Articles marketing is a cost effective marketing technique that will bring targeted traffic to your website. online articles marketing is a special skill that you will need to learn.
Having your website rank at the top of the search engines will provide you with a stream of traffic ready to read, buy or interact with your site. Getting this high first page ranking in the main search engines such as Google, Yahoo and MSN is extremely difficult and not to mention, time consuming.
Search engines take considerable notice of how many and the quality of incoming links to your site. Traditionally, webmasters have sent out link requests, asking to exchange links, this however is becoming more and more ineffective as people's email addresses are spammed by automated robots.
Method savvy internet marketers are now using article submissions. Here is how it works. The webmaster writes an article on the topic of their site, including a back link to their site. They then submit this to various article directories. In turn some of these article directories list this article and its back link, and also distribute it to all their members. Some even pass this onto other article sites.
This can manually take a long time however. A lot of copying and pasting of articles has to happen, you have to log in and log out of sites, and the whole thing can be very tedious. Over the past 6 months new products have been released that take some of the tedium out of article submissions. These semi-automatically go to the relevant sites and submit your article, logging in for you and populating the forms with your article. They can be a great time saver.
Finally there are new services that actually go off and submit your articles for free to other large directories. They advertise on your article page on their site. This is a win-win situation. The article writer gets valuable backlinks to their site or their content read by many people, the large article directory gets the extra content and advertising revenue, so everyone is happy.
We highly recommend article writing for marketing your site, it may take a little time but with the services outlined here it need not be so painful as it once was.
First let me explain article marketing for those that do not know what it is. Lets say your website is about widgets. You write an article on interesting ways people can use widgets.
In the footer of your article there is an author bio section. In the author bio section you place links to your website about widgets.
You submit that article to as many article directories as possible. You can use a service www.isnare.com ISnare.com who for two dollars per article will submit your article to hundreds of article directories.
Once you submit to all of those directories, remember the link in the author bio section, each of those directories is now a one-way inbound link.
Now none of those links is related to widgets, so they are not relative links, but they do still count for link popularity, just not as much as relative links do.
But the second reason that article directories exist is to provide free content to website owners. These website owners can take your article and use it as content for their website as long as they leave the links in the author bio section active and intact.
Article Marketing Doesn't Work. That is exactly what some old-time experienced SEO people are still saying. Yet, one of the clients I wrote articles for went from a link popularity of 1 to a link popularity of 457 in 8 days.
I received an email today from a client I wrote an article for on "Free Credit Repair" 3 days ago. He did a search in Google today for "Free Credit Repair" and the article was in the top 100. Tough category, but it was written 3 days ago and appears in Google for his search term with links to his website.
I can continue to provide dozens of examples where article marketing works and works fast. Once those articles are picked up by other websites besides the article directories, the real benefit comes.
Those websites that pick up and use the widget articles as content for their websites would not use the article if it were not related to their own topic, which means related to widgets in this case. That means relative one-way inbound links for your website.
If you have no use for quick link popularity and relative one-way inbound links to your website, then article marketing is not for you.
Article directories have been around for years, offering content and information for webmasters, ezine writers and email newsletters. The benefits of submitting your writing to article directories are easy enough to understand:
1. You trade on your credibility as an expert – and increase it at the same time. When you write a short, informative piece about your business, your author’s biography gives you credibility – you know what you’re talking about because it’s what you do for a living. When your article is published on an independent web site like an article directory, though, your credibility increases – you’re now recognized as an expert by others. That encourages others to republish your article – and give you yet more credibility. 2. You leverage the popularity of the article submission site to boost the visibility of your article – with a link back to your web site. A link to your site from one of the most popular article directories can give your web site traffic a substantial boost. 3. By making your article available for reprinting (as long as the author’s information with the link to your web site remains intact), you increase the visibility and the link popularity of your web site even further. 4. If your article is picked up by a newsletter or ezine publisher, the link to your website goes out to potentially tens of thousands of people.
The end result is more traffic to your web site and more credibility, trust and sales for your company.
The down side is that it takes precious time – and your time is a valuable commodity. Submitting your article by hand to even a dozen of the hundreds of article directories and ezine publishers can take several hours. Every directory service has unique formatting requirements. Some allow links in the article body – others only allow them in the resource box. Some allow you to use HTML to accent important points; others will only accept plain text. If you count those hours at your own rate of pay, your ‘free’ advertising could end up costing you a whole lot more than you expected.
The Easy Way To Make Your Words Work For You The answer is to take one of two easy ways out – article submission services and article submission tools. Either one will simplify the process of getting your words out there where others can pick them up and spread the word about your company.
