Wednesday, October 31, 2007

Recommended Reading

If you would like to learn more about promoting your business, check out the following books:





Ivana Katz
Websites 4 Small Business
www.web4business.com.au

30 ways to promote your website on a shoestring budget - Part 19

Articles

Writing articles is an excellent way for you to get free publicity. Getting an article published is free. The publicity you receive by having your article published in a newspaper, magazine or website can be worth thousands of dollars in equivalent advertising space. Well written articles yield better results than advertisements and earn you respect from customers, who see you as an expert in your field.


The best articles are “tips” or expert pieces. People are looking for guidance and will purchase from the experts who show them how to solve their problems.

Your article should include the following elements:

(a) The Headline

This should be attention grabbing and use power words and phrases, such as “How to …” “10 Ways that …”, “Do you want to …”

(b) Lead Paragraph

The first couple of sentences should tell your readers why they should read the whole articles. Show them the benefits they will gain or the pain that they will avoid by reading the article.

(c) Body Copy

This is where you inform the reader how to do something that will enrich their business or personal lives. Use short sentences and provide step-by-step directions that they can easily follow.

(d) Conclusion

At the end you will want to summarise the topics you covered and briefly review the main points. Since you have helped your readers they will most likely want to know more. This is your chance to make your sell by making them an offer with a call to action.

(e) Resource Box

The resource box should supply the reader with the following information:
- Your name - Company name - Contact information - Website details - How to order your product, etc

If writing an article seems too daunting for you initially, you can hire a ghost writer to do this for you – generally at a very reasonable price. If you need someone to help you with this, you may wish to check out:
www.elance.com

Once your article is written you will need to submit it to various publications on-line and off-line. For a listing of Australian printed publications, including the editor’s details, you may wish to buy “The Australian Writer’s Marketplace”, available from most bookshops.

For a listing of on-line magazines (e-zines), visit: www.ezine-dir.com. You can then contact the editor of each magazine and offer them your article.

If you don’t have a lot of time to submit your articles manually, you may wish to consider using article submission services by companies such as:

Submit Your Article – www.submityourarticle.com orThe Phantom Writers – www.thephantomwriters.com

For a small fee they will submit your article to thousands of publications.

Ivana Katz
Websites 4 Small Business
http://www.web4business.com.au/

Tuesday, October 23, 2007

Get Free Business Cards

Whilst recently looking for useful resources for small businesses, I came across this great offer of Free Business Cards.

To get your free business cards, click here

VistaPrint





Ivana Katz
Websites 4 Small Business
www.web4business.com.au