Archive for the Marketing Articles Category

On Page SEO Tips

October 15, 08 by admin.

It requires a lot of effort in designing and building a site, but it can be all in vain if you can’t attract enough traffic towards it. You put all your efforts in an attractive design of your website and the next step you do is to put it in front of the online world.

You can’t get success only by uploading your website on the www; the target is to attract well-qualified visitors towards your website, which can’t be done unless you put your site in the eyes of the search engines.

Today, all of the internet users use search engines to find the site relevant to their interest. For example, if a person is interested in finding information about on-going and up-coming cricket events, he/she can easily do so by typing in the keywords in Google, Yahoo or any other search engine. The search engine, as a result, will present a list of most relevant websites on the basis of their keyword. So, in short, to get more traffic towards your website, make it more optimized and put all efforts into keeping your website in the eye of the search engine. This traffic is, without any doubt, the life of a business. No e-business can run without adequate traffic.

How to optimize your website for search engines?

There are two ways of doing it.

* Off Page Search Engine Optimization

* On Page Search Engine Optimization.

This article will focus on the tips useful for On Page Search Engine Optimization.

All search engine optimization techniques are usually classified into On Page Optimization Techniques and Off Page Optimization Techniques. Both help in achieving one common goal; to get higher ranks in SERPs (Search Engine Result Pages).

Useful On Page SEO Tips

Following are some of the most common tips for better On Page Search Engine Optimization:

The most important word; The Keyword: it is always suggested that before you upload your website, put all your efforts into the keywords since users will be using keywords to find websites of their interest. Each page of your website should be treated as a separate entity having its own title and targeted keywords.

Always try to name your webpage files starting with your targeted keyword like crickethome.htm etc. For instance, if your website is about Telescopes then the title of each of your webpage should always start with the word Telescope and name each webpage file starting with word Telescope like Telescopereview.htm because the search engine robots look at filenames.

Always remember that you have to make your website attractive for the human visitors as well as for search engine robots. Attractiveness for both of them can be achieved through better keyword optimization.

You should keep in mind the keyword density and never over-optimize your web page. It is not necessary that the greater the optimization level of your web page the better it will be.

Title Tags are considered to be one of the most important factors of On Page Optimization. You can say in other words that it is mandatory for you to include the main keyword as part of your title.

You should always use Header tags with lots of care. Most of the SEO experts recommend having a single H1 header tag that should contain the main Keyword in order to attract human visitors as well as the search engine robots. Other H2 tags can contain secondary keywords.

Putting the main keyword in the URL is always beneficial in the eyes of the search engines. Most of the users are usually not bothered with that but it will help in better SEO. If it is not possible to include the complete keywords or a phrase in the URL then try at least to include the most important keyword in the URL.

There are many more On Page SEO tips but the above mentioned tips are the most common and recommended by experts. You can add additional features on your website to make it more Search Engine Optimized, for instance, adding blog sections, feedback areas, guestbooks etc.

About the Author: Colm Byrne has been working in the SEO arena for 4 years now and runs a blog to give tips on Internet Marketing and how to do Ethical Link building. His numerous articles provide a wonderfully researched resource.

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Keep the Sale

August 30, 08 by admin.

Keep The Sale - Does this sound familiar?

After dozens of phones calls and emails as well as several face-to-face meetings, you finally reach an agreement with a prospect who is intent on buying your service, product or solution.

“Whew! Another sale done,” you think to yourself.

But, wait. Before you start counting your commission it is critical that you keep the sale. Just because a prospect has agreed to move forward it does not mean that the sale will move forward, especially if you sell a complex system or solution. Dozens of things can happen to derail your efforts.

Your key contact may change companies or positions. The person you are dealing with gets cold feet, loses interest, or decides to change vendors. The company may be acquired or sold. A competitor may approach your prospect with a better offer. There is no such thing as a guaranteed sale even if you are holding a signed contract. That means you need to ensure that you keep the sale. Here are several strategies you can incorporate into your business that will help you achieve this.

1. First, send some form of acknowledgement or thank-you. I know this sounds like an elementary concept but most sales people think of doing this. They take the sale and move on to the next prospect. However, if you send a thank-you card immediately after you confirm the sale, you differentiate yourself you’re your competition. You can also use postcards. The key is to show your new customer that you value his or her business and thanking them is just one small gesture that demonstrates this.

2. The next thing to do is regularly update your new customer. Keep them informed about things like delivery or shipment status and installation dates and schedules. If you sell a highly customized product, make sure you advise them on the progress of the development of their product. Frequency of updates will depend on a few factors.

- What does your key decision-maker expect or want? If they are detail oriented person they will require more frequent updates than someone who is less detail-oriented. The easiest way to determine this is ask this question, “How often do you want me to send you updates?” A simple question but one that will give you tremendous insight into your customer’s expectations.

