One of the more potent forms of Internet marketing is through the use of a press release. In many cases this is referred to as 'free' advertising. The reasons it is thought of in that way is because when the press release is distributed it is generally picked up by online and print magazines and published at no charge as a news item.
If you have studied aspects of online marketing you already know that Search Engine Optimization (SEO) is a 'free' method of getting search engines to rank your site higher.
For business owners on a budget the use of SEO and the press release are two proven methods to maximize your site exposure with limited costs.
"What a minute!" I can hear you think, "If it's free how can there be a cost involved?"
Good question. You see, unless you are especially gifted in writing press releases you will need to hire a writer to craft a release that highlights the best information, gathers appropriate quotes and statistics and writes the release in a way that encourages publications to print it. Secondarily unless you have significant personal contacts you may need to higher an online press release distribution service to make your release widely available.
As you can see there will be cost involved for your 'free' advertising in the form of a press release. On the flip side of that coin you will find that if you had to pay for all of the locations the release may ultimately be found it would cost much more.
If you are going to attempt to write a press release on your own you need to know that the first paragraph is designed to provide the most basic information and everything else written should compliment that original statement.
For instance if you are developing a new website that is designed to sell cowbells the following might be a way to start the release (I chose the name, because as of this writing it was not in use).
The launch of MyCowBells.com has its web design owner, Scooter James saying, "The initial results of our site prove that the world has been waiting for a one-stop shop for their bovine bells." The site is crafted to appeal to site visitors needing cowbells for farm use or for home décor. The Wranglin' Room provides farm based stories sent in by site visitors.
If a news organization were to read the first paragraph they would have an understanding of what the press release was about.
There are those who suggest you need to release information a little bit at a time over the course of several paragraphs, but most news media professionals do not have time to review every press release that comes across their desk. By using the first paragraph as a synopsis for the release it makes the chances of publishing better for you in the long run because the reader doesn't have to second-guess what it's all about.
There is incredible promotional value in utilizing the 'free' aspect of press releases. However, you should never be afraid to call on someone to help you make your release shine. In most cases it can pay huge dividends as more and more news outlets print your release.
Friday, February 22, 2008
Traditional Article Making And Copywritying
Most authors are wasting their time producing dozens to hundreds of high quality articles that never reach a fraction of their traffic potential. It's a darn shame.
When I review the behind-the-scenes traffic statistics on over 20,000 articles that have produced over 1 million monthly page views in my article marketing lab...ONE thing is clear: All articles are not created equal even when everything about them is identical except for the TITLE.
The reason is probably not what you think.
If you've been schooled on traditional copywriting, you know that in the offline world, the headline determines as much as 95% of the success of the book or article. This statistic takes into consideration what makes the book title successful: Whether a human buys it or not.
Article Marketing on the Internet is a whole different story because of the way your articles reach humans who have an interest in them.
MYTH: Most people will read your articles because they came to a website and started browsing just like they do if they were to have gone to a local book store to find a book of personal interest.
FACT: Wrong! Most people will search the Internet using one of the major search engines and they will be putting in between 1 to 5 keywords that are related to the topic of the article or information they are looking to locate. The search engines will then deliver results that best match the human's interest.
YOUR GOAL: To have your articles show up in the search engine results for the keywords and topics that are most related to the content of your article.
HOW?
You must embrace this TITLE creation & traffic-building truth:
The first 3-5 words of your TITLE determine the success of your article in terms of how much traffic your article will generate back to your website. Success can only be had when you create keyword rich titles for your articles that match the most commonly searched keywords for your topic.
How to determine which keywords are rich and the right ones to use for your article?
You'll need a keyword research tool. Some are free and some are fee-based. Overture.com has a popular keyword research tool that shows you the most common search results from the Yahoo search engines directory. If you want to see what's on "Google's Mind" you can try one of their current beta tools called "Google Suggest": http://www.google.com/webhp?hl=en&complete=1
Whether you use a web-based keyword research tool or invest in one of the more advanced application level software keyword research tools, it's critical that you learn know how to do keyword research.
A "Good" vs. "Bad" TITLE Example:
Here is an example of the difference between a non-keyword rich TITLE vs. a very keyword rich TITLE that is proven to perform better in terms of traffic creation:
Bad TITLE Example:
"Top 9 Ways You Can Acquire Fractional Jet Ownership"
Excellent Keyword Rich Title Example:
Fractional Jet Ownership - 9 Strategies to Help You Acquire Your Private Jet
Why is it more effective?
