One Day Blog Silence

Do You Know Your Blog Community?

After about a week of downtime with the computer, it seemed like a good time to get about the business of finding some more blogs to read and comment on. But then it got late this evening.

So a quick search turned up this site to hurriedly rush over to:

http://www.blogopreneur.com/2007/04/28/10-surefire-ways-to-increase-your-blog-traffic/

Which then caused a natural progression over to this site:

http://lorelle.wordpress.com/

Where it was suggested that a bloggers' day of silence was in order tomorrow on April 30 for the 33 dead at Virginia Tech and could be read about here:

http://www.inspirationbit.com/can-silence-say-more-than-a-thousand-words/

Which will explain it all to you and send you to get the proper displays to participate here:

http://www.onedayblogsilence.com/OneDayBlogSilence.com.html

This Blog will observe silence tomorrow for this occasion.

Which once again brings home the importance of "cruising" the other blogs just to see what is going on in your niche community. And if you have something useful to comment, do so. But no Spam.

Some Major Mistakes in Article Marketing

Right from the start in Article Marketing one needs to learn the proper use of their main tool, the Article.

You may realize that most marketers agree on using a researched Keyword. When it comes to keyword density in your article the so called experts seem to vary a little on their advice, but let's go with 3 percent for now. That's workable.

Did you know that placing it in the correct areas has a lot to do with it's effectiveness? Here's a pretty good rule of thumb, which is true for a single word or a keyword phrase. Place it:

Once in the Title.
Once in the Article Body.
Once in the Bio or what some call the Resource Box.

As for the "once in the article body" it can be a good idea to use it in the first sentence, or the first paragraph at least. Take a look up top at this one that you are reading now. How would it look in the search engine results?

The article listed by title with the usual first few words or sentences would have "Article Marketing" twice. And "Article" 3 times, with the title and first sentence shown in the listing.

However, telling about it here as was just done has raised the percentage and could almost seem a little spammy. Note also the Keyword "keyword" has worked itself in there nicely. Both of these can or could be adjusted to suit you with a little work.

So one would need to plan ahead just a little bit as it will be occurring again in the resource box here at the end. If you set the "Anchor Text" in your link to your website to read as "Article Marketing" instead of the website name. Which is another useful tactic.

Did you ever hear that ignorance of the law is no excuse? And where are these mistakes mentioned in the title? These mistakes are not being aware of what you have just learned by reading this. Many new to this form of traffic generation are making them. Good hunting.

Better Headlines Improve Article Marketing

Better than what? Better than most. As the idea is to get the reader to read your article out of all of those that are presented. No matter if it's on a search result or at an article directory. It has to stand out and grab them.


One effective way to do this is to point out a problem. If they have it then they will read on to find the solution. And this helps to "pre-qualify" them as potential customers. You could flip this around and state a solution such as "Learn to Write Killer Headlines".


Some people like to use the "List Article" and so will often use the "How To..." Headline. However many there are in the list becomes "How To Yada Yada (x) different Ways". Or "(x) Different Ways How To Yada Yada".


And sometimes you can even make your guarantee in the Headline instead of down at the bottom. Such as on a Sales Page. "This Is Guaranteed To Improve Your Article Marketing by Up To 300% or Full Refund!"


It is a good idea to join and or read the Forums in your niche and also look around on the internet to see who's doing what. Today looking for Headline advice turned up: "allwebcontent.com."

To Submit Your Article or Not?

That is indeed the question. It would seem odd to ask such a thing on a blog about Article Marketing, but then there may be more than one way to go about it.

Cruising around on a forum or two brought up some interesting points. Such as "it's a waste of time and you're better off to put it on your site".

But even better advise might be "put it on your site and then social bookmark it". If it is any good this would be great. Traffic and no duplicate content worries.

In addition, there is none of the chance of a new webmaster or ezine publisher leaving off your link out of ignorance of how to include it. Or otherwise leaving it off.

