There are many reasons why people write articles and get them posted on the Internet. Some just enjoy sharing information with others, but there are those, like myself, who are interested in using their articles as a vehicle to generate leads for their business. The question to ask ourselves is whether it is worth all the trouble. I can assure you, that after you have read this particular article, you will be running to your PC to start your writing career!
Some authors write about a large variety of subjects. For this very reason, they do not use their own name for all their articles. Readers would tend to doubt their expertise in so many subjects. So, this is one of the first decisions you have to make. Will you use your own name in all your articles, in some of them or perhaps in none of them. If at times, you are writing articles on subjects that have absolutely nothing to do with your business, then in those instances you might want to write under an assumed name.
Obviously, if you are trying to brand yourself on the Internet, then you would want to use your personal name as much as possible. If the subject matter can be in some way related to the type of business you are in, then it is going to be much easier to transition with a link back to your website.
An article for the Internet should be between 400 - 600 words. This translates into about 8 paragraphs, with approximately three short sentences in each paragraph. It is recommended that you write a few short articles on a subject, instead of one long one.
I was really shocked to see how my presence on the Web could significantly increase in such a short period of time, just by writing articles. I didn't have my first article published until late December, 2008. That is only three weeks from the time I am now writing this article. Back then, if I searched my name in Google, I would come up with zero hits. Three weeks and ten articles later, I searched my name "Jan Shimano" making sure I put it in quotation marks. My result today was 2760 hits. Why don't you go ahead and search my name in Google and see how much it has increased since then. It increases every day.
You might be wondering how I was able to accomplish this. O.K. I'll tell you!! All it took was for me to write 10 short articles and have them accepted by EzineArticles. This is the largest article directory and should be the first place that you submit your articles to. This is the litmus test....if EzineArticles approves it, then rest assured it will be accepted at all other directories.
That alone is not going to get you the exposure though. There is now a second step that you have to take and that is to submit your article to a multiple submission company. I use, and highly recommend, Unique Article Wizard. On their website you write three versions of your article, along with variations of your Resource Box, and UAW reconfigures all the paragraphs and resource boxes to come up with literally hundreds of unique articles. One of my articles was submitted to 1,800 directories. The uniqueness of each article is very important, because the search engines do not like duplication.
EzineArticles is a free service. They do have a paid upgrade, but for the majority of people that is not necessary. I personally only use the free service and I am allowed to submit as many articles as I like. If you are using UAW, there is a monthly cost of $70.35. If you are only planning on writing an article now and again, this might not be the way to go for you. However, if you are serious about creating a huge presence for yourself on the Internet, then I can't think of a better way to do it.
So many people in this industry feel that to get an article published on the Internet you have to practically be a professional writer. That is not true!! If you can sit down and write a letter to a friend, you can sit down and write an 8 paragraph article. Your old English teacher is not standing over your shoulder checking your grammar. People will be reading your article for the information you are sharing and not to critique you. So my advice to you, is make up your mind right now that you are going to give this your best effort. Once you get that first article up and published, I believe there will be no stopping you!!!
Some authors write about a large variety of subjects. For this very reason, they do not use their own name for all their articles. Readers would tend to doubt their expertise in so many subjects. So, this is one of the first decisions you have to make. Will you use your own name in all your articles, in some of them or perhaps in none of them. If at times, you are writing articles on subjects that have absolutely nothing to do with your business, then in those instances you might want to write under an assumed name.
Obviously, if you are trying to brand yourself on the Internet, then you would want to use your personal name as much as possible. If the subject matter can be in some way related to the type of business you are in, then it is going to be much easier to transition with a link back to your website.
An article for the Internet should be between 400 - 600 words. This translates into about 8 paragraphs, with approximately three short sentences in each paragraph. It is recommended that you write a few short articles on a subject, instead of one long one.
I was really shocked to see how my presence on the Web could significantly increase in such a short period of time, just by writing articles. I didn't have my first article published until late December, 2008. That is only three weeks from the time I am now writing this article. Back then, if I searched my name in Google, I would come up with zero hits. Three weeks and ten articles later, I searched my name "Jan Shimano" making sure I put it in quotation marks. My result today was 2760 hits. Why don't you go ahead and search my name in Google and see how much it has increased since then. It increases every day.
You might be wondering how I was able to accomplish this. O.K. I'll tell you!! All it took was for me to write 10 short articles and have them accepted by EzineArticles. This is the largest article directory and should be the first place that you submit your articles to. This is the litmus test....if EzineArticles approves it, then rest assured it will be accepted at all other directories.
That alone is not going to get you the exposure though. There is now a second step that you have to take and that is to submit your article to a multiple submission company. I use, and highly recommend, Unique Article Wizard. On their website you write three versions of your article, along with variations of your Resource Box, and UAW reconfigures all the paragraphs and resource boxes to come up with literally hundreds of unique articles. One of my articles was submitted to 1,800 directories. The uniqueness of each article is very important, because the search engines do not like duplication.
EzineArticles is a free service. They do have a paid upgrade, but for the majority of people that is not necessary. I personally only use the free service and I am allowed to submit as many articles as I like. If you are using UAW, there is a monthly cost of $70.35. If you are only planning on writing an article now and again, this might not be the way to go for you. However, if you are serious about creating a huge presence for yourself on the Internet, then I can't think of a better way to do it.
So many people in this industry feel that to get an article published on the Internet you have to practically be a professional writer. That is not true!! If you can sit down and write a letter to a friend, you can sit down and write an 8 paragraph article. Your old English teacher is not standing over your shoulder checking your grammar. People will be reading your article for the information you are sharing and not to critique you. So my advice to you, is make up your mind right now that you are going to give this your best effort. Once you get that first article up and published, I believe there will be no stopping you!!!
About the Author:
Jan Shimano was District Manager for Health & Welfare Canada for a number of years. She was also self-employed as a Nutritional Consultant and a Master Herbalist. She is presently a Business and Health Coach and operates her own internet marketing company from her home in British Columbia. Jan invites you to learn more about her by dropping by her YouTube channel at www.YouTube.com/1jinny
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