About a month ago I had a blog post Fast and Easy Article Marketing which focused on the power of use articles as part of your marketing strategies.

But a lot of people said that was great but wanted more detail on actually writing the articles, so this post will give you the “anatomy of absolutely amazing articles”

Well talk about how to decide on what articles to write.

We’ll talk about how to get specific ideas on the topic.

We’ll talk about what to put where.

We’ll talk about how to make them keyword rich.

And a whole lot more!

Step 1: Define the Purpose

Before you write an article you should have a purpose.

I don’t mean a general purpose like “I want to post it to get a back link.”

I mean every article should have a specific purpose in an overall marketing plan and for a specific marketing campaign.

Say you’re going to launch a new product (or become an affiliate for a product) about a new way to reduce your debt.

Then you should being writing articles that are related to that topic. Maybe about how debt can creep on you or how emotionally draining it could be or about the hidden effects of interest or …

The specific article will be defined later but every article should be part of a marketing plan and writing it should be to achieve a specific goal; this will also help you remain focused when you write the article and not ramble off-topic.

So the first thing to do to define the purpose

Step 2: Define Your Keywords

Take your purpose and do keyword research to find the best keywords for the article topic that fits that purpose.

Look for words that have a decent number of searches per month but not too many or you’ll get lost in the crowd; “decent” is really niche and purpose specific but it should be in the thousands but not in the hundreds of thousands.

Use Google’s Keyword Tool or WordTracker or one of the commercial tools (I use Keyword Elite and Market Samurai).

Step 3: Do Your Research

Now that you have your keyword phrase you need to find content that you can use to help you write the article.

This is a key step because it will give you quick ideas about how to structure your article, what points you could be addressing in your article and a baseline to build from and be superior to.

I usually just capture ideas, paragraphs, etc. into a “research document” and then go through it to do the next steps.

Please note that you should use this research content for brainstorming and kick starting your writing but you should not be stealing the content from other people; plagiarism is so not cool.

Another place you can research is the actual product itself, taking excerpts from the product, if you have the rights to do so, is a great way to get a quick article.

You can also look at other products, either digital or physical (books and magazines) on the topic.

Use a search engine like Google or a commercial tool (I use Answer Analyst, Instant Article Wizard and Market Samurai).

Step 4: Create an Outline

Trying to write an article without an outline is like trying to decorate a room without a plan. You may finish but you may not be pleased with the results and it will take you longer than expected.

So spend a couple of minutes and come up with an outline; you just need the main points of the article and any key sub-points you want to be sure to include.

Structure your article and outline as in these 3 primary parts:

1. Introduction: Introduce the “problem” or “issue” or single focus of the article.
2. Sections: Come up with at least 3 and not many more than 5 main points that talk about solutions to the problem you introduced; these also become, or lead to, your section headings.
3. Conclusion: End with a summary of the solution detailed in the article and other important points the reader should remember to get the most benefit.

This outline becomes the blueprint for your article.

I usually just use the Outline capability in Microsoft Word but you can use something as simple as Notepad or, if you prefer, a visual mind mapping tool like the commercial product Mind Manager () or free online tools like Bubbl.us and Mind Meister.

Step 5: Writing a Compelling Keyword Rich Title

The title of an article is like the headline in a sales or squeeze page, it needs to catch the interest of the reader and “compel” them to start reading the article.

What makes a great title is similar to what makes a great headline.

It needs to bring the promise of a solution to a “problem” or pique the reader’s curiosity enough that they want to read further.

Some ways of doing that are using the “how to” headline, promising “better”, “easier” “quicker” solutions or “secrets”, “little known”, “amazing” or other typical emotional trigger words.

People use filters when scanning titles (and headlines), so to get through those filters you need to talk about highly desirable benefits in an emotionally engaging manner work best.

A classic example, although it is a book title, is How to Win Friends and Influence People.

Step 6: Writing the Article

With the research notes from step 3 and your outline from step 4 you are ready to write your article; it should go quickly and easily.

Many, if not most, articles being published by marketers are poorly disguised sales pitches without must real, valuable information.

If you want to get your article read and syndicated then educate the reader and solve a problem; provide some value.

Otherwise, at best, you have a back link but you’re still leaving a lot of money on the table.

Introduction

Your first paragraph, even the first sentence should introduce the main point of the article; the “problem” or “issue” – be sure to use your primary keyword phrase.

Then point out the “horrors” of the problem and the “benefits” of solving it.

Finally, give a quick look at what you will be talking about in the rest of the article; this is the old “tell the readers what you are going to tell them.”

This should be 2-4 paragraphs.

Sections

For each section in your outline talk about the section primary sub-point; this should informative and talk directly to the solution.

Point out how this can help the reader solve the problem.

Each section should be 2 -4 paragraphs all focused on the section sub-point.

Conclusion

Be sure to summarize the solution and how it the problem; this is the old “tell the readers what you told them.”

Use bullet points to review the major points in the article; at least one per section.

Finally, if you can put in a call to action then end the conclusion with that.

