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Showing posts with label seo. Show all posts
Showing posts with label seo. Show all posts

Article Marketing Advice: Increasing the Readability of Your Articles

Publish by: Webmaster Thursday, June 11, 2009

When it comes to writing articles to promote your online business, it’s important to consider more than just your marketing goals: it’s essential that you also focus on writing articles that people will want to read. In other words, you don’t just want to use words; and you don’t want to market and sell your business directly. Instead, you want to make an effort to be engaging and influential.

The first tip that will help you to increase the readability of your articles is to write with the reader’s concerns in mind. If you are unsure of exactly how to do that, you may want to look into article ghostwriters who understand article marketing and who only focus on writing articles for Internet audiences. When you work with article ghostwriters, you can focus more on your business and know that someone else is working hard on your behalf to write articles that will be read.

Getting The Best Results From Your Article Marketing Campaigns

Still, if you want to keep article writing within your company, rather than outsourcing it, here are some tips for getting more out of your article marketing campaigns:

1. Hook your readers from the start. Article writing is a lot more effective for marketing your business when people will actually read the articles. The best thing that you can do is to catch their interest right away. Your article title will determine if people will open your article, and the first paragraph will ensure that people keep reading the article.

2. Avoid the temptation to overwhelm your readers with a lot of information. Article writing is not about telling the reader everything that there is to know; it’s about sticking with a central focus and giving your reader an introduction or overview of the information they want and need to solve their problems. In an article that probably won’t be much more than one thousand words, you will never be able to tell the reader everything they need to know to solve a problem, but you can help put your reader on solid footing for moving forward towards a workable solution.

3. Break up information into digestible chunks. Writing articles is about expressing some key points. When it comes to writing articles for the internet, what you are going to find is that many readers skim rather than read your articles. Using numbered lists (like this one) will help you to present your information clearly, and let readers find what they are looking for quickly. Similarly, if you use bullet lists or break up your text with subheadings that are in a larger font and bolded, you can be sure that after reading your article, the article’s key points will be easily recalled.

4. When it comes to article writing, particularly when you are working to establish yourself as an expert, it’s important to show that you know what you’re talking about. A great way of doing that - and to break up the text of your article - is to include quotes from more established experts. If you are writing articles and are more established, you too should quote other sources, possible letting the readers know why you disagree with another writer.

5. Focus on spelling and grammar. Just as someone who is hiring article ghostwriters should take the time to find ghost writing services that are well versed in your point of view, it’s also important to be sure that you’re writing in the native language of your target audience. American English is different from that spoken and written in England and India. Paying attention to your spelling and grammar shows that you care about what you are saying and that you are a professional.

A good example of the difference between the usage rules in British English and American English is the story of Paul Marshall from Dallas, Texas. When Paul was running his mortgage business, he had hired some Indian writers to develop content for his website. When he received the copy from his ghostwriters, the copy used the word “mortgage scheme” in the text eleven times. Paul was pissed, as you might well imagine. In British English, “scheme” does not carry any negative connotation. Yet, as you may well realize, “scheme” in American English is one of the most negative words that can be applied to any business model. It denotes “dishonesty” and “fraud” in American English. His Indian writers could not understand his anger with their choice of words, but you can understand his anger.

Professionalism In The Article Writing Process

Professionalism, unfortunately, is frequently overlooked when it comes to article writing. Great writing flows, not just for the writer whose aim is to get the words and message out, but also for the readers who are consuming the information.

Because of this, one key element of an effective article is not the writing itself: it is the readability of that article. Take the time to look at the articles that grab your attention and jot a few notes about each of them. Specifically, focus on the following:

  • How did the writer grab your attention (or, if you weren’t interested in the first paragraph, what turned you off?
  • What sort of spacing did the writer use in the article?
  • What did you come away with after reading the article? In other words, what were the key points of the article?

Writing articles is neither purely science nor purely art at its best; it is a good combination of the two. A great article focuses on a key issue, isn’t stuffed with keywords (you do want search engines to find the article, but too many keywords in an article takes away from readability), and is as easy to skim, as it is to read.

When all is said and done, an article that gets read in its entirety will carry the reader to the Author’s Bio at the end of the article. Ideally, the reader will read the entire article and feel a desire to visit the author’s website to learn more about the writer of the article. It is article marketing at its best, when the reader likes the article enough to click on the link in the Author’s Bio and visit the author’s website to learn more about what the author is offering.

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Increase Your Blog Traffic

Publish by: Webmaster Wednesday, June 10, 2009

Don’t get discouraged when you have very little traffic for your blog. You have created a blog for yourself and started writing and posting pictures, but you don’t get much traffic. Don’t get discouraged – remember that if people don’t find your blog, how can they value your contribution.

  1. The first step is then to help other people find your blog.
  2. Get an account at Blogcatalog Post your blog entry there and surf around, make friends, visit their blogs and leave supportive intelligent comments.
  3. Get a RSS feed from feedburner so that you have an RSS feed URL that people can subscribe to. RSS means Rich Site Summary. It lists updates of websites or blogs available for syndication as headlines and summaries.
  4. Join Bloglog service and invite everyone in your network to subscribe: family, friends, colleagues, clients, and associates.
  5. Join MyYahoo.com Choose “Add Content” and add your blog RSS feed.
  6. Read and comment on other blogs that are in your subject area. Rather than writing comments like "cool" or "great post." leave intelligent, useful comments with a link to your blog.
  7. Use Ping-0-matic to ping blog directories. Do this every time you publish content on your blog. But don’t do this every five minutes.
  8. Submit your blog to blog directories. A comprehensive list of blog directories is here
  9. Add a link to your blog in your email signature file.
  10. Put a link to your blog on every page of your website or ask other bloggers to exchange links.
  11. Get your personal page at http://wiGoogle and add your blog details there.
  12. Print your blog URL on your business cards, brochures, and flyers. Tell everyone you know about your blog.
  13. Use sites like Faves.com or Delicious to favourite your blog entries, find interesting favourites from others and make friends.
  14. Join StumbleUpon and start stumbling your blog entries and those of others.
  15. Post your blog entries to your Facebook contacts. If you contribute to writing communities like Triond.com make friends there and mention your blog.

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Blog far and wide

Publish by: Webmaster Tuesday, June 9, 2009

You have created your own blog, optimised each aspect of your blog and diligently do regular blog postings. You feel that you are doing a fairly good job and then someone mentions guest blogging. Many people will immediately ask why on earth they should spend extra time doing guest blog posts on the blogs of others. The answer in a nutshell is that by guest blogging you throw out your net far wider to attract visitors to your own blog. Guest blogging expose your own blog to a far bigger audience than would otherwise be possible. The goal of having your own blog is to attract as many visitors as possible and guest blogging forms an important part.

New and fresh

Guest blogging brings you a whole new audience that probably have not read your work before. If your guest blog post is interesting enough they will click through to your own blog to see what else you have of interest. When you have been accepted as a guest blogger on another blog it shows readers that you are an authority in your industry. You have something valuable to say, that’s why you were accepted. Accepting guest bloggers on your own blog brings a new perspective to your own blog as guest bloggers will compliment your own blog topic.

Create a win-win situation for both bloggers

Both bloggers benefit from guest blogging. You as the guest blogger gets a much wider exposure with a new audience. The blog you guest blog for gets exclusive content that is free and fresh. There are many different social networks and guest blogging benefits you greatly here as well. Your own presence for instance on Facebook may not be high, but when you guest blog for a blog that has high exposure there, your own exposure shoots up.

In this way the combined efforts of both blogs bring huge benefits to both blogs. This is an excellent to boost the ratings of both blogs. If you keep an eye on your analytics you will see how well this works within days after you have done a guest blog posting.

