In  Part 1 of my article title writing series, we discussed the often overlooked but quite essential skill of when writing titles to blend both writing for your readers and for the search engines. One cannot be without the other in your title or it just won’t produce good results.

In this segment, we will discuss another essential element of writing article titles that gets you traffic to your site, and that is to make sure you are targeting the “right” keywords and placing them in your titles.

While it may not be your favorite thing to do, it’s really important that you conduct a little keyword research before writing articles in order to truly optimize them for the search engines.

When I first started on the web years ago, I use to write whatever struck me and titled them whatever I thought was an appropriate title based on my “journalism” background and experience. I had no clue just how important it was to properly place the right keywords in my titles to attract more organic traffic then I was receiving.

I happened to accidentally acquire a lot of traffic to many of my articles, because not many people were writing about my topic back then — so I hold many of those top rankings based on the sheer fact that I was there first. BUT if I were to start writing in that niche today, I would have to approach it in a much more calculating way. Much like I do for many of my new niches.

I would have to do my keyword research and try to rank for keywords that I could realistically get the top spots for. Period.

So if you are using article marketing (and I hope that you are:), make sure that you researching keywords using some of the better tools out there: Wordtracker and Google’s Free Keyword Tool are great.

Create a glossary of keywords to use in your niche. Refer to that glossary when writing your articles, and make sure to include one of your keyword phrases in the title of each article.

With a little keyword research and thought into your article titles, you will soon begin to pull double the traffic that you did before because you would have positioned yourself well in search engine results for your articles and your topic.

Read Part 1 of This SeriesSimilar Posts:

• Article Marketing Questions: What Is The Biggest Article Marketing Mistake?
• Article Marketing Tips: Article Marketing Sabotage Part 4
• How To Write Article Titles That Get Traffic – Pt. 1

We all have our own secret styles to writing articles. Some of us like to begin with the title. Others write the article then come up with the title. You also need to be flexible with either approach and realize that your article may evolve as you write it and then will need a new title.

However you come up with titles for your articles, one thing is universally true, we all want people to find them online, read them, and then read the article. That’s a LOT of work our article titles have to do! That’s why I’d like to cover a few tried and true tips for writing articles that will get you traffic and get you read.

Write Your Titles For Both People And Search Engines

I want you to take a second and ask yourself who you write your titles for…

1. Do you write titles that sound clever or witty, or have you learned that titles written that way most assuredly will not get you real traffic.

2. Do you write titles that you believe will appeal to your readers? Are you sure that you have enough insight on the people in your niche to be sure that you are writing articles to them, and can they find them online?

3. Do you write titles for the search engines? Are you writing article titles that are full of keywords but offer no appeal or interest to the readers in your niche?

Remember that the real key to writing traffic generating titles is to combine writing titles for real people WITH adding keywords to your titles for the search engines. Both go hand in hand.

You need for your article titles to make sense and be appealing in order for readers to want to read the rest of the article, but you also need for readers to be able to find that article during a natural search on the web – or else how will they find you?

Creating a marriage of keywords + readability in your titles is the best way to assure loyal readership and organic search engine traffic. All this means a growing following and traffic flow to your articles, which of course is all we want our articles to do. Bring us more traffic!Similar Posts:

• Article Marketing Questions: What Is The Biggest Article Marketing Mistake?
• How To Write Article Titles That Get Traffic – Pt. 2
• Article Marketing Tips: Article Marketing Sabotage Part 4

As there have been recent reported signs in the news that the economy is beginning to take a turn upwards, there is still projected job loss ahead as a result of the trickle down effect of the state of the economy. So if you are in a position of limbo, or you feel stuck, and just don’t know what to do to move forward economically — think about this…

Even as the economy improves, job loss will still continue, so many of us have to make a decision. Should you still go knocking on doors trying to find a job in a shrinking economic market, or should you create a job or rather a lifestyle for yourself by working at home as an entrepreneur?

Well, it may be a little scary to consider. No health benefits. No job security (whatever that is:);  but both my husband and I have successfully been entrepreneurs for well about 15 years and we’re still standing. It has been a rollercoaster ride at times, but trust me when I say that people are still making money in tough times.

People want to escape, so they listen to music, go to the movies, read a book, etc. People need to make more money, so they are looking to invest in anything that can teach them how to make more money or for education in a more lucrative job market. Folks still need to buy clothes for growing children and food for their pets. Since more people are staying at home, people are investing in their homes. More decorating and less traveling.

