This website, ContentMarketers.com, contains news, links, resources, connectivity, tips and articles for the content marketing industry.
The website was launched a few days ago and already has some great content. If you don't know what content marketing is, you are missing out on what I feel is the greatest website marketing tool around. Visit ContentMarketers.com to learn more and find out how to get started.
More information will be added over this next week and when traffic picks up, I will be adding a forum to enhance the education and connectivity.
]]>Today's Internet revolves around content and promotional articles allow website owners to fill their website with great content on a variety of topics. Writing and distributing promotional articles is the single best way to market a website today.
]]> As you read promotional articles, you will notice the wide array of writing ability—or lack thereof. For a promotional article to be successfully distributed on a wide scale, it must be written and presented well. In this article, we are going to begin talking about some simple tips you can perform to ensure that your promotional article rises above the masses.Tip One: Titles
A title can elevate or destroy a promotional article. If the title is great, more people will take interest and proceed to read your article. However, a poor title will drive people away. So what makes a good title?
Example One: Writing a Promotional Article is pretty easy to do.
Example Two: Promotional Article Writing 101
Which is best? Example One is a sentence not a title. In my second example, the title is to the point and you know what the article entails right from the start. Could I have come up with a better title? You bet. While this title is good, there is always a better title out there. Take your time and exhaust yourself seeking out good titles.
Tip Two: Outlines
Having solid flow to your promotional articles is an absolute must. Without it, your article will appear to be choppy and your reader will become confused and eventually drift off. Creating an outline is really simple. The amount of effort you put in is up to you. Following is an example of a simple outline for this article.
Your outline might be more involved, but the above at least shows what needs to be written and in what order they need to be written in. By outlining, it is easy to find errors in flow before time is wasted in the writing process.
Today, we have looked at two important tips for writing great promotional articles. Following my advice will allow you to create promotional articles that stand out and do their marketing job more effectively.
©2005 JASON ANDREW MARTIN
You may link to this article.
]]>Depending on where you live in the world, you may need to obtain legal documentation such as a business license. It is best to consult a local attorney. However, not everyone can afford such an expense. If this is you, look for local small business groups. By calling around, you should be able to find out what will be required for you to legally do business on the Internet.
Step Two: Business Plan
Every successful business has a business plan. To many, this may see like a daunting task. It is well beyond the scope of this article to explain how to properly create a business plan. Software exists to help you with this task. Basically, a business plan helps you clearly define your goals, understand your competition and visualize what you must do to achieve your goals.
Spend some time thinking about what you wish to accomplish with your new business. The answer “make money” is not a valid one. What is the specific purpose of your new business?
Example: I want to start a business that will sell motherboards for computers.
Example Expanded: Initially the business will work to obtain wholesale pricing from motherboard manufacturers and retail them to the end user. The business will work to create our own brand of motherboard to retail and distribute to other computer parts outlets.
Example Long-term: The business will formulate a motherboard design, have it manufactured and distribute it to computer parts outlets. Additionally, the business will work to secure working relationships with computer manufacturers to have our motherboard built in.
As you can see from the above three examples, we have a working goal outline. If you do nothing else for this step, do what is in the above examples. So many people jump into business without a clear idea of what they wish to accomplish. The end result is failure.
Step Three: Familiarity
This next step involves you becoming extremely familiar with the industry you wish to do business in. The more educated you are, the higher your chance for success is. You should know as many competitors as possible, especially the big ones. Seeking out trade publications and informational resources is an absolute must.
The first step here is to create a new bookmarks folder in your browser. Call it whatever you wish, but remember to keep your bookmarks extremely organized. Next, it is time to sit back with your favorite non-alcoholic beverage and go website cruising.
The first website you will want to visit is the search engine of your choice. I go to Google.com myself, but this is up to you. You are going to type in many search queries and visiting many websites. If you are familiar with tabbed browsing, this task will be much more orderly. Below I will show you some common search queries I would do for a new copywriting business.
• Copywriting
• Copywriting forum
• Copywriting newsgroup
• Copywriting board
• Copywriters association
• Copywriters trade publication
• Trade publications writing
• Writers
• Writers forum
• Writers board
• Writers association
• Copywriting books
• Copywriting sites
I hope you get the idea. I am basically looking for my competitors and informational sources where I can eventually learn and advertise. If your industry has specific product names, search for those as well.
This is an ongoing process. You want to try and learn as much as possible in the beginning, but you certainly won’t find everything. As you progress in your business, take note of the websites you run across. In my bookmarks, I have a folder called “Check Later” that has a listing of websites that might be beneficial, but I have not had the time to review yet.
