Tracking Your Articles Properly

Writing articles related to your business is a great way to build your link popularity and also to provide more content for your site and other sites. Not too mention it's always nice when someone finds your site and uses it within their newsletter.

The only problem is, what if people dont tell you that they were using your articles??? How would you know who to reward?

I say reward because of another article I wrote, "reward those who publish your articles". It briefly outlines how to boost your articles popularity by boosting the other sites it's listed on.

Let's say for now, you just want to track your articles properly.

#1 Creating appropriate forlders within your "favorites". Every browser allows you to create a folder in order to hold your favorite web sites. Organizing your favorites folder is key when you plan to market your business 24/7. In this case, we'll create a new folder called "Articles Listed".

Within that folder, you'll want to start creating other "sub" categories for EACH INDIVIDUAL ARTILCE that you market.

For instance, let's say you have about 10 articles that you always promote, you'll want to add 10 folders within your new "Articles Listed folder". Make sure to give them a short but recognizable name that you would be able to distinguish which article it is for.

Ex. (I will use 3 of my title's)

<li>Tracking your articles properly (Folder: Tracking Articles)

<li>Writing Articles To Boost Your Traffic (Folder: Writing Articles)

<li>Reward Those Who Publish Your Articles (Folder: Reward Publishers)

#2 Always keep the same headline for your article: I've visited many sites who consistently change the headline of the article simply to make it seem like a different article. Don't be shy, I'm sure we've all thought about it, infact, I am also guilty.

Starting now, let's all keep the same headline...

The reason for keeping the same headline is for 1 keeping a strong consistency with your marketing and 2 making it easyer to find your articles online.

#3 - Finding All Of Your Articles: Now let's find them for you... (Hoping that you already created your folders within your favories menu?)

I preffer using Google's Toolbar for this but it is not required. Let's all go to: www.google.com and start looking.

Why google? Simply the best...

Take your 1st article and cut and paste the EXACT title within the google search. Now add "" at the beginning and the end of your title

Adding "" at the beginning and the end will narrow your search to exactly what's in between.

For ex. "Tracking Your Articles Properly" would give me better results than if I were to search: tracking your articles properly. Actually I do recommend you try both methods just in case.

Now once you have found a site that has listed your article, add the exact page your article is listed within the proper folder you created within your "favorites menu".

Once you have completed this task for all of your articles, it will be very easy to keep up with your new articles. Another thing is, if you plan to reward those sites, you now have them all seperated into proper categories.

I hope this helps you out even a little like it did for me...

FREE GIFT: Get my personal list of sites to add your articles! Simply send a "blank" e-mail to: article_listings@smartads.info and get my list right away.

About The Author

Martin Lemieux

Smartads - President
<a href="http://www.smartads.info" target="_new">http://www.smartads.info</a>

Affordable web site design & Web Site Marketing Tips
<a href="http://www.flyinggelatingames.com" target="_new">http://www.flyinggelatingames.com</a>

ASES - Affordable Search Engine Specialists

Please feel free to re-publish this article within your site. Everything MUST remain in tact!

GOING TO PUBLISH THIS ARTICLE?

Send us a note of the location so we can add a link on our site to where you have used the article! <a href="http://www.smartads.info/contact" target="_new">http://www.smartads.info/contact</a>

6 Best Places to Submit Your Articles

You know that writing articles is the best free way to promote your business and gain credibility. You understand the importance of articles containing actual information and not being just long sales letters.

Do you know the absolute best places to submit all of those wonderful articles you have written?

Here is your list of the top 6 places to submit your articles:

1. Idea Marketers

With an Alexa ranking of 13,015, this site is one that you definitely don't want to miss submitting to. You have to sign up for a free account. Instantly accepts your article. <a href="http://www.ideamarketers.com" target="_new">http://www.ideamarketers.com</a>

2. Go Articles

This one has an Alexa ranking of 17,504. You have to sign up for a free account. This site is part of the Jayde Network. Instantly accepts your article. <a href="http://www.goarticles.com" target="_new">http://www.goarticles.com</a>

3. Article City

Article City has an Alexa ranking of 20,024. No account is required. <a href="http://www.articlecity.com" target="_new">http://www.articlecity.com</a>

4. Article Announce

This group has 2,712 subscribers (June 2004). Provides content to hundreds of newsletters, magazines, and websites. <a href="http://groups.yahoo.com/group/article_announce/" target="_new">http://groups.yahoo.com/group/article_announce/</a>

5. Free Content

This group has 1,557 subscribers (June 2004). Hosted by <a href="http://Website101.com" target="_new">Website101.com</a>. <a href="http://finance.groups.yahoo.com/group/Free-Content/" target="_new">http://finance.groups.yahoo.com/group/Free-Content/</a>

6. Publisher Network

This group has 686 subscribers (June 2004). Lets you swap articles with other newsletter publishers. <a href="http://groups.yahoo.com/group/publisher_network/" target="_new">http://groups.yahoo.com/group/publisher_network/</a>

By all means, submit your articles anywhere and everywhere it is appropriate. But there are certain websites that should always be included on your list. These places have a high number of visitors and/or subscribers.

Brandie King, Copyright 2004

About The Author

Brandie King is a partner in the new internet marketing site Killer Marketing Arsenal. She will show you where to market your business online. You can grab a free copy of "7 Free Traffic Generators for Maximum Traffic and Sales" when you subscribe to the newsletter. <a href="http://www.killermarketingarsenal.com" target="_new">http://www.killermarketingarsenal.com</a>

You are free to reprint this article in your ezine or ebook, or on your website, as long as the contents in the article and the resource box are not changed.

<a href="mailto:owner@articlesubmission.com">owner@articlesubmission.com</a>

Broaden Your Customer Base: Submit Articles!

If you are going to be writing articles to promote traffic to your website anyway, why not make them available to be used in other people's e-zines? This is a great way to have your work spread around the Internet to reach new customers. Of course my work can be found in my own free e-zine, but that really limits the people that read it. I advise possibly swapping articles and/or ads with another e-zine to double your visibility to subscribers. This process can be studied in greater detail by visiting http://www.e-zinez.com.

Another way to get your work published is to submit it to http://EzineNewsWire.com or http:www.ezinearticles.com. Here publishers can find your article to use in their e-zines. In return for using your work, subscribers will read your bio and have access to your web address which appears at the bottom of all your articles. The outcome of this new publicity will be more traffic to your site, which equals more business, would doesn't like the sound of that?

There are also numerous places that will take free classified ads, or you can pay for ads in selected publications. Make a list of magazines and other publications that make sense for your business in order to broaden your audience. Traditional print and the media are also a great way to get noticed. The key to getting your articles seen is to have them spread virtually everywhere and anywhere that you possibly can. Search engines will give a long list of websites that will publish your article for free. Usually all it takes is a minute to register and then you can submit all night long. This is time consuming but will inevitably help get you more hits on major search engines. Type in your name and found out.

Tom Antion provides entertaining speeches and educational seminars. He is the ultimate entrepreneur, having owned many businesses BEFORE graduating college. Tom is the author of the best selling presentation skills book "Wake 'em Up Business Presentations" and "Click: The Ultimate Guide to Electronic Marketing." It is important to Tom that his knowledge be not only absorbed, but enjoyed. This is why he delivers his speeches laced with great humor and hysterical jokes. Tom has addressed more than 87 different industries and is thoroughly committed to his client's needs.

<a target="_new" href="http://www.antion.com">http://www.antion.com</a>

Why Link Exchanges are Dead-and What the New Move in Free Traffic Is

It's no secret-link exchanges are dying a painful death. And why you ask? Since March 2005 the new Google algorythm has become very very picky about the quality, quantity and frequency of incoming links to your website. It now considers reciprocal linking to be, in fashion terms; OUT!

So what can you do to get legitimate incoming links to your website to maintain your traffic? The new wave in link building is content exchanges. It is fairly simple, just submit your written articles to article directories and webmasters looking for content.

You've probably heard of "writing articles" for free traffic before, so why is it called the "new wave" in free traffic? Glad you asked, let me elaborate. A couple of years ago an internet marketing Guru named Jim Edwards wrote an ebook titled "Turn Words in to Traffic". In this ebook Jim explained how to write and distribute articles as the ideal way to get free incoming links to your website.

Many big (and little) name webmasters jumped on the band wagon and started to implement Jim's techniques and see the results. But after a time, even though the concept and results reamined the same, many webmasters abandoned writing and distributing articles for two reasons.

First, some people just can't or hate to write. And second, it is very tedious and time consuming to go around to the 40+ article and ezine content banks and manually submit your articles to each site each time you write an article.

So why the comeback? Many webmasters who previously didn't want to write articles have discovered either HOW to write articles, or they've hired out their article writing at about $10.00 per article to ghost writers at sites like elance.com. They recognized the power of distributing articles and simply out sourced it.

