How To Find Good Keywords

How To Find Good Keywords

by: Trenton Moss

Good keywords are frequently searched for (high demand) but not being targeted by many other websites (low competition). There are a number of tools out there that can help you find them.

Wordtracker

The best tool out there, Wordtracker is one of the most essential SEO tools. To use Wordtracker:

Go to the Wordtracker website (http://www.wordtracker.com)and pay $7 for 24 hours’ access

Enter a keyword phrase you’re thinking about targeting

Wordtracker will suggest hundreds of related phrases click on the ones you like

Once youกve clicked on all the phrases you like, run them through the program

Wordtracker will compile a score for each phrase, based on the number of users searching for it and the number of websites targeting it

The higher the score, the better the keyword phrase!

Wordtracker also offers a free service which works in the same way but only uses results generated from MSN.

Overture

Also useful, Overtureกs search term suggestion tool (http://inventory.overture.com/d/searchinventory/suggestion/), is free and much quicker to use than Wordtracker. It works in much the same way as Wordtracker but doesn’t tell you how many websites are targeting each keyword phrase.

Google

Google AdWords Keyword Suggestions (https://adwords.google.com/select/KeywordSandbox) tell you which keyword phrases are being targeted by other websites.

Guidebeam

Guidebeam (http://www.guidebeam.com) is an interesting resource. Type in a phrase and it will suggest a large number of related searches. The numbers provided for each phrase are Guidebeamกs estimation of how relevant that phrase is.

About The Author

This article was written by Trenton Moss. Heกs crazy about web usability and accessibility so crazy that he went and started his own web usability and accessibility consultancy (Webcredible http://www.webcredible.co.uk) to help make the Internet a better place for everyone.

This article was posted on September 01, 2004

by Trenton Moss

PPC Management: When To Give Up On A Loser

PPC Management: When To Give Up On A Loser

by: Dave Brown

Pay per click (PPC) advertising can be a dream come true. You can get traffic almost immediately from some PPC search engines. And it can be mighty cheap too. Next to joint ventures, PPC search engines have been responsible for most of my online income. Iกve gotten some great returns on PPC campaigns. And I know other people who have too.

Right now, I have one PPC campaign thatกs making me $56.69 for every $1 I spend. I know, thatกs pretty incredible. And itกs not typical. But I have another thatกs making me $8.84 for every $1 I spend. Yet another makes $7.73 for every $1.

But I have other campaigns that have lost me money. Making money, instead of losing it, with pay per click search engines involves wise management. There are many different factors that decide whether youกll be in the red or in the black. And you need to be aware of what these are.

In fact, there are times that even the best management of your PPC campaign won’t save it. Some of them will be losers and thereกs nothing you can do about it. But you need to know when to decide that you have a loser on your hands. At what point should you bury it and move on?

There are a number of different factors to consider. Thereกs no simple answer. I can’t tell you to simply abandon your PPC campaign after 200 clicks without a sale. Or to quit after youกve lost $50.

First of all, you need to know how much your profit will be on each sale (before advertising costs). For example, if you’re selling your own product for $47 through Clickbank, then youกll make $42.48 on each sale after Clickbank takes their fees.

But if you sell someone elseกs product for $47 through Clickbank, and you get a 50% commission on each sale, then youกd only get $21.24.

But you need to know even more than that. You also need to decide how much of that $42.48 (or $21.24) you’re willing to spend on advertising. In other words, whatกs the least you’re willing to earn on each sale? This will determine how much you can afford to spend on advertising.

Letกs assume you make $42.48 per sale. If you decide that youกd be happy with a $20 profit, then you can spend as much as $22.48 to make each sale.

So now you know what your advertising budget is. Next, estimate what your conversion rate will be. If this is a brand new product you’re promoting, then you may have no idea. In those cases, I tend to use 1% as a rule of thumb. That means that 1 out of every 100 people that visit the site will buy. Letกs use 1% for our example here.

So if you’re willing to spend $22.48 to make each sale, and you expect to make one sale out of every 100 visitors, then you can afford to spend 22 cents to get each visitor to the site. This means that you can afford to bid 22 cents on each keyword on the PPC search engines (max).

At this point, you can go ahead and set up your PPC campaigns. Find your keywords. Place bids. I won’t cover these issues right now because they’re off the topic. The purpose here is to know when to drop your campaign because itกs a loser.

Now, just because you *can* bid 22 cents on each keyword, it doesn’t mean you should. You should bid as low as you can to get good traffic (whatever you consider *good* to be).

In our example, letกs fast forward. Imagine youกve already gotten 150 clicks, and your average bid has been 22 cents a click. So youกve spent $33, and you haven’t made a sale yet. Should you ditch this campaign?

No. *On average* you can spend $22 per sale. But thatกs an average. Which means that sometimes youกll spend more, and sometimes less. And if your conversion rate is 1%, then thatกs also an *average*. So don’t freak out if you haven’t made a sale after 150 clicks.

When you decide to drop a campaign though, make the decision based on how much you’re spending on it. Not the conversion rate.

When I first start a campaign, Iกll often wait until I spend at least double my advertising budget with no sales before I consider dropping it. Maybe even triple my budget if Iกm emotionally attached to it. 😉

But if I haven’t made any sales by then, Iกll usually stop the campaign. However, you may want to wait longer if you’re willing to spend more money to see if it works. I think Iกm probably more of a conservative.

At any rate, I *rarely* end a campaign before I get 300 clicks. 300 is typically the minimum number of clicks before I feel I can judge whether a campaign will pay off. And I will generally only end it then if Iกve had *zero* sales.

