By Nick Kaplan
Why write articles.
Writing articles can make your affiliate pages unique and drive more traffic from the major search engines, resulting in more sales. In some instances the merchant's affiliate program may not provide you with more than a banner and a few text links.
If your traffic levels are low than this will not do much to drive traffic to your affiliate links.
If the merchant does provide you with content then this can be viewed by search engines as duplicate material depending on how many affiliates are promoting the same product with that content.
Beginning Your Article
First begin by reading all the information on the merchant's site about the affiliate program, if you are not already familiar with the product.
It is very important that you learn what it is that you are offering to your customers such as,product features,capabilities,limitations and specifications.
Many merchants will include these details with the description.
Researching your article
Use one of the many free or paid keyword suggestion tools to build your list of niche keywords.
Google Adwords, Digitalpoint and CBtrends all have really useful keyword tools which are free. Experimenting will help you discover search trends.
Testing these keywords in major search engine will give you a sense market saturation and competition.
Include Keywords In your Article
When writing for search engines your article should be keyword rich. Include long tail keyword phrases in your article title and subcategories. Product specific keyword phrases will help drive targeted traffic from search engines to your specific niche.
What to include in your article
Creating an outline will help you organize your article and supporting subcategories sequence.
Including descriptive keywords such as, size, color and dimensions in your article will further help drive targeted visitors to your site.
Helping your visitors solve a problem
When promoting affiliate programs through article writing, bring attention to product features that will help your visitors resolve a problem.
Use examples and illustrations of how these features can be applied in real life situations.
If your product is easy to use, then bring attention to why you believe it is better than similar products.
Ways to emphasize product features
Use bullet points, numbering or italics when writing articles to emphasize and bring attention to helpful product features.
Free content
Articles provide free instant content for ezines,newsletters and website publishers. This free content is used to optimize and attract free search engine traffic.
Submitting to article directories
There are countless popular free article directories, where your can submit your article for publication. Arcanaweb publishes a list of many popular directories. These directories allow anyone to reprint the article as long as the resource box is included at the end of the article.
Read and follow the guidelines before submitting your articles
* Do not include affiliate links in your article or resource box.
* This may cause your article to be rejected by the directory.
* Do not plagiarize another writers material.
Resource box and backlinks
Writing articles can increase the number of one way links or backlinks to your site.
Included at the end of every article is a resource box,where you can include a brief bio and link back to your site.
Free article directories
Free article directories will allow you submit content but you are not paid for your article. Goarticles,Isnare and Articledashboard are among some of the large high traffic free article repositories.
Article distribution and submission services
Article distribution services will submit your article for a fee to article directories,ezines,newsletters,article email groups, social bookmarking and article announcement sites.
Article submission software
Article submission software such as Artemis Lite and Article Submitter 2.2 are free and may expedite the process once your are registered. You will need to do a manual submission for sites using an access code.
Paid article directories
These directories will pay you for writing articles or reviews.
Compensation may be in the form of revenue share or per word.
Paid to write reviews
In addition to getting paid for writing articles, reviews can be another avenue to earn extra income. Review rates can range anywhere from $2.00 to $200.00.
Reviewme, Reviewstream, Softwarejudge and Epinions are just a few of the popular paid to review sites that can put extra cash in your pocket.
You can also earn money with your clickbank id at Reviewsarena for up to 60 days.
Paid to blog
Writing blogs are yet another alternative for earning extra income.
Payperpost and Smorty are blog sites that pay weekly and compensation may range anywhere from $5 to $100. In some cases, you may be able to negotiate a price with the advertiser.
In conclusion
Do your research before writing an article, use targeted keywords on affiliate product landing pages. Submit to high ranking article directories to increase the number of quality backlinks. Check site stats for increase traffic levels. Test and improve your writing skills by reading writing tutorials and ebooks. Learn from mistakes and continue writing articles.
About The Author: Nick Kaplan, Internet marketeer and writer, provides useful resources and products for Internet visitors.
