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Ways to Instantly Banish Writers Block

The Guide to Beating Writers Block and Kick Start an Article Marketing Campaign that Drives Thousands of Visitors To Your Website
By Eric Gruber Your Article Marketing Expert

Dear Writer: Writing (whether youre writing articles, blog postings, special reports or even books) can be very exciting in the beginning. You start out with great ideas, full of motivation and inspiration. After a while, though, you run out of steam. You find yourself sitting at your computer with your eyes in a blank stare and your fingers ready at the keyboard but theyre not typing. Youre stumped! The muse isnt so amused anymore and you start hunting for things to write about. So where do you turn when your idea arsenal is running low? Ideas can be found almost everywhere. Your first step to building your idea arsenal is to create a swipe file. Professional copywriters have used this technique for years. Their files included clippings from magazines, direct mail pieces, email copies, website copy, etc. For article marketers, our swipe file consists of a file in Microsoft Word that holds all of our ideas for future articles for which we havent worked an outline for or spent time researching. Your first source for writing ideas is your very own thoughts. Begin your swipe folder by typing in any article ideas you may have already. Your next source is everywhere and everything. Im even known to scribble ideas on napkins, placemats, notepaper or any magazine clip that caught my attention so I can immediately put it into my swipe file when I return to my office. Build your swipe file using our huge list of content resources that weve put together for you to review, investigate and explore for possible article marketing ideas. It certainly isnt a list of all the content, resources and information out there, but it is designed to get you thinking about all the content, resources and information out there for you to write about. If I have missed a favorite resource of yours, please email me at Eric@prleads.com and Ill be sure to add your idea in our next PR LEADS Article Marketing Secrets & Breakthroughs Newsletter and of course give you full credit. To Your Article Writing & Marketing Success! Eric Gruber Director of Operations PR LEADS Article Marketing Service

TABLE OF CONTENTS How To Get Maximum Value From This Book.......................................................................................... i Tactic 1: Develop a Passion........................................................................................................................ 1 Tactic 2: Put Passion Into Your Articles .................................................................................................... 2 Tactic 3: Read Everything You Can ........................................................................................................... 3 Tactic 4: Study Trade Magazines & Journals............................................................................................. 4 Tactic 5: Read Publications Your Audience Is Reading............................................................................. 6 Tactic 6: Read Letters To The Editor ......................................................................................................... 7 Tactic 7: Flapoodle ..................................................................................................................................... 8 Tactic 8: Freewrite Until You Get There.................................................................................................... 9 Tactic 9: Surf the Web .............................................................................................................................. 10 Tactic 10: Use Top News Stories Online.................................................................................................. 11 Tactic 11: Search Google For Content ..................................................................................................... 13 Tactic 12: Read Industry News & Resources ........................................................................................... 14 Tactic 13: Reading What Other People Wrote ......................................................................................... 15 Tactic 14: Google News Alerts & Other News Search Engines............................................................... 16 Tactic 15: Perform Competitive Intelligence............................................................................................ 17 Tactic 16: Go Blog Hopping..................................................................................................................... 18 Tactic 17: Browse Newspaper/Magazine Blogs....................................................................................... 19 Tactic 18: Explore Corporate, Organizational & CEO Blogs .................................................................. 20 Tactic 19: Use Your Own Blog As A Content Source Idea Tank ............................................................ 21 Tactic 20: Explore Chat Rooms................................................................................................................ 22 Tactic 21: Make the Rounds On Your Favorite Forums/Message Boards ............................................... 23 Tactic 22: Visit Newsgroups/Discussion Lists ......................................................................................... 24 Tactic 23: Explore Article Directories...................................................................................................... 25 Tactic 24: Grasp the Power of the PR Leads Expert Resource Network ................................................. 26 Tactic 25: Keep Up-To-Date With Legislative Updates .......................................................................... 27 Tactic 26: Watch Morning Shows First Thing In The Morning............................................................... 28 Tactic 27: Watch The Oprah Winfrey Show ............................................................................................ 29 Tactic 28: Listen To Talk Radio ............................................................................................................... 30 Tactic 29: Using Others Ads as Idea Stimulators.................................................................................... 31 Tactic 30: Pick What Already Works ....................................................................................................... 32 Tactic 31: Keep Diverse Cultural & Age Groups in Mind & Capture New Markets............................... 33 Tactic 32: Piggyback on a Holiday........................................................................................................... 34 Tactic 33: Get Seasonal ............................................................................................................................ 35 Tactic 34: Theme It................................................................................................................................... 36 Tactic 35: Uncover The Hidden Source Of Story Ideas With Surveys .................................................... 37 Tactic 36: Get The Facts & Stats .............................................................................................................. 38 Tactic 37: Dont Forget Your Hobbies ..................................................................................................... 40 Tactic 38: Tap Into Your Own Personal/Business Experiences ............................................................... 41 Tactic 39: Do An Interview ...................................................................................................................... 42 Tactic 40: Get To Know PR Professionals Within Your Industry ........................................................... 43 Tactic 41: Dont Throw Away Your Junk Mail ....................................................................................... 44 Tactic 42: Give Tips ................................................................................................................................. 45 Tactic 43: Write How To Articles ............................................................................................................ 46 Tactic 44: Create a Mastermind Group..................................................................................................... 47 Tactic 45: Scan Your Book or Ebook....................................................................................................... 47 Tactic 46: Dig Through Ezines................................................................................................................. 48 Tactic 47: Make a Collage ........................................................................................................................ 49

Tactic 48: Slant Your Ideas ...................................................................................................................... 50 Tactic 49: Start An Advice Column ......................................................................................................... 51 Tactic 50: Answer Frequently Asked Questions ...................................................................................... 52 Tactic 51: Recycle, Recycle, Recycle....................................................................................................... 54 Tactics 52 & 53: Take a Shower or Sleep On It & Put Your Subconscious To Work ............................. 55 Tactic 55: Eavesdrop ................................................................................................................................ 57 Tactics 56 & 57: Go People Watching or Go Walk and Get Your Brain Cells Moving .......................... 58 Tactic 58: Check Your Inbox.................................................................................................................... 59 Tactic 59: Review Other Peoples Products ............................................................................................ 60 Tactic 60: Review Your Own Products .................................................................................................... 61 Tactic 61: Review Other Peoples Press Releases.................................................................................... 62 Tactic 62: Write Your Own Press Releases.............................................................................................. 63 Tactic 63: Write an Inspirational Article .................................................................................................. 64 Tactic 64: Review Your White Papers & Case Studies............................................................................ 65 Tactic 65: Dig Through Comments From Readers & Publishers............................................................. 66 Tactic 66: Analyze a Trend....................................................................................................................... 68 Tactic 67: Relate Your Subject To Something Else ................................................................................. 69 Tactic 68: Use Inspirational Quotes From Thought Leaders.................................................................... 70 Tactic 69: Spike Up Your Article Traffic With Tragedies ....................................................................... 71 Tactic 70: Tie Your Articles To Your New Promotions .......................................................................... 72 Tactic 71: Turn Scars Into Stars ............................................................................................................... 73 Tactic 72: Perform Persona-Based Marketing.......................................................................................... 75 Tactic 73: Turn Transcripts Into Articles ................................................................................................. 78 Tactic 74: Describe A Painful Process ..................................................................................................... 79 Tactic 75: Put On Your 6 Thinking Hats................................................................................................. 81 Tactic 76: Start With The Headline .......................................................................................................... 82 Tactic 77: Develop New Ideas With The 3 Step Idea Matrix................................................................... 83 Tactic 78: Tag It........................................................................................................................................ 84 Tactic 79: Track the Most Popular/ High Traffic Sites and Blogs ........................................................... 85 Tactic 80: Find Out What People Are Searching For............................................................................... 86 Tactic 81: Break It Up Into Stages............................................................................................................ 87 Tactic 82: Relax Your Mind & Enjoy It All............................................................................................. 90 Tactic 83: Do a Makeover..90 Tactic 84: Create an Editorial Calendar.91 Tactic 85: Write a Series of Articles at Once92 Tactic 86: Make a Checklist Type Article.93 Tactic 87: Invest in Voice Dictation Software...95 Tactic 88: Keep an Ongoing List of Topics...96 Special Resources To Help You Profit From This Book.......................................................................... 87

HOW TO GET MAXIMUM VALUE FROM THIS BOOK

Here are four things you can do to turn this eBook into an interactive learning experience that will give you the power to build credibility, establish yourself as an expert, increase sales, build a massive list of prospects that want to hear from you now, and improve your search engine optimization (SEO) all at the same time: Throughout this eBook, you will find tons of resources, which will automatically direct you to websites where additional information, expanded examples and demonstrations of the corresponding strategy discussed in this book can be found. For example, in Tactic #3, we provide more than 30 links to trade magazines and journals found online and in Tactic #9, there are over 30 sites to get the top news stories to use for quick article content ideas. Practice, practice, practice. I can tell you that the advice between these covers can save you hours upon hours of staring at a blank sheet of paper wondering what you should be writing about. I learned this stuff the hard way, through trial and error (after error, after error). Im giving you a shortcut to article writing and marketing success, but you must still practice these strategies over and over again to see which ones work best for you. Get a FREE subscription to the PR LEADS Article Marketing Secrets & Breakthroughs Newsletter that has inspired and thousands of people in diverse businesses and sales activities create the ultimate article marketing campaign. Check out the resources at the end of the eBook that will help you maximize your Internet Marketing and Publicity efforts. They are meant to help you get the most bang for your buck and time!

TACTIC 1: DEVELOP A PASSION

To be a successful article marketer, you must be passionate about your subjects and your articles. You must breathe, eat, sleep and live with them. Where passion and skills intersect is where you will find your best chances for success. You have to know your subjects inside and out. Many aspiring article writers and marketers get excited about their subjects and go through a quick, torrid romance then they lose interest and their article marketing efforts die. To keep the fire flaming, you must believe in your articles and in the benefits it will give to others. When you truly believe, the hard work will become easier and worth the effort. It will not be as difficult to remain patient, to be persistent and to not give up. When youre passionate about your articles, your belief will convince others. It makes them into converts, supporters and disciples who will deliver your message for you, transforming your article marketing efforts into a viral marketing campaign. Inspired by your passion and belief, they will help you build a base for your articles, for your products and your services.

TACTIC 2: PUT PASSION INTO YOUR ARTICLES

According to Phoenix-based entrepreneur extraordinaire and direct marketing legend, Millionaire Maker Dan Kennedy, The number one sin in marketing in general is being boring. This is particularly true for article writing and marketing. Thats why article writing is no place for pure, cold, hard logic. I dont care what business youre in or who your prospects or customers are; they buy by emotion and then justify their choice with logic. These cold fish articles rarely work. The purely factual approach fails almost every time its used. You must be the desirable oppositeand transform your boring content into articles that possess passion, excitement, and even a little wildness to it. You must be eager to pull the passion from within yourself and channel it into your article writing and marketing efforts. Heres an exercise I suggest you try: Assume your audience is someone youre having an affair with. Write an article that will convince your lover to make some excuse to be away from work and responsibilities for a week and take all the risks inherent in sneaking away to the Bahamas with you. Be bold, daring and even shocking. Anticipate the objections and eliminate them as you go. Make huge promises and create an overwhelming desire in your reader to go with you on that trip. But be careful not to cross the line and become advertorial.

TACTIC 3: READ EVERYTHING YOU CAN

So where do you get ideas? Where do you get the passion I discussed in the first strategy? You wouldnt believe how many times Im asked this question when Im introduced to others as a writer or as an article marketing expert. I know several writers whose tongue in cheek response is: Theres a P.O. box in Schenectady to which you can write to for ideas. But they wont send you ideas unless youre published or a well-known article writer. Ideas Are Free And Easy The real answer to the question is almost as flippant. The truth is, ideas are free. We grow them naturally. Just about anything we see, hear, read or experience can spark your passions and your ideas. Reading is your best foundation for writing. Reading will give you a steady source of information and information breeds new ideas, which you as an article writer and marketer can thrive on. You can read anything: a newspaper, book, advertisements, classified ads or even a milk carton. Just by reading your local newspaper, you can obtain a wealth of article ideas. And, when you read the newspaper, read it from front to back, including the advertisements. Jumping into an environment that already has lots of ideas in it may lead to new ideas. Keep a notepad with you while you read and jot down topic ideas as they come to your mind. Reading will also teach you to recognize good writing, including your own, and shows you what to emulate. It will help you develop standards and determine what to write, how to write and what to avoid.

TACTIC 4: STUDY TRADE MAGAZINES & JOURNALS

To write new and original articles, you must keep up-to-date with new developments within your industry. You can do this by reading trade magazines and trade journals within your field of knowledge or expertise. Libraries usually have them all. Go down to the library, take a look at all the magazines and then subscribe to the very best ones. You may even want to read trade magazines and journals for other industries as well. Many writers disclose that they make it a point to read about subjects other than their own areas of expertise because it informs them of methods and concepts they can import into their own fields. Plus, it will introduce you to a new world of writers and writing styles. This cross-fertilization strengthens their writing and injects it with additional ideas that were spurred by their reading. Here are some examples of trade industry magazines and journals that can also be found online: Womens Wear Daily - Online and print daily news source for retailers and manufacturers of women's apparel, accessories, fibers and textiles. Fashion Information - Online fashion trend and forecasting magazine. Architectural Record - Exclusive magazine of the American Institute of Architects. Architecture Magazine - Looks at the industry from a number of perspectives including culture, design, education, resources, and more. Automotive & Transportation Interiors Magazine - Trade magazine for automotive interior design, engineering, and manufacturing. Includes news, product reviews, trade show calendar, supplier list and more. Babcox Publications - Home to the auto industry's most distinguished and well-known magazines. Chemical Engineering Magazine - Engineering articles, news, product roundups, seminars and conferences, links, job advice, and more. CIO Insight - Original research, best practices, stats, and useful information and analysis for technology executives. CIO Insight is the business journal of record for today's senior IT decision makers. Business Enterprise Journal This trade journal covers the software solutions that enable the successful execution of business processes. Tradeshow Week - Online source for the latest trade show and event marketing news. Includes a directory of trade shows, convention centers, industry services and suppliers. Facility Management & Maintenance - Information regarding facility management, maintenance, buildings and grounds, and physical plant. Workforce Management - Search through archived information, participate in online forums, and check in for weekly information updates. Red Herring - Monthly magazine covering the business of technology. NASA Tech Briefs - Monthly magazine featuring reports of innovations developed by NASA and its industry partners/contractors that can be applied to develop new/improved products and solve engineering or manufacturing problems. Mechanical Engineering Magazine - Showcases mechanical engineering's leading role in technological advancements. Environmental Business International - Publisher of Environmental Business Journal and market reports. Insurance Journal - News and feature magazine for the property and casualty insurance industry. Journal Bytes - Offers an online journal review service and continuing education resource featuring information retrieval, doctor-written commentary, PDA and MP3 downloads, as well as full-text articles. Journal of Hospitality Financial Management - Official publication of AHFME. Covers research in finance, accounting, and financial economics related to the hospitality industry and tourism. 4

Trans Tech Publications - Features indexes to journals and yearbooks about bulk and raw materials handling and powder handling. ALM Law - ALM's award-winning publications, events and online properties including The American Lawyer, Corporate Counsel, Real Estate Forum, LegalTech, Insight Information, GlobeSt.com and Law.com anticipate and address the needs of today's leaders with timely, focused news and information. Cambridge Law Journal - Publishes articles on all aspects of law. CEO Refresher -- Creative leadership, competitive strategy and performance improvement. Australian Journal of Management -- Publishes research in accounting, applied economics, finance, industrial relations, and more, provided the application is to management. BtoB Covers Internet marketing and advertising. Promo Magazine -- Magazine of promotion marketing covering all aspects of the promotion industry Journal of Real Estate Portfolio Management A publication of the American Real Estate Association Food Management -- Provides ideas for food service directors, managers, and chefs. Covers issues and events, operational topics, and food trends. Journal of Commerce -- Reporting trade and transportation news since 1827. Motion Net A directory of engineering, science and medical trade journals.

TACTIC 5: READ PUBLICATIONS YOUR AUDIENCE IS READING

Keep your eyes open and read the publications that your audience is reading. No one knows what intrigues your audience more than magazines. Scan the headlines and skim the articles for new ideas. If youre a B2B company, then you should be reading Entrepreneur Magazine, Forbes, and Inc. Magazine. If youre a company that sells products and services to mothers, then you want to read Mothering Magazine, Prevention and Redbook. Other popular magazines you should be reading include: Parade Time Business 2.0 Sports Illustrated In Style Cosmopolitan Parents Popular Science Health AARP Mens Journal Third Age Slate Money Popular Mechanics People Magazine Todays Caregiver Shape

TACTIC 6: READ LETTERS TO THE EDITOR

Out of the hundreds they receive, most publications fit about ten letters in a typical editorial section, so the ones they publish either: 1. are the best single expressions of what many people said; 2. make some point exceedingly well; or 3. are signed by some prominent person. Letters to the editor can be found in every newspaper and print publication. By reading this section, you are getting a direct link to the minds of your audience. Youll be able to know which issues they get excited about, and their opinions on such matters. Read this section, and you will get a ton of new ideas that will spark your readers emotions. Spark them enough, and you may be able to turn readers into buyers. If letters to the editor can easily influence the media, whats stopping you from using letters to the editor to influence new article ideas? We have found many times that a simple letter to someone in the media wound up in major media coverage weeks or months later. If a letter to the editor can get that much attention, imagine how much attention a successfully placed article spurred from ideas found in a letter to the editor section can get. When reviewing letters to the editor, dont forget about letters to the editor that you have written. Many times, your letters can be expanded into 500-750 word articles. For example, Ive written a letter to the editor for Dani Kaplan of SMC Data Systems, a client of the PR LEADS Article Marketing Service. That letter was published in the October 2006 Worldwide Retail Automation Magazine. From that letter to the editor, we created the article Technology & Business Expansion: Matching Your Data Systems to the Business Growth Needs of Tomorrow. You can see this article by clicking on the following links: http://www.themanager.org/Resources/Technology_Business_Expansion.htm http://www.emarketingassociation.com/newsletter.htm These are just two out of the hundreds of links the article received all from an idea spawned by a letter to the editor.

TACTIC 7: FLAPOODLE
This is a term coined by Doug Hall, the author of Jump Start Your Brain. Put your main idea in the middle of a blank sheet of paper. Think of three or four possible topics and branch them off the main idea. Allow each branch of the tree to grow its own branches of related ideas. Soon, youll have a messy page filled with lots of useful thoughts. Need some help thinking of main ideas? The editors of Writer's Digest have prepared 52 writing promptsidea joggers and brain startersto get your writing going. One of their latest prompts include: Associate Editor Brian A. Klems can't stop procrastinating, so he needs your help! Develop a list of five punishments to dissuade him from procrastinating. Each punishment should be tougher than the next. For example, the first punishment should be for the first time he puts off work. The second, for the second time. And so on.

TACTIC 8: FREEWRITE UNTIL YOU GET THERE

This is the fastest way I know to beat writers block. Writing as you go is more effective than reading or researching without doing any writing of your own. Take it from Peter Elbow, a writing professor at the University of Massachusetts and author of Writing With Power: "Any structure that you dream up before actually getting your hands dirty in the writing itself is apt to be like a plan you work out for travel in an unfamiliar country: it usually has to be changed once you get there and see how things really work." Peter Elbow Get out a blank pad of paper, put on some music and write. Keep the pen moving for a set time 10 or 15 minutes and write down everything that comes to mind no matter how silly it may sound at first. If you freewrite for 10 or 15 minutes, you'll prove to yourself that you CAN fill pages with words about your topic! The blank page will be less intimidating when you finally do sit down to write a draft. Dont think, look back, correct or delete anything. When you freewrite, you're not trying to write great sentences; but every now and then you will write a powerful, eloquent sentence that you'll be able to use in your articles. And you'll write lots of other sentences that you'll be able to revise and turn into great sentences. Your freewriting doesn't even have to make sense. But it will warm you up for later writing that will have to be fluent and coherent, and it gives you a safe, private place to explore some of your wackier ideas. At the end of the session, read what you wrote, highlighting anything that jumps out at you. Use these words to find your next topic. While freewriting, you can listen to your own gut reactions or opinions. These can help guide your research: seek out evidence to defend these first reactions. Or, if the evidence winds up convincing you that your first reactions were wrong, explore why the "wrong" ideas were so compelling and why you mistakenly believed them at first. You may want to address these "wrong" ideas in your article. Note - I dont usually recommend listening to music while youre trying to concentrate; however, immersing yourself in sound will allow you to free associate. Let your mind wander off. It may wander into the garden of articles.

TACTIC 9: SURF THE WEB

According to a 2001 study, there were more than 550 billion documents on the Web. A more recent study, which used Web searches in 75 different languages to sample the Web determined that there were over 11.5 billion Web pages in the publicly indexable Web as of January 2005. The Internet is a gold mine of ideas. Start on your favorite site, and follow random links for a few minutes until you come to something strange to you. Instantly, you will have several links to feed off. Reading about something new, unconventional or out of your comfort zone will get your brain moving and build momentum for your article marketing efforts.