Great links and new subscribers

An interesting guest blog post that grabs the attention of readers will have them come to your own blog. If they like what they find, this can lead to many new people subscribing to your own RSS feed as they want to be kept up to date with your new offerings. Guest blogging is a brilliant SEO tool as far as creating back links are concerned. When you guest blog you can include a short informational blurb about yourself.

This allows you to add one or more extra links to your own blog and good back links are highly sought after. Link building with guest blog postings are too valuable to neglect in your own SEO efforts. It is all about throwing your net out as wide as possible and wooing potential web traffic by capturing their interest. Guest blogging simply holds too many benefits for your own blog and website to ignore.

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Business blogs are big news

Publish by: Webmaster

Blogs have taken the Internet by storm; it is now officially called the Blogosphere and it has a huge impact of not only the lives of people, but on business as well. The latest statistics show that approximately 346 million people read blogs; that is a lot of people and an unbelievable number of potential customers that your business could have access to. Therefore it is really not surprising that the business blog was born to make use of this great new tool. The problem could be if you jump onto this band wagon and you have not a single clue as to what you are doing.

Then your brand new business blog could easily turn into a big business flop. Creating and maintaining a successful business blog is not difficult to do, it simply takes planning and knowing what your focus is with your business blog and once you have your motivation firmly in mind you can start creating your business blog as an excellent marketing strategy.

The aims for your blog

A blog is the way for you to connect on a personal level with your customers. The problem with the Internet is that it is a huge market place, a global bazaar and people love to shop all over this giant bazaar. This means you don’t know your customers and they don’t know you. Blogging changes that and makes things personal. With a blog you have the ability to help your clients, by answering their questions, replying to their comments.

Your official website informs them about your products and services; your blog address topics that can give them a better understanding of your business and your products and services. Good SEO can use your business blog as a tool to increase traffic to your official website. Your blog is an excellent form of low-cost marketing and let’s face it, any form of cost effective marketing in these tough economic times should be used.

Blogs have incredible appeal to readers as this in an informal way of interaction between clients, prospective clients and you as the businessman. People can have their say, no matter if it is good or bad and you have a chance to have your say back as well. Readers find blogs far more believable than the official feedback and testimonial sections on any official website.

Content is always king

The same rules about content that apply to your official website also apply to your blog. Content must be excellent, there must be a lot of it and it must have a sharp focus on the chosen subject. Adhere to these rules for content and you will soon get the reputation for being an expert in that field. Keep adding fresh and exceptional contents to your blog will pay off great dividends.

You will attract good incoming links this way from sources that tie in with your blog and this means and increase in your search engine search results listing. The Blogosphere is influential and it is a fast growing part of social networking and a great opportunity for marketing.

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Due to its growing popularity, there are many companies and individuals who now offer Search Engine Optimisation services for other websites and businesses. When choosing someone, it is important to select someone suitable to do your SEO as you must make sure it will be as effective as possible for you and your website. Many people do not look past the second or third page of the search engine results so it therefore very important for your business to rank as highly as possible. Search Engine Optimisation helps to set your website apart from the competition as unique and useful for the searcher.

First you should pick someone who has an extensive knowledge about Search Engine Optimisation and the different methods that can be used as there are so many. Knowledge about SEO is essential because they must be aware of what the search engines look for when ranking the websites in the search results and also the rules and regulations which must be followed to prevent your website being banned by the search engine. They must also be aware of the particular methods that would best suit your company and its needs. Organic SEO works best as it complies with the rules set by the search engines and works with them to propel your website up the rankings.

Whether you choose a company or an individual to do your Search Engine Optimisation for you, you must ensure that they have adequate writing and language skills because a big part of Search Engine Optimisation is copywriting. The search engines look for newly-uploaded content that contains many of the keywords relating to possible search terms which could be used to look for the website or services relating to the site. This is important as the content uploaded to the website must not only be new, but also grammatically correct and relevant to the website. It must also read well for people who are reading it…as well as the search engines. They must also be able to conduct research into your website in order to maximise the SEO success.

You must choose someone who is realistic in their targets and doesn’t promise to get you the top ranking in the search engine, as this can never be guaranteed. They must also be aware of what you as a company want to achieve. This good relationship is important because they can then tailor the Search Engine Optimisation project to your individual needs.

It is always good when hiring a company or individual for a specific task that you take a look at their previous work and testimonials. This is extremely useful as you are able to profile them as a business and decide whether their services will be successful in achieving your goals. Good testimonials and feedback are usually the sign of a professional and well-established company and they are therefore more likely to be of use to your business or website.

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Why Forward Linking is as Important as Backlinks

Publish by: Webmaster Monday, June 8, 2009

Obviously the obsession for most is off page SEO (building or getting links from other websites)…Well, I have a little secret for you, authority trumps it all. An authority site can rank using less backlinks, pages or keywords that any other type of website; so, doesn’t this indicate where you should apply your focus?

With so many ranking factors that can impact your position, who you link to (forward-linking or up-linking from your website) is often overlooked as a viable way to expedite the authority process.

By definition an authority site is a popular website frequented often by the virtue of the content/information or experience it provides. Considering the potential to create real value by providing a product, unique angle, news, cool tools, widgets or a service that is phenomenal, that website can be deemed an authority.

One way that they make the initial impact is (a) to do something worthy of being linked to or (b) by linking to enough authority sites that it tips the scales of relevance in the site providing the forward links. In essence, linking to authority sites can expedite the process for your website developing authority. What you do with it after that is up to you.

The reason why linking out is important is, authority sites often link to other authority sites and they is how they preserve the purity of the link graph online. The mark or seal of approval a site gets when it gets a heavy link from a real player can do one of two things immediately.

First, it can toggle a barrage of traffic, which also indicates that your website is a target from a referrer (with authority). Can you see how Google and other search engines might measure this in tandem with popularity?

The second thing it provides is a solid backlink to your website if they provided a do follow link. If you were to appear in a local newspaper, a national story or anything syndicated (even if it is an RSS feed) you can expect for someone, somewhere to latch on to the content and (1) reference it (2) scrape or reproduce it or (3) hopefully just provide a link back (as their way of saying thanks)…

Even if it is scraped, Google and other search engines are smart enough to know who the original source was, so eventually, your site will get credit for starting the ripple effect across the web.

Just like a grappling hook, if you link to the #1 website that ranks for that keyword you are targeting, have relevant titles, strong internal links and additional backlinks pointing at your page, the synergy can provide search engines with a robust array of information to feed their algorithm.

Considering that most would never uplink (since they feel that is supporting the competition) which is what keeps most websites stuck in a certain plateau. Authority sites are generous (if the quality is present), yet other sites that greedily horde the link flow within their own website, only isolates themselves from the rest of the web.

If you are isolated and emanating another signal entirely than what search engines have identified as the prime cluster of websites returning relevant hits for the main keywords for any given root phrase, can you see how this would leave your pages out in the cold.

Shameless self promotion can only catapult your rankings so far, and if your website is always a destination and never a path to another more relevant or equally relevant source for additional information, then you will never attract the type or quality of editorial links that other authority sites get by default (as a result of providing visitors with a range of options).

Linking out by providing in-depth mash ups, top 10 or top 20 lists and consolidating an array of resources on your pages for others is (a) the right thing to do from time to time as well as (b) that value of hub status can come back and reward your site with the ability to rank for the keywords you intend on with a fraction of the effort.

Wikipedia is in my summation, the grandest authority site to date. It has user generated content, is self moderated and constantly provides information and traffic to all of the links it assumes, devours and emulates.

As a result, there is hardly a search phrase you can enter without cross-referencing some shingle in Wikipedia. The reason is (a) the depth of content on multiple topics (b) tons of deep links to each page from a variety of IP addresses and types of sites and (3) the fact that they link out (even though its nofollowed) to so many other types of websites.