Sometimes, though, youกll make a quick sale and get excited. But then you see few or no sales after that. If you find that you’re consistently spending more than your budget for the first few sales, then get ready to end it if you don’t figure out how to make it better.

I want you to realize, too, that when you bid less on your keywords, you can afford to live with a lower conversion rate. But when you bid more, your conversion rate has to be higher to provide you with the profit you want.

Iกve only talked about *starting* a PPC campaign so far. But sometimes, you may have a PPC campaign thatกs paying off, and then it starts choking and gasping for air after a while.

In that case, you need to decide when to pull the plug and retire it. Otherwise, it may eat up all the profits youกve already made.

Iกll usually be more lenient in this case. Since the campaign has made me money in the past, Iกm more likely to give it the benefit of the doubt and keep it running. I don’t know if thatกs a good idea or not. But sometimes, itกs just hard to say goodbye to an old friend. After all, maybe itกs just a temporary downturn.

But you still have to cut it off at some point. If I find myself breaking even (or even losing money) on each sale for any length of time, then Iกll start thinking about ending the campaign.

In our example here, if you notice that youกve been spending $45 per sale lately, then start thinking about the future of this campaign. Try to figure out whatกs changed and see if you can fix it.

How long should you wait before you abandon it? Two weeks? A month? Ten sales? A hundred sales?

Itกs completely dependent on your situation. If you make 20 sales a day, then obviously worrying after only 20 sales is unwarranted. On the other hand, if it takes you 4 months to make 20 sales, then maybe you shouldn’t wait quite that long. Listen to your gut.

In the end, be aware that PPC management is not a rigid science. You have to use a certain amount of judgment. But try not to be emotionally attached. If a little voice in the back of your head is telling you that you’re spending too much for too little, then listen to it.

What Iกve given you here are guidelines based on my own practices. Iกm sure there are other people who do it differently and are also successful. But these strategies work for me. And Iกm sure you can adapt them to work for you.

About The Author

Dave Brown is a selftaught marketer and software developer. He also publishes the uncommon and uniquely original newsletter on making the most of your life A Fresh Perspective. You can learn more at

http://www.davebrown.com

[email protected]

This article was posted on January 23, 2004

by Dave Brown

Why You Need an ArticleMarketing Strategy before

Why You Need an ArticleMarketing Strategy before Posting a Single Article Online I

by: Dr. Lynella Grant

Part 1 of a 2part series

To read Part 2

http://www.promotewitharticles.com/strategy102.html

First, Define your Bulls Eye

If you’re going to write and post articles on the Internet, be unambiguous about what you expect them to accomplish. Don’t start writing just yet. Think beyond the mechanics of writing an article or deciding where to post it.

It’s one thing to spin out an article or two. It’s quite another to incorporate them into a strategy that builds your website traffic, reputation, and business. All your marketing methods should work together online and off.

Your Strategy Clarifies:

Who you’re trying to reach

How to find them

What you want them to do next (does your website support that aim?)

Your primary goal and message

How articles (with particular titles and keywords) mesh with your other marketing

Article marketing is nothing more than a way to get information (not advertising) broadly distributed on the Internet. It can’t compensate for a muddled or dull message. And it won’t build your site traffic unless it connects to readers in an interesting way.

Write Articles that Trumpet a Unique Business Message

A frequent business error is treating each customer attracting activity as though it stands alone. Yet each method works better when echoing a common message that links to the others.

To quote Roy Williams, the Wizard of Ads, http://www.wizardofads.com กIt’s hard to tell a powerful story badly. But it’s easy to tell a weak story well. I’ve never seen a business fail because they were ‘reaching the wrong people.ก But I’ve seen thousands fail because they were saying the wrong thing… It’s amazing how many people become the กright peopleก when you’re saying the right thing. Believe it or not, it’s advertising third, customer delight second, strategy always first.ก

Maximize your CustomerAttracting Methods

Last year I wrote an ebook showing how to make the business website and Yellow Page ad work together to bring new customers. It made the point that each promotional method has its own strengths, and reaches different groups http://www.yellowpagesage.com/smarts.html. By them working together, each approach does a more persuasive job.

As an example, the directory ad should display a website address. A recent study found that over 60% of people surveyed only call Yellow Page ads that show a website (even if they don’t intend to visit it). Besides, the website lets the business provide information that won’t fit within the dimensions of an ad.

A single approach can’t cover all your bases. The same applies to article marketing.

Article Marketing Strengths

Ability to deliver an interesting กsampleก of your expertise

Long enough to be informative (600800 words)

Reaches and speaks to tightly focused interest groups

Quickly delivers the message throughout the Internet

Long shelf life some websites keep articles posted for years

Builds on the keywords that your website uses

Incominglinks from websites that post your articles

Plan More than One Article at a Time

You can’t develop much momentum with one article. That’s like shooting a gun with a single bullet, or a PPC (payper click) campaign for just one term. The odds of hitting your mark aren’t too good. Several articles written to reinforce each other generate more mileage. As you get more articles out there, people start paying attention, and you can target more keywords. Repeated publications develop a personality that readers recognize.

Plan a number of titles in advance, with a theme building from one to the next. Keep each one tightly focused, but related to the others. In that way, you develop the indepth กvoiceก of an expert. And your information won’t lapse into hohum generalities. Write firstrate articles when you rely on the extensive free resources http://www.promotewitharticles.com at Article Marketing Academy.

