Few webmasters relish the thought of writing tons of articles
and posting them to a website, even if the articles are about
personal obsessions. But in today's online marketplace, it's
crucial that you have them. They give you more than an
edge, they give you a whole new sword, and they can set
you apart from the fifty other websites offering exactly the
same product. If you need reasons to write or buy articles
for your website, here they are.
1. They set you apart. If you sell lingerie, have you ever
done a web search to see how many others sell lingerie too?
Let's face it – you're not Wal-mart, and the vendors you get
your products from don't sell to you exclusively. There's a
fair chance that you're competing against dozens of other
lingerie sites that sell exactly the same items on their
website you sell on yours.
Consider putting up content that will draw your customers.
One lingerie site has two things that set them apart from the
rest of the marketplace. First, they sell really nice, sexy
lingerie to plus-size women – bustiers and go-go boots for
the X-crowd. Second, their web content focus is on romantic
erotica for larger-size women. It's a brilliant concept, and it
makes them very hard to forget. Can you come up with a
similarly creative hook that your customers will love?
2. They give you fresh marketing tools to sell to your
customers. Along with products, old-fashioned hardware
stores used to offer good old-fashioned advice – information
on which wood to use for which project, how to get screws
to stay in drywall, and what to get to seal your bathroom
properly. You can still get service like this in some stores,
but most employees today either don't know or don't have
time.
You have an edge here. For your online hardware site, write
(or purchase) articles on how to seal a bathroom perfectly –
and run a special on the products you mention the same
week. Offer special discounts and deals in your emailed
newsletters. Create ebooks on designing and building the
perfect patio, using mostly articles you've already written for
your website. The only limitation you have to the marketing
tools you can create is your imagination.
3. They give you viral marketing capability. Remember
that ebook on designing and building a perfect patio? What if
you could give that book away to a thousand people, and
each one knows your name, where your website is, and that
you sell the kits that go with certain projects in that book?
Or suppose you have a fine spirits site, and you have given
a thousand copies of your ebook on developing a taste for
wine to visitors to your site?
Now suppose you could put this book on a website, freely
downloadable and usable for other webmasters. Suddenly,
people you never marketed to and wouldn't have guessed
existed (where is Eritruria?) are coming to your website for
more information? You suddenly have a whole new customer
base, and you did no extra work to get them. That sort of
spread is viral marketing, and it has a whole different sort of
market power.
4. They give the search engines much more to catalog.
When your site contains good articles, chances are good that
they are search-engine optimized (and if not, you should
learn about that and make sure it's done in the future!).
With good search engine optimization, you get better
placement in the search engine listings. And with constantlychanging
information on your website, many search engines
will give you even more of an edge.
5. Your customers will remember your articles, even if
they forget your inventory. Have you forgotten about the
site mentioned earlier that does lingerie and erotica? And
you only read about it! You can develop similarly
unforgettable content on your website, and if you can get
people to download ebooks you develop, you'll be even more
difficult for them to forget about.
6. With great content, you achieve guru status in your
niche market community. Many, though not all people,
are impressed by those who have written books, even if they
are self-published books like ebooks. When you've published
ebooks and had them disseminated through article
directories, you will receive instant recognition and status in
your niche market simply because you have proven to many
people that you know what you're talking about.
Don't forget to note this in your email sig line – something
like, John Smith, Author of Perfect Patio
Landscaping, with the link taking them straight to a
download site for your ebook.
Convinced?
