The Ducks Are Hungry - How Article Marketing Works in a Crowd

Carol Palmatier works with mission-based organizations to help them utilize Web 2.0 tools to more effectively market their mission. She is the Words Girl at Graphix For Change, and owner/marketing consultant at Brandeur Marketing.

Like a flock of hungry ducks, online searchers will peck at any scrap they can find to get the right info. Throw them crackers. Write short articles about your area of expertise, and submit your articles to an article distribution service. It's how article marketing works to feed the ducks.

The ducks are hungry. And apparently they will eat anything. They've been hovering around my patio door, sounding highly annoyed that I'm not throwing bagel bits and bread crumbs their way.

They are almost frantic, swishing their bills through the damp grass, scarfing up whatever odd things they find.

I'm lucky enough to have a front row seat on Grand Traverse Bay at the moment, overlooking a sandy beach and a marsh full of waterfowl. I took a few days away to clear my head and get some writing done. And the ducks just wouldn't leave me alone.

Until...

The folks in the condo next door starting throwing crackers. Real, legitimate duck food. Now they are leaving behind the odd assortment of grass, bugs and who knows what at my door, and flocking over there for the bonanza.

The scene makes me think of online searchers, and their insatiable quest for information. You know how it happens; you enter a search term in Google or Yahoo! or one of the other search engines, and frantically peck at whatever scraps happen to come along in the search results. The problem is, some of it's edible; some of it is actually palatable; and some of it is not fit for human consumption. And when you do find a good source for reliable information, you go back again and again.

So how do you get your website or organization to be the "go to" source in your field? How do you get yourself in the first page of search results for those hungry ducks...er...potential visitors? It's as easy as throwing crackers.

Simply turn all that good info you already have (on your site, in your FAQs, in your ebooks, reports and white papers) into short (400-600 word) articles. Then distribute them, using a content or article distribution service. You simply enter the article once, and the article distribution service pushes it out to thousands of online publishers, editors, site owners and news groups. Your article gets widespread distribution, and keeps all those searching ducks well fed with palatable info.

The process is known as "article marketing", and it has an amazing lasting effect too. As you publish more and more good information, you become recognized as a leader in your industry. People will turn to you for dependable information, and not have to hunt so hard for the scraps out there.

I can see it happening already. The ducks have become bored and disappointed with my patio door, and keep returning back to the folks next door. The way returning customers, with their repeat business, will flock back to you for more good info. Doesn't that sound ducky?

Now, about those seagulls...