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TACTIC 10: USE TOP NEWS STORIES ONLINE

The news is probably one of the most popular content resources to find inspiration for articles. Many people regularly visit CNN or Yahoo News to keep up on issues that are affecting them locally, regionally, nationally and internationally. While the top 10 new stories may be stimulating for some, there is a lot more news out there to digest and dig through to find that golden idea for your next big article. Here are some interesting and more unusual places to find news to help you start thinking about where and how you find news to write about for your articles: CNN Most Popular Stories - This page presents the 10 most popular stories on the CNN.com home page. It is updated every 20 minutes. Research Buzz Kebberfegg - Kebberfegg is a tool to help you generate large sets of keyword-based RSS feeds at one time. Topix News Headlines - The Topix.net team continuously monitors breaking news from over 10,000 sources, 24 hours a day. Currently, the Topix.net web page inventory consists of separate pages for the 30,000 US cities and towns, 5,500 public company and industry verticals, 48,000 celebrities and musicians, 1,500 sports teams and personalities, and many, many more. Online Newspapers Provides you with links to thousands of newspapers worldwide that post their articles online as well as in print. Crayon Most Popular Sources Provides links to over 850 news sources. It even provides a link to David Lettermans Top 10 Lists. New York Times Most Emailed Stories Be in the know. Find out which issues are moving readers the most. New York Times World News The New York Times is one of the most read newspapers in the United States. Monitor whats going on at home and abroad. Meta Eureka Top News Stories For world, entertainment and technical news. Yahoo Top News Stories Its one of the most sites authors go to find content ideas for their articles. Yahoo News For full coverage and topical roundup of world news stories. News Is Free Most Popular News Stories This site shows the most todays, yesterdays and the weeks most popular news items and news channels. It also provides a list of the most subscribed news sources. 1st Headlines For top breaking headline news. Google News - Search and browse 4,500 news sources updated continuously. Newseum 568+ newspaper front pages from 47 countries presented alphabetically. News Link Links to Major US newspapers, magazines, radio stations, and local city blogs. Headline Spot - From HeadlineSpot.com, you can quickly and easily find sources for 56 U.S. metropolitan areas, 50 states, 59 countries, 27 industries and dozens of subjects from arts and automobiles to technology and travel. Follow thousands of breaking headlines, dive into more than 50 op-ed pages, get the word from nearly 100 columnists, read what the critics are saying, or kick back with satire, offbeat news and much more. Reuters Free Top News Stories - Reuters is a global information company providing indispensable information tailored for professionals in the financial services, media and corporate markets. Rapid Tree List of worldwide media resources like newspapers, magazines, television, radio and more. Meta Grid - Find 8000 Newspapers and Online-magazines. News Directory - Your guide to all online English-language media. This free directory of newspapers, magazines, television stations, colleges, visitor bureaus, governmental agencies and more can help you get to where you want to go, or find sites you didn't know about. I Want Media This website focuses on diversified media news and resources. It provides quick access to media news and industry data, updated throughout the day. 11

News Place - This site appears unassuming at first, but just one click on the topic area of your choice will lead you to a plethora of links. Ananova Breaking news portal. World News News in Essence News In Essence is a news aggregator that finds and summarizes clusters of related news articles from multiple sources on the Web. Wall Street Executive Library - Over 1450 content rich resources for an informed, intelligent, perspective. WorldPress.org News and views from around the world. Lexis Nexis Free news headlines from a leading provider of comprehensive information and business solutions to professionals in a variety of areas. Over 4000 sources including newspapers and television transcripts. News Ahead - Overview of future world news headlines and the stories behind them, one year ahead for subscribers or one month ahead in the preview. Slate A daily general-interest publication offering analysis and commentary about politics, news, and culture. News Wise Business, science and medical news search engine service. E-News Wire A no-frills, fast loading Internet portal to the latest news updated 24 hours a day. DocuTicker - Offers a hand-picked selection of resources, reports and publications from government agencies, NGOs, think tanks and other public interest organizations. If you dont want to read about the news, then listen to it and watch it. Even if your articles are not based on news, politics or current events, you will still benefit from finding out whats going on in the world/ To give you a refreshed view why not check out news sources that you dont usually refer to? If youre not a CNN person, check out BBC this time around, or CNBC or MSNBC.

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TACTIC 11: SEARCH GOOGLE FOR CONTENT

Because not always will only fresh, news-style links be of interest, sometimes I simply enter a few keywords into a search engine. However, once you find an article on your selected topic, you must put a unique and creative spin on the topic to get maximum results. If you have problems thinking of a few keywords, I suggest using Google Suggest. All you have to do is start typing and Google will give you an instant list of suggested topics. You can even add Google Suggest to your toolbar. Ive never been a fan of Web site toolbars that have to be downloaded and incorporated into the Web browser window--that is, until Google's 4.0 Toolbar came along. While most other toolbars have similar options and offerings, Google's new enhanced search box encourages frequent use. I find myself using the enhanced search box every time I conduct a search from the toolbar, and I am constantly amazed at the accuracy of the search box's suggested listings as well as the variety of suggestions from the few letters I type in. According to Google, its new enhanced search box works as follows: "As you type a search query into the new Toolbar's search box, you'll see a list of useful suggestions based on popular Google searches, spelling corrections and your own Toolbar search history and bookmarks. You can also click the 'G' icon in the search box to search different Google sites, the current site, or sites for which you've installed custom search buttons." With the enhanced search box feature, users can start to type a query and immediately see suggestions based on the letter configuration. This is especially ideal for those of us who never excelled at spelling. If users are unsure of how to spell what they are looking for, the Google toolbar offers suggestions on what is actually being searched for. The toolbar also saves searches, which appear above the suggestions--even after only one letter has been typed into the search box. The customized feel of this functionality is a great way to search, as it feels more personal and intuitive. Search engine sites are always updating and upgrading their services to appeal to both the Web savvy and the not-so-Web-savvy. The Google toolbar has become much more streamlined and user-friendly. It still offers a pop-up blocker and shortcut buttons to other Google sites. Additionally, users can bookmark sites within the toolbar and access them from any computer. Another feature that stands out is the drop-down menu of possible searches related to the terms users type into the box. For example, I was searching for carpet cleaning services the other day and had only typed "carp" when the suggested terms displayed below included "carpet." After typing "carpet," I didn't need to type anything else. The term suggestions generated by the tool box contained exactly what I was looking for, with "carpet cleaning" appearing as the third suggestion. This feature is most helpful for those of us with spelling impediments or unsure of what we're searching for. Another plus is being able to rediscover forgotten bookmarks, as the listed suggestions include relevant bookmarks saved in the toolbar. As a search professional, I have to wonder what impact this will have on how users search, and how we can use it to our advantage when planning campaigns. There also may be a way to tap into this feature for behavioral marketing. To build your arsenal of article marketing ideas, you can also use a little-known feature in Google that will help you identify websites that are related to yours. Type this in Google's search box: related:www.yourcompanyname.com. You will see a list of websites that Google considers related to yours. Find out what related companies are discussing and writing about. Find out where they are being published and explore those sites. And, dont forget to keep those sites in mind for when you are ready to submit your articles. 13

TACTIC 12: READ INDUSTRY NEWS & RESOURCES

When writing about articles within your specific niche, monitor the news stories coming from your industry. There are many industry resources to choose from, and theyre not all encompassing. The following is a general example of some industry news and resources available online. For a specific industry, hit the search engines for your industry keywords. Whatever your article topic is, chances are there are one or more industries that support it. So search far and wide to find the inspiration you need to write your articles. New Scientist - Their global network of specialist correspondents provide comprehensive coverage of science and technology news that is updated throughout the day. CSIRO, the Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation - Australia's national science agency and one of the largest and most diverse research agencies in the world. Geography Network of Canada maps, geography and data. Silicon.com Most popular white papers from Silicon Valley. Business Week Online Technology Research Library Top 50 technology resources from top magazines and companies like Intel. Webmaster World - Forum for members to share and gain knowledge in operating and promoting a website. Wired Filled with articles on technology and innovation. ZD Net tech news, white papers and blogs for IT professionals. Business Wire - Business Wire has the most comprehensive news and disclosure network in the world. They originate hundreds of thousands of news announcements each year, with a dramatic impact on capital and commercial markets around the globe and in virtually every industry sector. Medline Plus - Brings together authoritative information from NLM, the National Institutes of Health (NIH), and other government agencies and health-related organizations. Janes Information Group - Intelligence and insights on defense, airport, transportation, security and risk developments. Bloomberg Financial News The leading global provider of financial data, news and analytical information. One World One World United States publishes U.S. and international perspectives on global issues gathered from One World partners worldwide. Biz Journals The nation's largest publisher of metropolitan business newspapers. It operates the Web sites for each of the company's 41 print business journals.

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TACTIC 13: READING WHAT OTHER PEOPLE WROTE

There is so much being written on the Web it can be overwhelming to many. Yet, one of the most important ways of finding something to write about is to find out what other people are writing about. This goes beyond news or most popular stories. It is the monitoring and reading of what other people are writing to help inspire you to write. You never know where a bit of inspiration will come from, so keep your mind open to all possibilities. The following included a wide range of resources for finding articles and archived articles: Mag Portal directory and search engine for finding online magazine articles. Common Content - includes 4000+ records, many of which are collections, which include hundreds or thousands of other works. Find Articles - gives you free access to millions of articles from thousands of top publications. US National Archives Records, articles and information from the United States Government. About.com - Each month more than 29 million people visit About.com. Whether it be home repair and decorating ideas, business, recipes, movie trailers, or car buying tips, their guides offer practical advice and solutions for every day life. Chances are you may even see some of our clients articles as many have been published on About.com as a result of our efforts. US News Archives These pages contain links to US news archives that are available on the net. Ask a Librarian an online reference resource center from the United States Library of Congress. Librarians Internet Index - Every Thursday morning we send out our free newsletter, New This Week, which features dozens of high-quality websites carefully selected, described, and organized by our team of librarians. Topics include current events and issues, holidays and seasons, helpful tools for information users, human interest, and more. High Beam Library Research - 35 million documents from over 3,000 sources -- a vast collection of articles from leading publications, updated daily and going back as far as 20 years. H2O Playlist - An H2O Playlist is a series of links to books, articles, and other materials that collectively explore an idea or set the stage for a course, discussion, or current event. Cyber Journalist Search news sites, blogs, press releases, dictionaries and encyclopedias instantly. Power Reporting Free research tools for journalists and article marketers. News Trove Search news by viewpoint. Time Archive Archive of Time Magazine articles from 1923 to present. Assignment Editor A resource that reporters, writers, producers and assignment editors could use to find stories and do research on the Internet. The site is used worldwide to navigate to millions of destinations on the Internet each month. e-How - Every month, over 6 million people visit e-How's hundreds of thousands of pages of advice, which are clear and concise step-by-step solutions on how to do things. How Stuff Works - The leading source of credible, unbiased, and easy-to-understand explanations of how the world actually works. Internet Public Library National Press Club Library and research links and resources. Ref Desk - Indexes and reviews quality, credible, and timely reference resources that are free and family-friendly. Bartleby References & Quotes Unlimited access to books & information on the web for free. Journalist Express One stop links and resources for journalists and article writers. Voice of the Shuttle Website for humanities research.

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TACTIC 14: GOOGLE NEWS ALERTS & OTHER NEWS SEARCH ENGINES
A news search engine is one that scans thousands of recent publications for news articles that contain keywords you specify. They differ from Web search engines in that they only report back news articles that have appeared in the last 30 days. Not only can Google News Alerts be used to track where your own articles have been published, but its also perfect for finding out what other people are writing about. Put your key words into Google News Alerts and you will receive daily, weekly or monthly alerts of articles that contain your keywords. You can also use Yahoo News Alerts, another excellent news search engine. But to make these really useful, you will need to go beyond the basic search, and use some of the advanced features they offer. For example, visit http://news.search.yahoo.com and enter a keyword or phrase that you wish to track (e.g., article marketing). You are likely to see a large number of matches, with many duplicates. You can pare these results into a short manageable set using specific restriction terms within the Yahoo News search box, like this: intitle:article marketing "article writing" OR "marketing with articles" OR marketing campaign viral:Yahoo This instructs Yahoo to find only those news articles that have the words "article marketing" in the title, the phrases "marketing campaign" or submission service in the body, but do not have the word print and are from a publication syndicated to Yahoo. You may need to play around with different settings for the restrictors until you get a small set of valid articles. You may also need to set up multiple searches for different terms. Here are some other ways to track stories and news: New York Times Alert News alerts by category. TV Eyes for Consumers Free email alerts on TV stories. Net News Tracker - Searches Usenet newsgroups daily for the phrases you choose and sends e-mail notification when there are new hits. Talk Digger Tracks search engines, blogs, tag services, and social book marking. News Wise News tracker and search engine service. CNN News Alerts - CNN alerts you the moment top news stories break.

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TACTIC 15: PERFORM COMPETITIVE INTELLIGENCE

News search engines, good as they are, are not complete. They dont check company websites for updates and changes. To build your arsenal of article marketing ideas, you should make it a habit to check your key competitors websites regularly for updates and changes. This is the best way to find new white papers, seminars, and presentations that your competitors create. Here are some competitive intelligence sites and services to consider: Watch 360 - It monitors your competitors' Web sites and key news sources for you, and automatically delivers a succinct email each morning about any new white papers, press releases, news articles, webinar announcements and other new information it finds. You can try it for $1 for the first month. PubSub PubSub is a matching service that instantly notifies you when new content is created that matches your subscription. Using a proprietary Matching Engine, PubSub is able to read millions of data sources on your behalf and notify you instantly whenever a match is made. Steven Bells Keeping Up Website - Allows you to track changes made on a specific web page. Info Minder A hosted subscription service that allows you to track changes to web pages, blogs, RSS feeds and wikis. Website-Watcher - allows you to monitor websites for updates and changes. Change Detect - A free service that saves your favorite web pages, monitors content for changes and sends automatic email notifications to you whenever your web pages are updated. Check & Get Allows you to manage and validate bookmarks, track. Changes and archive web pages. Track Engine Track Engine can alert you to specific events on any given web page. For example, track your competitor's press releases and be notified when they launch new products.

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TACTIC 16: GO BLOG HOPPING

Were all guilty of doing it on a regular basis reading blogs from our blogroll. We cant avoid it, even if we wanted to. A recent study shows that over four million people write blogs, and blogging is growing faster than the Web at its high point. However, the next time you blog hop, read your favorite blogs with the purpose of finding ideas to write articles about. Try to follow links to blogs you usually dont visit. Start asking yourself questions like: What are bloggers and their readers interested in at the moment? What is the most popular topic that people blog about? Do I want to write about it too and create an article around that topic? You may even want to post comments, and make sure you add a link back to your website. Then take those comments and expand it into a full-fledged 500 to 750-word article to be submitted online.

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TACTIC 17: BROWSE NEWSPAPER/MAGAZINE BLOGS

As I tell complaining clients, timing has a lot to do with the success of your article writing and marketing efforts. If you want to increase traffic in the short term, you have to write about topics that your audience is interested in now. Browsing newspaper/magazine blogs is one of the easiest ways to find out what your audience is interested in at this moment. i. In order to encourage customer interaction, and build popularity for their websites and their magazines or newspapers, most major publications have blogs where readers can post opinions. This is a great place to get ideas because readers will often respond to stories and make suggestions. Reading these blogs will help you develop a sense of whats important to your audience now. If theyre so interested in the topic that theyre blogging about, chances are your audience is searching the Web for more information as well. Example newspaper/magazine blogs include: http://www.entrepreneur.com/blog/index.html http://www.eatingwell.com/community/bulletin_boards/ www.usatoday.com

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TACTIC 18: EXPLORE CORPORATE, ORGANIZATIONAL & CEO BLOGS

Blogging has caused quite a buzz. From political activists to aspiring novelists, industry pros and avid hobbyists, everyone seems to be starting a blog. Recent articles in Business Week and Forbes demonstrate how even the mainstream media is taking notice of their unprecedented growth and increasing effect on our society. In todays world, chances are your industrys leaders are blogging about their latest trends and developments. Here are some links to examples of unusual corporate, organizational & CEO blogs Ive heard about recently to help you get ideas for your articles: Portugese Trade & Tourism Office Windber Medical Center & The Windber Research Institute Los Angeles Police Department

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TACTIC 19: USE YOUR OWN BLOG AS A CONTENT SOURCE IDEA TANK
Your very own blog can become your best friend when it comes to writing articles. Your blog is a tool that will help you analyze what your audience is interested in. Review your blog posting archives. Find out which postings received the greatest number of reader comments both positive and negative. Figure out which postings got the most views. Then see which postings you can expand into a 500-750word article and write about it. And, dont forget to blog about your successful article placements.

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TACTIC 20: EXPLORE CHAT ROOMS

There are probably millions of chat rooms out there on the Web just waiting for you to visit and take advantage of. All you need to do to participate in these online forums where you can chat with others by typing instantly displayed messages is go to http://www.google.com or your favorite search engine and enter your target keyword and chat. For example, if you want to find chat rooms that are talking about dogs, you could enter dog chat in the search bar. Choose a chat room in your topic area that is frequented by your target audience and discover the hot topics everyone is discussing. Learn about your audiences needs, wants and desires, then create an article that will trigger your audiences emotions. Another good thing about this method is that you can establish yourself as a subject matter expert by answering a few questions during your visit.

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TACTIC 21: MAKE THE ROUNDS ON YOUR FAVORITE FORUMS/MESSAGE BOARDS

Make the rounds on your favorite boards and see what your prospective audience is discussing. What questions are people asking? This is a strong leading indicator of subjects to write about. One simple question can be turned into an excellent article. Here are some example forum/message boards: http://www.wahmpreneur.com/discus/ http://www.free-publicity.com/cgi-bin/talk.cgi http://www.bizweb2000.com/wwwboard/ This is similar to the chat room tip, but with an added twist. If you see the same topic in many different posts or a really long discussion thread, its worth having a closer look at it. Not only may you find an interesting article topic, but you may also have found a problem that your marketplace is begging to have a solution created for it thats well within your limits and capabilities. Bingo! Your very own product is born, thanks to watching the boards.

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TACTIC 22: VISIT NEWSGROUPS/DISCUSSION LISTS

Same as with the forums; when you are reading the posts, always ask yourself: Would this make a good, informative article? Do people want or need to know about this? Here are some example newsgroup/discussion lists: mailto:Newbies911-subscribe@topica.com mailto:momsbiz-subscribe@egroups.com mailto:epub-subscriber@yahoogroups.com

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TACTIC 23: EXPLORE ARTICLE DIRECTORIES

Sites that archive article submissions by topic are gold mines of ideas for article writers. Read articles written for your target audience to obtain ideas, but never plagiarize the actual articles. Use the articles gleaned from the list of most popular or newest articles as your starting point. Use your own ideas and experiences to develop the article ideas. Some examples of very popular article directories include: Ezine Articles Isnare Go Articles Article City Article Dashboard Idea Marketers Self Growth Natural Health Web Buzzle Articles Factory Search Warp

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TACTIC 24: GRASP THE POWER OF THE PR LEADS EXPERT RESOURCE NETWORK
http://www.prleads.com There is practically no one that knows more about what your audience wants to watch, listen or read about than the media professionals themselves. PR LEADS get approximately 100 requests a day from major publication reporters who desperately need to find experts to quote in their stories. PR LEADS will give you their names, email addresses and their story angles. These story angles are what your audience is interested in now! Not only should you be responding to the various editors, but you should also be writing articles on the topics that best suits you. And, dont forget to pay close attention to the publication that is providing the lead. It may be an online publication, website, or ezine that accepts article submissions as well. Thats how I discovered The Diet Detective a major dieting and nutritional news website.

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TACTIC 25: KEEP UP-TO-DATE WITH LEGISLATIVE UPDATES

Policy debates and politics in general can be quite difficult to follow, especially when placed behind closed doors. Write an article on how the latest legislative information will either help or hurt your cause. To keep yourself up-to-date, check out Hill News the newspaper for and about the U.S. Congress.

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TACTIC 26: WATCH MORNING SHOWS FIRST THING IN THE MORNING

Remember the days when you used to get up really early in the morning to watch cartoons, and then you would spend all day lying around watching television? Your parents would yell at you to shut off the television and read, play a game, exercise, clean your room, etc. and do anything but sit in front of the TV. Well, heres some advice that contradicts what your parents always told you, and what youre probably telling your kids go watch television and spur your article marketing ideas. Morning shows cover the most important daily, national, and international news. They also cover whats hot in entertainment and any odd happenings across the country. The Today Show is one example of an excellent source to capture ideas for your article marketing efforts. Other examples include: The Early Show Good Morning America CN8 Your Morning

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TACTIC 27: WATCH THE OPRAH WINFREY SHOW

Whenever shes not interviewing a celebrity, Oprah can cover some very hot and sizzling topics. As much as we may hate to say it, the woman is a trendsetter when it comes to this. This is great news for an author or expert pursuing in article marketing because she has a built in audience. Take a topic she covers and find a new angle. Not only will the topic still be a hot one, but also by mentioning that it was covered on a major talk show lends it additional credibility. Another show you may want to watch is the OReilly Factor or any other talk show on Fox News Channel. If your topics deal with business then you should also be watching CNN and CNBC. Channels like HGTV, the History Channel, Discovery and the Food Network are also great article idea sources as they are filled with programs designed to teach as well as entertain. Other great shows filled with article ideas include shows like Dateline and 20/20.