Try writing some in a series (like, Part 1 of 3 parts) to build anticipation for future segments. Also, your message won’t be confined to the 600 to 800 word article limit. Since each article in the series resides on your website, readers needn’t wait to read them all (giving them an incentive to visit your site). Later, the whole series can be offered as a special report or ebook (once related material is added).

Write with your keywords in mind. Maintain your primary message, with a different twist for parallel niches. Go to the extra effort to say something new. That’s easy when you provide stories, examples, case studies from your own experience. As you dish out practical assistance in your articles, readers will be eagerly watching for your next ones.

© Lynella Grant

Part 2 includes posting articles, writing to please the search engines, and ways to reuse articles. Part 2 of 2, http://www.promotewitharticles.com/strategy102.html

About The Author

Dr. Lynella Grant http://www.promotewitharticles.com Article Marketing Academy Promote yourself, business, website, or book with articles posted online.

Author, Yellow Page Smarts, http://www.yellowpagesage.com/smarts.html (719) 3959450

[email protected]

This article was posted on January 23

by Dr. Lynella Grant

The Cybermagic of Whitelists

The Cybermagic of Whitelists

by: Niall Roche

Before we start getting deep into the meat of this article itกs important to explain some standard terminology to make sure the rest of this article makes sense.

An IP address is a number which identifies your location on the Internet.

A blacklist is a list of IP addresses which your antispam software uses to block incoming spam.

A whitelist is the exact opposite of a blacklist.

A whitelist is a predefined list of IP addresses that are allowed to send email to and receive email from each other. Blacklists exclude known and suspected spammers. Whitelists can be used to exclude everyone except known IP addresses. Think of it like this. A whitelist is a like having a phonebook which is owned by a small group of people who only wish to speak directly to each other. They don’t want just anybody ringing them. Not only that but the entire group need to approve new phone numbers before they appear in this exclusive phonebook.

To send email to a whitelist you must be approved by the owner of the whitelist. This is a lot like the double optin systems used by legimiate ezines and mailing list owners. Whitelists are the nightclub bouncers of the virtual world if you ain’t on the list you ain’t getting in. Simple but very effective.

A real world example of a whitelist would be if two companies wanted to exchange email only with each other. These companies could implement a whitelist that contained the IP address for just the two email servers that want to send email to each other. That would mean that any email coming from an IP address not on the whitelist would be returned to sender. For companies they can ensure that employees are only dealing with work related email and not chatting with their friends.

The benefits of whitelists are many but proper management of the whitelists is equally important. Misuse of whitelists will only lead to more headaches for everyone involved with missing email, irate customers and IT departments doing overtime just being the tip of the iceberg.

If youกd like to learn more about spam then drop by http://www.spamsite.com today.

About The Author

http://www.spamsite.com reviews and tests spam filtering software for the business and end user. Niall Roche is the content author and owner of spamsite.com.

[email protected]

This article was posted on April 09, 2004

by Niall Roche

Four Tips For Getting More Mileage From Your Artic

Four Tips For Getting More Mileage From Your Articles

by: Bonnie Jo Davis

It has become common knowledge that the smartest and most effective free method of advertising your business and services is to write and submit articles to the over 400,000 ezines currently on the กnet. There are even several ebooks written on the topic, including mine, that will help you take advantage of this effective technique. What do you do next after youกve invested the hours necessary to research, write, proofread, edit and submit your article to thousands of ezine publishers?

I recommend several methods of recycling articles to clients who utilize my article submission services that Iกm going to share with you today:

1. Publish each of your articles on a separate page on your web site. Then take the keywords from that article that you used in the title and text and create a set of meta tags for that page. Use a free meta tag generator like http://www.anybrowser.com/MetaTagGenerator.html to make sure your meta tags are properly formatted and all inclusive. Next, submit the article page to all of the free search engines. Once that page is indexed those keywords will attract searchers to visit your site where you can convert them to loyal customers.

2. Take the article youกve written and customize it for an industry you want to target. For example, I have a client who writes internet promotion articles. After submission she customizes her articles for real estate agents, accountants, ophthalmologists, home health care companies, etc. I then offer the customized articles to the industry associations representing those groups. This tactic has resulted in hundreds of thousands of fresh, new visitors to her web site when an association prints her customized article in their newsletter or magazine.

3. Choose an article youกve written that outlines several key points on a particular topic. Write an in depth, expanded article on each key point. Contact all the publishers on your list and offer them the expanded key point articles and ask them to run them as a series. A series of articles is much more effective than a single article because each potential customer needs to be exposed to you and your business several times before becoming a customer.

4. Take the original article and the expanded key point articles and offer them as an ecourse to people who visit your site and sign up for your ezine. Use a free autoresponder like http://www.sendfree.com to deliver the articles in sequence. This gives you the opportunity to capture email addresses for your ezine and allows you to use a different byline highlighting your services and products with each article delivery.

Use these four tips every time youกve finished submitting an article and you will get thousands of additional targeted visitors to your web site with just a little extra effort!

(c) 2003. Davis Virtual Assistance. All rights reserved.

Permission to publish online or in print is granted so long as the article and byline are printed intact.

About The Author

Bonnie Jo Davis is a Virtual Assistant who specializes in inexpensive marketing promotions for herself and her clients. For more information about Bonnieกs article submission package visit http://www.DavisVirtualAssistance.com and lick on the กpackagesก button.

