Top 5 Tips to Write Persuasive Articles

Add a Persuasive Edge to Your Articles

Persuasion drives action and growth. To be persuasive is to have the ability to persuade or convince someone to do or believe something through reasoning or temptation. To write persuasively, the author convinces the reader to perform an action by presenting evidence that supports an opinion.

Why You Should Be Persuasive

Readers come to your articles in search of facts, tips, and solutions to help them reach their goals - but they still expect to be entertained, engaged, motivated, and informed. Essentially, you want your reader to finish your article and arrive at your Resource Box thinking: "Okay, you've convinced me. So, what's next?"

Top 5 Tips to Writing Persuasive Articles

Use these tips to give your articles and your calls-to-action a persuasive and engaging edge to convince readers!

1. Don't Keep Readers Waiting

Teasers (i.e., the reader has to click away to gain the full benefit they were promised) are not persuasive; they're irritating and untrustworthy. Be up front in your article's title, summary, and introduction. In the article, deliver on everything you promised elsewhere and treat your Resource Box's call-to-action and links as the next logical step in your reader's search.

2. Provide Evidence That Supports Your Topic

What is true and valid is often the most persuasive. Back up your claims by showing your readers facts, data, etc. you've gathered in your niche. Should you quote other sources to support your topic, limit quotations to no more than 5 lines (total) of properly cited content.

3. Lead With Originality Every Time

Readers crave new, top-of-the-line information that gives them value. Whoever delivers fresh, unrepeated information has a competitive edge because of this value. Be the leading expert known for value: Provide 100% original information 100% of the time.

4. Be Personal Without Giving Away TMI

Find the perfect balance between formal and informal writing by avoiding stuffy formalities where it counts, but know when a personal anecdote is and isn't appropriate. The key is to be relatable by placing yourself in the piece and providing information that doesn't convey TMI (Too Much Information).

5. Edit to Be Specific, Direct, and Persuasive

Write using active voice (subject performs action) to be direct and concise. Rigorously edit your articles to remove any signs of verbiage; check for the following:

• Remove needless words (e.g., "the reason for this is" = "because")
• Use emphatic words at the end of a sentence to drive the point home
• Add emotive language (e.g., health, anger, joy, frustration, passion, urgency, etc.)
• Stress nouns and verbs which are more powerful than adjectives and adverbs

Use these tips to add a persuasive edge to your articles and convince readers to act!

Predict Quality Keywords to Become a Trailblazer

Become a Trailblazer

Forerunners of their niche, a trailblazer is a pioneer or an innovator who precedes the development of someone or something.

How can you become a trailblazer? Nurture your foresight by predicting the next big keyword event in your niche!

Predicting Keyword Events

A keyword event can be loosely described as a spike in a particular keyword search. This is largely due to seasons, holidays, current events, or evolving trends.

Predicting a keyword event means you choose the keywords before they become popular to get ahead of your competition and get a running start in search engine rankings.

By carefully selecting keywords before they become popular and organically integrating those keywords into your articles, you can rank higher because there is little or no competition. After the trend hits the mainstream, those keywords will become popular and your ranking will stay high because you've established yourself as the leading authority - a trailblazer. Your article has been out there for weeks or months before your competitors even get started.

How to Predict Keywords

Predicting keyword events is more than staring into a crystal ball. First, you have to stay on top of trends in your niche to keep afloat. You can't lead if you can't keep up. Next, carefully consider and select new keywords and keyword phrases based on evolving trends in your niche as well as your audience's interests.

Here's how to strategically predict keyword events:

1. Empty the Toolbox: When predicting keywords, avoid keyword selection tools (like Google AdWords). If these keywords are being provided to you, they're being provided to others as well. Try to get in when there is a dip (before a keyword is in demand) by using Google Trends to gauge popularity of a keyword over time.
    
2. Stay on Top of the News: Subscribe to a wide variety of news outlets. Wherever your audience goes, you should go too. For instance, how does the economy, finance, etc., impact your niche? Should your audience be concerned about trends in other countries? What's the latest international news in your niche? Ask questions. Find answers.
    
