Saturday, May 24, 2008

Article Marketing-Why Is Article Marketing So Important In My Internet Business?

Article marketing is the number one thing I do online. Why? Why do I spend time writing articles when there are so many other good ways to make money online?

I actually stumbled into article marketing to make money online. I started with a small website, and to get search engine traffic, I did two things: 1) I submitted to web directories and 2) I wrote articles, included my links, and submitted them to various article directories online.

What happened? The first thing that happened is that I gained top ten search engine rankings for several different keywords and then I continued to submit articles, but I began testing the article directories for best response. I found one that out paced all the others combined, and began to submit only to that article directory.

My traffic began to climb but what happened that was even more exciting was that the people who subscribed to my list via the article marketing each bought as much as 5 times as much as visitors derived from most other sources (outperforming PPC by about 10 times or more).

This of course surprised me, but when I began to think about it, I realized what had happened anyhow, this is my theory:

1) I write a lot of articles. So people have the opportunity to get to know me before the subscribe to my list they already have passed the relationship building step before they get to my list, so I can start selling my products right away, while they are still hot, interested in the types of products I offer.

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

Do you want to learn how to build a massive list fast? Click here: Email List Building

Sean Mize is a full time internet marketer who has written over 700 articles in print and 9 published ebooks.

Article Marketing - Write Your Way Into Search Results - Traffic And $$$

In my regular scouring of the internet marketing do's and don'ts, I come across an endless sea of opinions, many of them contradictory of other opinions by internet marketers and gurus. You may have seen something like what I'm referring to. Some internet marketers will tell you "Adsense is dead", while others assure you that "There's still life in Adsense and other Pay Per Click programs!" One of the topics that has come to my attention recently is regarding the use of articles to raise the search ranking of your website and do some honest to goodness SEO (Search Engine Optimization).

There are several aspects to SEO, of course. This article takes a look at articles and how their content can be used to your advantage to build your website popularity.

One opinion I've seen time and time again that has been trumpeted by scores of marketers, and that has never been contested, is "search engines love content." I'll go a step further and say, "Search engines love original content."

If you want to see what I'm referring to, do a search under "article sites" and see how many directories you pull up. Article directories are out there in droves, keeping a large supply of articles that can be (and usually are) used by people publishing ezines or adding content to their sites. I've submitted articles to several of these sites for free. Here's why submitting articles is a win-win situation:

Win for you: You get to include a "resource box" with your article, which can be a link back to your website (or the affiliate site you are promoting)

Win for them: ezine publishers need to come up with articles every day/week/month. Webmasters want their proverbial "regularly updated content." Article directories give them the ammo they need to keep their updates regular and their content fresh.

Of course, this does mean you will need to write. If you like to write already, great - get started! If writing is about as fun for you as pulling your teeth with rusty jumper cables, all is not lost. My suggestion is to look at sites like Elance (www.elance.com) and look for writers on the topic you want to cover. Elance has a bidding system, which allows you to post a project for bids and let prospective writers bid on it. Once you have your article written, you will need to submit it. There is an endless array of article sites on the web. You can also take a shortcut by trying an article submission tool.

Something else to remember - SEO will take awhile. Even if you have submitted articles, you must give them time to make their way into the hands of those people who will publish them on sites and on the web.

So there you have it - articles help you promote your web site the write way!

Paul Heingarten is an entrepreneur, author and consultant. He owns several websites and has assisted business owners with website design and marketing. Take a look at his site http://www.theebookstar.com to see a great collection of ebooks available on topics like website marketing.

Article Marketing - 6 Strategic Ways To Write An Article In Less Than 10 Minutes

These five strategies will vastly increase your article writing speed. If you just follow these tactics, you'll start pumping out articles every ten minutes. I promise.

6 strategic ways to make a successful article in less than 10 minutes

  1. Writing in bullet points is a great way to write article faster. Instead of trying to think of a way to make a sentence that connects your last sentence to the next one, you can just put up a bullet point. This is a fast way to write an article, and readers love it when you use bullet points.

  2. Using the backspace button will decrease your articles submission rate. Try your best not to use the back space. The more you use it, the slower your article writing becomes. The backspace button is your enemy!

  3. Do not write rough drafts and brain storms. This will decrease your article writing time. By the time your done writing the brainstorm and rough draft, you could have already written more than 5 articles waiting to be submitted. So don't write rough drafts or articles. This vastly decreases your article writing time.

  4. Writing without thinking is one of the best ways to write a fast article. Don't stop to think if your last sentence was good or not. Chances are that it was good enough. Just write and don't think about what to write about. Just do it. Let your subconscious flow through your fingertips and let your hands write you a successful article.

  5. Write about something that you know about. Writing about something you have that absolutely no idea what it's about will increase your writers block and decrease your articles submission time. Write about something you know!

  6. Split up your subject into sub topics. The more sub topics you have, the better. Then once your done breaking it up, start writing about each sub topic. This is a great way to write a fast article because your not trying to squeeze in every ounce of information about your subject. Your just trying to write small fragments about your subject.

This article only took me 8 minutes to write and now I am going to be working on my next one. Just follow these strategies, and your article writing speed will vastly increase!

Looking for some new internet marketing tactics? Don't worry, I have tons. Check out my website at http://www.marketingentity.com

Article Marketing - Is Spending Money On Articles Worth It?

Let's say you are in a hypothetical situation. You have $1000 to spend on your Internet business to build it up from scratch. Where do you begin?

A disclaimer before we begin: This is how I would do it. It might not apply to your situation and it might not even work for you. But this is what I would do and it is what I'm doing right now.

Here's my plan: I would spend the $100 to get 300 fresh, original articles written for about $3 each. That will generate traffic for years to come.

I will then purchase an autoresponder membership with either Aweber or Get Response. Those two are the best in the business. This will allow me to build a follow-up system via email marketing.

Let's face it: we write articles for directories to get traffic. And traffic equals a thriving business if you have a good system built in. That system can be an email follow-up system, and it's one of the most profitable systems around.

Having the email address of your potential customer is worth gold. If they subscribe to your list, it gives you the permission to follow-up with them with relevant information and related offers of your own products or for affiliate products.