This article was posted on May 30, 2003

by Bonnie Jo Davis

Time Your News Release For Maximum Publicity

Time Your News Release For Maximum Publicity

by: David Leonhardt

กCindy, whereกs that story? I need it yesterday!ก

กComing right up, boss. Iกll have it to you soon,ก Cindy shouted back.

กYesterday isn’t soon enough!ก

Cindy clicked on her screen. กYou have mail.ก She looked at the messages. ‘three news releases,ก she murmured. กI don’t have time for this now.ก [delete] [delete] [delete]

Stop! Was that your news release Cindy just deleted? Too bad you sent it to her at the wrong time. You may have heard that ‘timing is everythingก and that is even more true in a newsroom. But how do you know when is the best time to send a news release?

Media relations is an art more than a science, so there is no single rule. If there was, everyone would be a media star. Here are a few guidelines to help you zoom ahead of your competition for the mediaกs attention:

Each type of media and each type of journalist is different. Here are just a few of the variables:

National or local media

TV, newspaper, radio or magazine

News reporter, features reporter or columnist

Consumer magazine or trade journal

Daily, weekly or monthly publication

Print or electronic

Each company or organization is different, as is its news. Here are just a few of the variables:

Local, national or international operations

Prescheduled news release, or lastminute reaction to todayกs news.

Product announcement, policy announcement, financial announcement

Bearing in mind the wide range of news you might announce and the wide range of media targets, 9:30 to 11:00 a.m. tends to be the best time of day to release news. You want to give the assignment editor time to send them out to cover your news. If you hope to get into the noon news, you don’t want to go too late, because you run into TV deadlines. Early afternoon is a secondbest time, but if you get much past 2:30, you will catch Cindyกs [delete] button at most daily newspapers and television stations.

I have been asked about the best day of the week to send out a news release. There isn’t one. I have seen plenty of debates on this. From personal experience, the only difference I ever noticed is when I could pick a slow news day. For instance, if in your city the daily newspaper can be reached on Sunday and not too much tends to happen that day in your subject area, you may find it easier to get into Mondayกs newspaper than if you try later in the week. But on average, there is not much difference.

Best time of month, year, etc? Again, there is no single best time. There is one golden rule. Do not send out a release when the world is wrapped up in some allconsuming event like the death of Princess Diana or the attack on the World Trade Center. Remember how much TV airtime and newspaper print space were devoted to those events? The media and its audiences had other things on their minds than your news. You can’t control events, but you can control the timing of your release (most of the time).

How far in advance should you send out your release? Some book reviewers usually need several months. Others don’t want to see your release until the book is on the store shelves. Many consumer magazines have a sixmonth editorial preview. Features editors often run several weeks ahead of time, but sometimes squeeze things in on short notice. News departments want only breaking news. Yesterdayกs news is … well, yesterdayกs news. Your release is already forgotten.

Does all this sound confusing. It is. The bottom line in any marketing is to know your target market and give it what it wants. Same with the media. The guidelines above give a very abbreviated list of what you need to consider. If you are still unsure, a media coach might be a good investment. But be forewarned – find someone with enough experience and success to coach you in the right direction.

About The Author

After a decade and a half as one of Canadaกs top consumer advocates, often conducting over 600 media interviews each year, David Leonhardt is sharing his knowledge with others. Pick up a copy of his special report กGet In The News!ก at http://www.TheHappyGuy.com/PR.html. Home page is http://www.TheHappyGuy.com

[email protected]

This article was posted on December 05, 2002

by David Leonhardt

Six Steps to Creating Online Presentations for Tel

Six Steps to Creating Online Presentations for Telephone Selling

by: Roger C. Parker

How much extra money could you make by closing just one or two additional sales a day? You can double, or even triple, the effectiveness of your telephone selling by showing prospects why they should buy from you, instead of just telling them.

Clients and prospects are visually oriented. They process and retain 75% of the information they see, compared to about 15% of the information they hear.

There are six steps involved in preparing online visuals you and your prospects can look at online during telephone conversations and teleconferences.

Step 1: Desired result

Start by identifying what you want to accomplish during each phone call. Ask yourself:

What is the primary message I want to communicate?

What action do I want my client or prospect to take?

What information can I provide to convince them to take the desired action?

Your answers to these questions will provide the framework you need to begin preparing for your upcoming calls.

Step 2: Benefits

Next, translate your product or service into benefits they will enjoy if they take the action you want them to take. Identify as many different ways as possible your product or service can benefit your client. Be as specific as possible.

Step 3: Framework

Open your presentation program and create an ขemptyข set of visuals to support your upcoming calls. This will provide a framework for developing your telephone sales presentation.

Don’t be concerned the contents of each visual. At this point, don’t stop to fill in the details for each visual. Simply create an empty presentation visual and title for each of the points you want to cover in your upcoming telephone calls.

Hint: You may want to create a template with placeholder visuals to help quickly prepare future presentations.

Step 4: Provide proof

Next, go through your presentation framework and complete each of the visuals by adding appropriate text and graphics. As you complete each visual, strive to make your benefits as specific and as visual as possible. Translate your products or services into added dollars and cents revenue, reduced costs, or time savings.

Whenever possible, show, rather than tell. Translate words into information graphics, like tables, charts, and graphs, to emphasize:

Comparisons, i.e. before and after revenues or expenditures of time and money.

Trends, i.e. growing market share.

Add photographs to personalize and reinforce case studies and testimonials. Use logos, rather than words, to emphasize case studies and satisfied clients.

Step 5: Contingency visuals

Next, prepare to respond to objections that prospects may bring up during your calls.

