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Friday, May 23, 2008

On Page SEO Optimization Made Easy

SEO is the one of the most important skill sets any internet marketer should have. It's one of the easiest and most profitable forms of traffic any website owner could receive. Search Engine Traffic is not the easiest to obtain however. One of the most important things a website owner should learn is how to optimize their web pages specifically for the search engines.

First things first, you should have your keyword picked out and ready to go. Once you've got that you can proceed to optimizing your web page.

It's also recommended that you have a rudimentary understanding of HTML.

Title Tags

The first thing you should do is include your keyword inside the title tags. The title tags are the first elements right after the head tags. They look like this

<title></title>

It's best that you include some other related text after you input the keyword. If my keyword was SEO I'd input something like

<title>SEO - Tips And Tricks For Optimizing Webpages</title>

You can also add the title element to your outgoing links.

Header Tags

Header tags are in my opinion the second most important part of on page optimization right after optimized content. Header tags look like

<h1></h1> and should be placed right before the content of your website. You should always place your keyword in header tags with a few other words relevant to your content. Also, always bold your keyword in your header tags.

Bold Your Keywords

It's always a good practice to add bold tags to your keyword when in your content. Bold tags look like

<b></b> and your keywords should always be enclosed in them whenever they come up in your content.

Image Alt Tag

If you can swing it, your keyword should be included in the alt tag of one of your images. The ALT element can be added to an image if it isn't already. If you need help with this part of on page optimization then I suggest you look it up at htmlhelp.com.

Keywords In Your Content

You should always include your keyword in your content. It's always better if you keep your keyword density around 3-6%. Keyword Density means your keyword should make up 3-6% of your content. Content should always be unique and relevant to your website.

If you follow all of these steps and techniques you should be on your way to ranking over your competitors. Remember, on page optimization isn't the deciding factor when it comes to rankings. Build your links and create good content for best results.

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SEO Article Writing 103 - Powerful Tips for SEO Article Writing

SEO (Search Engine Optimization) article writing and submission techniques are creating millionaires every day. When you understand the methodology necessary to gain first-page natural rankings on the major search engines without pay-per-click advertising campaigns, then you are in a position to advance your operations to a point of ecstatic, self-duplicating bliss. The time spent practicing and perfecting these techniques will be well-traded. There will be no regrets when you consistently see your product or service listed on top of your competition's, especially when you know that you didn't spend a penny! Sound too good to be true? Read on...

NEWSFLASH! You don't have to be a great writer to create, submit and benefit from niche-specific articles. OK, you can't get by with absolutely no skills either. However, the good news is that skills can be learned. There are a lot of similarities presented by the words "learn" and "earn" besides their respective spellings. You can learn to write, but it will cost you some effort and time. At first, it will probably be very frustrating. There really isn't much in life worth learning that doesn't seem that way from time to time. Persevere! Dedicate yourself to a goal. Keep directing your energy even when - no, especially when - it seems to be going nowhere. That's how you get good.

There are many different, yet correct ways to become an effective writer. Here are some surefire steps to take. These actions will lead you quickly down the roads to writing confidence and efficiency.

If you want to become a writer, then READ! Read everything that you see. Read street signs and highway mileposts. Read the tag stuck to the bottom of your chair. Let there be nothing that passes in front of your eyes with written words that does not get read. By doing so, you begin to incorporate a writer's mentality in your own headspace. Just start reading.

If you want to become a writer, then WRITE! It doesn't develop through reading alone. You can't wish your skills to increase magically with any degree of realistic expectation. Like a student of Yoga attempting a new and challenging asana, you will not get it right the first time - or the second - or the third. You will unknowingly be improving. Through repetition and diligence, you will gain ground. You will identify your strengths and weaknesses. You will become a writer.

You need to learn to write in the same manner that you speak to your friends. Imagine that you are addressing your best friend when you are writing. In most cases, this will produce easy-reading, smooth-flowing informative masterpieces of modern communication. Your readers will eat it up!

Take the time to carefully read every single article that you ever assign your name to. Computers do not forget things well. Establish your online reputation with quality and forethought. Proofread, edit and pamper your documents. Make sure that you don't publish spelling, grammar and/or sentence structure errors.

Inform and semi-entertain your readers. Don't bore them, but don't waste their time trying to over-entertain them. Make your argument. Solidify your presentation. Don't bounce around between topics. Your article should read like an organized, informative vehicle of clear communication.

Do not use the word "I". Other words to avoid include "thing(s)", "ain't", "gonna" and the like. You need to give thought to each and every word that you present. The overall effect of polished professionalism will not be reached otherwise. That's what polished means.

Don't try to be fancy, but don't come off as too common. Talk like you would to your best friend provided that he isn't mentally challenged.

There are certainly a lot of lessons of writing that are not presented here. What is here though is more than enough to project a novice onto an intermediate plane of prose. Take your time and give your time. Take it learning. Give it freely. As with every challenge in life, writing skills can be developed with continued effort. Realize the potential for business. Read. Write. Hone your art. Form perfection. Thought given and time passing will yield your increased scribing power.

Alan M Roberts is a full time freelance writer and web developer. He is always available for consultation through his web site at http://www.10-4Life.com Visit him there often and find reasons to live!

Check out my perfectly-rated Guru profile here: http://profile.guru.com/892849

Check out my perfectly-rated Elance profile here:

http://M_Alan.elance.com

Smart File Names For High Rankings

One of the simplest methods to improve your search engine optimization is to look at the way you name your files.

Keywords in file names are a good thing. Don't call your webpages names like "services.html" or "products.html" actually use your keywords. Here is an example for you.

Let's say you sell tennis balls online and you have three brands available, Slazenger, Wimbledon and Wilson and your webstore is at www.bigballsintennis.com.

