The two categories that I will focus on here are writing articles for backlinks and writing articles for immediate traffic generation.

Writing Article For Backlinks

When you write an article for submission to the article directories the bonus payoff comes when other webmasters and ezine publishers scrape your article from the directory and republish it with your author’s box anchor text links intact. You get the SEO benefit of the backlinks from the article directory itself and from all the other web sites that republish your article, although the latter may be a temporary benefit as Google culls duplicate content from its index. Ezine publishers usually email their content to their subscribers so you do not get a backlink but you can get traffic. I see claims for hundreds of visitors in a single day from a single article picked up by an ezine publisher but I have never experienced anything like that and tend to doubt the accuracy of those claims.

Ezinerticles.com is ahead of the pack by providing you, the author, with valuable statistical information about the number of views, the number of clicks, and the number of ezine publishers that have picked up your article for every one of your published articles.

The ezinearticle.com author’s statistics page gives you the kind of feedback you need to know which topics you write about actually generate enough interest to the outside world to actually get syndicated. I have found that the articles that get syndicated the most are all of the longish type for article directory type articles, 550 words or more, do not sell or promote any particular product or service, and contain some tidbit of information that has not already been plastered all over the net.

I would have to say that the traffic value of these more informative type articles is indirect and lies in how high they can push your targeted website page on the search engine results pages (SERPS).

These are the kinds of articles you write for Web 2.0 Article Marketing where the major keyword topic of the article is a sub-topic of your content feeder page and the article is rewritten several times to place on high PR content sharing sites. Quality is more important than quantity because you are looking for the link juice from an authoritative high PR site to boost your position in the SERPS.

Writing Articles For Immediate Traffic

Writing articles for traffic is a different animal than writing informative articles for backlinks. These articles tend to be shorter, probably 300 to 350 words, and read more like a long classified ad or a one-day-only-sale flier than an article. They need an attention getting title and be just informative enough to let the reader know that if he has a particular itch that he can scratch it right now by clicking on the link in the author’s box.

The only keywords you even want to think about for these kinds of articles are the ones that people will find by searching the article directory itself. Your goal is not to get the article ranked in Google, but to get it found on the article directory site, scanned by the reader, and clicked.

Traffic articles are copywriting, pure and simple. Get the reader’s attention and ask him to do something now. If you put that article on the back of a postcard would it get the attention of the reader sorting through his junk mail and aggravate his itch enough to make him want to scratch it?

If you want some headline or title ideas look at the covers of the popular magazines sold in the grocery checkout line. Those are exactly the kinds of titles that you want for your traffic articles.

If you need some copywriting ideas go to the sales page of the product or service you are selling and take them from there. Do a Google search on a relevant keyword phrase and look at the headlines and copy in the Adwords ads that show up on the top and along the right margin. If you have Gmail send yourself an email with the keyword phrase in the subject line and in the body of the email and see what kind of ads Google shows in the margin when you open that mail.

If you want to blast your traffic articles to 700 article directories you can use article submission software like Magic Article Submitter. Brad Callen has a free article submitter with about 100 directories. I would not do any blasting with the backlinks articles because you would dilute the PR juice from the authoritative sites, but with traffic articles you don’t care about link juice and it may increase the number of clicks you get.

I must admit I have been woefully behind the curve writing traffic articles. Now that I think of them as pure copywriting I hope to improve my skill writing them. I will report on my progress. Here is the first installment: Writing Traffic Articles. After all, the subtitle of this blog is “Some things I’ve learned about internet marketing that may be useful.”

When your prospect reads your ad, you want to make sure he believes any claims you make about your product or service. Because if there’s any doubt in his mind, he won’t bite, no matter how sweet the deal. In fact, the “too good to be true” mentality will virtually guarantee a lost sale…even if it is all true.

So what can you do to increase the perception of believability? Because after all, it’s the perception you need to address up front. But of course you also must make sure your copy is accurate and truthful.

Here are some tried and tested methods that will help:

• If you’re dealing with existing customers who already know you deliver as promised, emphasize that trust. Don’t leave it up to them to figure it out. Make them stop, cock their heads, and say, “Oh, yeah. The ABC Company has never done me wrong before. I can trust them.”

