This chapter will talk about effective marketing strategies you can use. Most of these cost very little. Marketing doesn’t have to be expensive. Sometimes it can even be free.

Ezine and Solo Ads

Ezines and solo advertising are a good place to start. Start with your own newsletter or ezine. If you don’t have subscribers, use a service like http://www.worldwidelists.com to build a subscriber base fast and rather economically. Or you can go to places like http://www.ezineadauction.com and bid on advertising. Just be careful and ask for a sample of any newsletter before you place an ad in it. Some are so chocked-full of advertisements that they aren’t worth the time or money.

Using Articles as a Marketing Tool

Articles are a great way to establish yourself as an expert in your field and get free promotion on other people’s Web site. If you write something that another ezine owner or webmaster wants to use on their site, they’ll generally include a brief bio for you and a link to your Web site. By doing this, you build link popularity and traffic to your web site while establishing yourself as an expert. Once you’ve written your article, be sure to post it to various article repositories. The most popular out there is www.IdeaMarketers.com . IdeaMarketers is a writer-publisher matching service where writers can post their articles for free to gain exposure to 1,000+ online and offline publishers. It's a great way to establish yourself as an expert in your field by writing about your area of expertise and getting free publicity back to your Web site.

If you're a writer who normally gets published for pay, use IdeaMarketers as a way to show samples of your work that you do not intend to resell. Many writers who started out for free have used IdeaMarketers as a springboard for being picked up as freelance writers, syndicated columnists, and book authors.

One of the perks IdeaMarketers gives writers is promotion of their books. So if you have a book that you've written that is on Amazon, IdeaMarketers promotes it on the site for free and suggests that visiting webmasters and publishers do the same.

In summary, writers generally use IdeaMarketers for the following reasons:

• They want to put a taste of their work out there for publishers and Webmasters to find. If you earn your living as a writer, don't add anything that you want to sell later. Just post samples.
• They want exposure for their products and services -- every time the articles are used the people using them must use the author's bio/contact information and links to their site, etc. This is the most common reason people post to IdeaMarketers. People who offer products and services who are experts in their particular field write articles, post them on IdeaMarketers, get them picked up and used on other sites and get increased exposure for their products/services -- establishing themselves as experts in their field. Basically a good article can give you free advertising on dozens of high-traffic web sites.
• They want exposure for their books that they've had published. They post excerpts from their books and use the bio area to explain how to order.
• Any author with a book on Amazon who submits at least one article to IdeaMarketers can have their book featured on the site and promoted to Webmasters who in turn will link to the book from their sites.

Tips for Writing Articles

·         Use correct grammar and spelling. Use a program like Microsoft Word or some other program with a grammar and spell checker to check your article before uploading it to any article database. Remember that words like your and you're, then and than, their and there are not always caught by spell checkers. So make sure you read over your article carefully before submitting it. If you have a friend with a good eye for spelling and grammar, have them read it first.

·         Write factually and document. Although there is a time and a place for editorial and opinion and online publishers use many articles of this kind, there is a good market for factual articles. Consider writing articles that do not use the words "I" or "me" in them.

·         Do your homework. Use books, online newspapers and magazines to find supportive research to back up your theories or ideas. Quote from these properly by including either a link to the full article or a footnote at the bottom of your article.

·         Use quotes. Interview people who know about the topic on which you are writing. Get permission to quote them in your article and give them proper credit for the quote. Read articles in magazines and notice how often magazine articles quote experts to support the information being delivered.

·         Read and study writing styles. For whatever topics you write about, read print magazines that cover those topics and get a feel for the type of writing style professional writers use. Watch their techniques, their use of quotations, etc, and learn to integrate these tools into your writing style.

·         Don't use all CAPS. Using all capital letters in your title or within the body of your article is seen as unprofessional and will deter publishers who use our automated system from selecting your article.

·         Be consistent. Use consistent formatting and headline styles throughout your article.

·         Be conscious of word count. Most people using sites like IdeaMarketers to find articles are looking for Web content. Keep your articles short. 500-1,000 words is optimal. A feature article can be as long as 1,500 words, but do not extend beyond that.

·         Keep your bio or “About the Author” information brief. Limit it to 4-6 lines in length and mention any URL's you'd like the article to link to when it is used. By giving publishers a perfect ''About the Author'' bio, you'll increase the chances of them using your article. I’ve heard some publishers complain that the author's bio in many cases is actually longer than the article!  Another note about your bio, write it in third person. Third person bios are more professional and more likely to be used.

The point is, make it easy for people to use your articles. Don't make them have to spell check, correct your grammar, or edit your biographical information. Give them factual, accurate information in a friendly format, and your chances of being published will increase dramatically.