A mistake would be to call your sales page something like this

www.bigballsintennis.com/product1.html
www.bigballsintennis.com/product2.html
www.bigballsintennis.com/product3.html

This just tells search engines that you sell products! What you want to do is use the keywords for the main search terms you want that page to show up for in search engines. Something like this would be better.

www.bigballsintennis.com/slazenger-tennis-balls.html
www.bigballsintennis.com/wimbledon-tennis-balls.html
www.bigballsintennis.com/wilson-tennis-balls.html

Note that it would also be a good idea to have a tennis balls homepage that links to all those pages but focuses on the keyword tennis balls only. Something like:

www.bigballsintennis.com/tennis-balls.html

Conduct Keyword Research

Now remember you probably face a bit of competition for the keywords "tennis balls" since globally you might have a few competitors also selling online. You should conduct some keyword research first and determine which phrases you want to work towards optimizing for.

You might notice there is little competition for Slazenger and work towards optimising for sales of that brand. Maybe your research shows that most people are using the phrase "tennis ball shop" so you should optimize for those keywords. Or you might consider working towards a local geographical niche, like "tennis balls Bahamas" or your home town or state.

Remember you don't have to get things right the first time. Do some keyword research, choose some keywords and then test to see how high up you can get your pages to rank for certain key phrases. If those phrases don't bring in traffic keep testing until you find a combination that works. Remember though that file names are only a small part of the overall SEO process and if you only optimize your file names and not the on-page copy, the incoming links, your internal site structure etc. etc, your efforts in file name design will have little impact.

How To Structure Long File Names

Dashes make for better file naming - at least that's what research in Google has demonstrated.

When I say dashes it's like this -

www.bigballsintennis.com/wilson-tennis-balls.html

as opposed to this -

www.bigballsintennis.com/wilson_tennis_balls.html

I have been structuring my files with dashes for a long time now. I made this decision not only for SEO purposes but for human navigation too. Many people don't know what an underscore is and even have trouble finding it on their keyboard. Dashes look clearer on screen and act as a good divider for keywords.

The only thing to be careful with is to not go over board with file names. Don't do this -

www.bigballsintennis.com/the-best-cheapest-most-impressive-wilson-tennis-balls-you-will-find-online.html

Clearly this is just silly. You are diluting your keywords, creating a page that is next to impossible to remember or type in manually and are certainly not helping your search engine optimization.

By Yaro Starak
http://www.entrepreneurs-journey.com

Are you interested in online marketing, Internet business, blogs and podcasts? Are you sick of "gurus" trying to sell you the latest get rich quick online deal?

Get educated, it's the key to real online wealth.

Download and read quality how-to articles and listen to podcast audio files in mp3 - Visit my blog: Entrepreneur's Journey.

Article Marketing For Massive Traffic - 3 Of My Biggest Secrets!

Article marketing is not as profitable as before. That's what 'gurus' tend to say to get you afraid. The truth is, although there are more article writers right now, the amount of people surfing the Internet has also increased. So it comes down to the same amount of traffic.

Here are my 3 biggest secrets for getting massive traffic from your article marketing:

1. Always Build A List With Your Opt-In Page

This is what I do - I always build a list by sending traffic from my articles to a opt-in page. I don't send them to a sales page - that just turns most people off. But a squeeze page offering free information is better received. List building is one of the key activities you must be concentrating on online, so direct your traffic to build your list!

2. Submit Only To The Top Directories

Although you can make submitting articles to hundreds of directories quicker with an article submitter, it's still terribly difficult. You have to register at all the directories, and most article directories are different from each other, so that makes article submitting with submitters a slow process still. My advice: submit only to the top 5 directories. Spend more time writing articles.

3. Write In A Conversational Style

Let's face it, as human beings we are emotional beings. We respond better to conversational writing (that's why blogs are so popular!) than boring, technical writing. Unless your subject calls for it, I'd advice writing in a conversational style (like what I'm doing here!) as this will generate windfall results.

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!

Article Marketing Secrets That Sell

Article submission to article directories is one of the most effective ways to promote your business. Article marketing is free and can attract targeted traffic to your website.

Internet marketing articles need to have an attention grabbing headline that contains your keyword. Articles need to be informative and relevant to your targeted audience. It is also helpful to optimize your articles for search engine rankings by writing in keywords. The keyword density that should be used is open to debate. Originally, webmasters found that a 6-7% density worked well to attain a high search engine position. However, the writing was generally appalling with this type of density and often web pages were nothing but a form of spam that offered nothing of value to the reader.

Since then, search engine algorithms have become more sophisticated in an effort to catch out these poor value websites. Now, some SEO marketing professionals recommend a keyword density of between 3-4% while others recommend a density of only 1-2%. There is also a strong movement towards organic writing that doesn't bother with keywords at all. This movement is supported by Google's latent semantic indexing algorithm. Latent semantic indexing (LSI) looks for words and expressions that have a similar or connected meaning to the main keywords used in an article.

When people provide genuine information and write naturally, they tend to use a variety of related expressions. They are therefore likely to be considered by search engines to be high value, genuine sites. One of the most successful, organically written websites is stevepavlina.com. His traffic and business has risen exponentially over time and he has not used SEO strategies at all. For article marketing, you may want to test your market by writing with a low keyword density and include expressions with a similar meaning to appeal to Google's LSI algorithm. Test your results by monitoring website traffic numbers. You can also write some articles that don't use SEO and compare the results.

Articles need to be written in plain English. If English is not your first language and you are unsure of colloquialisms and grammar, consider paying for a freelance writer to write your articles for you. This does not have to be expensive. Try to keep your paragraphs and sentences relatively short. Some longer sentences are fine but generally speaking keep it simple and to the point. Most article directories have word limits. Try to keep your articles under five hundred words. If you cannot do this, the article can be separated into two parts with links to the other part of the article.

The keys to successful article marketing are to write well and write often. You cannot simply write one or two articles and expect them to make a difference to your business. They are a great way to generate free website traffic but you have to submit articles regularly. The result is exponential. A good rule of thumb is "an article a day will make articles pay." Having said this, make sure your resource box is written well and has links to relevant pages on your website. You won't get any visitors from article marketing if your readers aren't enticed to click on your link.

Learn how to promote any product, service or business opportunity using the most powerful Free Web Site Traffic method - Article Marketing.

