Wednesday, November 20th, 2024
So you’re wondering how to start a content writing business for affiliate marketing, but don’t know where to begin? You also think that your writing skills aren’t good enough? Well, one thing you need to realize is that everyone including you, has the ability to write.
If you’ve ever written an email to a friend, a letter to a loved one, wrote a complaint letter peppered with anger, then you can write.
Yet, many will totally freeze when they’re told they need to write content. They believe that writing is torture for the mind, when it comes to stringing words together to form sentences that makes sense.
The good news is, that writing articles doesn’t need to be a burden. It can be enjoyable. This may sound strange now, but I promise that once you understand the process, you will start pumping out informative content articles at will.
Before we begin, what needs to be defined is what an article actually is. Once anyone hears the word ?article,” they may think that it’s an extended story or an excerpt from a book that’s published in magazines and newspapers, or a 5000 word report on an authority blog.
What an article references in this case, is it’s a short informative piece of text, that concisely conveys an idea or a concept in an entertaining summary.
The Key Word Being “Informative”
A great article reveals to the reader something that they didn’t previously know.
Someone who’s reading an article expects to either learn something new or be entertained. The best case scenario is both.
So what’s the point of wanting to write articles in the first place?
The easy answer is you want to drive highly targeted organic traffic to your blog from the search engines, as content marketing remains the purest source of traffic.
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What the search engines crave for and devours, is new unique relevant content.
If you can provide great content, then SEO will reward you by sending targeted traffic to your site for free. Traffic that has the best potential to convert.
A well constructed informative article, that’s filled with plenty of keywords that your readers are searching for, which has a captivating headline, is the winning formula.
The headline of the article, needs to promise to solve the readers need, hurt, or question.
Doing so remains the best guarantee, to attracting those visitors that turns into buyers.
The Hunger For Content
Anyone who’s going online right now, is searching for content to learn something or to be informed or amused, be it free or paid content by the publisher.
If you’re not able to provide superior content to your site visitors or subscribers, then your affiliate marketing business is doomed to fail.
The other option, is to pay an advertising company hundreds of dollars a day, to send hoards of traffic to your blog, which is usually not that targeted.
If the reader is not able to find anything useful, they will become annoyed or bored and will just click away, burning away your ad budget.
The Will To Write Well
What most think is that to write good content, what you need is to be born with a special penmanship talent.
That you need to intensely study all of the classic marketing writers, and learn all its nuances, to learn every rule of English grammar. Well, that’s not true.
There are writers who has sold millions worth of products by using the power of the written word, and yet, they slept through and flunked English 9 in high school.
So don’t feel handicapped by thinking that everything has to be perfect to the letter, that you need to be grammatically perfect.
When you are writing articles, you can forget everything that you’ve learned about writing content.
To write a great article, all you need is to connect, to enjoy talking to and communicating with your most ideal customer.
But many never start writing, because they think it?s too hard to put something useful down on paper.
All The Bad Content Out There
The Internet is splattered with bad content. Just go on social media or article directories to see. The main reason is, for many, English is not their first language, and it shows.
Their copy is often badly written, filled with too many spelling mistakes and glaring grammatical errors, or it’s clearly “spun.”
There are sentences that contains the wrong words for the context, which makes no sense whatsoever.
The more articles that you write the better you will get, and it eventually becomes good enough to attract traffic to your blog, which converts into sales.
It?s that simple, it becomes a numbers game. All you need is to just get yourself started.
Time To Start Writing Content
Writing your first few articles, writing your first dozen articles can be intimidating.
It can become extremely challenging to sit down for the first time, in front of your computer with a blank Word document.
I know, because I still remember the first time I tried writing a 1000 word article.
I just sat there for about 20 minutes, looking at a blinking cursor that was smirking back at me.
The key to getting that first article out of the way, comes down to knowing what you are going to write about.
It needs to be about something that you already have a strong passion for, something that you know a lot about.
For instance, you might love playing golf, or you’ve spent your life raising dogs and you absolutely adore the puppies.
Whatever it may be, what you need is a strong feeling and belief in your niche, then you will succeed.
How To Research Your Topic
Now that you know what to write about, you know what your niche is, it’s time to research a topic.
Once I have an idea for my next blog article, I go on Google and do a search on the keywords of the topic, just like how my ideal customer would.
I would then look at all the top sites on the first page, and see what I’m up against, see what my competition is.
Then I would go to the mother of all affiliate marketing sites, Amazon.com.
Amazon originally started selling books. It then branched out into music, and now they sell everything. Yes, including the kitchen sink.
As an article writer researching my topic, I head straight to the book section of Amazon, which is humongous.
It’s like standing in the middle of your favorite real-life bookstore, the largest one downtown.
Imagine every book on the subject that you’re researching, where the pages are all open at the same time right in front of you.
How would you like to be able to flick through all the pages of every book, simultaneously.
That’s what is available. You can find the exact content that has your targeted keywords, and then start reading the actual pages.
