I write a blog dedicated to people in the Home Staging Industry, advising them how best to use the internet to market their businesses.  I noticed something lately about how some of them were using article marketing that applies across all markets for locally based businesses.

I have long preached about the power of what I call geographical long tail keywords.

When you are setting up your web pages for your home staging business or any other locally based business for that matter, you want your page text and the invisible meta tags behind your page to include the key geographical keyword terms appropriate for your market.

This helps the search engine know that your site is and should be shown to people in your area, and will help get your web page to the top of the search engine results for people doing a search in your community.

In smaller markets this alone, when done properly will get you to the first page of results.  However, in most markets you need to go beyond this.

You need to generate backlinks to your site.

One of my favorite ways to do so is through article writing.  I encourage you to create short meaningful articles and post them to article directories. Perhaps the most important of which is www.ezinearticles.com

I recently checked them for articles on Homestaging and noted several that included geographical references in their titles.  There’s something good and bad to be said about that idea.

The good first. Article Directories like ezinearticles have high page ranks on their own. An article that includes your town name and home staging in it may well show up on the search engines by itself.

Being a published author online in a Google Search will certainly aid in your perceived credibility in the eyes of the reader, which is certainly good.

The downside is that far fewer newsletter, blog or ezine editors are likely to use the article.  For example in one article the author’s title was: 5 ways to homestage PEI (Prince Edward Island) real estate.  Since it mentions PEI, its not likely a California or Florida or Australian site on homestaging or realestate is likely to repost it.

People who reprint articles from these directories are not allowed to edit them, and thus most will just pass them by.

It’s important to understand that the widespread reposting is the primary goal of article marketing.  For each republishing of your article counts in your total backlink tally.  The reason to write articles is to gain this backlink power to raise your ranking on the search engines.  And that would be my focus, so I would tend to say do not put geopraphy in your article titles.

That said, if you have a number of good articles written, it may be worth an experiment to see if you can’t get some of them ranked.

Now what I did like about the article was that the author did create anchor text linking his site to the term “PEI real estate.”   This will help him rank higher in anyone’s search for that term. And that is what article marketing is all about from a local business perspective.

Technorati Tags: article marketing, backlinks, geographical keywords, long tail keywords, seo, search engine ranking

Technorati Tags: Article Marketing, backlinks, geographical keywords, long tail keywords, search engine ranking, SEO

In business, leverage is the name of the game. Leverage of employees, capital equipment and other resources extend ones ability to generate income far beyond what any one person could do.

Even if you are a one person shop though, you can gain leverage by multiplying your creative article writing efforts by re-purposing copy.

Here is how Content Crooner CEO Ken Vogt explains it.   Now Ken is Article centric, I use the same technique, although I tend to start with blog posts and turn them into emails and articles, but the principle is the same.   -etn

Let Your Articles Work for You in Different Ways

It’s a great feeling when you complete your article writing efforts. You undertook the necessary research and created an effective outline. You then got down to business and churned out words. The result is your personal masterpiece ready to go.

The next step is engaging in article submission to an article distribution service. You spend the time searching out the right one. You look for an article marketing service that allows unlimited article submissions for a one-time fee. You also choose one that has a comprehensive distribution list of fine publishers.

Now your articles are on their way to their new homes. You are finished with them and can move on. However, should you be finished with them? Are there any other areas where you can use the content you worked so hard to create.

There certainly are other areas where you can use your articles. You should put them to work in those areas to gain maximum benefit from them. The following are versatile uses of your articles for other content:

Newsletters

Of course, an article marketing service distributes your articles to numerous newsletter publishers. Why not publish your articles in your own newsletter. You can keep them the same, or modify them.

You can use this newsletter on an opt-in page to gain targeted subscribers. You offer a free informative newsletter in exchange for a subscribers name and e-mail address. This is a great way to build your list.

Useful newsletters are a great benefit to website visitors looking for good information. A newsletter you send out with quality content helps your credibility as an online marketer. They allow you to keep in touch with those of your niche. Newsletters help you convert readers into customers.

Email Campaigns

With your opt-in list in hand or onscreen, you can mount effective e-mail campaigns. Articles you wrote for article distribution purposes are also suitable for e-mailing to your list. Again, you can send the original creation or modify it to suit a specific campaign.

The main thing is to send useful, relevant, current information. People get enough useless junk mail that tells them nothing new. People resent when others waste their time with “hype” e-mails that are of no benefit to them. You know how you feel when you get those kinds of e-mails.

Articles contain quality information that offers benefits to readers. Make them part of your e-mail campaigns. Recipients don’t mind reading e-mails that inform, educate, inspire, and offer solutions.

EBooks

You can also compile a host of articles you wrote on a topic into an EBook. You make each article a chapter or section in your EBook. If the articles are very short, make two or three of them a section of your book.

You can modify the articles as needed to suit the persona of the book you intend to promote. However, you essentially have a ready-made EBook on hand because of your existing articles. In your EBook, you place those vital links back to your web pages. This gains you major relevant traffic.

Your EBook is now a product you can offer as a free giveaway to your website visitors. Alternatively, you can sell the EBook and earn some money from those article-writing efforts. Many programs exist for doing up a professional looking EBook to market.

Blog Posts

Do you have your own blog? Blogs are great for keeping your niche market informed daily or weekly on aspects of your business. You can use your articles as blog posts to inform your readers.

If you typically write short blog posts, just break up your articles. Split one 750-word article into two separate blog posts. Run a series of blog posts based on a set of articles on a certain topic.

Using well-written articles as blog posts offers quality information to your readers. People read blogs for shorter blasts of good information. Turn your well-written articles into well-written blog posts that capture reader’s attention.

Hard Copy Informational Reports for Offline Marketing

Maybe you engage in some offline marketing initiatives. Do you market products and services at home shows, craft shows, trades shows, and such? Why not print your articles as informational reports to hand out in person.

Online marketing is the 21st century way. However, there’s still a time and place for offline marketing done right. Wherever you are promoting your business, excellent articles in hand are great resources to hand to interested observers.

Let your articles work for you in different ways. Don’t limit the ways to gain exposure for your writing. You can build significant backlinks by utilizing your articles across different platforms. It’s a great way to build your author reputation and your business.

To your success,

Kenneth Vogt

Kenneth Vogt is CEO of Content Crooner; a quality content distribution service. He is an established internet marketing professional and respected Web expert.

Discover how quality content is a driving force behind highly targeted traffic and improved page rank in our Free Report.

Follow Us on Twitter: ContentCrooner

Technorati Tags: article campaign, article marketing tips, backlinks, blogs, business, e-mail campaigns, EBook, exposure, newsletters, Offline marketing, publishers, reputation, targeted traffic, website