You could be sabotaging your article marketing efforts and not even know it. One of the major reasons why people stop writing articles is because they say that they are not seeing tangible results. I find that is usually due to a number of self-sabotaging habits. So we’re going to go over a few over the next couple of days…

Tip 1: You Are Writing Off-Topic Articles

It is very important that you pick a niche and write content centered around that niche. I find during my blog wandering that many people tend to write about several topics on their sites. This is probably because most of us are interested in more than one thing, right? I mean I totally understand why it happens — but if you are building an online business and you want to drive traffic to it — then you have to write content centered around what you want to teach them, offer them, sell to them.

Example of a Bad Site:

Lisa Angelettie’s Musings On Writing, Motherhood, and Pizza.

On this site you would find articles on writing, being a mother, and one of my favorite junk foods – pizza. The obvious problem with this is that I am diluting the keyword power of my “writing” site (which is what I’m promoting) with articles on being a mother and on pizza joints and pizza recipes!

I am also frustrating readers who might consider following my work but aren’t sure that they are going to see any consistent content from me on “writing”.

Of course I may get the occasional reader who finds my writing on all of these topics interesting or humorous, but they are far and few between and do not convert into customers. So honestly, unless it’s a “hobby site”, what’s the point?

Example of a Better Site:

Lisa Angelettie’s Musing On Writing For Money

On this site you would find content on any kind of writing as long as I’m getting paid for it. I could write tips, strategies, first-person stories, resource lists, etc. All of the content would be on “writing”, and the title reflects that as well.

Now all my major keywords are all “writing” related and a reader knows that when the come visit my site that they will see articles on some sort of freelance writing.

Of course it’s fine to add the “occasional” article on something personal — but if I do that I always tie it in someway to the topic of my site. If I just want to ramble about how my daughter cut off her hair, then I’d write about that on Twitter or a personal blog – not my main site and definitely not for submission to article directories and third party blogs.

Bottom Line?

Just keep your writing focused and centered on your topic and you will find that your traffic will steadily increase. People will refer your articles to others, retweet them, and link to them — once they trust that your content is consistently on-topic and useful.

Are you guilty of writing off-topic? Have you seen a site guilty of this out there in the blogosphere? Let us know about it…

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Lisa Angelettie

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I make a living writing, ePublishing, and marketing books and teaching others how to do the same. I have one mission: To turn you into the best writer that you can be while enjoying every minute of it!

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