As resume writers, we spend all day writing. So it makes sense that it can be difficult to get "psyched" to do more writing. But writing articles about job search topics is a quick and easy way to attract new clients. And, other than your investment of your time and energy, it doesn't cost anything. There are plenty of places to "publish" your articles that will pay off.
How can article writing boost traffic to your website -- and your income?
There are dozens of free article websites out there. The article on the free content site contains a link to your own website. Readers, after reading your articles, may choose to click on the link and pay you an unexpected visit.
Having your articles on the free content sites is also making these articles available to other webmasters who may wish to publish that article on their site. One of my articles (not on a job search topic, but careers topics are hugely republished!!) -- published to
GoArticles.com -- has already been picked up by five other blogs. Article writing can increase your Google profile.
How will people know to contact you?
If other websites do pick up your articles, your article will include a link back to your site. (You write a "resource box" for your articles -- a simple 3-4 sentence bio for the end of the article that explains who you are and how they can contact you.) And anyone who reads the article on that site can still click on the link to visit your site.
As the list of your published articles grow larger -- and more and more of them appear on different websites -- the total number of links to your site increases also. Major search engines are placing a lot of significance on incoming links to websites so they can determine the importance of a certain site. The more incoming links the website has, the more importance search engines attaches to it. This will then increase your website's placement in the search results.
The links that your articles have achieved will mean more potential resume clients for you. Even if visitors only browse through, you never know if they might be in need of what you are offering in the future. (Be sure to have a way to
capture email addresses of website visitors, and consider offering affiliate products -- like resume distribution services -- on your site as well.)
Article writing establishes credibility
There are also those who know they need a resume writer, but can't decide yet among the many resume writing services online. If they stumble upon one of your articles, they may decide you are just the expert to help them. (But remember this mantra when developing your article content: "Teach, don't preach.")
Search engines do not just index the websites, they also index published articles. They also index any article that is written about your own website's topic. So once someone searches for that same topic, the list of results will have your site or may even show the articles that you have written. Don't forget to rewrite the article a bit (change the headline and opening paragraph at a minimum), and post it on your own website or blog too! (Although those who study Google's search algorithms say that Google doesn't like duplicate content, in my experience, there are few resume writers who would be harmed by syndicating their articles on free article directory sites as well as on their own content platforms.)
Article marketing has an enormous return on investment. Your published articles + the search engines = traffic to your website.
It is no wonder why many resume writers are deciding to take the time to write more articles about their site than doing other means of promotion. Syndicating articles is a strategy that propelled
Kevin Donlin to his current stature as a nationally recognized job search expert. Article marketing increases your "know, like, and trust" factor among prospective clients.
Article writing helps you reach a national market (outside your geographic area)
Since many people are now taking their buying needs online -- including working with resume writers outside their geographic area -- having your website rank higher on the search engines through article writing is one way of letting them know about you and your resume writing services. It's especially effective if you concentrate your writing on niche areas -- for example, financial jobs, or technology jobs, or federal resumes. All of these have strong keywords and make great content for associated websites and blogs (in those industries).
The good thing about writing careers-targeted articles is that you can write about things that people would want to know about. People want to know how they can be more effective in their job search, networking, and salary negotiation efforts.
Try writing some articles and you may be surprised in the surge in site traffic, link popularity, and interest that results. And don't forget to recycle those articles on your own website and blog.