Let’s talk about using e-zine articles to drive traffic to your offer.
You see, most people don’t really understand how to best use e-zine articles to promote a product or service, or their favorite affiliate program. They know they are supposed to write an article, include some kind of clever offer in the text or in their resource box, and convince editors to publish their article. But, there is a very clever way to use your article to promote like you’ve never seen before.
There are three simple steps to use e-zine articles.
1. Choose the product or service you want to promote. This one is kind of a no-brainer. It all begins with deciding what you want to promote. Is it your own product or service? How about your favorite affiliate program? I’m not talking about your newsletter- I’m talking about an actual offer you want to present that you’ll earn profits from when readers of your e-zine article make a purchase. Decide what it is that you want to promote through your free e-zine article.
2. Determine your “useful, but incomplete” approach. What I mean by that is simply this: You provide your reader with “useful” information (something they find of value and are able to actually apply) but make certain that it is “incomplete” in that they can better use the information by making a purchase. That’s “useful” but incomplete. And it works like a charm. The idea is to use your content to build up to your desired response. You provide the reader with content, and then you make an offer that allows them to fully utilize the content, gain insight from the content or maximize the content in some additional way.
Let me give you an example:
Let’s say I wanted to promote my e-Bay Shopping Genie site. This is a little program you install on your computer that drills down and finds you the lowest price on any item you do a search for in any of the main search engines like Yahoo or Google.
So, how could I use an ezine article to promote this service? By writing an article that gives all the benefits of shopping online using search engines versus going directly to the merchants site or to e-Bays site. And I just happen to know of a great service they can use to do just that. OK, so that’s an example of how to promote a SERVICE offer with your ezine article.
What about promoting some software or eBooks? Here is a example of that. I want to promote a great membership site that gives away software. I would write an e-zine article that covers the “basics” of building a membership site, or an article on how to profit from list building software. See how easy this is? That’s how it works. Determine what your “useful, but incomplete” approach will be, and then go to the next step.
3. Turn your approach into a tips list or tutorial.
Let me use my first example again. I decided that I would describe various benefits of using a search engine for online shopping. What kind of tips list or tutorial could I create?
“How to find the best deals when shopping online”
“10 Powerful tips to finding the lowest price on any item”
“7 Things you must know when using search engines to shop online”
That’s all you need to do. Determine your end result. Decide how to get there with your “useful, but incomplete” approach. With each new “idea” or “way” or “tip” or “step” or “strategy” that you share, you can further direct the reader towards realizing their need of your upcoming offer, and lay the foundation for them to accept the offer.
Now you just need to polish or proofread your e-zine article and get it out there to drive traffic!
