Build Your List and Your Business with Articles

Posted on January 20th, 2008 by Larry Pages Online

You’re probably wondering how someone can build a list with words on a page. You can’t really. But you can use them to send people to your squeeze page where all the list building begins. The way to build your list using words is by writing articles.

Starting an article seems hard, but it’s not really. Think about your niche, what about it interests you, and what you’re interested in learning more about yourself. That way, researching becomes fun for you, too. So, let’s say that you like hockey, all right? But what about hockey do you base your list upon? Maybe it’s the personalities, the players. You especially love to write about the great ones like Orr, Gretsky, and Lemieux. So, you choose Lemieux this time and wonder what you’ll write about him.

Then what?

Begin at Google. Type “Mario Lemieux” into the search box, and see what results you get. On top, you may see an entry from Wikipedia. OK, that’s a good place to get some basic information. When you hit the page there, you find out that Lemieux now owns the team. He played for the Pittsburgh Penguins for 17 years, and when they filed bankruptcy in 1999, he took the team over. That’s pretty interesting. Why? How did it happen?

So, your next search is for the “Pittsburgh Penguins.” The team has been around a very long time, and even had a different name until the late 1960s, but down the page a bit, you see a section about Mario and find that he took over the team because he was owed so much back pay that he was their largest creditor. Boom! You have some good background information. But you need facts. Finding stuff on the Web is OK, but you have to be careful when you’re writing articles that what you put into them is real.

But you’re on the Internet! You can go to several different places to get information about what was happening when it happened almost a decade ago. Try the Pittsburgh newspapers, like the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette or the Pittsburgh Tribune Review. At the Post Gazette, you can run a search for penguins bankruptcy and come away with a whole list of articles to read more information. This is a credible source. Magazines are usually another place to get good factual information, and you can access thousands of issues, current and past, of hundreds of magazines right through your computer with your library card. Almost any topic you can think of has available research material online.

When you have all your facts together, decide on your main point of discussion. Perhaps you might write about how he was the brightest star on the ice at that time, and he wasn’t being paid. You can explain why the expenses for the team were so high, what Lemieux got and didn’t get, and how he ended up owning a major hockey franchise. Begin with a strong lead:

Which Pittsburgh Penguin played so well that he’s already made it to the Hall of Fame? He never asked to be traded. He never stopped playing his heart out, but guess what? He never was paid all the money he was owed, either. So, what kept him hanging on?

I haven’t researched this topic thoroughly because I’m not going to write an article about Lemieux, but you see where I’m going, I hope. Start with an interesting paragraph.

So, how does this wwww.myfirstlist.com/” target=”_blank help you with list building? You’ve written an interesting story. So, now you write a great resource or author’s bio box to go with it. This is where the marketing comes in:

Bob Smith is an avid hockey fan and a hockey history buff. You can read more of his interesting information about the old days of hockey in his newsletter at Bob’s Hockey bobshockey.com.

Do you like hockey? Would you join Bob’s list to find out more if you liked the article you read? Sure, you would. Once people have joined your list and are enjoying the information you’re giving them, you sell them related hockey products and make money, too. It’s amazing how well this works.

But don’t stop at one article. Try to write one or two a week, and keep them coming. Not only will it help you to build your list, it will help your web site to gain rank with the search engines from all the one-way links pointing back to it. Articles are great! Start writing them and see if it doesn’t help your sales and conversions, too.

Tellman Knudson, CEO of OvercomeEverything, Inc., is a master list builder and well-known for his first project, List Crusade. Tellman teaches you his system for

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