Fueling The
Ideal - Marketing With Articles
By: Bonnie Jo Davis
It's that time of year again ... pages of
backpacks, notebooks and back-to-school
clothing fill every circular that hits your
mailbox. And you're off to the races ... the
races being the mall, plus every other store
in between.
You're in the same spot you were last year
this time, getting ready to head off to work
while your kids head off to school. Back to
hugging them goodbye in the morning and
seeing them just long enough in the evening
to say I love you and tuck them in.
Wouldn't it be fantastic if the easier
schedule of the summer lasted all year long?
No more spending all your hours away from
your kids just to earn enough money to cover
the essentials and pay daycare?
Take it from someone who knows both sides of
the deal here and believe that there's no
time like right now to make the transition
from the regular grind to working from home.
As the proud Mom of a 2005 honors graduate
who's heading off to college soon, I know
first hand what a major impact working from
home has had on his success.
When my son was very young, I worked a
full-time job away from home, plus at least
one part-time job on weekends. This meant
that my son was in daycare while I worked.
As a single parent who didn't receive child
support (for years) though, I had no other
choice.
A few years later in the 1990's, I decided
there had to be a better way so I started a
part-time medical billing service from my
home. This allowed me to give up the outside
part-time job and gave me the practical
means of earning the much-needed income.
Best of all, it gave me the priceless
opportunity to take care of my son while I
worked. I quickly saw that I was onto
something great here ... what a concept!
I moved from the east coast to California
with my son in 1995 where my first full-time
job was with a consulting firm co-owned by a
professional speaker. After some
negotiations with my boss, we entered into
an agreement by which I would work mornings
in the office, leave to pick up my son from
school in the afternoons and work from home
the rest of the day. It worked out
incredibly well ... so well in fact, that in
2000, I decided to leave the consulting firm
and start my own full-time home based
virtual assistant business.
Starting from scratch, I knew that gaining
exposure for my business was essential if I
wanted to be successful in my new venture. I
also knew that traditional forms of
marketing are very expensive and quickly
gobble up the profits, particularly in the
early stages. However, I also remembered a
technique that I used successfully for my
former employer.
Besides being a consultant and professional
speaker, he was also an author, so his goals
included increasing his number of speaking
engagements and selling more copies of his
books. He hoped to accomplish these goals by
establishing himself as an expert in his
industry, which meant having his work
published by every major magazine in his
field.
Committed to accomplishing his goals, he
gave me a list of those publications, so I
drafted a query letter based on one of his
story ideas and e-mailed it to the editor of
one of the magazines. The editor responded
in short notice and offered my employer an
article assignment. They published my boss's
article soon afterwards and featured it on
the cover of the magazine, producing an
onslaught of calls to the office!
Writing and submitting that one article
produced several paid speaking engagements.
This new marketing intrigue fascinated me,
so I fine-tuned my article submission
process creating logs and checklists, and
within a few months, my boss had
accomplished his goal of publication in
every magazine on his list!
Even online and in-print publications we
hadn't contacted began calling and e-mailing
in request of articles. The results of
writing and submitting articles was so
successful that we put other major marketing
techniques on hold so my boss could travel
to his paid speaking engagements.
As my interest and experience grew in this
area of marketing, I knew that if it worked
for my boss that it would work for other
professionals as well. Soon, I was earning
over half my income handling article
submissions for other professionals.
Then I realized that if this technique
worked for other professionals that it would
work for me too in building my own business.
And it has worked for me!
This same marketing technique, which I call
marketing with articles, has been the
success behind my own business. I've used it
to expand my client base and build my
virtual assistance business into a solid
income-generating company, which has allowed
me to work full-time at home for the past
five years. As my son is getting ready to
leave for college, my personal goal now is
to help other parents be successful in
achieving their career goals while living
the dream of staying home with their
children.
The concept of marketing with articles does
not require a professional writer. Anyone
can be successful in building their business
and gaining credibility as an expert in
their industry or area of expertise by
writing and submitting free reprint articles
to online and in-print publications. The key
to success is in reaching your target
audience with resourceful information that
is valuable to them.
Editors of both online and in-print
publications are in constant demand of
quality content for their readers. They have
a continuing need to publish content that
appeals directly to their target audience,
which is where you come in. By writing and
submitting free reprint articles to
publications that reach readers in your
market, you have the opportunity to
establish yourself as an expert and gain a
generous amount of exposure for your
business.
True, you aren't earning money for actually
writing the articles, but you are earning a
huge payoff here. Not only do you establish
your credibility as an expert in your
industry or area of expertise, but you earn
significant exposure for yourself and your
business. Most editors will include your
byline with your articles, which gives you
the opportunity to include your name and
contact information, plus the URL of your
web site. Readers come to recognize your
name and relate it with certain topics. The
more articles you write and submit, the more
exposure you gain!
The marketing with articles technique helped
turn my dream of working from home full-time
into a precious reality that has made a
positive impact for both my son and me. As
he goes off to college, he'll be leaving
with all the benefits of having had a mom
who found a way to support him financially
without the high cost of being away from him
all day. Me, I'll have the benefit of
knowing that the bittersweet wind I'm
putting beneath his wings comes from my
deepest desires for his complete success!
(c) 2005, Davis Virtual Assistance. Reprint
rights granted to all venues so long as
article and by-line are reproduced intact
with links made live.
About the Author
Bonnie Jo Davis is a full-time
work-from-home mom who built her business on
the concept of marketing with articles. An
accomplished writer and marketing
strategist, she offers over ten years of
success in writing and submitting articles
for gaining exposure and growing your
business. Visit http://www.ArticleSubmissionSites.com
to sign-up for her fr*e monthly e-zine - the
only one that focuses on article marketing
