Expert Author Case Study: Lisa Lehr
Today’s Expert Author Case Study introduces us to Expert Author Lisa Lehr, a freelance copywriter who specializes in direct response and marketing collateral.
When Lisa becomes passionate about a certain topic, the passion drives her to discover as much about it as possible and then she shares her knowledge in a set of articles.
As a writer by nature, Lisa enjoys writing whenever she can and she loves sharing her expertise and research in articles.
As part of our ongoing Expert Author Case Study project, we asked Lisa to share her thoughts on article writing and marketing. Her answers are included below:
- What sets you apart from other Expert Authors?
I set myself apart by being a good writer. In addition to sending traffic to my websites, my goal is to write an informative, readable, non-keyword-heavy article.
- What’s your secret to article writing and marketing success?
Well, I enjoy writing. I try to stay informed about what kinds of information people are searching for and provide them with that. Then, of course, the website I direct my readers to must have a purpose!
- How do you stay motivated to write articles?
I don’t find it difficult. It’s actually harder to budget my time so that I don’t spend too much time writing articles! Very often, I’ll get excited about a subject, then I just have to write about it.
- How do you decide what to write about?
I’m interested in many things. Of course I have a few niches I’m especially interested in. Usually it starts with reading about something (it helps to be an avid reader), then I get intrigued about it, do some more research, and before long, I’m itching to write an article!
- How do you balance writing for quality and quantity?
For me, writing “enough” is never hard; it’s having so much information that I must decide how to boil it down, whether to make it more than one article, and so on. Quality isn’t hard for me because I’m very detail-oriented.
- How has using EzineArticles affected your traffic?
It’s interesting to get the reports and see what has the highest readership. My consistently top-performing articles are on widely divergent topics. My monthly “Top Three” sometimes surprise me. I’ll write about something that interests me, and find I’ve really struck a chord. It’s been an interesting study in human nature, but as far as traffic goes, I have to work on tweaking things to make sure the traffic goes where I want it to go.
- How does article marketing fit into your overall marketing plan?
Usually when I don’t have a tight project deadline, I’ll try to crank out a bunch of articles. It’s harder to find time when I’m in the middle of projects, but I do notice that when I don’t have new submissions, my traffic levels drop.
- What EzineArticles tools do you find the most beneficial?
I like being able to send press releases for free!
- If you had to start over again, what would you change?
In retrospect, I’d narrow my focus and figure out what I really want to do, instead of having numerous URLs that I fail to maintain, so that I have to go back and rewrite the Resource Boxes to send traffic to new and better places.
- What advice would you give newbie article marketers?
Write good articles. Don’t keyword stuff. If you have too much material, break it up into shorter articles. And figure out what your overall plan is for directing traffic before you get started.
“DO’s” and “DON’Ts” From Lisa:
DO:
- Break up long articles into multiple shorter ones. Spreading your quality content out across more articles generates more exposure for you and that’s a key to success.
- Have a clear understanding of the websites you want to share in your Resource Box. With a strategy established, it becomes easier to know right away how future articles fit into the writing strategy.
- Spend time looking at Article Reports to get insights on the topics that get the most traffic. Use this research to write more.
DON’T:
- Don’t write solely to pack your articles with keywords. You’ll get more credibility as an author by writing quality content that is easy to read.
- Don’t write without pre-established intentions. Stay committed to writing informative, readable articles that include relevant links to your website or blog.
Incorporate these guidelines while writing your next set of quality original articles and let us know how they work for you. Also, leave a comment for Lisa. She can’t wait to hear from you.
Hi Colin,
Maybe your resource box needs to be more persuasive? I believe EzineArticles has some advice on how to write a good resource box. I should probably read it because my resource boxes probably aren’t as good as they could be, either. It’s something you just have to keep tweaking.
Lisa
October 23, 2010 at 8:48 PM[Reply]