All Entries in the "Article Directories" Category

Does Google Have A Duplicate Content Penalty?

There is still some confusion about Google’s duplicate content penalty. The truth is there is no such penalty. Google’s policy states that it will index the first instance of specific content on the web, but not the same content at multiple websites. What that means is if you submit your article to 100 article directories then Google will pick one of those directories as the original content location and not index all 99 instances of the same article.

Google says it will index the first publication of the same content, but that isn’t exactly accurate either. If you submit your article to 100 directories on the same day at the same time through a mass submission process then Google may make a good faith effort to find the original, or first published, article but its robot will not be able to discern small time nuances in the submittal process. It is likely that Google will give favor to the article directories that it considers higher authority websites, but that’s just my opinion. Still, Google’s policy is to index one instance of a particular content and to discount all the others. That’s different than imposing a penalty.

Even then, if that article is held in 100 different directories, you stand a much better chance of having it picked up by other publishers than you do if you list it in only one directory. Plus, other search engines may list each article that it finds online regardless of whether or not it exists on a separate website so submitting your articles to multiple directories is always a wise choice.

5 Niche Article Directories For The Committed Article Marketer

Anyone who has done any marketing at all knows that targeted marketing achieves the best results. If you do article marketing then you may have been led to believe that all the article directories are general directories, but it’s not true. Here are 5 niche article directories that you can use if you fit into one of these niches.

• Real Estate – The Real Estate Article Directory (http://realestatearticledirectory.com/) is a great place to submit your articles related to real estate and related topics.
• Travel – Articles Abroad (http://articlesabroad.com/articles/) serves the travel industry very well. If you have articles related to travel, world languages, real estate, or the environment then this is the place to submit them.
• Arts & Crafts – If you’re a crafter or an artisan and you write articles about your craft the Art & Craft Article Directory (http://www.artsandcraftsnet.ca/articledirectory/) is the place to be.
• Internet Marketing – Do you do any Internet marketing? Any at all? If you are involved in pay-per-click advertising, blogging, article marketing, AdSense publishing, domaining, link building, podcasting, or any of various other Internet marketing categories then the Internet Marketing Article Directory (http://www.internet-article-directory.com/) is the perfect place to publish your articles.
• Computers – The topic of computers is a broad category, but it encompasses a very important niche. The Computer Article Directory (http://www.computerarticledirectory.com/) fills that niche very well. If your expertise has anything to do with Internet security, computer business opportunities, hardware or software issues, operating systems, search engines, web browsers, or any of various other categories related to computers then this is your article directory.

Do you know of any other niche article directories? Which ones do you use?

Article Marketing Mistakes You Don’t Want To Make

Here’s a great article on article marketing from an article marketing pro. You’ll do well to follow this advice.

7 Most Common Article Marketing Mistakes Made by New Marketers

By: Gen Wright

Although article marketing is one of the easiest traffic generation method to understand and implement, it can also be a total time waster if done incorrectly. That is because article directories will be rejecting the articles, and time that was spent writing and submitting the articles would have been wasted. Here are some of the most common mistakes that I have come across as a practictioner of article marketing.

One, the article title is too general. This is the first thing that the readers will see, and if they cannot determine if the article has exactly what they want to read, they will not click on the link and read the article. Besides, it is getting harder and harder to rank for general terms. So it’s definitely better to have something more specific in the article title. For example, instead of saying “Search engine optimization services”, choose something like “5 unique search engine optimization tips for new and advanced marketers.” The second title certainly sounds more appealing and communicates directly with new and advanced Internet marketers.

Second, the article title contains keywords that are too common. This is somewhat similar to the first mistake above, except that although the title has more specific details, it’s still too common. One such example is “Tips for Internet Marketing”. There is nothing wrong with such a title, except that these titles would have been chosen by several hundreds of article marketers already. And most article directories are setup to accept only unique article titles. So the article will most likely be rejected during submission.

Third, the article summary is too short. Some article marketers submit articles with summaries that are less than a hundred characters. A few established directories reject summaries that are less than a hundred characters. So it is a good idea to write at least three or four sentences for the article summary.

