When I started working on the Internet in the mid 1990’s, the mantra was … Content is King. The Web was much slower back then, so content equals articles. If you wanted to do website marketing, you had to write lots of articles.

Fast forward 15 years: Today the Web is bulging with content. Some argue that we have too much content. Video has taken hold online big time. Witness the Youtube phenomena. So the question for 2010 is … Does articles marketing work anymore?

I get this question from clients often. So let me just jump to the answer. Articles marketing still works online.

…but to get the true implication of this answer requires that I write some more content.

Article Marketing to Build Authority

People still believe what they read in print. What you say, how you say it, and how you support what you said, make indelible impressions on your reader’s psyche. Somehow, what is written carries more weight than what is said verbally. Perhaps this is because writing something down is still harder for most people than simply just saying it.

Sure, people do get skeptical about what they read, but if the content is well crafted with the proper headline, people will allow you to make your argument in print.

Repetition also helps. If you write about a given topic enough times, you eventually become the “authority” on the topic. Whether you deserve the authority status or not is debatable. You wrote down your arguments … And that by itself is is a fact. Write enough arguments and people will quote you to support their arguments. Weird how this works.

So using articles to market your idea still works in 2010. Write enough about that idea and you will build authority.

Article Marketing to Build Links

Believe it or not, search engine spiders are still dumb. We are well into the 21st century and search engine spiders still can’t make out the content in videos, audio, and graphics, including pictures and Flash.

What they can decipher is text content. And boy have they feasted on articles over the past 15 years. I wonder how many articles Google, Yahoo, and Bing can ultimately index?

I will cover this in another, ahem, article. But for now, just know that if you want to manipulate the spiders, simply feed them written content.

Use article marketing to build links: Link to your blog. Link to your videos. Link to your audio. Link to your pictures. Link to your Flash. Link to your articles. Link to your links.

Article Directories that People Read

Time is precious. The Web is a time suck. So if you want to use article marketing to build authority, publish your articles where people will actually read them.

As far as my testing goes, there are only two places where people actually read articles online. They are

• EzineArticles.com
• Docstoc.com

Some people have also found real readers on ScribD.com. So you may try your luck there. Just be sure to track.

As for the other 10,387 other article directories online, use them for link building.

So that’s it folks… My first post in 2010. Article marketing still works in 2010. It’s true because I wrote it down.

Cute blog title — Alex Tran. Other than that, why would anyone want to put their name as the title of their blog post? Bad form aside, I am using this as an illustration of how to rank for a keyword phrase like your name.

A while ago, I wrote that the two things that a website needs in order to survive in the wild are content and links. It is still as true today as it was when I wrote that article. Since search engine spiders are nothing but fancy “if-then-else” programs, you need to feed them what they expect to “see” according to their knowledge base. For your content to count and get ranked highly in the search engine results, it needs to 1) contain your chosen keyword, and 2) have links with your keyword as the anchor text.

Most people think that these links need to come from external websites. This is true from my observation. Ideally, externally links from reputable sites count a lot to the search engine spiders. But I have also observed that links from within your own website count too.

For example, if I wanted to rank for the keyword Alex Tran, and didn’t have an external source where I could link from, I could use my own website for links. By putting my keyword as anchor text and pointing them to my homepage, I could alert the spiders that my homepage is about my keyword.

This article, in fact, is a working example of this technique. I used the keyword in the title, the description, and twice in this body of the content. I have one link with my keyword pointed back to my homepage.

Keep in mind that this technique may not stick. In other words, for long standing listing on the first page of Google, you will also need external links. But for short-term effect, this technique does the trick.

Writing advice? Here’s some subjective, but practical points you can use today

Advice on writing is found in abundance all over the net. I’ve read a lot of it, thinking it never hurts to build on your skills. However, most of the writing advice I’ve read tends towards a book-of-rules sort of information, from writing a query to dealing with editors. As for the actual craft, there’s little to be found in terms of short, snappy tidbits you can read quickly and put into practice immediately. Here, we hope to deliver just that, writing advice you can use right now.

Write to your audience! While you’ve probably heard this before, it is paramount to any degree of writing success. If you’re writing about weight loss, your readers want to lose weight, right? You need to understand where they’re coming from in order to give them useful insights that are encouraging, practical and will help them achieve their goal. If you’re writing about a health condition, do the research to find little-known facts which they can present to their doctor. If you’re writing for children, avoid complicated sentence structures and big words.

This bit of writing advice might take a bit of getting used to, but it will make your writing far more lively. Be visual, create images of what you’re writing about, before you begin writing. If you’re writing a piece on kitchen renovation ideas, take a look around your own kitchen. You can mentally do a complete makeover of your own kitchen. Put all those ideas, in short descriptions in a loose outline form. Then expand on each with relevant detail. This also makes your writing flow easily and helps keep your writing organized.

When you write, be genuine in your “voice.” A natural style makes your reader feel personally connected with you, as well as making your writing more interesting and engaging, which is why they’re reading it!

Another bit of writing advice pertains to the online venue. Online writing is a bit different than in print. Unless you’re writing a scholastic piece, cultivate a more colloquial style for your online pieces. It’s more like talking in an everyday manner, such as conversing with friends. You can take a few liberties with grammar – just a few!

Your reader is reading for entertainment and/or information. Humor is good. It never hurts to throw in a small funny every now and then. Getting a chuckle out of your reader leaves them feeling slightly more satisfied for having read the story.

If you’re writing for money, you absolutely must be disciplined and manage your time. Time is of the essence, if you hope to make a living. If you’re working from home, it’s essential that you convince your family and friends that you do have a real job and you must spend real time doing it. Establish your working hours and stick to your guns. Ask any freelancer. This is the most common problem, and it needs to be sorted out.

Now, this next bit of writing advice may seem to fly in the face of my previous point, but flexibility is also a signature of a serious writer. If you’ve got a deadline you can only meet by working late, you’ve got to do it. If you’ve got to take care of family business on Tuesday, plan to work on Saturday.

If you don’t already keep an ongoing journal, begin today. It doesn’t need to be long and arduous and it can be about anything you like. Just write in it every day. It can be very therapeutic, reduces some of the daily stress and makes you a better writer, over time.

The finale to this writing advice capsule is: Read, read and read some more! This will do more for you as a writer than you’d ever imagine.