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TACTIC 28: LISTEN TO TALK RADIO

If its worth talking about, then it may be worth writing about, says Chuck Mache. The sales trainer, breakthrough architect, and author of The 4 Kinds of Salespeople loves to listen to talk radio especially sports talk. He even gets article ideas from listening to sports talk in the morning. In fact, this is how he started a recent article that we submitted for him: I listen to talk radio, particularly sports talk. One of the hottest topics, if not the hottest is whether the San Francisco Giants should bring back Barry Bonds. For the two people on the planet that dont know, he will be a free agent once the World Series is over. One morning last week, the host was emphasizing the impact that Bonds has on revenue by his presence in a Giants uniform. This particular discussion wasnt the usual swirl of banter over making the best decision to produce a winner, his diminishing skills, the negativity that surrounds the alleged steroid issue, or the importance of him breaking the home run record in a Giants uniform. More specifically, the discussion was about his influence on the numbers. Keep him or lose him, how does it affect company revenue? I think one of the quotes was something like, At the end of the day, how many rear ends will he put in the seats of AT&T Park and what does that mean to revenue? I guarantee you thats what upper management is thinking about. National Public Radio (NPR) is a personal favorite of mine. NPR covers an array of subjects that are both interesting and easy to build on and develop. NPR is an internationally acclaimed producer and distributor of noncommercial news, talk, and entertainment programming. A privately supported, not-for-profit membership organization, NPR serves a growing audience of 26 million Americans each week in partnership with more than 800 independently operated, noncommercial public radio stations. Each NPR Member Station serves local listeners with a distinctive combination of national and local programming. With original online content and audio streaming, www.npr.org offers hourly newscasts, special features and ten years of archived audio and information. NPR produces and distributes more than 130 hours of original programming each week, and local NPR stations also broadcast many programs, which are produced by stations and other radio networks. You can learn more about listening to NPR at NPR Everywhere. On this page, you will find information about listening to NPR domestically and internationally on a wide range of devices, including AM/FM, digital and satellite radios, the Internet, podcasts, and more.

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TACTIC 29: USING OTHERS ADS AS IDEA STIMULATORS

I read advertisements and even watch commercials to get new article ideas. For example, Im writing an article on thinking differently. I got this article idea after watching a Xerox commercial that showed a small company thinking to themselves what would a larger company do, and that larger company was thinking what an even larger company would do. I immediately thought, thats a good idea for some areas of business innovation but for article marketing, it can be a poor strategy for some. Yes, you want to examine what has worked for other companies and experts as stated in the next tactic, but you also want to keep in mind that readers want to read fresh and original content. If youre saying the same thing as everyone else, your article will be boring. This is an idea I should write about and I am because I saw the Xerox commercial.

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TACTIC 30: PICK WHAT ALREADY WORKS

Examine what has worked well in other places. In business, companies always look at what other businesses have done successfully and then try to implement and emulate those methods that could work for them. You can do the same with your article marketing efforts. So look for: Articles that have gained wide net exposure and I dont just mean the article directories. I mean on targeted websites and online publications Articles that have been posted on other peoples blogs or have mentions of the articles in their blogs. Articles that have many comments on their articles. Many of the directories, blogs and websites now have capabilities for readers to respond and post their thoughts and opinions. Pay close attention to these responses. Article templates that work. Notice that most of the articles are comprised of short sentences, short paragraphs, bulleted points and sub-headings. Along with closely examining other experts articles, you can get Jeff Herrings 20 article templates with examples to get you started at: http://www.thearticleguy.com

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TACTIC 31: KEEP DIVERSE CULTURAL & AGE GROUPS IN MIND & CAPTURE NEW MARKETS
The United States is a diverse country and this is a great advantage to a writer. Topics about culture can range from food to immigration to business. We took advantage of diverse cultural groups when we published Kevin Donlins article, Executive Job Search for Women: 3 Jobseeking Ways For Women Executives To Find A Job Faster. You can find his article on the largest diversity job board online at: http://www.diversityworking.com The Hispanic community is at the forefront of immigration issues in the United States. In fact, many savvy marketers are now starting to take advantage of new opportunities since they now know and understand that the Hispanic market is bigger, younger and increasing its buying power faster than any other minority group in the United States. This group alone could provide the subject matter for many article pieces and provide you with the power to increase your web traffic and your market share online. Another group, I suggest paying close attention to and marketing towards are the Baby Boomers. Matt Thornhill, founder of the consulting firm The Boomer Project, says its time for marketers to recalibrate their thinking about marketing to older adults. Todays older age group is much more open to new experiences and brands than previous generations of older adults. When using articles to market to Baby Boomers, target what theyre doing instead of how old they are since boomers are living such cyclical lives. In their 40s or 50s, they could be going back to college, be empty nesters, be traveling around the world or raising a young family. Here are some boomer sites to give you some ideas: http://seniorliving.about.com http://www.thirdage.com http://www.healthandage.com http://www.finallymagazine.com http://www.50plus.com http://www.modernmaturity.com http://www.matureresources.org

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TACTIC 32: PIGGYBACK ON A HOLIDAY

Did you know that April is Cancer Control Month, Keep America Beautiful Month, Mathematics Education Month, and National Humor Month among many others? May is Asian Pacific American Heritage Month, National Allergy/Asthma Awareness Month, National Bike Month, National Salad Month, and Older Americans Month. Just about every organization and company should be able to come up with a story idea related to one of these special months. Holidays or Special Months are great idea generators for new article possibilities. Example Titles: Holiday Depression: When A Loved One Dies, Getting Through Holidays Can Be Tough Coping With Valentines Day After Divorce Teleseminars in Business: Make A New Years Resolution To Make Six Figures Hosting Teleseminars Here are two other ideas that piggyback on Halloween: That pretty pumpkin looks great now, but how can you extend its porch life so it doesnt shrivel up by Halloween? This is perfect for garden centers and horticulture experts who can offer tips. Dental offices should create a list of the worst trick-or-treat candy and other Halloween snacks, like caramel apples, for people who wear braces. The above ideas are is just two out of the 103 ideas you will receive in Joan Stewarts (a.k.a The Publicity Hound) one hour teleseminar CD recording of 103 Sizzling Story Ideas From July Through October. Anniversaries are also a good hook. In many cases, the more obscure the subjects anniversary the better. Finding an anniversary is the easy part. Its as simple as opening up an almanac and focusing on relevant years. Chases Calendar of Events is quite popular for defining holidays and historical events. There are also websites like the NY Times website, http://www.nytimes.com/learning, that offers an On This Day In History archive. Books like The Optimists Guide To History and the Pro Football Chronicle offer a quirkier collection of facts and dates to offer a more fascinating fodder Other holiday/calendar sites include: http://www.holidays.net/dailys.htm http://www.earthcalendar.net/_php/countrysearch.php http://www.madmanmike.com/us_events_dates.html

The key is to give a well-known historical event a unique, distinctive, and clever spin. To do this you must scratch a layer or two beneath the surface. So when youre at a loss for an idea, remember anniversaries and think of how you can make them relevant. Anyone can write about history, but it takes a skilled writer to analyze a historical event and place it into your subjects context. Develop this skill and youll be on your way to writing and marketing great article ideas.

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TACTIC 33: GET SEASONAL

Take your generic articles, and focus it around a particular season to create a whole new article. When writing and submitting articles around a seasonal topic, make sure you give enough lead time for ezine publishers to find and publish your articles. Many website and ezine publishers work on their websites and newsletters in advance. Most do not need as much lead time as print publications; however, some sites will receive an article today, but may not publish it for a couple months. Here are some sample ideas for springtime: Spring Cleaning A Harris Interactive poll shows that nearly three out of four U.S. adults gear up for spring-cleaning. Home improvement companies can provide tips on cleaning up gutters and yards. Environmental groups can advocate for less toxic cleaning supplies. Childrens groups can suggest ways that parents can donate toys their children no longer use. Think about possible links between the work you do and the work most people will be doing around the house during this time of year. Spring Break At the other end of the spectrum, how might your work relate to everyones desire for some fun in the sun after a cold winter? Can you offer cost saving tips for long weekend travel? Or, can you offer ideas for stay at home fun and relaxation? Spring Break Parenting experts, do you have any ideas on how to deal with kids or pets who are bouncing off the walls? Organizational development leaders can you offer advice on how to motivate employees not to play hooky from work? No matter what industry youre business or organization is in, you should find ways to relate the work you do to the excitement and energy of Spring Fever.

Here are some example seasonal titles: Eco-Friendly Fashion Footwear: Cruelty Free Shoes You Must Have This Fall Summer Fitness for Busy Women: 4 Quick Exercises To Stay Firm During Bikini Season

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TACTIC 34: THEME IT

Print magazines work months in advance, creating and collecting content based around various themes. Some credible online publications now offer editorial calendars for authors, while others are solely based around one theme. In fact, theres even a new online publication based around the stages of a womans menstrual cycle. Each week the online magazine has new articles on food to eat and places to visit based on the week of the womens cycle. So think of a unique and interesting theme, and start writing your next article.

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TACTIC 35: UNCOVER THE HIDDEN SOURCE OF STORY IDEAS WITH SURVEYS
As the web becomes more and more a part of both our personal and business lives, business and marketing professionals have turned towards web surveys to do research, plan projects, get feedback, develop new products and services, and create public relations and marketing opportunities. Theyve learned from professional writers the importance of using survey to drum up ideas for articles. Surveys are hidden sources of story ideas, providing rich, timely, interesting and intriguing information that you can use in your own articles. You can use sites like Freelance Writing.coms Story Generator, which rounds up the newest surveys each week to help you with brainstorming new article ideas. Or, you can conduct your own surveys with your website visitors or newsletter readers. Surveys can provide you with a wealth of topics that are sure to please your audience. To create your own surveys check out: http://www.zoomerang.com http://www.surveymonkey.com http://www.insitefulsurveys.com http://www.questionpro.com http://www.surveycrafter.com

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TACTIC 36: GET THE FACTS & STATS

There comes a time when you just need the facts to get you started. Or, you stumble upon some facts that amaze you so much that you want to check them out so you can write about them. Here are some of the more popular resources for facts and figures for the U.S. and abroad. US FedStats The gateway to statistics from over 100 US Federal agencies. Food Safety & Inspection Service US Department of Labor Bureau of Labor Statistics. Population Reference Bureau - Informs people around the world about population, health, and the environment, and empowers them to use that information to advance the well-being of current and future generations. US National Center for Education Statistics The primary federal entity for collecting and analyzing data related to education. US Energy Information Administration Official energy statistics from the U.S. government. US Center for Disease Control Data warehouse for the National Center for Health statistics. Food and Agricultural Organization of the United Nations - access to over three million time-series and cross sectional data relating to food and agriculture. FBI Crime Report Statistics US Bureau of Justice Statistics Data For Analysis Crime.org Crime links and statistics World Health Organization - The guide to health and health-related epidemiological and statistical information available from the World Health Organization. US National Institutes of Health City-Data US cities data & statistics. USDA State Facts - State fact sheets provide information on population, employment, income, farm characteristics, farm financial indicators, and top commodities, exports, and counties for each state in the United States. US Department of Defense CIA World Fact Book US Federal Aviation Administration US National Traffic Safety Board I Want Media Facts, statistics, links and media resources. Statistics Every Writer Should Know A simple guide to understanding statistics every writer should know. WWW Virtual Library International Affairs Resources. Nation Master World statistics and country comparisons. Stats.org The sites present focus is on the following policy areas: education and child rearing, drug use and abuse, public health and disease, polls and surveys, gender issues. United Nations Statistics Division The sites compiles and disseminates global statistical information, develop standards and norms for statistical activities, and support countries efforts to strengthen their national statistical systems. US Government Documents Statistics on the Web by the University of Michigan. US Census Bureau Info Please Website containing almanacs, statistics, atlases, encyclopedias, dictionaries, thesauruses and features. US Department of State Google Scholar Search Search for scholarly resources. United Nations Population Information Network - A guide to population information on UN system web sites. 38

National Statistics for the UK - Britain's economy, population and society data at national and local level.

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TACTIC 37: DONT FORGET YOUR HOBBIES

What interests you? Are you passionate about football? Do you belong to a cooking club? Are you an expert martial artist? Whatever your fancy, turn your pursuits into profits. See if you can make a connection between your hobbies and your products or services. For example, Im a businessman, more specifically a public relations and Internet marketing expert. But, I am also a very dedicated, 4th degree black belt who has been training for over 18 years. Ive come to realize that the success skills that Ive learned through my training to help me become a martial arts champion has also helped me to become a success in business and in life. Now I am working on writing an eBook on the 8 Secrets to Becoming a Champion in the Martial Arts, in Business and in Life. And, of course, I will be promoting the eBook with articles on CEO Refresher and other business sites on topics such as: Determination & Perseverence: #1 Ingredient to Success On The Karate Mat & In The Boardroom Flexibility A Martial Arts Skill That Is Also Needed In Business

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TACTIC 38: TAP INTO YOUR OWN PERSONAL/BUSINESS EXPERIENCES

What are some things you do in your business that are helpful and efficient? Maybe the way you organize your time and work. Many people are not good at this and an article filled with tips and ideas would be very successful. Denise Lander, http://www.keyorganization.com, wrote a time management article that was published on Entrepreneur.com and The Street.com Take other parts of your work that you could write into a good article. Just about every aspect of your business can be turned into an article. You just need to write it down in an informative, organized fashion. You can do the same thing with your own personal experiences as well. In the Handbook of Magazine Article Writing it tells a story of how Steven Fishman turned a brain hemorrhage into an award winning magazine article, then into a widely acclaimed book called A Bomb in the Brain. You can do the same with your online articles. And, I dont mean that you have to lust after any misfortune. Just remember that the events of your life both personally and business wise, both good and bad are all part of your material as an article writer and marketer.

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TACTIC 39: DO AN INTERVIEW

Become the reporter and you will never run out of quality content ideas. Fill your articles with an expertise that your niche audience will value. If youre not too well-known and youre associated with top, well-known industry leaders, you will gain instant credibility and acquire additional respect from your clients and prospects. Paul Thorntons book, Leadership Best Advice I ever got, and his article that we submitted, Best Leadership Advice: Business Success Secrets from 7 Top Leaders, is based on interviews with top leaders. You can check the article out at: http://sbinfocanada.about.com/od/smallbusinesslearning/a/leadershippt.htm

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TACTIC 40: GET TO KNOW PR PROFESSIONALS WITHIN YOUR INDUSTRY

Public relations professionals often have great story ideas before anybody else. Many of them are former magazine or newspaper writers, so they know to turn an idea into an article that instantly captures a readers attention. If nothing else, they can sometimes get you access to other key experts and provide background information that youd otherwise spend a lot of time digging up on your own.

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TACTIC 41: DONT THROW AWAY YOUR JUNK MAIL

Chances are that your mailbox is inundated with junk mail on a daily basis. If youre like most people, your initial reaction is to throw it away. Youve considered all that mail to be worthless clutter. But with a change of perspective, youll find that it can be a great source for article ideas. Analyze those announcements and direct mail letters for new products and business/human-interest subjects. Look at them and save the most thought-provoking ones. Your so-called junk mail can give you an article idea that can capture your audiences attention and turn your prospects into buyers. Your junk mail isnt junk anymore, is it?

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TACTIC 42: GIVE TIPS

Most people dont like to be overwhelmed online with a large slew of ideas. They prefer to eat small info snacks, so feed them what they want. Give them quick tips or small bites of a strategy to solve a problem or create an opportunity. Example titles: Marketing for Business Leaders: 3 Tips to Increase Marketing Effectiveness Healthy Parenting: 5 Ways Parents Can Lead Children to a Healthier Life Beat the Credit Card Blues:5 Super Strategies for Breaking Dangerous Spending Habits

In your bio box at the end of your article, you may want to offer more free tips to readers if they click on the link to your website. Web marketing expert Larry Chase uses this technique to lead people who are reading his press releases online directly to his website: I sometimes offer 3 out of 10 tips or trends within my press release and a live link thereafter for readers to jump to my site where they can read the remaining 7 tips. Very effective. The tip above is Tip #8 in a list of 10 tips. But his press release only included three tips, and I had to click on the link in the release, which took me to the entire article, where I could read the other seven tips. You can read all 10 tips at: http://www.wdfm.com/press-releases.php. This same strategy is a very effective tactic that could be used with your tip articles as well.

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TACTIC 43: WRITE HOW TO ARTICLES

When in doubt, return to How To articles as there is always an endless list of things you could teach your target audience. In an easy-to-follow format, provide your readers will clear directions on how to do something related to the issues you work on. Here are some points to think about: Is there something your readers could do themselves to advance your mission? Do people call your office asking how to do certain tasks? In Joan Stewarts article, Headlines For How-To Articles, she mentions, Start by naming the three biggest problems your customers or clients face. Youve just come up with three ideas for three different articles. Be sure the topics tie into a service you provide, a product you sell, or a cause or issue you want to promote. Here are some sample titles: Article Marketing & Book Promotion: How To Promote Your Book To The Top Of The NY Times Best Sellers List. Read the article here Writing & Publishing Tips: How To Get a Top Literary Agent & Sign That Coveted 6 Figure Deal High Probability Selling: How To Turn Cold Calling into Warm Sales Leads Here are some more sample titles that can be found on http://www.publicityhound.com. Simply fill in the blank, depending on what youve decided to write about: A Part-Timers Tactics for a Full-Timers _____________________ _____________ Quiz: Test Your ___________________ Smarts _______________ Trends: Cash In On ________________ Trends Chasing The Right ___________________ Cool Tools For Todays ________________________________ Common____________ Errors That Kill __________________ 7 Essential _________________ Elements That Guarantee ___________________ How To Bounce Back From _________________ How To Turn _________________________ into ____________________________ Mastering The Art Of _______________________ Best and Worst Ideas For ______________________ The Worst _________________ Mistakes You Can Make When __________________ Top 10 _____________ Dos and Donts ______________ And Grow Rich 10 ____________ Tips To Jumpstart Your _______________________ 25 Quick _____________ Tips To Use Now Holiday Gifts For _________________

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TACTIC 44: CREATE A MASTERMIND GROUP

Your friends, peers, contacts and those you have relationships with are like your audience. Pay attention to whats going on in their businesses, lives and careers. Its a safe bet that something affecting them probably affects the community (or the business community) as a whole. So, when youre hunting for article ideas, be sure to keep your friends close. You may even want to get an easel and have your mastermind group shout out ideas while one person writes them down. Pay no attention to whether they make sense, are silly, impossible or totally unrelated. When the page is full, sort through the ideas, picking out the ones you like best.

TACTIC 45: SCAN YOUR BOOK OR EBOOK

Have you written a book or eBook? If so, scan through it; I bet you can come up with 10 to 15 different articles. You can even make a mention of the book in your article, but dont overdo it, as the article is an informational piece, not advertising. However, you can advertise your book in the bio box. Be sure to explain to people why they need to buy it immediately. For instance, if you have written a book that focuses on the issue of divorce and how children and adults can discuss the frustrations of the ongoing lifestyle change of shuffling between two homes, you can go through your book and develop a list of 10-12 articles like: 10 Ways to Make the Transition Between Homes Easier for Everyone Joint Custody Holidays without Hassle: 5 Ways to Keep the Peace.

And of course, all of these articles can also be used on your website, in your blog, and in your article marketing efforts to promote your book. Always include a link to your website and an author box to tell about you and the book. Here are some sample bio boxes which authors promote their books: As an author and Founder of Firestarter Speaking and Consulting, Wally Adamchik helps organizations apply the leadership philosphies he learned in the Marines to their pursuit of operational excellence. Get his book, NO YELLING: The Nine Secrets of Marine Corps Leadership You MUST Know To WIN In Business, http://www.noyelling.net and learn what effective leadership looks like, and how to do it in the trenches, on the shop floor, and in the office. New York Times best selling author, lecturer, and practicing physician Mark Hyman, M.D., is Editor-inChief of Alternative Therapies in Health and Medicine and Medical Editor of Alternative Medicine Magazine. In his most recent book, UltraMetabolism -- The Simple Plan for Automatic Weight Loss, you will learn how you can ignite the fat burning code hidden in your own DNA. To download a free sneak preview of UltraMetabolism, click here now:http://www.ultrametabolism.com/prlarticle1.

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TACTIC 46: DIG THROUGH EZINES

Keep abreast of the latest trends and glean article ideas by signing up for email newsletters. Ezines are goldmines of information and can harvest numerous ideas for your articles. Scan the Internet for sources that send weekly emails in your area and you may be surprised at how inspired youll become. Sometimes, just reading about your favorite subjects sets the wheels in motion for brainstorming. And, if the newsletter is anything like the PR LEADS Article Marketing Secrets & Breakthroughs Newsletter, youll learn about cutting edge breakthroughs and the hottest industry topics. I subscribe to many online newsletters because I write a lot of articles myself. One in particular is the Publicity Hounds Newsletter. Each issue is filled with publicity ideas that you can transform into an article. Plus, in many of her newsletters distributed every Tuesday like the PR LEADS Article Marketing Newsletter, Joan Stewart provides you with free media leads. As potential story ideas, I store them away in my swipe file, ready to be searched when I dont have anything available in the top of my mind. I use the original article as a starting point and then create something new and unique by using my own experiences and ways of doing things. Or I abstract someone elses article in my own words, again creating something new in the process. In both cases, Im creating something new based on my unique experiences or perspectives. Here are some places to find ezines within your industry: Best Ezines - Has over 1,200 ezines representing 1,431,271+ Permission-Based Email Members. Ezine-Dir Lists over 3500 ezines available on the net today. Jogena - Provides detailed listings which include: ezine's name, description, circulation, frequency, ads per issue, ad pricing, ad swaps, article acceptance, link to website, ezine format and date submitted. Directory of Ezines One of the largest, compiled lists of directories. It is a bit outdated though, and quite pricey. Ezine Locater 3 easy ways to search for ezines in your industry. New-List Over 7500 newsletters searchable by category. Zinos a digest of the best ezines on the web. E-zine-List - list of Ezines around the world, accessible via the Web, FTP, email, and other services. List Channel Over 1500 links to ezines.

