People love free how-to information - and the media loves to give it to them. Watch your newspaper, favorite magazines and the evening news and you'll see how-to information on everything from losing weight to contacting UFO's using only your toaster, a cucumber, and duct tape.
The truth is, the media loves how-to articles for lots of reasons. They make the media source appear to have the public's best interest at heart. They're great space fillers. They have good information that is short and to the point. And almost anyone will eventually find an article that will meet their needs (though why anyone would use a cucumber to contact aliens is beyond me!) But the point is, many people look to how-to articles as a quick and easy source for basic information.
So why not use them to your advantage? Start writing some how-to articles today!
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A good how-to article will attract the attention of many people and businesses. The advantages are obvious. Most important - the press is more likely to run a how-to article from you than to carry your standard press release. Plus, it makes you an expert, so the press will come to you for more information on this topic.
And this works for readers too, who will see you as an expert, creating a powerful positioning for you in the future.
We have one engineering client who instructs each of their three engineers that they are to each get an article into one of the industry's trade journals once a month. This instruction wasn't taken seriously until it showed up in their performance reviews - now every single month sees three separate how-to articles from this company in the trade journals. This has not only set them apart as experts in their industry, but it's also a tremendous addition to their web site, with over 150 powerful articles online. They credit these articles with generating over 20% of their business annually.
Want to learn more about how to build your business through writing great how-to articles? Special Report #6 will tell you more: How to write How-to articles that Position You as an Expert
Posted June 23, 2004
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