Start by identifying the possible objections that prospects might come up. Determine how to respond to each one. Then, prepare visuals that will only be used if your prospect brings the specific objection up.

Typical objections concern price, competitive features, ease of use, and economic uncertainty.

Step 6: Upload and rehearse

After reviewing your work, use your presentation program’s Save as… command to save your presentation in the appropriate online format.

Then, upload your presentation to the server where you and your prospects can access it online during calls.

Rehearse your presentation, until you can comfortably proceed from point to point, and easily access the contingency visuals, (if needed).

Consider your webbased presentations a ขwork in progressข that you continually update and refine. Prepare additional visuals as new objections come up. And prepare personalized slide titles and visuals for specific clients and prospects.

About The Author

Let Roger C. Parker help you harness the latest technology to promote your expertise. For more information, please visit www.onepagenewsletters.com.

This article was posted on September 14, 2004

by Roger C. Parker

7 Secrets to Explode your eBook Sales! Part 4

7 Secrets to Explode your eBook Sales! Part 4

by: Bluedolphin Crow

Secret #4: Creating passionate articles will explode your eBook sales!
Aho,
All the experts finally agreed on something. Writing articles about your eBook can be one of the most successful ways of eMarketing.
However, one of the biggest problems on online is learning how to write a great article. You should not just type any old thing and call it an article.
First, you must put your passion, your personality into the article. In addition here are some steps to follow to explode your eBook sales using free articles.
Step 1: Generate an article idea that everyone will want to read about. Review your eBook and look for the benefits that your eBook provides to the readers. Make a list of these benefits.
Now, take one benefit at a time and create an article. This will assure you of generating an article idea that people want to read about.
Step 2: Write a simple outline. Once you have your first benefit idea selected. Take another sheet of paper and write a simple outline for that idea. This will give you the beginning content for your article. Later we will กfill in the blanksก of this simple outline to create the article itself.
Step 3: Choose a killer title that will draw attention. This is one of the most important aspects of your article. Without a killer title, your article will be passed over for another.
Now what do I mean killer title? What I mean is a title that has a benefit stated in it and draws peoples attention.
Answer these three questions to help you write that killer title.

Does the title draw a reader to take a look?
Does the title promise to solve a need for the reader?
Does the title offer specific information?

Another way to start writing killer titles is to write at least 20 to 100 titles for each article to start. Then review other peopleกs article titles. Then review your list and select your best killer title. I will tell you from my own experience that the more titles I write for an article, the better my title becomes. I have never used any of the first few titles when doing the above exercise.
Step 4:
Grab your readers with an attentiongrabbing opening sentence. You can use either a statement or a question here. The idea here is to not only grab the readersก attention. Itกs also to keep it.
The best way I have learned to write an attentiongrabbing opening sentence is to go online to an article directory and read the opening sentences to articles with a similar topic. I then discover which opening sentences are attentiongrabbing and which are not.
Once Iกve done this I find it really easy to get my attentiongrabbing sentence out of the way.
Step 5: State the primary purpose of the article by introducing a problem. By looking at your main benefit again you can turn it around into a problem. What is it like without the benefit? Here it is best to use a statement rather than a question.
If you are having trouble with this step simply write out an answer to this statement: กOne of the biggest problems…ก Use this to jar your idea centers in your mind. You can also begin your primary purpose statement this way. Look at the beginning of this article for an example.
Step 6: Take out the sheet of paper that has your outline on it. Now, write two to four sentences for each part of your outline. Imagine for a moment that a 7 year old has asked you about your article. How would you explain it to that child? Great! Now use that in your article.
Most ezine publishers and owners like articles between 400 to 500 words. They also want it formatted to between 60 and 65 characters per line, including spaces.
I have found it best to use กnotepadก when beginning to write out my articles and NOT a word processing program. This way there is NO formatting in the article. It is just the article in plain text.
Another point here is to use the word กyouก a lot. You want the reader to feel comfortable while reading.
Step 7: Include two to three free resources that the reader can find online to illustrate and/or highlight your article content. Using this of course is only if it is appropriate to your article content.
Step 8: Write a resource box for the end of your article. Make this between 4 to 8 lines max. Here is where you tell a little bit about yourself and then highlight your website or email address. See the bottom of this article for an example of a resource box. It is the information that follows, กabout the author,ก below.
Step 9: And finally, with your article written it is time to reread and rewrite. I have found that reading it aloud and/or having one or two other people read it helps a lot at this stage.
Don’t run into a problem many beginning article writers fall into. Many of them don’t like something they wrote and try to begin again. STOP! Don’t begin again. Simply edit around the copy that flows.
Step 10: Now last but definitely not least, reread your article for grammar mistakes and use spell check one last time! This IS the most important step.
Once your article is done you should do the following two things.
1. Submit your article to กarticle announceก services online. An article announce service is a email service that posts articles for everyone. You have to be a member to submit your article. Once you join you can post your articles as you have them completed. Usually only one article submission to each of the announce services per day.
Writers, Publishers and Website owners watch the articles being announced for content that they can use.
When you join these services, it is best to use a second email address. This way the large numbers of articles you will be receiving will not interrupt your personal and business email.
Here are a few article announce services to subscribe to. After you email them to subscribe, READ the email they send you and FOLLOW the directions on formatting your article for each of them. This will increase your ability of having your articles published in these services.
I have listed only article announce services that are located at Yahoo eGroups. After you have subscribed and read each email you receive. Go to this URL to post your articles:
http://groups.yahoo.com/mygroups
Article Announce groups:
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mailto:[email protected]
NOTE: to subscribe simply send a blank email to each of the addresses above.
Ok Great! Now its time to submit your article to online article archives and article directories. Article directories and archives are web sites that contain hundreds and thousands of articles from all over the world. Once you post your article at one of these locations your articles will be in front of thousands of readers, Publishers, writers and website owners.
Here are three to get you started:

http://www.1stinarticles.com
http://www.webmomz.com/users/signup.shtml
http://www.goarticles.com

Well thatกs it for today.
Thank you for reading. Have a great week!
Blessings
Bluedolphin Crow
Copyright 2004 Bluedolphin Crow All Rights Reserved.

