By
Bill Platt on July 21st, 2008
Posted in Article Directories, Article Marketing, Article Submissions, Website Content | No Comments »
I spent most of this weekend updating one of my side-project websites. To be frank, it is a site I built with HyperVRE. While the HyperVRE product is pretty good, it is not ideal for big websites. So long as you are sticking to 10-page websites, this is a good product. But the site I have working on is a 500-page website.
The problem with the HyperVRE comes to light when you are working sites in excess of 20-pages. It takes a long time to compile large sites, and updates and template changes can be very painful and time-consuming.
This is where I have been with my 500-page website, that I built in just a couple of days using the HyperVRE package. It simply takes too long to update with minor changes. What I did was to decide to hand-repair the site and convert it to my own operating system platform, so that future repairs and tweaks could be implemented easily. (If you are wondering, I believe that this may someday become a stand-alone product, but I am a bit too busy to aim for that just yet.)
So, my adapting of the website has been made much easier with my php knowledge. But, I am still having to edit each article display page and put it into my new template system. I have cleared about 100-pages in the last 12 hours, so progress is good. I only have 400 pages to go….
So here is my point.
I have been looking at each of the individual articles, as I am morphing them to the new system. Far too many of these articles from a wide variety of article directories have lots of problems. I am going to document for you here the major problems I have seen, so that you can prevent yourself from getting caught like a lot of these writers have been caught - fluttering in the wind, with their article marketing campaign in ruins.
Resource Box - General Notes - The whole point of putting articles into circulation is to get your link out on the web, in newsletters and on websites and blogs. Don’t forget to put your links in the authors’ resource box!
Resource Box - Link Specific - Make sure your links work! Far too many of these articles have inoperable links, because the HTML for the HREF tags are seriously hosed. Noted Tips: 1) Put a space between the A and the HREF, between the HREF and TARGET tags, etc.; 2) Make sure there are quotes on each end of the URL or not. The HREF tags will work, with or without quotes around the URL, but putting only one quote around the URL breaks the link; 3) Make sure to include a http:// version of your link in addition to your embedded keyword links; 4) Don’t put punctuation at the end of your URL, unless you are including just the domain name, with no deep links (links to pages within your website). Even if you are linking just your domain name, I solidly recommend that you do not follow the URL with any punctuation.
Use The ENTER Key Sparingly - You should only use your ENTER key to break paragraphs, and then use it twice, to put a blank line between paragraphs. DO NOT hit ENTER after every type-written line. It will hose the proper display of your articles — and it is really hard to fix at the webmaster end. (I actually did just delete some articles, because they were so full of mistakes that I did not want to invest the time to fix them.) If you absolutely have to… hit ENTER at the end of each type-written line (strongly recommended against), make darn sure that you hit the SPACE key before hitting the ENTER key. Some directory sites will strip your extra ENTER keys out of the text, but those same sites will fail to put a space in there for you at the end of the line. The result is wordsthatrunintoeachother. This is damn annoying to the webmaster who has to choose whether to delete your article, OR fix your mistakes.
Sub Headings
When you are including a sub-heading in your text, you should make sure that you do two things: put a blank line between the subhead and the next paragraph, and always cap the first letter of every word in your subheading. Extra Note: If the directory will let you include BOLD html, then be sure to bold your sub headings.
If you are going to put a numbered list in your article, please put a space between your number and the first word that follows it. It looks like crap if you don’t.
If you are putting an unordered list in your article, please separate list items with a blank line between them, unless you are going to include the LIST ITEM html coding.
—
If you are using an article distribution service to get your articles out onto the Internet, then you generally have three kinds of choices:
- Do-It-Yourself Software;
- Low-cost and mostly Do-It-Yourself distribution service;
- The Phantom Writers Article Distribution Service - full service.
Why do I mention this? For one, I own The Phantom Writers. But, I am not mentioning this to brag. The reason I mention this is because with my distribution service, we actually provide a full-service operation. We will put your articles together for distribution, and our team of experienced people will ensure that everything is working as it needs to work. We make sure all of your links are formatted properly and working. We also make sure that all of your T’s are crossed and your I’s are dotted.
My point, if the people whose articles were in my automotive website were distributed by us, instead of someone else, the multitude of problems I saw today would never have been, because my staff would have made certain that your article distribution went off without a hitch.
