Writing Articles To Promote Your Web Site - Article 2: How To Do It
Your articles should be written in a general way - don't directly promote your product or service in the body of the article, you can add contact details in the article Resource Box (see below). Make the article a useful, informative piece of text - if you provide enough authoritative content then the articles on your web site will make your web site a source of reliable, useful information that people will recommend to their friends and thus increase the number of visits to your site.
The structure of any article written for your own web site is up to you, but be sure to include your key words and phrases - without over-doing it! On your own web site you can openly promote your products and services.
And talking of your web site - take a careful look at it - are there pages on your web site that, with a bit of tweaking, could be made into articles? This may also apply to PDFs that you make available from your web site - don't overlook your current assets!
When writing for publication on article web site you need to create or supply the following components, though not all article web sites will employ them:
A title for your article: make it short, snappy and attractive!
A list of key words and phrases that relate to the article only, not to your whole web site
A brief summary of the article: a couple of sentences will be enough and try not to just copy out the first paragraph!
The article: aim for at least 250 words, though some article web sites require at least 500 words. The maximum length is usually 2000 words, but if you've written that many words you should consider splitting the article into two or more articles!
A Resource Box: this should contain a brief biography of the author - a couple of sentances is enough - and contact details: your web site address and an email address. These will normally be "live" links to your site
A photograph: not compulsary, but it's nice for readers to see the person who wrote the site and it makes the article more human.
When you've done all that check it very carefully then submit it to your chosen article web site or get your webmaster to do it for you, making sure that you are acknowledged as the author, and get them to add it to your web site too.
If you're planning to put the same article on your web site and submit it to article web sites it is best to add it to your site first, then, perhaps a few days later, submit it to article publishing web sites. By publishing it in this order you are establishing yourself as the author - it is possible for people to copy some or all of an article from an article web site and claim it as their own, but by publishing it first on your web site you have made it clear that it's your original work.
Articles published by article web sites can be copied legitimately - if the established terms and conditions are followed. These typically stipulate that the whole article must be copied, including the resource box and an acknowledgement of the article publishing web site on which the article was first published. Having your article copied like this is a further boost - it will now be circulated even further and will have all your contact details included!
Some article web site allow you add formatting features such as bold, italic, underline and bullets; other allow you to create hypertext links in the body of the text and/or the resource box. Some sites make this an easy process - others require you to enter html code - if you're not sure how to do this then take professional advice. This is, however, worth doing since you can create links to your web site using your key words or phrases - but don't over do it, keep it to two or three links per article.
John Studd is a partner in SiteWeave Internet Services LLP which he started with his friend John Burchett in 1999. SiteWeave now host, maintain and promote nearly 100 web sites, most of which they created.
SiteWeave Internet Services LLP, Windward House, 34 Hayling Avenue, Portsmouth
www.siteweave.net, John.S@SiteWeave.net
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