This concludes part one of “How to Start an Online Business”. This first part is crucial. Those who ignore it are almost certainly destined to fail. Great things take time and to rush is foolish. If you wish to read the rest of this guide, visit my Internet Business website at InternetBusinessEntrepreneur.com. You can also find other helpful articles there on a variety of topics such as marketing and writing.
Copyright 2005 JASON ANDREW MARTIN LLC
You may link to this article.
]]>Rule One: You are not an artist.
Ok, maybe you are, but you still don’t need to use every available color and font in the known universe on your website. Take a look at any newspaper. How many colors and fonts do you see? Many are black and white print with a splash of color here and there. Their type is sure and steady. The USA Today is one of the more colorful papers out there and even they don’t go nuts with color.
If your website is a visual car wreck, your visitors will end up leaving. Your website could look like a piece of art, but if the message gets lost, it is a waste of space. Keep your colors simple and pleasing to the eye. If you look at some of the most successful websites, you will notice they usually have a simple color scheme.
Rule Two: Your website is not a puzzle.
Have you ever been to a website for the first time and seen information all over your screen? If so, you most likely felt overwhelmed and you probably left. Here is a fact. The more orderly your website is in regards to content layout, the more focused your visitor will become on the content. Content that is not in an orderly fashion is sometimes coined as “hip”, but the end result is a less focused visitor.
Does this mean you need a plain boring website? Of course not. However, due care is warranted when laying out content. I would like to direct your attention to the newspaper again. Most newspapers use grids to layout their content. Look at the newspaper. Even though it has a wealth of information, you feel right at home. This is the same effect your website should have.
Spend the extra time and figure out how you can best lay out your content. Always design with the first time user in mind. Keep navigation as a top concern. You don’t need fancy flash buttons and other doodads. If the visitor can not use your website with ease and minimal distractions, all is lost.
Rule Three: Keep your focus.
How many websites have you went to that spend valuable homepage space welcoming you to the website? Think about this for a moment. Why is this necessary? What could be put into its place? When a new user goes to your website, you have literally seconds to interest them enough so they stay. Do you want to waste that valuable time with a welcome message?
When you turn on TV to watch your favorite show, does the show start off by welcoming you to Channel X and Show X? Of course it doesn’t. The whole point of this section is to illustrate just how important space is. You do not have the luxury of time to have fluff on your website. Your ad copy (text/images) must be lean and mean.
Another common mistake I see on ecommerce oriented websites is the whole “who we are” speech on the homepage. When a new visitor comes to your website, they don’t care who you are. They care about what you can do for them. Keep your focus on the visitor’s needs and not your own. Before you spend time talking about yourself, you need to give the visitor a reason to care. Because of this, it is best to put all your text about your company on other pages. There is nothing wrong with putting a blurb about your company on the homepage, but it should be limited and to the point.
If you find yourself at wits end, it is time to call in the experts. My company, MarketJunction.com, can help you. Are there more than three rules you ask? Yes, but I selected three very important ones for you in this article. My website, JasonAMartin.com, has more informative articles. Follow these three rules and you will be well on your way to a supercharged website.
Copyright 2005 Jason Andrew Martin LLC
]]>Content Tycoon can be found at: http://www.ContentTycoon.com
]]> If you write articles for promotional purposes, submit them to Content Tycoon.Additionally, you can locate articles on a variety of topics, which can be used on your website(s). It is completely free!
]]>Before going out to proclaim the glory that is your website, first make sure that it is in tip top shape. Was your website carefully and professionally setup? It is vital that your copy, that is the text on your website, be written well. Studies have shown that the average Internet visitor is getting more sophisticated and expects features like proper use of the English language (or whatever language you are using). Fail in this area and you will lose business plain and simple.
Now that your copy is humming, how is your search engine optimization? Did you at least look into some basics? Search Engine Optimization is the act of making your website search engine friendly and more likely to appear under the keyword phrases that appeal to your targeted audience. While it can be a very complex process, at the very least your pages should be generally search engine friendly and contain some of the keywords your target audience will be interested in. Once these two items are at least satisfactory, you are ready for the next step.
Step Two: Links
Your website needs links. Today, even a simple link exchange can be complicated. Many website owners don’t want to reciprocate links with a new website. So how can you advance if you can’t get links? Thankfully there are alternative solutions. When you are first starting out don’t spend too much time trying to find websites to link with. Work on establishing yourself first.
The best way to gain links to your website in bunches is by providing content to other websites, also known as: Promotional Articles. By doing so, you are giving other website owners something of value. The end result is your new website receives many one-way links from other websites with ease. The new Internet world revolves around content. Website owners from around the world are just waiting for free content from people like you.
