Article Directories 101

I recently extended a challenge to a writing group. The challenge was to write and submit as many articles as possible to article directories online during the month of January. I was surprised to learn that some writers had never heard of article directories. So here's my crash course for writers: Article Marketing 101.

WHAT is an article directory? An article directory is a website that contains a database of articles. These articles are categorized by topic on the website. An article directory is a place where authors submit their articles. It is also a place where publishers can find free articles pertinent to their publishing needs; in exchange they place your bio and [active] links with your article when they publish it.

HOW do I submit my articles to an article directory? The process of submitting articles is simple. First, you'll need to create an account with the directory (this is usually free). Once your account is approved and activated, you'll be able to submit your articles.

WHO approves my articles? Article directories are normally maintained by human editors. Every article is read and checked by these editors and then must be approved. (Remember to read and follow the article directory's terms!)

WHEN are my articles displayed? Normal wait time can range from one day up to two weeks. On average, my articles are usually approved within 5-7 days.

WHERE are my articles used? Your articles are used in many venues. Sometimes an editor who is short an article for her monthly newsletter will search, find, and print a relevant article from the article database. One lady I know that runs an article directory has had several print publications use articles from her database, and is marketing it more and more towards the print publishers now.

WHY would I want to give away my articles for free? Submitting your articles to an article directory has tons of benefits. Not only do you get free marketing benefits from it, but you get lots of exposure. You can position yourself as an expert. It's a mutual win-win situation, for both you and the publishers that get to use your articles.

Get more tips on how to market with articles at http://www.hopewrites.com - Be sure to subscribe to the free newsletter: http://www.hopewrites.com/free-newsletter/

The Hidden Benefits of Article Marketing

Many people who are looking for ways to get traffic to their website are familiar with article marketing. The way it works is actually quite simple. You write an article that is based on a long tail keyword phrase and post it to a website that has weight in the eyes of Google. One of the most popular places to post these particular articles is EzineArticles.

What many people don't realize, however, is that there is another way to do this article marketing that will actually generate, not only traffic but will give your website additional weight in the eyes of the search engine's. It is basically a means in which you will capitalize on the success of other websites.

Almost all webmasters are looking for unique content. If you find websites that are similar to your own, write them an e-mail and offer to put a unique article on their website, one that you wrote yourself. Be prepared to send them a sample of your article writing abilities. You would be surprised at the number of webmasters who are willing to post your content on their website in exchange for a link back to your own site.

This is one of the easiest ways to get your link on to some top ranking webpages online. Although it may be tempting to game the search engines by using tricky methods, using a solid marketing practice, such as this can give your site the momentum it needs for it to rank well on its own.

To discover more, download my brand new free audio report here: How The Internet Helped Me Build A $180,000 Service Business

Stop Making Statements That No One Cares About - Stop Complaining

If you are an online article author and you sneak in little sentences full of opinion into your articles, you might want to consider that if those comments are not based in reality, but only your own perception that no body really cares what you think. In fact, you probably are looking pretty ignorant to those of us who know better.

You see, I am not here to make you feel bad or belittle you, you are doing it to yourself, with these persnickety comments of yours. If you are attempting to get the reader to perceive of you as some sort of expert then the real experts are going to be taken aback by your rhetoric.

The fact of the matter is that No One really cares what you think until you do something, so if you have never really accomplished anything in your life but you feel they need to blast your opinion into cyberspace then many people who know better will merely think of you as that something that everyone has.

So, I recommend that you stop making comments that no one cares about and stop complaining about things that you either know nothing about or you perceive that they are the trendy thing to say. If all you do is write about things, but never do anything in life, then all you really do is add your name to the long list of maniac depressant writers who are on Prozac. Think about what I have said, this is Constructive Criticism, aimed to get you the help you need.

"Lance Winslow" - Online Think Tank forum board. If you have innovative thoughts and unique perspectives, come think with Lance; http://www.WorldThinkTank.net/. Lance is a guest writer for Our Spokane Magazine in Spokane, Washington

Article Marketing - Latest 3 Persuasive Steps to Excel At Article Marketing

Article writers cannot be more in-demand these days. With millions of webmasters constantly seeking for articles that they can use in their article marketing campaigns, they can indeed keep millions of article writers busy for a while. With it's proven ability to generate traffic and communicate the webmaster's knowledge and abilities, article marketing is fast becoming the most sought-after traffic-generating tool.

Here are the latest 3 persuasive steps to excel in article marketing:

1. Determine the use of your articles. Article marketing isn't just about submitting your articles to publishing sites. It also pertains to the distribution of your written materials in the internet using other different avenues. Thus, in writing your articles, you have to determine its usage. Are you going post them on publishing sites, on your blogs, on your website or perhaps you'll send them through e-mail marketing. In doing so, you can effectively plan the elements that you will incorporate and other add-ons that you will strike out. You would not want to use your articles with resource box on your own website, do you?

