Quick Case Study: Mary Bodel
The 
fourth in a series of posts that highlight one Expert Author who has achieved success by doing just one thing exceptionally well.
Mary Bodel has been studying alternative herbal remedies since 1981 and has been a Master Herbalist since 2004. She’s written five eBooks on herbal remedies, including the Complete Guide to Complementary Remedies.
Mary tells us, “I grew up around plants; my grandmother owned and operated a nursery. I’ve always been interested in medicine and medicinal herbs. I suppose part of that is because my mother is an R.N., but it is also fascinating to me.
Education is the Key
What sets this California author apart is her heartfelt desire to educate her readers through her articles. She says, “Many people want to use natural products, but very few people truly understand what they can and can’t do. Educating them is important to me, because there are some problems that can result from taking herbal supplements improperly. I want my readers to finish my article and have more knowledge.”
Keeping herself educated is the first step. “I’ve been working with herbs and herbal preparations for decades,” Mary says, “so a lot of the information in my articles is from stuff I know by heart. However, I also check several reputable medical sites to be sure that the information is correct. As with any field, things can change and it’s important to reaffirm what I know.”
Feedback from her readers, as well as her own resources, keep her on track and motivated to write more. “People who comment on what I write help [motivate me], as do the stats on the articles I write. I feel that what I write is appreciated and welcome.” She continues, “There are still days where I sit at the keyboard and puzzle over what I want to write about today. When that happens, I look at health news to get ideas.”
Mary’s ideas come from other places as well. “Someone will ask me a question and I realized that there might be others with the same question. The news often does the same thing, though most of those stories are about things you shouldn’t do. When that doesn’t work, I surf news reports and PubMed, the U.S. National Library of Medicine. Any studies done on herbal remedies are likely to be found there.”
Traffic is the Reward
It’s not all about selfless education of the masses, however. Mary also enjoys the fruits of her passion with 338 active articles resulting in 14,979 views to date. “[EzineArticles] has doubled my previous traffic on our main site and has boosted traffic on our secondary site. The more I write, the more traffic I get. At the moment, [article marketing] is my overall marketing plan. The quality of traffic is greater than that from some advertising sites such as Google. People who click a link to my site seem to be looking for more information. The stats I get indicate they stay on my site for several minutes on average.”
“Make sure you know what you’re writing,” she advises newbie article marketers, “and make sure your readers walk away with something of value. Also, never write everything you know. The reason for this last bit is that your readers will know you’ve done that. It’s one of the first things learned in journalism.”
And what would she do different? “I’d have signed up sooner,” she says.
Mary’s not alone. That same lament has been uttered by many of EzineArticles’ most successful authors. Don’t be one of them! Sign up TODAY and start putting your expertise to work for you to grow your web traffic, media exposure, personal branding and credibility.
And please leave a comment for Mary. I’m sure she’d love to hear from you. :-)
Mary, 341 articles in 12 months. That’s 1 a day. Wow!
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