So that's how I would spend my money. Spending money on articles is definitely worth it, if you submit them consistently, have fresh articles out there all the time, and have a good follow-up system to follow-up with your visitors. This is the proven system I use day in and day out, and it has reaped dividends for me.

Fabian Tan is the author of the free 51-Page Report:

"Murder Your Job: How To Build Cash Sucking Autopilot Businesses In 30 Days Or Less!"

Head over to http://www.MurderYourJob.com to get your free copy now before it's gone!

SEO Strategy - Obtaining Better Link Popularity

Of all the aspects of effective Internet marketing, applying the important aspects of search engine optimization (SEO) serves as the most vital aspect to fine tuning you online marketing campaigns.

As thousands, or perhaps millions of Web pages exist today, you need to create a good-quality Web site for your business, as well as working hard to promote it, and not get lost in the maze that is the Worldwide Web. You and the SEO expert or firm should devise an effective strategy for promoting your site, and the strategy should be well documented with a more focused approach, and will require a lot of planning, patience and long term approaches.

Choosing An Appropriate Title For your Site's Title Tag

This is also an important step to take, since the title tag is the first thing that the major search engines will see, so you need to always have the correct keywords in your title, and then followed by your site's name. This includes other sections of your site, not just the main page.

Make Your Site Is Neat, Easily Readable, And Not Too Cluttered

You also need to plan your site's layout and appearance with a neat, easily readable layout, instead of it looking too cluttered or messy. This will be good for your online visitors and the search engines as well. Even with a CMS, you should select a CMS that allows you control over it's layout and to make sure that it is neat and does not have too much unnecessary images or text that may confuse your online visitors.

A header section, a body section and a footer section is required. The body section must also contain the main part of your site's content. Navigation menus should be placed at the top or to the side.

Get Good Menu Names.

Ensure that you have proper names, which means keywords, for your anchor text in your menus. This is important because menus usually appear in every page of your site, and with every anchor text is a vote for your page, although this is not valued as an external inbound link.

Obtaining High Link Popularity

It's important that the Web sites that are pointing to your site must have related content, as search engines will give links from sites with related content more value. The second vital aspect to link quality is the actual words the other Web master utilizes in your link.

This is to make sure that the links pointing back to your website include your most relevant keywords in the link title. The art of SEO requires a focus on these important elements. Effectively optimizing your Web site content and obtaining high link popularity from quality links will absolutely help in improving your search engine rankings over time.

If you have think you're running out of budgets for promoting link popularity, link popularity can generally be increased primarily in two ways. The first method is by exchanging links with other web sites with similar content. The second method is by promoting articles that relate to your site, including a link to your site in the article and then submitting relevant articles on as many article directory sites as possible. Utilizing both methods is seen as truly effective; however, the latter is known to work much better.

http://7seo.com - 7 SEO

Vanessa A. Doctor from Jump2Top - SEO Company

Optimizing Your Web Site is Easy

There is no other good news for the website owners than knowing that their web pages are all indexed by the topnotch search engines. Would you not feel good about yourself if such achievement is made to be possible for you? However, you must wake up and accept the fact that such scenario would not be permanently offered to you. There would be the times when you would see your websites being housed in the last page of a search engine. This is a bad sign though. It means that your sales are getting affected and the whole of your business as well. Take note that online business fluctuates every now and then. It is very similar to that of the foreign exchange rates. Don't fret then because optimizing your web site is easy!

As soon as you are welcomed in this type of scenario, do not feel at all dejected. There are innumerable chances that you could grab so that your website would get optimized. As you browse through the internet, there are plenty of articles that speak about search engine optimization as an easy task. Well that is true. Online business is such a competitive arena and to be assured, search engine optimization is easy, worth your effort and time, and is an effective technique to follow to be able to achieve success in the near future. Optimizing your web site is easy especially if you understand what your customers need and demand for. Meaning to say, you are going to cater to whatever it is that most of your clients are simply looking for.

Here are the basic steps that you must follow whenever you dream about search engine optimization.

Choose a domain that is rich in key phrase or keyword. Of course, as you buy a domain or register to one, you must take time in looking for that website name which would be to your best advantage.

The proper utilization of the target keywords and then key phrases must be well distributed in the meta tags and headings. After the designing of your website is done, your next job in the list is to focus on the content writing and in SEO content write ups. You need to be sure that you only write the articles which are rich in keyword or key phrase content alongside with all the meta tags and headings. This is going to be your passport to website indexing.

Generate as much incoming links as possible for your website. This could be very well done by means of exchanging the links with the rest of the websites, webmasters, submission to the link directories, buying links, and the writing of the keyword based articles.

Given all these options, you would be really bombarded with a wide range of theories. Move onto the right direction especially that you know the fact that optimizing your web site is easy!

Now here is another real deal. Optimizing your web site is easy. It is, provided that you are endowed with the values of patience, time management, and planning. You are the very first person to be rewarded if your website gets optimized. Here are some other tips to follow in order to raise your website page ranking.

Make use of the HTML header in all your web pages. Maximize its utilization. Be particular with the use of the main key phrases or keywords which you are mainly targeting on. Include them in your title and meta tag.

Do the keyword research properly. Before starting with any SEO campaign scheme, first do some keyword researching. Avoid the keywords that are very much competitive.

Produce more backlinks. This could be achieved through the link directory submissions. Be sure that when you submit your pages, they are placed on the appropriate category.

Come up with at least five content articles that are freshly written. You could start with press releases. After which, continue the production of articles on a day to day basis. The articles must be original, fresh, unique, and keyword rich as well. The topic must be carefully chosen and must be most apt to the website that you are maintaining.

Isn't it that optimizing your website is easy? Well it surely is if you know where and how to start.

For more information on internet marketing, please visit:

http://thebiginternetmarketinggame.com/articlemarketing.html
http://thebiginternetmarketinggame.com
http://www.drnathaliefiset.com

Crack The Code To Increasing Your Link Popularity And Dominating The Search Engines

One of the biggest keys to achieving good rankings is being able to get very high quality one way links to your website. The way that search engines work is that the more quality websites that you have linking to you the better your rankings will be.