But the problem remains that it is still tedious to submit each article to every article bank every time you write a new one. This new move back to writing articles is fueled by the same thing that webmasters are using to have their content written; outsourcing. People simply pay someone else to do this tedious work.

Companies like submityourarticle.com manually do the submitting for you, though at a price (and it's not cheap). But if the traffic is coming in and you are capitalizing on that traffic it's an investment worth making.

However, for those out there who don't want to pay a per article fee, an associate of mine, Jason Potash has been working on a solution to the problem. A solution that is very soon to be released. Subscribers to my newsletter will get the latest, and if you aren't keeping up with this ground breaking new trend you need to spend some time on the internet marketing message boards to get the latest news.

I don't have all the details yet, Jason is keeping a little hush hush about it. But in a few weeks you'll probably hear about his new tool.

The conclusion, article writing has never been totally dead, but the wave is coming back with a host of new tools and services to make the process easier for webmasters to capitolize on. Get in the groove, dust off the typewriter and start benefitting from free article writing traffic.

Leah J. Bradshaw is the author of the <a target="_new" href="http://www.thefreetrafficreport.com">Free Targeted Traffic Report</a>; "Jumpstart Your Traffic in as Little as 10 Days". She also authors a <a target="_new" href="http://www.wahm-blog.blogspot.com/">Moms Free Traffic Blog</a> to help work at home moms get free traffic.

How to Be An Expert In Your Field

One of the most tried and true methods of self-promotion is writing and submitting articles in your field of expertise. If you're having trouble attracting new clients or visitors to your site then start with submitting expert articles to various websites and publications. It's fairly simple and best of all it's an affordable way to promote your business.

The first step you should want to take is to investigate how others have accomplished this task. There are thousands of web sites available for your research. Some of which have companion print newsletters that may also publish your article. You can start with your favorite search engine such as <a target="_new" href="http://google.com/">http://google.com</a> or try <a target="_new" href="http://ezinesearch.com/">http://ezinesearch.com</a> to learn more about submitting your article.

Once you've got a general idea of the types of articles that may spark the interest of your potential customer, you must start writing your own. Make sure your article helps your prospects solve a problem. It should be easy to follow and it goes without saying it should be free of spelling and grammatical errors.

There are many ways you can approach writing expert articles. After all, you did take some time looking at some well-written ones before so you know how it's done. Right? In other words, there isn't any one way to write your article but you can adhere to the following format until you get your bearings.

Try starting with a three-part article that contains around 300 - 500 words. This is simple and easy way to begin and your readers will enjoy fast solutions to their problems. In the first part of your article, you should clearly state an issue or concern of your readers. You should also state how this unresolved issue would negatively affect their lives, businesses, or relationships etc. You can complete this section within one paragraph to two paragraphs.

The second part of your article should include one to five solutions to the stated problem. You can offer advice, references to helpful websites, or a step-by-step approach. Use your imagination to offer the best solution. More often than not there will be several effective ways to solve your readers' problem. It's important to note that if there are links within your article that you check with your targeted publications to see what rules they have in regards to web addresses, particularly e-zine sites. They may have restrictions against including affiliate links or more than a certain number of links within one article.

Finally, finish your article with a basic overview of what you've written. Also, state how your proposed solutions will positively help your readers. Be sure to include a byline at the end of your article, which should include your name, copyright information, and your web or e-mail address.

After you've completed your article, submit it to various e-zine or publications of your choice. By establishing yourself in your respective industry, you build a rapport with potential customers and visitors.

Copyright ? 2005 Rhonda Winn - All Rights Reserved. Rhonda Winn has been helping small business owners since 2000. She is the author of the popular eBook, "<a href="http://www.buybiztools.com/product_info.php?products_id=4" target="_blank">How to Live Your Dreams and Achieve Unlimited Wealth in Small Business</a>" Receive the first chapter free, when you join her bi-monthly newsletter today: <a href="http://smallbizstartupkit.com/" target="_blank">SmallBizStartupKit.com</a>. Her site contains dozens of free downloads, articles, forums, resources, journals, and more.

You are free to publish this article as long as the content remains unchanged and copyright notice and byline is not removed from article.

Every Writers Dilemma: How Do You Decide What to Write About?

The sources of inspiration are all around us, in the headlines of the daily newspaper, in conversations, and listening to what questions people are asking. But how do you find those little inspirations that cause the flood gates of creativity to open wide?

I asked this same question to my favorite writer's forum. So, how does a writer decide what they are going to write about? I needed to know what inspired them to write, and how they chose the topic.

Were my sources of inspiration any different from another's inspiration?

I discovered that the key is to be true to your heart and write about what interests you, discover your passion and you will you be able to write and succeed. Whether you are writing fiction or non-fiction those sources can vary, so let's break it down and examine some common methods for finding inspiration.

Ideas for that fiction you want to write.

For some writers the inspiration for that story can come from stimulating the creative thought processes, stirring the creative juices in a number of different ways. Here are a couple of methods, I like to use the latter one; events and dreams from my life, but I have tried the first method as well.

Examine a picture or photo

This used to be an old exercise that we used in school. Look at a picture and form a story about the scene that you see. For example, let's say the picture is of a log cabin in the woods surrounded by a thick forest. Immediately you begin to ask yourself questions, like, &quot;who's house is it?&quot;, &quot;why is it in the woods?&quot; Just a couple of questions and you are off and running, or typing rather.

Use events from your life, or dreams, in a story.

I use dreams, my own, as well as other people's, and life moments and events, twists of fate that you could never imagine, are the best because they are original. You can go along and make plans in your life but it never turns out exactly the way you plan it; there are events that take place that change the course of your path ever so slightly, or quite dramatically. If you can't think of any of your own twists, try reading a story in the newspaper or magazine, these are two great resources for tragedies and twists that you can use for your story.

In one of my own stories I used a case of synchronicity that actually happened, to add to the events in the story. There was the time when I needed a new desk for my office badly, and in addition I was thinking about moving out of my apartment when the lease expired; well, a month later when I was able to begin looking for a new home I came across the perfect house in the perfect neighborhood, and in the spare room there was an old wooden desk that was offered to me if I agreed to rent the house.

Seeking the Non-Fiction article Idea:

Read a headline; just read, read, and read.

Just the other day the newspaper was saying that there is going to be a jump in prices for coffee in the New Year. This news springs to mind many questions; How to fit the extra cost of coffee into my budget; Time to go cold-turkey? Maybe they will come out with a &quot;coffee-patch&quot; to gently wean us from the stuff. Maybe I should switch to Coca Cola? See where I am going here? All these questions get the mind stirring, cranking out ideas. Let's use the coffee idea again, how could this affect the coffee industry if consumers started cutting back on their favorite java? You decide that this is a great idea and are going to run with it. You contact some of the big coffee chains like Star Buck's, Tim Horton's, and Second Cup, and talk to the managers and buyers to see how the price increase is going to affect their business, how is it going to affect the consumer, etc. You Google and find out that there is actually a New York Coffee Exchange, and that there are two markets for coffee ? the cash market, and the futures market, that statistics from 1999 in the United States show that coffee drinkers spend on average $164.71 per year on coffee, and that in 2000, 54% of the adult population of the United States drinks coffee daily, and in addition, another 24% of the population drinks coffee occasionally. You can probably write a very interesting article about something as &quot;not so simple&quot; as coffee. What average person knows this much about the cup of coffee that they have come to depend on every day? I certainly didn't.

Listen to what other people are asking; perhaps the answer they are looking for can be the topic of your next article.

Here is where those on-line forums can help you out; if someone can't find the answer to a question, perhaps finding the answer is the article that you are looking for? Or, turn it around; maybe you have a question that you can't seem to find the answer to ? research it and write an article so that it assists others who may be asking the same question.

What are your interests? Cats, dogs, fish? Maybe you are passionate for muffins but you are sensitive to wheat, or you know someone who is sensitive to wheat. What are the alternatives to wheat? Who supplies these products?

Maybe your cat has a problem with hairballs and you have tried all the remedies on the store shelf, but she is still coughing up hairballs all over your new carpet, and then you try a home remedy that works ? ta da! A new article! Maybe two new articles if you can find a great new carpet cleaner that removes those pet stains in your new carpet!

My mom keeps asking me how long tropical fish live. She has a Gourami that has lived for at least 2 years now and she is curious about the life span of her favorite fish but can't seem to find the answer in any book she has purchased. Is someone asking you for an answer that they can't find anywhere?

Ideas for articles and stories are everywhere! Life is full of problems and adventures, suspense and romance, it is all around us. Probably the most important advice that I give you is to just be AWARE; be alert to what is going on around you and in you, and write from the heart.

