3 Article Marketing Lessons You Can Learn From A World Class Athlete
Every few years the greatest athletes in the world gather in a host country to compete in their chosen sports. Their displays of strength, grace and endurance capture the world's attention for 2 weeks, and each country rallies around it's athletes in a show of unbridled patriotism.
There are all sorts of lessons that we learn from these dedicated athletes, but I'd like to direct your attention to one man who continues to change the lives of people some 20 years after he came in last place in his race.
His name is Derek Redmond. He was Britain's strongest hope for winning a medal in the 400 metres sprint. He was at the top of his game, and he'd just set the British record. When he woke up that morning he felt like his dream just might come true that day.
But things didn't go according to plan. Shortly after the race started, Derek grabbed his leg and stopped running. In extreme pain, he had originally thought that someone had shot him with a gun, but then he realized that he had torn a hamstring.
His dream was over. All those years of working and training and denying himself the pleasures of life came to this day--Derek Redmond crumpled on the track while his competitors raced past him to the finish line.
But he didn't stay down for long. He was determined to finish, even if he had to cross the finish line hopping on one leg.
What can we learn about marketing with articles from this moving display of courage in the face of adversity?
Lesson 1 - You can't give up.
You start with grand ideas for your business, and you know that marketing your business is crucial to your success. But you're new to online marketing so you don't quite know what to expect. You may start with the ill-conceived idea that you should be able to submit one or two articles and then be ranked at the top of Google. Then, when that doesn't happen you give up, thinking that it's too hard and that you don't want to invest the effort.
Derek Redmond teaches us that you can't just quit when things get hard. Marketing a website requires consistent work--you need to write and submit articles on a consistent basis. You need to invest your time in creating quality content. It isn't easy, but it's also not terribly hard. It just requires a willingness to "stick to it".
Lesson 2 - The most memorable heroes don't always end up on the medal stand.
You may think of the pinnacle of article marketing success as having your website listed in the #1 spot in Google, in the same way that Derek Redmond imagined that his ultimate success would be to win a Gold medal.
I'd like you to change your outlook on your idea of "success" and expand it a bit, like Derek had to expand his idea of success. On that day, he showed great heroism just by getting up and continuing to work toward the finish line, even though he knew he would come in last place.
Your website may not be ranked anywhere near the #1 spot right now, but just like Derek you need to soldier on. Really, there is only one webpage that can hold the top ranking, and the rankings changs on a consistent basis. Don't let your website ranking discourage you--marketing is a long term race with many ups and downs, but slow and steady wins.
Lesson 3 - Don't become intimidated by competitors who are ahead of you.
It's the tendency for all of us--when we start anything new, we look around to evaluate how we're doing in comparison to others. Sometimes I hear people who are new to article marketing say that they feel so behind the pack, and others are learning faster than they are and making progress, and because of that they feel discouraged.
But it really doesn't help you any to compare your progress to other people's if doing so makes you want to quit trying. When Derek Redmond got up and started hobbling towards the finish line, everyone had already finished. By that point he wasn't thinking about his competitors--he was running that race for himself.
When you doing article marketing, you will be running your own race too--do it the best you can and don't give up. If you need to compare yourself to someone else, do it in a way that brings out the best in you and challenges you to get better at writing quality content and submitting articles on a consistent basis.
About the Author
Steve Shaw has helped thousands of business owners worldwide build traffic, leads and sales to their websites, and he wants to help you do the same - grab his free report giving you a blueprint for attracting sustainable, dirt-cheap, long-term, targeted traffic to any website ... including yours! Go now to http://www.submityourarticle.com/report - some people have used the same information to boost their traffic by up to 600%!
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