I recently wrote about the difficulty we face in attempting meet two objectives in content marketing.  In a quick summary, the problem is that we frequently want to use links in our articles to our “money pages” for the purposes of optimizing for search engines, but the readers are not yet at the purchasing stage in terms of their mental set as they are out gathering information (the reason they found our syndicated article in the first place)..  In that article, I coupled that complexity with another related issue:  With good website design, each page should have a single purpose.  That purpose is to satisfy our visitor’s desire.  In other words, we should not [deliver a prospect to our money (product) page until they already want to go there--in other words, they're ready to buy.]

I did not offer a solution in that original article.  Simply bringing the problem to the attention of article marketers was my goal in that previous piece.  With this article, I’ll try to bring some resolution to the dilemma.

Two ways to solve the problem present themselves.  The first option is to ignore the rule of website design for marketing purposes and have our landing pages attempt to offer two different objectives (both learning more and buying) for our readers who click through.  The other is to provide two kinds of links in our articles.  One of those link types will take the clicker to a landing page filled with valuable, additional content and an opt-in form encouraging the visitor to get even more information by signing up for our list, while the other link category will direct the visitor to a product (or purchasing) page.  In these cases, our anchor text must make clear what to expect on the landing page.

When presented with these two options, I recommend the second.  Allow me to elaborate on why I endorse this approach and what the respective landing page for each type of link will contain.

Recall that the readers of our syndicated article want to gather information.  If we want to entice them to click a link to actually come to our site, we must promise even more information that is pertient to them.  Of course, we always follow through with our promises or we shall immediately lose credibility.  Thus, our article marketing content must be interesting, accurate and informative, but it must leave the impression that we still have more to tell them.  Hence we link to a content page.

At the same time, within the syndicated article, we let our readers know that once they have gathered all the information they need to make a buying decision, they will find the product or service that will solve their problems right there on our site.  By including that information, we have an opportunity to link to one of our selling pages largely for the purpose of search engine optimization.

It is easiest to achieve the task of incorporating these two types of links within articles that we syndicate directly to other sites within our niche, because we can place those links contextually.  However, if we limit our article distribution to article directories, we can still accomplish our task by cleverly using a well written resource box to provide the rationale for linking to both kinds of pages.

On of first type of linked page, we will move our prospects along the decision continuum.  Remember that the visitors have already been persuaded to accept our initial offer by clicking on our link, so they are in an agreeable frame of mind.  They are no long “just readers,” they have become serious prospects.  We shall offer them a link to the page where they can actually buy, but we focus primarily on getting them to take one more small step by asking for the contact information in exchange for the promise of even more valuable content. 

In our syndicated article we use our content to sell our expertise.  On the linked page, we’re selling our credibility and integrity.  Once we have their contact information we can begin selling our product, subtly at first and then with increasing urgency.

Remember that the other type of link takes the clicker (or the search engine robot) to our page where we directly sell our product or service.  Since the purpose of that link is primarily search engine optimization, it is especially important that our anchor (linking) text is at once an accurate description of the selling page and a useful long tail keyword with implicit commercial intent.

As marketers, all of our efforts are toward making the sale.  As writers we must make the sale without disturbing the flow of our content.  First we sell the article readers on their need for more information and convince them that they can find that information by clicking our link.  Then, with the second link type, we need to convince the search engine spiders that we have provided anchor text that is an accurate name for the content that we have on our selling page to which that link leads.  Thus our anchor text and the landing page content must be very similar.

I recently wrote about the difficulty we face in attempting resolve a contradiction in article marketing.  In a nutshell, the problem is that we often want to use links in our articles to our “money pages” for the purposes of search engine optimization, but the readers are not yet at the buying stage in terms of their mental set as they are out gathering information (the reason they found our syndicated article)..  I pointed out that this is compounded by the marketing commandment that any effective page should satisfy the major goal of our website visitor–at that time.

Simply bringing the problem to the attention of article marketers was my goal in that previous piece.  Today, I’ll go that one additional step and give one answer to the quandary.

Two ways to solve the problem present themselves.  One is to violate the rule of website design by letting our linked page offer two alternatives (both learning more and buying) for our readers who click through.  The other is to provide two kinds of links in our articles.  One link option or type will take the clicker to a landing page dedicated entirely to providing valuable information (and an opportunity to learn even more by signing up for our newsletter); the other type of link leads to our “money page,” primarily for the purpose of search engine optimization.  Of course we must make clear from the context of the link what the landing page will offer.

I recommend the second of those two options.  I’ll explain why I believe that this approach is a workable solution, and then I’ll describe, in general terms, the landing page of each of those article links.

Remember that our distributed article attracted the readers because those readers intended to gather useful information.  The only likely way we are going to attract those readers to our site is to offer them even more information than our article provides.  Of course, we always follow through with our promises or we shall immediately lose credibility.  In order to encourage our readers to actually click our link, we must give them truly interesting and valuable information the first time, while simultaneously leaving them with the impression that there is still more to learn.  Hence we link to a content page.

We also want to move them along that decision making continuum by implying that there is a product or service that will provide the ultimate solution to their current problem.  By including that information, we have an opportunity to link to one of our selling pages largely for the purpose of search engine optimization.

It is always easier to logically include both types of links within our articles if we syndicate directly to websites that are within our general niche category; in those cases we can make our links contextual within the article, itself.  However, if we limit our article distribution to article directories, we can still accomplish our task by cleverly using a well written resource box to provide the rationale for linking to both kinds of pages.

On our content landing page, we focus upon bringing our readers much closer to the buying decision end of the decision making continuum.  We have already made progress by getting the readers to click the link in our syndicated article.  They are no long “just readers,” they have become serious prospects.  We shall offer them a link to the page where they can actually buy, but we really put most of our efforts into getting them to give us contact information in exchange for a free buyers guide, a free report, or a free short course. 

