Finding Work Through Article Marketing.


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“Never Write for Free!” That’s the battlecry most freelance writers shout from the rooftops to other writers. It devalues your work, they say. It lowers the average price other writers can ask for their work. And for the most part I agree. Most everyone makes an exception for pro bono work, if it is a worthwhile, financially strapped organization.

But there is one case where I advocate writing for free: article marketing through submission sites. Places like EzineArticles.com and GoArticles.com. Why the apparent hypocrisy?

Because you’re not really writing for free. You’re writing for yourself. Or, more accurately, for your business.

By writing articles pertinent to the niches you are going after, you are establishing yourself as an expert in your potential client’s eyes. At the same time, you are boosting your search engine rankings by providing links back to your site.

Just remember, you must be producing informative articles with useful information of some sort, not thinly-veiled sales sheets for your copywriting services. The difference between the two is a fine line, but I think you can tell the difference between when you are writing to educate and when you’re writing to sell.

Article Marketing–or Article PR as it is sometimes called–isn’t the same as writing an article for someone else without pay, just for clips. This is a business function you undertake to establish yourself as an expert in a particular field. If you were to write a 200-500 word article and try to sell it…let’s say it takes you an hour. Even if you manage to sell it at 10 cents per word, that’s $50. And all you’d get is a byline. Maybe a shor general bio.

But as a submission article, you get a resource box where you can send them to your website…even to a specific page to capitalize on the interest generated by your article. If you get two tiny two-hour jobs at an hourly rate of $50, then that article just made you $200.

It’s not writing for free…it’s free PR. Take advantage of it.

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