These days it is becoming a lot more difficult to acquire very good one way links. The primary reason for this is that most search engines have a very sophisticated algorithm that they use to determine the value of the ones that you get. It is becoming a lot more difficult to cheat the system. I remember when I first started on the internet it was really easy to get reciprocal links and dominate the search engines.

The best way to do this is to build a good quality website that people want to link to. If you look at a site like YouTube many people will automatically link to it because it provides very good content. You can submit to the popular directories. However, many of them charge a fee so be prepared to cover this initial cost.

Another popular way is to use websites like Prleap and Prweb to do frequent press releases. Your website may also be picked up by other sites that are interested in the newsworthy event that you are promoting.

Another way is to do link baiting. This would typically be writing controversial articles and submitting them to web 2 sites like Digg. If you do this correctly many of the people will vote for your site.

Finally, my favourite method is article marketing. Write good quality articles and submit them to the major directories. Include your site in the resource box.

Are you really interested in driving massive traffic to your website?

Here's the answer:

Secrets Of Article Marketing - Download your free ebook now.

Mark Abrahams is a full time internet marketer who has helped others to earn a living online.

Fast Article Marketing - 5 Revealed Secrets to Better Improve Your Article Marketing

In the world of marketing, you always have to improve and enhance your marketing skill set and strategies in order to stay competitive and at par with the most successful and highly respected ones. Not only that you need to earn greater status in the marketing arena but more essentially, you get to earn and profit more. Below are the revealed top secrets on how you can better improve and enhance your article marketing skills and plans:

1. Take time to revisit your marketing plans. Marketing plans are far better executed when they have undergone discreet and quality measures of checking and validating. This is an important aspect of marketing that every marketing specialist should remember.

2. Create and develop several types and forms of article documents. The purpose of creating dynamic article documents is to make sure that you get to capture all types of possible potential clients that you may have in the market. The article being your central medium towards catching potential clients should be given enough time to be made and created. It should not be something that is rushed.

3. Give yourself the time to check on the various publishing sites where you plan to post and publish your article material. Make sure that the site has good reputation and credibility in terms of generating greater number of visitors. Check on the ranking that it currently has and the search engine page result status that it has.

4. Choose the best publishing site and immediately have your articles published on these chosen sites. It would be best that you publish your article on all of the chosen publishing sites to maximize your popularity and exposure.

5. From time to time, submit additional article materials on the same publishing site to ensure that you get to maintain your presence and existence on that publishing site.

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.

Lucrative List Building - Revealed - 6 Turbo Secrets to Jumpstart Your List Building

A targeted e-mail list is one of the best tool that any ebusiness owner must have to establish personal relationship with his customer base and increase his sales potential. The number of email addresses on this list determines the chances of making a sale that is why, the bigger your email database, the better.

Here are the 6 turbo secrets to jumpstart your list building:

1. Make it easier for your visitors to opt in. Uncomplicate the process of signing up by making it hassle-free as much as possible. You can either ask for your visitors email address or present them with a pop-up box that they just need to click if they decide to opt-in.

2. Make it more appealing. Instead of presenting your visitors with plain text about your offerings, use audio streaming and directly tell them why they should not pass on signing up on your email database.

3. Keep the information confidential. Assure your visitors that their information will not be sold nor shared to third party or other companies without their expressed permission.

4. Offer unsubscribing option. Tell your visitors upfront that they can opt-out any time without questions asked! Sometimes, online users are very wary about giving out contact information thinking that they will not be able to get out of the agreement quickly. Break that notion to gain their trust and confidence.

5. Offer freebies and discounts. Online users just love free stuff and some of them will go out of their way to take advantage of it. That is why giving freebies is one of the most effective ways to entice your visitors to leave their email addresses.

6. Give them a reason to subscribe. Aside from freebies, you can also convince your visitors to opt-in by giving them sneak peak of what kind of information they are going to receive once they subscribe. Send them your best newsletter or eBook to showcase your expertise and what you can offer them to either solve their pressing issues or improve the quality of their lives.

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.

Why Link Popularity Is So Important

Search engines evaluate and rank millions of websites so that they can return relevant results to the people who use their search engines. A search engine's main objective is to try to separate the better websites from the junk websites by applying a ranking system.

Link Popularity, which refers to the number of external websites that are linking to your website, is one of the major factors that is considered when search engines determine the page rank for your website. The higher your page rank, the more free traffic you can receive from the search engines. You can literally save yourself lots of money from your advertising budget by sitting back and letting the search engines deliver your website to potential prospects. The best part about it all is that you do not have to pay a dime for it.

When you create a new website, you are going to start with a disadvantage because you will naturally have low link popularity. It makes sense that websites that have existed for a longer time would have higher link popularity and search engines would prefer to send traffic to those websites because they are more popular.

Link popularity seems to be a good indicator of a website's quality because high quality websites will only choose to link with other high quality websites. Why would a high quality website jeopardize their credibility by linking with a low quality free for all link farm? They really would not, making this effective criteria for search engines to use. Linking to low quality websites decreases your credibility with the search engines and your website will appear much further down the results page and this greatly lessens the chances of people finding your website.

There really is not a definitive answer regarding how many links your website needs to rank well with the search engines. Fortunately, for new websites there are some quick and effective strategies to help you increase your link popularity.

One of the quickest methods would be to write a good article and submit it to an article directory. When your article is accepted, you will instantly have a link pointing back to your website. You can also join forums and be a useful participant of a forum discussion. If your website link is included in your signature for each post, you can instantly create more links back to your website.

Another method to increase links to your website is to locate reciprocal link partners. Focus on quality when you are looking for linking partners, not quantity. The websites you link to should complement the content of your website and should appeal to your audience.

The importance and value of link popularity should not be underestimated. Take some time to evaluate the link popularity of your website and take some simple steps to increase it. In no time you will have the search engines delivering you a steady supply of free targeted traffic too!

