Article Weblog

Have you fallen for the article marketing trap? Sending out second rate articles, worrying too much about word count and ignoring all the things that would make your effort more successful?

Article marketing has swept through the internet like an avalanche. Virtually everyone knows about the technique but very few are doing it well. Many people are actually ruining their reputation by ignoring article marketing best practices.

As an article newsgroup moderator and article marketing expert I am in the trenches everyday. Increasingly, I reject more articles than I accept. More and more often I hear complaints from publishers that the articles submitted to them are pure crap. Many of these publishers complain that article submission software is to blame. I have to disagree. Here is what I think is causing the majority of problems:

* People who want to use the technique without learning how.

* Private label articles flooding the market.

* Plaigarism and copyright violations.

* Lousy articles with no redeeming values.

* Off topic articles driving publishers crazy.

* Articles that are too short or too long.

* Writers who won’t divulge their identity and only use their by-line for advertising a website.

Can you connect the dots to find out where the article marketing problems lie? With the article marketer. The article marketer, like myself, loves the technique but is often strapped for time. Instead of writing unique articles or hiring a ghostwriter to write for them they get lazy. Stupidity and carelessness is also a factor but I bet being lazy causes most of the problems.

I believe that laziness is the root of all evil in the article marketing world. Any type of marketing with not work unless effort is expended and techniques are repeated regularly and reliably. Please do me a favor. If you can’t make the effort then don’t use the technique.

Article marketing done badly is far more damaging then not using the technique at all. It only works when you create quality work and follow submission rules. Don’t blame the publishers for your shoddy articles and don’t spend hours on forums complaining that the technique doesn’t work. It does work. It has worked for me and for many others but it won’t work for you if you insist on being lazy and irresponsible.

Make a commitment today to write well, submit only on topic unique articles and to hire help if you need it. Your best efforts will be the catalyst to better results and will support the growth of the article marketing community. Let’s use the technique wisely so that it remains a viable part of internet marketing.

© 2006, Davis Virtual Assistance. Reprint rights granted to all venues so long as the article and by-line are reprinted intact and all links are made live.

Bonnie Jo Davis is an article marketing expert who takes great pride in helping work at home parents, entrepreneurs, small business owners and enthusiastic hobbyists exploit the power of the written word. To learn how to grow your business with article marketing or to join her affiliate program visit http://www.WriteYourWayToProfit.com today!

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Your query letter can be a deal maker or a deal breaker. So, if your query letter just lies there, you’ve killed the sale immediately or your story or novel immediately. If you want that story — your baby — to be read, reach out of that query letter, grab the publisher, editor or literary agent by the neck and say, “Hey, you absolutely have to have this story!”
Query letters that begin with “Hello, My name is. . .” have as much chance of selling as vacation trips to Baghdad. Remember, your query is like a r

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One of the best ways to get inbound links to your website is through article marketing. You can submit articles to websites, ezines, and article directories, and by including a link to your website in the resource box of the article you will open up the potential for many inbound links to your website. You can have the most informative, helpful, interesting website out there but what good is it if it can’t be found?

Search engines like articles and many people will read and link to articles that are interesting and informative for subjects that they are interested in. Articles are a low cost way to generate links, boost your search engine rankings, locate new prospects and open up a flood of targeted traffic to your web site.

Recently many people have realized that Google and other search engines have started to crack down on reciprocal linking. So more website owners are realizing that articles provide people on the Internet with a new way to get useful information and in turn, provide more links for their websites.

Writing a content rich article takes time and comes easily for some people but can be very difficult for others. Many people are writing articles that have no useful content and are using the same articles that others have already submitted. This is not a good idea since the articles have already been listed on the search engines and article directories and could be linked to other web sites.

Most importantly, you can not expect people to want to read, link-to and circulate an article that is poorly written, full of mistakes, lacking content and does not provide any new or useful information.

Articles can be used for marketing your website in many different ways, here are a couple.

* Ezines - You can use ezines to brand yourself fast without spending a penny. Get your articles featured in multple ezines every week and your name will be remembered. You will not have trouble finding ezines to publish your articles, and they are always looking for new content. There are over 100,000 ezines on the Internet.

* Newsgroups - Do a search relating to your specific topic. You can either search the newsgroups through a search box, or manually scroll through them. Select some related to your articles and monitor these groups. Once you feel comfortable with a group, post a message offering one of your free articles and make sure to include a link back to your website in the resource box.

The resource box is very important and should always be included with your articles. It’s possible that millions of people could see your resource box. This is free advertising for your website.

The resource box should be about 5 lines and should contain at least one keyword or keyword phrase that is also contained in your website and your website’s keyword meta tag. This will help to increase your search engine optimization. But, do not over do it! It’s amazing how sophisticated todays search engines are.

Included in your resource box are your name, your website address, 1 to 3 sentences that describes your USP or Unique Selling Proposition and a call to action. Use only one call to action which gives them a reason to visit your website.

Article marketing gives others more exposure to your valuable content while also increasing your websites visibility and online exposure. You are doing good for others while also receiving it back many times.

Many thousands of people are looking for specific information on a specific topic. You can save them countless hours of fruitless searches by writing good content articles with useful information written in an interesting and thought provoking way, on the topics that interest them.

Through years of research Joe Rispoli has put together the most relevant of free advertising resources to get you started on the right path to accomplishing your online marketing goals!

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