• Include testimonials of satisfied customers. Be sure to put full names and locations, where possible. Remember, “A.S.” is a lot less believable than “Andy Sherman, Voorhees, NJ.” If you can also include a picture of the customer and/or a professional title, that’s even better. It doesn’t matter that your testimonials aren’t from somebody famous or that your prospect does not know these people personally. If you have enough compelling testimonials, and they’re believable, you’re much better off than not including them at all.

• Pepper your copy with facts and research findings to support your claims. Be sure to credit all sources, even if the fact is common knowledge, because a neutral source goes a long way towards credibility.

• For a direct mail letter or certain space ads where the copy is in the form of a letter from a specific individual, including a picture of that person helps. But unlike “traditional” real estate letters and other similar ads, I’d put the picture at the end near your signature, or midway through the copy, rather than at the
top where it will detract from your headline. And…if your sales letter is from a specific individual, be sure to include his credentials to establish him as an expert in his field (relating to your product or service, of course).

• If applicable, cite any awards or third-party reviews the product or service has received.

• If you’ve sold a lot of widgets, tell them. It’s the old “10 million people can’t be wrong” adage (they can be, but your prospect will likely take your side on the matter).

• Include a GREAT return policy and stand by it! This is just good business policy. Many times, offering a double refund guarantee for certain products will result in higher profits. Yes, you’ll dish out more refunds, but if you sell three times as many widgets as before, and only have to refund twice as much as
before, it may be worth it, depending on your offer and return on investment. Crunch the numbers and see what makes sense. More importantly, test! Make them think, “Gee, they wouldn’t be so generous with returns if they didn’t stand behind their product!”

• If you can swing it, adding a celebrity endorsement will always help to establish credibility. Heck, if ‘ol honest Abe Lincoln recommended your product and backs up your claims, it must be true! Ok, you get the idea, though.

• When it makes sense, use 3rd party testimonials. What are 3rd party testimonials? Here’s some examples from some Web site copy I wrote when there weren’t many customer testimonials available yet:

“Spyware, without question, is on an exponential rise over the last six months.”
- Alfred Huger, Senior Director of Engineering,
Symantec Security Response (maker of Norton
security software)

“Simply clicking on a banner ad can install spyware.”
- Dave Methvin, Chief Technology Officer, PC Pitstop

“A deployment method is to “trick users into consenting to a software download they think they absolutely need”
- Paul Bryan, Director, Security And Technology Unit,
Microsoft

Do you see what I did?

I took quotes from experts in their respective fields and turned them to my side. But…be sure to get their consent or permission from the copyright holder if there’s ever any question about copyrighted materials as your source.

Note that I also pushed an emotional hot button: fear.

It’s been proven that people will generally do more to avoid pain than to obtain pleasure. So why not use that tidbit of info to your advantage?

• Reveal a flaw about your product. This helps alleviate the “too good to be true” syndrome. You reveal a flaw that isn’t really a flaw. Or reveal a flaw that is minor, just to show that you’re being “up front” about your product’s shortcomings.

Example:

“You’re probably thinking right now that this tennis racket is a miracle worker—and it is. But I must tell you that it has one little…shortcoming. My racket takes about 2 weeks to get used to. In fact, when you first start using it, your game will actually get worse. But if you can just ride it out, you’ll see a tremendous improvement in your volleys, net play, serves, …”

And so on.

There’s a tendency to think, with all of the ads that we are bombarded with today that every advertiser is always putting his best foot forward, so to speak. And I think that line of reasoning is accurate, to a point.

But isn’t it refreshing when someone stands out from the crowd and is honest? In other words, your reader will start to subconsciously believe that you are revealing all of the flaws, even though your best foot still stands forward.

• Use “lift notes.” These are a brief note or letter from a person of authority. Not necessary a celebrity, although that can add credibility, too. A person of authority is someone well recognized in their field (which is related to your product) that they are qualified to talk about. Lift notes may be distributed as
inserts, a separate page altogether, or even as part of the copy itself. As always, test!

• If you are limiting the offer with a deadline “order by” date, be sure the deadline is real and does not change. Deadline dates that change every day are sure to reduce credibility. The prospect will suspect, “if his deadline date keeps changing, he’s not telling the truth about it…I wonder what else he’s not
telling the truth about.”

• Avoid baseless “hype.” I discussed that in my previous tip.

Enough said.

What are features? They are descriptions of what qualities a product possesses.

