If you’re a new coach trying to build a presence online, consider article marketing as a strategy for gaining online recognition and driving traffic to your website.

 How many times you have researched a topic online in the past six months? Personally, I’ve researched several topics related to web design, marketing best practices, understanding my teenager and the list goes on.

 Google has become my best friend when it comes to finding information. I enter my keywords in the search box and press the return button. In a split second, hundreds of links to my subject pop into view. Some of these links are entire websites and others are articles on my subject. Most often I choose articles first. It eliminates the need to sort through an entire website to find my answer.

 If the article I read was helpful, I will visit the author’s website and see what else they offer. I’m thinking, “They helped me once (building a level of trust), so how can they further assist me (they earned the opportunity to interact further with me).”

 If you’re considering article marketing for the purposes of creating awareness of your services, building trust and driving traffic to your website, here are a few suggestions that will help you streamline your time.

 First, identify your ideal client. What are their most pressing needs? The answer to this question easily translates into article topics or themes. What is your unique solution to those needs? Second, where is your target audience located? Are you privy to list-serves, online communities or blogs that you can participate in? It’s always better to target a captive audience when possible.

 Next, choose a couple of article repositories that will accept your articles. Check out their writing specifications. Some repositories allow you to add links, italics or numbers, i.e., step 1, step 2. Others do not. Here a short list of article repositories: www.bnet.com, www.ezinearticles.com, www.buzzle.com, www.associatedcontent.com, www.articlealley.com,  www.ezinefinder.com/, http://goarticles.com/, www.ideamarketers.com, www.articlebase.com, www.selfgrowth.com, www.articlesfactory.com,  www.articlesnatch.com.

 Clump your time. Dedicate a block of time to writing several articles at once. Then look at your calendar and schedule when they are to be released. If you can write several articles per clump you’ve freed your time and mental resources considerably.

 Include a two or three-line sentence at the bottom of each article with an invitation to contact you for more information as well as a link to your website.

 Schedule to release your articles once or twice a month. While articles “live forever” online, I’ve noticed visits to my website begin dropping after the second week. On average expect 20-30 visitors to your website per article.

 Make sure your website has an inviting home page or landing page. Add a subscriber box to all your website pages inviting visitors to subscribe in exchange for something even more valuable than the articles they’ve read. It’s important to maintain contact with your website visitors.

 Set up a tracking system to determine the success of your article marketing campaigns. Most article repositories track how often your article is viewed and the links that are visited. Using Google analytics on your website can help you narrow these statistics further.  Ideally, your article marketing goals are achieved when clients visit your website.

 Article marketing is not the quickest way to build a presence online but it certainly is not wasted effort. Consistent, good article writing will help build your subscriber list and showcase your expertise.

 Marcie Thomas, CLC is a Christian business coach specializing in marketing for service based businesses. Join her and Gary Wood, PCC for their upcoming business building workshop at www.christiancoaches.com/eworkshop. Marcie can be found online at www.marketinghelpforchristiancoaches.