Take some time and start looking at the backlinks from some authority sites in Yahoo to get an idea of what really strong links really look like (link:google.com link:Wikipedia.org, link:cnn.com), you will note that there are similarities of co-occurrence; and that a like links to a like (authority sites to other authority sites). Also, take a look at where they link to using MSN’s linkfromdomain:google.com | linkfromdomain:Wikipedia.org | linkfromdomain:cnn.com

SEO is full of minute details with a multidimensional array of granular layers to explore, fine-tune and create, so, instead of thinking of attacking a ranking of an authority site, look behind the site and see who is propping it up. Perhaps you can either get a link from an editorial sponsoring “authority site” of scale the tipping point needed to push past that page by concentrating your websites ranking factor.

Even though the “nofollow” attribute was intended to stop the flow of link juice “something always gets through”. Trust is a ranking factor as well…and that is something that can wear down a nofolllow tag over time and seep into all of the sites embedded into its link graph (the sum total of all the internal and external links that site connects).

The takeaway here is (a) don’t be greedy (b) be careful where you point your links (better and more trusted neighborhoods are better than questionable ones) and (c) realize the long term value of building authority for your website, instead of just building links and you are one step closer to ranking for more keywords with less effort as your website scales the ladder of relevance on its way to the top of thousands of relevant and competitive keywords.

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Search for a list of SEO factors and you’ll find that most feature at least 50.

That’s 50+ elements of your website that influence your ability to rank in search engines. Sounds complicated, doesn’t it?

Some SEO Consultants will tell you that ranking in search engines is about applying a precise formula to these 50+ elements - about using “special proprietary techniques” fine-tuned to search algorithms to boost your website above the competition.

Not exactly.

There are actually more like 200+ signals that search engines use when ranking websites.

Imagine trying to reverse-engineer something like that? Sounds impossible, right?

That’s because it is.

The good news: it doesn’t matter.

You don’t need to be a computer engineer to rank well in search engines. Relieving, isn’t it?

The truth is that everything boils down to three factors:

  1. Search-friendly pages
  2. Relevant content
  3. A trusted website

All of those other factors and elements of SEO? They all fit into one of these three basic categories.

You don’t need to be a search scientist to understand the basics of what’s going on with these three factors and improve them for your website.

1) Search-friendly pages

Essentially, this first factor has to do with the technical aspects of how your website and pages work.

Search engines use crawlers (or “bots”) to browse the web by following links. As they browse, these crawlers scan the content they see and store it in databases. These databases form search engine’s web index - and when a user comes along and enters a search phrase the index is scanned for pages that match.

The basic idea: you want to make sure your pages, and the content that fills them, are visible to search engine crawlers.

There are a few things you should know about crawlers:

  • They don’t support JavaScript - so that rollover menu, those drop-down links, etc, might not be visible to search engine crawlers.
  • They don’t support Flash (mostly) - while there have been a few developments in this regard recently, Flash websites still aren’t too search engine friendly.
  • They can’t “see” - sometimes designers use images instead of HTML text (usually because they want to use a certain font that isn’t web-safe), and search engine crawlers can’t read or index this text. Crawlers can only read code - and if your content isn’t found there it’s essentially invisible to search engines.
  • They skimp on resources - it takes a lot of energy and time (and money) to crawl the web (there are a lot of pages out there) so crawlers are usually programmed to be conservative with how far they’ll dive into a page. If your web pages take a long time to load or feature a tremendous amount of content crawlers might leave without scanning/indexing everything.

There are some other things crawlers can’t/won’t do. To get a sense of what they can see on your own website try SEO-Browser.com. This tool allows you to enter the address of a web page and see it as search crawlers see it.

The bottom line: you might have the best content in the world, but if crawlers can’t see it you won’t rank for relevant keywords.

2) Relevant content

This factor is all about the words on your pages.

As we discussed above the visible content on your pages is stored and searched every time someone uses a search engine. If the keyword or phrase entered doesn’t occur on your page you probably won’t show up.

There are a few key places where you’ll want to use the right language on your pages:

  • Title tags
  • Headlines
  • Body copy
  • Anchor text (links pointing to internal pages)

As you browse the web you’ll probably notice that lots of webmasters have gotten a bit, shall we say, “overzealous” with optimizing their content. Title tags stuffed to the brim with dozens of keyword variations is common. Sometimes even the body copy itself is stuffed with keywords in an attempt to boost rankings.

You might be tempted to do this yourself to try and enhance your chances of ranking for a given keyword.

Don’t do it. Please.

Why not? Try reading a page that’s been stuffed with keywords this way. It’s an awful experience, right? Certainly enough to stop your reading flow and send you to another website, isn’t it?

Don’t sacrifice your user’s reading experience in the aim of ranking for a given keyword. It’s not worth it. All of the traffic in the world won’t mean a thing if the users who land at your pages are turned off and leave. Your competitors are just a few painless clicks away.

To learn about what keywords people use when they search for your products/services/info try Google’s AdWords Keyword Tool - enter either your website address or a keyword and this tool will return a list of related keywords including numbers on how many people search for them.

The bottom line: it’s rare to rank for a keyword that doesn’t occur on your pages so use the language your users do when they search. Don’t overdo it and stuff keywords, though, because you’ll annoy your visitors (and search engines don’t like it either - they might flag you as SPAM).

3) A trusted website

When you’ve got 1) search-friendly pages and 2) relevant content it’s still not time to sit back and let the search traffic pour in.

The truth is that most of your competitors will have looked into these factors already - they’re kind of the “low hanging fruit” of SEO, because they’re not usually terribly difficult to work out.

Trust is what sets you apart. It is by far the most important of the three factors.

Before Google came onto the scene using PageRank (a measurement of link popularity) to rank websites search engines generally based their rankings on the first two factors we’ve discussed.

What was the problem with that approach?

Webmasters are greedy. We can’t help ourselves. We love traffic.

Keyword stuffing was rampant, and rarely did webmasters stick to the honest truth about what their website was relevant to. The result: search results littered with SPAM, porn and just about anything with very little relevance.

The reason links were a better signal to Google was simple - it’s harder to game. While you can control the content/keywords on your own website it’s a lot harder to control it on someone else’s. It’s pretty tough to get someone to link to you against their will.

The model simply worked - Google’s results were better. The other search engines quickly caught on and looked to signals of trust for sorting through the SPAM.

Some signals that search engines use to determine whether they can trust your website:

  • Inbound links - quality is more important than quantity here - that’s why those “500 directory links for $49.95″ deals are worthless. The easiest links to get are the least valuable/powerful. A single link from Google.com, for example, would outweigh tens of thousands of weaker links - that’s how much quality matters.
  • Website age - if your website is new there’s not much you can do about it without a Delorian and a working flux capacitor (”Marty, the website is in place - now we gotta go back to the future!”). A website that’s been around for a while is simply more trusted by search engines.
  • Who you link to - it’s not just about inbound links. Search engines also look at what websites you link to from your pages. If you’re linking out to SPAMMY websites selling Viagra, online poker or similar SPAM-saturated topics they might consider you part of that “bad neighborhood” and penalize your website. Be careful who you vouch for.

There are other signals involved, but if you’ve got these three trust factors working in your favor you’re very likely to dominate the competition.

The bottom line: search engines don’t like getting burned by ranking SPAMMY websites. They want to know they can trust your website. Once you’ve got your on-page factors right (#1 and #2 above) you’ll need to build trust signals before your website will rank competitively.

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Are keywords clouding your vision?