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If you are struggling with high fuel prices and trying to figure out how you will be able to pay for your online advertising endeavors, please consider getting a copy of my ebook, “How To Increase the Fuel Mileage of Any Vehicle.” By utilizing the gas-saving tips and gas-saving strategies I recommend, you should easily be able to improve your fuel efficiency by at least 30%! In these days of $4 per gallon gasoline, 30% will add a whole wad of change back into your monthly budget… just enough to enable you to build your income streams, so that maybe you won’t have to worry about conservation next time around.
—
Bill Platt 405-780-7745 - 9am to 6pm CST
By
Bill Platt on July 14th, 2008
Posted in Article Directories, Article Marketing, Article Submissions, Article Writing | No Comments »
In this age of article spam, including links within the body of an article is difficult to accomplish, depending on how you are distributing your articles.
If you are relying on a bunch of article directories to get your articles to publishers, links in the body of an article is nearly always a guaranteed article killer. 80% of article directories prohibit links in the body of the article and for good reason.
Most article directories prohibit this practice, because so many people abuse article marketing, in an effort to spam the article directories and search engines. They simply miss the point of article marketing, by missing the idea that article marketing is an excellent tool for getting human readers to their website to buy what is being sold.
The new breed of article marketers who entered the marketplace in circa 2005 had been told by the so-called guru’s that the only point of article marketing was to generate links to one’s website, for SEO and link popularity purposes. So new article marketers started coming out of the woodwork, trying to shove as many links as they could into the articles they were distributing. The biggest mistake these folks made was to shove numerous links into the body of the article, with little or no regard for whether readers would enjoy reading that article.
What was missed by the so-called gurus and their students, was that those people who were finding great success with article marketing in 2005 and before, were focused on telling good stories to attract human visitors to their websites. They knew that getting the link was important, but they also knew that in order to get more links, the writer needed to tell a good story.
Article directory managers were annoyed at the junk that was pouring into their directories every week, so they started seeking out methods to quickly identify the trash. The one identifying mark that really stood out was that 90% of the article marketers who were putting links into the body of the article, were those people guilty of submitting those most trash articles to their directories.
Article directory managers did realize that 10% of the articles with links in the body of the article were great articles, but they also knew that the other 90% were pure trash. Granted, they knew that they would be losing a few good articles each week by prohibiting articles with links in the body of the article, but they also knew that they would be ridding themselves of a huge portion of the garbage that was being sent to them.
Strictly as an effort to manage their own time, article directory managers put an end to articles with links in the body of the article.
The only reason one should ever consider putting links in the body of their articles is when they recognize that those links might prevent an article from being published in some sites, but at the same time, it might make the article more attractive to others.
The first trick to getting an article out there with links in the body of the article is to distribute your article only through article distribution sources that allow such a thing. The second trick is to only provide links that support the story you are telling, and to avoid using self-promotional links in your article.
There are some article distribution channels that permit links in the body of the article, although the strongest recommendation is to only include links that support the story being told.
If you only provide links that add to the value of the article, then the chances of certain publishers printing your articles is greatly enhanced.
For those of you who pay attention to the articles that I write and distribute, you will note that half of my articles have NO LINKS in the body of the article and half DO HAVE LINKS in the body of the article.
I do this because I want to be able to reach publishers who appreciate links in the body of the article, and I want to reach publishers who prohibit links in the body of the article.
I only include links when those links add real value to my story. And I switch formats, so that I can reach a much larger audience through diversity in writing strategies.
When all is said and done, whatever formats you utilize in your articles, the most important consideration is to always give your readers real value. When you have learned to do that, you will also find success in your own article marketing endeavors, like those before you have done.
Bill Platt - owner of The Phantom Writers.com Article Ghost Writing and Article Distribution Service
By
allen on July 9th, 2008
Posted in Article Directories, Article Marketing, Article Writing | No Comments »
I don’t know why some of these companies even bother. We got a request to review a new product, ArticleChanger. The product purports to rewrite your articles for you. Cool, a ghostwriter you won’t have to pay.
Well, not so fast. My final analysis: You’re better off writing your own articles even if you can’t write. Check it out for yourself:
I entered the following article into the box at ArticleChanger’s website:
Can a small business really benefit from a blog? You bet your sweet can-can it can.