Nina Greene is owner of BennettWealthSystems.com and writes on a variety of subjects. To learn more about this topic Nina recommends you visit: http://www.BennettWealthSystems.com

Simple Search Engine Optimization - (It Starts with the Code)

Having a proper code architecture is vital to the search engine marketing of a Website.

Simply put, designing an awesome content rich website is not enough. Yes, the site needs to be placed in front of as many potential visitors as possible. There are countless Search Engine Optimization and Placement companies that offer search engine placement services. Unfortunately, many of them focus primarily on search engine submission and keyword tactics while overlooking the most crucial element involving search engine optimization, the ability of your pages to communicate well with the search engines.

It all begins with proper code structure. This article explains how search engines work and how anyone can optimize their website for better search engine placement.

*Note - You DO NOT need to be a Web developer to utilize optimization techniques on an existing Website. Most optimizations can be made by simply changing the location of a few lines of script or adding a word here or there. Create an optimized .html page and save it to your hard drive and you'll have a template prepared for future projects.

One of the main rules in a ranking algorithm, often referred to as a "crawler" or "spider", involves the location and frequency of keywords on a web page.

Search engines will also check to see if the search keywords appear near the top of a web page, such as in the head section or within the first few paragraphs of text in the body section. They assume that any page relevant to the topic will mention those keywords right from the beginning.

Frequency is the other major factor in how search engines determine relevancy. A search engine will analyze how often keywords appear in relation to other words in a web page. Pages that contain a keyword with a higher frequency are often deemed more relevant than other web pages.

Search engines may also penalize pages or exclude them from their cache all together if they detect search engine "spamming." An example of this is when a word is repeated hundreds of times on a page in an attempt to increase the frequency and to move the page higher in the listings. Search engines watch for common spamming methods in a variety of ways, including following-up on complaints from search engine users.

The following "on the page" optimization techniques will greatly improve an existing Website's ability to communicate well with the search engines:

JavaScript!

It doesn't matter for what purpose you utilize JavaScript, (drop-down menus, pop-ups, etc.), place the script at the end of the HEAD section or place it in a separate file altogether that is "included" on your page. This will move the important content closer to the beginning of the page and will improve the keyword location.

Make sure that the Title tag is the first tag in the HEAD section of your page!

It needs to be placed before all other tags, otherwise search engines will overlook it which will have a negative impact on your rankings.

Make sure that your Title tag does not contain "stop" words!

Words like "and, on, a, the, for, to, about, are, that, were, by, of" and other auxiliary words are too common and search engine algorithms don't take them into consideration. By using a stop word in your Title tag, you will damage your rankings.

Your keyword should be as close to the beginning of the Title tag as possible!

Move your keyword closer to the beginning of your Title to emphasize its importance and to greatly improve its prominence.

META name="keywords" content="less is more"!

Choose your keywords carefully, (6-10 max.), and place them in order of importance in this tag. Too many keywords in this tag will take away from the importance, relevance and position of every word in the tag.

Does your page contain enough text?

Pages that contain mostly FLASH or other ephemeral web-based applications often contain little or no text because the text is contained inside of the application, not on the page itself. This can make a page completely transparent to search engines. Each page should contain at least 150 words of visible text within the BODY section.

Are any of your keywords in bold?

When you utilize a bold font on a particular keyword or keyword phrase that is located in the BODY section, you are telling the search engines that you place a high level of importance on them. Therefore the search engines will consider those words or phrases to be more important than those in regular font.

Make sure that H1 tags contain keywords!

H1 or heading tags are very important to search engines. Place keywords and keyword phrases within heading tags.

Make sure that ALT= tags contain keywords!

The ALT= tags at the end of image links should contain keywords and keyword phrases.

Is your keyword present in the URL?

If your URL points to an established and high-ranked web page, do not alter your URL. However, this factor is worth considering when you create new pages / Websites. Search engines are favorable towards keywords in the URL. Just remember to use them sensibly and not to abuse them. When optimizing a page for a key phrase, separate the keywords in the URL with a hyphen, (web-site.html), or with an underscore, (web_site.html). Don't write them in one word. The search engines will understand it only as a single word.

"Off the page" criteria

Over the years crawler-based search engines have had plenty of experience with webmasters who consistently rewrite their web pages in an attempt to gain better rankings. Some determined webmasters may even attempt to "reverse engineer" the location/frequency systems utilized by a particular search engine. Because of this, in addition to location/frequency methods all major search engines now utilize "off the page" ranking criteria. Webmasters can't easily influence these factors.

Primary among off the page criteria is link analysis. By analyzing how pages link to one another, a search engine algorithm can determine two things:

- The topic of the page itself - Whether or not the page is "important", (thus deserving of a ranking boost)

In addition, sophisticated techniques are used to screen out attempts by webmasters to build "artificial" links that are designed to boost their rankings.

Another off the page factor is click-through measurement. A search engine may monitor what results a search engine user receives after a particular search and what clicks are made by that user. Eventually the search engine will drop high-ranking pages that aren't attracting clicks, while promoting lower-ranking pages that do. Just as with link analysis, systems are utilized to compensate for fake links generated by over zealous webmasters.

Give these simple optimization techniques a try and I think that you will be pleased with the results.

J.C. Hurst is the IT/Internet Marketing Director for The Ziegler Corporations.

You may contact J.C. at 800.726.0510 -or- jchurst@zieglerdynamics.com

Article Marketing - My Private SEO Experiment

In this article I would like to go over some interesting things that I discovered from search engine optimization using article marketing.

For the purpose of this experiment I set up two web sites. One is a blog and another a lead capture page with a blog as well in a directory on the domain.

Now what has really been interesting is the following. The first few months my sites had virtually no rankings on Google. After about five months I started to notice search engine traffic from Google. A few months later there was a lot more traffic.

Analyzing the links pointing towards my web site I discovered the following. I had a lot of links pointing from the major article directories that have a very good page rank. Also as more web sites published my articles I got a lot of one way links to my web site.

Basically my web sites were beginning to rank well because of all the links that I was getting. Before I was doing article marketing I was submitting to directories. This can be very costly, but is a very quick way to get links. You just need to be sure that you only submit to a few directories a month because if you submit to many directories at once Google may discount the links.

