• By Tiva Kelly
• Published 06/1/2008
• Article Writing

At least you hope someone is when it comes to your articles. At the heart of affiliate marketing is a need to connect with your readers through your information articles. Readers who happen upon your content, in whatever way, want to stay where they land and learn something. They want vibrant articles that keep them reading. These types of articles are entertaining while being informative. Write engaging articles that call readers to action by considering the following tips: * Learn everything possible about your affiliate product, then some more. When you arm yourself with that much knowledge about your product you will write intelligently to customers’ concerns. * Learn everything about your niche market; those customers who are looking for what you have to sell. Understand them. Know what they want from your affiliate product and why. When you write your article, expand on these wants by writing about them in detail from a position of authority. Let them know you’re well versed in the product and have the useful information they need to make a buying decision. * Learn everything you can about your competitors’ product. When you have broad knowledge about competitors’ versions of your affiliate product, you can address questions about the product in general in your articles. Show the benefits of your version of product compared to others in the marketplace. Your articles have credibility because they show you have researched the market as a whole and understand it.

* Within the article itself, give useful information that is not the general, generic content typically seen about your affiliate product area. Consider what people probably al

ready know about your topic. Don’t give them that information again. Give them what they don’t know about your product field. Avoid being spammy, though, or publishers will not use your article. Tell them about unique benefits offered beyond what they usually think about in that product area. Get them thinking outside the box about that field of products. Armed with in-depth knowledge about your product field you give them this unique information. Here’s where you come across as an expert and not a salesperson who is hawking a product he knows little about except the obvious. * Adapt a tone that lets the reader know you are not auditioning to be a presenter on The Shopping Channel. You don’t want them thinking that you are pressuring them to make a buying decision “before they’re all gone!” They’ve been there, done that, with too many other self-promotion articles they’ve read and really don’t want to be there doing that again. The tone of your article needs to be authoritative with respect for your readers’ intelligence. * Encourage a click-through with indications that more information is available on your website. With useful, relevant information that establishes you as an expert, your readers will know there’s more where this article came from. At the end of your article, they will see links showing where you are. You stand a good chance they’ll go there. They’ll go there because you filled an information gap and they want to drive across that bridged gap to where more information rests.

When you engage your readers, you build on that relationship. You get them to take action, to make a personal commitment to you as their product information provider. When they see you as a storehouse of knowledge and a product expert, they will want to form a relationship with you. So, I hear you’re engaged.