Article Distribution vs. Guest Blogging: Is There a Difference?
by ©Karon Thackston ©2009
www.copywritingcourse.com

To many people, the idea of guest blogging is fresh and new and very “Web 2.0.” Personally, I find the discussion to be a rather déjà vu-like experience. In fact, one participant on my blog responded to a post about articles by asking how I would contrast guest blogging with article marketing. He wanted to know how I chose between placing my articles on directories and writing an exclusive blog post. The short answer is: I don’t.

Remembering the Good Old Days of Article Marketing
Circa 1990, the first article directories began to pop up online with the invention of ezines (email magazines). Many publishers of these soon-to-be-popular email newsletters quickly got tired of writing all the content themselves. Others decided to offer compilations of recent articles published by others about a particular topic.

The article directories provided a wonderful new outlet for gathering quality content in exchange for a simple bio at the end with a link back to the author’s site. Articles were written to provide quality information to readers in the hope that they would favor the author with a click.

A few of the many benefits of article marketing were (and still are):

– Increasing traffic to your website
– Positioning before a highly targeted audience
– Branding yourself as an expert
– SEO
– Online networking and exposure before new groups of people
– Free advertising
– Infinite archiving of your material
– Almost instant propagation throughout the Internet

With changes in link popularity, it soon became common knowledge that using keyword-rich anchor text carried more weight with engines than simple http: links. As is typical with so many Internet-based marketing methods, the article marketing landscape began to be overtaken by spammers.

A Twisted Sense of Article Marketing
A push for quantity quickly took over the article marketing arena and left quality articles in their wake. The invention of article writing software that illegally harvests snippets of text from existing online content and the invention of article blaster software gave speed to those looking to distribute what are now referred to as “junk articles.”

While this may have caused a decrease in the quality of links coming from article directories, the other marketing benefits remain to this day. Quality articles that get picked up from directories and republished on website pages, in ezines and on blogs still enjoy the benefits article marketing has always offered.

Enter Guest Blogging
The advent of blogging and other social media outlets gave new opportunities for professionals to share their expertise with others. Companies as well as individuals found many advantages to publishing blogs including:

– Increasing traffic to your website
– Positioning before a highly targeted audience
– Branding yourself as an expert
– SEO
– Online networking and exposure before new groups of people
– Free advertising
– Infinite archiving of your material
– Almost instant propagation throughout the Internet

(Hmm… sounds familiar. Where have I heard this before?)

When we look back at blogging after two or three more years, will it have followed a path similar to article distribution? Will the evil, greedy powers that be attempt to stamp out the benefits of guest blogging in the near future? It’s very possible. We’re seeing it to some extent already. Trackbacks and ping backs are being manipulated by spammers as we speak.

Search Engine Optimization Issues
The same dark SEO clouds that hang over article marketing can be seen drifting towards blogs. Concerns about duplicate content can be voiced with regard to blog replication as well as articles. Entire blogs are duplicated on scraper sites every single day within seconds of the original posts being made public.

Should you be concerned? I’m not.
Truth is, article marketing is not devoid of search engine benefits as some claim. While the link quality of article directories themselves may have been degraded over time, they only account for one source of links. That’s because the article directories were just a jumping off point. They should never have been viewed as the final destination of articles. The goal has always been to have your article picked up from directories and reprinted on authority sites or blogs. That’s where your linking benefits come in.

Even if I get no SEO benefits from article marketing or guest blogging, I’d still do both on a regular basis. It’s not an either/or choice for me: it’s good marketing. Since long before the Internet was ever thought of, professionals would strive to gain exposure by having their articles published in print magazines. This type of marketing has proven to be successful for decades, online and off, and it’s still a valid marketing method today.

About the Author: Want to make the most of your article marketing campaign? Learn effective tactics and techniques to boost link popularity and rankings with articles. Get more info today at
http://www.searchenginecollege.com/article-marketing-distribution-course.shtml.

If you do not design your own website pages or work with HTML, be sure that your website designer knows the importance of the title tag in you Meta Tags. An example of how it looks:
<title>Marketing Ezine for Online Entrepreneurs</title>

The following are some tips to boost your title tag optimization:
–Length: 70 characters maximum, including spaces.
–Keyword Placement: Put your most important words (keywords) first in your title tag.
–Keyword Separation: Use pipes | to separate important keyword phrases (no punctuation of any kind, unless necessary).
–No Duplicate Title Tags: Very Important- “EVERY” page must be written differently. No mass replication.
–Be Descriptive: Your Title Tag must describe the content of each individual page.
–Wording: Keep phrases short & simple. Eliminate words that would read like a sentence (if, the, etc.)

Have a Great & Successful day,
–Susan

Read our Current Ezine, the Interactive Marketing Ezine

There are three main methods for finding WordPress themes free download options. The first is right within the WordPress interface itself. Simply go to Appearance > Themes and then click on the Installing Themes option. Once you’re there you have several possibilities.