Cindy DeJager owns Rosetta Stone Press. She lives in Calgary, Alberta, Canada. She enjoys reading books (of almost any genre) and her passion is writing.

Rosetta Stone Press

Getting Your Foot in the Door (Or How I Finally Got Published)

This has to be the number one thing that most beginning writers struggle with ? getting that first article, story, or book published. Before you start thinking that it's just too much work, or you just don't know the right people, let me fill you in on how easy it can be. While my personal experience won't work or apply for everyone, it is a good guide for getting your foot in the door as a published writer.

Step One: Be Passionate About Something!

What got me started was passion! I had something that I had a lot of experience with and was very passionate about. Being in the computer industry, I was thriving on anything having to do with computers. But, I was also passionate about flying airplanes. Thus, I was very excited about Microsoft's Flight Simulator.

Now, did you notice the key words with my situation? They are &quot;experience&quot;, &quot;passionate&quot;, and &quot;excited&quot;. The best writers are those who are passionate about the topic that they're writing about. What are you excited about? What do you have a lot of experience with? What are you passionate about? If you can answer those questions then you know what topics you can write about.

Step Two: Find Something To Write About

Since I was spending a significant amount of time with the Flight Simulator product, and I had a background in real-world aviation, I soon discovered that it was possible to use the maps and charts for real flight, and use them for navigation in the Flight Simulator world. I was sure that many other Flight Simulator fans knew this as well. But, did real-world pilots know this? Could real pilots gain further instruction and sharpen their navigation skills with Microsoft's Flight Simulator? Right away I knew that I had a potential article idea and a potential market ? Aviation Magazines!

When you are passionate about something, you tend to come across ideas and concepts that others may not have thought of before. Maybe you're a mother with 5 kids at home, and you come to the realization that you always seem to get them all fed, cleaned, and in bed at the end of the day. How did you do it? What tricks have you picked up that other mothers might want to know? Or maybe you just want to share your emotional struggle of how to deal with such a large family? I'm sure there are many moms out there who would love to read about it.

Step Three: Write!

I now had my article idea ? the world of Flight Simulator through the eyes of a real-world pilot. While I was still excited about the article, I sat down and wrote out what topics I wanted to cover. I wanted to start out with a flying situation that sounded like I was really flying and was getting into some bad weather. Then when the flying got really tough, I would pause the simulator, and then introduce how the product helped to sharpen my navigation and situational awareness skills. Once my theme was in place, and my main topics were decided upon, I started writing. When I was done, I had a nice 1300 word article ready for submission.

This is where most hopeful writers stall out! They convince themselves that no one would really be interested in hearing what they had to say. They just can't seem to find the time to sit down and write. Or, they sit at the computer but can't seem to come up with the right words. Ah, good old writers block! Many a book and article have been written about how to get started. What worked for me was just forcing myself to start writing. I would sit at the computer until I finally had something. This can take 5 minutes, or it can take an hour or more. The point is ? don't get up until you've written something. You find that once you get started, it's hard to stop. And after you've done it a few times, you'll discover that it gets easier to just start writing as soon as you sit down.

Step Four: Target Your Market and Get the Guidelines

Now that I had my article written, I was ready to start submitting. I went to the newsstand and purchased 5 different magazines about aviation and flying. I then looked for the column in each magazine that said who to contact for article submissions and guidelines. I knew that the top of the market magazine in the industry was &quot;Flying Magazine&quot;, so that's the one I wanted to target first. I contacted them and got a copy of their writer's guidelines. I soon discovered that they wanted double spaced type, in a text document format, and that it was to be submitted in printed format with a SASE (Self Addressed Stamped Envelope), for sending it back if they didn't want it. I also took an extra step and contacted Microsoft to see if I could get some screen shots on slides, to include with the article. Within a week, I had everything ready to go.

Find out who the big players are in the publishing industry for the market that you are targeting. Read their publications. Get a feel for the type of articles they publish and get a copy of their Writer's Guidelines. Format your article (story, etc.) to meet the required guidelines and be sure to prepare the SASE. Be sure that you include a nice cover letter with your article, addressed to the Editor. Introduce yourself and use a short paragraph to highlight what your article is about. Don't write any more than 2 or 3 paragraphs in your cover letter. Editors get tones of submissions and they like them short and to the point. Now you're ready to submit.

Step Five: Submit, Submit, Submit!

I sent my article off and then waited, and waited, and waited. After about 2 weeks I received my SASE back, with my article inside, and a very nice rejection letter stating that the article was not within the scope of their required topics. My heart sank! My first rejection letter. (Actually, I wish I still had it so I could show it around.) But, I didn't let this get the best of me. I made a new Cover Letter, a new SASE, and sent the article off to the next magazine on my list ? Plane and Pilot Magazine.

You will receive rejection letters! That's just the way it works. But don't take it personally. All editors are people (contrary to popular belief by some writers). They have likes, dislikes, mood swings, and deadline pressures. If you get the dreaded rejection letter then just select the next publisher on your list and try again.

Step Six: The Contract and the Big Wait

Several weeks after I submitted my article to Plane and Pilot Magazine, the editor called me to inform me that they were interested in the article and that they needed to get a contract to me. We exchanged fax numbers and before the end of the day, I had an accepted article. And payment would be sent out when the magazine went on the stands. Now came the big wait. Then around six weeks later I received my check. I made over $350 for my published article! This was it! I was now a published writer. My foot was in the door. Little did I know what this would soon lead to.

The publishing rights that are requested by the publisher are usually outlined in the Writer's Guidelines. Most are for First North American Serial Rights, which means that they get the first right to publish but after that you can resubmit to other publications, but only as Second Serial Rights. Most magazines will have a lead time of anywhere from several months to six months till publication. They have to line up their advertising, time to send to printing, photos, etc.

Success!

Around six months after my article was published, a new version of Microsoft's Flight Simulator came out. A friend of mine called me from a computer store to tell me that a quote from my article was on the back cover of the product box. Needless to say, I was totally thrilled to have my name plastered on every box of Flight Simulator. I contacted Microsoft to thank them for the free advertising. This lead to a discussion about doing some testing of the next version, which then lead to a book deal with Microsoft Press. Then shortly after the book came out, I became a regular columnist for a gaming magazine, on the topic of Flight Simulation products. All this from getting my Flight Simulator article submitted.

So, all it takes is making a few steps in the right direction. Do the writing, and then submit, submit, submit! Who knows? You might just be the next big columnist for Mother's Magazine, Off-Roading, or any other specialized market for your passion.

Find your passion, and write!

Timothy Trimble is a award winning, freelance writer, and software developer. He has written a book for Microsoft Press and over 35 articles for significant computer industry trade magazines. He is the Blog publisher of The ART of Software Development which can be found via his web site at <a target="_new" href="http://www.timothytrimble.info">http://www.timothytrimble.info</a>

Secrets About Freelance Writing They Dont Want You To Know

The first step to getting published is to find your market. Find a magazine you are familiar with and read the guidelines, read the magazine and as many issues as you can. Are they lacking a particular idea in that subject matter? Has there been an article written that didn't quite cover everything you thought it should? Write down your ideas.

After that, follow the directions on the submission guidelines.

1. Freelance writers must follow the directions. Most editors drop submissions into the trash pile for only one reason, the writer didn't follow directions. If the instructions say that you should not send email, why would you send an email submission? You could beat probably 80% of the rest of the slush pile by being focused on following instructions to a T.

2. Check previous issues for duplicates of your article ideas. No idea is really ever new and more than likely, your idea has already been used at one point. Make sure whatever idea you are submitting hasn't been published recently. It cuts out having to reject your idea, even if it's a good one.

3. Make sure your writing style matches the magazine. One of the biggest mistakes is to not actually have read the magazine before hand. This is why the majority of magazine editors request you at least read a couple issues, which they will happily send to you. It may be extra work but eventually you will get an idea of what sort of freelance writer they are looking for.

4. Grammar and spelling are important for any successful freelance writing career. Most editors claim that the majority of query letters would probably turn into sales, if only the freelance writer would have used proper spelling and grammar. If you can't write a good query letter, how do they expect you to write the full article? You must give your all in every query and submission you send in.

5. Clips are not so important, though they do help a freelance writer. Of all things, an editor wants a freelance writer to provide a good, fresh idea and a quality style to your writing in your initial query letter. If your idea is good and your query letter is well written, an editor can tell if you will qualify for the assignment quickly and will more than likely offer you an assignment.

6. Write articles for smaller publications. If you are still struggling as a freelance writer, sometimes offering free articles online or for smaller publications will help boost your portfolio. This is a little trick most any new writer can do. Don't feel bad about giving away free writing! It won't stay that way and your clips often say a lot about you to editors.