I also use to do reciprocal linking. This use to work before. Unfortunately with the changes in the Google algorithm this is no longer effective because Google is trying to combat spam.

The valuable lesson that I learnt from article marketing is that you only need to write a lot of articles and submit them to the major article directories to get good search engine rankings.

Are you really interested in driving massive traffic to your website?

Here's the answer:

Secrets Of Article Marketing - Download your free ebook now.

Mark Abrahams is a full time internet marketer who has helped others to earn a living online.

How To Make Instant Cash From Articles

There are a exciting few ways to make money online from articles. In this article, we are going to look at these methods a little closer and how they can help you create instant profits on demand...

Method #1 - Freelancing Profits

One way to make money from articles is by writing them for other people. Many business owners on the Internet need articles created for them. It's easy to post a bid for these services: go to Elance or GetAFreelancer to make your bids!

Method #2 - Bum Marketing

Ok the name might sound a little corny, but exactly IS Bum Marketing? Well, it's a term coined by Travis Sago referring to the promotion of affiliate programs via articles. The basic principle is: write articles with your affiliate link in the resource box, submit them to article directories, and wait for the cash to flow in! Affiliate programs are a great way to get started earning money online because you get to promote other people's products for a cut of the profits, without actually creating any products yourself or maintaining any websites.

Method #3 - Website Content Creation

Alternatively, you can write articles and post them to your own website and then "monetize" your website by including Google Adsense ads, affiliate links and offering paid advertising to other website owners.

I'm sure you might be thinking: "Hey, why not do all three to increase my income?" And indeed you should! Do one method first, and once you are making money with that, move on to the next method until you build your article empire.

Fabian Tan is the author of the free 51-Page Report:

"Murder Your Job: How To Build Cash Sucking Autopilot Businesses In 30 Days Or Less!"

Head over to http://www.MurderYourJob.com to get your free copy now before it's gone!

What Is Article Marketing And How I Got Started With This Business Model - Part 2

I submitted forty articles to four directories and got enrolled in this wonderful coaching program. I didn't really know the exact reason why I submitted those articles, but I did it anyway.

After I got accepted, the coach told us to write articles and distribute to various directories (again). We had to find the websites ourselves (we were 70 at the beginning). I typed article directories and other keywords in Google to find those.

He told us that we needed to add a resource box at the end of the articles with an anchor link to his website because it was one of the best form of traffic on the web. After all, the web is just content and links.

Almost immediately after we submitted those articles (it became a weekly task after this), we were taught to create an opt-in box to capture our visitors emails and first name.

What is an opt-in box?

It is a form that you can get from your autoresponder software and add to your website to build your list of subscribers. You need to be aware that almost %90 of the visitors to your website are not going to buy from you. For this reason, you need to quickly qualify them to find out if they will do business with you in the future.

Think about it, if they don't trust you enough to give you their email and first name, they are not going to give you their credit card number... And to run your business, you need to be in profits. Once a surfer becomes a lead (he subscribed to your autoresponder message), you need to build a relationship with him. Now it will be easy for you because you already wrote a couple of quality articles.

All you need to do is to add those articles into your autoresponder series and your subscribers will receive them automatically.

Next, we will discover how to monetize these articles.

Franck Silvestre makes thousands of dollars a year from affiliate and article marketing. Wonder what the secret to his success is? Discover how he does it: http://www.mynetmarketingland.com/article-marketing/

Link Bait is the New Reciprocal Link

Link bait and reciprocal linking programs have quite a bit in common. Without disparaging anyone who engages in link baiting strategies I do believe that many forms of link baiting are just a dressed up version of reciprocal links without the reciprocation. Note here that I said, many forms. I don't mean all link baiting, but I would guess a bigger slice of the link baiting pie holds no more value than the old fashioned reciprocal link schemes.

A brief history of reciprocal linking

We've all heard it said that reciprocal links are dead. Well, they're not. But some forms of reciprocal linking most certainly are. Remember when Google showed up and started evaluating incoming links as part of the ranking algorithm? This started everybody down the path of seeking to acquire as many links as possible. For awhile, the most efficient way to do this was to simply barter a link exchange. "Hey, if you link to me, I'll link to you!"

This solution started the trend of websites adding dozens of "reciprocal link" pages to their sites linking out to other sites in which they were able to work a link "partnership" with. And for awhile, this type of reciprocation worked. At least until the search engines learned to identify these non-valuable pages. Of course this led to three and four-way reciprocal linking tactics and the creation of link "directories." Again, these worked for a while and perhaps still do to a smidgen of a degree.

The basic problem here was one of motivation. It was all about getting a lot of links, many which were largely irrelevant. It was links based on volume and volume alone. Eventually link reciprocates began to target their links a bit more selectively, to be more within the real of relatedness, but still the concept here was on links, not user value.

Along comes link baiting

When you hear people talk about link baiting today, it's almost as if we are in the early stages of the reciprocal links schemes all over again. It's all about link volume rather than link relevance. This isn't always the case but for many, if not most, it is.

Rand has a good series of posts all about how to link bait the linkerati. Essentially, Rand explains how to attract links from the masses of people who are most likely to link to you, not necessarily the ones who are most interested in your product or service. I appreciate Rand's posts and I believe he, more than most, tries to get relevant links through his link bait, but getting links from linkers, rather than a targeted audience or related websites, is going right back to seeking out links for quantity rather than quality.

As did reciprocal linking, this will work. At least for a while. But sooner or later the search engines will get even smarter about analyzing links. Just as links from reciprocal pages were deemed irrelevant, I believe that links from the "linkerati" will largely be deemed irrelevant as well. Search engines, in their quest to provide the best search results for each query, understand that popular doesn't necessarily mean relevant. Especially popularity from a group of people who are always interested in what's popular.

The way sites earn quality links today isn't the same as the way links were earned several years ago, so too the link baiting of tomorrow isn't going to be the link baiting of today. True success in link baiting will be from those that learn how to bait their target audience. Some of that will include the linkerati, but most of it won't. The true skill of link baiting won't be getting to the top of digg, but getting to the top of the minds of your target audience so they can't help but want to link to your site.

