How to Write a Good Article for Article Marketing on a Topic Which I Know Nothing About?

Writing articles about a topic which you know nothing about isn’t as daunting a task as it may seem. There are articles written everyday for article marketing by people who had no previous knowledge on a topic.

Affiliate marketers, Internet marketers, and freelance writers create articles in a variety of niches and subject matters that are foreign to them.

In order to write an article you must know something about the topic or subject matter. You don’t have to be an expert but you must have enough ‘working’ knowledge to write the article.

To accomplish this, you need to familiarize yourself with the topic you’re interested in writing about. You should be able to answer the following questions:

• What is the specific issue you are addressing?
• Who is the audience that you’re writing for?

Although you may have a topic to start with, you’ll want to focus or expand the topic. This will help you write a logical and targeted article. It’s critical that you identify and understand the problem you are solving, the question you are answering, or the issue you are resolving.

Identifying and understanding the audience you’re writing for will help you isolate and shape the style, content, and readability of your article. Successful article marketing requires focused articles that are relevant to your audience and niche.

Conducting Article Research

To determine what you’re writing about and who you’re writing for, you must research your topic. There are many methods and sources for conducting article research.

Here’s a quick 4-step guide to help you research a topic you know nothing about.

1. Type your topic into Google search and read the top results to familiarize yourself with the topic and sub-topics.
2. Identify and note the problems, solutions, questions, answers, and issues that are related to your topic.
3. Only use legitimate (true) information by including information that you find on more than 2 unrelated sites.
4. Search EzineArticles for relevant articles to get ideas about what to write and how to write your article.

It’s hard to find the passion, motivation, and enthusiasm that are necessary to write articles for topics you know nothing about. In the absence of that emotional drive to write articles, it’s important that you follow proven techniques and utilize tools to write good articles.

• Using outlines to structure your article is a technique that many professionals and marketers use to pump out articles.
• Article generator software will automatically search the Internet for your keyword, gather relevant information, and organize that information into sub-topics for your use.
• Article templates provide the framework and structure for articles. It’s very similar to article outlines but is preformatted and ready to use.
• Freelance writers (ghostwriters), article directories, and PLR (private label rights) packages are also good sources to articles.

How Many Articles Should I Write Every Week to Drive More Traffic?

Article marketing is about writing, publishing, and promoting articles. Article marketing is an excellent way to drive traffic, increase back links, and established brands.

Successful article marketing correlates to the quality and quantity of articles you have on the Internet. The more articles you write, the greater your chance is for success.

Increase Back Links

The number of back links to your site will increase as you write and publish your articles. Every article represents at least one back link and if you submit your articles across the Internet then every article could potential mean thousands of back links. The number of back links to your site will increase your site’s link popularity and subsequently your traffic.

Drive Traffic

Writing, publishing, and promoting numerous articles will boost traffic to your web site or offer. Quality articles will get used by publishers and shared by readers. As your articles virally spread through the Internet, you will receive more traffic.

Establish Brand

Articles can establish and build your credibility, expertise, and authority. Writing more articles can help establish and reinforce your authority as an expert in your field.

There are two ways to increase the number of articles you have on the Internet:

1. Submit your articles to multiple sites on the Internet
2. Write more articles

You can submit your article to different sites on the Internet. These sites can include blogs, article directories, groups, forums, and any place else that accepts articles. The primary criterion for submitting your articles is to verify that the site allows you to include a link in the article.

Writing more articles is the best way to get the most out of your article marketing experience. The more articles you write the more topics you can cover and the more keywords you will rank for in search engines.

There are three primary ways to create articles:

1. Write the articles yourself
2. Contract a freelance writer or ghostwriter to write articles for you
3. Purchase and re-brand public label rights articles

After you start writing, publishing, and promoting articles, it’s important to track your results and adjust your writing schedule as needed. If you’re not getting the results you expect, increase the number of articles you write.

Don’t get mislead with unrealistic objectives about how article marketing can help your business. Start small, track the results, and scale your article marketing campaign to help you achieve your desired results.

