Marketing your business and your website in today’s economy is as crucial as it has ever been. With that said, there are numerous ways to get results from any number of marketing methods. One technique that can often be overlooked is the pursuit of article marketing.
Article marketing consists of writing informative and helpful articles relating to your area of expertise in an effort to educate prospective customers and those interested in what you have to offer. By publishing this kind of information you accomplish two things:
- You earn consumer trust
- You drive direct traffic to your website from highly targeted, engaged readers
As with any type of marketing, there are simple things that you can do to positively impact the success you achieve from your article marketing efforts. Here are a few proofreading tips to remember when you begin to submit your articles to various publishing sites:
Don’t Just Write and Publish
Many of us fall into the trap of quickly jotting down what we think is useful and quickly run to get it submitted. Don’t be hasty. Write your article, give it a proofread and then sleep on it. Read it again in the morning and determine if the original intent of your article is still intact. Ask yourself if it gets your point across in the same fashion it did when you originally started to type. I’ve found that a good night’s rest will usually clear my mind and allow me a fresh proofread at a later time. I’ve been known to re-write complete sections of my articles because I wasn’t happy with the structure after I gave my mind time to cool down.
Read Backwards & Find Typos
Just like your English teacher taught you in the 7th grade, a great technique for finding your typos is to read your article backwards. Reading from the end-up forces you to focus on just the words and not the sentences. By examining every word individually this way, you negate the subconscious tendency to pass over words because you are simply skimming thoughts and ideas (and not really reading word for word).
Read Your Article Out Loud
Sounds silly, doesn’t it? But imagine yourself having to stand in front of your audience and read your article verbatim without mistakes. Once again, this practice forces you to concentrate on the written words and minimizes the potential for typos or incomplete ideas.
Show It To A Friend
If you’ve got a trusted friend or partner, preferably someone with excellent proofreading skill, have them give your article a once-over. You’ll be amazed how often something that seems perfectly clear to you doesn’t translate to another reader the way you intended. This practice will often lead to suggestions for improvement or open your eyes to ways you might better your original content.
When In Doubt, Use A Spell Checker
It probably goes without saying, but many word processing programs come with a built in spelling and grammar tool. Use it! Especially if you have a tendency to use any form of slang, these tools will guide you with suggestions for improvement. Better yet, these are the same principles of good writing that the editors at the article submission sites will be using to review your works for inclusion. If you aren’t using proper grammar, spelling or writing form, your articles will most likely be rejected with no hope of going live on the internet.
Now that I’ve given you a few tips on how to improve your articles before submission, I’ll leave you with a teaser. When it comes time to submit your article to the various publishing sites, make sure you know how to properly insert a link to your website using anchor text and a “non-sales” approach. If you’d like to talk in more detail about how this is done, I would love to speak with you!
Happy marketing… -DAVID