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Article Marketing & Book Promotion
by Mark Hyman

Although Mark Hyman had a strong, multi-faceted marketing and sales plan in place, the addition of an article marketing strategy helped him in his quest to push his book, UltraMetabolism – The Simple Plan For Automatic Weight Loss to the #2 spot of the NY Times bestseller list.

By including a targeted article marketing program into your marketing plan, you can achieve book marketing success. Doing this effectively requires planning and perfect execution from beginning to end.

Step 1: Create an Article That Grabs Readers Interest.

One of the most important parts of the article is the title. Remember, the first 3-4 words of your article title have the most weight with Google and other search engines. The point of the title is to intrigue your audience to actually sit down and read the article. You may even want to offer an outrageous proposition that you can fulfill within your article body as we have with the title of this article.

The articles that get the best results are the ones that provide unique, high quality content that solve at least one piece of a problem puzzle. However, to convert readers to buyers, you must not give the reader all of the answers to solve a particular problem. Instead you want to tease them with some of the how and top it off with why it’s important.

Step 2: Turn Readers into Prospects with a Strong Call for Action and an Offer They Can’t Refuse.

You want to encapsulate the essence of what makes you and your offering unique. This is your Unique Selling Proposition. Do this by chiseling away the information that no one cares about from your golden nuggets. Refine them into gleaming insights. Hammer them into logical sequence. 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 click and go to your website than skip.

If you add a free bonus offer, you will make it even easier for readers to click to your website. You can offer a sneak preview of your book, a free ezine subscription, or a free special bonus report that further enhances your credibility as the expert.

Step 3: Maintain Reader Interest and Create a Squeeze Page.

Think of your article as a sales funnel. Your article title, content, bio box and the link you send your readers to should all flow right into each other. Including a link to the main page only distracts and frustrates readers. You will lose that sale forever.

When you promote your book in your bio box, then take them to a squeeze page within your site that convinces people why they should either buy the book or why they should subscribe.

Step 4: Target Your Audience with Ezines and Websites That Make a Difference.

You need to find websites that are highly visited and ezines that are the most read, but more importantly, you want to focus on websites and ezine publishers within your specific niche that have strong emotional connections to their audiences. Through our research for Mark Hyman, we found a popular About.com editor. About.com is among the top 50 sites on the net today. This submission resulted in over 1,500 opt-in and new sales in one day, not counting the successes from other credible websites.

Step 5: Submit Your Article and Build Your Links and Traffic.

Now is the time to perform the tiring, boring and tedious task of submitting your articles. But, as you completing this process, know that there is light at the end of the tunnel. By using these article marketing strategies, you can build a steady stream of warm ready-to-buy visitors and substantially increase your book sales.

By including article marketing into your multi-faceted marketing and sales plan, you too can achieve success in marketing your book. You will then only be limited by your imagination and your time. The question is, “What is your destination?”

Article marketing expert and award-winning public relations practitioner, Eric Gruber helped promote Mark Hyman’s book to the top of the New York Times bestseller list. For a free consultation on how to increase your book sales using today’s hottest Internet marketing strategies, email Eric at Eric@prleads.com or go to http://www.prleads.com/article.htm to have Eric manage your article marketing campaign.

Editor's Note: The above article is itself an example of article marketing, in this case to sell a service rather than a book. It had to be edited. Even then, it's still a little verbose and flowery for my tastes and doesn't give as many details as I would like in an article. But it does provide inspirational examples. I know authors and information marketers who have built multi-million dollar businesses using this technique as their major tool.

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Here are two free ways to syndicate your articles and get them featured on Google News, but through the back door:

First, log on to American Chronicle at http://www.americanchronicle.com/ AMchronDefault.asp and submit your article.

Second, submit articles to http://www.PRLeap.com. You should be submitting your articles and press releases to as many free submission sites as possible.

— Jeniffer Thompson of Monkey C Media, http://www.monkeycmedia.com

Free Articles Online

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Article Marketer — This proven article distribution system allows you to submit to thousands of publishers with one click. Sign up now and get free custom-written articles just for you so you can get started fast. $49.99 per quarter to syndicate your articles. Or a lifetime subscription for $400. Your free submission goes to 12,988 publishers on 30 sites. Paid distribution goes to almost 68,000 publishers on 3,886 sites.

Complete A-Z Article System — This downloadable e-book by Eric Gruber is a do-it-yourself guide to working with article directories, ezines, and others to publish free articles that will bring your website and book free publicity, more traffic, and increased sales. Cost: $97.

How To Make Your Ads, Sales Letters, And Websites Sell Like Crazy — The title of this ebook by Mark Hendricks tells you exactly what you are getting. But the deluxe package includes AutoResponder Magic, Million Dollar Emails, Email Marketing Secrets, 1001 Ways to Make Money on the Net, Web Design Magic, and ten other valuable ebooks to help you sell more books via your website. While dated by a few years yet still relevant, this is the bargain of Internet marketing programs. Cost: $57.

Instant Article Submitter — This PC software tool by Rod Beckwith and Jeff Alderson allows you to submit to over 200 online article directories in one easy click. You can submit your articles without having to visit each article directory manually. Article submissions allow you to get more free website traffic, improve your search engine ranking, and make more sales. Each time you open the software, it updates with the latest directories. You can also suggest new directories for the service. Also includes Instant Article Creator, which walks you through writing great articles, and Speed Article Writing, a 21-page guide to writing articles fast. Cost: $97 with no recurring charges.

“I just started using a software [note that she didn't say which software or service she was using] that distributes articles one has written and I've had really good results hitting 35 of the top 50 slots for my keywords on Google.... It's all one big experiment and I won't know for about 3-6 weeks what the real results are like, because I'm not sure how long those articles will stay at the top of Google or how many will be reprinted on blogs about adoption or scrapbooking.” — Lisa Copen, author, Adoption Scrapbook Album

PR Leads Article Marketing Publicity Program — This service submits your articles to hundreds of online article directories, ezines, and other users of articles. A great way to promote your book online. You can do it yourself (using the resources at http://www.bookmarket.com/onlinearticles.htm or by following their Complete A to Z Article System) or by paying them to automate the process for you. Their Serious Article Marketing Publicity Program (14 articles over 12 months) costs $5,000. Their Starter Article Marketing Publicity Program (7 articles over 6 months) costs $2,500. Their Test the Waters Package costs $500 for 1 article.

Press Equalizer — This PC software tool by Rod Beckwith and Jeff Alderson allows you to quickly and easily syndicate your press releases to dozens of top online PR directories and free press release distribution services. You could manually submit to dozens of such services by using the ones listed at http://www.bookmarket.com/onlinepr.htm or you can let this software do it for you in minutes. Cost: $97.

17 Ways to Build a Responsive and Profitable List — This special report and audio download from Mark Hendricks will help you build an email list of customers and potential customers. Learn about the right kind of freebies to give away to get people to sign up for your list, how to instantly position yourself as an expert to listen to, the three special ingredients you'll need to include to build your relationship with your customers and subscribers, and much more. Cost: $67.

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