With all honesty, you don't have to be the best writer to be published! You only have to be able to follow directions and come up with an idea that isn't currently being used. Use rejection slips as a reason to submit again with a better idea. If you need additional help, try checking out websites of professional writers who offer advice on their website.

Calissa Leigh is a freelance writer available for <a target="_new" href="http://www.calissaleigh.com/">copywriting</a>, ghost writing articles and helping with query letters and submission. You can find helpful information on writing, <a target="_new" href="http://www.calissaleigh.com/">freelance writing jobs</a> and more by visiting her website at <a target="_new" href="http://www.calissaleigh.com/">http://calissaleigh.com</a>.

This article is offered free for reprint, provided the byline stays in tact and links are kept active. Please visit calissaleigh.com and look for her link directory for a return link and find more free content articles.

Why a Good-Quality Photo Should Accompany Your Articles

I'm betting that that 3 out of 4 of you who are reading this don't have a good-quality photo that you could give the media if a reporter called you today.

I check the EzineArticles.com website at least once a week, looking for articles for The Publicity Hound, my subscription newsletter on how to generate free publicity. When I find an article my readers would like, I email the writer and ask for a photo. More times than not, I'm disappointed. Three out of four people have poor-quality photos or none at all.

Writing articles to position yourself as an expert in your field, sell more products and services and pull traffic to your website is admirable. But don't stop there. You need a good-quality above-the-shoulders photo for publishers like me who want to use it online or offline and give you lots of free publicity.

If you're among the 3 out of 4 who don't have one, stop being a media mutt and start acting like a true Publicity Hound. Here are tips on how to get an inexpensive, good-quality photo.

Use a professional photographer

If your cousin has a new digital camera, or a cell phone with a camera, and offers to take your photo to save you money, use a professional instead. Trust me, the expense will be well worth it.

Many of the bad-quality photos I see are too dark, out of focus, grainy, scanned incorrectly, or taken against a busy backdrop--often by amateur photographers. I've seen photos that look as though people have plants growing out of the tops of their heads. One writer gave me a photo that shows him with his eyes closed. A woman gave me a photo of her in a sleeveless blouse, with her bra strap showing.

Some people offer snapshots that show them with friends and family members. Most editors won't bother cropping out babies, husbands or friends. They just won't use your photo.

A standard, above-the-shoulders color photo is the bare minimum. Prices vary from market to market, but you can usually get a professional business portrait for less than $75 from a professional photographer.

To find a photographer in your price range, start with the Yellow Pages. Or ask people you know for recommendations. Even photo studios at places like Sears and J.C. Penney can often produce inexpensive photos that are better than the ones taken by your cousin.

Tips for looking your best

Here are tips to follow if you're having your portrait taken:

--Wear your usual hairstyle. Don't try anything new.

--Make sure your hair is styled the way you want it before you arrive at the studio.

--If you need a haircut, have it done one or two weeks before your photo session.

--Wear clothing appropriate to your profession. If you're a gardener, don't have your photo taken in a suit and tie.

--Avoid high-neck clothing that obscures your neck.

--Avoid sleeveless clothing.

--It's risky to wear prints that draw attention away from your face. When in doubt, be safe with solids (but not black or white).

--When applying make-up, pay special attention to your eyes. That's what people see first.

--Eye shadow adds depth. Avoid iridescent colors. Stick to neutral.

--If you wear glasses, ask your optometrist if you can borrow a pair without lenses. That way there won't be any glare.

--Powder reduces shine and helps eliminate shiny foreheads and noses.

--Be sure to tell your photographer the photos are for publicity so he knows what kind of backdrop to use. And tell him not to use a "soft focus" lense. Your photo should have sharp tones with good contrast.

--Don't have your photo taken when you have a dark suntan or it will look like your face is oily.

--Don't forget to smile! If you don't, you might come off looking bored or sad.

When I have my photo taken every two or three years, I splurge for a hair and make-up artist who primps me until I look my best, then stays with me during the entire photo shoot. Her fee is about $150, and the results are worth every penny. But you don't need to spend that kind of money if you don't have it. Just follow the tips above and you'll be fine.

Pay for as many shots as you can afford so you have a good selection of images from which to choose. Also, ask the photographer if the photo shoot can include one or two wardrobe changes.

In addition to the head shot, you might also consider a storytelling photo that shows you with "props" related to your event. A toy train collector who will be featured at a train show, for example, might be photographed behind his model train display. Weekly newspapers that don't have photo staffs would welcome these types of photos.

Ordering your photos

Most print and online publications use electronic photos, but some don't. So you should have several wallet-size photos and at least one 4-by-5 print on hand just in case someone asks for it. If you're mailing prints, attach a label to the back of the photo. It should include your name, address, phone number, email address and the year the photo was taken.

Never write on the backs of photos with a pen or felt-tip marker. If you are mailing more than one photo, slip a blank piece of paper between them. Sometimes the pressure of the post office's mailing equipment can cause the back of one picture to rub off onto the front of another.

I advise Publicity Hounds that when sending prints to publications, don't ask editors to return them. It makes you look cheap. Besides, you want to encourage them to keep the photos in their files for use months or even years later.

Make electronic versions available

If you're posting your photo to your website, you can scan it at 72 dots per inch and it will look fine.

But editors who want to use the photos in print publications will need the photo scanned at 300 dots per inch, at the size they want to use the photo or larger. That means you can't take a thumbnail-size headshot, scan it at 300 dots per inch and offer it to an editor who wants to use it at 2-by-3 inches. That editor needs at least a 2-by-3 photo scanned at 300 dpi. So make several sizes available. I make four sizes available scanned at 300 dots per inch. You can see how I offer it to editors <a target="_new" href="http://publicityhound.net/prblog/?page_id=277">by clicking here.</a>

For most flexibility, offer a 4-by-5, color jpg scanned at 300 dpi. Any professional editor or publisher will be able to work with that. Some may use it in black and white, some may make it smaller, and some may lower the resolution.

I suggest you include your photos under a "Media Room" button on your home page so it's easy for editors to find what they're looking for.

And remember to smile!

Joan Stewart, also known as The Publicity Hound and a contributor to EzineArticles.com, writes a blog at <a target="_new" href="http://www.PublicityHound.net">http://www.PublicityHound.net</a> and also publishes "The Publicity Hound's Tips of the Week," a free ezine on how to generate thousands of dollars in free publicity. Subscribe at her website at <a target="_new" href="http://www.PublicityHound.com">http://www.PublicityHound.com</a> and receive free the handy checklist "89 Reasons to Send a News Release." She is writing an ebook on how to use photos and graphics in a publicity campaign.

Dont Just Sit There, Write A Newsletter Article

Need traffic? Write an article.

Need sales? Write an article.

Need Your Name branded? Write an article.

Writing newsletter articles can do all of these and more.

You can get exposure for your web site, newsletter or what ever you are promoting by writing articles.

This will not happen over night, but if you write one article a week and post it where publishers look for articles to use, it will do wonders for you.

Here are five places to post your articles.

<a href="http://goarticles.com/index.html" target="_new">http://goarticles.com/index.html</a>

<a href="http://www.boconline.com./sub-art.htm" target="_new">http://www.boconline.com./sub-art.htm</a>

<a href="http://www.dime-co.com/articlesub.html" target="_new">http://www.dime-co.com/articlesub.html</a>

<a href="http://thewhir.com/find/articlecentral/" target="_new">http://thewhir.com/find/articlecentral/</a>

<a href="http://www.certificate.net/wwio/index.shtml" target="_new">http://www.certificate.net/wwio/index.shtml</a>

You will notice at the bottom of this article is what is called a Bio. This is where your payment for writing articles starts.

Your Bio has only your information in it for everyone reading your articles to see. See the one below.

Now don't just sit there write an article!

About The Author

Vern Anderson editor News You Need:
http://www.newsyouneed.us

Webmaster Best Revenue Building Package:
http://www.profits-vault.com

You Should Seriously Consider Making Money With Your Words

Sometimes when I am communicating with other webmasters and I bring up the subject of writing articles, I often get a response like "I'd rather have a root canal, I just can't write", or "my spelling is horrible and my grammar is not much better". In my view, the first excuse is just a matter of attitude. The latter excuse falls on deaf ears because the major word processing programs have good spelling and grammar checking capabilities.

We're not talking about something that would qualify for the Pulitzer prize in literature, just articles dealing with a topic that may be of interest to a group of people that also may happen to have an interest in your particular business proposition or activity.

While not as dramatic as the college professor's dilemma of "publish or perish", many Internet marketers have found that the publicity and traffic that articles can bring to their websites is second only in importance to actually making sales.

When writing articles, start out by clearly defining what you want to write about. Focus on the topic and the general message that you want to communicate. Sometimes you will start with a title and expand from there and other times the title will be the last thing you develop.