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TACTIC 47: MAKE A COLLAGE

If you have a large group, break it out into groups of no more than four participants each. If you have a small group, have everyone do this exercise individually. Give each group (or individual) three to five magazines and have them cut out images that represent the project or problem at hand. Then have them glue or tape those images into a collage. When everyone is done, display the collages so that all participants can view them. Have each group or individual explain why they chose the images. If you are having just one session, remember to leave time toward the end for the group to evaluate the ideas generated and choose the ones that the group will move forward on and write articles that will increase traffic, build credibility and improve the sites SEO rankings.

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TACTIC 48: SLANT YOUR IDEAS

Getting a raw idea is only the beginning. Most ideas can be turned into more than one article by slanting them to different audiences. It is economically wise to make the most bucks from the fewest ideas. Your time is precious. Your time equals money. Every time you create a new article, you are taking time away from other necessary business activities activities that can make you more money in the short run. Why take necessary time and write a new article when you can create multiple articles based on the same idea? I tell my article marketing clients, once I submit an article they should then take that same article and slant it towards various audiences and submit it to different industry associations. This way, one article can be turned into five or six new and different articles.

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TACTIC 49: START AN ADVICE COLUMN

Its you own version of Dear Abby. Encourage readers to send in their own questions. You may have to at first write humorous, fictional questions with subtle true-life lessons in the answers. Write an abridged version for your newsletters and then an expanded version for your article marketing program. In the PR LEADS Article Marketing Secrets & Breakthroughs Newsletter, we have an Ask the Article Marketing Expert Section. Some of the questions readers asked include: Im still not clear as to how my articles help me sell my books, products and services. Whos out there reading what I write? Im an author very interested in submitting articles. Although I am new to the article marketing process, I know that writing for online is different than writing for books or magazines. What is the best format? Questions, such as above, can help us create article ideas with titles such as: Article Marketing & Book Promotion: How To Promote Your Book To The Top Of The NY Times Best Sellers List Low Cost, Small Business Marketing Strategies: How To Promote Your Products or Services With Article Marketing Article Writing Strategies: 10 Article Writing & Marketing Templates You Can Leverage Immediately Article Writing Strategies: 5 Article Writing Mistakes You Want To Avoid That Most Article Marketers Make

Another great idea one that I thought of after reading The Publicity Hounds Newsletter - is to have a Dear Abby Advice Column, but instead of you answering the questions and posing solutions to the problem, encourage your readers to respond. Joan Stewart poses a readers problem in her blog, and then publishes the responses in her newsletter. By reading other peoples responses, it can give you new ideas and a new perspective to write and develop new articles on.

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TACTIC 50: ANSWER FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS

Companies must continue to lower their operating costs and increase productivity just to survive in todays competitive marketplace. To do this effectively with article marketing, you must focus on: What questions are your customer service representatives being asked the most? What questions are your sales executives being asked the most? What questions are you being asked the most? What obstacles set by the customers does your team have to face and overcome?

One of our most frequently asked questions we receive from new prospects is: How can we measure our article marketing success and our return on investment? Thats why Dan Janal has written and submitted this article: ARTICLE MARKETINGS RETURN ON INVESTMENT By Dan Janal When prospective clients call and ask about our article marketing service, two of their most frequently asked questions are: How do I measure my article marketings return on investment and How do I know if my investment in time, energy, manpower and finances are really paying off? Here are two formulas you can use to determine your article marketing success: 1. Cost per lead First, lets look at your hypothetical article marketing costs. You need to write the article, find the best sites to submit your articles to, submit it and then monitor your results. When I submit articles, I notice a significant increase in traffic. But having people visit the site is not enough. You need to get them to create a relationship with you so they will buy in the future. So, you need to link your articles to a special landing page that offers them the opportunity to sign up for an ezine or a special report. To get these documents, prospects must give you their email address. Lets pick a mystical figure of $1,000 to do the writing and submitting of your articles and programming of your landing pages. Lets also assume for the sake of simplicity that you are submitting the article to 100 sites and directories. Your results may vary, but at least we have a starting point to work from. Using simple division, you now know that your cost to submit the article to one website is $10 because you are dividing $1,000 by 100 sites. When readers identify themselves and provide you with their names, emails and contact information they become prospects, or leads. If you get 100 leads from your $1,000 investment, your cost per lead is $10 (divide the investment of $1,000 by the number of leads, 100, to arrive at $10 per lead). This number shouldnt exist in a vacuum. How much are you paying for a lead now? If it is more than $10, then article marketing is saving you money! Congratulations! I need to point out that some people will not sign up for your offer, no matter how wonderful it is. Dont count those people out. You have successfully branded yourself to them by giving them exposure to your services via your article, your website and any materials they might have read while perusing your 52

website. Any positive impression you make with someone is bound to pay off either directly, or indirectly. 2. Profit per sale. Some people who come to your site will be so impressed with your article and your offer that they will buy your products or engage in your services. Life doesnt get much better than this. Youve made a sale without spending precious time to convince them face to face, on the phone or via email. Lets look at the numbers. Lets say you are selling an e-book or other digital product for $55. You have no cost of goods or shipping costs. You will have to pay a credit card processing fee, of course. For the sake of discussion, lets assume you are paying $5 in fees just so we can keep the math simple. Your net profit is $50 per order. Youve paid $1,000 to place the articles and you are getting $50 profit per article. Youll need 20 sales to break even. Thats one way to look at it. (Divide the investment of $1,000 by the $50 profit to arrive at 20 orders.) If you got 30 orders youd be ahead $500. Congratulations! Another way to look at this is to compare this cost to your exiting cost per sale. Is it more than your article marketing costs? Then youre saving money by using articles to make sales! One more thing to consider: People who buy from you once are likely to buy from you again. So your profit per order could go up considerably once you factor in reorders for the life of the customer. Putting it all into perspective These formulas can work with just about any activity you do from Google Ad Words, to sponsored ads, to ads in newspapers and magazines. If you track your sales and your leads with each method, youll be able to see which activities get the best return on your precious investments. You might be surprised when you see the true cost per lead and the profit per sale. If so, you can re-allocate your resources to get the maximum impact. About the Author: Nationally recognized online publicity expert, author of 6 books for major book publisher John Wiley & Sons, and Founder of PR LEADS, Dan Janal can help you get the most bang for your article marketing buck. For free tips on how you can double, triple and even quadruple your article marketings return on investment, subscribe to the PR LEADS Article Marketing Secrets & Breakthroughs Newsletter at: http://www.prleads.com/newsletter.htm Now, if you can write and submit articles that answer your most frequently asked questions, and articles that can alleviate some of your customers concerns, your team will be able to focus more on nurturing and developing key relationships than on basic customer service problems. This will allow you to increase productivity, improve your bottom line and lower your operating costs. And, at the same time, you will be increasing web traffic, building credibility and improving your SEO rankings.

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TACTIC 51: RECYCLE, RECYCLE, RECYCLE

Not all ideas are really new. Many are old ideas with a new twist, but they are fresh in some way. For example, Six Ways To Childproof Your Home would be an all too familiar approach. You can inject life into this tired topic with something like: How Professional Childproofers Rip You Off Childproof Accessories That Could Injure Your Child

You can present old ideas in a fresh and different way or you can present fresh and different ideas in the old way. How about pitching an old topic to a new audience? M.H. Mac McIntosh, one of Americas leading business-to-business sales lead experts and President of Mac McIntosh Inc has over a hundred articles in backlog. Many of them have become outdated, but the base concepts are timeless in nature. Now, he has my staff of writers delving into his archive and refreshing them with new and updated information. You should be doing the same with your articles. To create articles, you can also recycle your new and old: Power Point Presentations Speeches Sales Presentations Notes Interviews

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TACTICS 52 & 53: TAKE A SHOWER OR SLEEP ON IT & PUT YOUR SUBCONSCIOUS TO WORK
Ask 20 successful article writers where they get the best ideas, and its safe to bet nineteen of them will say in the shower. And the one in twenty who doesnt get ideas in the shower will probably tell you that the best ideas seem to bubble up out of nowhere. That is your subconscious mind at work. But you dont have to sit back and wait for your subconscious to start bubbling with ideas. You can give it an assignment. In the Handbook of Magazine Article Writing, it tells how author Napoleon Hill, one of the founders of Success Magazine, was trying to come up with a title for a new book. He told his subconscious mind, Ive got to have a million-dollar title and Ive got to have it tonight. Well, apparently his subconscious got the message because at 2 a.m., Hill woke up, and rushed to the typewriter to bang out the title Think and Grow Rich. This book went on to sell more than 20 million copies. Dont think this technique will work every time. Results will be mixed. Most of the time youll just wake up. But there will be days that youll wake up with a good idea, but on an entirely different subject. And then other mornings you may wake up with an idea youve asked for. One that will be published on a site like About.com giving you more traffic and sales than you could ever imagine. So when you get stuck on ideas, go take a shower or sleep on it and put your subconscious mind to work.

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TACTIC 54: TIE CELEBRITY GOSSIP INTO YOUR ARTICLE MARKETING EFFORTS
In a recent Publicity Hounds blog posting, Ive read that Debra Holtzman kept wishing and hoping for years that shed generate publicity in top-tier newspapers and magazines and on the big morning TV shows like Good Morning, America because of her expertise in child safety. But the wishing and hoping only got her a media hit here and there. Then Debra found the key that not only unlocked the door to publicity, but she also had the media practically tripping over themselves to interview her. Even the bloggers loved her. Her secret? She ties her expertise to the celebritiessometimes several times a month. You can do the same with your article marketing efforts. Just keep your eyes on TV shows like Inside Edition and Access Hollywood and on the celebrity magazines to give you all the fodder you need for your articles. As long as the celebrities continue to feed you with material (and they will), you will always have new, refreshing, and unique ideas to write your articles with.

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TACTIC 55: EAVESDROP

Magazines pay thousands upon thousands of dollars to convene focus groups of everyday people who sit around for an hour talking about their likes, dislikes and whatever else theyre asked to discuss. You can accomplish much the same thing for free by paying attention when someone starts griping about X, singing the praises of Y, or asking why no magazine or news program has ever told the truth about Z. Some of the best ideas come from listening to your neighbors, friends, co-workers, and even people youre standing next to in line at the grocery store. People talk about the most personal things in the most public places. You dont have to go out of your way to do this but if you hear someone talking about something interesting, dont be afraid to ask them about it as it may be your articles next hot topic.

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TACTICS 56 & 57: GO PEOPLE WATCHING OR GO WALK AND GET YOUR BRAIN CELLS MOVING
Sitting between the familiar four walls of your office is probably what dried up your ideas in the first place. Go to someplace new being in a different environment will stimulate new ideas. Go to the mall, an airport, park or crowded place. Take a seat and watch people go by. Where is that guy with those hemp shoes going? Where does that couple live and what do they drive? What do you think there needs and wants are? How about those children running back and forth while their parents pay no attention? Think of stories for all these people to get your mind moving. Soon youll have several topics to write about. If you dont want to sit and people watch, then go for a walk or go to the gym and get moving. The oxygen and adrenaline in your system will stimulate your brain cells and will inspire you to write.

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TACTIC 58: CHECK YOUR INBOX

Email can be your best friend and your worst enemy in business. Yes, it makes communicating with prospects, clients and co-workers a whole lot easier as they are only a click away. But, it can also be a great distraction. Until I learned how to manage my time and set a specific time for handling emails, I found myself checking my email all the time. Every time my toolbar displayed that little envelope, I was checking to see who had emailed me. It took away vital time away from other business activities that needed my attention at that time. However, as an article marketer, your email is one of your best friends. Its a great place to find fodder for your articles. You can get article ideas by simply reading emails from family, friends, peers, vendors, clients, prospects, and associates. And, dont forget to check your sent folder as well. Ive learned that some of my responses to the emails, especially the ones that included expert advice, can be turned into articles as well. When another client has a problem or concern, you can provide them with your advice and a link to an article that explains it in more detail. This way, you will build credibility and your prospects and clients will take your advice more seriously.

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TACTIC 59: REVIEW OTHER PEOPLES PRODUCTS

Share your thoughts, opinions and experiences (both positive and negative) on the books, websites, services and products your readers are likely to be interested in. If youre an affiliate marketer, this is a perfect strategy for you. Heres how to write a book/product review: Essentially, you must perform three things in any book or product review: Describe the book or product Analyze whether the book or product achieved its purpose Express your own opinions about the book or product

Your review should be two-thirds of the book or product and one-third evaluation. If you decide to write a negative review, be prepared for the ramifications of it and decide if its worth it. You must ask yourself several questions about the book or product before writing your review. These key questions will help you get the information you need to write a useful review for any reader: What is the purpose of the book or product? What are the key features and benefits of the book or product? If youre doing a book review is the information accurate? Is the author an authority on the subject? What is the format of the book and what style is it written in? What is the point of view? What is the theme and messages the author is trying to get across? How effective is the author in communicating his messages? Does the book or product fit in with others in the same field or genre? If its a book review, does the product fulfill the promises made by the company? How does it compare to other products in the field? What makes this product more competitive? What is its unique selling proposition?

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TACTIC 60: REVIEW YOUR OWN PRODUCTS

Glowing product reviews in trade magazines are critical to the sales and marketing success of technology products. A positive product review can mean thousands of new leads, result in significant sales increases, and provide a stamp of approval of sorts for future advertising and promotion. Many companies suffer from poor product reviews because some of the best features of their products are not obvious. As a result, the review that is written up in a magazine is lacking in depth and misses the key selling points of the product. Additionally reviewers often dont know where to start. They load the product and just try to use it. Like the rest of us, (or even more so because they consider themselves experts) they tend to avoid using manuals unless they absolutely have to. Why not review your products and provide examples of how clients use your products and how they can get more out of them, and submit it online. Anything that adds value to your current clients may also be helpful to your prospective clients. However, you can turn readers away if you sell too hard and make it sound like an advertisement. You are better off describing strategies and techniques on how to leverage your products value.

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TACTIC 61: REVIEW OTHER PEOPLES PRESS RELEASES

Press releases are a great source of basic information about topics that generally want or need some sort of coverage. Every day there are thousands of press releases sent out. You can get on the list for your specific subject area. Its easy content that can be highly relevant. This makes them a great innovation tool for your articles. Check out your competitors, peers, and vendors websites and review their press releases in their online pressroom. You can also browse PR Web, PR News Wire, Yearbook.com and News Bureaus massive press release databases.

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TACTIC 62: WRITE YOUR OWN PRESS RELEASES

Press releases are one of the most cost-effective ways to get free promotion for your online business. It's also an overlooked tool to drive traffic massive to your website. With all the benefits writing a press release imparts many entrepreneurs still ignore this type of promotion, partly because they don't know how to write a press release. Point to ponder here: writing a press release will give you a distinct advantage over your competitors that are not writing press releases. Why? Simply because of the exposure it will receive all over the Internet. Here are some invaluable tips to keep in mind when writing your own press release: Your press release should sound like news, not an ad. Press releases are supposed to be "newsworthy"! Make a good effort to keep your press release one page in length and tightly focused to your newsworthy information. Your header and first few sentences should capture the readers attention, Headlines attract! Most importantly Think how you can turn the press release into an article. You want to get the most bang for your buck, time and effort. Every press release you write should be turned into an article and vice versa.

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TACTIC 63: WRITE AN INSPIRATIONAL ARTICLE

Inspirational articles were once limited to self-help and religious publications both on and offline. Now, they are just about everywhere. Think about those wildly popular Chicken Soup books or most of the stories in Readers Digest, for example. You can even write a business inspirational article. Well-written inspirational articles move people emotionally and motivate them to do something or to make a change of some sort. Non-profits can use these articles to motivate readers to volunteer, write letters of support, or make a donation. Good inspirational articles have these 3 characteristics: 1. They are personal Inspirational articles are all about the power of personal connections. They should be very personal stories about real peoples lives. Dont shy away from the emotion, as strong and powerful feelings are central to good inspirational articles. You arent speaking to your readers minds with these articles. You are speaking to their hearts and souls. 2. They involve an emotional struggle or challenging decision Clearly describe the struggles, obstacles or difficult choices that the people in your article have faced. How did they recognize the problem, deal with it, and overcome it? 3. They include a universal message Inspirational articles usually end with an epiphany. They enlighten us or remind us about the essential nature or meaning of some element in our lives. These are often very simple lessons the importance of family and friends, the joy in giving, danger in stereotypes, or the value in facing our fears, for example. For some examples of inspirational articles, check out: www.selfgrowth.com www.selfhelpmagazine.com www.thirdage.com www.healthandage.com www.ofspirit.com www.womentoday.com www.modernmaturity.com You may also want to do a search for articles by Vicki Rackner, MD as we have submitted many inspirational articles that received numerous heartwarming comments. Heres one example of Dr. Rackners inspirational articles: http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/healthnews.php?newsid=50510

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TACTIC 64: REVIEW YOUR WHITE PAPERS & CASE STUDIES

Increasingly, white papers and case studies have become the preferred way for a company to establish its mind share and leadership, so this is another area you should be reviewing for article content ideas. Chances are, your firm or company has written a white paper or case study and its already put on your website, emailed to all your prospects, given to your sales force and all of your channel partners. But, are you using it to capture leads? You should turn your case studies and white papers into downloadable items ones that readers must provide their contact information in order to preview. Then you should scan your white papers and case studies for the main bullet points. For each bullet point, you should be able to write a separate article that will promote your white papers and case studies within the bio box. This way you are truly using your article marketing campaign as an all-in-one customer acquisition, branding and search engine marketing tool.

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TACTIC 65: DIG THROUGH COMMENTS FROM READERS & PUBLISHERS

If you have already used the power of viral article marketing to attract millions of people to your website, then you should dig through comments from readers and publishers when your article idea arsenal runs low. Sometimes readers will add comments to your article if the site or directory allows it. Other times, readers and publishers will email you with comments that will provide excellent article content ideas. To write an article titled #1 Selling Perspective for Revenue Driven Firms: Across All Industries, Revenue is King, Chuck Mache used comments from a law marketing publisher and a reader who happened to be a certified public accountant as inspiration. In fact he wrote about the comments in the article. Heres a portion of what he wrote in the article: Many of my articles can be found on dozens of websites under various topics of executive management, sales management, and leadership. They are usually on sales and marketing sites or those specific to the obvious revenue driven industries that use salespeople to bring the dollars through the door. But something interesting has begun occurring. I got an email from an accountant who said, I read one of your articles on The Four Kinds of Sales People and I have to tell you, its not just about sales people. We need to break through to the next level too. Then I got an email from a website dedicated to lawyers requesting to put one of my articles on Understanding your sales team on their website. They wanted to change the word salespeople to business developers. I said OK. I mean call it a patient or a client its still a customer. Call it a business developer or an account executive its still a sales rep. So I got curious and sent the article that the law site customized to a couple attorney friends of mine and asked them about the importance of revenue. Heres what I discovered Not only can comments be useful for generating ideas, but it can be used as inspiration on those down days that you dont feel like writing or doing anything but curling up in the corner all by yourself. Imagine how the following comment perked up Dr. Vicki Rackner - an author, board-certified surgeon and Clinical Instructor at the University of Washington School of Medicine who left the operating room to help caregivers and patients take the most direct path from illness to optimal health: Dr. Vicki Rackner: I just found your web page today, after a friend shared an article you wrote about Hopes and Dreams. I own and moderate a heart transplant group of about 100 members, which I've sort of inherited from the young lady who started it. It's for all pre and post transplant patients (of various organs) and their Caregivers. I don't usually find many articles to share with the group about Caregivers but it is a topic near and dear to my heart. 66

I collect and share articles from a wide variety of topics related to transplantation, medications, positive thinking etc. Sometimes our members banter back and forth on a topic, sharing their experiences. Or sharing their views on issues like Presumed Consent, and other ideas to help increase the supply of donated organs. Sometimes the group is rather quiet and just benefit from the many articles I share. I felt that your Hopes and Dreams article was very positive in attitude and very well written, and that our members whether a pre or post transplant recipient or caregiver could all benefit and learn from that article. So anything you can share will be greatly appreciated. Warmly, Linda Fefferman

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TACTIC 66: ANALYZE A TREND

In the article marketing industry, the growing trend is for companies to publish articles solely for search engine rankings, spamming keywords with little actual content value. However, as an award-winning public relations professional, I understand the importance of brand awareness, credibility and reputation even on the net. I want to elevate our client's reputation, not hinder it. Getting inbound links and increasing SEO rankings is an extra bonus. Im more interested in branding our clients, improving their credibility and increasing web traffic over time. And, guess what? Our clients are greatly benefiting from a targeted article marketing campaign, and theyre showing their appreciation and enthusiasm by ordering articles month after month. But, how do we celebrate these achievements and share them with our members, community leaders, clients and prospects in order to capture new leads without sounding like were bragging? One way is to tell your story of success by putting your accomplishments in the context of larger trends within your community or national trends in your field. Use events and statistics from sources outside your organization to demonstrate how your success fits into a larger pattern (or even better bucks the trends).