Publish by: Webmaster Saturday, June 6, 2009

The world is constantly evolving to keep up with the times. Technology has taken off in the last century and where we once couldn’t imagine a life with it, we now cannot live without it. That includes the wonder of the internet. Cyberspace and all that it entails has changed our lives irreversibly and it will continue to do so. You can either focus on the negative impact it is having on people’s lives or you can see the glass as half full and look at the benefits instead. The benefits are far less depressing and so much more rewarding.

SEO is hard work

Search engine optimization has introduced the concept of using keywords to target a spot in the search rankings. You live by keywords, you swear by them and you build your entire website upon them. But are keywords and key phrases really all that? Yes they are. However, because you’ve stuck some keywords into your SEO copy doesn’t get you off the hook yet. As everyone knows, the internet evolves to keep up with changing times and trends. Your target market dictates which keywords you use and they dictate that you need to change too.

SEO is not child’s play and you cannot expect to sit back and do nothing once you have made the initial effort. In fact you will never be able to stop making an effort because the crawlers and spiders see your content as something new each time you tweak it a little. Your audience will change the keywords they are using to search and so you too will have to change. You need to change according to what is popular and what your target market wants.

Keywords aren’t everything

Yes, your target market wants to find the keywords they are looking for in your SEO copy, but that is not all they want. They are not simply looking for keywords; they are looking for customer service, the feeling of being valued and appreciation. Next time you focus solely on your keywords look at the rest of your copy as well. Read it from a prospect’s point of view and see if you like it.

If you don’t, how can you expect your customers and prospects to fall head over heels for it? You can’t. SEO is aimed at both your human as well as your crawler traffic. Strike a balance and don’t neglect either.

Learn from your own experiences

Have you ever gone to a store and left feeling as though you were an inconvenience? Perhaps you went to the counter to pay for your goods, but needed some extra items from the kiosk as well, but the cashier radiated frustration at having to go the extra mile for you. You probably don’t want to go back there again and your prospects feel the same way.

If that cashier had asked you if you wanted anything else with your shopping you would have felt welcome. You would have felt valued and that is exactly how your copy must make your prospects feel. Change your keywords and focus on them to please the spiders, but never neglect to make your customers feel that you are catering to their needs.

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The rage to milk money from Adsense continues into 2009. While there are many different ways to do this, it’s no secret Google is keeping a watchful eye on spam sites which automatically generate pages consistently on a daily basis.

Every now and then, Adsense ‘experts’ would introduce a ‘fresh’ new way of generating pages which Google “has not caught on yet”, be it article, directory or backlink generators.

While these software are very good at what they do, you can’t solely depend on them for long-term success. It’s a natural tendency that automatically generated content just doesn’t look like quality pages with highly informative, up-to-date content, but it’s my personal observation.

Most run-of-the-mill, ads-on-topfold Adsense sites lack substantial sections and deeper structures to be interesting enough to make visitors think they should come back to check them out more often. While generating as many pages as possible is crucial to get them indexed and thereby build substantial presence in search results, these types of pages should only complement principal content that reflects what your site stands for and the selling point it serves to maximize its overall value. There used to be a question that goes, “Is building Adsense sites a business?” My answer is: Adsense is secondary.

Of course, like you I do want Adsense to be my primary source of income. The secret is in emphasizing content and value, not Adsense ads. You may have felt resigned to say, “Does that mean more work?” Not really. Here’s another secret inspired by a quote from Albert Einstein: You can’t solve your Adsense income challenge at the same level of thinking.

Truth is: I have build a good number of Adsense sites, but my main Internet Marketing site which I treat as my core business earns more than some of them despite my intention not to make it Adsense-focused, all the more so when it has absolutely nothing to do with high-paying keywords and the tremendous amount of time that goes into keyword research…which leads to the next secret: create a site with a subject or niche you know you can continually express and expand on instead of getting stuck with a ‘lucrative’ keyword you may run out of ideas on in the long term.

This is as good as saying Adsense is not just a keyword value game; it is still the classic “How do I get and retain traffic” game, and traffic is not some scoreline, but real people with genuine interest.

eHow.com is an incredible example. It’s a free site that shows people how to do a lot of different things. The best way to explain the site is just for you to go have a quick look now. They have hundreds, possibly thousands of pages of content on all sorts of subjects and the way they get traffic to their site is through the search engines.

Every page on the site has an Adsense box on it and that’s how it makes money. They also have a Alexa traffic ranking of around 2000 which is great.

Of course, it doesn’t make sense to write or purchase that much content by yourself. eHow.com succeeds in getting its visitors involved in content contribution. There’s also a wikiHow to get contributors involved in constant update of a common topic or article.

For a start, here are suggestions on the type of sections you can integrate into a site:

  1. Lead capture page with freebies or incentives
  2. Article directory
  3. A ‘Contact Us’ page
  4. An ‘About Us’ page
  5. Forum: The challenge lies in the time and effort needed to build up momentum to encourage forum participants to write in
  6. An archive section of some kind, for selected articles for example
  7. Blog/podcast pages
  8. Reciprocal link directory
  9. Sitemap

It doesn’t take much to think of these standard sections. Even a products section makes your site look good besides providing another source of income, and then you replicate these sections site after site, niche after niche.

4th secret: Only sites with a general theme can afford to be massive-looking. Examples: Entrepreneur.com and Dogomania.com. Then you break the theme down into specifics like gathering them under an umbrella: dog training, dog hygiene, dog naming, dog psychology, doggy habits etc. Accurate targeting of Adsense ads depends on specific subjects as reflected on page. One thing to note is it is better that specific sections are inter-linked in some ways. If you run a site on everything about cancer, because “colon cancer” and “breast cancer” are not intrinsically related, visitors interested in one section may not want to take a first glance at another.

5th secret about content: write from a ‘consumer’ perspective instead of the ‘opportunist’ or “how to make money” perspective. What is it your visitors are looking to buy? Ads normally target and appeal directly to consumers. It’s pointless to put up content about how to make money with car accessories when there are hardly ads on “how to make money”. Stick to introducing car accessories and let the ads do the selling. If an accessory or equipment catch visitors’ attention and they click on the ads, you got Adsense dollars.

That’s about all the ideas I have at this moment. You should be confident now and maybe have some more new ideas I haven’t thought of. For sure, Adsense is a major income source you should seriously explore and make it big if you haven’t done so. This is one of those money machines that will make you money-on-demand pretty much for the life of Google.

read more “5 Money-On-Demand Secrets To Creating Great Adsense Sites”

Article marketing continues to be a proven method for generating traffic to our websites and developing good search placement, even after all of these years. I have been reading articles online since 1995, and I continue to read a few dozen articles per week on subjects that are dear to my heart.

Some Claim That Article Marketing Does Not Work

Now and again, I will read a thread in a forum somewhere where somebody claims that article marketing does not work.

Some article-marketing critics will admit that they have only distributed only one or two articles. Well yeah, I can see why article marketing did not work for them - because they did not work at making article marketing profitable for them.

Article marketing is like any other method of advertising. If you don’t make a real investment in it, then you cannot reap great rewards from it.

The Marketing Rule Of Seven

Advertising professionals speak of the “Marketing Rule Of Seven,” which suggests that a consumer must see your marketing message at least seven times before they start to pay attention to your message. The pros also suggest that once seven exposures have been achieved, the consumer will make a subtle, subconscious connection to the advertiser. Recognition brings rewards, in that after seven exposures to an advertisement, consumers will start to feel as if they know enough about the advertiser to trust their sales message.

If television, radio and print advertisers understand that a company’s sales message must be seen or heard at least seven times, then why would you - the Internet marketer - think that you can write a single article and see the full benefit of the medium?