Organize your material (be it knowledge, thoughts, or opinions) into a logical sequence or order. Don't try for the finished product in the first draft. Just let your mind, and words, flow and get some stuff down on paper. This may occur in a single session or, for longer articles, it may be done in several rough draft sessions perhaps broken into logical sections of what will eventually become your finished article.

Once you've completed the rough stuff, it's time to make your corrections, smooth out the rough edges, and perhaps do a little juggling in terms of organization. Run your text through the spelling/grammar checking tool of your word processor and make the appropriate adjustments/corrections.

Now that the body of text that you have created is "technically clean" from a spelling/grammar standpoint and you have satisfied yourself with the organization, its time to do the final styling or polishing to ensure readability (that may or may not be a word, but I'll claim poetic license and go ahead and use it). Read your article aloud to yourself and get a feel for the cadence or rhythm. The readability of the entire article can be influenced by changing the order of words and/or exchanging one like-meaning word for another. The final goal is to invite readership.

Many entrepreneurs and professionals use their articles as a key component in launching successful careers earning very substantial incomes. Remember, with regard to writing articles, you're better than you think you are...it's all about attitude.

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This article is freely available for reprint provided that the resource box at the end of the article is left intact and the article is published complete and unaltered. If you are using this article on a website or e-book, please make sure that the link in the resource box is live or clickable.
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Kirk Bannerman operates a successful home based business and coaches others seeking to start their own home based business.

Visit his website at <a target="_new" href="http://www.business-at-home.us">Legitimate Home Based Business</a> for more details.

Promote Easily With The Two-Step

Here's a really simple way... to promote your online business today. It makes no difference if it is a product or a service. You can start today getting some needed exposure to your site in two simple steps. That's why I call it the "Two Step" approach.

Discovering how to get visitors to your site is a steep learning curve for most. Whether you are a beginner or a veteran, it requires some work. This article gives you a simple, yet doable plan to solve your traffic problem.

There are many ways to promote your site. Some cost you money. Some cost you time. Most cost you both money and time. Well, if you are like this author, I have a lot more time than money.

This approach is not going to cost you any money, but you will invest some time with your efforts. Sound fair to you ? Then let's get started.

Here's the first step in the "Two Step":

1) WRITE ARTICLES

Articles are probably the very best way for you to get some good, targeted traffic to you site.

There are many fr*ee ways to gain traffic, but none of them bring you "targeted" traffic. That's what you really need.

Here is the second step in the "Two Step".

2) DISTRIBUTE YOUR ARTICLES.

There are lots of ways to accomplish this. I am going to suggest a few of them. Very likely you will discover many more ways.

-Send them to other publishers who are looking for fresh content.

-Place them in article directories. (A simple search will locate many,)

-Create an article directory on your site.

-Place them in autoresponders with follow-up messages.

-Send them out with snail mail messages that you are doing.

The more articles you write, send out and publish to directories on line, the more exposure you will get and the more traffic you will receive.

------------------------------------------------------------

Set yourself a goal to write at least one article per week and distribute it. More often if you can do it.

You will be amazed with the results, and the benefits of an article campaign can last for years and become viral as your articles are posted on other's site.

Writing and publishing articles is one of the easiest and least expensive ways to bring your site some long term targeted traffic.

What are you doing to promote your site? Where will you be a month from now...a year from now?

Why not put the "Two Step" into motion for your site ? It's as easy as a waltz around the dance floor.

This article is available by autoresponder at: mailto:TwoStepApproach@freeautobot.com

GET A QUICK START with this free, "How-to-do-it e-zine". Biz Site Biz E-zine will help you with powerful tips, great resources and original articles. Come on down and join us. <a target="_new" href="http://www.BizSiteBiz.com/">http://www.BizSiteBiz.com/</a> Subscribe: <a target="_new" href="http://www.BizSiteBiz.com/Subscribeform.html">http://www.BizSiteBiz.com/Subscribeform.html</a>

There is an Article Deep Down Inside of You Just Looking to Bust Out

The Most Economical Way to Advertise online is to Submit Articles online for Redistribution. One of the Main Benefits of submitting Articles is one way Back Links to your Web Page. Google, Yahoo and MSN the big 3 in Online Search account for well over 80% of all Searches use Links to you and Fresh Relevant content as arguably the two most Important factors in determining your Page rank.

Everyone has at Least one Article in them just waiting to Bust out. (Actually if you believe Robert Allen the best Selling Real Estate Author he claims everyone has a Book in them). Now that you know that article is in you, let's get it out.

My Wise Grandfather use to say If making the First Million is the Hardest I'll Just assume I already made my First Million and now I'm working on my 2nd Million. Just assume you already wrote an article and work on your 2nd article, then this should be easy.

The 7 Key Elements to writing that Article

1 - Find a Topic

Everyone is an expert at something (according to John Childers one of my Mentors if you know more then me on a subject your an expert). Actually if you can answer any of the following questions you will have at least one topic to write an Article about. <ul>

<li>What are you good at?</li>

<li>What have you had success at? </li>

<li>What is your Passion? </li>

<li>What advice do people always come to you for?</li>

<li>What are your Hobbies</li> </ul>

2 - Write Your Headline

Go to an Article Site and Read the Headlines. Go to the Supermarket and buy a copy of one of those "Gossip" Papers Look over the Headlines and see what Power words they use. Things like: <ul>

<li>How To ...</li>

<li>6 Tips ... </li>

<li>3 Simple Methods ... </li>

<li>A simple Guide ... </li>

<li>Do you Commit these 7 Fatal Mistakes in Your... </li>

<li>How a Dumb Country Boy ..... </li> </ul> For more power Words (http://www.ewguru.com/hbiz/cw-power-phrases.html)

3 - The opening Paragraph.

If all else Fails Just write 3 or 4 sentences about your article. Tell them what you will tell them. Grab There attention use some keywords.

4 - The Meat and Potatoes

Write 3 or 4 paragraphs about your topic. Take some time look over what others have done. Use the Internet as a research tool. Don't steal someone else article just the information. How did I know that Yahoo, Google and MSN account for over 80% of Searches, I read it on a web Page. How did I know that Back links and Content are Important for your Page Rank, I read it on the internet.

5 - The Closing Paragraph

Just review the key points from your article and explain how the reader can benefit from it.

6 - Edit and Proof Read Your Article.

Rework some sentences. Add some Keywords. Maybe add a little Pithy, You know those thing about my Grandfather, Robert Allen and John Childers. Proof read it 3 or 4 times.

Put yourself in the position of the reader. Make sure it is something that you would enjoy reading about. If you don't like it why would your reader

Now Put yourself in the Position of those Page ranking Bots throw in those Keywords where they work well but don't over do it. Remember it still needs to appeal to the reader.

The Last thing you do is a Spell and Grammar check.

7 - Resource Box

Don't forget your resource box. 2 or 3 Lines about yourself with links to your Web Pages (remember I did Promise you those back Links)

Now that you have finished you first article you will want to submit it to the Article Directories. The Below Web site lists over 70 Article Directories. You don't need to use all of them but be sure and use EZine Articles and Go Articles 2 of my favorites (http://www.ewguru.com/hbiz/articles/article-submit.html)

By Mike Makler

Mike Makler has been Marketing Online Since 2001. Subscribe to Mike's Newsletter here <a target="_new" href="http://www.ewguru.com/hbiz/list-sign-up.html">http://www.ewguru.com/hbiz/list-sign-up.html</a>

Get some useful Free Downloads Here: <a target="_new" href="http://trafficninja.com">http://trafficninja.com</a>,

Some more Articles from Mike: <a target="_new" href="http://weeklytipsandtricks.blogspot.com/">http://weeklytipsandtricks.blogspot.com/</a>

Copyright ? 2005-2006 Mike Makler :: all rights reserved.

How to Create a Viral Lead-Generating Machine

Whether you own your own affiliate website, or subscription website, or publish your own ezine or newsletter, you need people to see what you offer.

More people are interested in you when they trust you. People trust you when you have built some credibility with them. You build credibility by establishing yourself as an expert.

You become an expert in several ways:

- by publishing articles on your website

- by creating an ecourse or ebook

- by publishing your own ezine or newsletter

- by publishing your articles in someone else's ezine

Think about that last idea for a minute. Publishing articles in other people's ezines (or on their websites) is the key, the secret, to creating a viral lead-generating machine.

It is no secret that the popularity of your site on Google is improved when other sites link you to. But Google only likes high-content links. Your articles provide this.

Not to mention that when you have your articles on more and more websites there is a greater possibility that someone will read your articles and do business with you.

The simple system that will create a viral lead-generating machine has only three steps:

Step 1: Write and Publish Articles

This really is the best way for you to promote your business. I promote my business exclusively through article writing and publishing.

The key is to write a useful, high-content article, and send it to your newsletter and publish it on your website.