Stoney deGeyter leads a spectacular team of seasoned marketing experts at Pole Position Marketing, a Search Engine Marketing Company. Stoney started PPM in 1998 by finding the brightest minds in the industry and nurturing within them an intense desire to become leaders in their respective fields. With this team of professionals, he has built a wildly successful website marketing company that succeeds through both personal and professional integrity.

You can read Stoneys blog posts at the E-Marketing Performance blog and more of his work on several well-known SEO and marketing news sources including Search Engine Guide and Web Pro News. Stoney has authored two website marketing books: E-Marketing Performance: Effective strategies for building, optimizing, and marketing your website online and Keyword Research and Selection: The definitive guide to gathering, sorting and organizing your keywords into a high-performance SEO campaign.

Writing Testimonials For BackLinks

Testimonials are some of the best means on how one can goad and motivate other people easily. More so, when the testimonial is coming from a person whose reputation and credibility has never been involved in any tarnishing moments. The power of testimonials in the field of marketing is substantially unquestioned and never has it failed any business. The question is, how and where can we put a testimonial?

To answer the question as to how a testimonial should be made, writing a testimonial is something that should be properly and carefully planned. You will have to engage into deep thinking about what sort of writing style can best goad and motivate other people to buy the product that is being endorsed. When you are able to do this, make sure that you do not rush the creation of the testimonial. You need to draft it several times to make it look very convincing. You also need to make use of some of the company resources like making sure that the picture and the personal information branded on the testimonial are factual and valid. Attach these bits of information along with the testimonial of the person and make sure that all proper editing were made to the original one.

As to what potential website where these testimonials can be placed, the basic answer to that is to put it on your own website. This means that there is no other and better website where you can actually position the testimonials that you have gathered other than your own dominion - your website. If you are able to find other ways such as publishing on other websites like the ones that you have linked with, then that is considered as a bonus for you. However, the best one remains to be your own site.

Testimonials are considered one of the most natural ways to market any product because testimonials are given free by your patronizing clients or by those clients who have found satisfaction with your product. This in itself is one big bonus that you may want to count.

Do you want to learn more about how I do it? I have just completed my brand new guide to link popularity success, 'Secrets of Link Popularity for Online Income'

Download it free here: Link Popularity

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

SEO: One-Way and Reciprocal Links

A few days ago, I wrote about SEO and some of the ways to help make your URL more search engine friendly. I also talked about the other ways of improving your SEO by getting other sites to link to you. Remember that there is essentially 2 main types of links:

1) One-Way Links
2) Reciprocal Links

(Yes, I know there are circular links, three-way links, etc, but these can technically be included in the "one-way" links categories...we will discuss that in a second). First, a reciprocal link is one where you are offering links one-for-one with another website: "If you put my URL on your website, I will place your link on my website." This is the foundation of what people refer to as a "link exchange." Mind you, a link exchange can be more than just an eye for an eye. This can include: "If you put my site on your site, I will link back to yours from another one of my websites". Also, some people swap URLs in circular manners. This is a follow-on of the last thing I talked about. Let's take a step back for a second and review the two:

Reciprocal Link: site A <-> site B
Three-Way Link: URL A -> URL B -> URL C
So the Circular link is as follows:
Circular Link: URL A -> URL B -> URL C -> site A

Now the big issue is: Does it matter?, there is a lot of concern on whether reciprocal links are really worth anything? Do they cancel each other out? Secondly, what is the difference between the Three-Way link, the Circular link and is that a concern?

Basically, there is really no answer to any of these questions. What I do know is this:

1) One-Way links are better than Reciprocal Links
2) Three-Way links are superior than Circular Links. There is some belief that Google, for example, is smart enough to realize the full circle of links.
3) Any link that is directed to your website (reciprocal or not) is a good backlink.

You will not be penalized for who links to YOU. However, who you link TO needs to be given some consideration. Remember, you are GIVING your PageRank with whomever you are linking to. Further, if you are linking to not related, obsolete, or removed websites, Google may punish you for it.

But at the end of the day, getting links pointing to your website is always a good thing. I will go over some great ways of getting one-way links in upcoming articles. Until then...

Matthew is the currently the founder of a review website: TheWebReviewer: Get Rich Quick Schemes Revealed!. The website includes reviews, forum, articles, free eBooks and more. Matt is 32 years old and currently living in San Diego, California.

SEO: The Power of the Inbound Link

Link building can be a difficult part of any Search Engine Optimization (SEO) strategy. It may even be harder trying to maintain a list of those who are linking to your site.

Did you know that search engines have made this a bit easier for online business to monitor? While the procedure for each search engine may be slightly different you can learn about many of the most successful inbound links you have to your website.

For the purpose of this article I will use the Google search engine. In order to check for inbound links I will use one of my websites www.highpowersites.com. I begin by typing the word link in the search window of the search engine followed by the website name. In the end it looks like this: link: www.highpowersites.com for your website it would look like link: www.yoursitename.com

In this search there were over 10,000 inbound links on the web. This tells me the site is doing well and it helps me see which sites that feature the link are the highest ranking. If you visit other search engines you can learn how to access information about site rankings by visiting a section typically called Advance Search Options.

The affects of inbounds links shouldnt be minimized and the use of a free article directory can help spread the word about your site through inbound links. A diverse selection of expert articles is very helpful in improving SEO strategies.

Certainly there are a variety of SEO strategies to consider, but inbound links may provide a significant number of impressions and an improved number of site visitations, which can dramatically improve conversion rate with potential customers.

A great number of links to your website is often viewed by search engines as a means of gauging improved trust. Improved trust in your website will improve your site rankings.

When you have significant inbound links it means that search engine spiders comb through your site more often gaining new and valuable information that can help your overall site ranking.

Beyond free article directories a website owner might simply request affiliated websites to include a link to his/her website as a courtesy. This is not an uncommon practice and provides greater visibility for your website.

