Demystifying the Long Tail
Use this simple strategy to precisely target your ideal Internet audience.
Understanding the concept of the long tail and how it relates to article marketing is key to your article marketing success. By focusing your writing efforts on very succinct and specific subjects within your niche, your ability to put your articles in front of highly-targeted readers and then motivate them to action increases dramatically.
The statistical phenomenon of long tail distribution isn’t very complex – nor is figuring out the best way to capitalize on it. What is difficult for many Expert Authors to grasp is the counter-intuitive nature of the strategy. How can writing for a smaller audience actually increase the click-through rate (CTR) of your articles and the conversion rate of those who visit your site? To many, it sounds like total nonsense.
In this short video, I’ll talk you through the long tail concept and show you how to use it now to turbocharge your next set of original articles.
This video is also available on our YouTube Channel. If you’re more of a reader than a watcher, then download this PDF version [316KB] of the video instead. Please note, however, that the concept is much easier to understand in video form than as text.
Finding the Long Tail in Your Niche:
So how do you find the phrases people are typing into the search engines for your particular niche? One of the best ways is by pretending to be your target audience. Invest some time typing search queries for what you’re trying to promote. Then refine those queries over and over until you identify those that generate search result quantities that are representative of the long tail. You can also use research tools like these:
- Wordtracker – Generates words and phrases for search engine and website optimization.
- Keyword Discovery – Compiles search stats from worldwide search engines.
- Goodkeywords: Downloadable freeware that queries a number of popular search engines to identify good words and phrases.
- Google Alerts – Email updates of the latest relevant Google results based on your choice of topic, words or phrases.
- Google Suggest – As you type in a search querie, Google offers suggestions and shows the number of results.
- Example: “Weight Loss for Men” when entered into Google Suggest tells me that I should write articles about “Weight Loss for Men Over [a certain age]” or for women and men combined.
Now take what you’ve learned and put it to good use today by writing a fresh set of articles based on this strategy. Then keep an eye on your Article Reports over the next few months – you should see a considerable increase in readership and CTR for those particular articles.
Leave a comment if you’re still a little fuzzy on the whole long tail concept. Better still, stop back here in a few months and share your success stories with the rest of us. We look forward to hearing them!
Jonas,
We stopped talking about the back-link value of EzineArticles in 2005.
My gut feeling is the back-link value from the 2nd tier sites that syndicate your articles from EzineArticles is WAY more valuable than a backlink from us directly.
Our value proposition is that we deliver high-value pre-qualified TRAFFIC/Visitors back to your website for free in exchange for your quality original article submissions.
We have no plans at this time to expand the current 3 word limit on anchored text links in articles under 400 words or 5 words in articles over 400 words.
For additional reading on this issue:
February 11, 2010 at 1:27 PMAnchor Text Rule Based on Word Count
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Christopher,
Thank you very much for personally replying.
I also want to say that I completely agree with you and the redistribution of articles is really what makes your own site begin to carry some authority after a while.
The traffic has been fantastic that I get from EzineArticles and so I will always keep submitting!
Much appreciated!
February 11, 2010 at 1:30 PM[Reply]
You are so right about the re-distribution!
That is what really empowers your article!
Hey Marc! When is EzineArticles going to get some decent RSS Feed structures in place!
February 11, 2010 at 2:26 PMIt would make article syndication so much easier!
[Reply]