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TACTIC 67: RELATE YOUR SUBJECT TO SOMETHING ELSE

Even a subject that has nothing to do with the focus of our article can be really great fodder. A copywriting article entitled: Harry Potter and the Irresistible Offer by master copywriter Bob Bly is a perfect example. The article published in an issue of DM News was based on a J.K.Rowling interview where she mentioned having written the final chapter of the last Harry Potter book over 15 years ago. That way, she would know how the series ends and would be able to tie everything that came before into that final chapter. Bly deftly ties this into direct mail copywriting, stating how you can follow Rowlings advice by creating the offer first and then writing the other direct mail elements. This was absolutely genius! Not only was this a great idea, but Bly was able to connect to something from popular culture at that time nothing was more popular than Harry Potter into an informative, helpful article about direct mail.

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TACTIC 68: USE INSPIRATIONAL QUOTES FROM THOUGHT LEADERS

Brian Tracy, the most listened to audio author on personal and business success in the world today uses this technique with his newsletter articles all the time. In a recent newsletter, Tracy focused his article, The Power of Clarity -- How to Decide Exactly What You Really Want in Every Area of Life, around John F. Kennedys quote, Efforts and courage are not enough without purpose and direction. Notice how the quote and the article correlate. Here are some sources to find inspirational quotes for your articles: http://www.heartsandminds.org/quotes/quotes.htm http://www.inspirational-quotes.info/ http://www.toinspire.com/ http://www.quotationspage.com/ http://www.goodquotes.com/ http://www.dailyinspirationalquotes.com/ http://www.dailyinspiringquotes.com/ http://www.goal-setting-guide.com/quotes.html http://en.thinkexist.com/quotations/inspiration/ http://www.motivatingquotes.com/ http://humanresources.about.com/od/workrelationships/a/quotations_dir.htm Here are some good collections of inspirational quotes that can be found on Amazon.com and in your local bookstore: Most Brilliant Thoughts of All Time (In Two Lines or Less) John Shanahan Mankinds Greatest Quotes Patty Crowe 1001 Motivational Quotes for Success: Great Quotes from Great Minds Thomas J. Vilord Quotable Quotes Readers Digest Editors Great Quotes From Great Leaders Peggy Anderson and Michael McKee Best Quotations For All Occasions Lewis Henry Oxymoronica: Paradoxical Wit & Wisdom From Historys Greatest Wordsmiths Mardy Grothe The Quote Verifier: Who Said What, Where and When Ralph Keyes And I Quote (Revised Edition): The Definitive Collection of Quotes, Sayings, and Jokes for the Contemporary Speechmaker Andrew Frothingham Quote A Day Writing Prompts Jacqueline Sweeney

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TACTIC 69: SPIKE UP YOUR ARTICLE TRAFFIC WITH TRAGEDIES

Its safe to say that we live in interesting times. It seems we hardly have a breather between wars, tragedies, scandals, epidemics, circus trials and other events that capitalize our attention. When tragedy strikes, searches spike. When a plane crashed in Manhattan in early October 2006, some feared a terrorist attack, while others were completely confounded until it was discovered that New York Yankees pitcher Cory Lidle and his flight instructor were flying the plane. Searches for the pitcher predictably skyrocketed, as he reached number 20 on the Yahoo Buzz Index (up from nothing the day before; the previous high for Lidle this year was number 11,872 at the end of July). So, tie your articles to a tragedy in the news, and spike up your article traffic at least in the short term. Do keep in mind that this is a short-term play, and not a long-term article writing and marketing strategy.

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TACTIC 70: TIE YOUR ARTICLES TO YOUR NEW PROMOTIONS

Every time media coach and marketing strategist Susan Harrow creates a new promotion for her books and products, she leads prospects through what I call the article marketing sales funnel. She captures readers with a title that offers an outrageous proposition that she can fulfill. One such title example is: Writing & Publishing Tips: How To Get A Top Literary Agent & Sign That Coveted 6 Figure Deal This title captures readers, as every author is looking to land a top NY literary agent, and every author wants to sign a six-figure deal but most authors are unsuccessful. Then, Susan keeps the readers attention with an article that teases the reader with just a little bit of the how just enough to peak your interest, keep you reading and get you to click on the link in her bio box that sends you to her promotion. Everything from the title, to the article topic, to what is mentioned in the bio box, to the sales letter page that is linked in her bio box, is tied to her promotions. Are you planning to create a huge book, product or service promotion to increase your sales and your bottom line? You should be writing articles focused on the promotion topic to intrigue readers to go to your sales letter page and buy. And guess what? By writing and submitting articles to targeted websites and ezines, online publishers can become your top affiliates and promoters for your promotion efforts. Because of the PR LEADS Article Marketing Services efforts in behalf of Susan Harrow, CEO Refresher, an online (International) Canadian publication which gets 932,982 unique hits per month by top executives, not only published Susans articles, but they have become an affiliate and will be completing an email blast for her next book or product promotion. So, for your next promotion, write an article on your promotions topic, and then submit it to the top directories, and targeted websites and ezines. And, when a publisher accepts your article, follow up and ask them if they would like to become an affiliate and if they would be able to promote your promotions, your products or services to their subscriber list. More than likely, they will be happy to -- as its a winwin situation for all!

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TACTIC 71: TURN SCARS INTO STARS

Speakers at conferences use this technique all the time in order to connect themselves to their audience and sell them the dream. For example, heres an introduction to my speech that I gave at the New Jersey/New York Glazer Kennedy Inner Circle Meeting: Hi, Im Eric Gruber, Director of Operations for the PR LEADS Article Marketing Service. Before I explain how you can build traffic to your website, increase credibility, skyrocket sales and improve search engine optimization rankings on Google and other search engines all at the same time let me tell you a little bit about me. When I graduated Rutgers with a BA in Economics and English, the marketing and public relations field was practically closed. Before I graduated, I had three different public relations firms interested in me but a couple months later my hopes were shattered as they told me that upper management decided not to hire any entry level workers at this time. So, I quit my serving job at the International House of Pancakes and started my own marketing, public relations and writing firm called Everything Communications. I joined LeTip and BNI, and went to many Chamber of Commerce Meetings but did not prevail. The clients that I did get through my martial arts connections, started using me less and less even though I got them in the Star Ledger, Home News Tribune, Asbury Park Press and on the UPN 9 News or News 12 as they were receiving credibility but no new students from it. Meanwhile, I had to rely on my parents to pay most of my bills I was putting them into debt. There were times we even had to ask my grandparents for help. Do you know how embarrassed I felt? So, I called up Dan Janal a family friend and Founder of PR LEADS. I told him about my problems and he asked if Ive ever thought about Internet Marketing. I thought he was insane -- the only thing I knew about the Internet is how to research and how to email. He told me to start researching Internet Marketing, article marketing and online article submission and syndication. So I did, and then I started talking to the top article marketers like Christopher Knight of EzineArticles.com. Once I learned everything I possibly could learn about article marketing, I started writing and submitting articles for Dan, and several of his clients. I started getting articles placed on top sites like About.com, CEO Refresher, Entrepreneur.com, Mothering.com, Healthywealthynwise and in ezines like The Dollar Stretcher which has over 200,000 subscribers. Now, I am the Director of Operations for the PR LEADS Article Marketing Service and I have helped over 50 clients build web traffic, increase credibility, and improve SEO rankings all at the same time with my revolutionary multi-tier article marketing and submission system and I can help you. Let me teach you... You can use this same technique on your website, in your ezines, in your sales letters both online and offline, and in your articles. To help my instructor promote the martial arts via the Web, I created a sales letter landing page that turns my emotional scars into stars: This is how the letter started: 73

Free 7-Day Martial Arts E-course Reveals Little Known, Jealously Guarded Secrets That Turned A Scared, Scrawny 7-Year-Old Cry Baby Into An Assertive and Confident 4th Degree Black Belt Believe me, I know what its like to be bullied. I used to be a scared and scrawny 7-year-old cry baby. I was a bumbling mess -- I was someone who had close to zero confidence. Kids in the neighborhood would steal my hat, and instead of running after the bully, Id run home crying to my parents! My younger brother, who was only four at the time, would knock on the bullies doors to get my hat back. Can you imagine how embarrassed I felt every time the kids laughed at me that my little brother had to defend me? By age 10, I dreaded going to school out of fear of what may happen. I was teased, pushed around and hurt both physically and mentally every single day. I tried dozens of different ways to stop the bullies befriend them, ignore them, avoid them, and hide amongst others in a group. BUT NOTHING WORKED! But then one day something happened that changed my life forever I learned POWERFUL LIFE LESSONS that my parents and school teachers couldnt teach me. I needed the wisdom of a master a Grandmaster. So, my parents enrolled me at Chiricos School of Karate. Let me introduce you to Grandmaster Ralph Chirico, who helped me develop from a SCRAWNY TARGET for bullies to become BULLY-FREE. He taught me the steps that helped me go FROM NOTHING to: A SELF-ASSURED 4th DEGREE BLACK BELT, who now helps children of all ages develop the STRENGTH, COURAGE, and DIRECTION they need for SOCIAL SUCCESS. You can read the rest of this sales letter at http://www.stopthebullynow.com. Not only did I use this story in the sales letter, but also in the blog and in articles related to bullying. Remember, companies dont buy. People buy. You must relate to your audience. You want to trigger a strong, actionable emotion. By adding a personal story and turning your scars into stars you make your articles seem more intriguing and believable. So start making yourself vulnerable and write articles that sell the dream easily and effectively.

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TACTIC 72: PERFORM PERSONA-BASED MARKETING

Nothing is so powerful as an insight into human nature, what compulsions drive a man, what instincts dominate his action, even though his language so often camouflages what really motivates him. For if you know these things about a man you can touch him at the core of his being." -- Bill Bernbach, legendary ad writer Before your organization embarks on implementing an article writing and marketing campaign, it's vital to understand the needs and goals of your audiences, and their behavioral patterns. That's the only way to connect your companys or organizations goals with what's important to your audiences. Personas can help. Similar to the way in which a novelist or an actor creates a back story on a charactereverything from what that character had for breakfast yesterday to his deepest hopes and dreamspersona-based marketing brings customers, prospects, influencers, referrers and users of your product or service to life. In turn, youll be able to sculpt articles that resonate with target audiences and, more important, move them to act upon the call for action and link in your bio box. So, if you want to create true brand power with your articles, you must quit writing to a particular type of customer and begin writing to specific, representative customers. Correctly identifying your customer personas is the foundation of your article marketings persuasion architecture. Speaking effectively to the three-dimensional nature of a strong persona will maximize your article writing and marketing dollars. To help you better understand the persona based marketing concept, we have included below an article that we submitted for B2B Sales Lead Expert, Mac McIntosh Persona Based Marketing: Powerful B2B Marketing Tools For Connecting With Prospects & Customers Meet Bill, hes the owner and CEO of a growing, mid-sized manufacturing company. Bill is in his early 40s, wears glasses and tries his best to squeeze in an early-morning workout whenever he can. He prefers to wear golf shirts and khakis, donning a suit only when he has to. Bill drives a late model SUV with a booster seat in the back seat for his four-year-old daughter. Hes harried, and worries about managing his companys growth. He wants to leverage technology to increase operational efficiency and customer satisfaction, and to offset the rising costs of doing business, but doesnt know where to start. Helen is his director of sales. Shes 32, single, a competitive runner, and is partial to 80s rock. She drives a new BMW convertible. She struggles with managing a dozen salespeople, many who are 10 to 15 years older then her. Helen wants the company to invest in a new CRM system to replace the contact management they long ago outgrew, but wonders how shell convince Bill and the companys CFO to spend the money. Bill and Helen are not real people, but they're examples of one of the most powerful tools you can use to better connect with prospects and customers: persona-based marketing. Persona-based marketing is part Hollywood characterization and part business analytics. It involves constructing a fictional customerbased on real-life data and intelligenceand then using that character as the touchstone for promotional and selling decisions. 75

PERSONA-BASED MARKETING GOES BEYOND SIMPLE DEMOGRAPHIC DATA Persona-based marketing describes who a prospect or customer is, by also answering questions about their behavior such as: what keeps this person awake at night? How does he spend his time? How does she like to be sold to? This concept can help you, as a business-to-business marketer by creating a vivid, tangible picture of your best prospects or customers, and then sculpting a marketing message thats pertinent to their concerns, and move them to inquire and buy. Lets get back to the example of Bill and Helen. Say youre a systems integrator who is targeting midsized companies like Bills. Using what you know about Bill as a representative of the typical business owner, you can make some tactical marketing decisions. Because Bill is pressed for time, he probably wont attend an all-day seminar, or an evening dinner meetinghes got family responsibilities after work. But he would be interested in a 45-minute, executive-level Web seminar he could attend from his desk. He might also say yes to an executive breakfast briefing with his peers from other local mid-sized firms. This fictional CEO can even help guide decisions about minute matters such as brochure or Web site design. Because you know that Bill is over 40 and wears glasses, youll make sure that the font is big enough for him to read easily. And because you know hes time-pressed, youll break down key messages into bullet points he can scan quickly. Helen, your customers sales director surrogate, meanwhile, will respond to an offer that speaks to her needs. She might raise her hand to a half-day seminar on convincing your CEO and CFO to invest in CRM. She might also request a white paper on How to get salespeople to use your new CRM system. Because shes younger and has upscale tastes, shed probably attend a lunch seminar at the hot new bistro in town. Shes also more likely to notice an ad or seminar invitation or other promotional materials that are designed in a modern and colorful manner. Granted, Bill and Helen are composite characters, not real people. But referring to them as you formulate and execute your messages can make your marketing more effective. And it can prevent your promotions from becoming too generic to be noticed. Performed correctly, your persona-based decisions will stop being about I think and start being about what would our customer or prospect think? How do you get started? Convene a group of employees who interact with your customers and prospects. Bring in lunch and a white board and ask them to help you build a persona for each of your target customers. Start by describing the customers role in their company: CEO, CIO, CFO, COO, sales manager, purchasing agent, user, and any other important influencers. Next describe the kind of company they work for. What industry is it in? How big is it? How up-todate is it? Does it have a lot of competition? Then describe the person and their behavior: Give each persona a name, a title, an age, and describe how he or she looks. How does he dress? What kind of car does she drive? What does he do in his free time? What kind of educational background does she have? 76

Flesh out as many attributes as you need to give a full, rounded picture of who this person is. Then, turn to your personas problems and goals. Think about what does this persons daily calendar look like? What are his or her most pressing concerns? What product or service attributes would be most helpful in solving this persons problems? Is he or she looking to roll up 20 databases into one, getting ready for an IPO, dealing with a new competitor who has just entered the market? Then, when formulating your marketing messages, think about what path this prospect or customer might pursue to solve this problem. Will he or she turn to white papers or articles in trade publications or Websites? Would this customer or prospect seek input from a speaker at a networking group of their peers? Let the personas steer the route, which you can pave with information that can help your prospect and customers move forward in their consideration and buying process. If youve never used person-based marketing before, give it a try. It can be a powerful way to focus your business-to-business marketing messages and offers, driving more leads and sales. This article can be found on the Web at: http://www.salesvantage.com/article/view.php?w=977 and http://multichannelmerchant.com/crosschannel/lists/persona_based_marketing_07102006/ along with many other places on the web.

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TACTIC 73: TURN TRANSCRIPTS INTO ARTICLES

If you incorporate hosting teleseminars in your marketing campaign (and you should), then this article writing and marketing tactic is for you, especially if you want increased exposure using your golden nuggets. You could easily create five to 10 articles based on the information you had presented during your teleseminar. To make matters simple, youll need to get a transcript of the session. Great teleseminars can provide this for you at the low rate of only $97 for an hour-long teleseminar. See http://www.GreatTeleseminars.com/transcripts.htm for details. Then, take that transcript and look for the five to 10 ideas that people will want to learn about. Now start writing and editing. Chisel away encrusted dirt (idle chit chats) from your golden nuggets (your information), refine them into gleaming insights, hammer them into logical sequence, and fasten them to reader benefits. Then polish and polish it until your fingers ache to create a glittering necklace of persuasion that seduces the eye, charms the imagination, and dazzles the reader with so much human interest that it is indeed much easier to read than skip. Over a million readers could be reading your articles if you dont overlook a key strategy of turning your teleseminar transcripts into articles and placing them on the top index sites (directories), websites and ezines on the Internet. These sites can disseminate your articles to hundreds of websites. By integrating these tactics into your overall marketing strategies, you will experience an even brighter future by attracting more qualified prospects.

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TACTIC 74: DESCRIBE A PAINFUL PROCESS

Along with the Top 7 or Top 10 Tips Format and Q&A Format, another very simple format that you could leverage immediately is what EzineArticles.com Christopher Knight calls Wound And Bring In The ER. This format is very similar to the How To Format where you introduce a pain or a problem, then solve a portion of it emphasizing the WHY you should solve the pain. With the How To Format, you dont want to give all of the how to solve the pain as the reader will have less interest in visiting your website to find out all of the HOW to solve the wound or pain you posed in the article. However, if youre selling a service that handles a long, boring, gruesome process, I suggest going into more detail after you sell the reader on the WHY the process must be done. If you sell the reader on the WHY and then describe the process in more detail and explain how tedious the project is, you can convince the average reader to spend good money on having you perform the service than doing it themselves. At the same time youre building credibility and branding yourself as an expert in your field. And, website and ezine publishers will love you because you are providing them with content their readers can use if they choose to do it themselves. Here is a perfect example: ARTICLE MARKETING STRATEGIES: 5 THINGS YOU MUST DO TO GET YOUR ARTICLES PRINTED ONLINE - By Eric Gruber I often hear business owners who are new to marketing with articles complain that their articles are not producing the article results they had expected. They thought that article marketing is the profit pill that will bring instant results. They thought the process would be easy. Well, its about time that someone breaks these misconceptions. Im not going to lie to you, if you plan on doing it right, you've got a lot of work ahead of you. I mean a LOT! Can you get instant success? Yes you can its happened before. With one article submission, Lesley Mattos of Adesso Albums tripled her website traffic, Mark Hyman MD jumped to the #2 spot on the New York Times Best Seller List and several other clients had great success on their first submissions as well. But, results vary! Remember article marketing is a long-term marketing project that can boost your traffic, sales and search engine positioning over time. Whether you're writing your own articles or submitting for a client, your ultimate goal is to be seen in prestigious places. That means high-ranking sites. That means sites where prospects are willing to pay for your services frequently search. Here are five things you must do to get your articles printed (and 5 things that make article marketing one sucky job!): 1. Research the best article sites. Before you start typing into that submission box, or sending out an email do your homework. Sleuth out the best article sites on the web. Look for author names that you recognize - and respect! Make sure that the site has working links, an attractive design, sensible navigation, and living, breathing human beings ready to email you back with answers to your questions. I also suggest going to www.alexa.com and check out the sites traffic ratings. Youd be surprised how many sites get absolutely no traffic! I wonder how they stay in business or why. Dont get trapped by them. 79

2. Update your list frequently. Upon close inspection, you may come to learn that at least a third of the URLs in your article site list don't work after a couple months. Trust me, we have a list of over 1,000 sites that we can customize and personalize for your use at http://www.prleads.com/directory.htm and we constantly have to update our list as article sites spring into existence with a finger-snap... and then drop out of sight just as quickly! An outdated list means you wasted your time. Stay ahead of the article game as best you can! 3. Keep track of your submission info. Every article site has different requirements to post an article. Some ask for a "username." Others request an email address. Some require that you type in a password. Others generate the password for you. Are you getting a sense of how confusing this can become when doing bulk article submissions? Take notes: "Site X doesn't accept HTML formats." I suggest storing the information in an Excel spreadsheet thats what we use for our directory of sites. With Excel you can store it and easily sort it alphabetically, by category, Alexa ranking etc. 4. Organize your files. Article submission varies drastically from one site to the next. You'll need to have two versions of every article - one Plain Text and one HTML-Formatted. If you change one word of one article, both versions must also be edited. If you let article maintenance go by the wayside, you'll be sending some confused drafts out into circulation! 5. Store your personal information. Some sites ask for an author photo, others do not. Many accept URLs - sometimes from more than one website! If you're bulk-submitting for a client or yourself, this brings a ton of questions to mind. Even the author biographies vary. You'll need to keep several bios on file - one extended bio containing several paragraphs, one brief "generic" bio, and then any bio that's part of an "article marketing campaign" where you might feature a special promotion or link to a sales page/sign-up box. If you don't have the time to invest in article efficiency, you can always stick to just a handful of article submission sites. But the truth is, you're short-changing yourself if you do this. The more top-quality sites you submit to, the more top-quality content-seekers will showcase your work on their sites and in their email newsletters. I believe that if you're going to do something, you should do it right and do it all the way... or don't do it at all. That's why I'm strongly suggesting to you now, to PAY SOMEONE ELSE an assistant, intern, or a virtual assistant to organize your article submissions. You will not believe the time, effort and confusion of mass-submitting on the web. This is a FULL-TIME JOB that's best handled by an expert.

