Article marketing is wildly popular amongst Internet marketing newbies because of the low costs in getting started with it. You can write an article yourself, manually submit it to an article directory, and then point it to a free web property which you own, for example, where you would presell for an affiliate product.
Submitting articles isn't rocket science and neither is creating a webpage on free sites like Squidoo or Hubpages. The real obstacle that most newbies face is the article writing - they either don't know what to write about or they don't know how to write a proper article.
This article won't be about market research, but once you've identified a niche that you want to write about, then you shouldn't have any difficulty writing about it. Some common excuses are: not knowing enough about the subject, not having anything new to write about, and not having enough time to write articles.
Doing research for your articles can be as simple as finding existing articles and writing your own original article based on the information that you find from other articles. As long as you're not writing in a really obscure niche, there should be no shortage of sources where you can find research material for your content. As such, you don't really need to know anything about most subjects to write about them. As long as you're not trying to tackle anything too technical, a few minutes of research should be enough for you to gather enough information to write an article in your own words.
Article writing doesn't need to be rocket science - your articles do not need to be Pulitzer material. In article marketing, your articles should have a single purpose: to make the reader click on the link at the end of your article. That's why you don't need to spend hours perfecting a single article. Including research, the total time it should take for you to crank out an article is 15-30 minutes.
Articles don't need to be lengthy. The minimum word count should be 250 words and it should ideally be under 500. It is important to provide value in your articles, but your goal isn't to spill the beans about your subject in the article, remember? You're trying to persuade the reader to click on your link, so to do so, you'll need to hold their attention throughout the article and to give them some teaser content which will leave them hungry for more.
If you make your article hard to read, fewer people are going to actually stay interested long enough to want to click through your link. Aside from having a good article title to attract readers, one of the most important tips for effective article writing is to provide the right amount of information. If you provide too little, your readers won't feel like they got anything out of it. If you provide too much, their thirst for information will be completely satiated and they won't be motivated to click on your link for more.
Dr. Bob Clarke coaches and mentors new and experienced entrepreneurs in making money online with integrity, honesty, and professionalism. He is a marketing and branding expert who teaches his team the secrets to making money online. Visit http://NetworkMarketingMadeSimple.info to see the entire "Network Marketing Made Simple" series and more of Dr. Clarke's extensive training. To become a member of Bob and Rosemary's growing entrepreneurial team, go to http://YourTimeForFreedom.com.