If you click any of the “Featured, Newest, or Recently Updated” links you’ll instantly see themes that have feature descriptions and small screenshots, allowing you to scan through quickly to find something you’re looking for. There are also Preview links that will instantly show you what a particular theme looks like. Move your mouse around the preview screen and you can test drop down menus and link color changes.

Installation of one of these themes is easy — just click Install, then Activate and you can see what the theme looks like with your content. It’s always good to click around through your whole site (don’t just look at the homepage) so you can see how this new theme fits with all aspects of your site. If you don’t like something in the template, it’s easy to de-activate and delete. Just a few clicks and it’s gone!

Another option for searching within your WordPress site is using the Feature Filter where you can choose a lot of different qualities like colors, amount of columns, etc. The only problem with this method is that if a theme developer didn’t tag their theme correctly, you may see some inaccurate results. Sometimes when searching for a dark template you’ll see something bright and it’s simply because the template designer thought there was some aspect of their template that was dark, but maybe no one else would agree! This method of searching can also be tricky when trying to find a design with a particular number of columns because some themes have the option of changing the number of columns, but their screenshot doesn’t show that, so you may need to install the theme to see if it’s really possible to change the column layouts.

The third main option for finding WordPress themes free download solutions is to go directly to WordPress.org and choose the Extend link where you can find Themes. This is similar to doing a search as detailed above, however you can see different statistical information like the number of downloads and when the template was recently updated. This can really help when making an informed decision.

About the Author: Nguyen Van Cuong – Have fun downloading some free WordPress themes! http://www.wordpressthemescoupon.com/

Now there’s a reason why website marketing videos have to be kept short. Remember, not everyone has the time to go through lengthy videos just to hear what you have to say. Even though you want to share to the world what you can do, they have other things on their plate that prevents them from hearing all the wonderful benefits your service or product brings to the table.

So how do you cram everything into one short video? Well, this is where having a very good script comes in. With a good script, you can get your message across clearly to your target audience in a short amount of time. Here are the things you need to consider to get things done right.

Imagine That You’re Talking To Just One Client
When writing a video script, there’s a tendency for a writer to try and reach out to everyone. Avoid that. The best way to come up with a script is to focus on just one person. Imagine yourself talking to that person and telling him what your company can do. This will make the script appear more personal and intimate because it will give that person the impression that you’re actually talking to directly to him.

Keep Your Introductions Brief
In your video script, a simple “hi” and “hello” before telling them who you are and talking about what you’re offering will suffice. You don’t need to give them a lengthy intro because remember, you’re working within a short time frame. Lose focus on that and you’ll end up talking more about nonsense than what your product and service and do.

Key Message: Focus On The Reason Why People Should Choose You
Your product or service has the ability to do a lot of wonderful things for your client. However, focus on the best one and use it to convince your target audience why they should choose you over your competitors. The best way to do that is to find a problem that’s been plaguing your potential clients and then highlight that one feature of your product that can fix this dilemma. This will make it easier to catch their attention since you’re offering a way out of their current problem. Who doesn’t want that?

Add A Call To Action
Once you’ve sold your product or service to your clients, give them a way to get in touch with you. The last thing you want is to get someone excited about you and then fail to tell them how to reach you. You can do this by telling them to visit your website, sign up for a newsletter by providing their e-mail address, or fill up an online information sheet.

Marketing videos have now become an integral piece in today’s SEO campaigns. However, it needs to get your message across quickly to make it effective. By keeping the things mentioned above in mind, you’ll be able to create a video that can talk to your clients without taking up too much of their time.

About the Author: Lesley Komlos – Visit us at www.linxhurricane.com today to find out more.

Secrets That Most Network Marketers Will Never Know

Do you want to Know How To Create Lifelong Residual Passive Income And Financial Independence?

If you’re sick and tired of hype, scams, and all of the online programs that don’t work…

And what do people do who are looking for exactly what they want? They Buy! They SignUp! They Join You!

According to internet research by SEOMOZ, and summarized by Ian Lurie of Portent:
‘Long tail’ terms comprise 70% of all search queries;
Top 1000 terms searched only 10% of all search queries.

This definitely exemplifies the importance of using Long-Tail Phrases.
Ray “Catfish” Comstock of Search Engine Watch sums up this discusson succinctly in his quote:
“While it should be the goal of any website to rank highly for competitive terms, the real gauge of targeted SEO success is overall/total search traffic. Some would argue success is determined by conversions and revenue, but many of the factors that contribute to conversions fall outside the scope of SEO (messaging, competitive pricing, page design, and layout, etc.).”

When composing your list of keyword phrases, remember that those less popular phrases that might bring in a few bits of traffic, when added with all the other seemingly less important phrases can boost and even double your traffic!