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TACTIC 75: PUT ON YOUR SIX THINKING HATS

This tool helps your article writing team stay in the same frame of reference. If possible, its nice to have paper hats colored cards or colored dots will do as well. Everyone is asked to wear a specific hat and brainstorm from that point of view. Then they are requested to change hats. This helps flexibility, because it encourages those who tend to fixate on one area to realize there are several different ways to look at an issue. For example: White - Facts, data, sharing what we know Green - Brainstorming ideas and alternatives (creative) Yellow - Benefits, profits, pros Black - Competitors point of view Red - Emotions, feelings Blue - Process, facilitation, plans, closure

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TACTIC 76: START WITH THE HEADLINE

Once you have a basic idea and this eBook is filled with basic ideas so you can start writing your articles immediately then simply take that basic idea and craft a killer headline before you write one single word of your body content. Why? According to Brian Clark of CopyBlogger.com, Your headline is a promise to prospective readers. Its job is to clearly communicate the benefit that you will deliver to the reader in exchange for their valuable time. The thing about promises is that they tend to be made before being fulfilled. However, if you write your content first, you are forcing yourself to be put in the position of having to reverse-engineer your promise. Turn it around the other way and there will be a much better chance that your articles content will be crisp and well structured. Trying to fulfill a promise you havent yet made is tough (nearly impossible!), and often leads to a marginal headline. A marginal headline doesnt capture my attention. It doesnt get me to read the article. And it doesnt get me to click on the link in your bio box, which ultimately doesnt get me to go to your website and buy your products or services.

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TACTIC 77: DEVELOP NEW IDEAS WITH THE THREE-STEP IDEA MATRIX
Even with all the tips for generating ideas, there will still be times when you get stuck in neutral looking for new, fresh ideas. It happens to the best of us. One great proven method for developing new ideas is to make a matrix. This easy three-step process helps you: Develop initial concepts or ideas and categorize ideas based on their strength Expand and develop the final story ideas for additional future articles.

Step 1: Format the easy to do, basic matrix List your areas of involvement as the major headings in your matrix. Main subjects are listed next to the major headings, followed by a listing of sub-ideas. Ex. Major Heading Main Subject Sub-Idea Code -----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------Article Marketing Writing Articles for the Net Article Writing Basics 3 Writing Headlines 1 Article Writing Mistakes 1 Writing a Bio Box 2 Lead Generation Getting B2B Leads From Promote an ezine 1 The Web Writing a sales letter 2 Step 2: Categorize and prioritize your ideas Now you should categorize and prioritize each sub-idea: 1=strong, 2=medium, and 3=weak Step 3: Expand and develop your ideas As you develop your final article ideas, format another matrix and list each of the final ideas across the top of the page. Under each final idea, list three additional article possibilities. After completing this process, youll have two matrices that provide an excellent approach for not only increasing your article production but also for increasing your profits. So create a matrix, develop your ideas, find a market, submit your articles and get more sales and leads.

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TACTIC 78: TAG IT

Tags and social bookmarking helps Internet users talk to each other and share favorite posts and articles. They also let you the article writer and marketer get a feel for what topics are popular at the moment. If its popular enough, you may want to write articles about it. By monitoring these most popular lists, whether by overall category or tags specific to your interests, you can keep a finger on the pulse of public opinion: Technorati Ice Rocket Blogpulse Blogsearch Newzingo Google Tag Map Digg Shadows Social Bookmarking Service Bloghop Lookmarks FeedMarker a bookmarker and newsreader with tagging Backflip StumbleUpon RawSugar Indiza Europe and International Social Bookmarking Findory Wink

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TACTIC 79: TRACK THE MOST POPULAR/ HIGH TRAFFIC SITES AND BLOGS
I tell my article marketing coaching clients to not only track the most popular/high traffic sites and blogs to see which website and blog publishers they should be submitting their articles to, but they should be tracking these sites to get new ideas. For high traffic sites and blogs, there is a lot to learn and be inspired by. How are they talking about the subjects? Where are they getting their information and resources? Should you be following their lead? Use high traffic and most popular sites and blogs as resources for possible article content and ideas. There are many lists online that list the most popular websites, blogs, topics, news, products, services and more. By monitoring these sites, you can stay on top of what is attracting the most attention: www.alexa.com www.Technorati.com -- Most popular posts and tags, including the Technorati Top 100 www.feedster.com -- Get the Feedster Top 500 www.chuquet.com -- Most linked to posts www.nationalgeographic.com -- 15 most popular stories www.waypath.com -- Most popular blogs, topics and search www.variety.com -- Most popular entertainment stories www.villagevoice.com -- Most popular lifestyle stories www.bloglines.com --- Top blogs www.yahoo.com --- Most popular stories http://blogs.salon.com/rankings.html -- Statistics by page read rankings www.topten.org -- Most popular 10 nuggets www.rightwingnews.com -- Most popular political blogs on the net www.toptensources.com -- Popular posts www.amazon.com -- view the best sellers list www.infoplease.com -- Top tens list www.daypop.com -- Top 40 stories

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TACTIC 80: FIND OUT WHAT PEOPLE ARE SEARCHING FOR

Another method of finding content and article ideas is to discover what your prospects are searching for. Search engines and other search engine monitoring resources keep an eye continuously on what topics are most popular by counting up the top search keywords and phrases. There is a lot of information and inspiration that can be gleaned from visiting the following search engine and search engine monitoring resource sites: http://www.webcrawler.com/info.wbcrwl/searchspy/ http://www.metaspy.com http://digg.com/spy http://www.joeant.com/ http://hotsearches.aol.com/search/hotsearch.jsp http://www.dogpile.com http://www.searchwords.com/ http://www.searchhippo.com/ http://www.searchking.com/ http://www.eurekster.com http://www.fravia.com/ -- Also a great resource for keyword and search tips, techniques and methods. http://www.searchenginewatch.com

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TACTIC 81: BREAK IT UP INTO STAGES

Heres one of Jeff Herrings surefire article writing templates: On top of a piece of paper, write down a quote or lyric related to your business, service or marketing messages. Then underneath the lyric or quote, state the problem that youd like top discuss in the article. Then, break that problem into stages, i.e. mild, moderate and severe. Once you have completed that, make a list of solutions for each stage. Your paper should look like this: A quote or lyric

Present a problem

3 Stages Mild

Moderate

Severe

List of Things To Do

Heres a perfect example of a 3 stages article written by Jeff Herring: Stress Management: How to Defeat Sunday Night Syndrome "We go from 'Saturday Night Live' to 'Sunday Night Dread" Picture the following scene: It's Sunday evening, the weekend is winding down and you're beginning to think about the work week ahead. What are your feelings? 87

Do you find yourself excited and challenged, looking forward to another week of doing something you love? The most fortunate among us get to feel that way on a regular basis. Or are you instead feeling something else, perhaps anxiety or even dread? That's a special kind of anxiety and stress I call "Sunday Night Syndrome." All of us experience some form of SNS from time to time. What's important is how often and how severe it is. Mild Sunday Night Syndrome In most people, the anxiety usually begins Sunday evening, but it passes quickly and is gone by the time you arrive at work. This feeling is probably the result of working continuously for five days a week and having only two days off during which to recover. What to do: Relax and remember: The feeling will pass. Rent a movie, play a game, enjoy being with family and friends. Moderate Sunday Night Syndrome The next stage of SNS is characterized by increasing anxiety as the work week approaches. The anxiety begins earlier in the day and doesn't pass as easily as mild SNS. You begin to stay up later and later on Sunday night, in the hope of keeping Monday morning from arriving. As a result, you feel tired and sluggish on Monday, which leaves you ill-equipped to deal with your feelings and your work. Other symptoms include increased irritability and inattentiveness around family and friends, as well as deteriorating work performance. Colleagues and supervisors may begin to notice changes at this point. What to do: In addition to the above suggestions, make sure you get to bed early enough to be rested the next day. Identify things about your job that you can feel good about, or even look forward to. As crazy as it sounds, some people have found that going into the office or doing some work at home seems to help. If going into the office is not possible, being as prepared as possible can help. Severe Sunday Night Syndrome The third level of SNS doesn't wait until Sunday to arrive. It begins Saturday or even Friday after work. By the time Sunday evening rolls around, folks with severe SNS are experiencing strong anxiety and dread. Some people become physically ill at the prospect of another work week. Depression is common at this point, as well as drinking too much alcohol. What to do: 88

What underlies your emotions and reactions? If you don't examine this issue, the feelings might just grow stronger. It could be time to consider a change, either in the details of your job or perhaps an entire change of job or career. Consult a career counselor to look at your options. Make sure you are doing something, from talking about it to physical exercise, in order to relieve the stress. You might want to seek counseling to help you manage the stress, emotions and decisions involved. Remember: If it's hurting you, it's not likely to be helping anyone else.

All of us experience some form of Sunday Night Syndrome from time to time. It's how we respond that makes the difference. Along with using mild, moderate and severe like Jeff Herring, you can write other articles related to the 3 stages template like: Bad, Worse, Worst Good, Better, Best Cheap, Average, Most expensive

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TACTIC 82: RELAX YOUR MIND & ENJOY IT ALL

If you let writing turn into a burdensome, repetitive task, you will pay for it in stilted prose and clich ideas. Thats why the tactics you use to climb out of a rut like playing games, practicing the martial arts, reading, vacationing, and taking time off are all about having fun. A relaxed mind is an open mind, and an open mind is prepared to accept new and creative ideas for your article marketing efforts. So, above all other article writing tips in this eBook (and there are lots of them), relax your mind and remind yourself to enjoy the craft. I remind myself to enjoy the craft no matter what every single day and Im the article writing and marketing expert. I know if I dont remind myself, I would not be able to write articles on a daily basis. I write articles for submission. I write articles to be published on my blog. I write articles to be posted on my website (http://www.articlemarketingexpert.com). I write articles for the PR LEADS Article Markets Secrets & Breakthroughs Newsletter. And, guess what? I never ever run out of ideas, and neither would you if you relax your mind, enjoy the art and follow the 88 tactics described in this ultimate guide to beating writers block and getting hundreds to thousands of targeted visitors to your website

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Tactic 83: Do a Makeover

People love makeovers. Just look how popular those home makeover shows have become. Whenever they are on TV my mom is glued to the couch. And, dont even think of talking to her then. So, why not appeal to your audience with a makeover article. Heres how 1. Start by describing a situation you or one of your clients experienced 2. The explain what you did to fix the problem 3. Show the results This way you are using real examples, making yourself more human, building credibility, and demonstrating that you can get results. *Tip: Dont forget to connect your bio box to the makeover article. Heres how: (Name) can help you too go from _________________ to _________________ in just (quantify time). Now you can discover his simple 8 step plan to ______________ with his free special report at (url)

Tactic 84: Create an Editorial Calendar

Plan ahead of time the topics you will write about and when youll write them. My suggestion is to plan six months ahead. Create an editorial calendar with the dates you will write each article and the title. For example, if you plan to write one article a week, make a chart with the dates and the topics you will write about. This makes it easier for you to decide what to say when you sit down to write.

Tactic #85: Write a Series of Articles

When you create articles in sets, you increase your production capacity. The amount of time it takes to produce each article goes down when you produce 2 or more at a time. Why? Because, you are already in writing mode. Here are 3 things you can create article sets on: Specific topics or sub-topics Styles of writing Types of article templates (Q & A, bullet points, numbered lists, problem/solution format)

Or you can easily double or triple your output by writing an article with seven tips. Then, take each tip and expand on it for seven more articles. Create multiple articles from the same topic. Or, try this: Write 3 to 5 main points you want your readers to know. Then write 3 bullet points under each of those points. Now expand each bullet point with a new article You should plan for your article series to eventually become a book, ebook, ecourse, how-to manual, booklet, tips list or package of resources. Always have a goal in mind for how you will package and sell your articles. If youre a speaker or give workshops, this can lead to some nice back-of-the-room sales for you.

Tactic 86: Make a Checklist Article

People love checklists. They are obsessed with making sure they dont miss anything. So fulfill their desires with a checklist article. Heres an example: The B2B Sales Lead Success Checklist By Mac McIntosh You've spent a great deal of time, effort and money putting together your B2B sales leads generation programs. How you handle those B2B sales leads once you get them makes the difference between happy salespeople and new customers or unhappy salespeople and lost sales. Here's a checklist of questions to ask yourself to determine if you have the best chance of being successful: Are you prepared to send requested information immediately?

Do you know what to send in response to different types of inquiries? Do you have electronic versions for those who want the information by e-mail or via downloads from your Web site? Do you have adequate supplies of printed materials ready for those who prefer them? Do you have the people, systems and processes in place to get the requested information out the door quickly?

Are you prepared to capture all inquiries in a database for ongoing nurturing and qualification efforts?

Do you have the database ready to go? Do you have the data entry people or outside services lined up to get the inquirers into the database?

Do you have a program in place to "qualify" B2B sales leads before sending them to your salespeople, reps, dealers or distributors?

Have you agreed with sales management on which questions to ask in order to determine which leads are qualified? Have you agreed what information is required to know which sales contacts to route the qualified leads to? Are you asking these questions on all response devices? Do you have proactive programs in place to contact and qualify your leads?

Do you have a process in place for distributing qualified leads to sales contacts as they are identified?

Is it designed to get the leads into salespeople's hands without delay? Have you made it easy for your salespeople, reps, dealers or distributors to use? Can they access leads over the Internet? Does it integrate with their existing contact management or email systems?

Do you have a program in place to nurture or cultivate your not-yet-qualified leads? 4

Salespeople generally focus on those one-in-four sales leads who are ready to buy soon. However, research shows that three of four sales come from longer-term prospects who are frequently ignored by sales.

Does your company have a prospect relationship marketing program in place to keep in touch with these longer-term prospects, using email, fax, mail and phone contacts, until they are identified as being qualified and ready for sales attention? Do you know what messages to send as part of your prospect relationship management program? Do you know how often to contact prospects with these messages? Do you know what offers to use to get them to further identify their needs and situation so you can determine if they are ready for sales?

Do you have a program in place to measure and track the results of your various sales leads generation and cultivation and sales follow-up programs

Can you determine your cost per lead, cost per qualified lead and cost per sale? Do you know which lead programs generate the highest return on investment? Do you know which nurturing techniques worked and which didn't? Can you prove to management that your lead generation programs are paying off in increased sales and market share?

M. H. "Mac" McIntosh is described by many as one of America's leading business-to-business sales and marketing consultants and an expert on the subject of sales leads. He is president of Mac McIntosh Incorporated, a sales and marketing consulting firm specializing in helping companies get more highquality sales leads and turn them into sales. Visit his Sales Leads Experts website for more information.

Tactic 87: Invest in Voice Dictation Software

Most of us do not want to take the time to write. We procrastinate. And when we do sit down to write we let ourselves become easily distracted. When we have to write, we begin to stare at the screen. Yet, if we had to talk about the subject with clients or peers, we can go on forever. Thats exactly why voice dictation software may be the best investment youll ever make. If you dont like to type, this speech to text software enables you to dictate your thoughts directly into a microphone. It recognizes your voice, and the words are then transcribed right into your document.

Tactic 88: Keep an Ongoing File of Potential Topics and titles

I encourage my clients to keep an ongoing list in a file of potential topics they could write about. The ideas for titles may come from phrases you hear your clients saying, or articles you read, or headlines you see. Or, a phrase that pops into your head. Capture it. That way, when you sit down to write, you wont be searching for ideas. I call mine my inspiration file. You also want to make sure you have your handy inspiration file on hand whenever you are speaking to clients and colleagues, jot down the subjects you are discussing, or the information you provide in response to questions. Especially take note of any subjects that come up on a regular basis one of those could be a hot topic and the perfect focus for an article.

FINAL THOUGHTS So now that you know some of my secrets to writing high impact articles in less time than you ever thought possible, Ill let you in on another little secret theres a lot more to learn! Thats why Dan Janal (Your Fearless PR LEADER) and myself (Eric Gruber Your Article Marketing Expert) will keep creating new products and services so you can become a better educated, more successful article author and marketer that benefits from higher credibility, tons of free online exposure and publicity, improved branding, increased search engine optimization (SEO) and many, many more sales and leads, all at the same time. Now that you have some of the basics under your belt, you should now be able to start building your arsenal of articles that will attract a much bigger response and increased sales! And, when you get stuck, dont forget to build your swipe file using our huge list of content resources that weve put together for you to review, investigate and explore for possible article marketing ideas. As I mentioned before, it certainly isnt a list of all the content, resources, and information out there, but it was designed to get you thinking about all the content, resources and information out there for you to write about. If I have missed a favorite resource of yours, please email me at Eric@prleads.com and Ill be sure to add your idea in our next PR LEADS Article Marketing Secrets & Breakthroughs Newsletter and of course give you full credit.

SPECIAL RESOURCES TO HELP YOU PROFIT FROM THIS BOOK

Article writing and marketings main goal is to promote something and bring traffic to your site, so you can make the sale. To help you get full value from this book, we have compiled an extensive collection of resources that will help you in your article writing, traffic building and sales generation efforts. Your special resource section includes: Special opportunity offers from the author Special opportunities from the publisher Dan Janal, Your PR LEADER Professional Directory These are the professionals whom you might want to contact. Directory of products and services that can help you build your traffic and get more leads and sales than you ever dreamed of, FREE Resources Free Selecting Your Topic Checklist A vital component to your article marketing success. In fact you should PRINT THIS CHECKLIST OUT IMMEDIATELY and refer to it every time you write an article! It will make the difference between being a dud and an article that website and ezine publishers will love and so will your prospects!

Special Exclusive Opportunity Offer from the Author

By buying and reading this book, you have proven that you are a serious and determined article writer and marketer. For this reason, I am offering this special exclusive and unprecedented opportunity offer, just for the readers of this book!

Now, You Can Get the Most Cost-Effective Traffic & Sales Lead Generation Service That Produces a Constant Flow Of Visitors to Your Website, Builds Greater Credibility and Improves Search Engine Rankings All at the Same Time at a Discounted Price!
Heres the magic formula: 1 Article Sent To 100+ Sites Leads To 1,000s of Visitors and Subscribers Ultimately Resulting In Skyrocketing Sales. Articles equal money. You write articles, you get traffic. You write articles, Google ranks your site higher. You write articles, people see you as an expert. You write articles, you gain trust and credibility People buy from people the trust. See the connection?

Writing and Submitting Articles To The Top Directories and Targeted Websites & Ezines = More Money For You! If youre finally ready to allow an ENORMOUS AMOUNT of TARGETED PROSPECTS to find your website thats now hiding from you (because youre either wasting your money on highly expensive PPC programs or youre not doing any kind of Internet PR because you dont yet understand how to set up your business online to run at peak efficiency) then I invite you to join the PR LEADS Article Marketing Service. Here Is Your Complete, Do-It-For-You, Hassle-Free Lead, Traffic & Sales Generation Exclusive Offer: Option 1: The Serious Marketers Do-It-For-You Article Marketing Implementation Program: The One You Want & Need!! 12 articles syndicated to the top directories, targeted websites & ezines over 12 months can accumulate thousands upon thousands of targeted links and targeted leads each year. Best-Selling Author, Mark Hyman MD, gained over 1,500 opt-in subscribers in just one day after a placement on About.com one of the top 50 sites on the net and that was with just one submission. Imagine how much traffic, leads and sales you can generate with a 12 month program. Well manage your complete campaign personally proofread the article, optimize it for maximum search engine placement, revise the headline so editors will be enticed to read the article, and use our magic to create a bio box that will turn readers into prospects. PR LEADS will register you with the top 9

sites, handle all day-to-day correspondence with editors to save you from that drudgery, and show you how to track your results. Only $5,000 You Save $1,000 Option 2: Do-It-For You Implementation Starter Article Marketing Package: Six articles syndicated to the top directories, targeted websites and ezines over six months. Well provide the same complete Traffic, Lead & Sales Generation service we provide in the Serious Marketing Program for only $2,600 thats a $400 discount! Option 3: Test the Waters Do-It-For-You Implementation Article Marketing Package Skeptical? We understand; thats why were offering this Test the Waters program. Well handle the complete article marketing operations for one article for one month for $500. You can upgrade to the Starter or Serious Marketer Package at any time!

