Article Marketing

I've written tens of thousands of words for articles and many of my articles are on the Internet through article directories. Although I have only been doing article marketing for a short while, I have found it to assist me in building my list of subscribers.

People who search the internet for information are a targeted audience but are by no means a guarantee to building a list fast unless you write hundreds of articles in a short amount of time. You have to be satisfied to use the strategy of writing articles as a long term effective method of list building and creating credibility.

The downside is if you put too many articles on your website [not Internet through directories] too fast you could end up being blacklisted by the search engines as a suspected spammer. I haven't found this to be the case as yet, but you need be aware of it because see this as a risk.

The way articles work for building your business through directories is sound. When you write an article and submit it to directories you place links back to your website in a resource box [or bio as it is commonly referred to]. Website owners and e-zines writers use these articles as free content for their website or newsletter and their readers have access to your site through the resource box if they wish to read more about the subject you have written about.

This works because article directories require that the resource box is left in place when the article is published. You now have a one way link back to your site on your article in directories and also on other websites and in e-zines. Free advertising is good when it is highly targeted.

If you have a small budget this is an excellent way to go. Membership to article directories is usually free. All you have to do is be prepared to spend time to help yourself in the marketing game.

Is article marketing as good as they all seem to say? I don't believe so unless you have no other options available to you. Sure, you have to be involved in article marketing but it should only be used as one of many strategies to market. It is good to get inbound links to create leads and credibility. However, a word of warning. Don't rely on it to build your business fast without other strategies to support it.

About the author

Dan Cavalli is an entrepreneur and expert on success in small businesses. He teaches essential marketing tactics and sales techniques. Get your copy of Dan's free subscription for Business and Personal Development Tips at http://www.commandobusiness.com/ or for your free 5 day mini-course on "How to Get More Sales in 5 Days or Less" go to http://www.leadbuildingsystems.com

Basic Search Engine Optimization - Beyond The Mystery And Right To The Facts

Search engine optimization has long been the Holy Grail of Web marketing. Every website owner wants to see their sites rank well in the top engines, but exactly how to achieve this remains a mystery for most marketers.

The first thing I want to point out is this fact: The exact algorithms used by the major search engines are actually proprietary, so anyone who doesn't work for one of these companies who tells you they know exactly what it takes to put you at the top is probably lying to you.

The truth is the search engine companies don't want people like me understanding their systems and creating positive results for my clients. The people behind search engine technology believe their algorithms provide the perfect solution for a Web surfer's query.

But of course you and I know better. How many times have you tried to do a simple keyword search and ended up with page after page of irrelevant results?

Whether they like it or not, the search engines do need help from proficient designers and skilled marketers. It's up to us to add the human element that robots and software simply can't accomplish in an effort to bring searchers the best possible results.

SEO (search engine optimization) is a term with a very broad scope. There is a great deal of work and diligence involved in producing favorable search results for your website(s), but this article will take away much of the mystery that shrouds this subject and give you the basic fundamentals you'll need to create some real results.

First of all, you should know there are two aspects of search engine optimization; onsite and offsite. Onsite optimization refers to what you can do within your code to make your files more search engine friendly, and offsite refers to link building from other websites back to your web pages.

Solid onsite optimization involves the following steps:

Title and Meta Tags:

Your title tag should reflect your primary keyword phrase. This is HUGELY important.

Often when I visit a site I see the domain name in the title bar. The title tag is the first thing a search engine robot is going to take notice of, and if you blow this aspect of onsite optimization your remaining efforts will have considerably less impact.

For instance, on one of my sites I sell an e-book to online marketers about the pitfalls of business opportunity programs found on the web. The title of my e-book is Net Marketing Exposed, which is pretty cool, but do you think this would be an intelligent entry for the Title tag of my main page? Of course not. Who on earth is going to search for 'Net Marketing Exposed'?

So my title tag reads: Internet Marketing E-book | Internet Business Opportunity. My target market for the site I'm referencing consists of home-based opportunity seekers and Internet marketers so I have chosen keyword phrases that match these search terms for my Title tags.

And note you can use the pipe character ( | ) to separate multiple terms in your title tag. I recommend going with at least two phrases in your title tag, but do not use the exact same words more than three times in your title.

The debate as to whether or not search engines still reference your meta tags when spidering your site is a hot topic among SEO experts. I honestly don't know if the major engines still read the keyword tag or not, but I add this tag anyway because it only takes a couple of minutes and why not take this extra step just in case right?

Whether or not you utilize the Meta Keywords tag is up to you but I do urge you to use the Meta Description tag. We know for a fact the engines read this tag because if you have it entered in the head section of your html it is what displays under your site title in the search listings.