If you work at home and you run a service based business, all you need to do in these times is get a little more creative with your marketing. People still need and will pay for therapy, coaching, medical appointments, education, etc., but you just may need to be a little more cost efficient on how you reach them. That’s why I love new clients to test their niche with article marketing. It’s an easy and cost-free way to make sure that the market you want to service exists and is willing to pay for your services.

1. Write 5 articles on different hot spots in your niche.

2. Publish those articles in a high-traffic 3rd party site, such as a directory like ezinearticles.com

3. Take a look at your traffic stats for those articles. (Ezinearticles provides that info free for authors).

- Has anyone forwarded your articles?

- Has anyone republished your articles?

- How may article views to you have?

- Has anyone commented on those articles?

Give yourself at least 30 days to publish and take a look at your stats. You can do this with several niches simultaneously if you want as well.

So is this best time to start a business and becoming a thriving entrepreneur? You bet! Remember that Bill Gates started Microsoft in the middle of a recession, and so can you!Similar Posts:

• Article Marketing 101: Recession Proof Your Internet Marketing Easy
• Article Marketing Research: Fitness & Nutrition Hot Topics
• Ali Brown: Surround Yourself With Good Energy!

As I usually do about once a month, I was checking my Google Analytic statistics on one of my sites to see what I can do to improve traffic building, and saw that I was receiving a good deal of referral traffic from a resource link placed after a Q&A at a wiki website: http://wiki.answers.com

If you pop on over to this and some other wiki sites, you can see that people may ask a question, and then someone leaves an answer. There is also a space that allows you to link to a reference after that answer.

Now while I did not answer this particular question (it was an absolute bonus that someone answered a question and used an article on one of my sites as a reference), I totally have been “sold” on why I should probably spend a bit more energy going to this type of site and getting involved as someone who does give answers on my topic. It’s a fantastic way to build traffic!

This one link was the 5th top referral source of traffic to my website. So imagine if I actually put some effort into this and created a few more links on this wiki? That is what I am planning on doing and I think you should too. These are just a few things I think you should keep in mind when pursuing this type of article link love…

1. Truly Contribute To The Wiki Community
No one likes a Wiki spammer. The point is to create information or write answers to questions that are informative, helpful, and educational. Don’t do this just for the sake of doing it, because it would be a wasted effort. People can smell “junk” a mile away and would not click on the referral link. The person that referred to my article, wrote an insightful answer to a question on the wiki website.

2. Link To Your Article’s URL, Not A Main URL
It’s on a wiki where you can start to do a lot of that deep linking that I am always talking about. Link to articles that are deep into your site. The search engines will LOVE you for it because it creates a much more natural linking structure. Plus, you want to send the person who needs the answer straight to the information they need, not the front page of your site or an article directory website.

3. Use Keywords In Your Link Anchor Text
Again, here is another great opportunity to improve and build traffic by using keywords as your linking text. Don’t just use “click here” or “get more information”. Use your keywords such as “Article Marketing“.

4. Refer Other People In Related Niches
A great way to build partnerships with people with businesses in related niches to yours is to recommend them. A wiki is a great place to refer another person’s service or product, because it is an authoritative source of information. Don’t be shy either, once you have made the referral, let them know that you did!Similar Posts:

• What Does Your Article Resource Box Look Like?
• Article Marketing Strategy: Are Your Articles In The Google Sandbox?
• Writing Blog Articles

I am pretty much not a big new age person. I mean I love a good yoga class, periodic meditation, and I sure like a great vegetarian meal when prepared properly, but that’s about it for me. So don’t get all frightened when I tell you that the true path to article marketing success is to: Set The Intention To Write.

It may sound a little “The Secret-ish”, but guess what? It works. When I make the decision and set the intention to write a certain amount of articles for the day, the week, or for the year. I prepare my psyche for success, which in turn leads to actual production on my part. I get the articles written. And as I’ve said a 100 times, article marketing success is all a numbers game. The more you write, the faster your path to success.

Set the intention to write ONE article this week and you will. Set the intention to write once a week for the next upcoming month, and you absolutely will. Make the decision to write INSTEAD of waiting to see what you may write, and you will rule the world. Well maybe not the world:), but definitely your niche!

Setting intentions are a little different then setting resolutions or even written goals. There isn’t the same pressure on yourself to produce. There isn’t the feeling of failure when you don’t meet one of your goals. You know like that diet you were suppose to be on Jan.1! Instead there is just a soft voice in your head reminding you that you intend to write something today, this week, this month, etc.

Now that you know what to do — set the intention today to write a little more this week than you did last week; and if that’s your very first article – congrats!Similar Posts:

• Realistic Writing Goals
• Article Marketing Tips: Article Marketing Sabotage Part 2
• Do You Write Enough Blog Posts?