All of your "Bio's" linked to one site looks "SPAMMY". That could be worked around any number of ways. A friend or two with a site of their own and point at each others with your "bio".

Perhaps the biggest lesson out of all of this is to join the forums.

Should You Have An Article Marketing Blog?

The answer is almost certainly yes. And bear in mind that it can be named and aimed at almost any niche market. Consider some of the positive aspects of the idea and what you can do with it.

To start with there is no outlay for you, at least as far as money goes. There are places to get a blog all over the Internet without the outlay of funds. You can actually take your pick from a large selection.

You can have it set up fast. In an hour or less. This is days faster than a normal website.

You avoid needing a web host or a domain name. This saves you both time and money right from the start.

You can put Adsense on it right away if you have an account and if you don't it is one of the fastest and easiest ways to get one. So instead of putting out money you might actually bring some in right from the start.

You can put links on it to your other sites if you have any. If not maybe you can trade links with others in the same niche. After all, an article marketing blog can cover a lot of ground.

You can sell affiliate products from it. Just do an article or a review on the subject matter of the affiliate and point a link to your sales page.

You can also put up a sign up form for your newsletter or ezine. If you don't already have one this may be the time and place to start.

So all in all it is pretty hard to argue with the idea of getting yourself a blog, if it's on article marketing or not. It just seems to make so much good sense when you take a look at it.

Mass or Selective Article Submission?

That is indeed a good question. And the answer is it depends on what you are trying to accomplish with your Article Marketing.

Mass submittal will get you a lot of backlinks to wherever you are pointing them in your resource box.

BUT: The backlinks can and will come from many places that you have no control over.

Such as unrelated websites, and or websites with zero Page Rank.
Traffic is traffic maybe but the afore mentioned will only serve to lower the page rank of your site if that is in the resource box.

In this case it is better to use selective submittal to 6 or 8 high Page Rank directories. You can even rewrite the articles enough to make them unique as well as alter the titles.

What about affiliate sales? Mass submit. You don't need Page Rank really. Although it wouldn't hurt in the long run.

A good way to go about this is to put up a small inexpensive website just for this one product. Put (5) or so articles on it related to the affiliate product. Point your resource or "bio" box links at this website. Where your affiliate product is featured.

This of course would hold true of your autoresponder opt-in page for list building. With a lot of articles out there does it really need to worry about Page Rank or duplicate content? They see and read your article and for more information or a freebie they come to the opt-in page to subscribe.

And as for duplicate content don't let the "Guru Crud" scare you into buying their product. Unless you put the same thing on the same website it really isn't that big an issue; yet. But try to be original as a standing habit. The search engines are getting smarter all the time.

Do You Need a Submission Service?

With the increasing number of article directories popping up everywhere, it is becoming quite a difficult task to know which of them to use. To the best effect that is.

This brings to mind the idea that as soon as your article marketing pays off enough to justify it an article submission service would be in order.

However some people can do quite well without the use of one because they have taken the time to select the directories that they use.

Selected not just by page rank but also by the quality of the articles there. And if there are enough of them relevant to the site they are article marketing. This draws in readers looking for their work.

With all of the advantages of article marketing it is sometimes amazing to the newcomer just how much effect it can produce economically.

So the whole idea of write, write, write is true, but write one submit to 10, write another submit to 10 and so on just may be the better bet. Like they always say; test, test, test.

As a side note: Two words used here in this article are a little bit "iffy" because they can sometimes trigger the spam filters. This means that Ezine publishers "in the know" may not want to use your article. The (2) are "best" and "amazing". Simply use similar words instead.

Your Article Writing Guide

Article Writing is a good way to promote yourself or any services that you might offer. By writing articles about the positive aspects of your product or service you help to bring awareness of them to your readers.

How Article Writing gets you traffic is not to hard to understand.

If you submit your article to directories and people come to read it they will see in your resource box the url to your site. Other webmasters may publish your
article to their site. Ezine publishers may use your article in their mail outs to their list. These all add up to more exposure for your site and a lot of backlinks to it. This can improve Page Rank.

