20th October 2008
Patricia Jones

There are lots of travel website owners who write travel articles for article marketing, many of whom do not give themselves the best shot at successful results. In this article I will explain why some travel writers let themselves down and how I believe they can improve their results.

The Nitty Gritty

First of all article marketers submit articles to article directories as part of their website promotions - that and much of what I'm saying here applies for any niche. Ideally article marketers are working towards the following:

· Long term backlinks pointing to their sites
· Viral effect of articles being re-published on authority sites and ezines
· Click throughs on those links
· Establish themselves as an authority in their niche
· Credibility in the eyes of readers

The first 3 are about getting more traffic to your sites, the last 3 are about benefiting from the traffic. Article marketers will not benefit from their work if they produce:

· Poorly written articles
· Show a lack of first hand knowledge
· Ruin their credibility by misleading and disappointing readers

It's all common sense but not every writer gets it. In order to explain more I will use some potential scenarios.

Information Searches

Jess and Mick have booked a cheap flight on the Internet to the Canary Islands. As they need accommodation it's only natural that they do a search for the type of accommodation that they want. They use 'Canary Island holiday property rentals' in their first search and are pleased to see an article titled 'Canary Island Holiday Property Rentals' at the top of the search results.

Disappointment hits them when they find that the article is about the Canary Islands in general and has nothing to do with holiday property rentals except for a link in the resource box. The author has lost credibility because their title is misleading and the only links that are likely to be clicked on are the Google ads that you generally find on the article directory pages or more likely Jess and Mick click away and continue their search.

They finally find the information that they really want and accommodations sorted out they now want information about hiring a car. Their search is Canary Islands car hire, the top link is an article titled 'Canary Islands Car Hire'. Imagine how annoyed Jess and Mick feel to find yet another general article about the Canary Islands and the only thing concerning car hire is a link in the author bio - goodbye credibility, article and click throughs!

Publisher Searches

Mathew is building a website about the Caribbean. He has some of his own material but decides to visit an article directory and find some content to help build his site faster. He finds a really great article about visiting Jamaica and would love to use it but the title 'Cheap Flights To The Caribbean' is a problem. Yes you've guessed right - the only reference to cheap flights is in the author bio. Mathew decides against using the article on his website because he has ethics and does not want to mislead his site visitors.

He then spots an article titled 'Fabulous Jamaica Resort Review'. Mathew expects a genuine review from somebody who has visited the resort, but he doesn't get that. Instead there is a brochure like article extolling the virtues of a hotel or all inclusive resort that just happens to be linked to in the author bio - and an article that shows no indication of the author ever setting foot on the beautiful island of Jamaica. There is also a sentence recommending a website for more information within the article body and that website just happens to belong to the author - goodbye credibility.

Reality Check

With these scenarios the authors have thought that they were being clever and used the best keywords and phrases in the titles for what they are promoting in the author bio. Fair enough if the article content matches the titles and key phrases - shooting yourself in the foot article marketing if it doesn't.

If you promise a review of a resort you should deliver just that and not something that can be found on any travel brochure or travel site. A review should be an author's opinion written from experience and nothing less. Recommending your own websites in the article body not only spoils an article but is also a credibility hit.

If your misleading article is accepted on article directories do you want to benefit from the viral effect of your article being published on other websites and ezines? Would you want content on your website or ezine that is misleading or pure unpaid for advertising? I know that I wouldn't.

Any good and ethical sales person, and that includes Internet marketers know that to do well you need to build up trust with your prospective customers. You want your articles to work for you so start thinking about them from the point of view of a reader or publisher and you won't go far wrong.

The travel niche is huge and nowadays many travellers search the Internet for information before they book their dream holidays. The majority of travellers know nothing about Internet marketing, article marketing or key phrases. All they know is what they see - that they are being misled. Would you click on a link and buy from an author or seller who is misleading you?

Patricia also owns the top travel article directory Articles Abroad and general subject article directory BB Articles where authors may submit quality articles and publishers find free content.