To be honest, you’re not going to sell much from your aticle marketing efforts unless you fulfill all the goals of an article. You need to achieve each of the goals in every article.

You need to achieve seven main goals to get people to click on your affiliate or website link. First people need to click on your link, then they need to buy from you. This article will outline each of the goals. Subsequent artilces will give you more details.

1. Attract The Reader’s Attention.

There are two aspects to gaining attention of your potential customers. First the subject of your article needs to be so interesting that they can’t help but read further. Second, the headline and the first couple of sentences need to quickly and clearly communicate what your subject is.

2. Get Them To Read The Whole Article.

Once you’ve got your prospect’s attention you need to keep it by saying something new. You need to say something that they didn’t know before or say it in a way that they hadn’t seen before. You need to give people a valid reason to keep reading or they will just move on without finishing. This is known as the “news value” of an article.

3. By The Time Your Prospect Finishes The Article They Should Respect You.

Whatever you say in your article should sound credible. Quite often you will be in a situation where you disagree with the commonly held views of your audience. If you just blurt out your disagreement, people will get turned off and they will stop reading. Make sure whatever you say is solid and believeable. Gradually lead people to the conclusion you want them to come to. Always start off being credible and keep your comments credible as your article leads people to a new conclusion that they may not have accepted at the beginning.

4. Make Your Reader Comfortable Feeling That You Understand Them By The Time They Finish Your Article.

If you expect to sell anything you first need to have a rapport with your prospect. Every salesman learns this as a first principle in his training but all the courses on article marketing ignore it completely. In his course on copywriting, Joe Vitale calls it “maintaining their trance”. Robert Collier calls it “staying in step with the conversation going on in their mind” in his Letter Book.

5. Make Sure Your Article Is Worthwhile Reading

Reward the reader for spending time reading your article. If the reader feels they learned something valuable from you they will thank you by following your advice to click on your affiliate link. The more value you provide the better.

6. Orient The Reader To Want To Buy The Product You Will Ultimately Recommend.

This is called pre-selling. It’s the basis of all successful article marketing. Selling is done in the sales letter. Your article isn’t the place to be selling but you can provide information and insight that helps people understand the value of the features of the product you will be selling.

7. Motivate Them To Click On Your Site-Link In The Resource Box.

This is the simplest goal to achieve if you have successfully achieved the previous goals. All you have to do is ask them to click on the link provided. Just make sure you ask for them to take action. You always have to ask for a specific action or they won’t click on the link.

The trick is to get people to click on the link when they are already interested in buying your product. Writing articles so people click on your link and buy something is more of a science than an art. If your articles meet all of the criteria listed on this page you will be amazed as to how much profit you can make from article marketing.

Subsequent articles will contain great detail so you are clear on what to write to be successful.