• The XYZ car delivers 55 miles per gallon in the city.
• Our ladder’s frame is made from a lightweight durable steel alloy.
• Our glue is protected by a patent.
• This database has a built-in data-mining system.

And what are benefits? They are what those features mean to your prospects.

• You’ll save money on gas and cut down on environmental pollutants when you use our energy saving high-performance hybrid car. Plus, you’ll feel the extra oomph when you’re passing cars, courtesy of the efficient electric motor, which they don’t have!
• Lightweight durable steel-alloy frame means you’ll be able to take it with you with ease, and use it in places most other ladders can’t go, while still supporting up to 800 pounds. No more backaches lugging around that heavy ladder. And it’ll last for 150 years, so you’ll never need to buy another ladder again!
• Patent-protected glue ensures you can use it on wood, plastic, metal, ceramic, glass, and tile…without messy cleanup and without ever having to re-glue it again—guaranteed!
• You can instantly see the “big picture” hidden in your data, and pull the most arcane statistics on demand. Watch your business do a “180” in no time flat, when you instantly know why it’s failing in the first place! It’s all done with our built-in datamining system that’s so easy to use, my twelve year-old son used it successfully right out of the box.

I just made up those examples, but I think you understand my point. By the way, did you notice in the list of features where I wrote “steel alloy?” But in the benefits I wrote “steel-alloy” (with a hyphen). Not sure off-hand which one is correct, but I know which one I’d use.

Here’s why: you are not writing to impress your English teacher or win any awards. The only award you’re after is your copy beating the
control (control being the best-selling copy so far), so take some liberty in grammar, punctuation, and sentence structure. You want it to be read and acted upon, not read and admired!

But—back to benefits…

If you were selling an expensive watch, you wouldn’t tell your reader that the face is 2 inches in diameter and the band is made of leather.

You show him how the extra-large face will tell him the time at a glance. No sir! He won’t have to squint and look foolish to everyone around him trying to read this magnificent timepiece. And how about the way he’ll project success and charisma when he wears the beautiful gold watch with its handcrafted custom leather band? How his lover will find him irresistible when he’s all dressed up to go out, wearing the watch. Or how the watch’s status and beauty will attract the ladies.

Incidentally, did you notice how I brought up not squinting as a benefit? Does that sound like a silly benefit? Not if you are selling to affluent baby boomers suffering from degrading vision. They probably hate it when someone they’re trying to impress sees them squint in order to read something. It’s all part of their inner desire, which you need to discover. And which even they may not know about. That is, until you show them a better way.

The point is to address the benefits of the product, not its features. And when you do that, you’re focusing on your reader and his interests, his desires. The trick is to highlight those specific benefits (and word them correctly) that push your reader’s emotional hot buttons.

How do you do that? Read on!

Push Their Emotional Hot Buttons (Linked when live)

When a prospect reads your ad, letter, brochure, etc., the one thing he will be wondering from the start is: “what’s in it for me?”

And if your copy doesn’t tell him, he will click away than he can read the headline or lead.

A lot of advertisers make this mistake. They focus on them as a company. How long they’ve been in business, who their biggest customers are, how they’ve spent ten years of research and millions of dollars on developing this product, blah, blah.

Actually, those points are important. But they should be expressed in a way that matters to your potential customer. Remember, once he’s thrown it in the garbage, the sale is lost!

When writing your copy, it helps to think of it as writing a letter to an old friend. In fact, I often picture a friend of mine who most closely fits my prospect’s profile. What would I say to convince this friend to try my product? How would I target my friend’s objections and beliefs to help my cause?

When you’re writing to a friend, you’ll use the pronouns “I” and “you.” When trying to convince your friend, you might say: “Look, I know you think you’ve tried every widget out there. But you should know that…”

And it goes beyond just writing in the second person. That is, addressing your prospect as “you” within the copy. The fact of the matter is there are many successful ads that weren’t written in the second person. Some are written in the first person perspective, where the writer uses “I.” Other times the third person is used, with “she,” “he,” and “them.”

And even if you do write in the second person, it doesn’t necessarily mean your copy is about them.

For example:

“As a real estate agent, you can take comfort in the fact that I’ve sold over 10,000 homes and mastered the tricks of the trade” Although you’re writing in the second person, you’re really still focusing on yourself.

So how can you focus on them? Glad you asked. One way is to…

Emphasize Benefits, Not Features