In the previous article in this series, we looked at why you may want to consider getting some of your content published regularly in newspapers.

By having a weekly, biweekly or monthly "tip of the week" type article, you can attract some serious local attention and recognition. It will be a natural consequence that traffic to your site should increase.

It is more exposure and recognition than you could ever get by paying for with a large ad in the paper.

You are winning them over with your content, not trying to convince them of your marketing message through an ad.

There are a few ways to greatly increase your chances for landing a column. We will also take a look at things you should make sure you do to maximize the exposure this column can provide for you.

First Impressions Mean Everything

You want to do your homework before you ever think of approaching them.

The goal is to understand your "customer" (the newspaper) and why they want to "buy" your product (why publish your column?). It boils down to the "What's In It For Them?" theory.

By knowing what your newspaper wants to provide its customers, you can make your approach to the newspaper MUCH more effective.

You need to:

• buy a weeks worth of the newspaper you are going to approach

NOTE: you want to make sure you have at least every day of the week from your sample. Different sections are rotated through depending on the day of the week. For example the regional newspaper in my area runs a "Business" section every Monday. If I hadn't seen Monday's paper, I would never know about that section.

• closely study the guest articles which already appear in the paper in different sections. In particular you want to:

study the style of the articles which get published. Are they lighthearted, strictly informative, typically "top 10" style lists, or personal observations by the authors?

Pay attention to the layout of the column and the way that the topic for that day is addressed. Is it started out with a controversial or thought provoking question? Or perhaps they get right to the point in an editorial type manner.

You should see a pretty distinct style start to emerge with the different columns in there.

Creating Your Article

Create a portfolio of a few articles. These should closely fit the look and feel of what the newspaper is comfortable with.

Don't EVER, EVER try to sell or push your business or service. The newspapers are looking for useful content, not opportunities to put in "a plug" for your business.

Your goal is to impress people with your helpfulness and make it easy for them to contact you further if they had some related question.

Maximizing Your Exposure

Most papers do not mind you putting some sort of contact information at the end of your article. Of course you want to check with them first, but you should already have an idea by looking at other columns in there.

You should strongly consider making a page specific to the newspaper to mention in your article.

One effective way to do it is likely to be fine with the newspaper.

Create an informative and useful report specifically for the readers of the newspaper. Then offer the URL of that report which you can use to track visitors from the article and also capture their email addresses.

Something along the lines of "Tim Kerber has a free report available for readers of the Herald. You can get a copy of "14 Proven Ways to Boost Your Small Businesses Profits in New Hampshire" simply visit him online at www.smallbusinesswebsite.com/herald

With this free report make sure you:

• have it branded and recognized that it is for readers of the newspaper (the paper will love you for that)
• provide rock solid content that will impress anyone reading it

TIP: don't just put a download link for the ebook on the page. The goal is to capture the email address of the people, with their permission.

Let them know that the ebook will be instantly mailed to them and they will also receive a short tip of the week newsletter.

Make sure to include reassurances about email privacy and that they can unsubscribe at any time.

Gaining regular exposure with a guest column can be an incredibly effective way to not only brand your online business but also drive local customers to it.