5 Critical Promotion Mistakes People Make With Articles

It's true! In fact, if you learn some basic principles, youcan drive thousands of visitors to your website withoutspending any money on advertising. Publishing articles notonly establishes you as an expert in your chosen field, butalso allows you to fly under the natural "radar defenses"your prospects have against advertising.

But, beware! My experience as a syndicated newspapercolumnist has shown me that people who would otherwisesucceed massively promoting with articles actually failbecause they consistently make one or more of these fivecritical mistakes!

Mistake #1 - NOT Defining Your Target Audience

Many article authors make the serious mistake of notclearly defining a niche audience before writing theirarticle. Successful article authors always know the exact"niche" audience they want to reach before they write thefirst word.

When targeting your audience, remember this rule: Narrowand Deep! Always pick an audience with a specific,pressing, or major interest in a narrow topic!

Mistake #2 - Spamming Ezine Editors

In their desire to cover as much ground as possible, manyarticle authors resort to spam techniques for submittingtheir articles. Instead of tightly targeting appropriateezines that cater specifically to their audience, theseauthors try to hit "everyone."

By trying to save time, they actually waste every minutespent writing their article because most ezine editors willjust delete their submissions as spam!

Mistake #3 - Milktoast Topics

You can write the best article in the world, but if yourheadline doesn't grab a reader's eyeballs and pull theminto your article - you lose!

Article authors should spend at least half as much timewriting the headline as they spend writing their actualarticle.

In fact, an "average" article can get superior resultssimply from having a great headline at the beginning.

Mistake #4 - "What's In It For Me"

If they manage to make it past the first 3 pitfalls, manyarticle authors trip on their shoelaces at this stage ofthe process! Don't write about what you want to writeabout, only write on topics of high interest to your targetaudience.

In other words, give them exactly what they want and theywill love you. Nobody cares how much of an expert you rateon a particular topic until they know you can deliverinformation they need in a way they can use - now!

Mistake #5 - "No Shoe Polish"

You could write an article worthy of the front page of theWall Street Journal, but as soon as somebody spots a typoor misspelling, they immediately put your article lowerthan a Sunday sales circular.

Seriously, if you want to undermine all the good you can dowith a great article, send it out without proper spell-checking!

No matter what product or service you sell, once youunderstand the promotion power of free articles, you'llnever look at website traffic generation the same way.

But remember, if you abuse the power, spam ezine editors,or blatantly pitch people instead of providing realinformation, you might as well skip the whole processaltogether.