Because it does not waste the first 3 words of the title with meaningless garbage words like "top" or the number "9" or "ways"...and gets right to the important words that might be found when someone is using a search engine to research a topic related to your article.
You'll also notice in my example that I included the word "Private" Jet. Why? Because my keyword research said that people who search for fractional jet also search for the word "private jet" and therefore I wanted to boost the chances that my title would be found by a larger number of potential visitors to the article.
Two recommendations on what NOT to do:
1) Don't include garbage characters in your TITLE such as quotes, tildes, asterisks or anything else that a search engines has to work hard to discard in order to understand the TITLE of your article.
2) Do not engage in any search engine spam technique by having keyword rich TITLES that have nothing to do with the topic of your article. You'll only be hurting yourself as the search engines already aggressively filter out bad behavior like this.
YOUR INTELLIGENT KEYWORD RICH TITLE COPYWRITING CONCLUSION:
If you want to maximize your results from any article marketing strategy, you must master keyword research so that you can create keyword rich and intelligent article TITLES. Your pay off will be massive amounts of traffic to your articles and website thanks to the search engines who love smart keyword rich TITLES!
When I review the behind-the-scenes traffic statistics on over 20,000 articles that have produced over 1 million monthly page views in my article marketing lab...ONE thing is clear: All articles are not created equal even when everything about them is identical except for the TITLE.
The reason is probably not what you think.
If you've been schooled on traditional copywriting, you know that in the offline world, the headline determines as much as 95% of the success of the book or article. This statistic takes into consideration what makes the book title successful: Whether a human buys it or not.
Article Marketing on the Internet is a whole different story because of the way your articles reach humans who have an interest in them.
MYTH: Most people will read your articles because they came to a website and started browsing just like they do if they were to have gone to a local book store to find a book of personal interest.
FACT: Wrong! Most people will search the Internet using one of the major search engines and they will be putting in between 1 to 5 keywords that are related to the topic of the article or information they are looking to locate. The search engines will then deliver results that best match the human's interest.
YOUR GOAL: To have your articles show up in the search engine results for the keywords and topics that are most related to the content of your article.
HOW?
You must embrace this TITLE creation & traffic-building truth:
The first 3-5 words of your TITLE determine the success of your article in terms of how much traffic your article will generate back to your website. Success can only be had when you create keyword rich titles for your articles that match the most commonly searched keywords for your topic.
How to determine which keywords are rich and the right ones to use for your article?
You'll need a keyword research tool. Some are free and some are fee-based. Overture.com has a popular keyword research tool that shows you the most common search results from the Yahoo search engines directory. If you want to see what's on "Google's Mind" you can try one of their current beta tools called "Google Suggest": http://www.google.com/webhp?hl=en&complete=1
Whether you use a web-based keyword research tool or invest in one of the more advanced application level software keyword research tools, it's critical that you learn know how to do keyword research.
A "Good" vs. "Bad" TITLE Example:
Here is an example of the difference between a non-keyword rich TITLE vs. a very keyword rich TITLE that is proven to perform better in terms of traffic creation:
Bad TITLE Example:
"Top 9 Ways You Can Acquire Fractional Jet Ownership"
Excellent Keyword Rich Title Example:
Fractional Jet Ownership - 9 Strategies to Help You Acquire Your Private Jet
Why is it more effective?
Because it does not waste the first 3 words of the title with meaningless garbage words like "top" or the number "9" or "ways"...and gets right to the important words that might be found when someone is using a search engine to research a topic related to your article.
You'll also notice in my example that I included the word "Private" Jet. Why? Because my keyword research said that people who search for fractional jet also search for the word "private jet" and therefore I wanted to boost the chances that my title would be found by a larger number of potential visitors to the article.
Two recommendations on what NOT to do:
1) Don't include garbage characters in your TITLE such as quotes, tildes, asterisks or anything else that a search engines has to work hard to discard in order to understand the TITLE of your article.
2) Do not engage in any search engine spam technique by having keyword rich TITLES that have nothing to do with the topic of your article. You'll only be hurting yourself as the search engines already aggressively filter out bad behavior like this.
YOUR INTELLIGENT KEYWORD RICH TITLE COPYWRITING CONCLUSION:
If you want to maximize your results from any article marketing strategy, you must master keyword research so that you can create keyword rich and intelligent article TITLES. Your pay off will be massive amounts of traffic to your articles and website thanks to the search engines who love smart keyword rich TITLES!
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