Heres What People Like You are Saying About the PR LEADS Article Marketing Service:
"Your customized service helped to get my article featured in this new major women's publication. Who knew that tweaking the title of my article would help it make a bigger impact. Thank you for your expertise." Jill Lublin, http://www.promisingpromotion.com There are three reasons to use the PR LEADS Article Marketing Service: Traffic, Traffic and More Traffic! By tripling our traffic with just one article submission, you have not only met our expectations, but you blew right past them! Lesley Mattos, http://www.adessoalbums.com Thanks to PR LEADS Article Submission Service, my article Dating Success Strategies: 10 Lessons To Spice Up Your Social Life can be found on Self Growth and was featured in their newsletter. The site is Ranked # 1 for Self Improvement on Google and Yahoo. It gets 167,000 unique visitors a month to the website and sends newsletters to over 450,000 opt-in subscribers a week." - April Masini, http://www.askapril.com "Just getting published on the Caregiver.com website and magazine, and getting published in the Caregiver's Home Companion website and in their print and email newsletters -- 2 "go-to" publications for caregivers -- not to mention all of my other successes is worth its weight in gold. I left the operating room to touch more lives that a surgeon could do in a career, and PR LEADS is helping with my mission to reach as many people as possible!" Dr. Vicki Rackner, http://www.drvicki.org "Thanks to the PR LEADS Article Marketing Service, About.com and many other highly credible sites dramatically increased my website traffic. Ive even gotten many people asking to subscribe to my newsletter just yesterday I added 60 subscribers that are from all over the world - England, Canada, Australia, Bolivia, and S. Africa! Amazing! This is definitely a good investment!" -Dr. Karen Sherman, http://www.drkarensherman.com

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"Within a couple of days, my article was published on About.com, Sales and Marketing Management, IT Toolbox, Association of Equipment Manufacturers, Knowledge Management Professional Society, and Sideroad. I cant wait til I see the results in a couple of weeks. Thank you PR LEADS Article Marketing Service." Srikanth Chari, http://www.watch360.com "Writing and submitting articles using the PR LEADS Article Marketing Service helped spike up my website traffic, as well as open doors to golden marketing opportunities. Several publishers became affiliates, including Rick Sidowicz of CEO Refresher who is interested in completing an email blast and other ways to promote my books and products! I never had anyone do an email blast for me before!" Susan Harrow, http://www.prsecrets.com Although we have a multi-faceted marketing and sales plan, the addition of article marketing through the PR Leads service helped in our successful quest to push UltraMetabolism to #2 on the NY Times Best-Seller List. More than just getting exposure for our articles, the PR Leads service also helped establish relationships with website publishers that will continue to deliver value for many months and years to come. Eric and his team are extremely diligent with fine attention to detail and go above and beyond the call of duty to get articles placed on websites that normal article marketing channels don't have access to." Marc Stockman, Brass Ring Media Group "My clients have seen a significant increase in traffic coming from various websites and blogs as a result of the PR LEADS Article Submission Service. This is a service I recommend to my clients to be included as part of their Internet Marketing strategy." - Valerie Di Carlo, http://www.seo-web-consulting.com "As a book author, writing comes easily for me. Marketing does not come easily... What I love about PR Leads Article Service is it lets me focus on what I do easily and quickly: writing articles. Dan and Eric go to work placing the articles. Turning this task over to PR Leads saves me so much precious time!! It is worth every penny. And just as important, Dan and Eric do things in a highly strategic way, ensuring the articles I write will boost my book sales, increase my website's visibility with search engines, and entice visitors to my site. PR Leads Article Service is priceless." Stephanie Pedersen "I'm so glad I found PR Leads Article Submission Service. It works great, gets me lots of links to my Web site, and it saves me hours and hours of time doing it myself or having to teach someone else how to submit articles for me." Mac McIntosh, http://www.sales-lead-experts.com

4 Ways to Get Started: 1. 2. 3. 4. Call 952-380-1554 Email Dan@Prleads.com Visit http://www.articlemarketingexperts.com Print out the form on the next page and fax it to: 732-428-4050

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[ ] Yes, Eric, I Want to Create A Self-Generating Marketing Machine That Produces A Constant Flow Of Targeted Visitors To My Website, Builds Credibility, & Improves SEO Rankings All At The Same Time And Have It All Done For Me Get me started now! [ ] Serious Marketer Package This is the package you need and want 12 articles over 12 months and all of the included free bonuses for only $5000 Save $1000 [ ] Starter Package 6 articles over 6 months and all of the included free bonuses for only $2,600 Save $400 [ ] Test The Waters 1 article over 1 month -- $500 Name Title Company Name Address City State/Province Country Zip Phone Number Email Address Credit Card #: Expiration Date: Security Code Signature Todays date If ordering by phone (952-380-1554), via email (dan@prleads.com) or via our website (http://www.articlemarketingexpert.com) be sure to mention reference code (82ebook) to receive your exclusive bonuses.

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Another Special Offer from the Author If youre looking for sites to publish your articles, so you can be found all over the Web, then this letter is one of the most important letters youll ever read!
There are two ways to find these sites of article-hungry editors: 1. You can go to Google and search for your topic and sites. Then you could spend about 2,000 hours sorting through the sites to see if they take articles like we did. You can tell your kids youll play ball with them tomorrow, which never comes because you have to look at all these sites to see if they are really a good fit for you and even if they really accept articles by outside contributors like you. Then you can hunt for the submission guidelines to see how they want to accept articles because if you submit it in the wrong format, theyll just reject it. Pure and simple. Tell your spouse youll be late for dinner and finish up. Then you are good to go! Of course, you wont know if these are legitimate sites with lots of traffic, or garbage sites with no traffic. So youll have to take your chances. - Or 2. You can order the PR LEADS Article Syndication Directory. Weve done the hard work for you. Weve found more than 1,000 sites that accept articles and weve ranked them by their traffic popularity (Google has a tool that does this) so youll be able to submit your articles to the top 20 or top 100 or top 200 sites in your topic area! You wont waste time with the bottom feeders when you use our directory. This is the Ultimate Do-It-Yourself Tool that will save you time, energy and money! Which way do you think will save you time and money so you can post your articles to as many sites as you want, as fast as you want, without killing hours doing research?

Only 100 Copies Of The Directory Will Be Sold!

If you want to be a syndicated web author and see you your articles on dozens of sites, you have a limited opportunity to get a copy of the PR LEADS Article Syndication Directory. We want to protect our clients from facing too much competition, so we are limiting the number of Directories to just 100 readers of this eBook. After that, we are closing the gates! Believe me, it will be closed as soon as this eBook is being sold in our newsletters, on Amazon.com and through many, many affiliates.

This is the only up-to-date directory of more than 1,000 article syndication sites, websites and ezines ALL GUARANTEED to accept well-written, targeted articles!
This is THE definitive list of the BEST sites, the LARGEST sites, and the MOST IMPORTANT SITES that can make all the difference for you! It will save you time and money!

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Whats in the Directory?

We've done the hard work for you. We've created the PR LEADS Article Syndication Directory -including websites and ezines that accept well-written, information based articles from experts like you. Let me make this point clear: if your article is informative and well written and not a self-servingadvertisement there is every reason to expect that nearly every website and ezine listed in our directory in your target niche market would be interested in printing it. Our directory contains more than 1,000 sites that can accept articles. You can find the biggest sites so you don't waste time with little dinky sites that won't get you anywhere. You can find the most popular sites that have large circulations of readers who are interested in what you have to say and sell. You can find sites in more than 20 topics including:

Business Communications Computers/Technology Family Finance Food and Drink Health and Fitness Home and Garden Human Resources, Job Hunting, Careers Legal Marketing, Advertising, PR Relationships/Dating/Weddings Self Improvement Small Business/Home Business Society and Culture Sports/Recreation Travel & Leisure Womens' Interests/Issues Writing and Speaking Personal Finance Arts & Entertainment Automobiles

You would spend thousands of hours trying to find these sites on your own! Each directory is customized for your own personal use. Well send you only the sites that are focused on your general area of expertise. Youll see them in order from the most popular sites listed on top so you can spend your time with the best sites that give you the best bang for your buck.

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4 Ways To Get Your Own Personalized, Customized, Sortable Directory of Websites, Ezines and Article Directories: 1. 2. 3. 4. Call 952-380-1554 Email Dan@Prleads.com Visit http://www.prleads.com/directory.htm Print out the form below and fax it to: 732-428-4050

Name Title Company Name Address City State/Province Country Zip Phone Number Email Address Credit Card #: Expiration Date: Security Code Signature Todays date

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Other Information From The Author: If you have a website business selling products and services ... Eric Gruber can help you!
If you paid thousands of dollars, or got your site for free what difference is it to you if your potential clients are not coming to your site. Promotion is the key to funneling online demand for your products or services to your website. In order for your website to generate revenue, an effective online marketing http://www.blizzardinternet.com/promotion/index.htmcampaign is essential. I will work with you from the top down so that your web site is more then just a desolate space in the middle of the Internet desert. Ultimately, my team will provide you with Internet Presence -- an Internet Presence for your business that will give you the edge that will help your clients find you. Your site will stand out from the crowd, it will become a thriving market place, a bastion of information, and a place on the Web that you can be proud of Im not going to give you a song and dance. Im not going to give you any wild guarantees, and Im not going to yank your chain. We're going to tell it to you like it is and straight up. I will handle all of your administrative, marketing and public relations needs that I am qualified to perform. Except for article writing and submission services, I only work with professionals who are already successful, financially prosperous and busy. Except for article writing and submission services, I do not work with individuals who want to become a speaker, coach or consultant. I do not launch businesses. My ideal client is already successful and as a consequence is overburdened with administrative, marketing and public relations tasks. At this point, I step in and take over, allowing you to enjoy your success with much less stress. Heres a sample of my specialty marketing and public relations services:

Copywriting Ill match you with a copywriter thats an expert in writing for your industry. Our staff writes search engine optimized copy for articles, websites, and online sales letters Complete Article Marketing Campaign Go to www.articlemarketingexperts.com for more information on our article marketing campaigns. Website Assessments What good is spending money on Internet Marketing & Promotion if youre website isnt up to par. Ill delve into your website, tear it apart and let you know whats working, and whats not.

Proofreading Dont let a silly spelling or grammatical error ruin your chances for getting more sales and leads than you could imagine. Let us proofread your articles or web copy before you post it online!

Coaching & Consulting Services Let me use my experiences as an award-winning public relations practitioner and as your article marketing expert to grow your business both online and offline.

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For copywriting, article submission, marketing and consulting assignments, you can contact me directly at 908-380-8564 or email me at Eric@prleads.com Special Note To Meeting Planners
If youre booking speakers for your conferences or events, keep Eric Gruber in mind. I deliver high content, high energy, interactive programs on Internet Marketing that are both fun and educational. Call 908-380-8564 or email Eric@prleads.com

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Special Opportunity from the Publisher

Dan Janal, your fearless PR LEADER wants you to know that you can rely on PR LEADS for all of your publicity needs. He has helped thousands of authors and experts just like you get the publicity they need both in print and online. And he can help you get the publicity you need to:

Build credibility Create marketing tools for your handouts and websites Position you as an expert Show why you are better and different from competitors Justify raising your rates and fees

Before, PR LEADS was known for the article marketing service, the company was famous for being:

The Fastest, Easiest, Most Economical Way To Get Free Publicity

Finally, there's an easy way to get your name in print. And it doesn't cost a fortune. Now you can tell your story to reporters who want to hear it. PR LEADS is the fastest, easiest and most inexpensive way to get publicity for authors, experts, speakers, doctors and psychologists... PR LEADS is perfect for people just like you. When you use PR LEADS, we'll put you in touch with reporters who need to quote experts like you. That's right. We get approximately 100 requests a day from reporters who are writing stories for major publications who desperately need to find experts to quote in their stories. We'll give you their names and email addresses and their story angles so you can contact them! If you have the information they need, they'll feature you and your books in their publications. We're talking big name publications and media outlets like The Wall Street Journal, CNN, and Newsweek, as well as Redbook and Glamour.

All It Takes Is One Media Mention and Your Subscription Has Paid For Itself
For less than $100 a month you'll get an unlimited number of leads in your major areas of expertise. If you have several areas of knowledge (like sales and marketing) we'll send you leads in all those areas! We want you to be successful, so we send you leads that will increase your chances for success. But we don't want to burden you with irrelevant leads that just waste your time. You Get So Much for So Little With your subscription you'll receive:

Unlimited number of leads in your areas of expertise sent directly to your e-mail box! Targeted topics and keywords for one user. Unlimited number of updates to your client record. Complimentary membership in our branded community of PR LEADERS.

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You'll also get these benefits:

Exclusive entrance to our telephone seminars open only to PR LEADERS Invitations to networking events with other PR LEADERS at NSA, Book Expo and other events! Free e-newsletter filled with timely PR tips and strategies. Complimentary 15-minute coaching session when you sign up with PR LEADS so you get the most from the service. Expert advice and feedback on your sample responses to reporters. Free subscription to our PR LEADS Success System - daily emails that teach you our secret tips on how to use PR LEADS to get the most PR possible and work effectively with reporters.

Here's How Our Clients have Benefited From PR LEADS Publicity For Experts:
"The first couple of months I was with PR LEADS I got an interview for Entrepreneur Magazine, and at least 5 other publications! That paid for the year. I believe that getting press through PR LEADS has helped me in gaining new clients." Kristin Anderson, Speaker and Author As a PR Leads client I can directly attribute more than $15,000 in direct income (more from continuing relationships) within the first few months of getting favorable press in the local paper. I use the reprints from both local and national publications in my marketing, and send them to current clients to reinforce their confidence with my credentials, and include them as handouts at my seminars. As a result of the positive power of the press, I believe my clients refer me at a greater rate. PR Leads is a great investment. Dan is a pleasure to work with, and I recommend Dan Janals Services very highly." David Rachford, Rachford & Company CPA "Dan Janal and PR Leads landed me a book contract from a major publisher for $25,000, with lots of upside potential and follow on consulting. Ted Demopoulos, Consultant and Professional Speaker PR Leads is one of those rare offerings that promises a lot and then over-delivers. I'm getting three interviews with every four responses I make, and that's happening at least twice a week. I'm a tough critic, and Dan provides an outstanding service." Alan Weiss, Million Dollar Consulting "Need publicity? I tested this new service and was talking to a reporter from Business Week magazine the next day!" Joe Vitale, Copywriting Legend Dan is a PR marketing genius! He created a way to get great PR for "almost free" and even made the process of getting articles published extremely easy. I received a great interview that fit my expertise to a "T" the very first day. I'm hooked!" Debbie Allen, NSA member PR Leads gives me access to news media queries that are otherwise available only to clients of expensive public relations agencies. PR Leads gives me prompt, personalized service, for a fraction of the price." Edward Hasbrouk, Author of The Practical Nomad "The ROI metrics of PR Leads is simplistic. It just takes one mention in the media! You cannot buy that type of individualistic branding elsewhere and you can use the story over and over in many formats for marketing and branding. PR Leads is a must for competitive advantage Steven Koss

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Because of your service, I appeared quoted in this month's Sales and Marketing Management (SMM). I will also be quoted in the March issue of SMM, and in the Feb issue of Entrepreneur magazine. I just responded to today's lead from SMM about "Competitive Sales Environments" and fully expect to be contacted about that one too." Things are going great !! Thanks !! Bill Stinnett, Sales Excellence Inc. "I was interviewed today by Good Housekeeping on getting complaints resolved. Thank you, thank you and thank you. PR Leads has really helped." Dr. Diane Roberts Stoller

Are You Ready to Have Reporters Quoting Your Expertise?

There could be a reporter out there right now looking for someone with your expertise to quote in his next article. PR LEADS will send you leads that match your profile, and will coach you on how to get reporters to respond to you. It's the fastest, easiest, most inexpensive way to get PR for yourself or your business.

Here's How You Can Start Getting Targeted Requests from Reporters Delivered to Your E-mail Box -Every Business Day!
1. Sign up for a monthly plan for only $99! Click here now! 2. After your order is accepted, you will be shown a list of topics. Select the topics you're an expert in and we'll create your account. 3. Let us know when you'd like to conduct your orientation session. Please schedule about 15-20 minutes. 4. You'll receive by email printed instructions on how to respond to reporters so you can refer to instructions any time you like. 5. You'll receive leads from reporters! It is that simple. Want to order by phone? Call Dan Janal, President and Founder of PR LEADS on his personal phone line, 952-380-1554 from 9-5 CST.

So, get started now. Go to http://www.prleads.com or call 952-380-1554 to receive:

The chance to get quoted in newspapers and magazines The opportunity to build your credibility with the endorsement of the print media Dozens of leads each month targeted to fit your key areas of expertise Training on how to respond effectively with reporters in one-on-one personal session with PR Expert Dan Janal Teleseminars with leading experts who will offer successful tips and strategies for publicity and marketing books, products and services

All for just $99 a month -- and you can cancel at any time without out any penalty if it doesn't work out for you for any reason -- No questions asked. BUY NOW to Get Publicity for Experts and Authors! 20

Another Special Opportunity from the Publisher

Are you terrified or confused by all the details to create teleseminars?

Let Great Teleseminars remove the hassles and administrivia for you!
If you want quality products that reflect positively on your company, then you need to work with Great Teleseminars. We are your reliable source for all of your production and administrative support needs, so you can begin making money from the comfort of your home or office! All you have to do is show up with your guests and be brilliant!

Our Standard Professional Recording Package costs only $250. You'll get:

Live audio engineer to conduct a sound check and record session Balancing volumes of all speakers so your clients can listen to a quality product Includes 100 lines. Additional lines are $2 apiece. Includes CD Master so you can duplicate yourself...or ask us about rates for our Duplication Service MP3 file included so you can post your calls on your website, and/or use for your podcasts

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Advanced Professional Recording includes all of the above, plus:

Music on front and back. Royalty free music so you never have to pay. Track markers every five minutes or at every major point, your choice, so your clients can find any piece of information easily. Deeper level editing to remove embarrassing, clueless or self-serving questions from audience members so your listeners don't hear irrelevant material. Re-record any portion you want, in case you blow your lines so you sound as good as possible. Must be done at time of recording.

Fee: $350 per seminar hour.

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We give you clean, accurate transcripts produced by professional transcribers born in the USA and whose native language is English. We can work with your old files on cassette, CD, MP3 or WAV, as well as files we record for you. You can sell these transcripts, use them as bonuses or turn your transcripts into articles. Fee: $125 per seminar hour.

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Our author and industry clients include:

National Speakers Association Speaker Match Mark LeBlanc, Small Business Success, NSA Board Member Sam Horn, Action Seminars and founder of Maui Writer's Conference Joan Stewart, The Publicity Hound Sharron Senter, Senter and Associates marketing expert Lydia Ramsey, etiquette expert Roger C. Parker, page design and layout expert Vickie Sullivan, speaker marketing coach Barbara Thompson, WLS Center Amy Showalter, lobbyist Phillips Information Service Minnesota Association of Building and Construction IVT, pharmaceutical industry Labcompliance.com, pharmaceutical industry

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More Information From The Publisher Reach Your Marketing Targets With Dan Janal's Experience
With more than 20 years of PR and online marketing experience, Dan Janal can help your company market more effectively with both long-term and short-term services. You can get the same expertise that has benefited world-leading companies like IBM, American Express, Reader's Digest and many, many others. Dan Janal is the person to call when you need:

Strategic consulting to help you plan your marketing future. Training PR staffs to use the Internet effectively Reviewing and critiquing web sites to ensure they meet marketing objectives Writing press releases and white papers for online and print Board of advisors Expert witness

----------------------------------------------------------------"Dan Janal did a critique, evaluation and consulting for my website Health4her.com prior to my company making its first sale back over a year ago. Since that time, our sales have jumped from $5,000 in the month of Jan. 1999 to over $240,000 in the month of Jan. 2000! Our traffic at Health4her.com averages over 12,000 unique visitors a day! Thanks Dan .. You were right on the money!!" Louis Jay, president, health4her.com ----------------------------------------------------------------Selected clients include:

IBM (customer support) Readers Digest (contest) American Express (train PR staff to use Internet effectively) Health4Her.com (website review) Royal Sonesta Hotel (website review) Catalog City (website review) Christian Care Centers (website review) Adventure Travel (website review) IXLA LTD (strategic consulting) SEMI (website review and planning)

Contact Dan today at 952-380-1554 or email dan@prleads.com to learn how Dan Janal can help your business!