This all assumes of course that your article writings produce quality good enough to be accepted into the article directories. Most are not too hard to get into, but a few can be a bit more difficult. Shop around and try them.

The following tips should help with your chances. Please follow in the order in which they are listed.

Write around a "good" keyword.

There are a number of free keyword tools on the web. If the keyword isn't being looked for then nobody is interested in the subject that you are article writing about. This will not result in many readers.

This may still cause your article to appear in the search engines for the keyword, but nobody is typing it in so it will not be seen. And other websites will be less than interested in using your article. The same for Ezines. So use a "good" keyword (one that has enough searches for it).

Use this good keyword in your title for much better exposure:

As in the last tip, if people are looking for it then they may find your article. It may show in the search engines when people are looking for it. Other websites may desire to use it. Ezine publishers will have more cause to want to use it.

Search for your title in quotes like this:

"Your Article Writing Guide" in Google before using it. If no results are returned then it probably is a good title that nobody else is using. So now before you even start your article writing you have a good title, with a good keyword in it. On a good subject of interest since it is written around the keyword.

About the Title:

We know to use the keyword; which could be a phrase such as "Article Writing". But it should be a unique and interesting title. One that draws the reader in, either with curiosity, or by offering some benefit to them.

Such as how to make them more money, make something easier for them, or solve some nagging problem of theirs. Such as not knowing how to write an article that will show more of the desired effect. Think of your readers point of view and "what's in it for me".

Using Bold or Italics:

These can be good for drawing the readers attention and helping to skim or just to focus in on, as well as helping with the search engines. Check with the article directory that you are using first to make sure they're allowed. The same with"Bullets", or numbered lists.

Using Links in your article:

Don't. Some article directories allow for some links in the article, if they are relevant to what the article is about. Such as a link to a similar article or a website for that subject. But most don't like it.

You can have one link in your "Bio", or "resource box" as it is called that leads to your site, blog, autoresponder, or whatever. Only a few directories allow you to put in a link straight to your affiliate site. Again, shop around.

If you intend to write and submit many articles to many directories this matter of links can quickly become a hassle. While you can make two, three, or several different "Bios" (there's another tip for you), it is really going to become a lot more work if you want to produce different versions of the same article.

Article Length:

Usually between 300 and 700 words according to most opinions around. The point is that if it's too short there just isn't enough "meat" in it, whereas if it is too long readers might be scared off from it.

Also, Ezine publishers may not want to use it if it takes up more than (1) page. Finally, each directory may have different higher and lower limits and so for mass submittal it is better to hit the common "mid-range" in length. This one is over-weight at 811 words before this sentence.

Another Look at an Article Marketing Article

1. Find An Affiliate Product

It must match your business. You wouldn't want to have an affiliate product for fishing or cat food (although those two might go together) on this website for Article Marketing. And also remember that with a blog or a website your link can point directly to the affiliate site when you write something. In addition to just putting up the supplied ad.

This is true with buying an Ad in an Ezine but did you know that there are also some article directories that allow you to link directly to the affiliate? Perhaps for the totally new to this it would never have occurred to them that you couldn't at all of them.

2. Write 2 articles a day and submit them all over the web.

The research and article writing itself does take a lot of time, or a little bit of time. It depends on who is doing it and what kind of tools they have. But in general the better; the longer. Having a unique title is not only so that people might have an interest in reading it, but so that it will show up in the search engines readily.

How you know if you have a unique title is to Google it with quote marks around it like this "A Look at an Article Marketing Article". The theory is that if it doesn't show up anywhere then nobody has used it.

But you're reading it right here right now. Try it and see that it doesn't show up here on April 12th, 2007. So maybe it really boils down to whoever gets it listed on the search engines first has it. The point is if it is searched for will they come to your article.

How and where to submit is just by looking at a few directories, finding maybe 6 or 7 that you like. And then develop a system for doing all of your submitting assembly line fashion in one sitting for an hour or two. More likely only about 20 minutes. Many directories have certain things in common, but they also each have their own little quirks so you have to read the rules before using them.