- Article Submission Tools You can purchase software that will do the actual submission for you. You’ll still need to configure the software to some degree, but once you have your article set up and your list of article directories set up, the actual submission process is as simple as clicking on a button.
- Article Submission Services Article submissions services will submit your article for you at a set price per article. The best will cull the list of article directories and publishers to find the ones that will give your article the most visibility and submit it by hand to make sure that everything is done right. The personal touch can make the difference in whether an article is accepted on the first try – or at all. All you need to do is send them your articles – they’ll do the rest.
Whether you choose automation or the personal touch, you’ll find that the process of submitting your article to all the best directories is incredibly simple. Your company will reap the benefits of everything your words are worth.
A couple of days ago I went to our little, tiny post office on the military base where I work. There is about enough room for 10 people to stand in line at this one clerk office.
I notice a sign on the wall as I was standing in line and just had to ask the postal clerk about it. The sign read, "No bicycles allowed in the post office."
I was definitely confused and could not understand why the sign had been posted, so, I asked the clerk.
He told me that about a week prior some guy rode his bike up the ramp to the post office entrance and went inside, along with his bike. He was told to please take the bike outside and he retorted that there was no sign stating that he couldn’t bring his bike in. He complained and whined and eventually took his bike outside muttering all kinds of threats and insults.
I couldn’t believe this. I was told it was true and that was why the sign had been posted. I joked with the clerk that I should go out and drive my truck inside, since there was no sign telling me that I couldn’t.
So, where am I going with this and how does this apply to article marketing?
Most article directories have a list of submission guidelines. They usually specify how long an article should be, what the rules are for links, and what HTML can or cannot be used.
There will be additional guidelines and each site will vary slightly in what they will or will not accept. But, we can’t cover everything in one or two pages of guidelines.
Just because I don’t have anything in writing about not posting graphics in the article resource box, doesn’t mean it is OK. Common sense should prevail.
Just because I didn’t say that you shouldn’t bold every other word, doesn’t mean you should.
Just because I didn’t say that you cannot embed a video in the middle of you article, doesn’t mean you can or should.
Just because it is OK to do it one way on another article directory site, doesn’t mean it is OK to do it on mine.
I think you get the drift. I cannot list each and every little thing that is or is not allowed. I list some general guidelines and then if your article is declined, it will come with an explanation. Please read them and make the corrections.
Most people just ignore the email that says their article was declined and then continue to break my set of rules. I put up with this for a little while, and then cancel the account. Then the person gets upset with me. Such is life.
Read the guidelines, follow the rules, check the reason your article was declined, and don’t ride your bike in the post office.
Interested in getting your website in the top 10? You are not alone!
The world wide web is a great way to gain exposure in whatever you do. Having a website gives you the ability to have publicity and to be seen by people from all over the world.
Just having a website does not get you instant recognition. It is earned by strategically marketing your business and website. Remember, by putting up a website you are immediately entering yourself into a competition. The World Wide Web has become so saturated with websites, it's nearly impossible to be noticed… unless you have a plan.
The easiest way to be found on the web is to be listed in the search engines, such as Google or Yahoo. You can easily do this by paying to be seen by using Google Adwords or Yahoo Marketing. This can be effective, but expensive.
Ultimately, you want to have your website to show up naturally on the front page of the search engines. Follow these 8 simple steps towards optimizing your website and you will see a positive difference in your website ranking.
1. Comprise a list of search terms you want people to find your site with. For starters, this should be 3-5 word search strings. i.e. McDowell Mountain Ranch Real Estate or Toledo Organic Dry Cleaners. Something that is specific to your business or hobby.
2. Load your website with original content. Take the time to write the information in your own words. Search engines will not give you credit for someone else's work.
3. Add the key words from item 1 to your content on several different pages of your website. For example, it is better to have 500 pages with your key words listed once than to have 1 page with your keywords 500 times.
4. Know your target market. Write content that will interest them and bring them back for more.
5. Add fresh content daily or as often as possible. Ideas to keep your site fresh include blogging, writing articles, interviewing people, and adding polls or RSS feeds.
6. Keep your site for an extended period of time. There are many sites that come and go on the world wide web. The longer your site is around, the higher the search engines will rank you.
7. Drive people to your website by sending out flyers, sending out mailers, emails, writing articles, blogging, linking to other sites and gaining as much exposure as possible.
8. Submit your site to the search engines on a monthly basis. There are many search engine submission websites. Some are free and others charge a fee. Google "search engine submissions" to find one you like. Either way, you must submit to the search engines or your site will not be seen.
As your site ages and gets more information, you will see a higher ranking for your website. This does not happen overnight, but by consistently adding information, you will create a website that provides value to the end user. And ultimately, that is what the search engines are looking for… Providing good information that the end user wants.