OK, so that’s too many cans for one article. Bottom line. You CAN run a small business blog and make it profitable. Here are a few tips on how:
* First, don’t try to swallow the whole apple in one bite. Take it slow. You may not need a daily blog. Start with a weekly blog and move up from there as you need to.
* Secondly, make a list of keywords before you do anything. Then, focus each blog entry on a single keyword. Write 150-200 words on that keyword and link back to your main web site.
* Thirdly, don’t promote your competitors. Promote yourself. No-brainer? You would think, but I see small businesses promoting their competition all the time.
* Fourthly, speak to your audience, not at them. Invite them to participate. Sponsor contests or encourage comments and interaction. That’s really what blogs are for.
Blogging is nothing new. It’s been around awhile. But it is relatively new for business. Some corporate blogs have been quite successful, but not too many small businesses are taking advantage of this free promotional tool. They should.
A blog on your small business web site gives you fresh new content every time you post a blog. That’s very important for search engine saturation. Also, every link from your blog to your web site is counted as a link by Yahoo and MSN. Google is a little more strict, but that may not be important.
For one thing, Google is largely the search engine for corporate players and techies. The statistics that show Google’s market share are a bit skewed; that’s the big secret.
People who live on the web use Google. They make dozens of searches every day. Most people only make one or two searches a day. AOL users use AOL. Most new users of the Internet are using Yahoo, MSN or AOL. If you run a retail business, those search engines are more important to you than Google, so it’s important that you understand how your blog is being read by them.
Your local business can benefit from a company blog if you understand your customer and address each blog to meet their needs. Key things to remember:
* Blogging takes time. If you don’t have it, don’t start one. At least, don’t do it every day. Once a week or twice a week is OK. But keep a consistent schedule.
* Use a software that allows you to timestamp entries. You can write several at one time and set them to post at an appointed time.
* If you can’t do it yourself, hire someone to do it. You can get a blog ghostwriter for as little as $5 per post.
* Make it keyword focused, for the search engines.
Above all, have fun.
After hitting the rewrite button, this is what I got back:
OK, so that’s lots of cans for four article. Bottom line. You CAN run a small business blog & make it profitable. Here are a few tips on how:
Can a small business benefit from a blog? You bet your sweet can-can it can.
* First, don’t try to swallow the whole apple in four bite. Take it slow. You may not need a daily blog. Start with a weekly blog & move up from there as you need to.
* Secondly, make a list of keywords before you do anything. Then, focus each blog entry on a single keyword. Write 150-200 words on that keyword & link back to your main web-site.
* Thirdly, don’t promote your competitors. Promote yourself. No-brainer? You would think, but I see small businesses promoting their competition all the time.
* Fourthly, speak to your audience, not at them. Invite them to participate. Sponsor contests or encourage comments & interaction. That’s what blogs are for.
Blogging is nothing new. It’s been around awhile. But it is relatively new for business. Some corporate blogs have been successful, but not lots of small businesses are taking advantage of this free promotional instrument. They should.
For four thing, Google is largely the search engine for corporate players & techies. The statistics that show Google’s market share are a bit skewed; that’s the big secret.
A blog on your small business web-site gives you fresh new content every time you post a blog. That’s very important for search engine saturation. Also, every link from your blog to your web-site is counted as a link by Yahoo & MSN. Google is a little more strict, but that may not be important.
People who live on the web use Google. They make dozens of searches every day. Most people only make four or four searches a day. AOL users use AOL. Most new users of the web are using Yahoo, MSN or AOL. If you run a retail business, those search engines are more important to you than Google, so it’s important that you understand how your blog is being read by them.
Your local business can benefit from a company blog if you understand your customer & address each blog to meet their needs. Key things to remember:
* Blogging takes time. If you don’t have it, don’t start one. At least, don’t do it every day. four time a week or once a week is OK. But keep a consistent schedule.
* Use a application that allows you to timestamp entries. You can write several at four times & set them to post at an appointed time.
* If you can’t do it yourself, hire someone to do it. You can get a blog ghostwriter for as little as $5 per post.
* Make it keyword focused, for the search engines.
Above all, have fun.
