Is There Any Benefit to Having Your Article Published on a Smaller Website?

Shakespeare & Co.
Originally uploaded by Glynnis Ritchie

We've talked about the purpose of article directories and how when you get your article published on a directory that the chances of your article being re-published compound.

Now, who are these websites that are picking up your article for publication at the article directories?

Well, sometimes they're ezine editors, sometimes they're blog owners, sometimes they're folks with websites who want to have a good article waiting for their target readers when they arrive at their site.

You don't get to pick and choose which sites pick up your article for publication any more than the author of a book in the library gets to choose who checks it out.

But what if someone from an smaller or brand new website reprints your article on their site? That isn't a high ranking website that can bolster your rankings in Google–what's the purpose of that? 

There are a few key things you need to know:

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Resource Box Rehab: It’s Not Just About Links…

Image Poster for Triage

Recently we've been collecting resource boxes from folks who would like some pointers on how the author bio box that sits below their articles could be better. 

I did an initial "triage" of the resource box candidates and this is what I noticed:

• Some resource boxes were absolutely excellent, and I wouldn't change a thing!
• Some resource boxes were pretty good, but could benefit from some simple tweaks to take them from good to great.
• Some resource boxes were passable, but could definitely be made better with a moderate overhaul.
• Some resource boxes were on life support and in need of attention NOW!

We'll cover a variety of resource boxes and different types of challenges in upcoming posts, but for now in true "triage" fashion, we're going to attend to the resource boxes that are the most needy.

You may be wondering, "What constitutes a resource box that's on life support?" Read more…

Go Keyword Crazy: How To Sabotage Your Article Marketing #10

Horse and buggy under autumn tree, near Salem
Originally uploaded by jerryhobbs

This is the thrilling conclusion of the 10 part series How To Sabotage Your Article Marketing…And What To Do About It!

We're all in the same boat here–all of us are at various stages of learning how to market and drive traffic to our websites.

If you're like most folks, when you first start marketing your website you probably didn't have any idea about any of the SEO stuff, such as keywords. 

Then after a while, you learned what keywords are and what their purpose is, and you got the general impression that you're supposed to be using keywords in your website and in your article marketing campaign.

Perhaps you've overheard bits and pieces of information, such as "use your keywords in your articles to attract Google's attention" and "putting your keywords in your titles is extra effective."

And then you take that information and try to do the best you can with it.

No one can blame you for that–even the most experienced SEO junkie is constantly learning, constantly trying to figure out how things work. 

But I have to tell you, I see more articles than I'd like to admit that look like they've been peppered with a keyword machine gun, with keywords just sprayed throughout the title, the article body and the resource box with no attention to the writing quality and educational content.

This is not what you're going for!  

When it comes to keywords, balance it the key. 

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Write Off-Topic Articles: How To Sabotage Your Article Marketing #8

Browncoat Ball: Shall We Dance?
Originally uploaded by ZiggyB

This is Part 8 in the 10 part series How To Sabotage Your Article Marketing…And What To Do About It!

Every now and then someone will write in saying that they are not seeing the results they were hoping for with article marketing, and they'd like some feedback as to where they could be going wrong. 

Then I look at their list of articles and start wondering,

"Hmmm, were all of these articles written to drive traffic back to the same website?"

You see, some of the articles are on the topic of "stereo systems" and others are on the topic of "ballroom dancing" and then others are on the topic of "parenting". 

I check the resource boxes and sure enough–all of the articles are trying to drive traffic back to the same website…a website that sells stereo systems.

What is wrong with this picture?

When you're trying to get a grip on what you should write your articles about and why it's so important to stick to a certain topic, it helps to start with the basics.

First, let's refresh our memories about why we're actually doing article marketing in the first place:

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Give Up Just As You’re Getting Started: How To Sabotage Your Article Marketing #5

This is Part 5 in the 10 part series How To Sabotage Your Article Marketing…And What To Do About It!

We all LOVE immediate gratification, don't we?

This is why we start workout programs, hit the gym hard for a few days in a row, and then look in the mirror expecting to suddenly look like:

a) Arnold Schwarzenegger back in his "Terminator" days OR

b) Linda Hamilton back in her "Terminator 2" days (remember her arms?)

And then when we see that we still look very much the same way we did at the beginning of the week, we get frustrated, think "Ugh, this is taking too long!", and then promptly eat 3 slices of pizza and a hot fudge sundae.  

Yes, most of us (myself included!) do have a tendency to want to see immediate results with anything we do, and this includes article marketing.  

One of the most common reasons why folks don't see the results they were hoping for with article marketing is giving up too soon after expecting results immediately.

I just want to be up front with you about what you can expect with Article Marketing as far as the time frame goes:
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10 Ways to Sabotage Your Article Marketing…and What to Do About It!

Have you ever in your adult years thought that you had a chance at someday competing in the Olympics? 

Well, I have for a while now.