To see an example of a relatively young site, 9 months old, that is getting great recognition - visit www.MMRTrailTalk.com. It is loaded with information that the end users love. The owner has added information on a regular basis and before long, it was loaded with useful information that the consumer loves.
Website are fun to own, work on and benefit from. However, they can take a substantial amount of time. Have a strategy and work your strategy. You will see the best results and have the most satisfaction with your website. Enjoy!
Since the beginning, you've been told that "Content Is King" but there are so many website owners - who have been trying to win the search engine battles - ignore the rules and try to be 'smart'. They used software and tools to trick the search engines to get their websites indexed highly but only to find out that their websites were banned a month later.
Don't get me wrong! There are actually some legitimate tools that can help you get your websites ranked higher. People pay a hundred dollars or more just to own them. That is fine as long as it works and does not violate the criteria search engines are looking for on a website.
But why are they doing it?
For an obvious reason, I guess - to get as much traffic possible to their websites, which in turn produces more revenue to the website owners.
And then, there are really smart marketers who go by the "Content Is King" rules and are really winning the search engine games day by day. These marketers use words to turn into traffic. With a single 500-word article, within time, they can create hundreds of backlinks to their websites – resulting in more web traffic, more sales, and more profits. Then, they write one more article, and some more.
That's right – we call them article marketers. You can see their names when you search a keyword and their articles appear on the main page of the search engine. You click on the links and their articles come up.
Now let me tell you a little secret. These marketers don't write these articles and post them only on their websites.
First, they write these articles and at the same time allow others to reprint them for free. That makes you able to forward these articles to other people and these other people can also forward to more people provided the content of the articles are not changed or modified. In short, these articles are viral.
Second, they submit these articles to various article directories and online publishers to get maximum exposure. The more publishers they can find, the more audience they can reach. Thus, the more sales they can make.
Think about it. If the pros are doing it and they are getting tons of traffic and sales, then you too can have the same privilege - only if you follow their steps.
Wouldn't you want to generate sales without having to pay a single red cent?
If the answer is a resounding 'yes', then consider article marketing seriously.
When Google's AdSense appeared, there were a lot of people who doubted Google's idea would be marketable and actually generate any profits. Yet as we stand here today it's probably the most well known pay per click venture in the world.
Yes, all those nay sayers ended up eating their own words in the end. And that is because the folks at Google never go and do something without assessing whether or not it will be profitable, or exactly how profitable it is.
But of course, as you might very well know, AdSense isn't just profitable for Google. It's also profitable for the people who advertise via AdWords and very profitable for publishers who use it to make earnings which are sometimes just enormous.
So one must ask himself why this is such a good deal for everybody. And the question in itself is very justified because you hardly ever come across something that's profitable for everyone in the chain. So why would AdSense be any different.
Well, AdSense is where it stands today, giving benefits for everybody in the game because it exploits a gap in the Internet's advertising model.
You see, the Internet is a very interactive environment, and its interactions come from the people who are browsing. They choose whether or not to follow a certain link and the term "navigating" is probably the most precise one at describing this situation.
So AdSense is great because it links together buyers and sellers. Yes, you have to hand it out to Google for a brilliant idea. They know there are people out there that want to buy stuff and people who want to sell them what they're interested in. And Google AdSense helps members of the two categories find each other.
It works for the visitors, because the model is very transparent. You don't see a huge graphic banner which tries to lure you into buying something. You just see a few words. And if you like what you see you can just click it. It works because visitors don't have that feeling of someone trying to lure them into spending money. Ironically, however, they're wrong.
It works for the AdWords advertisers because their ads go everywhere. Not only will they find themselves listed in Google's search which gets gazillions of hits per day, up front without working as much for SEO and waiting so much.
Their ads can reach any website that deals with anything similar to what they're trying to sell. Now you must realize they could never pull of such great advertising by themselves. And that brings us to the thing that makes Google's AdSense a publisher's best friend.
It comes from the fact that the ads are contextual, that they somehow related to the keywords you deal with on your page. Because people or on your site, which deals with a certain topic, you already know they're interested in that topic.
But, hey, wait a minute, Google knows some companies which want to sell your visitors something related to their topic. Google wants your visitors, you want Google's advertisers and the visitors just want to buy stuff. And that is the essence of what makes AdSense a great deal for everybody.
This is by far the most profitable hook-up deal you're ever going to see anywhere on the Internet.
So you have to appreciate Google for realizing a killer deal. You have to appreciate how well thought out, yet simple this scheme really is. Sure, in practice it has a few quirks but those are minor and, up to this point everyone seems to be enjoying Google's AdSense.
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