So the description tag serves not only to add keyword relevance for the search engine spiders, it also acts as your ad when a searcher views your listing in the search results. Adding a quality description in this field can improve the clickthrough rate your listing receives once it is found through a keyword search.

Search engine Friendly File Names:

I recommend naming your page files in a manner that reflects your relevant keyword phrases. If you have a page that lists your articles on your site name that file articles.html instead of something useless like page02.html

Of course the main page in every directory will have to be named index, but that's ok as the engines are hip to that; just be sure to put some thought into your other file names.

Header Tags and Page Content:

You should also use Header tags (H1, H2, H3, etc.) to illustrate important keyword phrases within your site. For example, the page title your visitor sees at the top of your content should be enclosed in H1 tags and should contain your primary keywords.

And obviously your main keywords need to appear several times in the content of each page. Placing these phrases close to the top of your content is recommended, and you should use underline, bold, and italic tags to add emphasis to your keywords within your content.

I have found the 'strong' tag to be of particular effectiveness. While on a visual level it serves the same purpose as the 'b' tag (creates bold text) my research suggests that search engine spiders respond better to the 'strong' tag.

Be careful not to emphasize every keyword phrase with special tags, and avoid excessive and unnatural "stuffing" of keywords onto your pages as the engines may pick this up and flag your site as search engine spam.

Image Tags:

Many designers and marketers ignore the value of proper image tagging when optimizing their templates for the engines. I can tell you right now I have seen a huge jump in ranking as a direct result of changing the structure of a site's image tags.

First of all, remember that search engine robots read text, not images. So avoid giving your image files names like 'header.jpg' or 'photo014.gif' unless you are hoping to be ranked for search terms like header and photo.

You should also be sure to use an alt tag with every image, and enter a keyword relevant phrase as your alt tag.

Going back to my e-book site as an example, my header graphic is named http://internet-business-opportunity.jpg, and has an alt tag of "Internet marketing e-book reveals the truth about Internet business opportunities." And the cover graphic for my book is named http://internet-marketing-ebook.jpg with a matching alt tag.

Onsite Link and Navigation Structure:

Finally pay attention to the anchor tags and navigation structure of your site. It's better to use keyword terms for a hyperlink text than to simply use 'click here'. I also suggest applying the Title attribute to add keyword phrases to your link tags.

Of course if you use image links refer back to the image name and alt tag rules.

And your menu should also be built around search engine friendly tags. For instance never use a 'Home Page' tag on your navigation; instead apply a relevant keyword.

If your website is about swimming lessons, the menu button for your home page should say 'Swimming Lessons' or something similar and not simply 'Home'.

This may seem like a lot to take in, but it's really a very simple formula for building search engine ready templates. Review this info until it is second nature and apply it to every site you build and you'll be on your way to stronger placement in the major engines.

The last, and the most important element of basic SEO is offsite optimization. This is a fancy term for link building.

To get the most out of your onsite optimization, you need plenty of good links pointing back to your website. And you should always strive for keyword anchored backlinks over straight URLs.

Again using my example site that retails an e-book to folks with an interest in work from home opportunities, I want hyperlink text that reads "Internet marketing e-book" or "Internet business opportunity".

A correctly built link back allows you to control what search engine spiders look for once they follow a link to your site. Once they arrive through an anchor tag that reflects your primary keywords, the spiders will proceed to look for these terms in your file tags and page content, which will of course improve your potential rankings.

This article has covered everything you need to get started with successful SEO. Master these concepts and you are certain to see a big jump in your search engine rankings!

Tim Whiston is a professional entrepreneur who enjoys helping other entrepreneurs achieve success. He has created hundreds of thousands of dollars in profit for his clients and owns many of his own Websites and products. Check out his Web Design Course for more great content.

Niche List Building - 3 Ways to Manage Niche List Building

Niche list building is the most profitable way to build a list. You will be able to reach all segments of your market in this manner. You will also get more sales and sign ups for your opt-in lists. In order to do this you will need to know your market well and understand the different niches within it.

3 ways to manage niche list building:

1. Build multiple lists: Make squeeze pages for each of your different niches within your market and create separate opt-in lists for them. This will allow you to pinpoint each list with exactly the right offers. This will increase your sales ratio for every list and help you to sell more.

2. Write articles on different topics: Write articles on different topics that will appeal to different segments of your niche market. This will help you to include everyone in your market. Make the links point to different squeeze pages for them to sign up for your lists.

3. Make Google Adwords campaigns. Using highly targeted keywords make multiple Google Adword campaigns. Read all the tutorials and keep a watchful eye on your campaigns. It is very easy for these campaigns to get out of control. Be careful how you bid and make a note of click to sales conversions for each keyword.

