Article promotion is necessary for nearly every writer who
depends on advertising revenue from page views. While not all writers will
avail themselves of promotion options, there are a number of ways to promote
work including social networking and blogs. What is not always easy to
determine is how writers can use blogs for article promotion. There are
actually several ways, largely depending on what the writer intends to
accomplish and how aggressive they wish to promote their articles. Here
are a few ideas that can help writers use blogs for article promotion.
Creating a portfolio
One of the interesting methods of using a blog for article
promotion is to set up a portfolio style blog. There are several methods
to making this method effective as well including clever use of tags,
categories and "feature" functions that are prevalent in several blog
formats. Here are a couple of ideas for using a portfolio style blog for
article promotion:
- Using tags effectively - writers can include in their tags the title of the article, the name of the site where the original article is posted or they can create a category (such as online jobs, writing tips, health articles, etc.) to place the articles;
- Using titles creatively - writers can include the original title of the article for the main title and change the URL slightly (depending on the blog platform) to be more SEO friendly;
- Teasers only - writers can copy the first paragraph of the article as a teaser and follow that paragraph with text such as "read more about (title of article);
- Rewritten opening - writers can also create a brand new teaser paragraph by modifying the opening paragraph of their article. This may be more important if the first paragraph of the article provides too much detail.
Creating an article directory using a blog
An article directory can be very effective if used properly.
Writers can create a page with a description of a specific category of
articles (for instance holiday articles, medical articles, marketing
articles, etc.). Sub-pages containing links to all articles can then be
linked to the proper category. This method can be helpful if a blog is
attracting readers who are interested in numerous topics.
Creating guides
Some bloggers like to create specific guides about a single
topic. Articles can be linked within these guides to promote the articles
on their original site. Bloggers who are known for "how to" or
"hints" may find this type of article promotion on a blog is very
effective.
These are just a few of the opportunities that freelancers
can use when they are trying to determine how writers can use blogs for article
promotion. There are countless other methods that may be utilized as well.
Finding the right blog style for promoting a writers articles means identifying
the audience of the blog and using the articles appropriately for the audience.