This is exactly what you can do, and Amazon has made it extremely easy for you to do so!
What they’ve created, is a brilliant tool where you’re able to read the content of millions of hardcover books online.
They call it ?Search Inside the Book.? https://www.amazon.com/gp/help/customer/display.html?nodeId=10197041
The information that you find in each of the books, are extremely targeted,
They are guaranteed to be 100% specific to your topic, and all your research needs.
These are the books from authors who has written and published “hardcover” copies, so they are knowledgeable on the subject.
Book publishers wouldn’t invest their time or money, into publishing them into hardcover books, if they thought they were bad content.
What you have is access to the content of these books, where you can research your niche, and then begin writing the body of your article.
All you need is to be a member of Amazon, and have purchased something from them in the past, to use “Search Inside The Book.”
How To Remove Writers Block
If you’re stuck writing, or you can?t get into the right mood to get yourself on track, here?s an exercise you can do to get your mind into the proper flow.
What’s important before you begin, is that you already have a topic in mind before starting.
Begin by opening a new page in your word processor. Keep in mind that this is just an exercise to get you going.
Nobody will ever see what you?re writing, so just begin writing a page of content, the first thing that comes to your mind.
Don’t bother to correct any spelling or grammar mistakes for now, just keep on writing by typing anything about the topic
Continue writing until you are finished the first few pages, and then read back what you?ve written.
Try to find the best ideas, highlight the parts that makes sense, the ones that makes a good point or stands out.
This is the style of writing, and the same ideas that you will use when you write your actual article.
Open up a new page. Use the same style and expand on the ideas of the original article.
By now, you should be getting into the flow.
Write Until It Begins To Feel Fun
You will eventually begin to write a lot more than you’ve ever imagined you could. This also in a relatively short period of time.
Always write the article first, then begin editing by correcting all of the spelling and grammatical errors.
You will then have created something that you can be proud of.
The more you continue using this technique, the more that your writing will get into sync.
You will then begin to have fun, as you will experience new bursts of creativity during this process.
You can repeat this method any time that you experience “writers block,” or suffer from a lack of inspiration.
Back To Writing Your First Article
It?s important to set a schedule for yourself to write.
I like to write first thing in the morning, as I feel most comfortable and productive at this time.
I also make sure that it?s quiet when I work. I don?t like to be distracted that much, so I close my email and social media.
Most writers have a strict set schedule, and then stick to it.
While you may not consider yourself a professional writer yet, but if you plan to write a lot of articles, you should approach your writing like a pro.
To get the most out of your article marketing writing effort, you will need to write and publish well-written articles on a consistent basis.
That means writing, writing, and more writing!
Professional writers are highly disciplined, and will write on a schedule on a daily basis.
The Format Of Writing
When planning to write a new article, begin with the most important ideas and tips first.
Doing so will quickly give you new ideas for the foundation of your new article.
It’s also an excellent way, of getting into the mental writing state of mind.
Make sure that you know the reason why you’re writing the article.
You may want to attract visitors to your blog to build a list, or to sell a product or a service.
Whatever the reason is, always be clear about it before you start writing.
Know that an article is NOT always a sales letter. Writing an article is not always about promoting your product.
The main idea behind writing articles, is to provide your readers with quality information, or to give them more information about yourself and your blog.
How To Write Several Or More Articles A Week
Always keep a journal and make notes, about what you will write about before you start writing.
How To Write A Short Article
• Develop an inclination for proper sentence structure, topics, and idea formation
• Avoid using big words, flowery sentences, or fancy prose to impress your reader
• Always write for the common everyday person, because whether you realize it or not, you’re always on the clock with them
• Keep the tempo upbeat, don’t bore your readers into they clicking away
• Don?t be afraid to dumb down your copy
• Write in a style so that seventh or eighth graders will understand what you’re writing about
• If you have poor typing skills, always use a spell and grammar checker
The most important thing is to enjoy what you are doing. No matter what you write about, you need to have some interest in the topic.
The 3 Parts Of An Online Article
• The headline title and a subtitle
• The body of the text
• The author?s bio and a Call To Action
Each of these parts of an article has a different purpose, and all three play a vital role.
Grab Attention With Your Headline
The most important part of your article is the headline. It?s the first thing that people will read once they find your article, so it needs to hook.
They will make a split-second decision to read your article or not.
You can write the greatest article in the world, but if your headline doesn’t grab your readers attention, then it’s all for nothing.
So you need to come up with a clear concise title that explains precisely what’s inside the article.
Try to focus on the reason, the main benefit that the buyer will get, from reading your article.
Once you have established that, then you?re halfway there.
Let Your Body Do The Talking
The biggest advantage of writing content in your blog on the Internet, is that you can write informally.
You can make your article sound like you?re talking directly to them, the reader face-to-face.
Use short sentences, always be on point, don’t use words you don’t need, and be entertaining.