Judge for yourself, is that a usable article?
I love how the article changer turned all of my ones into fours, rendering the article complete nonsense. Then there is the whole paragraph rearrangement thing that caused the article changer to take a sentence in paragraph 2 completely out of context and making it my lead sentence. Totally worthless!
The mass effect is one humorous little article that I end up having to rewrite again just to turn it into something that makes sense. Why bother?
When it comes to re-purposing your content, you’re better off in most cases just writing from scratch. Some article directories are now rejecting articles that even look like they’ve been rewritten.
I would not recommend rewriting your articles. Just write fresh articles that don’t threaten to have problems like the ones noted above. Really, it doesn’t take long to write a 500 word article that can be used for article marketing or other online marketing purposes. If you’re going to do something, why not do it right?
By
allen on July 7th, 2008
Posted in Article Directories, Article Submissions, Article Writing | No Comments »
All of it, says Chris Knight.
This is the same thing we’ve been saying for a long time now. PLR articles are useless. Word for word, idea for idea, I could not have said it better myself:
Non-content spammers but well-meaning newbies will ask this question: How much must I change or rewrite my article so that your content filters won’t reject it or suspend my account? The answer is all of it. Seriously, don’t rewrite your own articles. Just create new ones. It’s not that hard. 
You can do it.
Today it’s just one article directory, but that’s how it usually starts. By this time next year there will be a half dozen more article directories instituting the same policy. Why? Because e-zine publishers and webmasters don’t want the same rehashed content that all of their competitors have. It does them no good. They can’t monetize it, they can’t rank with it, and it doesn’t benefit their readers. Therefore, it doesn’t benefit the article directory. And what doesn’t benefit the article directory doesn’t benefit you. So you might as well write your articles from scratch.
“But what if I can’t write?”
No problem. Call a ghostwriter. Not only will you get fresh, unique content, but you own it and you can use it, re-use, and distribute it as many times as you wish - all for the same price. That’s the nature of work for hire. We work for you and you own the content. If you’re going to do it, you might as well do it right. In other words, learn to say the alphabet with the letters P, L and R.
“So, how much does a ghostwriter cost?”
By
allen on June 21st, 2008
Posted in Article Directories, Article Marketing | No Comments »
EzineArticles is light years ahead of most article directories today, but I do believe that there will be a fall out in the the number of article directories in the next 2-3 years. One of the things that EzineArticles has done that will up the ante for all article directories in the near future is to adopt search engine-like qualities that allow it to filter out duplicate content. The EA duplicate content filter allows EzineArticles to identify content that may be duplicated or recycled PLR articles or derivative of other works and the EA staff can decide whether to accept or decline them.
I think this is a great system. It’s good for the directory, but it’s also good for the article authors and marketers who use the system. Even more importantly, it’s good for publishers who look in the article directories for content to use on their websites and in their e-zines. I believe that article directories that wish to remain competitive will have to adopt similar algorithms and keep out the duplicate content.
When it comes to article content, EzineArticles CEO Christopher Knight hits the nail on the head when he says this:
Read This Tip A Few Times Please: The absolute best way to beat duplicate content filters is to create unique article content in the first place!
What this means for article marketers is PLR will die. That’s something to cheer for. If you want to ensure that your articles are accepted by reputable article directories, picked up by reputable publishers, and read by targeted consumers then the best way to do that is to write the best unique, original content for your niche possible. If you can’t that on your own, who are you gonna call? Try a ghostwriter. Original content is our business.
By
allen on June 19th, 2008
Posted in Article Directories, Article Marketing, viral marketing | No Comments »
If you use article marketing to drive traffic to your website then you have another tool to help you do that. EzineArticles, the most popular article directory online, offers a widget for article marketers.
This is a useful tool because you can put the widget on your website or blog and drive traffic to your articles. Some of those people reading your articles will use them on their own blogs and websites, expanding your reach into the online marketplace. You can also offer the code for your widget so that other people in your niche can put your articles on their own blog or website, giving you even more exposure online.
By
allen on June 9th, 2008
Posted in Article Directories, Article Marketing | 1 Comment »
Lately there have been new article directories popping up, wanting you to submit your articles and promising you certain money-making benefits. There are some that offer to place your AdSense on a certain percentage of your articles. There are article directories that allow you to place ads on their website in exchange for your articles. Some allow you to join an affiliate program after you’ve had so many articles published. And there are other variations of the income-producing model that are being developed along these lines. Are any of them necessary?