3. Tune in to Your Audience: If your audience wants something (e.g., answers, solutions, products, services, etc.), someone is going to eventually deliver it. What is your audience asking? Pull keywords from their questions and provide answers.
    
4. Spot Buzzwords: Buzzwords are words or phrases that tend to become trendy or fashionable in a specific niche. If you can spot buzzwords and use them before they're hot (i.e., either amplify a buzzword you've seen or create a term that's buzz-worthy), you'll capitalize on the traffic wave as they start to become more widely used.
    
5. Capture a Wide Audience: Target both long and short-tail keywords for the trend. As the trend begins, search users may not know exactly what they're looking for yet and benefit from short-tail keywords. As the trend heats up, your audience will branch out to more specific queries and your long-tail keywords will garner more interest.

Ensure you have done your research and your keyword predictions have potential to trend. It may take trial and error to see which of your predictions hit or miss, but you can hone your keyword prediction skills over time. In doing so, you can become a trailblazer.

Have a question or comment about predicting keywords? Click here to visit this post online and join the discussion!

http://blog.ezinearticles.com/2012/10/predict-quality-keywords-to-become-a-trailblazer.html

Tips on How to Advertise With Facebook

Social networking sites are now invaded by all types of internet marketing applied by many kinds of businesses and companies. Most of them succeed and many more are following. Modern technology hit the fast mode years ago and the changes are very rapid. In order to know how to advertise with Facebook, knowledge is not only the key. Even experts take time to analyze the latest strategy when advertising with any social network.

Visibility: This is the number one reason that will lead to success when a company is trying to learn how to advertise with Facebook. Creating an impressive profile of the business, displaying all the services, products, history and achievements, generating hundreds of followers, and managing online interactions are among the list of a successful way to advertise with Facebook. It is an endless introduction of the company to all viewers to keep up the right amount of popularity to increase credibility.

Consistency: After achieving hundreds to thousands of Likes, the real marketing begins. The most important step on how to advertise with Facebook is to capture attention of all the followers to revisit the page and actually read contents and view pictures and main website. It is very necessary to win these followers and convert them into buying clients. Continuous interaction will create a constant relationship that will win loyal customers.

Credibility: To leave the right kind of impression to every person who visited the page of the company is a successful marketing but the finished stage is when that person made the buying decision. Catch the followers' patronage by investing on advertisement for the page. Provide budget on posting the logo and other images of the company to as many pages as possible. A company that spends credit on knowing their clients shows dedication and strong will. Remember, these pages and websites represents the company and no one would like to see it as cheap and under-developed.

Creativity: Marketing strategies give all the questions on how to advertise with Facebook. It is the most challenging and fun part of advertisement - marketing. Create gimmicks like promos, discounts, events, forums, trivia, sale, etc. to continuously stay connected with the potential customers. This is the part where most advertisements failed. It is very important to keep up good communication with customers to produce steady profit.

Don't just give information about the company, its products and services but offer help to people who will give them benefit aside from buying and acquiring the products and services. The proper way to solve the how to advertise with Facebook is by using Facebook as the most important tool to extend the services to the people.

Prepare countless of good ideas, bottomless passion, and endless will to make connection with the people, with the target market, and with the previous customers. Social networks created to bring people closer and cut the delay of time. Take advantage and do it right on solving how to advertise with Facebook and it will only bring you great success.

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/6643581

Blogging for Moms

There used to be a thought that all, or most, bloggers are men. In fact, that is not true. There are literally millions of bloggers out there who are not only women, but moms. Mothers are some of the most prolific bloggers because a lot of them either work from home, have taken maternity leave, or are stay at home moms. They have the time and energy necessary to blog every day, like successful bloggers should. Sometimes, though, even mommies run out of things to write about. With that in mind, I wanted to share a few ideas for blog post topics. Whether you are blogging for moms or you are a mommy blogger, these tips and topics can equally apply. 

Children
Well, duh, kids are going to be the first thing that moms blog about and want to read about. But what about kids? What do they want to know? What do you want to write about? Here are some ideas:

1. Real Life Stories – A lot of mommy bloggers start out by writing their own life stories. Their birth experiences, their children’s habits, their day to day lives full of adventure, boredom, and cleaning. Real life stories are so popular because everyone is unique. We can all learn from each other and grow together as we experience the same big issues in our own individual ways. There is just something compelling about true stories that make them excellent for blog posts.

