Q. Can I sell my products in my articles or will people be offended? What about when I submit my articles to other websites. Will they publish them if I sell something?

A. Every piece of content you have should have a purpose that helps build your business. If you don't sell anything or ask people to subscribe to your mailing list, you are wasting your virtual real estate. I would worry less about offending people than producing results.

Besides, people who are offended by sales messages are not likely to ever become your customer.

As far as distributing your articles to other websites go, use your judgment. Many sites and mailing lists will publish your articles with a relevant product promo right in the article. If a site won't publish it, make sure that your article is copy is compelling enough to get the reader to check out your byline, which will include your call to action.

Speaking of bylines, don't tell people about your wife, your dog and your cat. Tell them where they can get information from you (i.e. sign up for your mailing list) and ask them to do it right away. You want people to take action after they read your article. I find brief bylines inspire the most action...as long as I tell the reader what to do when they're done reading.

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