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Professional Directory
Eric Gruber (Author) Director of Operations PR LEADS Article Marketing Service, http://www.articlemarketingexpert.com Founder, Everything Communications 133 Cypress Drive, Colonia, NJ 07067 908-380-8564 eric@prleads.com Dan Janal Founder of PR LEADS, http://www.prleads.com Founder of Great Teleseminars, http://www.greatteleseminars.com Founder of Janal Communications PO Box 130, Excelsior, MN 55331 952-380-1554 dan@prleads.com Doug Hall Author of Jumpstart Your Brain Eureka! Ranch 3849 Edwards Road Newtown Ohio 45244 USA 513.618.4868 www.doughall.com Chuck Mache Architect for Breakthrough Achievement Sales Trainer & Author of the 4 Kinds of Salespeople 1004 Slate Drive, Santa Rosa, CA 95405 707-538-3270 Fax: 707-538-3270 contact@chuckmache.com www.chuckmache.com Jeff Herring The Article Guy Creator of the 20 minute articles 26 article writing templates 3000 Old Alabama Rd Suite 119-268 Alpharetta, GA 30022 USA (678) -778-6770 Jeff@TheInternetArticleGuy.com
http://snipurl.com/15yz9

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Joan Stewart The Publicity Hound 3434 County KK, Port Washington, WI 53074 262-284-7451 Fax: 262-284-1737 jstewart@publicityhound.com www.snipurl.com/16ssd Denise Landers Key Organization 281-397-0015 productivity@keyorganization.com www.keyorganization.com Paul Thornton Be The Leader Associates 413-569-9835 Fax: 413-569-1757 info@betheleader.com www.betheleader.com Larry Chase Web Digest For Marketers 79 Pine Street, #102, New York, NY 10005 www.wdfm.com Wally Adamchik Founder of Firestarter Speaking and Consulting & Author of No Yelling 919-673-9499 wally@beafirestarter.com http://www.beafirestarter.com Mac McIntosh B2B Sales Lead Expert Mac McIntosh Inc 601 Pendar Rd., North Kingstown, RI 02852-6620 401-294-7730 or 1-800-944-5553 Fax: 401-679-0176 or 1-800-944-5513 mac@sales-lead-experts.com www.sales-lead-experts.com

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Bob Bly Master Copywriter 22 East Quackenbush Avenue, 3rd Floor, Dumont, NJ 07628 201-385-1220 Fax 201-385-1138 rwbly@bly.com www.bly.com Brian Tracy Brian Tracy International 462 Stevens Ave., Suite 202 Solana Beach, CA 92075 858-481-2977 www.briantracy.com Susan Harrow Harrow Communications 4200 Park Blvd, #333 W Oakland CA 94602-1213 888.839.4190 harrowcom@prsecrets.com http://www.prsecrets.com Christopher Knight Founder of EzineArticles.com http://christopher-knight.com/contact/ www.ezinearticles.com Brian Clark www.copyblogger.com Millionaire Maker Dan Kennedy 5818 N. 7th Street #103 Phoenix, AZ 85014 Phone:602-997-7707 Fax: 602-269-3113 www.dankennedy.com

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Directory of Products and Services

For Article Submissions: PR LEADS Article Marketing Service http://www.articlemarketingexpert.com 952-380-1554 Article Marketer http://tinyurl.com/256j8w

The Phantom Writers http://www.thephantomwriters.com

For Article Marketing Gurus:

Eric Gruber Award-winning PR practitioner Eric Gruber has learned everything there is to know about article submissions programs. Eric will personally work with you to create a targeted article submission campaign, from selecting your best articles to submitting them to the best sites, to reporting back to you with the results. To check out Erics article marketing successes including a placement that helped BestSelling author Mark Hyman MD hit the #2 spot on the NY Times Best Seller List with his new book UltraMetabolism, go to www.articlemarketingexpert.com/hits. To contact Eric, call 908-380-8564 or email Eric@prleads.com Christopher Knight Christopher M. Knight is the publisher behind the wildly popular EzineArticles.com community of over 28,000 expert authors who have shared more than 200,000+ short 1-4 page articles on their expertise in exchange for a link back to their website at the bottom of each article. Authors (including coaches, speakers, entrepreneurs, solo-profesionals, and enterprise-level professionals) receive exposure from the 70k-150k daily visitors who surf the site. EzineArticles.com is a matching service that helps email newsletter publishers and webmasters looking for supplemental content relating to their niche to find articles that will add value to their audience while simultaneously giving the author free exposure to a qualified audience. To learn more about Christopher Knight go to http://www.chrisknight.com Dina Giolitto Dina Giolitto provides exceptional copywriting direction, creation, support and implementation for a host of corporate and small business clients throughout the country. She is the author of "ARTICLE POWER: Create Dynamite Articles and Watch Your Sales Explode," now available for download at 27

Article-Power.com. Visit the home for Dina's online copywriting and marketing services, Wordfeeder.com. Jason Potash Jason has been marketing online for a number of years. In addition to interviewing and revealing the secrets of many successful online entrepreneurs, Jason is also an expert in ezine and article writing. In addition to educating people on using articles and ezines for business promotion, he also a number of software tools available to streamline the process. Go to add affiliate link Jeff Herring Jeff Herring, "The Article Guy," helps entrepreneurs and small business owners create dynamic articles that attract prospects, publicity and profits. The best way for me to illustrate to you why Jeff has the right to stand up here and teach you about article writing and marketing is to invite you to pack a snack and type his name into google.com or yahoo.com. Or you could pack a lunch, and then type in his name followed by "relationship," "parenting," or "stress." In other words, Jeff Herring has been doing this for a long time. And unlike many other Internet entrepreneurs, hes still doing it every single day (just like me your article marketing expert). For more information go to http://www.snipurl.com/16u9j

For Publicity
PR LEADS The Easiest, Most Economical, Most Effective Way To Get Publicity Dan Janal http://www.prleads.com 952-380-1554 dan@prleads.com Everything Communications Eric Gruber egruber@everythingcomm.com 908-380-8564 Harrow Communications -- Media Coach & Marketing Strategist Susan Harrow www.prsecrets.com Publicity Hound Joan Stewart Learn how to use free publicity to establish your credibility, enhance your reputation, position yourself as an expert, sell more products and services, promote a favorite cause or issue, and position your company as an employer of choice. www.snipurl.com/16ssd

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Want to turn your articles into a syndicated column? Fay Faron is a syndicated columnist and she'll show you how. Her expert advice is matched only by her database of editors who buy columns! Go to http://www.market2editors.com

For Web Design

Assess Communicate Adam Hommey 412.212.1134 www.assesscommunicate.com For special pricing, be sure to mention PR LEADS referred you Common Mind -- Practical eBusiness Will Rico 140 Broadway , 46th Floor New York, NY 10005 will@commonmind.com www.commonmind.com

For Copywriting:
PR LEADS Article Marketing Article Writing Services Eric Gruber 908-380-8564 eric@prleads.com Everything Communications For online sales letters, press releases, direct mail copy, blog postings and much, much more Eric Gruber 908-380-8564 egruber@everythingcomm.com Dina Giolitto dina@wordfeeder.com http://www.wordfeeder.com

For Proofreading
PR LEADS Article Marketing Service Expert proofreading for 400-1000 word articles Dan Janal 952-380-1554 Everything Communications Proofreading for websites, sales letters, special reports, eBooks etc. Eric Gruber 908-380-8564 Sara Levenstein Editor of www.justbemagazine.com and Professional Proofreader 732-599-3820 sara.levenstein@gmail.com 29

Idea Marketers Proofreading IdeaMarketers.com is an article directory with a neat offer. They will proofread your article for a nominal fee and add them to their new website http://www.ReadyToPublish.com. Idea Marketers is offering a quality service for a pittance. For Software, Products & eBooks The PR LEADS Article Syndication Directory You don't have to be a propeller-headed rocket scientist to use this directory. There is no complicated software to learn or expensive licenses to buy. If you can use a spreadsheet, you can make the directory your own. We'll send you a spreadsheet file that contains all the sites that accept articles in your category. You'll see each site listed in numerical order, so you can start with most popular sites and work your way down. You'll see their guidelines, their Alexa ranking, or their circulation figures so you can pick the best sites. Do the top 10, or the top 100. You're in control. You'll see live, clickable links to each site, so you can review the site and make sure it meets your exacting needs. If it does, you can follow the submission process on their sties -- you're already there! We've saved you the hassle of finding sites, seeing if they accept articles, wondering if they really get any kind of worthwhile traffic and on and on. You tell us which topic or category is clearly focused on your goals and you'll get that specific data -- no extraneous junk in topics that don't matter to you. Focus is the key to successful online marketing! Get it today at http://www.prleads.com/directory.htm The Amazing Article Formula: The Secret Formula That Gets Your Articles Distributed, Published, And Read. Chris Yates, the owner/editor of Fresh-Articles.com, has created a step-by-step exclusive formula unlike anything youve ever seen. After reading this eBook you will be able to write high demanding articles starting today. Grab the exact, step-by-step formula that many successful writers (including myself) use. Get it now at http://snipurl.com/16qfr How To Write Articles In 30 Minutes Guaranteed With this eBook, Melanie Mendelson teaches you how to write profit-pulling articles in exactly 30 minutes guaranteed. Melanies new system leads you through a series of easy steps you dont even have to time yourself. It does it all for you. The system tells you what to do and when to move on using easy to understand audio prompts. Get this structured guide, and get writing now at: http://snipurl.com/16ouy Rapid Keyword Software

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Find profitable related keywords for your search engine optimized (SEO) articles in just a few minutes by running several keyword searches. Get a free download at http://www.snipurl.com/16qd7 Keyword Elite Software With the ALL New Keyword Elite Software Solution You... Can generate massive keyword lists of 50,000+ keywords for your articles, Adsense websites, or Pay Per Click campaigns in record time. Youll be able to uncover hidden niche markets so profitable that your competitors will wish they had found it first and curse the day you were born. You will discover a magical secret that reveals exactly how to format your website so you dramatically increase your traffic. You will unearth the keywords that will automatically generate low-cost traffic and quick sales! Read all about this exciting new software here: http://snipurl.com/16opo Unblockable Popup Software Once, your readers click on the link in your bio box and go to your website, youve got about five seconds to grab your visitors attention. Learn to create an itch that your reader simply has to scratch with the Internets First All In One PopOver Software. This software will double, triple or even quadruple your opt-ins and click throughs guaranteed! Get it now at http://snipurl.com/16qc5 Press Release Fire Learn the secret technique that took a brand new website to the #1 spot on Yahoo and Google for the most searched term online in less than 24 hours without spending a single penny. You will learn how to increase your website exposure, boost your traffic, and build your credibility with the power of an effective online press release. Click here and learn how: http://snipurl.com/16qdm Internet Success System Now, you can learn to build and profit from your own lists using the same strategies as Mark Hendricks, the Grandmaster of Listbuilding. Participate in this exclusive step-by-sep and A to Z proven program, and allow yourself to be taken by the hand and guided every step of the way to astounding Internet Business Success! Click here to read more now: http://snipurl.com/16ors Giant Headline Swipe File HeadlineTips.com introduces a collection of 1000+ published headlines! Help your business with this instant, high-powered reference guide to creating powerful, attention-grabbing headlines on demand! Without a powerful headline, your message stands little chance of being noticed in an increasingly competitive marketplace. Get noticed today, and grab yourself a copy of this 90+ page guide at: http://snipurl.com/16qgb Write and Publish Your Own eBook In As Little As 7 Days I always tell my article marketing clients to get the most mileage from their articles. One way to get the most bang from your buck and your time, is to compile your articles and turn them into eBooks and other information products. In this eBook, Jim Edwards and Joe Vitale teaches you how to write and publish your own outrageously profitable eBook in as little as seven days even if you cant write, cant 31

type and failed high school English class! Discover the secrets to having your own, outrageously profitable eBook written and published as quickly as seven days from today by going to: http://snipurl.com/prleads7dayebook Cover Software Pro Once youve compiled your articles and turned them into your own outrageously, profitable eBook youre going to need Cover Software Pro. Finally, you can skyrocket your sales using the same powerful software the pros are using to make stunning eBook and software covers. Why pay the big bucks to some graphic designer who is most likely using the same exact software, when you can get it now at http://snipurl.com/16qeh

Free Resources
PR LEADS Article Marketing Secrets & Breakthroughs Newsletter Inside The PR LEADS FREE Article Marketing Secrets & Breakthroughs Newsletter You Will Discover:

How to find the best sites and ezines to market your articles at no cost to you! The #1 secret that only 14% of article marketing authors know that the other 86% dont The article marketing strategies that helped Dr. Mark Hymans best selling book, UltraMetabolism, jump to the #2 spot on the New York Times Best Seller List after 1 submission How Lesley Mattos, Founder of Adesso Albums, tripled her traffic with article marketing How Vicki Rackner MD and Mac McIntosh established relationships with key online media editors How Dan Kaplan, Founder of SMC Data Systems uses article marketing to boost his credibility with clients, prospects, vendors and other contacts How Dr. Karen Sherman gained worldwide Internet exposure. Now, she has readers from all over the world asking to subscribe to her newsletter. How to turn readers into prospects with sales landing pages and offers for free newsletters, eBooks, and eCourses How to make money from your articles by turning them into informational products your readers need and want Tons of articles, resources to help you profit from your article marketing efforts many of which are free! With each issue youll learn about new online media leads that accept articles for free

Get this information packed newsletter at: http://www.articlemarketingexperts.com/newsletter

PR LEADS NEWSLETTER PR isn't rocket science. By using a few, well placed strategies and tactics, you could get quoted in the New York Times or appear on a top-rated radio or TV show! You can learn how to get press - for free when you subscribe to the PR Leads Marketing Publication and Press Publicity Electronic Newsletter. Every issue contains a short, useful, practical tip that you can put into action immediately. 32

Go to http://www.prleads.com to subscribe! Publicity Hounds Newsletter Generate thousands of dollars in FREE PUBLICITY for your product, service, cause or issue by subscribing to the FREE email newsletter "The Publicity Hounds Tips of the Week." It's delivered every Tuesday and loaded with tips, tricks and tools, case studies, and advice on how to work with the media. BONUS: You will receive the handy checklist "89 Reasons to Send a News Release" and The Publicity Hound's "Top 10 Tips for Free Publicity" five minutes after you subscribe! Go to http://snipurl.com/16ssd Articles That Sell Free Monthly Ezine Articles That Sell reveals the secrets of article marketing to individuals and businesses who want to promote their website, ezine or blog for free! Sign up today and receive two free reports, Writing for Publicity and 107 Killer Traffic Conversion Secrets Go to http://www.the-write-articles.com Writer's Weekly Angela Hoy offers the writing community her e-zine every week on Wednesday. All the Write Stuff! Ezine An ezine dedicated to making you a better writer and marketer. With informative articles, helpful tips and resources, some humor to lighten your day and a little inspiration and motivation to help you maintain the kind of attitude that will ensure your success. ByLine Magazine ByLine is a monthly magazine for writers. Since its founding in 1981, ByLine has published--and paid for--the first work of hundreds of poets and writers of fiction and nonfiction. We encourage and advise novice writers; we publish the work of beginners and veterans alike. The magazine presents articles on the craft or business of writing, including regular columns on writing poetry, fiction, nonfiction and children's literature. We also publish short stories and poetry, and a special feature for student writers.

The Write Way The Write Way is a weekly ezine that has advice on how to improve your writing, so that you can write well - whatever the occasion. Each week, in the Write Way, you'll find: 33

* tips on how to avoid common errors in writing * a feature article on one aspect of writing for the web * a short vocab quiz to improve your word power * a humorous look at different types of writing * a palindrome * a nifty Latin phrase you can use to impress your friends and associates Online tools that will make your article writing and submission tasks a breeze! Spell Check.net Not all text editing tools come with spell check. SpellCheck.net is a free online spelling checker. Run your documents or text through this nifty tool that will save you from embarrassing spelling errors! Text-to-Hyperlink Conversion Tool Output Use this tool to turn hyperlinks into live links in your document. This tool will make the new live links open in their own browser window. Review Place Review Place has a very informative page of reviews covering software related to article submission. There are currently four reviews but that may expand in the future. The Internet Writing Journal The new issue of The Internet Writing Journal is online now. Author Essays and Articles include: "Comfort Zone: Enter at Your Own Risk" by syndicated radio show host and CEO of CQK Music & Records Mary Dawson, "Tips from a Slush Pile Find: How One Writer Got an Agent" by Ronlyn Domingue, author of The Mercy of Thin Air (Atria), and "Searching for the Sisters" by Sally Beauman, author of The Sisters Mortland (Warner Books). THE WELL-FED E-PUB Want to keep up with the world of commercial freelancing and increase your writing income? Subscribe to THE WELL-FED E-PUB, my FREE info-packed e-newsletter, launched in 2002 Each edition is crammed with articles, tools, tips, and strategies to help you be a "Well-Fed Writer" - and mostly from the mouths of your fellow writers who are making it happen. Don't miss out! The Writer Gazette Subscribe for our FREE weekly newsletter of articles, paying jobs, contest listings, writer-resources and more!

Writing Resources You Need To Bookmark

Bookmark these recommended sites and visit often to hone the craft of writing. 34

EzineArticle CEO Christopher Knight's Article Page This whole page of articles written by the CEO of EzineArticles.com gives you the 411 on all aspects of article marketing. Get the wealth of insider information from the perspective of the guy that runs the show. Free Keyword Suggestion Tool (Wordtracker Suggestion Tool & Overture Bid Tool Combined) & Keyword Generator One thing you will need to do before you write an article is to decide on your primary keywords. Use this Free, easy to use Keyword Suggestion Tool to find how often phrases are searched for (and get suggestions). This tool combines the Wordtracker Suggestion Tool and the Overture Bid Tool and Keyword Generator. Poe War.com Poewar.com is a site about writing and the writing business that features articles, freelance jobs, and writing employment. Alan Cooper's All About Homonyms Alan Cooper takes intense pleasure in finding and sharing these little hidden gems He loves homonyms and has created an extensive list of them for you to enjoy. Word Safari: Megalist of Word Links All sorts of links for writers including dictionaries, thesauri, writers forums, articles, style guides and much more. Online Dictionary, Language Guide, Foreign Language and Etymology English dictionary with multi-lingual search.

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THE PR LEADS ARTICLE MARKETING SELECTING AN ARTICLE TOPIC CHECKLIST

Warning: This checklist is vital to your article writing and marketing success. Print this out immediately. Failure to complete this action will result in complete article failure!
Here Are Some Quick Ideas You Should Keep In Mind: Dont be intimidated by the idea or process of article writing. Theres no magic, genius, or Harvard degree required. Recognize the value and power of your unique understanding of your business, products, services and customers? You may find it useful to build reference lists or stacks of 3 x 5 cards Assemble and organize ideas in a swipe file Write, Dont worry about writing an article from start to finish. Write blocks of copy and stack them up. Most of my great articles are eventually put together with a lot of cutting and pasting using Microsoft Word. Just write!

Before You Even Think About Selecting A Topic, Think About This: If you want to make your article stand like a lime green tube top at church, then you need to figure out who you exact, targeted audience is before you even think about an article topic. Targeted readers are the people who are most likely to read your article and respond to your offer. They are the people who want what youve got. So, who are your targeted readers? Here are some basic questions to ask yourself: Who do you want to read your article What is their age, sex, occupation, etc.? What are those people looking for when they go online? What kind of information are they searching for? Do you have any problems related to what you have to offer? What keeps your readers awake at night, indigestion boiling up their esophagus, eyes open, staring at the ceiling? What are they afraid of? What are they angry about? Who are they angry at? What are their top 3 daily frustrations? What do they secretly, ardently desire most? Is there a built-in bias to he way they make decisions

Knowing the answers to these questions will allow you to create article content that goes directly to the heart of your targeted readers. You shouldnt be trying to write an article that will appeal to everyone You only want to appeal to your target readers. Checklist For Building Your Swipe File: Have you browsed through trade magazines and journals, especially those online? 36

Are you reading publications your audience is reading? Are you reading the Letters to the Editor section or are you skipping it? Are you surfing the web for at least 1 hour a day? Have you searched the top news stories online? Are you up-to-date with industry news? Are you going to sites like Magportal.com and filing away other peoples articles for you to take the basic idea and add your own viewpoints to? Did you setup Google News Alerts? Have you performed competitive intelligence? Do you blog hop? Have you browsed newspaper/magazine blogs lately? What about corporate/organizational blogs? Have you explored chat rooms? Are you making the rounds on your favorite message boards/forums and visiting various newsgroups and discussion lists? Have you browsed through the top article directories? Are you noting ideas from trendsetters like Oprah, and article ideas from various radio and television shows? Stashed others ads in your swipe file? Have you interviewed other experts in your industry or closely related to your industry? Have you changed your perspective and started looking at junk mail for article ideas? Are you digging through ezines that your audience is reading? Did you check your inbox for article ideas? Did you dig through comments from readers and publishers? Have you compiled a collection of inspiration quotes from thought leaders?

Checklist of Brainstorming Strategies: Have you flapoodled? Did you freewrite until you got there? Did you create a collage? Did you try the six hats method? Have you engaged in persona based marketing? Did you try starting with a headline and going from there? Did you create an idea matrix? Did you create a mastermind group Have you relaxed your mind so you can enjoy it all?

Checklist of More Ways To Eliminate Writers Block & Create Content That Editors, Publishers & Your Prospects Will Love:
Have you used your own blog as a content source idea tank? Have you grasped the power of the PR LEADS Network? Did you keep diverse cultural and age groups in mind? Did you remember to piggyback on a holiday? What about on a season? What about on celebrity goosip or on local, regional, national or International tragedies? Did you focus on a theme? Have you uncovered the hidden source of article content ideas with surveys? 37

Did you remember your hobbies? Your personal experiences? Your business experiences? Your business successes? What about your business failures can turn your scars into stars? Did you scan your book or eBook for article ideas? Have you tried slanting your ideas? Did you start an advice column or have you answered your prospects most FAQ? Have you tried recycling your content? Did you review your white papers, case studies and special reports for article ideas? Did you analyze a trend? Have you tied your articles into your new promotions? Have you turned your transcripts into articles? Have you examine what has worked well in other places.

Checklist for Examining What Has Worked Well In Other Places:

You should look for: Articles that have gained wide net exposure and I dont just mean the article directories. I mean on targeted websites and online publications Articles that have been posted on other peoples blogs, or have mentions of the articles in their blogs. Articles that have many comments on their articles. Many of the directories, blogs and websites now have capabilities for readers to respond and post their thoughts and opinions. Pay close attention to these responses. Look for article templates that work. Notice that most of the articles are comprised of short sentences, short paragraphs, bulleted points and sub-headings.

Checklist of Article Templates That Work:

Have you thought about topics that you can write an inspirational article on? Did you consider writing a How To article? Why not write an article that describes a painful process? Tip articles are pretty easy to write. Can you think of some Top 3, Top 5, Top 7 or Top 10 articles that you can write? Did you consider the three stages article template?

Follow this checklist and article ideas will begin to race in your own mind!

This checklist is copyrighted by the PR LEADS Article Marketing Service. Feel free to pass on this checklist to your friends and colleagues, but be sure to not to change anything including the attribution. If you have any questions or if you need any additional help email eric@prleads.com or call 908-380-8564. You may also visit our website at http://www.articlemarketingexpert.com

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