About The Author

Bluedolphin Crow Ph.D. is a Native American with 6 years internet Marketing Experience and 20 years Sales and Marketing experience. The above article is an excerpt from her upcoming eBook: eBookMarketingSecretsRevealed! To reserve your FREE copy before publication (A $49 value) send a blank email to: mailto:[email protected]

กHow to eBooks Free eZine: mailto:[email protected]

http://www.lostdazedandconfused.com

[email protected]

This article was posted on July 28, 2004

by Bluedolphin Crow

5 HighImpact Marketing Tips

5 HighImpact Marketing Tips

by: Bob Leduc

Here are 5 highimpact marketing tips you can use to boost your sales quickly. All are simple to implement and they involve little or no new expense.

1. Promote Only One Thing at a Time

Promote only 1 product or service each time you advertise. Many people have difficulty selecting one product when their decision forces them to delay or reject buying something else they also want. When prospects cannot make an easy choice they often make no decision at all …and you lose the sale.

Tip: Offer new customers a related product or service immediately after they buy from you. Many will accept your offer, producing an easy sale without jeopardizing the initial purchase.

2. Provide Multiple Ways for Customers to Buy

Providing choices of what to buy will reduce your sales. But providing choices of how to buy will increase your sales. Offer many different ways for customers to buy from you. The same method is not convenient for everybody. Prospective customers are more likely to act immediately when their favorite way of ordering is available.

3. Avoid Your Competitors

Look for some new niche markets you and your competitors overlooked. You may uncover a market you can dominate with little or no competition.

One quick and easy way to find profitable new markets is to subdivide your current market into several narrowly defined niche markets. Then customize your advertising to the unique needs of prospects in each niche market.

Tip: You can narrow the appeal of an existing web site without losing its effectiveness with your main market. Just create customized web pages for each market segment you want to target. Then add a link to each of these specialized pages on your home page.

4. Use Alternative Marketing

Look for alternative media your competitors may be overlooking. For example, many internet marketers are beginning to use direct mail postcards to generate traffic to their web sites. It?s a low cost way to bypass the heavy competition online.

A brief captivating message on a postcard with an enticing offer sent to the right prospects will generate a flood of traffic to your website or a large number of sales leads.

Tip: Postcards are also an excellent lowcost alternative to email. People get so much email today that even legitimate messages are getting deleted unread. But they get few if any postcards. Your message is guaranteed to get their attention when itกs delivered on a postcard.

5. Encourage Questions

You?re walking away from a lot of easy sales if you don?t encourage prospects to ask questions about your product or service.

Only interested prospects will take the time to ask questions. Many will buy …especially if you answer their question quickly and completely. You can even include a promotion for your product or service as part of your answer.

Make it easy for prospects to ask questions when they are at your web site or in other selling situations where there is no personal contact. For example, provide a phone number or an email address they can use to ask questions.

Tip: If you find yourself personally answering a lot of questions, add a Questions and Answers section to your web site or your sales brochure. Include the answers to the most frequently asked questions. It will reduce the number of questions you have to answer personally.

Each of these 5 marketing tips provides a simple way for you to boost your sales quickly …and for little or no new expense.

Copyright 2004 Bob Leduc

http://BobLeduc.com

About The Author

Bob Leduc spent 20 years helping businesses like yours find new customers and increase sales. He just released a New Edition of his manual, How To Build Your Small Business Fast With Simple Postcards …and launched *BizTips from Bob*, a newsletter to help small businesses grow and prosper. Youกll find his lowcost marketing methods at: http://BobLeduc.com or call: 7026581707 After 10 AM Pacific Time/Las Vegas, NV

This article was posted on October 26, 2004

by Bob Leduc

Why Have An Article Website?

Why Have An Article Website?

