You certainly want to create compelling, informative content, but you know that article marketing is going to be a big job! The following checklist might make it easier for you to keep it simple and organized and keep you sane.

First Five Minutes: Pay close attention to your titles. You must know that as an article marketer, your success in getting people to read what you’ve written will chiefly depend on the quality of your headlines. Well-written, benefit-driven, succinct, fascinating, attention-grabbing titles are more likely to be opened.

Second Five Minutes: Craft a convincing article summary. Your article summaries, together with your headlines, are what will influence online users to open and read your articles. The key is to give your readers just enough information to tickle their imaginations and leave them wanting more.

Third Five Minutes: Use the inverted pyramid technique to plan your article. Remember that online users will measure the quality of your articles based on the first 100 words. You can be certain that your readers will close your articles immediately if they do not find anything worth reading or knowing in your first paragraph.

Last Fifteen Minutes: Use the preferred online writing format to create your article. Online users have limited attention spans, so your article should be easy to scan, using lists, tips and questions and answers.

Remember, just say NO to breaching copyright. Copying someone else’s article is one of the big no-nos in article marketing. Ensure that your articles are written using your own words and that they offer your target market unique information.

This one’s for you if you’re seriously thinking about article marketing, and you’re planning to outsource the actual writing. Here are some questions you should ask the writer you want to hire:

1. Have you looked at the most popular articles online? Your writer should have spent some time reading popular articles in your niche, so that he or she can easily identify what makes this content an instant hit with readers.

2. Are you familiar with the submission sites? Your writer should have personal or business accounts with at least some of the major article submission sites. EzineArticles should be on top of the list as it is the most popular publishing site on the Internet today.

3. Do you know how the keyword suggestion tools work? Your writer should understand how to spot the most popular keywords in your selected niche using keyword suggestion tools, as opposed to doing the guessing game.

4. Can you write short articles? I advise that you have your writer do fairly short articles if you want to increase your chances of getting people to read them in their entirety.

5. Can you write informative articles? Your writer should be willing to do the relevant research, so you’ll know that the articles you post online are highly informative.

Of course, you’ll need to create a compelling resource box to go with all these great articles. If you’re not sure you can write a powerful and enticing box that will get readers to your website, outsource this as well – it’s way too important to leave to chance.

(Whew…what a title!)

Article marketing is undeniably one of the most powerful techniques to drive your online business forward. The results of the time, sweat and commitment it takes to write article after article speak for themselves.

Below are some quick, but effective, exercises – specifically designed for the busy article marketer – that will strengthen your brand and keep your website at the front of your prospects’ minds.

1. Create several articles on topics within your niche. To truly promote your site it’s important to plan time for article writing each day. Block your writing time like you would an appointment that cannot be rescheduled. You’ll find that you must do everything possible to avoid disruption.

2. Stay focused on your niche. You’ll find that your writing follows this same path. You cannot jump around from topic to topic if your aim is to produce a lot of high-quality articles rapidly. Choose a suitable subject for your target audience and begin your article writing.

3. Choose the name for each article right off the bat. Be sure to include your keywords in the title. Add a summary that incorporates a few of the main points you will include in your articles. Then, using these key points as a foundation, let the ideas flow as you start writing your articles.

Well-written content on subjects of interest to your targeted readers will create an article marketing campaign that truly works. You’ll be thrilled with the results as you gradually ascend in the search engine rankings. Your readers will soon look to you as a well-informed specialist in your selected field. And the traffic will soon flow to your website.

Article marketing is no magic pill, but if you use it properly, it will improve your sales and revenue. Show off your expert knowledge, get inbound links in abundance for your sites, pull up your search engine ranking, and at the end of the day advance your sales potential with short, useful articles to publishing sites. Here’s how:

1. Consider your readers. Give them the information they need to work out their problems or put forward them the most suitable answers to their burning questions. Write articles using their language and the writing style they would relate to.

2. Consider the publishers. Get familiar with and faithfully follow their rules. For example, some publishers require that articles should NOT be barefaced ads, and should NOT contain URL’s or tasteless content. Articles must follow the recommended keyword density and must be reasonably short.

3. Consider the search engines. Make your articles keyword-rich by singling out the most popular search terms within your preferred niche and peppering them throughout your content. Count the number of times you use your search terms and make sure they will not go above 3% of your total word count so you will not be labeled as a keyword abuser.

To sum up, write for your e-business. Remember that your central objective in writing and distributing articles is to make a sale. Write about topics potential buyers find interesting and that are closely related to your products and services. This will arm prospects with the knowledge they need to make a purchase – hopefully from you.

The Resource Box in article marketing is the place where you ask your reader to visit your website or blog for more great information from you. I’ve seen quite a few ways to mess up a resource box during my years of teaching article marketing. Below you’ll find the top 3 ways people ruin their resource boxes, and what you can do instead:

1. Making the resource box all about you: some people choose to include every award they have ever won and all of their major accomplishments. The resource box should be all about your prospect and what’s in it for them to visit your website or blog.

2. Making the resource box too long: some authors make their resource boxes as long as or longer than the article itself! Keep your resource box short and to the point. All you need to tell the reader is what you have to offer and how they can get it.

3. Leaving out links and the call to action: too often an author will create a beautiful article and then fail to invite the reader to visit his or her website or blog. Or, the author may remember to put links, but forget to ask the reader to visit or sign up. You must invite the reader into your world for more good information from you.

Be sure your resource box puts your business in the best possible light. You need every advantage possible to make sales. Follow these three tips and you will see your conversion rates improve significantly.