Finding Material for Your Blog

Since my last article, I have had a lot of people say “but where do I get the material for a blog”? That is what this article is about finding relevant information for your articles…

I am going to give you some hope – and some tools to help you with your blogging.


In the beginning when blogs were starting to catch fire – I felt the same way as you do, I just could not bring myself to take the time or put the effort into setting a blog up or writing articles day after day. However, I must tell you when I decided to do it – I jumped in full force – and boy, am I glad I did. With-in 6 months of starting my blog, I started to hear from people all over the USA and even from some other countries – after that I was a believer...

As people read my articles, they came to realize I was not another business trying to con them. I was not just out for the money – I was an expert in my field, and I was a genuine, authentic entrepreneur.

I do walk the walk and talk the talk, and I am not afraid to tell the truth when I hit a rough spot, I will share my experience – knowing it will help you avoid those pitfalls. If I don’t know the answer to a question, I will tell you so - then I will find the answer. My reads and clients can count on me to guide them and put them on the right track. I believe we all have radar that will signal us when we have found someone with credibility issues – some people chose to ignore this warning. Sometimes we don't have enough information to know what a person or business is about – well when you blog about what you know – and show your stuff your readers will be able to see that you are the real deal…


How do you come up with an article? Or a blog post?

• Find the latest news in your industry and write about it.
  
  
• Actually, post a portion of an article you think would be valuable to you’re readers. Tell them what you think of this article – post the first paragraph and the link back to the original article.
  
  
• Write about what people should know about your industry and/or service and don't be afraid of giving out too much information.
  
  
• Think about all the things you have heard from past clients, what were their worries or objections? Write about them – overcome their fears or objections using information.
  
  
• You can start posting articles from experts on all kinds of subjects –that pertain to your particular industry. As long as you post their resource box on the bottom of the article you post - you can get these articles for free. There are tons of websites that supply free articles but in my opinion, Ezine Articles is the crème – de la –crème.
  
  
• Invite an expert to write an article for your blog and in exchange, you can promote their goods or services.

Want a great tip? When writing your own articles make sure you create them in a text editor (like word) and save them in a folder. You can re-purposes these articles and use them for many things. Articles are  great marketing tools.


The two major reasons for doing this?

1. I can save this article to be refurbished once I have written it - I will place the document in my article file –, and I can use it to post to article marketing places, websites, newsletters or Squidoo – Hubpages, etc., don't ever let a good article go to waste - save it!
   
   
2. To edit them - I will write the article – edit it – spell check. I will usually write an article, come back the next day and read it, most of the time, I will reword a thing or two.

You will not believe it but these days I have several blogs –, and I blog for one of my clients. This gives me a total of about eight blogs I am posting to. Some of the blogs I work with are nothing but the latest in news on one topic or another.

I usually take a few mornings out of my week to – write articles and find great articles to post on my blogs (or my clients blogs).

These days’ blogs are so much more sophisticated than they were a few years ago. Most blogs have a way to schedule when you want your article to go out – helping with those times when you just cannot seem to post because you are too busy.


Rember, If you need help designing and setting up your blog with plugins that will help you promote your business, let me know that is one of my specialties.

To Exciting Opportunities & Endless Possibilities! 

Pamela Jacob – Artista Design

801-910-4825

Simple Article Creation

How to write articles to attract more clients and build traffic
 
The number-one fear I have found when working with my clients is their fear of writing articles. Publishing your own articles is one of the most effective ways to drive traffic to your site, gain expert status, build your mailing list, and get more sales and/or clients.


Even so, many entrepreneurs and small biz owners don’t know where to begin.
For those of you who are just starting out there is a structure to an article that makes it effective – and compelling. 


Your article should contain:


Title: This should be something that will draw people to your article. Use keywords, or key phrases. One note of interest, often time’s negative titles work to your advantage and draw more readers. Negative headlines work best when they alert and inform. Headlines commonly tell people that they can finally stop and rest easy with a specific solution.


Examples:


Five Easy Ways to Get Visitors to Your Website.
Don’t Ever Do This If You Want Visitors to Your Website.


Which one would you be more likely to click on?


Introduction – this is where you can write a short synopsis of why you decided to write this article using a personal story or the subject you will be discussing. Ask yourself, what would make me want to read this article – then work it into the introduction…


Body – this is where you bring the meat and potatoes into your article. Just writing paragraphs will not get you as many readers as breaking it down into bite-size chunks.  bullets and headlines to each of the sections through the body works to keep your reader interested.


Conclusion – you will need to tie it up into a nice little bow. This piece should reiterate or “back up” the points you put in the body of the article as well as a call to action. This is one of the most important elements. In this section, you will request the reader to do some sort of action. It could be asking them to access a website – view a demo – or Buy a product.
A call to action should clearly tell users what you want them to do. They should include active words such as: call, buy, visit, subscribe, Donate, etc. all of these words encourage your readers to take action.

Resource Box – if you are writing for your own blog this is really a personal decision. However, if you are marketing your article through article marketing websites, this is an essential piece to the puzzle. Why would you write an article without putting your personal information at the bottom? Entice them to click a link and sign-up for something – you can do this through offering free reports, a coupon for your services or any number of things. I prefer giving something valuable away for “Free”! You do not want to give away junk – or they will never return, to get your services or buy your products.



Once you build your database you can then start the process of marketing to people who want the information you are giving. When they are ready to use a service or buy a product you are selling – you will be the one they will come to. The more you write the easier it will become. Remember to use a program to check your spelling and grammar.