How Many Articles Should I Submit Every Month To Make Sales?

Do you want to make more money with article marketing? Let me show you some of the common mistakes made by newbies just starting with this form of advertising, then I will show your the exact steps to quickly becoming more profitable.

Deadly Article Marketing Mistakes

1. Submitting one article per week.

Actually, it's not really a sin, but you will not make a lot of profits except if nobody else write and submit articles in your niche.

One article will not make you a lot of profits.

2. Submitting to only one directory

If you only submit to a single directory, you will not get the exposure you deserve. Profit from leverage in every single thing you do.

3. Mass submission

I see that many newbies try to submit with articlemarketer or articlepostrobots.com. There is no need to do this.

Will this hurt your article marketing plan because of the threat of duplicate content?

No, I've submitted with those services as well and my articles still bring me traffic. Duplicate content is another issue that I will discuss with you later because it needs a more in depth analyze.

What are the exact steps for success?

You need to do the following:

* Write several articles a day. I suggest a minimum of two per day to start. If you can't or don't have the time, this tedious work can be outsourced.

* Submit to the top twenty directories. For obvious reasons, you need to outsource this part as well.

If you are on a budget, you need to do this yourself. I know it's not easy but it's how I started.

To learn more, download my Free Guide: "How To Earn $100K Per Year With Article Marketing"

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 at: http://www.mynetmarketingland.com/article-marketing/

Article Writing: 5 Prospect Killing Mistakes Made Before You Even Submit Your Articles

Article writing and marketing works when you do it right. Here are 5 mistakes to get out of the way so you can do it right.

Mistake #1 You Dont Submit Any Articles I know it sounds silly, but many people write their articles and never submit them. Either they do not get around to it, dont know how, or are afraid of getting rejected by the article directories.

Solution: Submit your articles! Make it a goal to submit your first article before your head hits the pillow tonight. While it is unlikely that you will get rejected, even if you do, most article directories will work with you to get you accepted.

Mistake #2 Boring Key Word Empty Titles The purpose of the title for your reader is to make the reader want to read your article. The purpose of the title for the search engines is to have key words in your titles that will get picked up by the search engines.

Solution: Design a title that pulls the reader in with benefits and uses key words in the first four words of the title.

Mistake #3 Academic Summaries If youre the purpose of your title is to pull the reader into your article, the purpose of your article summary to pull the reader even further in. Most people write an academic sounding summary such as This article is about blah, blah, blah.

Solution: Write an article summary that defines a problem that needs to be solved and then promise to solve it.

Mistake #4 An Un-Optimized Article Body I see it all the time someone writes what is perhaps a decent article but then places it in the body submission field as one big chuck of text. What is the problem with that? This makes it tough to read online and gives the impression that this will take a long time to get through.

Solution: Break your article body up with lists/bulleted points, sub-headings and block quotes.

Mistake #5 A Pointless Resource Box The point of your resource box is not to create an online ego wall like the wall in your office with all your diplomas and awards. The purpose of your resource box is to get the reader to click through to your web site and become a visitor, prospect or customer.

Solution: Give your reader a good reason to click through to your web site by letting them know there are more good tips on your web site like the ones they have just read. Include at least one complete link (http://www.yourgreatdomainname.com) back to your web site.

Avoid these five mistakes and implement the solutions before you submit your articles.

To listen to an audio clip about these mistakes, recorded from a live teleseminar on Article Writing & Marketing, you are invited to visit http://www.TheArticleGuy.com/5mistakes1.htm

If you would like to banish writers block forever and write away, right away, then get yourself a copy of my 26 Article Writing Templates with Examples at http://www.TheArticleGuy.com/articletemplates.htm

You can also subscribe to The Article Writing & Article Marketing Tips Newsletter delivered to your email inbox twice a month from Jeff Herring, The Article Guy.

Seven Excellent Tips To Generate More Web Traffic

Here is a list of seven tactics that you can employ to improve you search engine rankings. By way of example, a business that sells red Swingline staplers will be used for this article.

Find the right key words The most important factor in getting quality web traffic is to optimise your web pages for the correct key words. Getting the most sales is often a balance between search volume for key words and level of competition. Interestingly, the search term office space stapler ranks as well as red swingline stapler. Interestingly, the term red swingline stapler office space is a very popular search term with very little competition. The best strategy here would be to have a different page optimised for each of these terms. Use the Overture keyword tool and Google Adwords tool to research and identify your best key word phrases. It also pays to see what key words your successful competitors are optimising for.

Put your key word phrase in your title tag Forget about putting your company name in the title tag (unless it is a valuable part of the key words), it's a waste of words and will not help you rank in the search engines. The first three of four words in your title tag should be the key word phrase you are trying to optimise for.

Write a compelling description tag Title tags are for search engines, description tags are for humans. Spend time crafting a description tag that compels the reader to click on your listing. Come up with a great offer, use action words. Example: Get your own genuine red Swingline stapler here. Great prices, fast delivery, 12 month guarantee. 1000's sold around the world. As seen in the movie Office Space.

Use H1 tags An often neglected search engine optimisation technique is to put your key words in H1 tags on your page. This tip alone can drastically improve your search engine rankings. Similarly, the use of bold and strong html tags can emphasise a key word phrase withing the paragraph text where it may not be appropriate to use H1 or H2 tags.

Get quality one-way incoming links through article marketing As far as Google is concerned, link exchanges are just about dead. They can help to get you site spidered and indexed more quickly, but these day they add very little in terms of search engine rankings. A far better approach is to write interesting and informative articles and submit them to article directories. Make sure that you use the author bio/resource box to maximum advantage by using your key word phrase in the link anchor text, AND, by pointing the anchor text to the correct page. You home page may not be the best choice of pages for your selected key phrase. This will also ensure that more pages than just your home page gets indexed.

Get a decent key word ratio Aim for a keyword density of around 3-5% of the page contents. Try to weave your key word phrase into the page so that it reads naturally. Use headings and sub-headings that include your key words.