2. Be specific. Explain your ideas by giving concrete examples and specific information. For instance, if you would like to teach your readers on how to make money online, cite specific methods like blogging, article writing, and affiliate marketing, instead of telling them to google search certain terms to get the information they want. If you already have the information, why not just give it upfront? It will not only help your readers but it can also be your effective way of getting your potential audience's trust.

3. Be original. Don't be just another writer. Be different by exhibiting a new level of creativeness in your articles. Develop unique methods that can easily be associated with you so you can make a huge mark online.

Do you want to learn more about how I do it? I have just completed my brand new guide to article marketing success, 'Your Article Writing and Promotion Guide'

Download it free here: Secrets of Article Promotion

Sean Mize is a full time internet marketer who has written over 1574 articles in print and 11 published ebooks.

Marketing an Internet Presence - Network is a Verb

I was speaking with the CEO of an executive career and job site recently. We were making another installment in our ongoing discussion about developing and marketing an on-line Internet presence by leveraging on-line networking platforms.

The CEO made a statement that reminded me of the national, multicultural, social marketing campaign coordinated by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services' Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC):

VERB It's what you do.

To network does - not - mean to simply join a networking platform, create a profile, and passively expect magic to happen. It requires action. It requires reaching out. That's right - it requires effort.

I've talked to many people over the years that complain about not getting anything out of their membership to a given networking platform. When I ask, "What exactly did you - do - after joining the networking platform?" The response (all too often) is, "Do?"

There are millions of - inactive - members of networking platforms. Unfortunately, that translates into million of people that are not realizing the benefit of on-line networking.

Network: It's what you - do - that counts.

There are obviously multitudes of ways one can take action and reach out. You can reach out directly to specific individuals through personal messages/emails or indirectly by posting blogs on topics of common interest, subject matter expertise, etc., or starting a club/forum around a common interest, subject matter expertise, etc. They all require action.

I belong to and I'm a heavy user of on-line networking platforms. All on-line networking platforms are not created equal. From my experience, without a doubt, out of all of the on-line networking platforms I've experimented with, I've found - the best - place to network and start investing in building an on-line Internet presence. It is amazing how fast you can do this.

As an example, do a Google search on the key words: do you exist

The first thing I want you to notice is that the result is a search return of approximately 412,000,000 hits. Now note that my blog post "Do you exist? - by Ron Bates" typically comes up as the 1st - 3rd hit on the first page out of 412 - million - hits. This capability is invaluable to someone desiring to build and market a personal or corporate Internet presence.

I believe so strongly in the power of building an Internet Presence by leveraging on-line networkin that I built a website just to discuss specifically how to do this.

Happy Networking!

Ron Bates is an expert in mission critical retained executive search. He is a Managing Principal with the retained executive search firm Executive Advantage Group, Inc. He has delivered personal executive coaching projects to former SAP, E&Y, Oracle, and WorldCom Exec's responsible for multi-billion dollar business units, and co-founded http://www.CV-Advantage.com, a self guided job search oriented executive coaching process.

With +27,000 direct contacts on on-line professional networking platforms, Ron has been referred to as "the most connected man on Earth". View Rons networking profile on Ecademy.

As a recognized expert in building an on-line personal Internet presence, Ron has been an invited speaker at venues such as the Marketing Executive Networking Group, British America Business Council, Expert Connections, and is a regular guest on Netshares Ask the Coach.

My new Website: Internet Presence Do you exist? can be found at http://www.search-advantage.com

For more information on Conducting a Job Search Campaign go to http://www.job-search-campaign.com

7 Mistakes That Will Kill Your Article

Article writing has become, in the last few years one of the most effective ways to get qualified visitors to your web site. The article though, must be able to grab the readers attention and be informative enough to leave the reader with a feeling of having learned something. There are 7 mistakes that you can make which will actually kill your article. Along with not grabbing the readers attention and not being informative, spelling and grammar mistakes, the use of keywords, Plagiarizing, self promotion, and miss use of the resource box will all kill an article. In this article I will explain these mistakes in some detail and ways to avoid them.

First of all you need a title that will grab the readers attention. You want the reader to want to read through your article. Most people are so busy these days that they just skim through to see if there is anything worth reading. Nice catchy titles that start with for example "The 5 Reasons You Should...", "10 Ways To Improve Your...". You get the idea. Once You get them interested with the title, you then want to give them some informative content. something they can take away from the article.

Secondly, the content of your article must have something of value for the reader to stay interested. The content must be informative and educational, give the reader something they didn't know before they read the article. You do not have to be an expert just, Know what you are writing about and do not make the topic to broad, the reader will lose interest quickly. You should also include some well placed key words in your content.

The third mistake is the miss use of key words. You want to use a key word density of 1-3%. You do not want to saturate your article with key words. Search engines will not frown on you if you stay with in the 1-3 % density. It is when you go well beyond the 1-3% that the search engines start to see your article as being auto written. You don't want to have them give you a bad reputation so it's wise to stay within the percentages.