Niche list building takes a little time but is well worth it. Be sure that you have a niche market before you start to separate the segments within iit. It should be in high demand with less websites supplying it.

Do you want to know how I build my lists and make thousands of dollars per month from home?

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Squidoo Affiliate Marketing - Get Multiple Listings on the First Page of Google Results

Introduction

This article shows you a way to use Squidoo to get multiple listings on the first page of Google results for your targeted keyword.

Squidoo enables you to create a dynamic interplay between your blog, articles and Squidoo lens. I have termed this interaction, the Squidoo-Google Dance. Hopefully, the reason for the name will become obvious as I explain each step of this strategy.

Basic steps to get on the first page of Google results

Here are the basic steps for the Squidoo-Google Dance:

1. Create a Squidoo lens on "Your Keyword"

2. Start a blog on "Your Keyword" (or re-focus an existing blog)

3. Submit both your lens and your blog to blog directories and the search engines.

4. Write an article on "Your Keyword" with the resource box linking to your blog AND your lens.

5. Submit your article to article directories.

6. Create links from your Squidoo lens and blog to your article(s).

7. Set up an RSS feed from your blog to your Squidoo lens.

8. Start posting to your blog with "Your Keyword" in your post title.

9. Ping the blog directories for your blog and squidoo lens with each post.

So what is happening?

You have created a dynamic interaction (dance) between your blog, your Squidoo lens and your articles.

• Your blog and Squidoo lens are being updated simultaneously.
• Your articles are creating backlinks to your lens and blog.
• Your blog and Squidoo lens are creating backlinks to your articles.

By pinging the directories, you are inviting Google to join the dance. Google continuously crawls the directories looking for updated material.

If you have multiple articles on the same keyword or topic you can also add your article feed from an article directory to your blog and Squidoo lens. Blogger.com, for example, now has provision for adding RSS feeds to your blog.

The result: multiple listings on the first page of Google

The net result of the Squidoo-Google Dance is multiple listings on the first page of Google for your target keyword. These listings can be from your blog posts, your Squidoo lens, your article in an article directory or website, your blog directory entry or even from your Squidoo tags.

If you have monetized your lens and your blog with affiliate product links, the Squidoo-Google Dance can generate increased income as well as substantial traffic.

Ron Passfield, PhD, is the author of an e-book on Squidoo affiliate marketing (and weekly updates via email subscription): http://www.squidoomarketingstrategies.com

Visit Rons Top 100 Squidoo lens for access to his email course and Squidoo marketing strategies, tools, tips and techniques: http://www.squidoo.com/squidoomarketingstrategies

Rons blog on how to do affiliate marketing with Squidoo: http://www.affiliate-marketing-coach.blogspot.com/

Copyright 2007 Ron Passfield All rights reserved worldwide

Internet Marketing - The Three Great Advantages of Article Marketing

Perhaps the most important aspect of Internet marketing is getting traffic to your website. But how do you do that, without spending a fortune? If you haven't even considered article marketing, you're making a big mistake. Writing articles and posting them to prominent directories gives you some great benefits. "I hate to write," you say? Hire someone at eLance.com to ghostwrite for you. It can be very inexpensive. There's no excuse powerful enough to wipe out the benefits of article marketing.

Here are three reasons why:

First, there's not a doubt that a well-written article will give you status as an expert. Don't think that you're too new at this to write something! If you're in the right niche, you should have a passion for what you're doing. You'll know something, which is more than most. So, write about what you love. Do it in a conversational tone, and tell them what thrills you about your Internet marketing niche. Just write about the aspects of it where your excitement lies.

Second, when you solve problems, people will want to see your website. So, for example, say you're in the crafts niche, but you are really passionate about knitting. So, you must be a knitter, right? OK. Prepare a special report that gives 5 to 10 tips about knitting that you can teach new knitters and put a link in your author's resource box (the byline information and a short bit of ad copy) that leads them to your squeeze page to get it. If they read your article and liked it, they'll come to your website and they'll opt in to your list to get those 5 to 10 tips, too.

Third, articles provide one-way links to your website. This allows some SEO (search engine optimization) advantage. Each link you get from another website is a one-way link, as long as you don't point back to the other site, as well. These links are seen as "natural" by the search engines, meaning that one webmaster just saw another webmaster's site and wanted to add a link. Search engine spiders like that. However, when you write articles, you get the advantage of each of them pointing back to your site. Very valuable links, indeed.