Use alt tags and description tags on images Key words used image file names, alt tags and description tags add to the key word density of any web page. They doesn't make a huge difference, but every little bit helps. In some product classes a Google image search may lead web surfers to your web site.

John Hacking is Marketing Manager for a Brisbane web design company

and Product Manager for a Brisbane SEO company. He now conducts Brisbane search engine optimisation training courses for web masters and small business owners.

Article Marketing - Key Words? What Are They and How Do They Relate to Article Marketing? Part IV

In the previous articles you learned a lot about key words and how they are used as tools by people who are looking for information. Then we found out that just about everything on the internet is tracked. Because of this, we are able to learn more about what people are looking for and we can even see how many websites there are trying to supply information, products or services to the people that are looking.

Let's make up a scenario based on what we have learned and how it would be used in real life. This is just a fictitious example. Let's say I decided I wanted to promote an affiliate program for website hosting. I am just going to lay out for you what my train of thinking would be.

I do some key word research and I come up with 200 key words related to website hosting. After researching those words, I find 30 that aren't looked up the most, because all of the most searched words had too much competition. But I found 30 that are looked up regularly but don't have the huge numbers of suppliers with sites with those key words.

Now I do some research on those 30 words, and make sure I have plenty of good information and get a very strong understanding of the ins and outs of hosting. Then I write 3 articles for each key word, using the key word in the title of each article. I do this assuming that the hosting company that I have chosen to sign up as an affiliate for, has a very good product, and an excellent sales letter already provided for their affiliates (me).

Now here is the magic of article marketing. First, even if I knew a fair amount about my topic before, you can just imagine how much better I know the topic after I have written almost 100 articles. Second, I put a squeeze page in between my article readers and my hosting company.

How do I do this? I write a quick sales letter offering a free report on the ins and outs of choosing a web hosting company. This is easy, because I just wrote almost 100 articles. And now, I get the name and email address of everyone that clicks one of my links in my articles to get the free report before reading the sales letter of the hosting company.

Now you might be asking yourself, did I miss something? Is it really that easy? Why does this work? How do paying customers get to my affiliate link to buy web hosting? Next I will explain this to you from the customer's perspective because that is how you will see just how good it really does work.

What if Dan Iverson could show you how to write about any topic on earth and make money? He'll teach you how to better understand human nature as it relates to e-commerce; how people, from their perspective, come to make a purchase on the Internet. I am talking about learning how you can pick a topic of interest, write about it, and with the right tools and a little research find connections between your readers and real products and services, of which you can become an affiliate and make money. Here is the best part. I will teach you all of this absolutely free. That's right, click on this link and you'll get the full Affiliate Masters Course Free. This is no joke, I promise once you start to read this course, you will see and learn the logical system of affiliate and information marketing. It will open your eyes to the greatest and most versatile opportunity in known history: the Internet. Even if you have a website, you can use these techniques. http://aggressiveinternetmarketing.net/free-tool.html

All Optimized and Going Nowhere?

It happens sometimes. Here are some of the common reasons you may not be indexed:

Index Time: It hasn't been indexed yet. The amount of time before the engine indexes your site should be listed on the search engine's submission page, but these aren't always accurate or may be out of date. On the average, index times range from one to eight weeks depending on the engine. Some engines like AltaVista and Inktomi offer paid options if you wish to be indexed more quickly.

TIP! Time frame and expectations: Allow up to 4 months, if you are number 10 and want to be number 1, then it may just be time that is needed - but if you aren't showing up at all, then you need to look at keywords, content, title, description and keyword tags.

Already Indexed: The major engines won't tell you if you're listed; it's up to you to find out. The method to discover if a page or domain has been indexed varies from one engine to another. Never assume you're not indexed just because you searched through keywords and you never came up in the first few pages of results. You could still be indexed and end up at the bottom of the heap.

Roadmap from Home Page: Some engines have been known to drop pages that cannot be traveled to from the home page. HotBot has been rumored to do this. Think of your site links as a series of roads from one page to another. If there's no road from your home page to the page you want indexed, a search engine may decide the page is unnecessary.

External Links: Some search engines like Google and HotBot have been known to refuse to index Web sites that don't link to any other sites. Or, they may index your home page but refuse to index any other pages unless there are links from another domain. Or, they may index you for a while but then "prune" their database later because you didn't achieve any external links after a certain period of time.

Frames: Content inside of HTML frames can cause problems with submissions because the search engine may index the main content of the page, but not the surrounding menu frame. Visitors to your site find some information but miss the associated menu. It's generally better to create non-framed versions of your pages.

Spider Blocks: Search engine spiders cannot index sites that require a registration or password, and they can't fill out forms. This also applies to indexing of content from a searchable database. The solution is to create static pages that the engines can find and index without performing a special action on your site. Depending on your database system, there are both utility programs and companies that can assist you with this.

Free Sites: Because of all the "junk" submissions from free web sites like Geocities, many engines choose not to index sites from such domains or limit the number of pages they accept.

Guilt Through Association: If your Web site shares the same IP address as other Web sites on your host's Web server, you may find your IP quietly banned because of something someone else did. Ask your hosting service if your domain name has its own unique IP assigned to it. If not, ask them to move it to its own IP to avoid being penalized because of someone else.

Dynamic Pages: Dynamic pages with URLs containing special symbols like a question mark (?) or an ampersand (&) are ignored by many engines. Pages generated on the fly from a database often contain these symbols. In this situation, it's important to generate "static" versions of each page you want indexed. Fancy scripts and code on a page can hurt your rankings. When it comes to search engines, simple is better.

Large Pages: If your site has a slow connection or the pages are very complex and take a long time to load, it might time out before the spider finishes indexing. To avoid this, limit your page size to 50K or less. A good rule of thumb is that: page size + cumulative image sizes on the page d 50K-70K If it is greater than that amount, visitors with dial-up connections will leave before the page fully loads.

Unreliable Hosts: It pays to have a reliable hosting service. If your web site doesn't respond when the search engine spider visits, you won't be indexed. Even worse, if you are indexed and they pay a visit when your site is down, you could be removed from the database.