Successful Article Marketing Requires A Commitment To The Reader

All commerce on the Internet is driven by information, such as written sales messages and information about products and services. Some websites also benefit from generic information concerning topics that their potential clients will be interested in reading. For example, if a website sells plumbing supplies, the consumer may find the availability of information about how to remove the old fittings and how to install the new plumbing equipment, as an essential element of their purchase decision.

Article marketing when done correctly will not be a boring, blathering of search engine optimized keywords related to a product or service line.

Article marketing, when done well, will provide information that will be of real interest to the person most likely to buy what you are selling.

For example:

  • If you are selling auction services, give the reader tips to help them make more money from the sale of their goods in the auction environment or how a buyer can find a good deal.
  • If you are selling auto warranties, tell the reader how to uncover the best value in an auto warranty plan and what features to seek.
  • If you are selling resume services, give the reader advice on how to write their own resume.

Article marketing when used well can help a company establish itself as an expert in the field, and it can help show a reader why hiring the author’s service might be better than a do-it-yourself project. As an example, with the resume advice article, once the reader sees how comprehensive your knowledge is and how detailed a resume should be, the reader may just decide that using your resume writing service will be much more productive than the do-it-yourself resume.

Just Like Lawyers, Writers Specialize Too

Beyond the cost of labor, content development is usually the second most expensive expenditure made by the online vendor. It is important to note that just as there are lawyers who specialize in one area of law, there are also ghostwriters who specialize in certain types of content creation.

People who write sales copy are referred to as “copywriters.” Copywriters are people who understand the nuances of how to make people buy what you are selling.

They understand that replacing a single word in the sales copy could mean the difference between lukewarm sales numbers and red-hot sales numbers, and they know which words to change.

Some professional copywriters have a proven track record of writing sales copy that has generated millions of dollars in sales - people such as Frank Kern, Dan Lok, and Joe Vitale. These guys know the value of their copywriting skills, and they charge accordingly. If you ask them to write sales copy for you, don’t be surprised when they quote you a price in the range of $5-20 per written word.

Other writers might specialize in writing books, brochures, and articles. Some writers specialize in the smaller word counts, like the folks who write greeting cards and book jackets.

Finding The Best Writer For Your Needs

The kid down the street who writes part-time for the newspaper may or may not be the best person to write your online articles for you. One reason is that people who write for offline publications seldom appreciate the importance of keywords in an article for search engine marketing purposes.

Note this article for example. Our purpose is to show you how you can use article marketing as a successful marketing tool for your business. We also want to show how the articles should appeal both to the reader and the search engine algorithms.

With these thoughts in mind, when you are finished reading this article, read it a second time to see how many variations on the following SEO keyword phrases can be found in this article: article marketing, search engine marketing, keywords, advertising, content creation, writers and copywriting. Of course, copywriting is not the kind of writing we do, but people who do not understand the specialization of writing skills might type “copywriting” or “copywriters” into their favorite search engine to find someone who writes informational articles.

One never knows precisely what the public will use as their search keywords when they go to the search engine to find information. That is the very reason why a good online article writer must strive to showcase a range of similar keywords within the context of an article.

Your Article Marketing Strategies Influence Your Overall Success

We know that some people tell you that the only reason to write an article is to get a link back to your website. What most of these people don’t tell you is that most websites that accept reprint articles do so, only after a human has reviewed or at least scanned the article.

An article that does not read well will never be published on a top-tier website. Yes, some websites may accept a poorly written article, but more sites will only accept well-written articles.

A reader who is not impressed with your article will seldom reach your resource box, so the link back in the resource box can only give value to your website from the search engines - maybe. The search engines generally only give value to articles on good websites or those placements that have lots of links pointing to the article within the website. Bad articles don’t get published on good websites, and they do not attract links.

As the Marketing Rule Of Seven should indicate, multiple articles generate a long-term wave of new links and potential visitors to your website.

Consistency is also important to a successful article marketing campaign, in that releasing weekly articles will enable your readers to see your marketing message regularly.

Finally, the smart use of a variety of related keyword phrases will strengthen the ability of your article to appeal to the search engines and the people who use them.

If you can balance the needs of your article’s audience against your need for search optimized content, then you can benefit handsomely from your article marketing campaigns.

read more “Balancing SEO Against The Needs of Your Article’s Audience”

Web page design that gels

Publish by: Webmaster Friday, June 5, 2009

A website for any business aims at attracting web traffic and the goal of that website is to get visitors interested enough to stay and be converted to a customer. To succeed in this goal, your website and each page therein must be created to flow together.

It must gel to retain the attention of visitors and make them want to explore. To create this want in your web visitors you have to make it as easy as possible for them to find the specifics they are looking for. If visitors become fixated on a single element on your webpage this spells trouble.

Global grapevine

If they cannot easily find what they want, this will frustrate them. The last thing you need is for your website to be remembered negatively. If your traffic likes your website, they will talk about it. The Internet is a global gossip-monger and good gossip will bring more traffic to your site. Gossip, word-of-mouth and the bloggers can spread the word faster than wildfire. Placement of content is critically important.

Visitors must be able to see certain elements at first glance; therefore your page must be designed in such a way that visitors immediately spot the basics. Remembered that no matter how much effort you put into your contents, optimisation strategies and marketing, if visitors cannot navigate easily, they will leave.

Navigate traffic into customers

Easy and functional navigation is the glue that holds all your efforts together. Easy and logical navigation can be set up in several ways. You may opt for a permanent navigational toolbar or have navigation links at the side, bottom or at the top of the page. All of these work well as long as the criteria of easy navigation is adhered to. Your navigation must literally be simple enough for a child to use.

It does not matter who your web traffic is or whether they are highly educated, young or old. Navigation must be simplistic; your business depends on this. Keep in mind that people who use the Internet have experienced the good and the bad of navigation, they know how easy it should be and they demand this.

Effort is worthwhile

If all the elements on your page gel it becomes very easy for visitors to see exactly what you have to offer. They relax, become comfortable and will linger. They will spend time looking at other products as well that catches their eye. This means they will be far more interested to click through your website and this is exactly what you want them to do. This is page optimisation other than keywords and textual content and cannot be neglected.

This is when all that time and effort you spent in designing a perfect page that gels really start paying dividends. You are in business to make money; the internet is the most competitive market on earth so no business can afford to alienate potential customers. Your website is your only window to showcase your products and services. It is in your own hands whether you blow it or gain the customers that means success.

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Why Should You Use Search Engine Optimisation?

Publish by: Webmaster Wednesday, June 3, 2009

Search Engine Optimisation (SEO) is an essential aid for any organisation wishing to improve their rankings on search engines such as Google. Not only does SEO improve rankings naturally, it also increases the number of site visitors and the amount of qualified web traffic received.

Gaining the most out of SEO relies on utilising text and keywords likely to be picked up by Internet spiders (or robots). These spiders scan websites to retrieve frequently used words or phrases, which then determine web rankings.

There are pitfalls for companies who incorrectly use SEO, taking advantage of littering their websites with words guaranteed to up their position in search rankings. Moreover, these so called ‘black hat’ methods are usually rumbled and withdrawn from their web ranking positions, until their deception is rectified (several firms have found themselves dealing with law suits due to this). On the other hand ‘white hats’ are a much more legitimate type of SEO, likely to produce longer lasting results. The use of ‘white hats’ achieves rankings approved by search engines.

If you are interested in using SEO it is beneficial to identify the keywords and phrases essential to your business and use these frequently throughout text content present on your website. Be aware of competitors and the terminology used on their websites, where do they appear in comparison to your organisation in web rankings? It is important to note fabulous images and sound do not contribute to SEO and are consequently ignored by any spiders patrolling web content.

Another reason for using SEO is to determine what people search for online and how this knowledge can be applied to improving online search rankings. It is worth bearing in mind web spiders will return to evaluate web pages as many times as they are updated, therefore it is beneficial to constantly re-evaluate websites and update text content.