- Another factor is the length of time that occurs between the time of your agreement and when your services will be rendered or your product will be delivered. The more time that elapses between these two, the more important it is for you to update your customer. For example, in my particular business, it is not uncommon for a company to book me for a keynote speech or training workshop up to a year in advance. During this time, I try to send them some form of update so they know I have not forgotten about their event.

3. Send them additional information of value. This includes articles, magazine and newspaper clippings, or other information that is relevant to their business. You could send them an article that mentions a strategic move one of their competitors is about to make or an article on a topic that relates to your key contact’s interests. You may come across a newspaper article about their company-clip this article and send it your client. It does not matter if they have already read the article because your gesture shows that you are paying attention to their business. And most sales people do not do this. One word of caution. Do NOT send information about your product! This is not about you! It is about giving your new customer a reason to keep the sale with you.

4. Depending on the size of the sale, you could send a book that will help them with their business. There are a multitude of books on the market today, addressing virtually every business situation. If your client enjoys reading then it makes good business sense to send them a book that will help improve their results. I have sent books to my clients that focus on communication, leadership, sales, and customer service. Attach a brief note explaining why you sent this book.

5. Lastly, reinforce their buying decision. The easiest way to do this is to send them testimonials from satisfied customers. An even more effective approach is to ask one of your existing clients to call your new customer. People want reassurances that they have made a sound buying decision so just imagine the impact if they heard a voice mail message from one of your clients stating how satisfied they were with your product, service or solution.

These may sound like simple concepts. However, I can guarantee that very few sales people actually use them. Integrating these strategies into your routine will not only help you differentiate yourself from your competition, you will increase your odds of keeping every sale you make.

About the Author: Kelley Robertson, author of The Secrets of Power Selling helps sales professionals and businesses discover new techniques to improve their sales and profits. For information on his programs contact him at 905-633-7750 or Kelley@RobertsonTrainingGroup.com.

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How Many Keywords Are Enough?

August 28, 08 by admin.

Yesterday, I receíved an email from someone who’d purchased one of my ebooks. Her question was one I’ve been asked several times before: “How many instances of keywords within the copy are enough?” That’s like asking, “How long is a piece of string?” There isn’t one answer. Proponents of keyword density formulas will quickly spout out a percentage: 4%, 6%, 12%. However, I wonder where they get these figures from. If you do a search in Google for any keyphrase (say [cast iron frying pan], for example), you’ll immediately see why keyword density formulas don’t add up. Either version - cast iron or cast-iron - bring the same listings on the search engine results pages (SERPs). Please note: I was looking at the source code for each page so as to include mentions in tags as well as on the page.
Cast Iron Frying Pan

Your results may be different than what I see, as everybody does not view results from the same database. But, when I type in [cast iron frying pan] (no brackets, of course), the first site that comes up is http://whatscookingamerica.net/Information/CastIronPans.htm. Total word count: about 1,611. Keyword density for [cast iron frying pan]: 0%. Keyword density for [cast iron]: 3%. Keyword density for [frying pan]: < 1%.

Next up, Ask Yahoo: http://ask.yahoo.com/20000419.html. Total word count: about 622. Keyword density for [cast iron frying pan]: < 1%. Keyword density for [cast iron]: < 1%. Keyword density for [frying pan]: < 1%.

In the #3 position is Amazon.com at http://www.amazon.com/Lodge-Logic-Pre-Seasoned-Cast-Iron-Skillet/dp/B00063RWUM. Total word count: about 2,405. Keyword density for [cast iron frying pan]: < 1%. Keyword density for [cast iron]: < 1%. Keyword density for [frying pan]: < 1%.

Mexico Cruise Vacation

Here’s another example: [Mexico cruise vacatíon]. At #1 we see Cruise Web, http://www.cruiseweb.com/MEXICO.HTM. Total word count: about 488. Keyword density for [Mexico cruise vacatíon]: < 1%. Keyword density for [Mexico cruise]: < 1%. Keyword density for [cruise vacatíon]: < 1%.

eCruises.com is up next with their page found at http://www.ecruises.com/. Total word count: about 238. Keyword density for [Mexico cruise vacatíon]: < 1%. Keyword density for [Mexico cruise]: < 1%. Keyword density for [cruise vacatíon]: 0%.

It goes on and on. Yes, you do find some sites that have really high keyword densities, but it is not a given that attaining a certain across-the-board keyword density will guarantee you good success. In fact, from what I’ve seen, keyword density has not been a valid measure of SEO copywriting success in years. I believe it once was, but Google and other engines quickly plugged the loophole.

Does Frequency Not Count At All?

Does that mean that engines don’t give any consideration to how often keyphrases are used within the copy? No. In fact, The Official Google Blog recently did a series entitled Technologies Behind Google Ranking.

In one of the posts, the author states, “The core technology in our ranking system comes from the academic field of Information Retrieval (IR). The IR community has studied search for almost 50 years. It uses statistical signals of word salience, like word frequency, to rank pages.” He continues with, “IR gave us a solid foundation, and we have built a tremendous system on top using links, page structure, and many other such innovations.”