Step 2: Distribute Your Articles

Send your articles to article distribution lists and ezine directories. These directories exist for ezine owners and website owners to pick up free reprintable content to use in their ezine or on their website.

This helps you, because if your article is picked up and distributed by 10 ezine owners who each have 1000 people in their list, your article will be sent to 10 000 people!

Step 3: Your Articles Continue to be Distributed Virally!

When you submit to an articles directory, your article is there to be reprinted. You can submit an article next week, and ten years later it will still be there. Your article can have a shelf life as long as you want, and every time someone reprints your article, you get free exposure!

Bonus tip: If you include in your resource box that your article can be reprinted anywhere by anyone, anyone who reads your article can reprint in on their website or in their ezine.

To use the above example, if another 1000 people reprint your article in some form, your business will be marketed to 11 000 people-in a very short period of time!

Imagine this process occurring time and time again, with more than one article!

This is how you create a viral lead-generating machine.

Jeremy M. Hoover helps you create your very own viral lead-generating machines by writing <a target="_new" href="http://jhooverwebcopy.com">low-cost lead-generating and traffic-building articles</a> for you. Order your articles now at <a target="_new" href="http://jhooverwebcopy.com">http://jhooverwebcopy.com</a>

Ambition versus Dedication

All writers aspire to recognition, but are we dedicated? Ambition is simply the drive or strong desire for something. It is the enthusiastic wanting, that yearning felt in every pore, every cell in our bodies toward a specific aim. Sounds a lot like an addiction, doesn't it? That's because it is. We become addicted to our fantasy of what it's like to live as a working, paid writer. That fantasy is great, it's wonderful. Keep it. Don't let it take the place of dedication.

Dedication, on the other hand, according to Dictionary.com, is defined as &quot;selfless devotion&quot;. I was reading a book entitled &quot;78 Reasons Why Your Book May Never Be Published & 14 Reasons Why it Just Might&quot; by Pat Walsh. In the introduction, he talks about the difference between ambition and dedication and writes: &quot;Most people who write a book have ambition, which differs from dedication. With ambition, the goal is the key element. With dedication, the process is the prize.&quot;

He's right. If you are selflessly devoted to your writing, the end result should be the act of creation, the act of manifesting, the act of communicating a version of your story that is better than your greatest possible version. If you aspire to greatness, then fantasy is no longer good enough. How dedicated are you to your craft, regardless of your desire for publication and fame?

(re)Dedicate yourself

Letting go (at least temporarily) of ambition and rededicating yourself to your craft is your first step toward achieving your goals. Sounds recursive, I know ? it's the same with that old adage: &quot;just when you're not looking, you'll find Mr./Ms. right&quot;. Irritating? Yes. True? Also yes. Here are a few tips to get you on your way toward your newfound perseverance.

Join a writers group or start one yourself.

This will force you to write and to adhere to deadlines and witness other people meeting deadlines and achieving goals. It is positive peer pressure at its finest.

Take writing courses and seminars.

If you can afford it, sign up for that class or seminar you've been longing to take. Better yet, sign up for something that scares you to death, something you feel completely unqualified to take. You will experience the most growth from this class. Too expensive? There are lots of inexpensive, and even free, writing resources on the web, including my website http://www.lawritersgroup.com which is a free online writers group open to writers of all levels.

Write every day.

I know you've heard this so many times, it feels like a bad clich?, and makes you want to throw your computer out the window, but if you are dedicated to the process of writing, you should do it daily. Accept that your life will be a clich? and move forward.

Start living like a writer: Set Goals.

Make deadlines for yourself: &quot;I'll have 30 pages done by a month from today&quot;. Make every effort to meet that deadline. Deadlines, like them or not, are part of the literary occupation. Accept it now, and start living that way, start living like a writer.

Read.

Reading in your genre is essential for any writer. Reading about writing and publishing and about story arcs is also helpful. For a list of recently published books for writers, go to http://www.lawritersgroup.com/Books.htm

Now go forth and write with dedication.

Nicole Criona is co-owner and creator of <a target="_new" href="http://www.lawritersgroup.com">http://www.lawritersgroup.com</a>, a worldwide online writers group open to writers of all levels, which mirrors her Los Angeles writers group. Nicole can be contacted at <a href="mailto:nicole@lawritersgroup.com">nicole@lawritersgroup.com</a>.

Marketing Articles: Promoting Your Site Twice!

I recently became aware that promoting your web site in Search Engines can instantly be double within Google! That's right, you can instantly promote your site 2 times at once!

So how do you Market Your Site twice?

Simple...

Most of us typically promote www.yoursite.com. But what you need to realize is that most sites can be found on search engines simply by entering... <a href="http://yoursite.com" target="_new">http://yoursite.com</a> - without the www.

Try it for a second, lets go to google and type in your url with the www. and then without the www.

So for me it would be:

<li>www.smartads.info

<li><a href="http://smartads.info" target="_new">http://smartads.info</a>

The same will apply for sub-domains as well. A sub-domain is a section of your site dedicated to something you create but instead of residing within your normal directory, it resides within it's own directory,like I've illustrated below...

Normal:

www.yoursite.com

Sub-Domain:

www.sub-domain.yoursite.com

And with that again, you can promote your sub-domain twice in Search Engines like so...

<li>www.sub-domain.yoursite.com

<li><a href="http://sub-domain.yoursite.com" target="_new">http://sub-domain.yoursite.com</a>

So in turn, I've just showed you how you can promote 4 sites with all the same goal in mind, yours of course!

How to utilize your new found knowledge:

Hopefully, you are all aware of how important it is to create a link exchange program for your business? Well, what you simply want to do is to mix up your links when submitting to other companies for a listing within their site.

In other words...

Lets say I just found 4 sites that I want to exchange links with, I would do something like this...

Site #1: I would submit (www.yoursite.com)

Site #2: I would submit (http://yoursite.com)

Site #3: I would submit (www.sub-domain.yoursite.com)

Site #4: I would submit (http://sub-domain.yoursite.com)

Now I'm promoting my site with 4 times the power than before!

But don't stop there...

Do you write articles? How about committing 2 of your links to every article. Change them up with each article.

Ex:

Article #1 (How to Submit Your Site to Search Engines)

Try adding

www.yoursite.com

www.sub-domain.yoursite.com

Article #2 (How to Market Your Site Twice)

Try adding

<a href="http://yoursite.com" target="_new">http://yoursite.com</a> &

<a href="http://sub-domain.yoursite.com" target="_new">http://sub-domain.yoursite.com</a> I hope this small timbit of knowledge gives you the edge you need to put your business ahead of the game!

Best of luck to you!

About The Author

Martin Lemieux
Smartads - President
<a href="http://www.smartads.info" target="_new">http://www.smartads.info</a>

Affordable web site design
<a href="http://smartads.info" target="_new">http://smartads.info</a>

Marketing Articles & Web Site Marketing Tactics

An Affable Article

It doesn't really matter who you are; you definitely know something or know something differently. It is our particular sense of logic and humour that make us interesting.

Interesting and informative articles are in big demand. Article directories meet this demand by amassing them in one location.

Who can do this or what qualifications are needed to submit articles?

Providing that the content is &quot;clean&quot;, anyone can submit, and the only qualification needed is that your article is interesting and informative, or close to it.

How to, why to, why not to, how not to, or anything in between, should be okay. If it is easy to read and worth reading, then it should be perfect.

Would you read it? If your answer is YES, then it is probable that others would want to read it.

From gardening snippets of wisdom, aliens to alligators, strawberry soup to strangulated hernias, people to pigs (transformations may also be interesting), simple to sublime, technical to basic, your perspective may be anywhere from useful to universal.

Does your English or language of choice (think global), need to be grammatically perfect?

The short answer is NO. Specific directories have specific guidelines or terms, but the webmaster/editors of these directories usually have &quot;worldly wisdom&quot;, understand that your first article may not circumvent the globe and also understand that with time and some experience, others might. These people don't want to edit everything (too time-consuming), so some effort on your behalf is always a good and rewarding goal.

Benefits to individual contributors or writers:

Exposure.

This exposure is limitless and articles can be submitted to thousands of directories and any site that will accept them. All articles include a resource box. This is a few lines of information about the writer and can include a web address.

This address or u.r.l. is the key.

When the various search engines index the directory, the hyperlink to the writers chosen site is noted. This alone improves link popularity. Incoming links from major sites (as many directories are), will improve your chances of getting search engine traffic.

For example only; if two sites, using the same keywords and similar content are in competition (normal ), the one with links from high quality sites will be favoured.

So you get traffic to your site because of search engines and the possibility or probability of someone reading the article, by simply clicking your link.

