

19) Make your articles educational rather than sales oriented. This means that your articles should be written to teach readers rather than inspire them to buy a particular product.

20) Titles are important–Spend time crafting an attention grabbing title that tells what your article is about.

21) Develop a way to brainstorm article topics–you will need a steady stream of them!

22) Use your keywords appropriately in your submissions.

23) Test out your links before submitting your article.

24) Experiment with ways to increase your speed–I suggest using an article outline.

25) Use an automatic article submission service. Many folks start out submitting manually , but then after they get their feet wet they decide that using a quality article submission service like SubmitYOURArticle.com is a worthwhile investment in their marketing efforts. While you can receive limited benefits by submitting manually (just going to an article directory and submitting an article), your efforts are magnified when you submit using an article distribution service because with each article you're reaching hundreds of targeted publishers. More publishers means more backlinks, greater exposure for you and your website, and in turn more traffic to your site.

If you're teetering on the edge not quite sure if you'd like to do article marketing or not, you might start out slow and just write an article and submit it manually to a few sites. If you think you'd like to go at it full throttle, then enlist the services of a trusted article submission service.

Question for you: These are some of my best tips and info–have you any more to add?