From My Desk to Yours – 17th Edition

YOUR REAL JOB AS AN EXPERT AUTHOR
By: Penny, EzineArticles Managing Editor

There are probably several reasons why you’re involved in article writing and marketing, including branding yourself as an expert, generating business leads, expanding online promotion or optimizing search engine rankings.

However, chief among the reasons should be to share your unique knowledge with your readers. If you write and submit an article without sharing any of your knowledge, you may lose out on all of the benefits of writing the article in the first place. An article that’s more focused on promoting your product or yourself than providing quality content will probably not get read.

Remember, your real job as an Expert Author is to share your unique knowledge and expertise.

Informing Readers

If you don’t provide great information, it’s difficult to brand yourself as an expert, generate any new business or improve your search engine rankings. Let’s face it, readers can spot a fake. As an author, it takes research and additional writing time to turn a short, information-thin article into something with great content, but that extra effort really pays off. Taking those extra few steps and making great content is what being an Expert Author is all about.

It may seem okay to only use article writing and marketing platforms to promote your own product and just get a few links back to your site, but we won’t accept this strategy and neither should you. Each article is checked by two human editors to help ensure only quality articles are approved. This is in every best effort to help you succeed and build on your credibility as an expert in your field. The knowledge you deliver in your content should be your selling tactic, not a sales pitch.

Success in your job as an Expert Author depends on your ability to do the following:

  1. Understand the Guidelines – They’re your friend. We have these in place to guide you in the right direction. If you don’t understand them, we can clarify them. You’ll find that the most common article mishaps occur because these guidelines were not read.
     
  2. Write Articles That Are Worth Sharing – Great article content increases the likelihood of distribution. Increase the word count to 400-600 and deliver quality. Be careful to not rehash the same message over and over.
     
  3. Thinking About A Purpose – Most articles help you work toward one goal or another in your article writing and marketing plan. If you’re interested in generating leads, you can make your articles targeted at solving a single, definitive problem. Show off your expertise by writing on a broad range of topics. The value you provide can help others make better decisions in their lives while also generating business for you.
     
  4. Provide Value Outside Promoting a Product – Deliver quality content first and then use the Resource Box to provide more information about yourself or your company. The trouble with promotional content is that it doesn’t automatically build credibility. Articles of value provide original tips, techniques, analysis and opinions.
     
  5. Push Yourself – Use writing challenges, like the 100 Articles in 100 Days Marathon Challenge (#HAHD), to push yourself as a writer. You’ll surprise yourself with the quality and quantity of articles you can produce in a short amount of time.
     
  6. Stay Up-To-Date on Article Writing and Marketing Trends – The EzineArticles Blog shares the latest news, tips, training and resources that’ll help you turbo-charge your efforts and increase your return on investment. We want to make writing and submitting articles a breeze for you, so we love sharing new ideas and features that’ll save you time and effort. Our Email Newsletter makes it even easier by delivering insights right to your mailbox.

Becoming an Expert Author takes hard work and dedication, but once you find the right formula for you, the benefits of doing your job well as an Expert Author are endless. Now go use these tips to submit your next set of high-quality, original articles. Also, leave a comment to share your own thoughts on your job as an Expert Author.

Posted by on September 21, 2010 at 11:42 am | 6,375 views

8 Comments »


1
Angela Wills writes:

Great tips!

I would say I take my job as an Expert Author pretty seriously.

Another tip I would say is to share your articles so people know they’re there. I know EzineArticles does a great job of getting our articles ‘out there’ but I also link to my articles from my website and tell people that they are free to go use them to post on their own websites.

It promotes my expert status beyond just what they see on my website and let’s them know how they can benefit from posting it to their own site.

Comment provided September 21, 2010 at 1:09 PM

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Eddington writes:

Great tip Angela, always important to do that. Social media works well with that, particularly with the many applications which makes automation a breeze, it’s worth spending time understanding these apps, something I want to believe a lot of marketers find daunting.

I quite like social bookmarking, bookmark with google, yahoo, technorati and there is a whole lot more out there, bt the few I mentioned got spiders, they are search engines – so you can see the picture.

September 22, 2010 at 5:02 AM

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2
cynthia Jeffcoat writes:

good Tips I am going to try the 100 articles in 100 days

Comment provided September 21, 2010 at 9:29 PM

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3
Internet Marketing Malaysia writes:

Totally agree on this. As an consultant or service provider, we always look for a platform to position our professionalism.

We will write more on EzineArticles about our expertise.

Thanks.

Comment provided September 21, 2010 at 10:32 PM

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4
Eddington writes:

You couldn’t be more right, guidelines, terms and contitions are something which I also want to believe many of us find difficult to read through and understand.

I think the problem is we want things easily (which basically means we are lazy, human nature you know?) Not all of us of coures but I would say the majority really.

Which is why we turn around and look for people and things to blame (make excuses).

However, Ezineatricles’ support has improved a great deal now as I have in the past written to find out why my article would have been declined and not get any response, which was quite frustrating.

I guess with inexperience, beginners may do with a bit of some naturing such as good support when needed.

Over all things are moving in the right direction and with feedback and insights such as these, one can hit the ground running.

Comment provided September 22, 2010 at 4:56 AM

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5
Jay Aaron writes:

Penny,

I have been a coach and consultant to entrepreneurs, small businesses and non-profit organizations for more than 30 years.

During that time, I have told all of my clients – in no uncertain terms – that article writing and writing press releases (which require virtually identical skills, although the presentation is in differing formats) are the most valuable forms of promotion because articles and news releases…

A. Can be distributed free;

B. Reach a much wider audience than virtually any form of promotion; and

C. Get reprinted and recommended via Social Media, on Web sites, on blogs; etc;

D. ALWAYS contain accurate information – and the specific information YOU want to share with your audience – because as the author you are in full control of what you write (unlike when someone else writes an article ABOUT you).

When anyone asks me where they should publish their articles, I always recommend EzineArticles as the very first place they should establish their online article presence.

One of the obstacles that many people seem to have about article writing is that they think that it is difficult. In this article, you’ve shared in easy-to-understand language and easy-to-implement strategies how easy article writing really is. (Did I really use the word “easy” three times in that last sentence?! I’m pretty sure I made my point…)

And just for kicks, I just re-read the EzineArticles Submission Guidelines. Clear. Concise. Another great resource for making article writing easy, simply by following those Guidelines.

Jay Aaron
Visionary Strategist

Comment provided September 30, 2010 at 7:03 PM

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Eddington writes:

Jay, what a great comment. Indeed I was one of those who delayed maximising the power of articles and press realeases.

Not that I had a shortage of information on how good these mediums are and how to do it, I think for me it was just a lack of focus, plus I think I am that kind of person who loses interest after having achieved a goal.

It’s really important to focus on one strategy than to chase after many and become master of none.

As for directories, I find EzineArticles easy to use hence highly recommended by many a guru.

October 1, 2010 at 8:40 AM

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6
Stun Guns For Women writes:

Great tips and strategies. Will try to use some of them.

Comment provided July 20, 2012 at 4:59 AM

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