Your article needs to be written well to succeed. Simply throwing words down on paper is not good enough. The better your article is written, the more it will appeal to website owners. In the end, this equates to more worldwide coverage, which is what you want. Not a writer? No problem. You can visit PromotionalArticles.com and have promotional articles professionally crafted for you. Simply slap your name on them and away you go. There is an editing service as well in case you are a decent writer, but require an editor to polish up your work.
Step Three: Promotional Articles & Repetition
If possible, you want to release at least a few promotional articles. Also spacing is important. If you think three articles will be all you can release for now, don’t release them all at once. Promotional Articles can be very fast acting. The time really depends on the market the article is geared towards and how well it is written. I have seen my articles end up on other websites within hours of release.
Once released, the search engines will begin to pick up the fact that your article is on other indexed websites. When this happens, your back links go up. This can continue for quite some time. The process of releasing your promotional article to the world is quite simple. At my website, JasonAMartin.com, there is an article all about how to do this.
Step Four: Further Linking
Once you have allowed some time after step three, your website will begin to take hold. Now is a good time to seek out some solid links on other websites. Stick to websites that are either on the same topic or related. For example, if you owned a website that sold cheese, receiving a link from a website that sold motor oil would not be beneficial. However, receiving a link from a website about cheese or wine would.
As time permits, seek out smaller websites in your field and see if they sell advertising on their front page for a small fee. For example, one night I found a website that was set up decently in the search engines and on topic of a website of mine. This website offered a homepage text link for $2 per week. I not only received a nice link to help my search engine status, but a possibility for highly targeted traffic as well. The Internet is full of on-topic websites for you to locate and profit from.
That’s a Wrap
By following this plan, you can significantly increase the staying power of your website. It really is not that complicated when you do things properly. Is there more you ask? Sure. You can purchase traffic from trusted PPC sources for one. Some of these other techniques are discussed in other articles, which are all available at JasonAMartin.com. Once you master the art of opening a website properly, you will want to open up many more.
©2005 JASON ANDREW MARTIN LLC All Rights Reserved.
You may link to this article from your website.
Would you like a way to market your website inexpensively?
Do you want to see results today rather than next year?
]]> If so, our new marketing service is just for you. You may have read some of my articles around the Internet. If you read "Success Starts with Articles", you know how powerful promotional articles are.Perhaps you are not a writer?
No problem. Our new service will craft professional promotional articles for your website(s) and get you on track for more traffic, branding, backlinks and a strong search engine foundation.
Can you write some?
We also offer an editing service that can shape up even the roughest copy.
There is no reason why you should miss out on the new evolution in effective website marketing. Simply go to my website at PromotionalArticles.com today and see what we can do for you!
]]>There once was a little piggy
His name was Iggy
He liked to wiggle
so his body would jiggle
Iggy sure loved to eat
His favorite snack was anything sweet
The great white circle soon filled the sky
So Cher and Iggy said goodbye
In their bed each one lay
Tired from all the fun they had this day
Good night Cher. Good night Iggy.
Sweet dreams cuddly bear. Sweet dreams little piggy.
Commentary:
I was sitting down doing some spontaneous writing when the mood to write a poem struck me. A vision of children listening to a bed time story stuck me so I began to write this children’s poem.
]]>No matter what your reading ability is, you should have little trouble grasping the meaning of each poem. I strive to write in a general and simple manner.
My poems might be serious, playful, for adults, or for children. I do hope you enjoy them and comment.
]]>Quick as lightning, I jumped into my vehicle and motored down to the Apple retail outlet. Upon entering—my first time—I was greeted by the friendly staff. They quickly took me under their wing and began to show me the wonders of the Mac world. Right away I noticed how whisper quiet the Mac Mini was. My Windows machine is loud and annoying when I don’t have some sort of audio playing. The next thing I noticed was how small it was—like a box of chocolates.
The Mac Mini only comes with 256 megs of ram, which was a disappointment for a power user like myself. While the system might run as-is, I wanted more ram so I could see what the Mac Mini was capable of. I was surprised to see all the great software included on this little bundle of joy. It not only comes with a professional grade operating system, OSX, but other great software like the iLIFE suite. The Mac Mini does not come with a monitor, mouse, or keyboard, but because I had an existing system, this was not an issue. I exited the Apple store—my Mac Mini with added ram in hand.