Spam: If you use questionable techniques that might be considered an overt attempt at spamming (i.e., excessive repetition of keywords, same color text as background) an engine may ignore or reject your submissions.

Redirects: Redirects or meta refresh tags sometimes cause the engines to have trouble indexing your site. If the engines think you are trying to "trick" them by using "cloaking" or IP redirection technology, they may not index the site at all.

Proper Directory Submissions: When submitting to a directory site like Yahoo, Open Directory, LookSmart, and others, a live person reviews your site. They decide if the site is of sufficient "quality" before they list it. These directories can help you get listed with other engines, so make sure you give your directory submissions the attention they need.

Page Limits: Search engines will only spider so many pages of your Web site. This could be a few dozen or three or four hundred depending on the engine. Google is one engine that tends to crawl deeper into your site. How deep they go may depend on factors like your link popularity. Sites with higher link popularity are deemed "worthier" of more thorough indexing.

Random Errors: Sometimes the engines simply lose submissions at random because of bugs and technical errors. Mistakes happen - remember, they're managing a database containing hundreds of millions of pages.

Jennifer Horowitz is the Director of Marketing and co-owner of http://www.EcomBuffet.com. Since 1998, her expertise in online marketing and Search Engine Optimization (SEO) has helped clients increase revenue and achieve their business goals. Jennifer has written a downloadable book on Search Engine Optimization and has been published in many SEO and marketing publications. Jennifer can be reached at Jennifer@ecombuffet.com

Article Marketing - How To Create High-Performance Articles That Get Read

If you have tried writing articles and just didn't get the results you expected, add some of these high-performance tips for better results.

The first step in writing a high-performance article is writing a headline that captures the readers attention. Use words in your title that create curiosity and interest. I often use an online thesaurus for generating word ideas.

The next step is to keep your article's content consistent with title of article. One mistake article writer's often make is writing content that doesn't match the article title. If title of the article is about dog training tips and you then spend the article discussing the joys of having a dog, there is a good chance you will lose your reader before they finish the article. A key point is to stay focused on the main subject for your article.

I know it may sound silly but make sure you provide useful information. Often times I will start reading an article and quickly find the article isn't telling me anything useful and go on to the next article. It's important you provide useful information to your reader so they will continue to read the article.

Keep sentences short and clearly written. Hard to understand sentences will lose readers quickly. If in doubt, be sure to edit the sentence so it is easier to read.

Write personally. Use a personal tone when writing your article. Let your reader get to see your personality whenever possible. Just don't over do it.

Determine the goal for your article. As an article writer, you need to determine your purpose for the article. Is the goal to start building a relationship with your reader? Is is to have the reader sign-up for a newsletter? Determining the article's goal will help you craft your message in the article so you get a better end result.

In closing, I hope you find these high-performance tips useful. Article Marketing can be a powerful marketing tool if used correctly.

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

Tyler Martin is a Internet business mentor who teaches people to build their online or offline business using Internet strategies.

Link Building A Beginners Guide to Search Engine Marketing

One of the services search engine marketing companies provide is Link Building. This is where the firm actively seeks out links by finding websites that are on a similar topic to yours and approaching them on your behalf to ask for links. However as the search engines have become more sophisticated they have been able to distinguish between sites providing good high quality relevant links and other less reliable websites. As a consequence its become increasingly important for search engine marketers & optimisation agencies to learn which links are most valuable.

One of the first things to bear in mind when asking a site for the link is if its relevant. The best way to tell if a search engine would see you link as appropriate is to think like the linking websites target audience. If a reader of the site you are approaching would find your web page useful then so will the search engines.

Its also important to see who else the potential link partner is linking to. A site with a few high quality links is a lot more valuable as a link resource than a site with links to some of the more grubby neighborhoods on the World Wide Web.

The older the site you are approaching to build links with the better. The more established a site is the more valuable its links are. A link from a site thats been around since the early days of the internet can really help a search engine optimization campaign and move a website up the rankings result page.

As well as the age of the link partner its worth looking at which Top Level Domain (TLD) the website is hosted with. .edu & .gov sites are best. Unless its a high quality well established reputable site .biz & .info pages are best avoided. The less desirable domain extensions are more prone to spam so their links offer less trust.

Its always best to try and find links from proper editorial pages rather than directories. While it may be more time consuming and require a personalized email its worth the effort. The search engines view a link from a content site as a better recommendation than a web directory that is full of links.

Another top tip is to avoid sites in foreign languages its easy for the search engine to see these as irrelevant links, so youre better not wasting your time perusing these links.

If you are trying to market and promote your site; a well organized link campaign as part of a varied search engine marketing strategy can provide real tangible results. You can quickly move up through the results of search engines like Yahoo! & Google and drive more traffic to your website.

Kelvin Newman is a search engine marketing consultant at Site Visibility Ltd. Site Visibility is a UK based search engine marketing company that helps clients increase online customer acquisition and retention using search engine optimization, pay per click and online marketing campaign measurement techniques.

You can read his regularly updated blog Site Visibility - Search Engine Marketing

Article Marketing is the #1 Traffic Strategy

Once you apply the multipliers which is search engine data for content sites, affiliate programs for sales sites and then after one-time promotions, my #1 strategy which I have found to be the most effective method of getting traffic to new sites as well as old is submitting articles with a short promotional blurb in a resource box at the end of the article.

There are many avenues to get your articles distributed. You can posting articles at EzineArticles.com or GoArticles.com, Associated Content and SearchWarp all good places to submit. You can also use services like iSnare.com or ArticleMarketer.com and pay to have your articles distributed. Another way to distribute is to use software like Article Submitter Pro or Article Post Robot.

There is nothing wrong with any of these techniques. I have used them all successfully. But there is a much, much more powerful method of article marketing that most marketers miss- ezine and newsletter marketing.