In our syndicated article we use our content to sell our expertise.  What we sell on our linked (landing) page is our integrety, by establish our credibility.  Once we have their contact information we can begin selling our product, subtly at first and then with increasing urgency.

Remember that the other type of link takes the clicker (or the search engine robot) to our page where we directly sell our product or service.  The primary purpose of that link is increasing our SEO, so we must be especially careful to research and have anchor text that is a long tail keyword with implicit commercial intent.

As marketers, all of our efforts are toward increasing revenue through a sale.  As writers we must make the sale without disrupting the prose of our content.  First we sell the article readers on their need for more information and convince them that they can find that information by clicking our link.  Then, with the second link type, we need to demonstrate to the search engine spiders that we have provided linking text that is a truthful name for the content that we have on our selling page to which that link leads.  Thus our anchor text and the landing page content must be similar.

Quite simply, we put a lot of effort into article marketing in hopes of achieving one simple objective: Get more traffic!

Our syndicated article help us in this way in two potential ways.  First, readers might click the links contextually embedded within our articles or within the resource box at the article’s end, and, second, search engine spiders will find our link and assign greater import to the linked page within our site, thereby eventually providing us with visitors who come from searches. 

Unfortunately those two ways of achieving our single objective are not always complimentary to each other.  The pages on our site to which we might want to send the article readers may not be our most desired pages for maximizing our search optimization resources.  Let me explain this problem in a little more detail.

Often we pay the most SEO attention to pages that generate revenue directly.  We are optimizing, in those cases, for searchers who are in a buying state of mind. 

Our distributed article readers are not yet in they buying frame; instead they are often in the very early phases of information gathering.  That’s why they came to our article rather than going directly to a store or service provider.

Let’s balance those two visitor mental frames against the way we typically sculpt a page on a business site.  One fundamental rule of marketing that applies to a good website design for a business is that each page within our site should be constructed in a way that contributes to creating only one action on the part of the prospect.  That action might be buying or it might be signing up for our mailing list in order to receive additional information (that we may hope, in turn, to use to move them closer to deciding upon our product or service).  So, if we absolutely obey the marketing rule, it is logically impossible to both optimize our most important pages and satisfy the reader of our article–can we?

That is the seemingly unwinnable choice that faces us.  Should we direct our article marketing strategy on SEO or on providing a landing page for our readers that will offer them what they truly desire at their current stage of decision making (or procrastination, in some cases)?  Should we incorporate two objectives within a single page on our site, or ought we make a choice to abide by common sense marketing principles?

As we develop our overall article syndication strategy and the tactics of writing a single article, we must be attentive to these competing options.

Perhaps you are planning to begin an online business. If so, you need to be sure to avoid the mistakes made by others. Recognize that not all advice is necessarily good advice, especially if the tips are carried to the extreme. Always gather multiple opinions.

Anyone who has been in Internet marketing for longer than a week understands that it is important to develop multiple streams of income. Some beginning marketers can take this admonition too far, too quickly. I have seen sites that have products for sale, links to affiliate’s products and contextual advertising all on the same site. Sometimes all three appear on the same page.

We know that eventually each visitor to your site is going to leave. The key to successful Internet marketing is to get them to leave in the way that maximizes your revenue. All paths out of your site, or off a given page of your site, are not equal. On a single page and within the site as a whole, your design, your content, your navigation system, and every element should be designed to get your visitors to leave you using that single method that is most beneficial to you.

If you have products that you want your visitors to buy, your goal is to have them eventually end up on your “thank you” page after checking out with their full shipping carts. Everything else that you do on that site should be directed toward getting them to that page.

If you want them to purchase an affiliate product, you want them to get off your own site only by clicking the link to your affiliate. With contextual advertising, you have a similar purpose in that you want them to click one of the ads as they exit. However, the ways in which you assist your visitors in deciding how to exit your site is very different in affiliate marketing from the method you implicitly use in making an ad click the attractive option.

A person involved in affiliate marketing knows the product’s strengths and weaknesses. The task is to highlight the needs of your site visitor so that it becomes obvious that the needs can be met by the affiliate’s product, or, at least, to leave the visitor wanting more information that can be obtained by visiting the vendor’s site (through your link to it).

You don’t know (in most cases) what products or services are going to be offered on the contextual ads that are placed on your site. Indeed, those ads will change frequently. In your copy and design, you must meet the expectations of the visitor who came to your site with a purpose. At the same time, you must let them know that your content has not answered all the questions that they should be asking. Hopefully, one of the ads that appear on the page while your visitor is there will seem to provide answers to the needs that your content has stimulated within the visitor, so that she or he will click on it.

So mixing potential revenue streams on the same page and, I believe, on the same site, means that you are working against yourself. You don’t want your prospective customers putting your product into a shopping cart and then disappearing from your site to pursue an affiliate product or by clicking on an ad. Instead, consider eventually building three sites (but not all at once). Work on your own product site. Find products that are complementary with your own product and endorse those on a separate site. Finally, if you feel you must, build a site for contextual advertising. (Personally, I would prefer to put the articles in a potential contextual advertising site into either my product site or affiliate site to draw visitors to the virtual locale where I could make a bigger profit, exchanging dollars for the cents that I would make with an ad click.)

Here are two exceptions to my advice, above. On your product site, you might want to use your thank you page to promote an affiliate offer. I sometimes place contextual advertising on my links pages. My thinking is that any visitors visiting my links have already decided to leave my site anyway, so there is no harm having them leave me a little money on their way out.