Article Writing: Your Billboards to Success
You will hear me mention writing a lot on this site, simply because the written word is the medium of exchange on the Internet. If you don’t learn to write articles, reports and ebooks, frankly, you will not get far in the business of Internet Marketing.
Even if you sell software or more tangible goods, you still need to write ads and articles to promote your product or service.
When I started out in this business some 2 years ago, I was overwhelmed at all the “new” things I needed to learn. Web Design, graphics, info product writing, to name a few of the more intimidating aspects of Internet Marketing. But I was (still am) determined to get a good grasp on the various skills necessary, at least at first till I can outsource the work.
So, I have become fairly efficient at making graphics. I have learned how to poke my way around WordPress. I have written and finished a dozen ebooks or reports. I can make an OK sales letter with a Paypal button! I even mastered the Aweber thing.
So, what have I lacked? Article Writing or more specifically article marketing. Sure, I post to this blog and my other blogs but somehow I have either put off or neglected the aspect of publishing articles to the ezine directories. What this amounts to is that all this past two years I have built several substantial lemonade stands complete with cookies and air conditioning on a deserted road in the middle of the desert!
Ever hear of Wall Drug? Anyone who has driven I-90 across the northern states has been entertained by these huge billboard signs along a relatively deserted stretch of highway from Montana to Minnesota. These billboards pop up every 5 - 10 miles all along the route. It is frankly the only thing on the landscape for hundreds of miles.
Perhaps you have seen these bumper stickers that say, “I’ve Been to Wall Drug”. They never made sense to me till I actually drove that lonely track. It seems that Wall, South Dakota is just another dot on the map. Like any other town along an interstate, it hoped to attract visitors to their various businesses. But they were smack dab in the middle of no-where land. Cars and trucks streamed by day and night on I-90. So how do you grab some of that traffic?
It seems the proprietor of Wall Drug was an entrepreneur at heart. What did he do? He offered free ice water. Free ice water?? Yup. He decided what these long haul truckers and automobile drivers needed was an excuse to stop by his shop and ice water was a novelty back then.
He invested in billboards which to this day dot the highway. They still bring visitors in from all over who have read these quirky even annoying messages. Now Wall, South Dakota - which could have been a no-name town in the middle of no where - gets regular visitors, LOTS of visitors all because a smart businessman decided to offer a freebie and then put out signs pointing the way to his store.
The moral of this story is that you need to get together a valuable freebie on your site and then post your signs on the highway - i. e. write useful articles!! Then submit them to the ezine directories with a bio box that points folks to your lemonade stand or free ice water!!
If you don’t feel comfortable writing, you have two options. Learn to write. I like to write, now. But I used to be all thumbs at it. It takes practice but really once you get the hang of it, it is no sweat. Andrew Hansen’s report on “Article Speed Writing” was the one report I have bought that moved me from challenged to “expert” in a matter of no time. I have bought a whole slew of “how to write articles” type reports and they all work OK, but Andrew’s report probably made the biggest impact on my writing success.
[Edit: 9/10/2008 : Take a look at my post on "48 Hour Report" by Jason Fladlien for another option. "48 Hour" has video instructions and is far more detailed and includes bonuses that are worth the price of the package alone! Article Speed Writing is a great basic course. They are both still the best!]
But if writing isn’t your bag, have someone do it for you. It will come to a point where it actually makes sense to pay someone else to write for you (that’s the topic of another article!). I write articles to make a little extra money. And I write for someone else who writes for someone else! So, why not get those articles written for you if you don’t have the talent. Ghostwriting goes for anywhere from $5 a page on up to $20+ for the top writers.
Any way you go about it, get your signs out on the highway. Write those articles and pay someone to do it for you! Next thing you know, you will be the “go to” website for your expertise. Ever been to Wall Drug? 
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This is a very good analogy for article marketing. But it also applies to lots of other advertising methods.
You’ve basically just got to get your name and site out there. The traffic comes back in the strangest ways, sometimes years later.
Take blogging for instance. It’s very difficult to earn money off a blog (through Adsense, etc), and I think many people give up after a while.
But they should keep at it. A blog is a great branding tool. It tells people heaps about the blogger. It’s a great way to lift your profile in whatever field you are in. You can use that exposure to get gigs down the track.
So the blog can become a money maker after all.