2. Health Issues – Health is always a big thing with moms. From colds and allergies to autism and Down Syndrome, moms love to talk and read about health issues, how they can be treated, what to expect, and what they can do to help their children. Even things like immunizations and check-ups make for great blog posts.

3. Sleep –One thing that moms everywhere do not get enough of is sleep! Kids universally seem to have issues with going to sleep on time, getting up on time, and getting enough sleep. New parents especially seem to have trouble with adjusting to a baby’s sleep schedule.

4. Food –Feeding your child is just as important to their heath as getting them to the doctor. Moms want to make sure their children have the proper nutrition and balanced meals to help them grow into string, healthy adults. From lunch and snack ideas to dinner recipes and ways to cut sugar from dessert, food is a huge blog post market.

5. Childcare – Taking care of children is the number one priority for moms. Some stay at home, some have partners who do, some choose daycare or preschool, some have kids already in school, and some have nannies. Talking about what childcare is safest, most cost efficient and best for their child can be a touchy subject, but makes for great blog posts.

6. Learning –Teaching kids their ABCs and 123s is something that all parents want to hear about. The basic learning that children do before they get in school or during summer break makes for great blog post fodder. Even money skills, listening skills and reading can be covered in this extensive arena.

7. School – Education is a big part of children’s lives, and moms want to know they are getting the best schooling they can. From teachers to homework recess to math class, blog topics about education can cover a wide array of subjects. Some moms are even homeschool teachers themselves and need resources and ideas for their classes.

8. Fun –It is all fun and games here, with crafts, art projects, learning fun, building and much more. You can tell moms how to create mess free crafts, how to build their own tree houses, how to make a fort out of blankets, twenty five uses for cardboard boxes, and more. Whatever you did as a child or you do with your children for fun is open to write about.

9. Sports –Kid’s sports can get a little competitive, but they do provide a great learning experience. From volleyball and soccer to lacrosse and basketball, kids are in a wide variety of sports and competitions. Help moms to know what is best, what is safest, what teaches kids lessons in teamwork, and where to get supplies on the cheap.

10. Stages – From infant to toddler, kid to teen, moms need to know what to expect. Chores and learning, coordination and health all depend on the child’s level or growth and development. The stages of childhood are very important to moms and make for a great time-line based blog post or post series.

Time
Speaking of time, we all know that there is never enough of it. This is especially true for moms. Helping a mom to use her time better and get more done is a great idea for blog posts. Here are some things you could write about:

1. Organization – Staying or getting organized is the number one time saver for anyone. In an office or at home, you can waste a lot of time searching for things if you do not stay organized. Help moms out by offering tips on how to separate items, how to decorate for maximum organizational space, what to organize first, and more. Even children can be taught to keep their toys, games, and books picked up and put away if the organizational system is easy for them to understand, saving mom a lot of time.

2. Strategy – There always needs to be thinking going on when you are trying to keep a lot of things going at the same time. Saving time, for instance, driving kids to and from activities can be as simple as agreeing to carpool home with a neighbor or schedule events so that they take place at the same time and close to each other. A lot of a mom’s day is spent in the car, so make the drive count.

3. Saying No – Sometimes time management is as easy as telling someone no. Moms seem to have a hard time setting up firm boundaries, with their kids and with others. Help moms know it is okay to say no when you do not have time, when you feel overwhelmed, or even if you just do not want to do it. That does not make you bad or selfish, it makes you sane!

4. Personal Time – Setting aside me time is hard for moms. Their children always seem to need them, their spouses need attention, the house is dirty and the pets are hungry. Setting aside some personal time is often pushed away and forgotten, but it is very important that moms get some time for themselves or they will get burnt out. Five minute relaxation tips, short getaways, and mini vacation ideas make for great blog posts.