First, I’d like to say that article marketing has never been about getting your article published in a directory. Article marketing is about getting your articles picked up by publishers within your niche. That’s the end goal and when that happens it is much more valuable reward then any of the promised benefits mentioned above or, for that matter, and future promised benefits to try to get your publish your articles. Quite frankly, I find these offers to be a bit off-putting and they tend to take your mind off of the real goal of article marketing.
Think about it: The goal of article marketing is to have your articles published on niche sites with a link back to your site. You preferably want those links to be on authority sites with relevant content. Those are the best links. In fact, if that happens with your articles often then you are getting real benefit from your article marketing efforts. Other benefits pale in comparison.
Honestly, would you rather have $10 monthly income from your articles on an article directory or permanent links from hundreds of websites within your niche that drive traffic to your landing pages every day? If you said the former then you might as well just forget about article marketing and build a website with content on it and slap your own AdSense ads on that site because you’ll make more money that way in the long run. But if you are trying to sell a product or service and you are looking for business, stick with traditional article marketing. Don’t take the bribes.
By
allen on June 6th, 2008
Posted in Article Directories, Article Marketing, Article Submissions, Article Writing | No Comments »
(Source) The more articles you have working for you, the more chance you have of making a sale.
It’s a numbers game. The more articles you write and the more articles you distribute online to article directories then the more likely you are to drive traffic to your web pages and close sales. Of course, you have to have landing pages that close sales. But you also have to drive traffic to those pages and articles drive traffic. But one of the biggest mistakes that beginning article marketers make is they just write a few articles hoping to catch a wave of traffic. It doesn’t work that way.
Patience is the name of the game. Write articles. Lots of them. Kick them out in droves. Then distribute them wherever you can. Get them out there in as many places as you can as fast as you can. You won’t get a wave of traffic overnight. It takes time. Those articles sit in article directories forever. Imagine an article you wrote five years ago still sending traffic to your website. As more and more webmasters, bloggers, and newsletter publishers pick up your articles to publish them, the more likely you are to get new traffic. As that happens, your income possibilities go up.
Remember, two things: Patience, lots of articles. Time, lots of articles. Lots of articles over time, be patient.
By
allen on June 2nd, 2008
Posted in Article Directories, Article Marketing, Article Writing | 1 Comment »
We send a hearty welcome to Bill Platt as a guest columnist here on Article Content Provider’s article marketing blog. Bill made his first post yesterday and will continue to post on Sundays. Be sure to read Bill Platt’s insights into article marketing weekly right here on Article Content Provider.
Kudos to Caroline Melberg of Blue Chip Marketing Tips on an excellent blog post regarding article directories. Want to know which one is best? Check out Blue Chip Marketing Tips.
Real Estate Marketing U recommends ghostwriters for your content and, of course, we like that idea!
And don’t forget, when it comes to marketing your articles, article directories are the best resource.
Once again, we welcome Bill Platt and hope you will too.
By
allen on May 7th, 2008
Posted in Article Directories, Article Marketing, Article Writing, author resource box | No Comments »
On Blog Content Provider earlier today we posted about the purpose of blog marketing. Every now and then we like to revisit this issue because there are still business owners online who think article marketing is about selling and that’ s not really what it’s all about.
Article marketing is about pre-selling.
What I mean by that is this: When you write and distribute articles to article directories online, don’t simply send out a marketing message about your company. People online are looking for useful information. So give it to them. Tell them something interesting that they didn’t know before. Then, at the end, in your author bio box, tell them why they should visit your website and give them the link. Let your website do the selling.
In a word, article marketing’s purpose is to drive traffic to your website. But that’s not the only thing it does either. You can also use article marketing to build inbound links. But those links are not from the article directories.
The big picture is that people in your industry who publish newsletters and website will use your articles if they like them. When they do, they will give you back links to your website and you’ll get visitors from their websites and newsletters. If you look at it from that perspective, article marketing serves a much bigger purpose than what most small business owners imagine.
Learn more about article marketing
and driving traffic to your website.
