Writing Tip

Build a Business--with Articles!

by Diane Eble

What if there were one relatively simple way to:

·          promote and establish yourself as an expert,

·          discover what your market really wants so you can give them more of it,

·          give people a taste of what you have to offer,

·          get people them interested in your book, other product or service,

·          drive them to your Web site to learn more about you,

·          make connections with people you never would have met otherwise (sometimes leading to lucrative joint     

       ventures and/or wonderful relationships)

·          even get the media to call you?

You can do all that, and more, through one simple strategy: writing and disseminating articles!

I have been experimenting with this, and I can now confidently tell you this practice has done all of the above—and more—for me.

In fact, you can build a whole business starting from articles.

How?

First, you use your article to establish your expertise. Get lots of articles out there on your topic. It's one way of becoming known as an expert in your area. Publishers have even been known to approach article and blog authors to ask them to write books about their topic.

Second, use articles to test your market. Article directories such as www.ezinearticles.com  show you statistics on how many people have viewed it, how many people followed the link for your articles, how many times it's been published in other places, how many times it's been emailed to others, and even how others have voted on your articles. All very valuable information!

Third, use the market information above to create products that you know will sell. Expand the content of your most popular articles into small reports, eBooks, Special Reports, or a printed book that you can sell or use as bonuses with other products you might be selling.

Fourth, repurpose your articles into press releases to attract the media to interview you on your expertise and create even more awareness of what you have to offer.

Fifth—if you're really good at writing lots of articles quickly—you can even set up your own article directory page and get Google Adsense ads on it. All you have to do is open up a Google Adsense account, give them the url (i.e.., http Web address) of your article directory page, and they will put the ads on. When people click on the ad, Google will send you a portion of the revenue from the advertiser. Pretty slick, eh?

Of course, articles are also an extremely effective way to drive "targeted" traffic to your Web site, which can lead to sales for you if you sell a product or service through a Web site. If you write a great article and a great resource/bio box that makes people want to know more about you and what you have to offer, you may well get lifelong customers from one article.

Articles are also a great way to connect with people. I met one of my most important mentors through an article. I followed the link to her Web site, bought her eBook, consequently contacted her, and we began a relationship that has been amazingly helpful to both of us both personally and professionally.

If you like to write, this is one of the best strategies I can recommend for building your expertise and your business. Get good at writing lots of articles quickly, submit them to article and ezine directories, and build from there. You'll be astonished at the results!

And if you would like help in getting good at writing lots of articles, I have some resources to recommend.

One is the article I wrote called " Two Never-Fail Ways to Overcome Writer's Block." One of my subscribers read this article, tried the second technique, and in two minutes flat she "mind-mapped" the whole restructuring of the book she's working on! I use this technique for all my articles—especially when I'm not sure what I want to say.

The second resource is the ezinearticles.com site itself. Full of lots of free information on how to write articles and use them to market yourself. You might also want to follow both ezinearticles and Chris Knight on Twitter. (For a free report on how to use Twirtter, click here.)

Finally, for an updated list of ezine article directory sites, with links, click here.

One more thing …

If this idea of building an information business through expanding articles intrigues you, I invite you to check out a free, Special Report written by one of my mentors, Jimmy D. Brown, who is one of the best teachers I've come across. I've learned more from Jimmy's free stuff than I have from many information products I've paid for. His ideas work! In this free Special Report, Jimmy reveals five simple steps to starting a profitable information business—all beginning with Small Reports which, as I mention in this article, can be created from articles.

To get your free Special Report on how to build a "small reports fortune," simply click here.