First I want you to get a grip on the potential of article marketing and then I want you to get a grip on how small of a slice of the pie the above methods cover. Go to Google and type your one word topic followed by the word "article" and then followed by the word "articles". So if your topic is "golf", then search for: golf article, golf articles. Then repeat the above process using "ezine", "ezines", "newsletter" plus "newsletters". I want you to make a note of how many search results are returned for each of these -these are the results your competition is missing. Thousands of article marketers are all competing for the attention of just a tiny fraction of the total market for article distribution, while missing the important ezine and newsletter channel for distribution.

This is where ArticleROI can be a powerful tool in your arsenal - it submits to hundreds of built-in ezines and newsletters, and allow you to add an unlimited amount of your own, custom publishers.

http://www.articlemarketingsoftware.org

Bum Marketing Method Exposed - Why I Market Exclusively With Articles Part 2

Now that I have some of the basics explained I will continue with this series of articles. Just to refresh what we have gone through previously is that you need to note that most important ingredient to succeeding online is to take massive action.

So let us look at what your very first step is going to be. When you are first starting out on the internet it is going to be very overwhelming to design and create your own products as this takes a lot of work. Usually it would have taken a creator hundreds or thousands of hours to finish a professional product. They also spend countless hours maximizing their sales copy so that they make the most sales for every visitor. After this they also need to provide professional customer support which is very time consuming.

So your very first step is to choose a niche market where you can market a profitable affiliate program. A niche market is a market that supplies a product where the volume of sales would be too small to justify a big company entering the market. This kind of market is ideal for your home based internet business.

I suggest you pick an idea that you enjoy or that you are interested in as you are going to working with this for a very long time. So for example if you enjoy photography then you need create a website on digital photography and sell digital cameras as your affiliate products.

So once you have chosen your niche market you need to start preparing to write articles solving specific problems for that niche market that will help to drive traffic to your website and establish you as the expert in that specific niche.

Here's your chance to drive massive traffic to your web site:

Download your free ebook here: Secrets Of Article Marketing

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

7 Key Steps to Create More Money in Article Marketing

Written marketing is one of the best marketing available till date. The advantage of the article marketing is due to the ready reference and the ease with which it can be stored. Here are seven key steps to create more money in article marketing.

First thing is to make your article strong. Make use of eye catchy headline. The headline should be able to attract the interest of the reader and hold him to go through the whole article.

Second thing is the totality of the article. For article marketing the article should be total in the sense that it should provide all the information from start to finish. The reader must not run for complete information somewhere else.

Third step is to make your article aesthetically appealing. Make use of good fonts and the size of the font should not be too small to be missed or too big to make it look unprofessional.

Fourth key is giving a format to your article. Make use of your company logo and address. This will develop authenticity of the article and hence interest of the reader.

Fifth step is to make the use of good language that is easy to understand and also maintain interest.

Sixth step is to promote your product with some innovative comparisons and highlighting some key features of the products and services.

Seventh key to article marketing is to provide all the links for future reference and correspondence. And if you receive any query is very prompt to answer it.

Another big thing with article marketing is testing your categories and topics, as I do.

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.

Long Tail Organic SEO & Semantic Keyword Optimization

What does the word "Optimization" mean to you? Although our personal opinions may differ regarding what the term infers, knowing exactly how search engines interpret semantic relationships between words is a crucial component for improving organic website placement.

Latent semantic indexing is a process that determines the way search engines associate words. Understanding how to employ (LSI) latent semantic indexing strategically for keyword research, can provide hundreds of alternative keyword-rich suggestions for your website titles, descriptions and on page content. This process is also great for augmenting organic long-tail search engine optimization and providing a wider range of secondary phrases your website or individual pages will rank for in search engines.

For example instead of optimizing a broad search term like "architect", a person may be prone to type in a a more specific query such as "affordable architect for designing cad drawings for convenience store", the point being, the more descriptive the search, the more chances your pages have to be returned in the search results through elevating your websites secondary and pivotal keywords. Studies have conclusively shown that long tail searches result in higher conversion rates for website owners. One theory is that someone inputing a longer (more specific) search query indicates a heightened interest in the subject. This heightened interest is synonymous with a visitor who has switched from an information gatherer to a qualified prospect for your business. Now you ask, how might one catch the long tail of SEO and receive hits from dozens or quite possibly hundreds of keyword combinations in search queries? The answer, writing with a broader range of vocabulary. Keeping your keywords on topic, but using varying forms to extend the range of your SERP is completely ethical.

Increase Relevance for your Copy using (LSI) Latent Semantic Indexing

Instead of keyword stuffing (adding your keywords numerous times to inflate the importance of your pages) you can simply use alternative terms that describe the same concept and thereby strengthen your foothold for all related terms that fall under the umbrella of that keyword.

Essentially, within a few minutes time using Google and by adding one unique character before a term, you can strike keyword gold and find a variety of alternatives to enhance your rankings.

For example, applying keyword research for the word optimization Google highlighted the following associated words in bold on the displayed results.

    -analysis
    -positioning
    -performance
    -placement
    -submission
    -speed

Although there are additional terms returned by this query, the extent of the keywords you discover are determined by the number of results that you sift through using the numbers or arrows at the bottom of Google (in this instance approximately 10 pages produced the keywords above from descriptions related to the search term.

Now that you have found various alternative keywords that refer to the term "optimization" or whatever your word you are researching, you can incorporate them into a coherent sentence and place that sentence strategically in your web page. If you start with the topic first and use this method to construct the content on your pages, you will most assuredly achieve stronger organic rankings for your keywords that you have clearly identified for that page.

Application of Semantic Keyword Research

For example, based on the keywords above one could compile a sentence that would rank well in search engines and augment the term optimization. In this example, every keyword is used in some form, but used tactfully. This is also a great way to find terms for your tags for blogs.

In order to optimize the performance of your website or blogs position in search engines, analysis of the keywords and their placement can tremendously affect search engine rankings.

Note how most of the terms were used?

Using this method for developing your content is completely ethical and naturally strengthens the content and word density without resorting to spamming the engines or affecting usability for your visitors.

