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Fueling the Ideal - Marketing with Articles
By Bonnie Jo
Davis © 2005
Writing articles which get a wide exposure online can establish your credibility
as an expert in your field and generate significant exposure for you and your
business.
It's that time of year again ... pages of backpacks,
notebooks and back-to-school clothing fill every circular that hits your
mailbox. And you're off to the races ... the races being the mall, plus every
other store in between.
You're in the same spot you were last year this
time, getting ready to head off to work while your kids head off to school. Back
to hugging them goodbye in the morning and seeing them just long enough in the
evening to say I love you and tuck them in.
Wouldn't it be fantastic if
the easier schedule of the summer lasted all year long? No more spending all
your hours away from your kids just to earn enough money to cover the essentials
and pay daycare?
Take it from someone who knows both sides of the deal
here and believe that there's no time like right now to make the transition from
the regular grind to working from home. As the proud Mom of a 2005 honors
graduate who's heading off to college soon, I know first hand what a major
impact working from home has had on his success.
When my son was very
young, I worked a full-time job away from home, plus at least one part-time job
on weekends. This meant that my son was in daycare while I worked. As a single
parent who didn't receive child support (for years) though, I had no other
choice.
A few years later in the 1990's, I decided there had to be a
better way so I started a part-time medical billing service from my home. This
allowed me to give up the outside part-time job and gave me the practical means
of earning the much-needed income. Best of all, it gave me the priceless
opportunity to take care of my son while I worked. I quickly saw that I was onto
something great here ... what a concept!
I moved from the east coast to
California with my son in 1995 where my first full-time job was with a
consulting firm co-owned by a professional speaker. After some negotiations with
my boss, we entered into an agreement by which I would work mornings in the
office, leave to pick up my son from school in the afternoons and work from home
the rest of the day. It worked out incredibly well ... so well in fact, that in
2000, I decided to leave the consulting firm and start my own full-time home
based virtual assistant business.
Starting from scratch, I knew that
gaining exposure for my business was essential if I wanted to be successful in
my new venture. I also knew that traditional forms of marketing are very
expensive and quickly gobble up the profits, particularly in the early stages.
However, I also remembered a technique that I used successfully for my former
employer.
Besides being a consultant and professional speaker, he was
also an author, so his goals included increasing his number of speaking
engagements and selling more copies of his books. He hoped to accomplish these
goals by establishing himself as an expert in his industry, which meant having
his work published by every major magazine in his field.
Committed to
accomplishing his goals, he gave me a list of those publications, so I drafted a
query letter based on one of his story ideas and e-mailed it to the editor of
one of the magazines. The editor responded in short notice and offered my
employer an article assignment. They published my boss's article soon afterwards
and featured it on the cover of the magazine, producing an onslaught of calls to
the office!
Writing and submitting that one article produced several paid
speaking engagements. This new marketing intrigue fascinated me, so I fine-tuned
my article submission process creating logs and checklists, and within a few
months, my boss had accomplished his goal of publication in every magazine on
his list!
Even online and in-print publications we hadn't contacted began
calling and e-mailing in request of articles. The results of writing and
submitting articles was so successful that we put other major marketing
techniques on hold so my boss could travel to his paid speaking
engagements.
As my interest and experience grew in this area of
marketing, I knew that if it worked for my boss that it would work for other
professionals as well. Soon, I was earning over half my income handling article
submissions for other professionals.
Then I realized that if this
technique worked for other professionals that it would work for me too in
building my own business. And it has worked for me!
This same marketing
technique, which I call marketing with articles, has been the success behind my
own business. I've used it to expand my client base and build my virtual
assistance business into a solid income-generating company, which has allowed me
to work full-time at home for the past five years. As my son is getting ready to
leave for college, my personal goal now is to help other parents be successful
in achieving their career goals while living the dream of staying home with
their children.
The concept of marketing with articles does not require a
professional writer. Anyone can be successful in building their business and
gaining credibility as an expert in their industry or area of expertise by
writing and submitting free reprint articles to online and in-print
publications. The key to success is in reaching your target audience with
resourceful information that is valuable to them.
Editors of both online
and in-print publications are in constant demand of quality content for their
readers. They have a continuing need to publish content that appeals directly to
their target audience, which is where you come in. By writing and submitting
free reprint articles to publications that reach readers in your market, you
have the opportunity to establish yourself as an expert and gain a generous
amount of exposure for your business.
True, you aren't earning money for
actually writing the articles, but you are earning a huge payoff here. Not only
do you establish your credibility as an expert in your industry or area of
expertise, but you earn significant exposure for yourself and your business.
Most editors will include your byline with your articles, which gives you the
opportunity to include your name and contact information, plus the URL of your
web site. Readers come to recognize your name and relate it with certain topics.
The more articles you write and submit, the more exposure you gain!
The
marketing with articles technique helped turn my dream of working from home
full-time into a precious reality that has made a positive impact for both my
son and me. As he goes off to college, he'll be leaving with all the benefits of
having had a mom who found a way to support him financially without the high
cost of being away from him all day. Me, I'll have the benefit of knowing that
the bittersweet wind I'm putting beneath his wings comes from my deepest desires
for his complete success!
(c) 2005, Davis Virtual Assistance.
About the Author:
Bonnie Jo Davis is a
full-time work-from-home mom who built her business on the concept of marketing
with articles. An accomplished writer and marketing strategist, she offers over
ten years of success in writing and submitting articles for gaining exposure and
growing your business. Visit http://www.ArticleSubmissionSites.com to learn how her
technique offers the means for success in starting and/or growing your own
business. |

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