Double whammy shortened; search engine traffic via linking popularity and your name or associated site/program presented for perusal. Sites lacking content go to directories to find content. This is &quot;VIRAL MARKETING&quot; at its' best! That is around the clock, around the year, exposure. Such exposure can theoretically last forever, where the info. is good, amusing or of interest to people on this planet.

Brilliant! So how much will it cost? It's FREE.

So what should I do?

Find or create a site to link to. Get a free one if necessary ( search engine, then, &quot;free hosting&quot;).

That's great, but I'm a nobody!

I go to college or I'm an unmarried mother, a pensioner, a prisoner, a priest, or indeed, all five in combination.

That is great! That means that you do know something or know something differently!

Tell us (the world) about it.

Tell your grand parents that someone wants to know!

Tell your grand children that someone wants to know about your experience!

Enhance your resume/Curriculum Vitae.

Bring free traffic to your site.

Develop a new skill. Before the advent of the INTERNET, it wasn't easy or nearly impossible to get &quot;published&quot;. All excuses are rapidly dwindling. Indeed, they are gone!

Maximise work already done ( you may already have a wealth of articles on you P.C.; just paste them into relevant category of directories and you can use your favourite search engine to find them).

You may have the stories within a diary or in your head. Unleash your experience and discoveries.

Within a local context (family, friends, work), your experience may be ignored, but the world is a different setting. Exploit it; it was never easier, and benefit from being a contributor to the INTERNET, and the people that it is meant to serve.

Benefits to the directories.

They amass volumes of information.

They get traffic because of this. Their respective content is favoured by search engines.

Summary.

Articles favour the writers and directories that support them.

Articles contribute to the free end of the INFORMATION SUPERHIGHWAY.

Articles are VIRAL (marketing speak).

Articles compliment sites that don't have time or don't have experience within a specific field.

ACTION.

NOW. You may forget tomorrow, what you know today so put it somewhere that it will be remembered.

NOTE; If you absolutely need to mention your mother-in-law, then you should mention her affectionately for you'll never know where she could read about it.

About The Author

Seamus Dolly is the webmaster of <a href="http://www.CountControl.com" target="_new">http://www.CountControl.com</a>. His background is in engineering and analogue electronics and his studies include A+, iNet+ and Server+.

How to Promote Your Web Site by Writing Articles

Sharing knowledge on the web can be a very powerful way to establish your online presence and credibility. First, you write a thoughtful and informative article on an topic in your area of expertise. Then you submit it to e-zines to be read by the general public and possibly re-published on other web sites.

Appended to the end of your article is a resource box containing a brief promotional message linking to your web site. Webmasters who wish to reprint your article on their sites are required to include your resource box along with any live links to your site.

For example, an article written by me might have the following resource box:

Article by Oudam Em. Oudam is the webmaster of <a target="_new" href="http://www.nexcomp.com/weblaunch">Web Launch</a>, http://www.nexcomp.com/weblaunch, a free resource for web site promotion and search engine optimization. Please visit his site for more free tips and tutorials on building traffic and generating income on your site.

The benefit that you get from your article is two-fold. First, your article will be read by visitors to the e-zine site. If they find it helpful and interesting, they will likely visit your web site to see what else you had to offer. Second, webmasters who find your article useful to their visitors may re-publish it on their sites, giving your article additional exposure.

Every time your article is re-published on a web site, you gain an additional one-way link to your site through the live link in your resource box. This adds to your link popularity and ultimately increases your search engine rankings. As you can see, the true potential of your article lies in its ability to propagate virally in cyberspace.

For your article to propagate virally, it should appeal to both readers and webmasters alike. Keep in mind that your goal is hold your readers' attention long enough for them to get to the resource box. If your article is boring and uninformative, few people will read it beyond the first or second paragraph.

Below are some pointers to consider when writing an article:

1. Give your article a catchy title.

Your title is the first and often the only thing that visitors see when they skim through a list of articles on an e-zine page. Put some thought into coming up with a title that grabs the reader's attention right away. Words like "Secrets", "Free", and "Successful" tend to attract more attention than others.

2. Your article should not read like an ad.

Most people read articles to find information they can use, not to see a pitch about your products or services. If they see your article as nothing more than a shameless act of self promotion, they'll get turned off and hit the "Back" button right away. Put yourself in the reader's shoes. What benefits do you want to get out of reading an article? Cater to your reader's interests rather than your own.

3. Offer lots of free, useful information.

Following on the last tip, keep in mind that your readers are looking for specific "how-to" instructions to help them achieve a certain goal. Offer lots of tangible information that is immediately useful to them. Do not lead them through hoops just to get to an order form for a $29.95 "Make $50,000 in 30 Days or Your Money Back!" e-book.

4) Avoid gimmicks.

While it may be true that a sucker is born every minute, most internet users are sophisticated enough to tell what's legitimate and what's not. Write with the intention of offering something substantial to the reader. Be honest and forthright. Your article should not cause the reader to think, "What is this guy trying to sell me?"

5) Be succinct.

Get to the point quickly, preferably in the first or second paragraph. Avoid lengthy paragraphs. Use lots of white space to separate your paragraphs to make them easier to read.

6) Your article should not be too short.

Certainly, it's possible to write a good article packed with useful information using just a few hundred words. If your article is too short, however, some webmasters may feel hesitant to reprint it on their sites. They may, instead, borrow your ideas and write their own article, gaining authorship without having to give you credit for your ideas.

How long should your article be? I suggest at least 800 words, preferably longer. Longer articles give webmasters the impression that you have put some thought and effort into your work and, thus, are deserving of publicity on their sites.

7) Use live (clickable) links in your resource box.

Many e-zines permit clickable links in resource boxes. Yet, many authors forgo this privilege by simply spelling out their URLs. Whenever permitted, you should spell out your URL as well as make it clickable (e.g. http://www.nexcomp.com/weblaunch). The advantages of a clickable URL are (1) readers can go to your site simply by clicking on it, and (2) more importantly, search engines will be able to record it as a link your web site, adding to your link popularity and search engine rankings.

8) Avoid hyping in your resource box.

Your resource box, while promotional in nature, should be brief and tasteful. The purpose of your resource box is not to sell your readers something, but to lead them to your website which does the actual selling. Your resource box should contain your name, your company name, a brief description of your products or services, your web site's URL, and a clickable link to your site.

9) Put some thought and effort into your writing.

E-zines have varying standards for accepting articles, and some accept and publish all submissions without any human review at all. However, this does not mean you should write an article just for sake of having it published somewhere. If your article comes off as half-baked, readers may make a similar assumption about you and your business practices.

10) Submit your article to as many e-zines as feasible.

There are dozens of e-zines on the web that welcome submissions from independent authors. Ideally, you'd want your article to be exposed on as many of them as you can. But it takes time to register and submit to each one of them. Therefore, I recommend that you submit to only a handful of the more popular ones.

Below is a list of e-zines along with their Google PageRanks (PR). The higher the PR of an e-zine, the greater its online visibility.