Article Marketing is all about consistency and ‘just doing it’. Whether you’re writing 1 article per week or 4 articles per day, it is important to stick to a schedule and ‘pump’ out as many articles as possible. Start with writing 1 article per week and grow from there.

How Many Words Should Be Included In An Article?

The number of words that should be included in an article will vary according to the publisher and medium you plan on submitting the article to. There isn't any universally recognized standard for the number of words an article should contain.

Identifying a universal minimum or maximum word count for articles is a futile endeavor. All publishers have their own article submission guidelines which vary according to their purpose, market, industry, and other publishing factors.

There are several questions you should ask yourself to determine the number of words you should include in your article.

• Who is your audience?
• What type of article are you writing?
• What are the standards for your niche, market, and industry?
• What are the publishers' article submission requirements?
• How much time do you have to write the article? What are the deadlines?

There are many different types of publishers who accept articles. Each publisher has their own article submission policies and standards. It is important that you read the publishers' article submission guidelines before submitting your articles.

There are two groups of publishers that use articles as their primary content: traditional media publishers and new media publishers.

Both of these groups of publishers rely on articles to maintain and increase readership. But the article submission guidelines of each of these publishers are shaped and influenced by different factors.

Traditional Media Publishers

The number of words allowed in an article for traditional media is primarily shaped by the amount of available space in each issue. Below are some common word count guidelines for article submissions to traditional media publishers.

• Featured Magazine Articles 1,500 - 3,500
• Research Reports 4,000 - 5,000
• Letters to the Editor 150 - 800
• Featured Newspapers Articles 600 - 1,500
• Newsletter 300 - 700
• Journals 3,500 - 6,500

New Media Publishers

The number of words in the article submission guidelines of new media is shaped by the attention span of the readers. Below are some unofficial word counts for article submissions to new media publishers.

• E-Zines and E-Newsletters 200 -1,000
• Article Directories 200 - 5,000
• Article Submission Services 400 - 2,000
• Blogs 150 - 5,000
• Search Engines 150 - 600

Remember, these word counts are loose guides to help direct your writing. It is important to refer to the article submission guidelines of the publisher you want to submit your article to.

How do I add links to an article?

Adding links to an article is a simple process. It doesn’t require an entirely new skill set. But adding links to your article requires some forethought and planning.

Most article directories only allow 1-4 links in the article. Knowing that you’re restricted to a certain number of links will help you to decide what links you will use and where to place links.

Self Serving Links

There are two kinds of links you can place in an article: self-serving links or non-self serving links. Self serving links are links to a web site that you have an interest in. These can be sites you own, manage, or have a stake in.

Non-self serving links point to a web site that you don’t have an interest in and adds value to the article. These links usually point to well known, high authority sites like CNN, Yahoo, Google, etc.

You should only place self-serving links in the author resource box. Self-serving links in the body of the article will usually be rejected.

Active Links

Active links are those links that are hyperlinked. Some links just contain the text and not the links i.e. http://www.your-web-site.com

Active links can contain anchor text which should include your targeted keywords i.e

<a href="http://www.your-web-site.com">Your anchor text</a>

Link Placement

Links can appear either in the body of the article or in the author resource box. Links in the body of the article shouldn’t be within the first three paragraphs of the article.

Linking Do’s and Don’ts

• Links shouldn’t use style attributes
• Links shouldn’t point to downloadable files
• Confine self-serving links to the author resource box
• Use valid HTML to create links
• Don’t link to link farms or sites banned by search engines
• Don’t use the same link or URL more than once
• Don’t link to sites that are under construction
• Don’t link to adult or hate oriented sites
• Don’t add your email address to the article
• Don’t use deceptive linking that sends visitors to sites they didn’t expect

Inserting Hyperlinks

Inserting links into articles requires the use of anchor HTML tags. This tag allows you to hyperlink text in your article so that they will automatically jump to the designated web site.

The following is the standard HTML syntax for hyperlinks:

<a href="http://www.your-web-site.com">your anchor text</a>

All you have to do is insert your websites link (URL) in place of http://www.your-web-site.com Also, replace ‘your anchor text’ with the text (keywords) that you want displayed. Now place the link you created exactly where you want it to show up in your article.