I like to write an article do all my spell checking and grammar changes and then step away. I come back a day later and read it to make sure it is exactly what I want to convey. More times then not I do some re-writing.


There are so many ways to re-purpose articles you have written. Do not shy away from writing article. I will be writing an article soon about how to re-purpose the articles you write.


To Exciting Opportunities & Endless Possibilities!

Pamela Jacob ~ Artista Design ~ 801.910.4825

Providing Creative Solutions and Amazing Results!

Portfolio Link

 

Is Article Marketing for You? 4 Ways to Kill a Perfectly Good Article.

I have been article marketing for a long time. However, like a lot of people I would write an article post it on my blog or newsletter, and sometimes it would go to ezinearticles.com.

Even so, in reviewing my marketing plan at the beginning of the year – I realized I was not using the full potential of my resources. Article marketing is a phenomenal tool and everyone should be using it.

What made me refocus on article marketing?

I started getting monthly reports that showed my stats – how many people read my articles – the most popular articles and how many re-posted my articles (with my resource box).

Not only that but I could actually set up my twitter account on ezinearticles.com and when I published an article it would be sent out on Twitter, need I say more?

So – I went on my search for the most effective way to use article marketing – and I am going to pass some of those tips on to you…

However, before I do I know a lot of you are intimidated with the thought of writing articles – and why is that?

I have found the biggest sticking point with my clients is “fear” – what are they afraid of?

With a great majority of my clients, I have found they are worried about “not writing the perfect article”. Yes as suspected they are perfectionists! A fear of failure or not measuring up – what do I say to that? – Phooey!

The Nike’ saying “Just Do It” is exactly right!

Roughly write out your ideas and work from that point. The first article is the scariest from there, it gets easier and easier.

It is not as hard as you think.

Another biggie that is expressed to me is the confusion of what they should write about.

There are so many topics you can research on the internet but the best topic to write about is your expertise what is it, you are good at? What do you have knowledge of that your client needs to know?

The internet has so much information.

Research the topics you want to write about – talk about great articles you come across and link back to them – write points of interest on subject and expand on those.

Brain storm – enjoy the process!

4 Ways to Kill Your Article Marketing Goals

Mistake number one – writing a title that is ho-hum or just plain boring.

With all the competition out on the internet it is extremely important that you write a title to your article that has pizzazz. Make sure it has keywords in it and the more intriguing and interesting the title – the more traffic you will get.

Mistake number two – poor quality content.

OK, you have found an amazing title – you even researched keywords to use. But the content is not exactly stellar, in fact the writing is just a bunch of fluff and empty words – no real instructions or informative content.

Bad idea – people will stop reading your articles – and remember not to bother next time around.

Mistake number three – the copy of your text should not have typos – or be formatted poorly.

Have you ever started reading an article or email and the spelling embarrassed you and you didn’t even write it? I rest my case – make sure everything is spelled correctly!

Another thing to consider is breaking your text into paragraphs and highlighting individual lines. It makes your article easier to read – and will lead to many more readers – and miraculously – many more visitors to your blog or website.

Mistake number Four – under utilization of resource box

Resource boxes are why you do article marketing – it leads the reader to click on a link and takes them to your blog – website or affiliate page. It invites the reader to get more good information from you (or it should).

It also provides valuable back-links to your website or landing page that will help with your SEO (Search Engine Optimization). Instead of talking about yourself in the first few lines it is more effective to offer them something (of value) free. Then introduce yourself - in as short and succinct a way as possible, while still giving them the essence of whom you are.

Example: Less effective resource box.

The way I use to have my resource box – and I have seen others as well

Is your website an integral part of making money in your business? Then you need to "Create the image you need to attract the customers you want." Pamela Jacob, owner of Artista Design, can help you do just that. She specializes in all types of visual mediums and has been in the new media industry for over a decade. To gain more valuable insights from Pamela Jacob visit: http://www.artistadesign.com

Example: A more effective resource box

The way I have my resource box set up now.

As a (FREE) gift to you - download your copy of "The Ultimate Guide to FREE Traffic" just go to http://artistadesign.com

Getting your online business humming can be a daunting task. Having an expert who can guide you - one who has walked the walk and talks the talk is invaluable.

Pamela Jacob is just that - she is the owner of Artista Design and has been working with online businesses for over a decade.

Writing articles is such an important process, especially when marketing your own online business – once you get into the hang of it you are going to find, it is not only richly rewarding – monetarily – but a lot of fun as well!

Until next time – have an amazing day!

Check out my portfolio at: http://artistadesign.com/portfolio.html

Pamela Jacob – Artista Design

Providing Creative Solutions & Valuable Results

Writing made easy – OK less challenging.

One of the things that the 30 day challenge is showing me is that I know a lot more than I thought. However, along with that I am learning how to tie things together. Now don't get me wrong I am learning tons of stuff, I didn't know as well, but I am a bit slow at doing the lessons – (have to keep my clients happy as well, I have to work on their projects!)

I don't know if you are like me, but I do a lot of research and I am constantly learning about techniques and collecting ideas. Sometimes what I am learning doesn't tie to together in my mind like it should, and it doesn't all come together in an organized fashion.

Well today I am going to tie together how to write interesting articles and blog posts using several items that I love – Google Notebook, Google Reader – and an editor (Microsoft word, note pad, whatever you desire) by sharing a video by Ed Dale.see my previous article on Google Notebook

This 30 day challenge video is going to blow you away. You are going to see that getting fresh content for your projects doesn't have to be hard at all. It can even be fun!!

I hope you enjoyed and learned a lot - even if it is just a refresher course!! Pamela Jacob - Artista Design