Every time the Olympics comes around I just get a surge of "I could do that!" enthusiasm, and all the sudden my brain jumps from the thought "maybe I should workout more often" to "maybe if I trained really hard I could be a world class athlete!"  

I know I have a wild imagination , but does anyone else all of the sudden feel like starting an intensive workout program when the Olympics comes around?

It's the thought, "Maybe I could really do this!" that gets us all excited and gives us the energy and drive to start something new. 

At the beginning we're all excited, with visions of being totally buff, or perhaps winning a gold medal some day Then we follow a program for a week, maybe 2 weeks, and one day we wake up and realize we're disenchanted with what we're doing, because…

• The results are not coming fast enough.

• We're not even sure if we're doing this "getting in shape" thing right.

• We see other folks getting major results with (what appears to be) minimal effort, and we think there may be something genetically wrong with us that we can't spontaneously morph into a superb specimen of the human form.

Little by little, lots of times without even realizing it, a bit of self-sabotage keeps us from fulfilling our true potential.

We get off the program, we skip doing things that we know we're supposed to do, we have unreal expectations for results, then we shake our fist in the air and think, "Ugh! This isn't working for me!"

I've said it before and I'll say it again, undertaking an article marketing campaign is a lot like starting a workout program…

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5 Things To Do Before You Start Article Marketing…

Lucky number 5
Originally uploaded by Darwin Bell

From time to time I'll get an email from a person saying, "I've submitted several articles and I'm still not seeing results."

My first questions to them are always–

• What type of results are you looking for?

• What is your means of measuring your results?

• How long have you been article marketing and how many articles a month have you been submitting?

Sometimes the person's answer is,

"I don't think I'm getting any results because I haven't had very much of an increase in sales on my website, which is why I'm doing article marketing. I submitted 5 articles the first month, then I got busy the second month and didn't submit any, and this month (my third month) I've submitted a couple."

At this point I'm wishing that I had the ability to turn back the hands of time so that I could tell this person some very helpful tips before she started that would have eased her mind, helped her measure her results more accurately, and increased her success rate.

For anyone who has just stared doing article marketing, or is on the verge of starting, or who is considering starting, I've got 5 tips for you that will make your life easier.

Oh, and even if you've been submitting articles for a while now and didn't have these tips when you started–it is never to late to do these!

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Reader Question: Why Do Article Directories Ask Me for My Keywords?

Words …
Originally uploaded by Ieneke

When you're submitting your articles, either manually through the directories themselves or automatically through SubmitYOURArticle.com, you may have noticed a field in the "enter article" page that asks you to insert your keywords.

What exactly is done with the keywords that you type into the keywords box when you're entering your article?

Great question!

The keywords you type in are used on many sites where some keywords are wanted for the meta keywords tags for the page where the article is published. In plain English, meta keyword tags are a technical thing to help Google and the other search engines determine what your article is about. Additionally, these keywords also help search functions on some article directories.

And here's another thing–If you've been submitting articles through SubmitYOURArticle.com, you can look at our own article directory and look up some of your articles.

Find one of your articles and click through to the full article page–look at the URL (the web page address) for the page that your article is on.

Notice anything interesting?

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How To Market Your Articles With Your RSS Feed

I know what you're thinking–"I thought I was doing article marketing to market my website, and now I need to market my articles? Sheesh!" 

Well, it's not a must, but it certainly does help

Don't worry that there's too much involved–if you're a member of SubmitYOURArticle.com, we've got a really easy way for your to market your articles with your own personal author RSS feed. 

What's an RSS feed?

RSS stands for Real Simple Syndication. If someone ever decided that they wanted to receive all of your articles, they could subscribe to your RSS feed, which they can find through our article directory. You could also share your RSS feed on your site and encourage folks to subscribe. 

There are a few different things you can do with an RSS feed, but for our marketing purposes here, basically there is a link that you can insert in your website, or on your blog or into any other sort of web page, that makes it so that a list of your articles will appear linking back to your full article in our directory. Every time you publish a new article, the list on the site where your feed is automatically gets updated. 

How to find the RSS feed for your articles:

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How To Appropriately Use Your Keywords In Your Article Titles

dhow
Originally uploaded by Farl

Recently we've talked about what keywords are and how to do keyword research, but when you've finally decided what keywords you'll be using on your website, how do you use that knowledge in your article marketing campaign?

Great question!

Keywords are useful to Google and the other search engines because they help categorize what your web page (or the web page that your article appears on) is about. There are a few areas that Google pays extra attention to when trying to establish what your web page is about, and your title is one of them.

I would suggest trying to naturally work your keywords into your titles, if possible. 

Notice I said "naturally"–as we've discussed before, your title is like curb appeal for your article.

First and foremost you want to craft an attention grabbing title that will draw readers in, but I think you'll find that you can also use your keywords most or some of the time when you're crafting titles. 

Here's what NOT to do…

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