5. Preparation – Always be prepared might be the Boy Scout’s motto, but it works for moms too. The more you can get done ahead of time, the less stress you will be when the big event occurs. From making school lunches the night before to freezing meals for healthy weekend eating options, being prepared is a great time saver and a subject for many blog posts.

Some other things you can also talk about are saving money, diet, and recipes for feeding your family. Healthy, affordable meal ideas are always big and do well as blog posts. With the harsh economy and having to stretch everything, saving money is also a popular topic. Diet and fitness is also a big one, since moms want to stay healthy and able to take care of their families. Think about what you would want to read, what you use every day, and what tricks you have learned to come up with more great, creative blog posts that moms will love!

Online Banner Advertising

Online banner advertisements are rectangular advertisements which appear on websites and vary a lot in the way they look and what they are about. But they all share the same common objective to encourage a viewer to click on the ad and then be taken to the advertisers website or squeeze page.

Banner ads are available in many different sizes and are measured in 'pixels'. A pixel is the smallest unit of colour that makes up images on a computer screen. Popular sizes are long banners that run horizontally across the page (full banner at 486 x 60 pixels), large square box banners normally located at the side of the page (250 x 250 pixels) and button banners, normally with several grouped together (125 x 125 pixels).

The size of ad banner you choose fro your work from home online business is dependent on your budget, the position of the banner in the website, the amount of traffic to the website and how long the banner will be online.

What Makes a Banner Ad Effective?

As with all advertising, an effective banner ad is the product of a number of different elements.

Firstly, your banner ad must be congruent with the website. In other words, if your work from home online business is about helping people to make money online it is doubtful that you will have much response if you place your banner on a website about dog training.

The objective of the banner ad is to 'sell the click'. Make sure that your message is about a want, desire or concern about your product or service, so that viewers are encouraged to click on the ad to find out more. Ideally, you want to aim at receiving one to five leads per day from a banner advertisement.

Do not use loads of busy graphics and, although this sounds odd, do not try to sell - use your message as a solution to a problem. For example, if your work from home online business is about weight loss you could say something like "If you want to loose weight but can't - click here for the proven method that has helped thousands of people".

Link the ad to a squeeze page with an opt-in form that provides a little more information and encourages the viewer to submit their name and email so that they can get even more information about your product or services. Ideally this information should be provided free of charge. Then, when they enter their details, they will be on your list and your auto responder emails will do the rest.

You need to establish a relationship with your customer before they will buy from you.

A few other tips include, putting your banner ads at the top of the page, rather than farther down and ensuring that the website that you are adverting on receives sufficient traffic. If your home online business is aimed at a competitive market, such as the make money online market, then I would recommend that you consider websites that receive more than 10,000 visitors per month.

You can check the traffic on websites at a number of different online sources.

How to create an online banner ad

Once you have chose a website on which to advertise for your work from home online business, you will have to supply the artwork for the banner. This is normally supplied via an upload to a link that that website owner will provide you. Often, your affiliate partner or merchant for your home online business will have ready made banner artwork for you to upload to your chosen website. All you have to do is supply the link to where the viewer will go when they click on your ad.

There are also several free online banner creators where you can create your own ad. You can also outsource the creation of your banner graphics. There are many online resources available.

How to book an online banner ad

Most websites will have an area where it will provide details of the costs to advertise on their website. If not, you can contact the website owner direct and ask for details.

To save contacting loads of different websites to find out their rates and statistics, there are several 'broker websites' who provide all the information for you. It can save time as these websites provide all the info on costs for a huge variety of different websites.

The cost of banner ads is calculated in two ways. One is for a set period of time (normally 30 days) and the other is for the number if impressions (ie, how often the ad is shown). If you are just starting out with your home online business, I would recommend that you opt for a set period of time. This way you know exactly how much you are spending over what period of time.

Does online banner advertising work?

Some web 'experts' say that banner advertising is not effective and some say that it is a very successful way to drive traffic to your website.

As mentioned before, online banner advertising is like any other type of advertising. You must ensure that your banner gets the attention of your target audience and creates interest in your product or service. The ad must encourage the viewer to want to find out more and thus take action by clicking on your ad.