3. Include your Resource Box.

Basically it should be as big as they will let you. Four to six lines is the usual. Say something true and positive about yourself. And one (1) link only seems to be becoming the trend. The links will be covered another time. To get them to follow your links, just leave something out of the article, such as the way links weren't covered here but will be at ...

A Look at an Article Marketing Article

Here is a summary of a recently viewed article that was supposed to tell you all about how to article market broken down into the three subheadings that were used.

Below each heading you will find only some of what could have been included in the article but wasn't offered.

1. Find an affiliate product

Pick an affiliate product that you like or at least know something about the subject that it deals with. Pick a product that matches your present business situation such as blog, website, newsletter, etc. After all you intend to write about subjects related to this product and then hope to send the readers somewhere of your choosing.

2. Write 2 articles a day and submit them all over the web.

This can take a certain amount of research. And time. Usually the better the research and article the more time. Have a unique Title. How do you know if you do?

How and where to submit. Submission of your articles can also take a lot of time unless you have automation for it. All of the research, writing, and submitting requires a lot of time or resources.

3. Include your resource box.

How big should it be? How many lines? What is the correct number of links to include? Along with links straight to the affiliate sight or not, what type of links, and the different kinds of links there are. What and how much to say about yourself. What to say to bring them to follow your link or links.

Clearly these are issues that need to be addressed before you can hope to "Article Market" successfully. One need spend some time searching around on the internet for some good and reliable sources of information before starting.

Which is what brings them to read Your Article.

Does Your Article Marketing Suffer From This?

Many would be article marketers shoot themselves in the foot by making too many common mistakes. Are you doing some or all of these and then wondering what is going wrong or why it isn't working?

Preparation: Do you know who your target market is? This is very important. It is doubtful that you would be here still reading this article if it was not about article marketing but instead wandered off of the topic to something else. You would just click away.

Usefulness: Did you write your article to be useful to the reader, or yourself? Again, if the reader is not finding useful information they will just click away. After all, that is what they came to your article for.

Keyword use: Assume that you know who your target audience is. Now you should have a list of keywords or a good idea of the keywords that you want to use. Are they in your article enough or too much? Are they in the Title or not?

Then general consensus seems to be that about 3% is the magic number. About is the term used because some say as high as 5 to 7 percent. Less is more. Go with 3. "Article" was 2.96 percent before this sentence.

Researching With Ease

When writing your articles it may be necessary to do some research about the topic if you are not already knowledgeable enough about it. One of the best places to do that research is an Article Directory.

There you can search by topic various categories to find useful information. This will greatly assist in your article marketing. You will be able to produce articles that have something to offer to the reader, the directory, and ezine publishers. That's the name of the game.

If it does not serve the reader well, why would the directory want it? And even if the directory went ahead and posted it would anybody read it? Or would any ezines publish it? Would it serve your purpose? Regardless if that is traffic to your blog, website or otherwise.

But sometimes what is more useful because it is more in time with what is "buzzing" right now is to read other blogs and visit forums. There you can get all manner of ideas and information. Then if you have to you can do some other kind of research.

However you go about it, it's a good idea to have your topic well thought ought and researched before you try to sit down and write. Just reading the articles by other people will help.

The List Article

One of the easiest and therefore most popular types of articles to write is the List Article. All that you really have to do is pick a keyword for the subject and decide what you would like to list about it.

Such as "Cats", and "things they like to ...". Then number them. An example article might be "The 5 ways Cats like to bother their owners". Then use a numbered or bulleted list to show them. Like this.

• Run around the house
• Wake you in the middle of the night
• Ignore you
• Refuse whatever you pick to feed them
• Claw the furniture

That is if the directories that you submit to will allow numbered or bulleted lists. They aren't really an absolute must. Of course you would still need to use the basics of using an introduction and a conclusion for your article now that you have the title. That's it!