The fourth mistake is a self promoting article. An article that is full of hype and self promotion is transparent and a big turn off to experienced marketers. Those types of articles never get read and surely never get downloaded to other peoples sites, newsletters and e-zines. Self promoting should be left for your personal website or your ads. Stay away from self promoting in your articles. Any kind of promoting of your site or product should be in your resource box.

The fifth mistake is plagiarizing, using someone else's original article as your own. In writing articles original content is the best way to go. If you do not know too much about the subject you want to write about than do some research and take notes. From your notes you can format your article and expand from there. If you like someone's article that you see in a directory you can use it as long as you include the resource box at the end of the article and keep in tact. You must give the original author credit when ever you use their articles.

Number six naturally is resource boxes. These must be used wisely. Do not put too much in this box. This is where you let the reader know who you are, what you do, and where your website is located. You do not want to get to crazy with this because too much can turn a person off. And the whole point of the article is to get the reader interested in who you are so that they can go to your resource box and click on the link to your website. Make sure though that your spelling is correct. You do not want to go through all the trouble of writing a good article and than misspell your website address.

The seventh and probably the most important mistake that is made is that article writers do not use that handy little button on their tool bar that says "SPELL CHECK". It does not matter how good you are at writing. You should always use the spell checker. A Well written article with no spelling or grammar mistakes will show the readers that you are a professional and you care about the product that you put out. After all an article that you write is a product that you put out.

Articles are fun to write and they do bring quality visitors to your website if they are done correctly. Making sure that you do not commit any of these seven mistakes will insure that you write a good quality article that people will want to read. Have fun and may your article writing be a success.

Frank is a very successful Internet Marketer with various Affiliate programs. He makes a living helping people start their Internet Marketing careers, and shows them how to become successful as well. Visit Franks website at :http://www.Home-Biz-For-You.Com You can Pick up Franks Free Home Business Newsletter at:Free Newsletter

Copyright Frank Tello

http://www.Home-Biz-For-you.Com

Amazing Article Marketing - Latest 3 Phenomenal Methods to Increase Your Article Marketing

Article marketing is the best promotional and traffic-generating tool in the internet today. It can easily augment your website traffic, pull up your search engine ranking, position yourself as a key person in your industry, build that trust and great business relationship with your client base, increase your sales leads and ultimately, improve your online revenue.

Here are the 3 phenomenal methods to increase your article marketing:

1. Write more. If you really want to increase your article marketing, the first thing that you need to consider is to multiply the number of your output to easily increase the inbound links for your website. You can spend more time writing or pick topics that do not require extensive research. You can also hire ghostwriters who can provide you quality and well-written articles for $5-$15 each depending on the topic, length, and your expected delivery date. Though this method will cost you, you will be able to get the credit for the articles as they will be posted under your name.

2. Submit your articles on a regular basis. To strengthen your online presence and your position as an expert on your chosen niche, make it a habit to submit your articles on a regular basis and avoid long absences so your readers will not forget about you. Publish your content not only on article submission sites but also on directories, social bookmarking sites, Squidoo, forums, blogs, and on your own website. You can also use them as content when you publish your ezine or when you create your ebook.

3. Your topics must be related to your offering. The goal in marketing your articles is to draw quality traffic to your website. The best way to do that is to write articles that are closely relevant to your products so you can attract online users who are most likely to buy from you.

To learn more, download my free guide, "How to Generate $15,000 Per Month Online" here: "How to Generate $15,000 Per Month Online"

Sean Mize is an internet marketing mentor who teaches people to generate over $15,000 per month online via automated systems and product funnels.

Article Marketing For Cheap Traffic Results

Article marketing is a cheap way to gain traffic to your website. Although it can be time consuming the results of passive traffic far outweigh the initial effort.

Everyday, there are millions of searches done online by people searching for information on particular keywords in the search engines such as Google, Yahoo or MSN.

The results shown afterwards are websites with content relevant to the keywords being searched online. As a result, these websites gain search engine traffic through the article content on their websites.

Everyone knows that content is king on the Internet hence article marketing is widely used in almost every website. If you provide good content when you write your articles, you are sure to gain traffic to your website.

You don't have to pay a dime to write articles at all. Of course, if you don't have a penchant for writing articles or you cannot write articles on a certain topic, then you can opt to shell out a bit of money to outsource your article writing.

There are many article writers online who are good at what they do and are willing to write for money.

When you submit you articles to major article directories like EzineArticles, your website gets indexed fast. Visitors reading these articles can then be redirected to your website through your resource box at the end of the articles.

Article marketing is also a good way to build back-links to your website. Imagine this, when other websites retrieve your articles from the article directories, they will pull the whole article out including the resource box and display it on their website hence a visitor coming from their website may just visit yours as well.

Writing articles is also a good way to cement yourself as an authority on the subject. When you write good content and compelling articles, you will gain trust as someone who knows in-dept about the subject you are writing on.

So for cheap traffic results, consider article marketing as part of your marketing efforts.

Remember; only write articles that are useful for the reader as well...

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