There's no argument... Article marketing is extremely powerful, and it's not just a traffic generation system. There are at least three great benefits that we discussed above. Think about writing an article or buying some from ghost writers. Then, get them into a good directory. You'll see the results in the traffic to your Internet marketing site and in optins and sales because the best aspect of writing and marketing with articles is that it gives you the credibility you need to succeed in the Internet marketing world.

Tellman Knudson, CEO of OvercomeEverything, Inc., is a master list builder and well-known for his first project, List Crusade. Tellman teaches you his system for explosive list building and offers a Free one-on-one consultation with an Internet marketing expert at http://listbuildingpower.net

Keyword Discovery - Keyphrase Research Makes Successful Websites!

Keyword Discovery or Keyphrase Research is the initial step in the success of any website. Internet searchers use this step to find what they want. If your website uses such key elements in a proper way, they could lead you to a successful online business. If not, your site needs a serious reconsideration.

Importance of Keyword Research in Web Development

The choice of keywords is so important that experts recommend web developers to consider keyword discovery search as the first step in their works. That is to say, even before choosing a name for your website, you need to know what your keywords will be.

After such a research, web developers can proceed to choose a name for their site. Texts, links, web design, meta data, all tags, comments and whatever in which words play some part will be done afterward based on the initial step.

Which Keywords OR Keyphrases to Choose?

You should do some keyword discovery or keyphrase research to learn what people type while thinking about your information, product or service. Then, get the historical volume of a keyword that is searched and see how competitive it is.

Of course, if a key string of words is searched a lot, it wouldn't mean that it's the best one for you. Actually, the competition for such a term will be way high too.

So, what's the solution? You should choose the most effective one. Divide the popularity of a keyword (the number of searches for it) by its competitiveness (the number of results) and you'll have the Keyword Effectiveness Index (KEI) of that keyword.

The higher the result, the better that string of words will be to choose and use.

How Many Keywords / Keyphrases Do You Need?

When you begin your keyword discovery, you should make a list of words and phrases. The most effective ones, one to three of them, will be your main keywords or keyphrases used at your main page, usually home page. The total number of keywords for your website will depend on the size of your whole site, the content of each individual page, etc.

Generally, the number of key words for each page should be from 3 to 10. However, it's usually recommended not to begin your new page or main page of the new site with more than 3 keyphrases.

Keywords vs Keyphrases?

While searching, if you use a single word, you are searching for general information, product or service which is usually a brand name these days. The longer the string of words in such a cluster, the more specific such a phrase is. Success is in selecting your best keyphrases, not keywords.

An example:

You run a foodstuff recipe website and now want to be found for a particular salad for a special event, Easter. Let's say you use Google for this search. Would you use "salad" as your main keyword? I guess not, because you know that this term could bring you around 40 millions of results. It means a lot of competition.

What about "Easter salad"? it definitely lowers the degree of competition for you as there will be around 1.2 million results. Great difference, isn't it? This, by itself, shows how different it is to add one more word to the search term. To narrow the search, I even recommend to use one more word to the string. It will be "Easter salad recipes".

Maybe the difference in results won't be very different from "Easter salad", but when Internet searchers use this last string of words (a keyphrase), they are more specific about what they need.

Important:
If you write rich content on "salad recipes for Easter" and optimize a webpage for it, you will most probably be seen on the first page of the results.

How to Use Keywords or Keyphrase in Writing?

First things first. Your attitude is the most important thing. Write for your webpage visitors. Give them exactly the information related to the keyphrase you're using. Then, at second stage consider the search engine and their rules.

Obviously, now that you've done key phrase research, you're supposed to make use of the result, in our example, "Easter salad recipes". Use it at your title, body text, meta data, alt tags, etc in a natural way. Again, while doing this, avoid stuffing your page with this key phrase. Keep the keyword frequency, weight, etc in its appropriate proportion.

Don't forget to use some synonymous terms. Google considers synonyms used at the same page by its algorithm. Of course, this doesn't mean that you should sacrifice your keyphrase research by providing a large number of synonymous words or phrases for it. Just consider it a few times.

How to Create Successful Web Pages?

Considering the initial step suggested above to discover the best terms, the right way to create successful web pages could be as follows:

1. Launch a thorough keyword discovery or keyphrase research.

2. Apply web copy writing techniques to create rich content for your pages.

3. Finally, optimize your web page to make sure your discovery or research hasn't been done in vain.

Eventually, you'll have one such a good web page. Do the same for all other pages of your site and you'll see the result overtime.

Rahman Mehraby is mainly focused on Website Assessment as an initial step before taking any SEO Packages. He writes articles to help webmasters gain higher organic search engine placement. Visit his website at: http://www.site-booster.com.