After spending the last two posts on reviewing article submission software, I received an email inquiry from a new Muse subscriber, asking why submitting articles is such a great marketing tactic for writers. That’s a fair question so here is a short benefits list for writing and submitting articles:

  1. Gain targeted exposure. Your article is placed into a category that you choose. People who are specifically interested in your category and topic will find it, read it and, if they want to know more, will visit your website or contact you to ask about your services or products.
  2. Attract subscribers. If you use an ezine to send out information and promotions, or just to stay in touch with potential and current clients, articles will attract new subscribers to your website. If you want to capture email addresses, be sure to entice visitors to sign up by offering a free informational report or new subscriber gift.
  3. Increase search ranking. Article marketing is Google friendly. With back links to your website imbedded in each resource box, your website ranks higher when people do simple keyword searches on Google.
  4. Reach a broader audience. Since blogs have burst onto the cyber scene, bloggers are constantly looking for relevant, quality content to use in those blogs. Bloggers, publication editors, and newsletter writers troll article directories for articles to reprint in their publications. When your article and resource/contact box are picked up by others, your exposure grows exponentially.
  5. Improve your skills. The more you write the better writer you’ll become.
  6. Showcase your diversity. Writers are often most successful at marketing themselves when they specialize in a specific topic, like finance or medical writing. With the diverse categories of article directories, you can easily showcase as many specialties as you want, from finance, to pattern making, to kick boxing.
  7. Make more money. Submitting articles can make you money both directly and indirectly. Many authors write and submit articles to promote their latest book, with a direct link to the purchase page in the resource box. Writers who are selling their services make indirect money by bringing people to their websites where they further promote their services or introduce relevant affiliate products. Other writers use it to build a contact list of people who may not currently need their services but might later on. By offering an informational report in exchange for an email address, you can build a relationship via email with your list and be at a “top of the mind” position when they are in need of writing services.

Writers have different goals and objectives for their work. Article marketing is one of the most versatile and effective methods for helping to achieve them.

The Vote Is In

After giving you my initial impressions last week of two article submission software products, the vote is in. (Drum roll, please…)

SubmitEaze wins and Viral Submitter, the free article submission software, loses.

Viral Submitter lost, not because it is a terrible product, but because I was never able to use it. After installing the software, an error message appeared saying I needed “.NET Framework” in order for the program to run. I took the time to investigate what .NET Framework was, how I could get it, found it, downloaded it, and proceeded to install it on my computer. It took about five minutes, which I consider a small investment of my time. I reinstalled Viral Submitter and Voila! It still didn’t run. No reason given. Since Viral Submitter is free, there is no tech support to access for help. I gave up with great disappointment since it is one of very few that supposedly submits press releases in addition to articles.

The winner, SubmitEaze, proved to be a great program for registering, submitting, and tracking submitted articles. A feature that I didn’t note last week is its text randomization (sometimes referred to as spinners). You can set up fields to automatically change words, sentences or complete paragraphs so that your article is unique to each directory submission, which maximizes SEO effectiveness. I’m not a fan of article spinners because they typically result in nonsensical text, but Submiteaze appears to offer a superior function that gives you the kind of control necessary to ensure a quality article. This software does everything—and more—that I want it do and, although I didn’t need it, they have tech support! I’m sold!

If you distribute articles to market yourself, your clients, or your employer, I encourage you to get the trial version of SubmitEaze, take it for a test drive, and decide for yourself if it can enhance your business, too. Click here to download your trial version of SubmitEaze now.