The use of a forum or blog can also provide positive inbound links for your website. This is accomplished by either posting information that may benefit readers followed by a link to a section of your website that deals with the issue or by simply placing a link in the signature box on your forum post.

Scott Lindsay is a web developer and entrepreneur. He is the founder of HighPowerSites and many other web projects.

Make A Website in minutes with HighPowerSites or Build A Website with BuildAGreatSite.

Start your own ebook business and Resell Ebooks with BooksWealth.

7 Must-Know Rules for Article Marketing

If you are just getting started with article marketing, or if you are still learning about article marketing, begin on the right foot. Here are seven simple rules you must know (and apply) in your article marketing campaign.

Rule #1: Make a plan. Before you begin writing articles, sit down and set a few goals for yourself. Know what your purpose is for marketing with articles.

Rule #2: Create a list of directories. Knowing where to submit your articles will save you time. Decide where you'll submit your articles. Create an account at each website and bookmark it.

Rule #3: Gather article ideas. You should never wait until you think you're ready to write a few articles to compile ideas. Jot down ideas you have every day. Keep a small notebook handy to write your ideas in. When you're ready to write articles, you'll have a miniature gold mine of ideas waiting for you.

Rule #4: Write fast. Lots of writers struggle over writing a perfect copy the first time around. Forget about it. Write fast, letting your thoughts flow onto the page. Once you're finished with your draft you can edit as much as you like.

Rule #5: Check spelling, grammar and word count. Before you submit your article to any directory, be sure you run a spelling and grammar check on the document. If you tend to forget to do this, write yourself a reminder on a sticky note and place it on your monitor screen.

Rule #6: Include a well-written resource box. This is the most important, and often most overlooked, part of the article marketing process. Always include a resource box with your articles that creates a call of action to your readers.

Rule #7: Be consistent. You can't write a handful of articles and expect huge results. Article marketing requires persistence and consistency. Plan long-term and you'll start getting amazing results from your article marketing efforts.

By the way, you can make money by writing articles just like this. I'm

doing it right now by following these methods: http://www.cashfromarticles.hopewrites.com/

Best Email Marketing - 7 Best Ways to Create More Money In Article Marketing

Article marketing continues to make wonders in terms of generating traffic for various websites. Most webmasters agree that it is one of the best tools in pulling up search engine ranking and making their site more popular and frequently visited. If you'd like to use article marketing so you can create more money from it, here are the best ways to do it:

1. Write more quality, meaningful articles. The first step to article marketing is writing numerous articles that will show your expertise on your chosen field. Remember, each article will represent your or your company, so they better offer valuable and credible information that will make readers trust you.

2. Prepare a killer resource box. Your resource box must be compelling enough to make your readers click your website's URL. It must contain your name, your website address, and your call for action.

3. Make your articles scannable and easy on the eyes. Don't submit lengthy articles that will surely bore your readers. Instead, submit articles that run 250-500 words that are full with information and juicy details that your readers are looking for. Make your articles scannable by using bullets or numbers when you are presenting steps or tips. You can also use sub topics.

4. Submit your articles to major article submission sites. To date, there are more than 200 hundred article submission sites but only half of them generate good traffic. Don't waste your time submitting your articles to those that cannot help you increase your site's popularity, instead focus your energy to the ones that can promise you huge number of visitors like ezinearticles.com.

5. Make your landing page compelling. Once you have successfully drove online users to your website, make sure that it functions well and offers readers what they are looking for. It may be more information or the products and services that you are offering.

6. Use the traffic to your advantage. Once you have done all of the 5 tips, you'll be sure to get more traffic to your site. Use this to increase your sales and profits. Offer your visitors with the products and services.

7. Make money from the traffic you have created. To convert your traffic to instant cash, you can sell space on your webpage to various advertisers. If they see that you're generating enormous traffic, they won't think twice in posting banner ads to your webpage.

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.

Killer Keyword Marketing Research

Everyone wants more traffic. But most do not know how to excel at the one thing that will insure their site is jammed with traffic like a Los Angeles freeway at rush hour. That is, they fail to do anywhere near enough keyword marketing research.

Granted reading one article will not you an expert make. But I can at least begin to bring you up to speed when it comes to finding visitor laden top search terms. To do so I will reveal four of my sacred keyword research rules of thumb.

My first rule of thumb is simple. Do not settle for the obvious keyword phrases. I know. Sounds obvious. But apparently isn't.

For example the term "easter baskets" gets 120 searches/day. While going up against 420,00 other pages.

Not insurmountable. But I like less of a challenge. Especially when "personalized easter baskets" gets 109 searches/day and only has 615 competitors.

See the difference one word makes? Similar to the difference between lightning and a lightning bug, no? Since you get nearly the same number of searches with no where near the same number of competing pages.

The next secret rule of thumb is to compare the plural verses singular forms to see which is better. Since when it comes to this most webmasters tend to pile onto the wrong choice.

Take the term "gold earrings" It gets 168 daily searches in all engines, and has 1,540,000 competing pages in Google. While "gold earring" gets 84 daily searches and faces 440,000 competitors. In other words it has less than a third of the competition for half the searches. So we're on the right track. Best of all "italian gold earrings" is used by 52 searchers daily. And only has to fend off 514 pesky competitors. Or what you might call a slam dunk.

Your third keyword research tactic involves grabbing the low hanging fruit. Or what I call "orphan keywords".

Ideally you're looking search terms with less than 1000 competing pages in Google when searching for the EXACT phrase. 500 or less is better still.

Of course the closer to 10 competing pages you get for a search term, the more likely it is your page will be to stumble into the top 10. These are true "orphan keywords". So named due to neglect by your competitors.

Then don't forget to think outside the box. Just like your potential customers do.

Say you had a law practice in California. One term you might consider is "criminal defense attorney". That gets 131 searches but faces 1,450,000 competing pages. I'm not wild about those odds. Plus the term really isn't very targeted.

Digging deeper I found that "criminal defense attorney LA" gets 85 daily searches. And only has 11,1100 pages to beat out. Not bad.

Digging deeper still "criminal defense attorney la county" gets 84 daily searches. But only has 575 competing pages. Paydirt!