When beginning to use Search Engine Optimisation do not expect overnight results, it will take time to shape your website to attract your desired clientele and to climb up web rankings. However, great results will be achieved if you choose to use SEO in the correct manner and the more prominent your website appears to customers, the greater the chance of engaging in increasing sales and profits, plus expanding upon existing customer bases.

In summary, SEO is vital for any organisation who wish to become visible on any search engine and for companies who want to increase their customer base and the amount of traffic that is being directed to their website. Furthermore, the quality of customers attracted to top ranking websites may well enhance profits and build upon company reputations. Search Engine Optimisation is an investment for any organisation, but one that should be made with care as any discrepancies or foul play will soon be discovered and dealt with. Finally, although viewed as an additional marketing ploy, the use of SEO has been considered to result in greater benefits than the variety of marketing techniques often employed by companies.

read more “Why Should You Use Search Engine Optimisation?”

Google, You and SEO

Publish by: Webmaster

Change is something the human race does not always welcome. We get set in our ways, even the bad and nasty habits; we are used to them so let’s keep it that way. The internet has revolutionised how business is done. This of course brought new opportunities for the unscrupulous and amoral amongst us to try their tricks to cheat for quick profits.

Recently there has been loud squawking and lamenting about the new changes Google is putting into practice. The SEO world was up in arms about the new trust factor coming into the equation. It is worth thinking about exactly who the individuals are who most argue against this change. Google does not always have very flattering things to say about the practices of SEO.

Change is needed

Google’s intentions are to see all online businesses and websites take a proactive approach with branding. They want to root out people who cheat the system and cut corners. When unethical practices are used to manipulate high ranking, the search results turn to chaos that is making searchers mistrust everything. Too many people have taken the unscrupulous path to generate as much revenue as possible. That is when you get websites that are smothered in affiliate ads that are of no help to anyone.

Ethical SEO efforts have an important role to play in all this. They can be compared to the scavengers that sift through the garbage piles and clean up the mess. What is left behind for Google is clean search results to work with. What is happening is that websites need more and more of a trust factor to be able to rank high in the Google search results pages. The brilliant thing is that this trust factor happens naturally when a diversified online approach to branding is used.

New mindset

The aim is to develop the same mindset to online advertising as applies to offline advertising. Offline marketing involved paying for any advertising; this included TV and radio. There is no scope for cutting corners in offline advertising. This is what the search engines are trying to achieve; you do it by the book. You pay for your advertising and you promote you business in all areas of the internet. Too many website owners put ranking above everything else and for some this becomes an obsession. They will do anything, even if it is unethical, to get that coveted ranking.

Quality above all else

The search engines are evolving and making life very difficult for anyone involved in black hat optimisation efforts. The trust factor has now been added and the algorithms will keep changing and tweaks will be added to rid online marketing of the parasites. What this all boils down to is to keep your focus on the website visitors. It is all about their user-experience. The much-used saying of content is king is fact. Stay away from giving visitors garbage in the form of keyword stuffed content that is meaningless. Keep your website providing quality information and make sure your website is completely scam-free. This will ensure that all the factors fall into place.

read more “Google, You and SEO”

Copy writing SE rules

Publish by: Webmaster Tuesday, June 2, 2009

Search engine optimization is the buzz word on everyone’s lips these days. SEO used to be simple; it used to be a no sweat operation. However, the internet has become a far more competitive place over the years and continues to do so thanks to exponential expansion. This expansion means that more and more people are squeezing into the online cyber universe to pedal their wares, socialize, network and live.

So where does that leave you? That leaves you in the position of needing to up your SEO tactics to stand a fighting chance. One thing you need to remember about SEO tactics is that copy writing plays a huge role. You will need to follow certain rules and regulations to make your copy writing effective.

Plan ahead

Planning ahead is something that is always on the cards of a well organized and efficient company or business. You need to plan ahead to budget your time, money, resources and such into your daily, weekly and annual schedule. So too do you need to plan ahead for copy writing when you are trying to up your SEO game. You need to be able to budget those key phrases in at just the right intervals. However, the biggest reason for planning ahead is so that you know exactly what those key phrases are. You plan your copy writing around your key phrases and not vice versa.

Lead under dictation

For once, you are not going to be in control. Your audience dictates to you here, they will make the decision for you as to what key phrases you must use. In order to be visible your keywords need to coincide with the phrases your target market uses to search with. Whether you like those particular phrases or not; you have to use what your audience is looking for.

Key headliners

Search Engines place more weight on headlines and sub-headers than the rest of the copy content. So make yours rich on keywords to attract the attention of the engines that drive your website visibility. Emboldening your headlines also adds extra oomph and so does including them within your tags. Headlines and sub-headings need to be bold and encoded to get some extra attention from the search engines and promote your website effectively.

Key into your copy

Key words and key phrases play a monumental role in gaining the attention of the search engines and their undivided attention is exactly what you want. So how do you go about getting what you want and not ending up on the second or even hundredth search page? You add popular keywords and key phrases to your copy. Remember to use key words and phrases that your audience targets. Do not stuff your key phrases into your copy just to try to attract more attention. You will attract bad attention and you will send your audience to your competitors. Use roughly 3 percent of your wording for your keywords and key phrases, but most importantly, make it sound natural so that it flows.

read more “Copy writing SE rules”

When you are involved in an internet marketing business, it is necessary to learn get enough traffic for your site. Most website owners are having a difficulty gaining and maintaining their traffic, and if you're one of them, it's time to pay attention to the tips below, find out which one works best for you, and start earning megabucks from your increased traffic.

A well optimized article is a good way to increase traffic for an internet marketing business. Article marketing is a form of link building that has grown popular to grab more traffic. All you have to do is to first find out which keywords are very popular, write articles about it and optimize your site through SEO or search engine optimization. As internet surfers look for those keywords using the search engines of Yahoo or Google, your website will belong to the listed websites falling under the same keyword and may be visited by those doing the search. Keep in mind to use only the right keywords and to continuously write articles for your keywords.


What to Avoid When Writing Articles

Limit the number of your keywords in the body of your article and do not overdo it. Most internet marketing business owners often make the mistake of writing the keywords in almost every line of every sentence of their article in the hopes of getting a higher page rank from search engines. But these search engines actually have rules and if you exceed their keyword use limit, that page could be removed from the ranking.

So, what can you do then? You can make the most out of your keywords and description by using Meta tags. Webbots often utilize the very first 200 characters of a websites body for the description. The description is the "teaser" of your page which can be seen in search engine results page, and more often this determines if the one doing the search may want to visit your site or not. You may also list down your keywords in the meta tags to make your site come up in the results.

Other Options to Increase Traffic

Your internet marketing business may also get more traffic as you submit your URL to major web directories. This helps improve the number of links going to your site which can convert to sales. You may also obtain a link from major search engines. You can also give out your URL when leaving meaningful comments in complementary blogs, forums, discussion groups, and etc. If readers find your comment interesting, then he could link to your site and increase traffic.

Convince those who own a complementary site to provide a link to your site. This is a way of sharing with the traffic that their site gets. Let's say for example your internet marketing business deals on beach resorts, you may collaborate with travel companies to have them place a link for you. You may complement the link they give by also linking to them. Links convert to traffic and clicks for your site, which can contribute to your rank in the search engines.

Do affiliate marketing. This is the best way to get free links and ads for your site that is free of charge and at no risk at all.

Promoting your site by spreading it through word of mouth to your friends and their circle of friends is also effective. Do not forget to place your URL on those business cards and letter heads.

read more “The Ways to Get Traffic in Internet Marketing Business”

Cooperating with Traffic Exchange

Publish by: Webmaster Monday, June 1, 2009

There is a lot of feedback regarding traffic exchange as a marketing tool; some are positive and some are negative. Whatever it is, all of the marketing tools have their strengths and weaknesses. Traffic exchange has a great potential in boosting the business and helping meet success in the venture, but it needs much cooperation on the part of the business owner.