Amazines - www.amazines.com - PR4
Article Alley - www.articlealley.com - PR5
Article City - www.articlecity.com - PR6
Article Emporium - www.article-emporium.com - PR4
Articles Factory - www.articlesfactory.com - PR5
Article Finders - www.articlefinders.com - PR5
ArticleSubmissions.com - www.articlesubmissions.com - PR3
ArticleWarehouse - www.articlewarehouse.com - PR4
AuthorConnection.com - www.authorconnection.com - PR5
Business Know-How - www.businessknowhow.com - pr6
BusinessToolchest.com - www.businesstoolchest.com - pr3
Buzzle.com - www.buzzle.com - PR6
Common Connections - www.commonconnections.com - PR3
Connectionteam.com - www.connectionteam.com - PR3
Constant Content - www.constant-content.com - PR6
Createonlinebusiness.com - www.createonlinebusiness.com - PR3
Digital Women.com - www.digital-women.com/submitarticle.htm - PR5
Ezine Articles - www.ezinearticles.com - PR7
Family-Content.com - www.family-content.com/articles - PR4
Free Content - www.certificate.net/wwio - PR5
FreeTrafficTip.com - www.freetraffictip.com - PR4
FreeZineSite.com - www.freezinesite.com - PR2
Fresh-Articles.com - www.fresh-articles.com - PR
GoArticles.com - www.goarticles.com - PR
Home-Business-Directory.com - www.home-business-directory.com - PR3
Home Based-business Opportunities - www.home-based- business-opportunities.com - pr5
Home business Tips Newsletter - www.home-business-tips-newsletter.com - PR3
HowToAdvice.com - www.howtoadvice.com - PR4
IdeaMarketers.com - www.ideamarketers.com - PR5
isnare.com - www.isnare.com PR5
Jogena's - www.jogena.com - PR4
jorbins.com - www.jorbins.com - PR5
Li'l Engine - www.lilengine.com - PR7
LinkSnoop.com - www.linksnoop.com - PR3
Main Street Mom - www.mainstreetmom.com - PR5
Marketing PitBull - www.marketingpitbull.com - PR2
NetterWeb.com - www.netterweb.com - PR4
OpportunityUpdate.com - OpportunityUpdate.com - PR3
Organic-Rankings.com - www.organic-rankings.com - PR3
PromoteNewz.com - www.promotenewz.com -PR4
PromotionWorld.com/articles.html - www.promotionworld.com -PR4
Sales Masters World - www.sales-masters-world.com - PR5
SearchWarp.com - www.searchwarp.com -PR4
SmartAds.info - www.smartads.info/articles - PR4
StoreBuilder.co.uk - www.storebuilder.co.uk - PR4
T & I Grafix - www.tigrafix.com/articles.htm - PR3
TheEzine.net - www.theezine.net - PR4
Top-Web-Marketing.com - www.top-web-marketing.com/article - PR3
Web Host Industry Review - www.thewhir.com/find/articlecentral - PR5
UniTerra.com - uniterra.com -PR3
upromote.com - www.upromote.com - PR3
The Warrior Forum - www.warriorforum.com/forum - PR4
Web Host Industry Review - www.thewhir.com/find/articlecentral - PR5
WebMomz.com - www.webmomz.com - PR3
WebProNews.com - www.webpronews.com - PR7
WebsiteFuel.com - www.websitefuel.com - PR3
website-promotion-ranking-services.com - www.website-promotion-ranking-services.com/article.htm - PR4
Web-Source.net - www.web-source.net -PR6
Womans-Net - womans-netnews.com - PR4
WorkAtHomeArticles.net - www.workathomearticles.net -PR3
Work-at-Home-Jobs-Iowa.com - www.work-at-home-jobs-iowa.com -PR3
Work911.com - www.work911.com - PR4
Xongoo.com - www.xongoo.com - PR6
zinos.com - www.zinos.com -PR6

Article by Oudam Em. Oudam is the webmaster of <a target="_new" href="http://www.nexcomp.com/weblaunch">Web Launch</a>, <a target="_new" href="http://www.nexcomp.com/weblaunch">http://www.nexcomp.com/weblaunch</a>, a free resource for web site promotion and search engine optimization. Please visit his site for more free tips and tutorials on building traffic and generating income on your site.

The Secret To Promoting Sites With Articles

Publishing articles on the Internet is a tremendous way to increase the number of inbound links to your site. As articles are assimilated into search engine indexes, they also begin to act as landing pages generating traffic for your site. Whenever possible, you should publish articles to promote your site.

Article Content

The content of your articles should be directed to the most basic elements of your product or service. Whenever possible, try to write &quot;how to&quot; or &quot;introduction to&quot; articles. Topics like these will garner the biggest interest and be picked up by other sites. Articles that cover finer points of a subject work as well, but you should expect a smaller readership.

Article Tone

Your articles should be packed with information, not sales pitches. When writing articles, one tends to concentrate on how to get potential readers to visit your site. This approach is a mistake. You have to think of both the readers AND webmasters that will be looking for articles.

Image you are a Webmaster that needs content for your site. You go to one of the article directories looking for material to add to your site. Are you going to select articles that are sales pitches designed to take your visitors to another site? No. You are going to select articles that provide your visitors with some valuable information. Don't write sales pitches!

Links

Articles are a great way to quickly build the link counts for sites. The search engines universally appear to like them, a rare event these days. So, what's the best strategy for using links in your articles?

The best linking strategy for articles involves putting not more than two links in your byline. This is admittedly a personal preference, but I find more than two links looks &quot;clunky&quot; and many depositories won't allow any more than two.

Regardless, the two links in the byline of your articles should go to two distinct pages of your site. The first might be to your home page, while the second goes to a page that is related to the subject of the article. With each new article, you should change the links to new pages. This allows you to build link popularity for both your home page and internal pages of your site. I have found Google, in particular, heavily favors sites that multiple pages with high link counts.

HTML v. Text Links

With some depositories, you have the opportunity to place html code in your bylines. This, of course, lets you avoid typing out the URLs for your site pages, but should you? I would encourage you to type out the URLS for one reason. It is important to make it as easy as possible for Webmasters to republish your article on their site. Don't make them figure out the domains of your hyperlinked text, particularly sub-domains.

In Closing

I have used article campaigns to market many sites. As long as you go about it correctly, you should be able to do the same thing for your site.

Halstatt Pires is with MarketingTitan.com - <a target="_new" href="http://www.marketingtitan.com">http://www.marketingtitan.com</a> - an Internet marketing and advertising company. Visit our article section - <a target="_new" href="http://www.marketingtitan.com/internet_marketing_articles">http://www.marketingtitan.com/internet_marketing_articles</a> - to read more internet marketing articles.

Think Bigger When Doing Article Marketing

You've already agreed that putting some of your best articles into distribution is a great way to build your brand, grow your targeted traffic and get oodles of free quality back links to your website. You publish a small handful of articles and submit them to the major article distribution sites and then wait? but nothing happens or your results are depressing. What went wrong?

Ten years ago, if you were doing this strategy, a dozen to 20 articles was all that you needed to get all kinds of traffic from your investment in this strategy. Today, you need 200+ articles to begin to get the same return.

Note: For this article, we're only going to examine the amount of traffic that article distribution sites can deliver to your website from your articles. Normally you can expect other sites and ezine publishers to pick up your articles and that would expand the traffic ROI from this strategy.

Let's Talk Page Views:

(1) Page View = (1) human viewing your page.

The average article will generate anywhere from 10 to 10,000 page views per site submitted per month with a realistic average being 25-100 page views. It's very rare when you'll hit a home run and achieve just the right article title and body copy that is rewarded by the search engines with a high rank to get a windfall of traffic.

Therefore if you have 10 articles and you submit them to only (1) article distribution site, you can expect approximately 250 to 1,000 page views to your article and approximately 7 to 30 direct clicks to your website. Click through rates for your website URL located in the resource box of each of your articles are typically 1-3% of the total traffic delivered to each article.

In the same example, if you had 100 articles submitted to only (1) article distribution site, you could expect 2,500 to 10,000 page views to your article and approximately 70 to 300 direct clicks to your website.

If you wanted to set a goal to attract 1,000 visitors to your website per month from article marketing, you'd need approximately: <ul> <li>400 articles submitted to 1 site or </li> <li>100 articles submitted to 4 sites or</li> <li>40 articles submitted to 10 sites or</li> <li>4 articles submitted to 100 sites.</li> </ul>

Disclaimer: Not all article distribution sites or article banks are created equal. There is a wide range in quality in terms of traffic and some do not include an active link to your site (like they should). If it's not already obvious to you, never waste your time submitting to an article distribution site that does not give you an active link to your website in your resource box.

Lightbulb Article Marketing Moments To Consider:

1) At a certain point, you'll realize that it's easier to produce 40-100+ more articles than it is to submit 4-10 articles to 70-100 article distribution sites. Focus on producing dozens to hundreds more original articles and submit them to the top handful of article directories rather than trying to submit a handful of articles to dozens to hundreds of sites.

2) Stop writing 1,000, 2,000 or 3,000 word articles. A well crafted 250-400 word article produces the same or better result than a 1,000 word article on the same topic.

If you already have a 3,500 word article, why not break it up into 7 different articles? I do not recommend 7 different "parts" to the article under the same title -- but rather 7 different article title's all together from the 3,500 word original article @ 500 words per article. Make sense?

3) Set a goal to get to your first 100 articles available for distribution if you have not produced 100 yet. If you've already produced 100, then set your goal at achieving the first 500 to 1,000 into distribution. Consider repurposing existing content into 250-400 word articles that have article TITLE's that reflect what people are searching for related to your niche topic.

Bottom Line:

Think about each of your articles as your "agents." What would you rather have: 10 agents, 100 agents or 1,000+ agents? Because competition is heating up, you've got to step it up a notch to rise to the top. Consider either producing 100 more articles or repurposing existing content that you created previously to create 100 more articles to put into distribution within the next 30 days. Once you break through some of your existing plateau's, you'll find that it's easier to produce 4 to 10 articles at a time rather than sitting down 4 to 10 times to produce the same articles. It's about efficiency and quality ROI on your time.

About The Author:

Christopher M. Knight invites you to submit your best articles for massive exposure to the high-traffic <a target="_new" href="http://EzineArticles.com/">http://EzineArticles.com/</a> directory. When you submit your articles to EzineArticles.com, your articles will be picked up by ezine publishers who will reprint your articles with your content and links in tact giving you traffic surges to help you increase your sales. To submit your article, setup a membership account today: <a target="_new" href="http://EzineArticles.com/submit/">http://EzineArticles.com/submit/</a>