by: George

Know the fact
Presumably, you already knew what internet is all about. Its all about content. With free quality content, you can easily attract the masses. Some may consider this as an investment while some may treat it as a hobby.
If you are wondering, why some may treat it as an investment. What are there to invest in? Well basically, having your own article website can often be the most powerful marketing weapon. You can increase your product sales or even attract many advertisers to place advertisement (Banners, text links) at your website should the site grows. Visitors will stay at your web site longer because there are lots of articles to read. This gives you additional opportunities at getting more click throughs to your affiliate programs. You could feature links to your affiliate programs on each page you have articles.
While for hobby purpose, some just want to share their knowledge.
In either case, you as the writer, will be treated as a professional by the public within your article categories range.
Now you have a brief idea of benefit in having an article website so how do you go along creating one? Letกs imagine in the case where you have establish a very popular article resource site, consisting of some excellent graphic designer and some awardwinning writers. How can you make sure each of the individual does their job well and focus on only their section of professionalism? For example, most designers ensure that your article website content looks great. This is what they do best. Writers on the other hand, write excellent articles but can’t draw well or build websites.
Hence, you need to allow everyone to concentrate on what they are best at and bring their output together to provide the website a pleasant place for your visitors. The answer? Vezine Content Management application software is what you need.
Brief introduction to Vezine
As you may already have referred to Vezineกs website, it is an online content management software that helps you create a full article website easily. Vezine allows you, the owner or administrator (as you call it) manage not only articles, but also allows you to handle your writers, designers and files or images uploaded for any individual articles well.
In addition, Vezine recognizes that Search Engine Friendly Optimization is especially important. Without optimization, your listing in the search engine will not be in a good position.
Search Engine Optimization (SEO) can be easily enhance within your Vezineกs administrator panel. The most common optimizing options are friendly URL and meta keywords and descriptions for each individual articles. You can already see an example here in this site.
So as earlier on, we are talking about having individual professionals to each handle their own job well. For this, Vezine allows you create multiple Groups. For example, you may want to create a Writer group. Allow this group to access only the Articles Management section and throw all writerกs account into this group and have them login into the admin panel. Once login, they will be restricted with a limited access. Allowing them to only create articles but not tamper with the website templates and designs.
Of course, do the same by creating a Designer group, whereby you should only allow them to access the Templates Management section of the administrator panel. This is how and what you should consider if you want to create a successful article resource website.
There is more to it than meets the eye for this application, hence it is out of the scope for this article to provide a detail explaination for each feature. Check out: http://www.vezine.com/features.php for more information that may surprise you.
Having a successful article website
Now, if you have decided or have already run an article resource website, you will most likely want to stand out among other popular site within your categories.
The most obvious point you should bear in mind is to, keep your article content fresh and updated. Using free content available in the market are not advisable. Try to come out with something unique and perhaps do some comparison, like what interesting or popular topics your competitors do not have as you can consider creating for your site. You can easily know this by doing some market research in various community forums. Just remember, quality content is king!
Another point to note is to spice up some interesting RSS feeds to the public. RSS stands for Really Simple Syndication. It is an XMLbased format for content distribution that contains a list of items, each of which is identified by a link. Each item can have any amount of metadata associated with it. RSS allows the user or their trafffics to see your site topics without going out of their way to visit it. While this seems bad at first glance, it actually improves your siteกs visibility; by making it easier for your users to keep up to date with your site allowing them to see it the way they want to itกs more likely that theyกll know when something that interests them is available on your site.
You can easily do so with Vezine, create as many feed as you want. An example can be found here in this site, located at your right hand side (Latest News). Once someone click on the topic title, s/he will be redirected to the site where the original content is (Full Story).
Of course, in order to attract audience to use your feeds on their website, you will need to convince them with fresh and updated content often as mentioned above. Hence, whenever new articles are being publish by you or your writers, your audienceกs website who are using your feeds will also have the latest articles topic listed. This is one of the benefit of RSS.
Optionally, have designers to design a nice professional looking theme for your Vezine. Navigation usuability do play a big role in this, so choose someone who you are sure they have knowledge in this. Refer to The Art Of Vezine for an idea on how to design themes for your Vezine.
Conclusion
Now that you have got a brief idea on what are the benefits of running an article resource site, and an overview of Vezine. You can start right away now. Get yourself a Vezine license and pick up experience as you go and be patient.
Try to focus more on the qualities of your article content instead of giving too much attention to your SEO. Remember, word of mouth by the public is also another way to booast your web siteกs reputation.
If writing articles is not within your professionalism, try and get a few writers for help. Perhaps pay them even (Remember I said investment?). Or, you can take this chance as a challenge and write a few articles about what you know or do best in.
No matter what, should you have or decided to run an article resource site, do remember the points stated herein this article. There are lots of great articles or tutorials here in Vezine.net, supplying you various tips on using Vezine and how to do job faster.
Read them up and best of luck!

About The Author

George as a Web Designer has been involved with numerous server side programming with PHP and MySQL in the past and current. Visit Vezine Articles for more info.

This article was posted on June 04, 2004

by George

Make front page news by NOT inviting the media

Make front page news by NOT inviting the media

by: David Leonhardt

Not a single reporter showed up at our news event. And we were THRILLED!

Not a single photographer showed up to capture the moment. And we were pleased as punch!

Not a single newspaper knew about the event. And we received front page coverage in every one!

You can make front page news by keeping the media away. But how did we do it? Here is the media relations plan we used:

BACKGROUND: A few years ago, I was working for a politician. In fact, he was a Canadian Member of Parliament (MP). That was about the time that Canada Post decided not to deliver mail to homes in new developments. Instead, new homeowners had to pick up their mail at community กsuperboxesก near the end of their streets. After laying down big bucks for fancy new homes, people expected the same doortodoor service they were used to, and my MP took the heat . . . even though Canada Post was an armslength organization of the government.

GOAL: Our goal was to demonstrate that my MP cared, that he was on their side, that he was doing everything he could to help them.

IDEA: One of the complaints the new residents had was that they were not receiving their junk mail (Go figure!), including weekly grocery specials and, by coincidence, my MPกs mailing to constituents. This gave me an idea. Why not send my MP door to door to deliver his bulletin, explaining how he, too, was frustrated that Canada Post would not deliver his bulletin to them.

CHALLENGE NUMBER ONE: But what about the majority of people who would not be home to see how my MP shared their gripes? We needed media coverage, so that everyone would read about it in their local newspaper.

