Article Surfing Archive

Have you ever wondered why Ezine Articles have become one of the most effective marketing techniques on the Web?

The reason is quite simple.

People very rarely go online looking for something to buy. They go online looking for information - free information.

They want to be educated, entertained and informed. And the best way to do that is to write free Articles for Newsletters.

At the bottom of your Article is your 4- or 5-line Resource Box. That's what turns your Article into one of the most powerful marketing techniques on the Web.

Here are eight tips to help you write your Articles and get them published.

1. Never allow yourself to think that you've run out of ideas. Instead, have the opposite thought: that there are more ideas than you could possibly write about. I heard someone saying recently (with regard to Ezine Articles) that everything that could possibly be written about has already been written about. Nonsense! The Internet is evolving so fast that even if you wrote a new Article every day, you still couldn't keep up.

2. The Golden Rule of Five. Keep your Article titles short - no more than five words. Ezine Editors love short titles (they fit into the subject field of an email).

3. Keep your paragraphs short - no more than 3 sentences. It's much harder to read a computer screen than a printed page - so make it easy for your readers.

4. Make sure your Article flows properly. The easiest way to do this is to write down the opening and closing sentences of each of your paragraphs, then read what you have. If it makes sense and moves along nicely, you have an Article that is well organized and flows properly.

5. Include a word count at the top of your Article. This makes it easy for an Ezine Editor to make a quick decision on whether to use your Article. It also shows you've been thorough in preparing your Article for publication.

6. Check all the links in your Article before submitting it. Then include a note that says: 'All the links in this Article were checked and verified on (date)'. Again, this saves time for the Ezine Editor and demonstrates that you've been thorough.

7. Offer a Free Report in your Resource Box. When someone reads your Article in an Ezine, they probably won't be connected to the Internet. So the challenge is this: to offer something so interesting and exciting that they'll fire up their modem and visit your website. The best way to do that is to offer a Free Report.

8. Put all your Articles on autoresponders and then create another autoresponder that lists all your Articles, with an autoresponder address for each Article (e.g.: all-articles@yourdomain.com). When you submit your Article to a List or to an Article Archive, always include a note that says: "For a complete list of Articles by this author please send a blank email to: all-articles@yourdomain.com"

Remember - Ezine Articles are probably the fastest way there is of building your presence on the Web and getting your message in front of a targeted audience. Happy writing!

(c) 2001 by Michael Southon