There are also a lot of people who see solutions in traffic exchanges. Solutions mean the answer to their current problems. It is true that the main reason for surfing within traffic exchanges is to bring traffic to one’s own site; and it is also a fact that surfers find interesting businesses, products, or services in traffic exchanges as well. Chances are, the internet marketers may have a certain need that can be satisfied through an offer.

The first thing to think about is the page that will be shown to the other internet marketers surfing within the program. They should be appealing enough to catch the attention of the viewers and not to let them go until they would like to know more about the product or service, or until they leave their contact details. This is very effective as the page being shown in traffic exchanges really pave the way to a possible purchase at the right time.

It is a great idea to give the viewers some free offer that they can only have in exchange of their contact details which are their name and email address. This is also known as capturing leads and building a list. This is useful for further marketing techniques.

Moreover, it is best to join manual traffic exchanges if the goal is to persuade the viewers to know more about the products. Traffic exchange has two types which are the manual traffic exchange and the auto traffic exchange.

Manual traffic exchange requires the members to click within the page in order to go to the next site and view the next page. Auto traffic exchange does not need clicking. The pages are automatically set to change after the minimum timeframe. In this case, it is certain that the pages will be viewed by humans within a manual traffic exchange as pages just keep on changing within auto traffic exchange without anyone even looking at it.

Like any other marketing tools, engaging in traffic exchanges require enough time and effort. A member gets more credits when he or she surfs more often. This is also a big opportunity to check on the sites of the competitors. Seeing their pages is a way to be updated and be competitive enough to make a lot of sales. Additionally, it is better to have referrals or downlines in order to get bonus credits and have more time in doing other things that can add to the success of the venture.

Use traffic exchanges properly and success is on its way to meet the business. Easy money is not true. Cooperation is a must in every business. The good thing with traffic exchanges is that they have free memberships; so it is not a big deal to give it a try and experience the benefits one can get out of it.

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SEO Resources For Article Marketers

Publish by: Webmaster

It is not necessary to know the ins and outs of how Google works and how Article Marketing influences search engine listings to see positive results from your article submissions.

You can progress and see the benefits if you write articles on the topic of your website, submit articles consistently, and craft strong titles and resource boxes.

However, you must know that Article Marketing is inextricably linked with SEO, and when you’re feeling up to it there are some more advanced things you can do to with your articles that will capitalize on the SEO benefits of Article Marketing.


How Do Google and Article Marketing Interconnect?

When you have a website, all marketing tools are employed with the end goal of driving traffic to that website. The traffic can come from multiple sources, but the primary traffic hubs are search engines such as Google.

Link Building is something that website owners undertake to increase their search engine ranking. When I say ’search engine ranking’ I mean where the website shows up in search results when someone Googles the website’s keywords. By building links from other websites going back to your own website, your can get a higher search engine rank. An increased search engine ranking for your major keywords can of course build traffic dramatically for the long-term.

This is where Article Marketing steps in–it is a tried and true tool for building links and driving traffic to a website over the long term. By being aware of how SEO interacts with Article Marketing, you can leverage your articles more effectively and fine tune your results. You can also develop realistic expectations, which will help you keep your motivation and momentum going.

This collection of resources is for anyone who wants to maximize their success with their article submissions. The first section “Getting Started” is for everyone–even if you don’t know anything about SEO or Google or the internet. Just read the resources under that section, and if you like you can save the rest for when you’re ready to bite off a little bit more.

The other sections are for folks who are ready to spread their wings and start learning about keywords, link building, basic SEO, and how search engines work. I hope you find these resources helpful!

read more “SEO Resources For Article Marketers”

One of the most common areas of confusion is exactly how Article Marketing works to drive traffic to a website. The answer probably has more levels than you would think, and a better understanding of how Article Marketing works can help you know what to expect.

Recently I received this question from a reader:

“I have asked several “experts” this question and not been convinced of the answers. My question is in relation to the tactic of using article marketing to drive traffic. If the target market does not utilise popular article directories as a source of information then is there any point in spending time submitting to directories? If keyword searches in article directories do not display information in the market niche can one assume that this format in not applicable to the niche?”

Those are some great questions–let’s go through them one by one…


“If the target market does not utilise popular article directories as a source of information then is there any point in spending time submitting to directories?”

Yes, there is–Although people may find your articles on an article directory, Article Marketing drives traffic to a website primarily through an increase in search engine ranking for your website’s keywords.

An increased search engine rank can build traffic dramatically for the long term.

For example, if a person does a search on Google, Yahoo or any other search engine for the keyword terms associated with your website, and if your website comes up high in the rankings (say #1 or #2 or somewhere in the top 10, which would put it on the front page of results listings), then you will receive more traffic to your website than if your site appeared lower in the rankings.

Put yourself in the position of a search engine customer–when you do a search for something on Google and other SEs, you tend to just look at the first page of results–rarely would anyone go through 5 or 10 pages of results.

If you get past the 2nd page and you still haven’t found the info you’re looking for, most people will simply figure that they need to use different search terms. They will start over typing different words into Google’s search box.

So, any website that shows up on the first page of results in Google or any other search engine will have a marked advantage in getting more traffic.

This is why people do article marketing–by consistently submitting articles on the topic of your website, you build links to your website and also are able to create a library of niche specific content that is linking back to your site (each time your article is republished, your resource box will be also, and that is how you build the links).

So, let’s go back to your question–”If the target market does not utilise popular article directories as a source of information then is there any point in spending time submitting to directories?”

Yes, because even if your target market is not doing searches on a particular article directory, they are most certainly doing search engine searches (on Google, Yahoo, etc).

Your article marketing campaign is meant to elevate your search engine rankings for your keyword terms, thereby sending you more traffic from Google, Yahoo, etc.

If keyword searches in article directories do not display information in the market niche can one assume that this format in not applicable to the niche?

I hope I’m understanding your question correctly, and please correct me if I’m not–but if you’re asking what I think you’re asking the answer would be “no”, because again the place where your target market would be doing keyword searches would be in search engines like Google. Whenever someone does a search for a keyword term in Google there will always be a result–your object is to have your website rank highly in the results in Google.

On the article directory itself, you will submit your article to the category that best matches your topic. Most article directories will have an assortment of general categories, and you would pick the one that matches most closely (for example, if your topic was ‘dogs’, you would choose the ‘pets’ category).

I wouldn’t worry so much about how things are arranged on the article directory itself.

The article directory is not the end of the line–it’s just the beginning.

The article directory is the hub from which publishers will find your article and then republish it on their sites (thereby building even more links to your site).

So, when you submit an article to a directory, you are not just building one link–you are placing your article on the free market in a location that is a hive of activity.

Lots of publishers use free reprint articles on their sites, and they go to various article directories (or do a search on Google) looking for articles that are on the topic of their particular website. So, putting an article on a directory is not the end result–the article directory is a means to an end.

It’s basically like placing a product of yours in a busy store where everyone can see it. The store gets traffic from many places–some of the traffic is just people stopping by spur of the moment, but other traffic comes from more targeted sources–from an ad the store placed in the newspaper or on TV.

So, bringing it back to Article Marketing–the article directory is the store, and the article is like your product.

You will get people looking at your article simply because they came to the directory and were searching on the directory for certain types of articles, but you will also get people who came to your article via a search on Google.

read more “How Does Article Marketing Drive Traffic To A Website?”