CHALLENGE NUMBER TWO: This is a juicy story for reporters. Imagine the headlines: ‘resident sock it to MPก. Imagine the photos of angry residents waving their fists in rage against Canada Post. My MP would not look good one bit. The media had to stay away. But how would we get media coverage?

METHOD: We would have to report to the media กafter the factก that my MP had just gone doortodoor. We would have to supply everything the newspapers would need so that they have no need to recreate the event, search for angry residents to interview or ignore the story altogether.

First I wrote a news release. OK, so it did not read quite like a typical news release. It read like a newspaper article. Actually, it read like five different newspaper articles, because I wrote a completely different story for each of the five newspapers in the area. To some degree, I was able to emulate each oneกs style.

Next, we decided to provide photographs. We dressed my MP in a postal cap and had him carrying a postal bag. I snapped shots of him at doorways chatting with residents. This was just too กhuman interestก for any newspaper to ignore. Off to the onehour photo developer, then we chose the five best shots and attached one to each of the news releases.

Zoom, zoom. We hand delivered an envelope to each newspaper. The entire process took us just five hours from knocking on the first door.

RESULT: Each newspaper had its own, unique, original story with its own, unique, original photo. This made the journalists happy. Four out of the five editors even used the headlines I provided! It also made readers, many of who received two or three of the newspapers, believe the media had been there in person . . . making the story all the more credible.

Can you repeat this success? Yes. If you want to get great media coverage, but you are afraid the media will pick up a negative angle, this is the recipe to use:

Position your business as you would like to be seen.

Find a way to demonstrate your position or characteristic.

Write the story for each newspaper as the newspaper would write it, but place it in the format of a news release.

Get some great visuals, going for action or something with a twist, and ensure each newspaper has a unique photo.

Let the newspapers know that no other media outlet has the same photograph.

Of course, it is always best to invite the media to your event and serve donuts, but sometimes NOT inviting them is a better way to get not just กaก story, but the กrightก story.

About The Author

David Leonhardt offers dozens more creative ways to make your business front page news in the media relations กhowtoก guide Get In The News! at http://TheHappyGuy.com/publicityselfpromotionreport.html . For basic media interview training, visit http://TheHappyGuy.com/mediarelationsvideo.html, or find out more about David Leonhardt at http://thehappyguy.com.

[email protected]

This article was posted on June 06, 2003

by David Leonhardt

Simplify Your Message For An Effective ENewslette

Simplify Your Message For An Effective ENewsletter

by: Michael J. Katz

If you’re old enough to know your total cholesterol count off the top of your head (217), you may remember a man by the name of Jim Fixx.

Fixx gained prominence in 1977 with the publication of his book, The Complete Book of Running, and is widely credited with singlehandedly starting the jogging craze in this country. Unfortunately, Fixx died suddenly in 1984.

Hearing what had happened, my Aunt Esther — a woman known for sometimes not quite getting her facts straight — gave me the news: ‘the guy who invented running died.ก

Admittedly, a bit of an oversimplification. However, with those six simple words she had captured the essence — if not the absolute factual truth — of the story. Before Fixxกs book came out, running around the neighborhood for exercise was not a common practice, and in many ways, he had กinventedก running.

Iกm here to tell you that when it comes to effective communication with an audience, my Aunt Esther had it right — essence matters more than facts.

How many times have you been forced to endure 85 slides worth of a speakerกs Power Point presentation, getting to the point where you start looking for a way to unobtrusively take your own life? Invariably, the problem isn’t that the data is wrong or even lacking in value, itกs that itกs delivered in a way that is too detailed and too convoluted for the average human being to digest. You arrive eager to learn something, but the delivery itself gets in the way.

Many newsletters suffer from the same กgood information; poor deliveryก syndrome. The facts are there, but the reader is not able to — or not interested in — finding them. With that in mind, I offer some suggestions for being heard and appreciated:

Pick one idea. I always find it kind of funny that the biggest worry people have about producing a newsletter is กrunning out of content,ก and yet the biggest problem I see is ‘too much content in each issue.ก You don’t need to explain your entire field of expertise in each issue any more than you need to review everything you know each time you eat lunch with a client. Break it up into little pieces. Youกll have more content to choose from next time and your readers will find it easier to hear your message.

Boil it down. An ENewsletter is really just a glorified email, and mixed in with all the jokes, appointment confirmations and pieces of information that fly into our respective inboxes every day, this is not a medium that lends itself well to lots of detail. Be prepared to edit, simplify and throw out information on your way to getting to the heart of the matter.

Speak like a human being. I don’t know who started the rumor that business communication must be formal to be valuable, but it seems to have caught on nonetheless — thatกs an opportunity for you and me. Your readers will find it a breath of fresh air to กhearก the people behind the newsletter. Nobody is interested in reading one more กcritical communicationก from a company that claims to be, ‘the leading provider of cross platform broadband solutionsก (or whatever). If you can’t read your newsletter out loud to your spouse without bursting out laughing, youกve got too much marketingspeak in there.

Bottom Line: Youกve got 800 words of opportunity each month to get your message across. Sure youกve got to have something useful to give your audience, but remember that these people are busy, tired and often just plain bored. Make your publication the one they wait for and youกll never again live in fear of the delete key.

About The Author

Michael J. Katz is Founder and Chief Penguin of Blue Penguin Development, Inc., (http://www.BluePenguinDevelopment.com) a Boston area consulting firm that helps clients increase sales by showing them how to nurture their existing relationships, and that specializes in the development of electronic newsletters. He is the author of the book, ENewsletters That Work.

This article was posted on January 06

by Michael J. Katz