If your banner ad has got somebody to click on it, then it has done its job. It is then the job of your squeeze page or the website page to where you have sent the viewer to do its job. And that is a whole other story.

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Jon_Allo

How to Use Your Anchor Text to Your Advantage

Successful Strategies Begin with the Reader

HTML and link building are hot items on everyone's search engine optimization list, which makes anchor text absolutely sizzling. Why?

Search engines use anchor text as a key indicator of relevance, user experience, and the website's authority in order to determine how the page is ranked. Expert Authors and webmasters looking for a quick boost may misinterpret this information by unnaturally repeating the same anchor text without considering relevance or user experience.

Whether it's anchor text (or any other HTML items), you must first ask yourself:

Does it benefit the reader?

Everything you do or don't do should be for your audience. Sporadically inserting bolded keywords and anchor text because you hope it will help you boost your rank is poor quality and not for the benefit of your audience. However, if you choose to use HTML to help the reader easily skim for what they need, such as bolded headers or a relevant link with natural anchor text in your Resource Box, then you're talking natural SEO language. Always aim to benefit your audience.

In addition to benefit, relevance determines the "natural" order and "evolution" of the Internet, which makes it absolutely crucial to link building. Authenticity, quality, and transparency - whether it's in articles, videos, products or even website navigation - will always win over cheap SEO tricks. These elements are critical to the power that relevance in the natural hands of humans can achieve. Coordinated with reader-benefited content, relevant anchor text and links will enhance your efforts.

While that's fresh on your mind, let's discuss anchor text more in-depth and a few best practices.

What is anchor text?

Anchor text is the link label or link title that is visible and clickable in a hyperlink.

<a target="_new" href="INSERT URL">INSERT LINK TITLE</a>

[For examples, click here to view this post online.]

Should you use a URL or text for the link title in your articles?

The quick answer: one of each.

The long answer: Your readers benefit from context; a URL may not provide the transparency they require to click on a link. A descriptive text-based link title provides them the context and relevance they need to click-through. On the other hand, your articles should be ready for publishers. You may recall any links in the body of your published articles are automatically converted to "nofollow." Hence, your self-serving links should be limited to your Resource Box so they continue to garner traffic and provide proper attribution. By using the combination of one URL link title and one text-based link title, you have prepared your article for easy syndication and you still provide relevant information that benefits readers.

For text-based link titles, what text should you use?

Here's where it gets super complicated and where many Expert Authors get in trouble. Many expert authors will simply use keywords in the link title that are irrelevant to either the article or the linked website - sometimes even both.

Here are some anchor text best practices to bear in mind when you choose your text:

• Relevance: Always use specific and descriptive anchor text that is relevant to the linked URL's page.
• Location: Place your text-based anchor before your URL anchor.
• Distribution: Don't use the same text over and over again, either within the same article or across multiple articles. Natural and contextual variation is essential.
• Brand: When relevant, use keywords associated with your brand, such as your company name, website, etc.
• Contextual: Mix in non-descriptive words, such as "Click Here," and place these near relevant keywords.

A great indicator of whether your anchor text is working is if you see growth in the traffic to your quality website and your website experiences a lower bounce rate. This means you've met your primary objective: benefit the reader.

Source: http://blog.ezinearticles.com/2012/10/how-to-use-your-anchor-text-to-your-advantage.html

How to Use Bounce Rate as a Quality Guide

What Is a Bounce Rate?

A bounce occurs when a user visits a website and exits the page from which they came without having moved to another page on the same website.

A higher bounce rate means users leave your website without viewing any additional pages. A lower bounce rate means users stay on your website and have moved to a different page within your website.

Keeping track of your bounce rate is a fantastic quality indicator to determine which pages are working for you. Before you become alarmed, know this: a high bounce rate does not indicate failure! A high bounce rate might be the nature of your website.

Referential vs. Content-Driven Websites

A referential-driven page or website presents information solely for the purpose of providing an authoritative and unbiased resource. Online referential resources may include dictionaries, glossaries, timelines, encyclopedias, etc., and these pages are often static (i.e., they do not require new material to stay fresh). Referential-driven websites typically have higher bounce rates because that's the nature of the website - readers search for the reference material, find the website, and leave.

