Article_Marketing

Article Marketing-Both Sides of the Fence

Every site has its own set of guidelines – but I think if you adhere to the following – more of your articles will get published. It is best to check each site’s set of rules (but who has the time) or follow this basic set of do’s and don’ts.

1. Do submit articles on a regular basis
2. Do capitalize the first letter of every word in the subject line
3. Do check the spelling and grammar – and then check it again
4. Do write original articles about topics you have a passion for
5. Do write articles that are about 400-800 characters in length – too short and too long will be rejected
6. Do write an article – not a blatant advertisement
7. Do check the paragraph formatting
8. Do write an informative Author’s resource box
9. Do use HTML tags (if allowed) – I would demonstrate an example of a proper link – but most likely it would cause the article to be declined. Just Google HTML link to see how to do it correctly

1. Don’t capitalize every letter in the subject line
2. Don’t bold the subject or your links
3. Don’t submit more than 2 links in the author’s resource box
4. Don’t put links in the text of the article
5. Don’t cloak links – do it legally to get links back to your site
6. Don’t write an ad – write an article (I know – I already said this above)

Here are some general recommendations:
1. Get a real domain – it is much more acceptable and professional than blogspot, angelfire, or any of the other free site places. If you want to have a blog – get a domain and use wordpress – the domain will cost all of about 8 dollars per year and hosting can be had for under $5 per year.
2. Use an autosubmitter. There are free and paid services – either way – your article(s) will be at hundreds or thousands of sites instead of one or two. Be advised that some article sites don’t accept articles submitted by autosubmitters – but they are in the minority.
3. Visit your articles. Many article sites will send you an email that tells you that your article has been submitted. Go and look and make sure it looks OK, the link(s) are correct and then vote for it and if the site has social bookmarks – bookmark it.
4. If you use Private Label Rights (PLR) articles – change them – make them different so that they are not the same as a bazillion other articles online.
5. Check the sites’ guidelines – some don’t accept gambling articles, sexually oriented articles, etc. Some will even decline your article if it doesn’t pass their internal word search. I have had some declined for using the word “sex” or “marijuana” in the article. Even though the “sex” article was health related and the “marijuana” article was a travel advice article informing travelers not to smuggle drugs. Sometimes you can’t win.
6. Don’t get frustrated. It can take time for the articles to get indexed in the search engines and it can take time for the article site owners to approve your articles. Just keep plugging away and it will pay off.
7. Quality is better than quantity. Just cranking out crap articles daily is not as good as writing 2 or 3 good articles every week.
8. Take time with the subject. If the subject is boring – most likely the article will not get read. Be creative.
9. Write 2 or 3 sentences in the Author’s resource box. Tell us about yourself and why you are the expert on this topic or why we should click your link.

Hopefully this helps you in getting more of your articles published.

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Friday, August 7th, 2009 Article_Marketing 4 Comments

Article Marketing Tips

I have been writing articles and submitting them to various article directories for around a year now. When I started I felt very fresh and had plenty to write about. After a few months however, I started to get what is known as writers block. I could not think of anything else to write about. In this article I give advice about how to react when this happens, advice which I hope will help you to continue to write quality and original articles.

My name is Steve Hill and my line of business is as a speech coach. I developed a stutter when I was four years of age and it continued to affect my life for the next eighteen years. I have managed to overcome this speech impediment and as a career I now help other people to achieve fluency. I feel I know quite a lot about the subject and found it quite easy and enjoyable to write about all aspects of stuttering.

After a while I could not think of anything new to write about stuttering, which would be of value to people and made the mistake or re-writing some of the articles using different words. I must admit I was unaware that this was against the rules but now realise that each article needs to have original content, which I accept and understand.

I then wrote about some of the experiences from my own life, like how I coped when my now ex-girlfriend left me and even stories about my dog! A number of people have read these articles and have sent me some very nice e-mails stating how much they have enjoyed them.

One morning I woke up with very good intentions, I was planning on writing three or four new articles. I turned on the computer and basically sat there. Come on write something, I tried to tell myself. The problem was that I could not think of anything to write about. I decided to go back to bed. I seem to be able to think clearer from my bed, a bit weird I know.

I decided that I was not only going to write about my own life and experiences but I would also write about my family and friends. Other areas I could write about would be:

How to promote a website

Web design

Self confidence

Travel

World affairs

Sport

Exercise

Weight loss

Stress management

Anger management

Business

These are all areas I have a great interest in and even though they are not my main line of business, the articles should be of interest to people. Most of the topics which I have listed are things which I or people I know, have had experiences with. For example a lot of people who stutter including myself in the past, have issues with their self-confidence.

Weight loss is subject which is close to my heart as I have had many problems in controlling my own weight. I also run my own business and therefore have had to learn aspects about how to do this.

I also love playing and watching sport. This was therefore something else which I then concentrated on and I have now written articles on snooker and football.

To gain inspiration and to help me to write my articles, I read a lot of books and newspapers and I also like to watch the news and current affairs programs on the television.

I hope this article has been of help to you and please feel free to read and re-print more of the articles I have written.

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Friday, August 7th, 2009 Article_Marketing 1 Comment

Are You Already Marketing On The Internet?

Take a moment to think about how you would really answer this question. If given enough thought just about any business owner who utilizes the Internet for any purpose will likely find that whether or not they intentionally organized an Internet marketing campaign, they may already be marketing their products and services on the Internet. This article will examine some subtle ways business owners may already be marketing their business on the Internet.

Do you have a website for your business? Business owners who answer yes to this question are already marketing their products or services online just by virtue of the fact that they have a website online. Having a live website means there is the potential for curious Internet users to access your website. You may not be actively promoting your website but you may still find that your website generates interest in your products despite the lack of promotional endeavors; this is a form of passive marketing.

Do you participate in message boards and include a link to your website in your signature? Again business owners who answer yes to this question are already marketing their website online. Savvy business owners realize the importance of participation in industry related message boards to create an interest in their products and services, establish themselves as knowledgeable about the industry and offer a link to their own website even if it is in the signature line of their posts. However, even business owners who do not realize this may already be inadvertently enjoying the benefits of Internet marketing which result from message board participation just by doing something they enjoy and may be doing as a form of leisure activity.

Do you include keywords which are relevant to your business in the content of your website? Business owners who answer yes to this question are also already marketing on the Internet by optimizing their website for these keywords. These search engine optimization (SEO) affects the websites whether or not they were even aware of the concept of keyword density and how it can help to SEO a website. Business owners will likely use certain words often depending on the type of products and services they offer just because it is natural and logical to do so. This tendency, however, can result in search engines boosting your website rankings for these particular keywords. The concept of SEO is much more involved and complex than simply using keywords frequently but business owners can gain some benefit just by naturally applying relevant keywords to their website.

Do you solicit feedback from your customers online? This is yet another example of how business owners may be accidentally marketing their business on the Internet. Most business owners realize the importance of soliciting feedback from customers for business purposes and business owners who offer products online might solicit feedback in the form of online surveys. Although the business owners may be doing this simply for a business purpose the fact that it is done online makes it fall into the category of Internet marketing.

We have already discussed several ways in which business owners may already be marketing online but what about business owners who want to have an increased online presence? Business owners who may already be marketing online accidentally may wish to launch a full scale Internet marketing campaign. The best way to do this is to hire a consultant with experience in Internet marketing to assist you in creating a campaign which is effective for your target audience.

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Friday, August 7th, 2009 Article_Marketing No Comments