You can even be a bit controversial. You just don?t want to bore your reader to death, with high-brow statements or difficult theories.
Examples Of The Best Article Types
• How-to: One of the most popular types of articles is one that explains “how to do” or use something. People love to learn things from someone who is a specialist in something.
• Reviews and Opinions: Whatever field you work in, there are always new products or services. You can write a concise unbiased review, or offer your opinion on how it will affect the industry.
• Ebook Excerpt: If you?re selling or reviewing an ebook, you already have a set of articles that are available for you. You can review a chapter, or write a condensed article based on one of the ideas in the book. This method is guaranteed to make great articles.
• Top 10 Lists: Some topics are extremely popular in this format. Think about an article with a title like: “7 Tips To Prepare For Your Job Interview” or “Five Essential Tips To Write A Killer Article.” Why this format works, is because the reader knows exactly what to expect, and will usually stick around to the end of the article.
Once you have finished your first article, give yourself a pat on the back. The next article you write, will become that much easier.
Writing is a process, an art form and a craft. The more you do it, the better and easier it will become.
You can then begin writing article after article quicker, once you gain momentum and get in the flow.
Publishing Your Article
Once you publish your articles on your blog using this process, then the search engines should eventually start indexing your site.
Once you begin to establish yourself as an authority because of your informative content, you will then earn that all important ‘trust” that you need to flourish.
Realize that what you?re doing, is competing with thousands of other articles on similar topics and products, depending on the keywords that you use.
The better written that your article is, the more that the search engines and the readers, will begin to choose your articles over the others.
Once you hit the right topic with the right keywords, you?re should then begin to see other publishers and bloggers begin to share your content.
And once that happens, you?re going to get hundreds of new visitors who are willing to read, buy or share as well.
Power Up Your Article Marketing
Now that you’re publishing your articles on your blog on a regular basis, and starting to get some organic traffic from the search engines, you can then take it one step further.
To be successful in content marketing, you will need to write as many 1000 – 2000+ words articles as consistently as possible.
Let?s say that you have written your first ?10 best tips for…? article.
What you can then do is transform this one “root” article into writing more articles.
When you wrote the original “10 tips” article, what you did was provided the foundation for 10 more.
What you can do, is take the first tip from the 10 tips article, and then write a new article about that first tip.
Every time that you write a new article based on one of the original “10 tips” article, new ideas and topics should come to the forefront.
Make sure that you capture these new ideas by writing them down, and then use them to write more articles.
Make it a habit to write every day, and you will steadily begin to build a stream of traffic.
• Always write your articles as a solution to a problem
• Pose a problem, and then explain concisely how your reader can solve it with your product or service
• Writing ?How to? articles always rank well in the search engines, because people love to learn how to do new things, and will search Google to find out how
Have A Strong “Call To Action”
Every article that you write should have a call to action, that’s strategically placed to look like a continuation of the article itself.
Also include an “About Me” page or an Authors bio, which confirms to the reader that you can be trusted and are an authority on the subject.
You may of written an excellent article and a strong conclusion, but without a “Call To Action” for the reader to take some type of action, you won’t get results.
Creating A Sales Funnel
An example of a call to action can be, If you would like more information, then sign up for my free email course (or ebook).
Since your readers are already interested in what you wrote, they are then more than likely to submit their email address to you.
To capture the email address of your visitors, you will need an ?opt-in form.? Most autoresponder services will have them premade for you.
This is when the sales funnel marketing process begins.
To increase your opt-in sign ups, you can create a squeeze page, with a concise headline and some bullet points, along with a short sales copy.
Ask any successful marketer, and they will all tell you that “the money is in the list.”
So what you need to collect is a list of targeted prospects, so you can market to them over and over again.
What your list fundamentally does, is prolongs your online success.
What you can offer is a free report or an ebook, or a short 3 day eCourse to make your reader want to opt-in.
Becoming A Content Publisher
You should by now have a fairly good idea on how to write articles, and get them indexed for maximum exposure.
All you now need is to repeat the process, to build up your blog so it becomes an authority site, so you can become a super affiliate.
• First, identify a niche market, something you love to do is a great start. Then go to Google and enter “your niche + products” or “buy + your niche,” and you should come up with unlimited ideas for what to sell
• Do your research by going on Amazon.com to find out which books are selling. Bestselling hardcover books are a great indicator of what people are looking for
• Follow up by offering quality tips. Constantly be writing new articles, write product reviews and recommendations, or give your opinion on a topic
• Create a squeeze page to collect email addresses by giving away a free eBook or report
• Constantly be marketing new products and services over and over again to your email list
Content Creation Is King
Writing content and article marketing is the key to success for your blog, and your affiliate marketing business.
Content writing on blogs remains the proven path to getting organic online traffic from the search engines, that converts into sales.
All anyone can do and offer however, is to point you in the right direction so you can get started. Then it’s strictly up to you to put the advice to good use.
Always remember… taking ACTION is the only way to get RESULTS!
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