Content-driven websites must stay fresh and constantly provide relevant material. Examples of content-driven websites include article directories, blogs, and news pages. A higher bounce rate on this type of site may be an indicator of poor quality, irrelevant content, poor navigation, and more.

Expert Authors Should Aim for a Low Bounce Rate

As content providers, Expert Authors who provide high quality content should aim for a low bounce rate (50% or less) and focus on increasing the average time the visitor spends on the site. Unlike referential-driven website providers, content-driven websites want visitors to stay on the website and continue clicking through to different articles or areas of informative content on the website.

Using tools like Google Analytics, gather your pageviews, visitors, visitor duration, and bounce rate. Compare pages and determine why one page may be performing poorly and why one page may be performing well. How was the quality of writing? Navigation issues? Keyword selection? Ads on the page? Length of the article?

To reduce your website's bounce rate and increase the time on the page/site, use the pages that performed well as a template or theme to emulate on other pages while still providing original content. Additionally, try the following strategies:

• Update your website with quality content frequently
• Try out features important to your audience
• Create interactivity (i.e., two-way flow of information between you and your audience)
• Give your audience a reason to stick around (e.g., resources, quizzes, games, etc.)
• Routinely check your links to ensure they are working properly
• Continue driving traffic to your website via quality articles, social media, etc.

Please note: Don't be discouraged by a high bounce rate if visitors stay on the page longer than average (approximately 2 minutes). It could indicate the reader found their information, read the article, and left. However, if a content-driven page is clocking under a minute with a high-bounce rate - let these be key indicators that improvement is needed.

Understanding the dynamics and performance of your website is the key to success. Not only will you be able to target your audience by providing the content they want both in your articles and on your website, you will save yourself from the agony of wondering what is wrong with your website and your articles.

Tips on How to Get your Blog Noticed

Blogging is a brilliant idea to get your business or services noticed on the World Wide Web. But there are millions of blogs on the internet and still you feel an urge to create a blog for yourself as you know that this is a good step for you and your business. Blogs, if created perfectly, can drive a lot of traffic towards your website and in no time you will be regarded as an expert in your field. Blogging is also a great tool to interact with your customers and potential clients. The real challenge is to get your blog noticed by the readers in the swarm of millions of similar blogs. If you follow the following tips meticulously then we are sure that in a very short time you can get your blog noticed and read.

1) Write good headlines
Writing compelling headlines is a must for any blog. Almost 80% of the readers will only read the headlines while the remaining 20% will go through the entire story. So here lies the power of the headline of your blog. This alone can make or break the prospect of your blog. The headline must grab the attention of the reader and it should actually hard sell the entire article. Such is the power of headlines!

2) Share your blog
Share your blog post on every conceivable social media network that you can think of. If you are not promoting your post then nobody else will do it for you. The blog must be very easy to share. You can make use of the Digg - Digg floating sidebar as it helps people to share blog posts easily and quickly.

3) Comment on others' blogs
The simplest way to get your blog noticed is by commenting on the blogs of others. Everyday you must be reading certain number of blogs but do you actually leave a comment on any of those? You must leave comments on others' blogs so that if people click on your name they are automatically navigated to your own blog. It is very easy and you can start right away. Once you start leaving comments on others' bogs, you will find that the viewership of your blog also increases steadily. NOTE: While commenting on blogs, it is highly important to keep in mind the fine line of difference between promoting your blog by adding valuable content to the other blog and NOT SPAMMING it.

4) Add photos
Photos bring your blog to life and even help to personalize it and make it more interesting. But it does not mean that you will add a photo to each and every post. Only add photos to those blogs which the readers will appreciate it.

5) Fill the Meta Data & Tags

The Meta description and the title must be filled up so that your blog is easily found by the search engines. You should never skip this step as the tags are very important. These tags act as keywords for the blog posts and people will easily find your blog with the help of these 'keywords'. If you are using WordPress then we recommend that you use SEO Ultimate plugin as this has been rated as the best SEO plugin in the market.
Getting your blog noticed and read is not a Herculean task. Just follow these easy steps and very soon you will be a successful blogger.