Sticks and stones and blog posts can’t break your bones

Publish by: Webmaster Sunday, May 31, 2009

Normally an entrepreneur shudders at the thought of what the Blogosphere can do to his business reputation and how much damage control will have to be done to turn things around. Yes, the blogging community has become increasingly powerful. People are totally in love with blog; they can say what is on their minds and they can express their likes and dislikes.

Yes, blogs are a great outlet for letting others know about unscrupulous business practices and substandard products and services. On the other hand, the bloggers can trash your business reputation and tear your services and products to shreds. Little wonder that many people shudder at the thought of a scathing blog post about their business.

See the bigger picture

Instead of shuddering and frantically thinking of ways to cover up this disaster, think clever. Remember, bloggers can vent about any aspect of your business. It might be that a blogger had an unfortunate dealing with someone in your business, but it can be any other reason. They may have heard through the grapevine that your business had done this or that or may be doing something in the future. Use this lambasting session and turn it around; turn it into a great chance that can be used to your own advantage. In reality what the blogger has done is focus attention on your business. Now think about this; if you went out of the blue to a blog and left postings about your business, what you offer and how it works you would be blasted. You would be crucified for arrogantly promoting your own business. There will be wailing and gnashing of teeth about your underhanded spamming of that blog.

Foot in the door

So, in reality what did that particular blogger do by venting about your business? You were given carte blanch, the open sesame to have your own say on that particular blog. You can do your online reputation great damage if you post on a blog uninvited. If a blogger posts a negative post about your business, whether it is justified or through misinformation, you have the right to respond.

The readers will be greatly appreciative if you respond. If you are at fault; responding on the blog gives you the opportunity to thank the blogger for bringing the problem to your attention. You have the opportunity to build bridges and improve your services. If the blogger inaccurately accuse you, this is the absolute perfect opportunity.

From disaster into positive tool

You to tell the whole world who you are, what your services are and how absolutely brilliant it is doing business with you. You can offer to explain to the readers how your promotions work, what benefits you offer etcetera. Instead of seeing a negative blog post as a disaster, turn it into a powerful tool. You have the perfect opportunity to build or rebuilt your online reputation. All it takes is to be brutally honest, show the blogosphere respect and interact.

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The proper term for the process is known as SEO, or Search Engine Optimization. SEO is a combination of two major components. First, you must learn how to tweak your web pages so that the search bots find your content to be search engine friendly. Once you have set up a search friendly site, the next component is to build back links. But before diving straight into SEO, you must first know which keywords to target.

Choosing Your Target Keyword Phrase.

Many new Internet Marketers make the mistake of choosing the wrong keywords to target. So what makes a keyword inappropriate?

Your ideal keyword phrase should be around three to four keywords. - If you are targeting a word like “music”, you may find that you may not be able to rank for anything. That is because the keyword itself is too general. Whether you are looking for someone to sign up as a member, download a song, or buy something from you, you want to be sure that you are matching the right offer to the right audience. In other words, you are looking for targeted traffic. So instead of choosing a keyword like “music”, a keyword phrase like “local music bands” would be a much better choice.

Use a keyword research tool to make sure that the keyword will bring you traffic. - If you are targeting an obscure keyword that nobody ever uses, you may just be wasting your time and resources. Google offers a free keyword tool that will give you a good idea on which keyword phrase to choose. The tool reveals estimated search traffic, as well as the level of competition.

But don’t be over-reliant on keyword tools to help you find keywords. As a business owner, you should be very familiar with the market. Know who your target customers are. That will help you find and locate valuable keywords that no one else would’ve thought of.

Choose keywords with a fair amount of competition. - Some marketers believe strongly that keywords with little competition are easier to rank. Therefore, it makes sense to target those keywords. But if you are setting up an online business, you want to be in an active market. In other words, the best keywords are those with a fair amount of competition, but are not overly saturated. A fair amount of competition is a good indicator of the value of a keyword phrase. You stand a much greater chance of success if you target those keywords.

Setting Up a Search Engine Friendly Website.

Fortunately, you don’t have to be a geek to learn how to tweak your sites. Most content management systems are SEO friendly, and the best part is, most of them are free. The popular ones include Wordpress, Joomla, Drupal, and DotNetNuke. Your web pages will be search friendly when they are hosted on these systems. But if you really want to learn the basics, make sure that you implement the following.

If you are tweaking your site manually, there are two important things that you must implement. First, always make sure that your target keyword phrases are included in the title tags. Use them in your META keyword and description tags as well. Next, use a search engine friendly file name such as “your-keyword-phrase.html”. You can easily rename your html files using any text editor.

Manual tweaks can be implemented easily if you have a small site. But if you are thinking of growing the website into a huge site, you should consider using a content management system (CMS). If you are using a CMS, be careful not to overload the site by installing too many unnecessary plug-ins. Remember that your primary goal is to make it easy for the search bots to find your web pages, and to determine the overall theme of the content. By installing too many unnecessary bells and whistles, you are making it more difficult for the search bots to do their job. For that reason, you often find that hassle free templates tend to work better than fanciful ones. Don’t overcomplicate things. The golden principle here is to keep things simple.

When you are satisfied with the design and content, it’s now time to let the world know about your site.

Link Building with Articles.

There are many ways you can build back links to your site. You can post entries on blogs, submit links to Web 2.0 properties, submit URLs to a bunch of web directories, or write and distribute press releases and/or articles. You can use a combination of these methods if you have the time and resources, or you can keep your focus on just one - such as article marketing.

Article marketing is one of the easiest methods to get well established websites to link to you. These are authority sites that have been around for years, and you can get hundreds (maybe even thousands) of one way back links from these sites. One way back links means links that point to your sites, but you don’t need to reciprocate and link back to the external sites.

Every article you write allows you to include two to three simple text links at the bottom of the article. Here is when things get interesting.

In the “eyes” of the search engines, every link from an external site to your website is counted as a vote. In other words, the more back links you have pointing to your site, the better your site will rank. Of course, these can’t be any back links. They have to be links from authority sites and relevant web pages.

Now you already know that there are literally hundreds of article directories on the Internet that are recognized as authority sites by the search engines. All you have to do is to create relevant content, put your links at the end of the articles, and submit them to the article directories. When they are approved, your articles get published online, and you get a bunch of high quality links pointing to your site.

What you really need to know here is that you must be careful about what you include as the anchor texts for your links. Anchor texts are words that you place within the HTML link tags. For instance, instead of having your links as “Click here”, make sure that you create links that say, “Your Keyword Phrase”.

This is how the search engines determine the theme and relevancy of the content on your website. The assumption here is that if there are a thousand links from external sites “saying” that your site is about “green aliens”, then perhaps your site is really about “green aliens”.

Write on topic, and include your target keywords as anchor texts. Don’t let anyone tell you otherwise.

What to Expect After Your Articles Have Been Published.

If you website is brand new, don’t expect to see miracles overnight. It can take anywhere from four to six weeks for a new website to pick up speed. If you have done everything right (choose the right keywords, optimize your site, and pick the right anchor texts), then your site will appear in the search index in about three weeks. Initially, it will appear in page 5 or 6 in the search results. That is a very good sign.

In another two week’s time, your website will move up to page 3 or 4. Don’t rest on your laurels and stop writing and distributing articles. Keep up with your link building campaigns. If you have chosen the right keywords, you should be able to rank in about 6 weeks. For highly competitive keywords, it may take longer.

Your goal is to at least get your site to rank on page 1 on the major search engines. Once it emerges on page 1 of the search results, you will be receiving a steady stream of highly targeted traffic from the search engines. Do your part by serving your visitors well by publishing valuable content or offering killer products. You will soon be enjoying the handsome rewards.

read more “A Simple Guide For Achieving Top Rankings in the Search Engines – Even if You Are a Complete Newbie”

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