Fourth, the article summary is the first sentence of the article. This is the wrong thing to do as well. The summary should not be the first sentence of the article. Instead, it should capture the essence or the most interesting parts of the article to catch more eyeballs and entice the reader to finish reading the entire article.

Fifth, the article body contains too much self promotional material. Self promotional material means blatantly promoting the author’s own services, or including the URLs in the article body. For instance, the author writes about the features of his products and services without additional useful information. To avoid this mistake, try writing from a third party point of view. Write as if you are the reporter, and provide some useful information. Also avoid including URLs in the article body.

Sixth, more than two links are included in the article resource box. Most article marketers are not aware that a handful of established directories accept a maximum of two links only. So their articles will be declined outright. To get around this, rotate the resource boxes during submission, but all the time keeping the maximum number of links to two.

Seventh, the links do not contain anchor keywords. Part of the benefit of article marketing is that you will get better search engine rankings from your efforts. But if the wrong anchor texts are used in the links, your rankings will not improve. So instead of using a direct URL in your link, try to use texts that describe your products or services in the links.

If you can avoid the seven mistakes mentioned above, you will see tremendous success in your campaigns.

Article Source: http://www.articlecontentprovider.com/articlesubmit

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Article Directories: What Makes A Good One?

How do you know which article directories to submit your website to? Believe me, it’s not easy. I’d be real careful about submitting to every directory out there. Some are better than others. But there is one criteria that is often cited about article directories that I would caution you against in using as a selection criteria. That criteria is PageRank. Don’t use it.

PageRank can be deceiving. Just because a web domain has a high PageRank doesn’t mean it’s a good article directory. Maybe it has a high PageRank because it was another type of website for 10 years and just recently converted into an article directory. If that’s the case then it needs to prove itself as an article directory.

A better thing to look at is traffic. How much traffic does that article directory get? You can find out by going to Alexa.com and checking the traffic stats. This isn’t a perfect tool, but Alexa can give you an idea about traffic. Look at the upward and downward trend over the last 3 months. Then look at the raw traffic numbers. If the traffic is low and the downward trend is going down then it’s not a good site. If the traffic number is high and the trend is upward then that’s a good sign.

Another thing you can do is go to Google and type in site:http://www.nameofarticledirectory.com. Google will tell you how many pages of that article directory have been indexed. If the number is low then the directory probably has website crawl issues. If the number is high then it’s a good directory.

Also take a look at the cache option in your Google toolbar (you do have the Google toolbar, don’t you?). How long ago was the site cached? If it’s been too long then it isn’t getting updated very often.

Keep in mind that Google no longer passes link juice from article directories. That’s not to say that it couldn’t. Google often overlooks its own policies. But don’t count on links from article directories. You are submitting articles for traffic. It’s nice if that traffic comes from the article directory, but it doesn’t to. You want other publishers to use your articles. The traffic and links from those publisher websites are what you really want the article directory to do for you. If you find your articles getting published then you’ve found a good article directory.

The New Article Marketing

Is the new article marketing any better than the old article marketing?

First, let’s define what old article marketing is. I think Carl Ocab does a pretty good job on that definition, but I’ll rehash it. You write a search engine optimized article and send it out to several hundred article directories hoping to get back links. The problem: The search engines aren’t valuing all those duplicated links as much any more. Do they still have value? Yes, but the value isn’t what it used to be. This is still a valid form of article marketing, but you shouldn’t rely on it entirely.

The new article marketing is where you write a unique article to send directly to a blogger in your niche. The value to the blogger is that he gets unique content for his blog. You get a link back to your website and some additional traffic. But that’s all you do. You search and find the best place to publish your article and you send that article that publication only. You send another article somewhere else.

I like Carl Ocab’s idea. Evidently, someone else liked it too because it was blogged about today at Search Engine Optimization Journal. Personally, I think the idea has merit and I’d encourage you to pursue the new article marketing with a passion.