Once again I turned up a search term with total searches at least in the same ball park as the generic term I started with. Yet with just a handful of competing pages to deal with. Rarely do I fail to do this. In fact you'll discover dozens of such gems by thoroughly researching your keyword universe.

Never forget that keyword marketing research is THE factor that determines the success or failure of your niche site. Applying rules of thumb like these can help you do smarter optimised keyword marketing. Which in turn will help you attract more traffic from search engines more easily. And traffic is something we could all use more of, right?

John Gergye runs nearly 30 sites. His just updated 38 page special report reveals 37 Free Traffic Generating Shortcuts and Secret Weapons to help you attract visitors who are ready to buy. Claim your copy here: http://www.traffic-test-tube.com/seotp/freerpt.shtml

The Controversy About Controversial Articles

Article writing is one popular method Internet Marketers use to promote websites or products. There are many different experts who suggest using this method to be highly effective, easy and inexpensive technique to adopt, especially for those working on a small budget.

In theory, a well distributed article will create tremendous exposure when published to various Ezines, newsletters blogs etc. If the writer's articles are of sufficiently high quality the author will be seen as an expert and their sites will gain authority from back links and resulting traffic.

Opinions vary on the best approach to use when creating articles. Some authors, experienced in this kind of marketing, suggest that creating articles that stir controversy is a good strategy. This however is a point with which others take exception.

It is sometimes recommended that by adopting a controversial writing the author can become more visible and creates buzz. Obviously this would then stir interest and perhaps generate traffic to a site. However using such an approach can also have a downside, which should be carefully considered.

Newspapers and magazine thrive on articles about topics which are current, newsworthy and of interest to their readers. Using articles as part of a marketing campaign is not the same as writing as a journalist, a reporter or even a blogger; it is a type of advertising.

The saying, there are two sides to every coin" is apt when it comes to controversial subjects. If an author creates a piece which is seen to be unfairly biased towards a particular point of view it may so alienate those with the opposite view that it will do more harm to a marketing program than good.

Further to that point, publishers might be reluctant to pick up articles which might offend some of their readers. Worse still, such articles might create a negative reputation for the writer which would impact their ability to get published in the future.

Some subjects might in fact have different aspects which can't be easily confined to a single point of view. By nature topics such as these might be more controversial than others and writing about them requires skill and a keen eye for balance and fairness.

Writing to be controversial is not a good idea as an article marketing strategy. However, writing about a controversial subject is not always a bad thing when certain caveats are observed. Bear in mind that readers will have their own opinions about your topic. The objective of such an article should be to inform not to confront or convert. Write about the nature of the conflicts or differences as a means of offering readers information that makes the issues clear.

The secret to an effective article writing program is no real secret at all. Write effective compelling, entertaining or enlightening pieces that provide readers with valuable and useful information.

If there are several opinions, points of view of ideas which the readers should consider, offer them in a fair balanced manner. Writers need to apply care and judicious use of the tools of their craft to create work that informs rather than inflames.

Many authors openly declare personal preferences or biases so as to prevent accusations of having a hidden agenda. They will also clearly point out where there are conflicts or differences of opinion among experts or as noted in the media on a given topic. This approach could be dubbed writing about controversy and not to cause it.

If you wish to take a strong position on something there are various other forums where one can express opinion and write with inspired passion. When writing specifically for the purpose of promoting a marketing campaign keep in mind the objectives of the piece and the intended reader.

Marvin Double is an experienced author who writes about internet marketing, e-commerce blogging and a variety of related and unrelated topics of interest. He brings over 30 years experience as a business entrepreneur off line to the internet marketing community. For additional articles or resources for internet marketers please visit http://www.monkeezemarketing.blogspot.com

How To Select A Good SEO Company!

I once read a remark that if a SEO company can not top (at least) for the keyword "SEO" in Google, it can not be a worthy company.

I know a lot of people might come up with the same logic while searching for the best SEO Company for his site. But let's take a look at the scenario from some different angles.

Why do you target some keywords in your website? The answer is obviously to get targeted visitors who are looking for some service - those who are my potential customers.

But does the word SEO have the potential to bring me genuine customers? For example if my site ranks 1st on Google for 'SEO Services' and 'SEO', which one do you think will get me desired visitors who are willing to buy a service? The answer is obviously SEO Services. And at the same time the competition for SEO Services is comparatively less (but tough) then SEO.

Most of the good SEO companies get clients on recommendations. For example, if I like XYZ Company's job, I will recommend it for my friend's site. And thus XYZ get more clients - simple.

Another big reason is that a lot of SEO companies do not want their name to be associated with the term SEO to search engines.

But if some SEO companies say that due to heavy work pressure that could not concentrate on the ranking of their website - do not believe them or do not work with them either. If they can not find time to work for their mother site, how much time can you expect for your own site?

Now, the problem is somewhere else - every one claims them to be the best SEO Company. And unless I get recommendation from some reliable sources, it is tough to decide their credibility.

So how to find the best SEO company?

To start with it is better to go for local SEO companies (for example search for Florida or Ft Lauderdale SEO and website marketing in search engines if you are from that region). If you are new to internet marketing, this is the best option to start as they are comparatively cheap and you may get someone in your extended friend's community who can give you some feedback about them. At least you can reach them physically at any point of time.

If some companies say that they will help you guaranteed top ranking in Google or Yahoo for a very competitive keyword like SEO Services and they will do it within one month - do not work with them. Getting a good search engine rank is a long term process and no one can guarantee it. And even if they do it with some black hat SEO techniques, it may harm your business in the long run and this sort of ranking is normally not sustainable for a long period.

Ask for their track record - if they have done some good work they will be happy to show you a glimpse. Thus, you can have a good understanding of their company.

Take a look at their website to find out if it is clear or not. Take a look at their page rank and do a search on Google to find out what people are saying about them.

And more importantly ask them straight about their strategy to promote your site for better search engine rankings. Sign the agreement only if you are satisfied with their strategy.

Always remember that good SEO companies will work with you (not alone) to improve your search engine rank.

Learn about better search engine rankings. from leading Florida SEO company.