So what is the magical grapheme symbol we have been discussing? It is the tilde ~. Place the tilde in front of a keyword / search term in Google then hit return, the words you see bolded in the search results determine other known indexed words that correspond to your keyword for that search engine.

In this case I used the word ~optimization to research alternative keywords.

To summarize, using Semantic keyword association the next time you're stumped with writer's block or are simply looking for alternative keywords for Google ad words, blogs, tags, titles, descriptions or content, use the tilde before the search term and replace the word optimization with the keyword of your choice.

Jeffrey Smith is an seasoned search engine optimization strategist and founder of Seo Design Solutions in Chicago Illinois. Jeffrey has been involved in internet marketing since 1995 and brings fresh optimization methods and solutions for business seeking long-tail organic search engine placement.

Going Away for the Holidays? Pack Your Laptop!

Mobile workers arent the only ones packing up their Laptop PCs for traveling, it appears to be a growing trend among vacationers as well. In a recent study, more than half (51 percent) of those surveyed said they would bring along a laptop computer on a future vacation. Thirty-four percent responded that they've already vacationed with their laptops. So why are people taking along their laptops on vacation? Apparently, its mostly because of their addiction to email.

Email is the most common use of laptops for vacationers, with more than 70% of people checking or sending personal email while on vacation. But work-related email sneaks in there too, with 43% of vacationers admitting to checking or sending email that is work-related.

The availability of Wi-Fi hotspots has definitely increased the convenience of using a laptop while on vacation, and wireless Internet connectivity has become a must for most computer users. With wireless technology widely available, you can reach your customers anytime, even while they are vacationing almost anywhere in the world.

So if vacationers are packing their laptops, make sure your email marketing programs don't take a vacation! Stay on your regular schedule of email marketing initiatives (e-newsletters, sales flyers, etc.), because your messages will still be seen by your customers, even if they are not in their offices.

Lauren Hobson is editor of Biz Talk, a free, subscription-based resource sent to our clients, friends, and associates interested in tips and techniques for helping small businesses make the most of their web sites and marketing efforts without spending a lot of money. Biz Talk is a publication of Five Sparrows, LLC, specializing in web sites and marketing for small business.

Article Marketing - Announcing 6 Comprehensive Secrets to Supercharge Your Article Marketing

As the internet becomes more and more popular, the demand for information-based marketing techniques (such as writing and distributing articles) has increasingly grown. Today, it is considered as one of the best methods in driving targeted clients to websites and converting them into buyers.

1. Bank on your content. Your primary goal in writing and submitting articles on publishing sites is to entice your readers to click on your resource box. The best way to achieve that is by giving online users great content that showcases your knowledge on your chosen field. When your potential clients feel that you are really good on what you do, they are most likely to trust you and take your recommendations.

2. Write more. As you know, the number of your submissions equate to the number of inbound links that you can obtain for your website. The more articles you write and submit, the greater your chances of improving your traffic and page ranking.

3. Optimize your content. Identify the keywords and key phrases that are usually used by your target market when they are using search engines. Incorporate these keywords on your content to make your articles highly searchable online.

4. Check on your progress. Make it a habit to check the performance of your articles at least once a week. Identify the articles that are generating impressive click through rates and learn the elements that make them successful online. Incorporate these elements to your other articles that are seldom read.

5. Proofread. Any error found on your articles can be a threat against your online credibility and professionalism. Thus, it is of out most importance that you manually check your articles before you post them online.

6. Submit to the best publishing sites. Pick article submission sites that have steady traffic and indexed by major search engines. These are the only sites that can help you realize your article marketing goals.

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.

Use Teleclasses to Build Your Opt-in List - A Strategy for Exploding Your Internet Marketing Results

Teleclasses also called Teleseminars are one of the most powerful ways to build rapport with your target market, establish expert credibility and make your bank account grow!
Combined with Internet marketing methods, teleclasses will allow you to build a list of loyal subscribers who become your life-long customers. Think about how effective you are when you are talking with your clients - it is your warmth, helpfulness, knowledge and interest in helping them that makes them sing your praises and keep coming back for your products and services. Now multiply that response by 100 people or more on a call. You can make money by charging a fee for your teleclass or offer it for free.

Consider recording your teleclass and using it as a bonus gift with other products or services that you sell. Most bridgeline companies offer recording services. Consider having your recorded audio class transcribed into a written document. This can serve as articles for your e-zine or your free report that you give away when someone joins your list.

Teleclasses for Lead Generation
A free teleclass can be extremely effective for building your subscriber list. The free information you provide is not going to send someone shopping for your competitor's services. Quite the contrary. The fact that you took your time to prepare and present an informational call impresses the heck out of them. They figure out really fast that you know what you are talking about and most importantly, that you really care about them. Just like you want to do business with people you know and trust, they do too. Be sure to give your callers some incentive to join your mailing list. A free report or another call can be a great enticement. Once they join, you have a hot market to get in front of again and again.

Teleclasses for a Fee
Teleclasses can be a product that you sell. You might offer a single class or a series of teleclasses that provide information on a topic of great interest and demand. For example, if you are a financial planner and have hot tips for a plan that allows anyone to retire in 5 years, you are not going to have a bit of trouble getting people on your call. Teleclassses can also be used for motivation or coaching purposes. You can also use them to promote a front end product that allows you to market a more expensive back end product, seminar or service later on.

Free and Low Cost Bridge Lines
At http://www.webpuzzlemaster.com/links-resources.htm you will find companies that provide free and low-cost bridge line services.

Start including teleclasses in your Internet marketing tool kit and watch your sales go through the roof. Don't be afraid to set yourself apart from others - that is what attracts customers and the media to you. It is what gets you recognized as a leader, an expert in your field and known as the best choice to do business with. Your success on the Internet is all about the marketing.

Online design and marketing specialist, Ruth Kuttler, "the Web PuzzleMaster," is the creator of "Winning Marketing Secrets" E-zine. Get my FREE SPECIAL REPORT, "10 Simple Secrets for Making your Website into a Selling Machine!" at http://www.WebPuzzleMaster.com/newsletter.htm

You are welcome to 'reprint' this article, provided it remains complete (including the contact information at the end). Thanks!

