Every so often I read someone’s claim that article marketing is dead. I used to think may be it was true. But that’s so wrong!
More often than not, these statements about the demise of article marketing are made by someone promoting a system or software that operates in a way that is opposite to what article marketing is all about.
How I Understand Article Marketing
Just to be clear, this is how I understand article marketing. It’s the process of researching information about a particular subject, and presenting the findings in a way that is useful and helpful to your readers.
So the aim of article marketing is to inform and educate your audience.
Become an Authority
In the process of doing so, the writer will add to his standing as an authority on his subject. If he writes more articles, he will continue to build his authority, and he will gain exposure.
There are many writers who like to expand into many niches, and they can write successfully about many subjects.
I personally prefer to write about one or two niches that are of particular interest to me, and where I have a true passion for the subject. One of these is the IM niche.
Therefore, following the thinking expressed above, I hope to inform and educate my readers about IM concerns. This would currently mean information about how to generate traffic to a blog or website.
Everyone Needs Traffic
Practically every online marketer, regardless of experience, struggles with traffic generation everyday.
I think where the critics or doomsayers go wrong is that they don’t realize that for an article to be effective, it must be promoted, as suggested by the social media sharing buttons available right here at EzineArticles.
Invite Your Reader to Your Website
Of course, in the process of educating your readers you are also given the opportunity to invite them to your own website where you can continue the education and relationship building which the article started.
This will allow the prospect to know you better, to build the all important “know, like and trust you” which is so necessary before you can hope to generate a sale.
So how do articles help you build your reputation and authority?
Suppose you write 10 articles about your main topic. You then publish one article here. You post or “publish” one article on your blog. You publish another article somewhere else. You publish another article as a guest blogger.
Next, you take 2 or 3 of those 10 articles and convert them into YouTube videos.
Next you go to a few leading forums in your niche and chat about your subject.
If you continue this activity for a few weeks, or better yet for two to three months, you will establish yourself as an authority in your field. Then when someone goes looking for information about your subject, your name will pop up.
And this will continue to happen in different information sources, because you will be dominating your subject and your niche.
I Want to Be a Specialists
This is why I don’t write about everything under the sun. I don’t want to be a generalist. I want to be a specialists in a narrow area of Internet marketing. At present that’s generating traffic to your blog. And even within generating traffic, I may be the “go to” person about using Facebook advertising to generate traffic.
That should also be your aim, to dominate your subject so you can dominate your niche.
So article marketing is not dead… on the contrary, it should be the foundation from which you build your reputation, get exposure, get to be known in your niche, till you become the “go to” person in your market.