The drive home from the Apple store seemed to last for hours, even though it was probably 30 minutes in reality. To say I was anxious to hook it up would be a great understatement. The setup was the fastest in history:
1. Removed Mac Mini from the beautiful box.
2. Plugged in the monitor, cable modem, speakers, keyboard, and mouse.
3. Pushed the power button and watched as my new Mac Mini came to life.
Immediately I was surfing the Net, checking email, and playing music. This was all nice, but I wanted to see what this baby could really do. I reached for my prized game, World of Warcraft, and slid disk one into the DVD drive. If the Mac Mini could play World of Warcraft in any decent capacity, I was prepared to anoint it the greatest computer creation of my time. After some minor graphics tweaking in the settings panel for World of Warcraft, I was off to test. Soon, I was in sheer delight as my beloved game was now playing on this new inexpensive Mac.
Most of my concerns started to fade away, but I still had a few. Being a writer, I was concerned that all my Word documents would not look right and that if I made them in Mac, others using Windows would have problems utilizing them. The Mac Mini came with a trial version of Microsoft Office 2004. Quickly I discovered that everything worked to perfection and now I was really excited. I even found a program called Music Man that allowed me to play Windows Audio files on my new Mac. This gem of a program also converts files, which is an awesome feature.
In the end, I discovered that all my concerns were for nothing as the Mac stepped up to the plate and addressed each one of them with ease. For me, breaking free from Windows is like taking a shower—I feel very clean now. The only major disappointment for me was finding out that my Mac came with Internet Explorer, which I hate with a passion. Thankfully, it can be simply deleted, as the OS is not built upon this faulty piece of software. The vision of putting a Mac in every home is now a legitimate possibility thanks to the Mac Mini.
©2005 Jason Andrew Martin LLC
This article may not be reproduced in any way. Feel free to link to it from your website, ezine, or other publication.
]]>There are articles on how to craft better resumes, links to resume writers, and links to software that will aid you in creating that perfect resume.
The website is ResumeResource.org and it will be updated frequently with articles and helpful items.
Resume Tips
I will now start resuming my duties and more updates will be forthcoming.
IBE was updated with a new article today:
"7 Wise Ways to Collect Email Addresses and Build Your Mailing List" in the email marketing section.
"The Seven Secrets of a High-Sales Marketer" was added to the website promotion section.
"5 Reasons Why Participating in Forums can Benefit Your Business" was added to the website promotion section.
Section one is your opening paragraph. The introductory paragraph will set the stage for your article. It should have a solid introductory line that hooks the reader in. You must keep this section clear and concise. The introductory line should be connected to the title.
Example Title: Using Coupons Saves Money at the Grocery Store
Example Introductory Line: The average grocery shopper can save 47% by using coupons.
Notice how the introductory line and the title work together. In fact, you could rewrite both lines into one without losing the message—so we know the flow is correct. Remember, the introductory paragraph is the setup for the article. The real “meat” of the article follows. Your final line in this section should be an opener for section two.
SECTION TWO
Section two is the main body of your article. It can consist of one or more paragraphs and should present each major item, detail, or argument in its own paragraph—with no more than three major themes. Before this section is tackled, you should already have a working outline to write from. Let’s stay with our coupon theme and see how it might be presented under this template.
Subsection A Theme: Clipping coupons from your local paper.
Subsection B Theme: Obtaining coupons from coupon programs and websites.
Subsection C Theme: Other places or methods to obtain coupons from.
Depending on the content length, a subsection could be more than one paragraph. A clear outline will aid in making this section shine. Keep sentences flowing in a logical order and group the major themes. According to our example outline, a sentence in subsection “C” about newspaper coupons would be out of place.
SECTION THREE
This is your finale. Your article has been presented to the reader in all its glory and now it is time to bring everything to a close. This section should be at least three sentences and not simply restate what was printed thus far. You want the reader to leave the article fully satisfied. There are different schools of thought as to the best way to formulate a conclusion, but I like to make sure the introductory and closing sentences are solid. A solid introductory sentence will entice the reader to finish the article and the solid closing will leave a lasting impression about what was just read. Never open this section with:
“In conclusion…”
“So as you can see…”
“My conclusion…”
You certainly don’t need to be an outlining guru to follow this simple template. Taking a little time before sitting down to write can make all the difference in the world. So where do you go from here? Well, if you need a copywriter, visit my website. If not, start following the 1-3-1 template with your next article. Get out a sheet of paper or open a computer writing program, and begin by writing down your main article theme and what it is about. Next, come up with three major topics within that theme for section two. Finally, write down what it is you set out to prove or inform. With the solid 1-3-1 template data in hand, start writing your great article.
©2005 Jason Andrew Martin LLC
This article may not be reproduced in any way. Feel free to link to it from your website, ezine, or other publication.
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