Incredible Article Marketing Case Study - Brain Picking Secrets That I Have Learned

Article marketing is one of my favourite methods of traffic generation. The reason for this is that it generates the highest quality lead possible.

I have just noticed that I have written over 580 articles. These have created 58,000 page views, 4510 url clicks to my squeeze page and been published 2,500 times. These are really amazing statistics and I have just gotten going with my article marketing efforts.

In this article I would like to go through the lessons that I have learned from this. When I first started out I was not so sure what to expect from article marketing.

The one most valuable lesson that I have learned from all of this is that it takes time to develop skill. I remember when I started out I really was terrible at writing. As I continually did this I gradually improved. Over time you get better and better. However, when you first start out it will seem like a very big hurdle that you need to climb.

The biggest disappoint about this method of promoting your website is that after 100 articles you may not see that fantastic results yet. However, keep on going the results will be worth it over time. As you continue your results will get better and better. This is a long term strategy and if you are looking for quick results I do not suggest that you attempt this at all because you will totally get frustrated.

Now the most important part of marketing this way is that your leads are a lot more responsive and more likely to buy from you. One of the biggest problems with building a list is actually getting people to buy from you. It is not as easy as what people say. People only buy from other people that they like, know and trust.

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 Earn Money On Line With Wealthy Affiliate - Can You Really Make Money On Line

I stumbled upon affiliate marketing just over a year ago while surfing the web. I did not quite understand it so after a bit of research, I learned of Clickbank and Commission Junction which are two of the main affiliate marketing resources. At this site you are able to start promoting a huge range of products for free and make money without investing any money at all. This is great but there are problems which I encountered such as, not fully understanding affiliate marketing, not knowing where to advertise, not knowing how to properly campaign to earn lots of money.

I tried for 4 months without spending any money. I managed to make a few sales in this period which added up to 100$ which was not worth the time I was spending. It was proving harder than I first thought; I really did not want to give up.

I needed help there were lots of affiliate marketing programs which teach you how to market products with success. There was only one which had it all Wealthy Affiliate University founded in 2005 it has help thousands of people make tons money. It started as a site dedicated for creating keyword lists. It quickly evolved into a comprehensive website offering Internet Marketing resources, tools, a forum, and full one-on-one support. When you join you are given an 8 week learning program which at the end of you will know everything and I mean everything.

I started straight away and within two months I managed to make several successful campaigns which earned me a steady flow of money straight away and continue to do so still to this day. If you are already promoting products but are getting not results I would strongly recommend clicking the link below to learn more about what you can do to improve your skills. If this is the first time you have heard of affiliate marketing it may be well worth your while to try.

I personally use Wealthy Affiliate and found it to be a life saver for my internet marketing career. If you have any questions please click on this link and send me an e-mail. Click Here For More Information Thank you

Profitable Article Marketing - Latest 3 High Powered Methods to Breakthrough with Article Marketing

The online business market is getting more and more competitive. In order to drive quality traffic to your website and get your fair share of online visitors, you must have a real edge over the rest. For this, I recommend that you give people what they really want - information. This can easily be done by writing and distributing your articles online.

Here are the 3 high powered methods to breakthrough with article marketing:

1. Offer valuable content. The information that are included in your articles are your strongest tools in article marketing. When you are able to provide good content, people who are looking for information that they can use on their blogs, lenses, websites, and portals will surely pick up your articles and republished them. This can boost the number of your inbound links that can lead to improved search engine ranking and increased page views.

2. Share a slice of your expertise. One of the main reasons why you are marketing your articles is to gain the trust of your readers so they will consider doing business with you. One of the best ways to do that is to establish your expertise and share some of your knowledge to your readers that they will find helpful and valuable to their lives. When you are able to help people, they will be most likely to return the favor.

3. Do a keyword research. This is the most effective way of driving qualified traffic to your website. You need to know the search terms that are being used by your potential clients when they try to find specific information online. These search terms, when found on your articles, will instantly bring your potential clients to 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.

Niche Article Marketing Mastering Your Niche

How would it feel to master your niche? What if your niche recognized you as the premier expert in your niche area? I submit to you that niche article marketing can help you become #1 in your niche area.

I know that sounds crazy, since the internet is so advanced and there are already so many experts out there. But I want you to think about the fact that many marketers have avoided the smaller niches because there is not enough money in them. So what has happened is that a lot of the niches only have for competition a few people who are not experienced marketers but are rather just good at what they do. What does that mean to you? It means that you can use hardball niche article marketing strategies and in some cases propel yourself to the number one spot in the search engine results for your niche.

With niche article marketing, you can also put yourself in the position where each of the top ten spots for your keyword, that the web site itself has your name listed on it as an expert in your field. So not only do you get the number one position if you do things right and others sleep on the job, but you can also potentially be the preferred expert on all the other websites on the search engine results page. So imagine what happens in someones mind when they go to search for information and every web site on the search results page has your name on it? They are going to perceive you as the expert and buy your product from your web site.

So how do you do this stealth niche article marketing?

1) Write 20 articles to start with, on your web site topic. Prepare a resource box with anchor text and live links going back to your web site.

2) Post 5 of these articles on the top ten biggest article directories, as evidenced by their respective pageranks.

3) Do a search of your keyword and look at the web sites that come up in the top 20 positions. Contact each of them personally and offer to write a testimonial for their web site. Most web sites should be glad to do this testimonials are strong forms of credibility.

4) Offer to help them write content give them some of the articles you have written already in step 1. Just be sure your name is included in the bio- you dont even need a live link, unless they dont care, but the key is that your name is on every web site in the top ten results.

5) Submit a few articles to at least 100 article directories.

6) Submit your web site to at least 100 web directories.

Using these stealth niche article marketing strategies, you should easily be able to catapult yourself from a nobody in your field to an expert in your field.

Want to learn more about how I do it? Download my free guide here: Traffic Generation

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 600 articles in print and 9 published ebooks.