Step 7: Add Your Resource Box

The place where you turn nice information into potential leads, and where you get the traffic from, is the resource box; this is the area below the article itself where the author’s bio is.

You need to write the “perfect” resource box for targeted prospects; this will get those readers from your article to one of your Web properties (blog, squeeze page, Squidoo Lens, etc.)

After all, article marketing is not just about the article it’s about getting traffic and having a compelling resource box is crucial to achieving that.

If the article is the bait, the resource box is where you reel them in.

There are certain elements of a resource box you want to have, some are “must haves” and some are optional depending upon your specific situation.

The “must haves” are:

• Your Name: Be sure to include your name, it’s astonishing the number of resource boxes that don’t include this
• Your “Offer”: The thing that is going to get someone to your Web property is the incentive you are giving them to do so. So offer something that someone who is interested in the topic of the article would find intriguing and very attractive. This can be as short as one sentence or as long as 3-4 sentences, anything more starts losing people.
• Your Call to Action: Make sure you tell them what to do, this is pretty much to click the link
• Your Web Property Address (URL): This is the link you want them to click

An example of a short resource box I used in the past is:

Each and every week, David Husnian provides more fantastic copywriting tips, advice and wisdom, just like you read in this article, to thousands of people. To get his $197 course on copywriting completely free go to his blog at http://StreetGuideToCopywriting.com

Step 8: Don’t Forget the Keywords

You might think this is a strange place to put this step and that it should have been higher or part of step 6, but it is more important to write a good article than worry about stuffing the article with keywords.

But remember to include keywords, so go back through your article and add the keyword phrase or phrases you are targeting with the article as defined in step 2.

Put the phrase in from 1-5% of the article depending upon the situation but don’t force it.

If the article doesn’t read well, doesn’t provide good information and sounds to sales-y then you’ll lose a lot of the benefit you’d get from the article.

Writer’s Block

Sometimes it is easier to write than others. The words just seem to flow and it is almost like you aren’t writing you are channeling!

Other times it is a huge struggle to put done even a few words that make any sense or have an interest.

I’ve found the best way to overcome that is to just start writing and don’t worry about what you write.

This seems to “prime the pump” and the writing get easier and better the more you write until you’re writing really good stuff.

It really works.

I taught this to my teen-aged niece who insisted she couldn’t write. Not that she had writer’s block but that she just couldn’t write period.

So we went to the Starbucks café inside a Barnes & Noble bookstore with our laptop computers and I taught her this technique by doing it with her.

I wasn’t “channeling” that day and found it a struggle and, of course, she insisted “couldn’t write” – but she was game (she always is, I’m tremendously proud of her).

So we started writing but in a collaborative way at first and, as I told her, we both started getting better and she was so impressed with what she wrote she had this huge grin and a wonderful sparkle in her eyes.

She’s since used this to great success in both her schoolwork and in the wonderful book on taking family photography she wrote.

It really works.

Conclusion

Writing articles doesn’t have to be difficult if you follow these simple steps.

1. Define the Purpose: Define how it helps a marketing campaign
2. Define Your Keywords: Do some keyword research to find the best search terms by actual buyers
3. Do Your Research: Get content and structure ideas
4. Create an Outline: Create a simple outline
5. Writing a Compelling Keyword Rich Title: Write a killer title just like you would a sales page headline
6. Writing the Article: Fill in the outline with a few paragraphs per section showing the “problem” then the “solution” and get them to imagine them having achieved the solution
7. Add Your Resource Box: A short but compelling resource box moves them from an article to a prospect or a customer.
8. Don’t Forget the Keywords: Go back and make sure the keywords are scattered in the article

It may sound like a lot of work but when you are beginning it should take you 60-90 minutes but after you done a few and gotten the process down you should be able to create articles in 15-30 minutes and I’ve speed written them in 8 minutes (but I was trying to do it as fast as possible).

You could, of course, get other people to write article for you, I use NeedAnArticle and ArticleZ as well as some individual writers.

There are also tools that can help, as I mentioned above, I use Answer Analyst, Instant Article Wizard and Market Samurai.

You can also use PLR articles and just rewrite them, this can cut down on some of the time it takes to finish an article; sometime by half. You can get PLR content, books and articles, at http://www.StreetGuideToResellRights.com/Recommends/888sale and PLR articles on a variety of topics at http://www.StreetGuideToResellRights.com/Recommends/111107Articles.

So get writing, write just one article a week and in just 1 year you’ll have 52 articles to your name and probably hundreds of back links.

Or think of what 2 or 3 articles a week will do or do like I do and aim for 7 new articles a week (in 1 year you’ll have over 2,500 articles and who knows how many back links!)

Do you do article marketing?

Do you write article or have them written?

Please leave a comment and put a link to one of your articles, I’d love to read it.

Talk soon,

David

The Shameless (Ethical) Marketer

http://www.Twitter.com/DavidHusnian
http://www.8-8-8Sale.com

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O.Y. If you want to learn more about writing compelling articles, go sign up for my free copywriting course at http://StreetGuideToCopywriting.com

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