I read something like this almost everyday in emails to me or on webmaster/business forums. Somebody is just starting out, they hear about article or Bum marketing, and without spending the time to learn the basics of how to do it right they create a bunch of articles, submit them to a bunch of article directories…and then after making no sales at all proclaim that article/Bum marketing doesn’t work or is a myth.

I put these people in the same category as people who lose a few hundred dollars advertising with Google AdWords and then run around telling everybody who will listen how AdWords is a waste of money.

My Grandpappy used to have a saying and it applies here, “it’s a very poor musician who blames his instrument”.

As a partner of a popular article directory, and someone who has been using articles to promote products and web sites online since 1997 I can emphatically say that I know of no other promotional method with an equal ROI than article marketing.

It’s the fastest and easiest way to drive targeted traffic to an offering that you will ever find for free.

But, like anything else it has to be done properly to be effective. You have to step into the shoes of the target market you’re writing for, write to their needs and desires, format it properly to motivate them to click your “call to action” links, and then promote your articles just as you would if they were a page on your own web site.

Here’s a brief overview of what I’m talking about. If I were promoting a specific brand of Fly-fishing Rod my first step would be to figure out what my target market wants.

Is that a longer casting rod? A more quite reel? Better spring action? All of these might be good ideas, but none of them are what fishers really want…which is simply to catch more fish.

So, right off the bat instead of writing articles that describe the shiny details of the rods I’m promoting I’d decide to write articles about how I’ll be catching lots of fish using that particular rod.

Next I’ll setup the format for my articles. I like to start articles by bringing the reader down. By that I mean I try to pin-point some problem they’re having that later my product offering will solve. I do it in this manner because I like to take my article readers on a roller coaster ride that starts low, then slowly builds up and climaxes by going over the hump and leaves the reader waving their arms and screaming “give it to me!”

In this case I’d start out talking about how it stinks to spend all day fishing for nothing. I’d really drive that point home over several paragraphs.

Then I’d mention how it seems there is always someone out there who is doing a lot better, so there is hope. This is the start of the upward climb.

I’d point out how those guys catching all the fish are always smiling, because they’re so happy. Here I’m telling the reader that life (or fishing) can be better for them too.

Then take them over the hump with your rod that promises the chance to land more fish and make them happy, and tell them exactly how and where to get the rod with your “call to action” link. BAM! Targeted traffic swarming to your offer.

Here’s the format breakdown:
1. pin-point a problem
2. really describe how having the problem is ruining their life
3. point out benefits of not having the problem
4. give solution to the problem

So now I’d have my articles, and I’d submit them to multiple article directories. I know there’s a lot of differing opinions on whether or not you should submit articles to multiple directories. It’s all hog-wash and here’s why: your goal is to bring targeted visitors to your offering, so market saturation is your friend.

Yes, there’s some search engine filtering that happens because of duplicate content, but so what? That effects the article directories, not you or your offering. And, the more places you publish your articles the more chances you have for them to get picked up by others, so the more chances you have to get them in-front of reader’s eyes. It’s all about mass exposure, so submit them everywhere you can.

Now, here’s a crucial step that a lot of people miss, even seasoned article marketers. Once your articles are published you need to promote them a little bit.

I don’t mean write articles to promote your other articles (though this is a very effective method that I do use sometimes to build a large niche funnel), but at the very least you should be bookmarking your articles on bookmarking sites like Delicious and Reddit. This isn’t unethical at all since you create accounts on those sites to share your own bookmarks through, and if you write an article that’s certainly something you would want to bookmark and share, right? It’s using the services as they’re intended to be used.

The advantage of bookmarking your articles is two-fold. First, you may get some human readers from it, which is priority #1. In fact, I’ve made sales from my own articles within hours of publishing them because of instant traffic I picked up by bookmarking the articles.

And second, even though most bookmarking site links are “nofollow”, that only means that Google’s PageRank juice isn’t being passed by the links, which is fine. However, the search engines will still pick up those links and then index your articles because of them. That leads to your article appearing on the search engines when people search for the topic, which leads to more human traffic.

Everyday I see experienced marketers submitting articles to the directory I’m a partner in and not taking the two minutes they should to bookmark them and it amazes me. They spend all that time and effort to create and publish their articles, then blow it on a crucial step that only takes a few seconds to perform in the end.

Seriously, I can say first-hand that every one of the top 250 articles (based on traffic received) at Content Caboodle were all submitted to–and get traffic from–bookmarking sites.

Many of the articles there are showing up in the top 10 results on search engines for various keywords, and almost every one of these articles has been submitted to bookmarking sites.

It’s a step that takes just seconds but can result in multiplying the traffic your articles get by 10 or more…it really blows my mind how many people aren’t using it.

One final note, though I think I’ve given a clear description of how to write an effective article for results there is something else you can do to help you understand what works and what doesn’t with articles–you can also use this to see what markets are hot right now too.

Go to article directories like Content Caboodle, eZineArticles and SearchWarp and checkout the top authors and top articles on them.

The authors with lots of articles are the ones who’ve found how to make article marketing work for them, so see how they write and format their articles…and you can also see what markets they’re promoting recently.

It’s not exactly the nicest thing to do if you just go and copy their style and markets, but it isn’t illegal by any means and for people just starting out with–or having trouble with–article marketing it is a good way to learn the craft.

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