Have a Great & Successful day,
–Susan

______________________

Today we have an amazing opportunity for you that can lead you to making Life Changing lncome.
To find out how, Go Here.
Susan, Vector Central

Your Success Solution

The Ultimate Money Making Opportunity for 2012

If you are sick and tired of desperately trying to make money online with little or nothing to show for it, then this could be the most important, life changing, email that you will ever read.  You are about to learn about something that over 90% of online marketers have not yet discovered. This has been called, by some people in the industry, the best online business opportunity of 2012 and beyond. What I am talking about is an opportunity for ordinary people just like you, to make extraordinary, Life Changing Money by becoming a publisher in the Amazon Kindle Marketplace, as a Kindle Direct Publisher. This business is where you create and upload eBooks onto the Kindle marketplace where they can then be purchased by Kindle readers all over the world. When they buy your book-you get paid. Right now there are people making a full-time living with Kindle Publishing. There is no reason why you cannot be one of those people. It’s not as hard as you think. You can do this today, even if you know nothing about how to create content for eBooks. Click right here to read all about a great Kindle study coarse that will show you how to become an successful publisher on Amazon’s Kindle marketplace today. Let Kindle Publishing Light A Fire Under Your Online Income for 2012!

2. Another important practice in article marketing is to write your own article. Do not copy other writers’ articles. Plagerism is as dishonest online as offline. Remember how you researched for term papers in school? After researching you would use your own words, thoughts and the knowledge gained from the research.
That too is what you do online – research and write your own articles.

Article marketing is a huge business and can lead to excellent traffic to your site.

Working Toward Your Success!
Bill & Susan
vectorcentral.com

There are dozens and dozens of social sites and more popping up all the time. I have compiled a list of the ten best social sites with which to get you started. I have chosen these sites by my own professional opinion and by actual popularity.

1. Facebook – Facebook has an estimated 850 million users! This is the most popular social site and my favorite as well. Facebook is very versatile in what you can do with your page. Be sure to open a business account and also read the rules for businesses. Fill out your profile completely. Add images and videos to your page to make it more interesting and interactive. Visit your page every day and post helpful information, links and resources. Answer all comments promptly.

2. Twitter – Twitter has 200 million estimated active users. I like Twitter because it is quick, easy and effective for marketing your business. You simply add tidbits of information, new product info, sales and/or specials, links, motivational quotes, etc. and tweet! Keep your tweets professional and beneficial to your followers. Don’t tweet things like what you’re having for dinner or what movie you just watched. Get involved with other tweeters and participate!

3. LinkedIn – LinkedIn now has over 150 million estimated users. The thing I like about LinkedIn is how you can participate in groups that interest you or will benefit your business. Join groups and be sure to participate in the discussions by offering real and helpful information and advice. Follow their guidelines on how to completely and effectively fill out your profile.

4. Google+ – Google+ is one of the newer social sites but it already has an estimated 65 million users! I must admit, I have not done much with Google+ as of yet but I do like the format and versatility of the site. Be sure to add the +1 Google feature to your website so people can click it to show they like your site. This will help you in the ratings. Again, be sure to complete your profile and spend time daily or at least weekly on your Google+ page.

5. Pinterest – With over 10 million active users, Pinterest is growing in popularity very quickly. Pinterest has come up with something a little different. You are given a pinboard to add visual items such as photos, graphs, videos, etc. Pinning helpful visual information is a great way to attract people to your pinboard. You can add comments as well. People respond more to visual items than just words so get over to Pinterest and start pinning!

6. Ecademy – Ecademy has over 17 million users. Ecademy is a membership site for business owners to connect, help and grow with each other. There are paid and free memberships. Take the time to build relationships with other business owners. You can start your own clubs, write blog posts, and participate in discussions. This site is more involved than some social sites and will take more time to learn to use effectively.

7. YouTube – YouTube has an estimated 300 million users. YouTube is a video sharing site. Making an effective marketing video to share on YouTube can have a dramatic effect on your site traffic. Show your expertise with instructional and informational videos. You can also present slide shows to market your products and/or services. Set up an account and start uploading those business growing videos.

8. StumbleUpon – Despite a “stumble” in growth, StumbleUpon is now growing in popularity and has an estimated 20 million users. StumbleUpon is a social site that allows the users to share interesting and helpful websites. You will need to be an active user to reap the benefits from this site.

9. Ryze – With less than a million members, Ryze is not the most popular of the social networking sites but it can be effective. Ryze is similar to LinkedIn in that it is a place for professionals to grow, connect and help each other succeed. Join networks that target your business and network with other business owners.

10. Blogs – Blogs are very popular social sites and there are lots of them. Search for blogs that target your niche and become active with guest posts, comments, etc. Participating on blogs can help you make connections and get traffic you might not have gotten. Also, if you do not have your own blog yet, be sure to get started. I would recommend WordPress but there are other blog services available.

If you are a business owner, you really cannot avoid social media in this marketing age. So rather than ignore it, you need to study it, learn it and participate in it. Once you do, you will find it to be a very enjoyable and beneficial experience!

About the Author: Don’t be one of the 95% of people who fail at their online business. Terri Seymour can help you make money online. Find out how to increase your traffic and sales with her popular “How to Build Your Online Business” ebook for FREE at: ==> http://www.SeymourProducts.com