Creating a Winning Title  

You spend a lot of time crafting a well-written article. You put your knowledge, experience and best effort into it so that you can place it on article directories and submit it to web sites and ezines. But even the most well-written article could miss out on the chance of being used or read. Do you want to know why? Because the title is a dud!

Without an attention-grabbing title, all your work could be in vain. Think about that! Fifty to sixty characters can make or break the success of your article.

Let’s take a look at a few “heavy hitter” articles on IdeaMarketers to get some ideas about what types of titles work and which ones don’t. I looked at articles that were submitted in 60 days period and pulled ones that had at least 150 hits or more. Below I’ve selected a few top hitters that received no special promotion by IdeaMarketers’ staff, yet pulled a good clip of hits.

• How to Get Free Traffic Quickly with Free Traffic Exchanges!
• How to Improve your Credit Score Quickly
• The Secret Behind All Great Masterpieces: Lessons Learned!
• How to Make a Raw Land Purchase for Custom Built Homes
• Advantages/Disadvantages of Internet Marketing: The Good the Bad and the Ugly
• 7 Power Skills that Build Strong Relationships
• Making the Invisible Visible: The Wow Behind the How!
• All Stressed Up and No Place to Blow

Using these articles as a guide, the following are three rules to catchy title development.

1. State your benefit. Give the viewer a reason to click on your article. Each of these titles tells you what you’re going to gain from reading the article. You’re either going to get web site traffic, learn how to create a masterpiece, learn how to buy land, have stronger relationships, or deal with stress more effectively.
2. Be specific.  Don’t be afraid to state specifically what your article is about. Sometimes people are vague because they think a vague title will pull more traffic because it will have broader appeal. It doesn’t work that way! The land purchase article is a great example. A person who has no desire to buy land will not click on that article. The person who is interested will excitedly click on it! If the article is well written, they’ll most likely click on the author’s site and learn more about his products and services. That’s what you want! You want to reach your target reader. Go for quality, not quantity when you create your title. In the end, you’ll get more clicks than if you were vague.
3. Use grabbers. “How To” articles are popular. People also seem to like titles with numbers in them – “7 Power Skills that Build Strong Relationships.” Odd numbers in particular tend to be attention-getters. You can also use catchy phrases. I particularly got a chuckle out of “All Stressed Up and No Place to Blow.” It definitely made me want to read the article.

So next time you sit down to write an article, give as much thought and consideration to your title as you did for the article itself. It can make or break your success.

Teleclasses

We’ve already touched on teleclasses, but do keep them in mind for marketing your products and services. For example, a particularly popular teleclass I’ve promoted periodically is a free one entitled, “Leveraging the Power of Articles and Ezines to Build Your Business.” By discussing how articles and ezines help build your business in an informative, non-sales way, we’ve educated our visitors and sold products and services that we wouldn’t have otherwise.  

Viral Marketing  

Again, we’ve touched on viral marketing methods earlier as a way to create products that are viral in nature. But I’d like to re-emphasize it here in this chapter on marketing.  One example is a free ebook that you write and then let other people give away on their sites as a bonus for when they purchase something or subscribe to a newsletter. Of course, inside this ebook will be links to your site and products and services and even your affiliate links.  

You can also offer brand-able ebooks where the person promoting the ebook for you can place their affiliate links to your products and services within it.  

Autoresponders  

An autoresponder is an email that goes out automatically when someone subscribers to your newsletter or fills out a form on your site. Particularly useful, are autoresponder series where the subscriber automatically receives a series of emails from you. Basically, you load in a series of emails into the autoresponder system and then whenever someone subscribes to it, they get each email in the system spread out over a period of time. You can use these for tutorials, informational emails, courses, or just to periodically touch base with people to make sure they are happy with your product or service.  

It generally takes on average of seven contacts to turn a prospect into a customer. You can automate this entire process so that no one falls through the cracks by using an autoresponder. One system I like for doing this is http://www.smartautoresponder.com . It’s effective and economical.  

Phone Calls  

With all the use of technology out there today, very few people expect to hear from a live person when they visit a Web site. Imagine what a follow-up phone call after a purchase would do for a customer! You’d be tying a real live person into the transaction – letting them know that a human being cares about them and whether they are satisfied with your product or service.

You can use follow-up phone calls when people request information or you can use them after the purchase. Don’t be afraid to pick up the phone. Unlimited long distance plans are out there and can save you a lot of money on your long distance bill. But don’t let them go to waste! Use that unlimited long distance plan to stay in contact with your prospects and customers. It could make the difference in a one-time customer and a life-long one who knows you and respects you as a person.

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