Other Google documents make mention of the need to include key terms in your copy, so it is established that keywords in copy can play an important role. However, I do not see evidence that a standard, across-the-board “keyword density” is at play. Not to mention, forcing phrases into your page text to the point that it sounds utterly stupid makes no sense. It’s not going to help your rankings (except maybe on some sub-engines), and it will almost certainly turn off your site visitors.

So, back to the original question: “How many keyphrases are enough?” That’s a judgment call that comes with experience. Here are a few guidelines - not carved-in-stone rules - but guidelines you can consider. And no, don’t do them all every time.

Keyword Inclusion Guidelines

1) I make an effort to include keyphrase(s) in the headlines and sub-heads if at all possible.

2) Adding keyphrases about once or twice per paragraph is a good goal. I never count words or run keyword density percentages.

3) Focus on writing in natural language. Yes, you want to incorporate keywords, but not to the point that you ruin your copy. It should sound natural.

4) Read your copy out loud. If it sounds stupid or redundant to you, it will sound stupid and redundant to your site visitor.

5) If it makes sense to do so, I try to include keyphrase(s) in bold, italic, bulleted lists, or in other text that is specially formatted. If you wouldn’t bold or italicize the words or phrases to emphasize them to your visitors, however, don’t make a special exception for the engines. These are what I call Brownie point tactics. The impact won’t be significant, but every little bit helps.

Bottom line? Don’t sacrifice the quality and conversion power of your copy to chase search engine rabbits. In the end, it won’t be worth it.
About The Author
How do you put enough keywords into your copy without it sounding ridiculous? By using the 11 clever techniques in Karon’s ebook Writing With Keywords. Get the 4th edition available now at http://www.writingwithkeywords.com.

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3 Simple Marketing Strategies For Your Small Business Explained

August 15, 08 by admin.

If you’re in business for yourself then sooner or later you’re going to be asking yourself the following questions:

How do I get more customers? How can I get my customers to spend more money with me? How can I get better quality of leads without breaking the bank account? Is there a better way of targeting my advertising so that I win much more than I lose?

Below are three strategies to attracting more business and making more money:

Strategy #1. - You Must Understand The Lifetime Value Of Your Clients

Every business owner needs to fully understand the life time value of their customers.

This is the total profit that a customer will bring to your business over the lifetime of your dealings with that customer.

The following example will explain why it’s important to know this number: Let’s pretend you own a book store. If your customer spends $50 every time they walk into your store, and they visit once a month for 4 years, a customer is worth $2400.00. The math would look like this: $50 (average bill) x 12 (number of visits) x 4 (number of years).

Think of how much money you’re missing out on if you were thinking of only one transaction?

Let’s take a look at another example: John Smith sells a cd plus manual kit on how to self-publish a book. The initial manual set is worth $500. John knows that over the lifetime of a customer, a significant number will spend somewhere between $20,000 and $40,000 with additional products!

By knowing his numbers he can afford to allocate a significant amount of money towards his advertising budget to bring in more customers. Why? Because he is equipped with information that he’ll make it up on average over the lifetime of the customer.

Strategy #2. - Build Up Your Customer List

Always collect their names, emails, and other contact information from your customers.

How will you stay in contact with your customers if you don’t collect your information? And if you do ask for their contact details on your sales slips and invoices, be sure you are using them!

And if you are wondering how you collect them it is as simple as asking them for it. This is best done during your customers’ purchasing process by asking them to fill out a form with their details. There are many successful companies who did this for years and would mail you catalogs in the mail.

Don’t you remember getting them? And when you received these catalogs you would find a comfortable place to relax with pen in hand checking off or earmarking the items you would later order. This enabled these companies to make more money from their customers.

Another way to get your customers to give you their contact information is by having a monthly drawing in which a prize will be given. It will amaze you how many names you could collect by doing this.

Let’s say you own a restaurant, you can offer a free dessert to everyone who drops their business card into a fish bowl. It’s not impossible to collect over 1000 names over the course of a month. How much will a dessert cost? $2 - $3, if that much. If all business owners were to implement this marketing strategy alone, they would be protecting their businesses in the face of stiff competition. They could send out snail mail to their customers with special offers on slow nights and watch them come flocking in.

This can also be done with emails and faxes. You want to generate more business? No problem. Send out a special promotion.

Strategy #3. - Develop A Strong Relationship With Your Prospects And Clients

If you want to generate new business that you can keep for a lifetime then you’d better make it a number one priority to keep in touch with your customers. The reason you’d want to do this is so that you can remain at the top of mind with your clients. When they’re ready to buy, you’re the one they’ll think of first.

It’s not unusual to hear cases in which a business will send out newsletters to their customers for years before they buy. You want to position yourself in such a way that when they’re ready to buy — you’ll get the sale.

The lesson here: keep communicating and following up with your customers until they’re ready to place an order with you.

About the Author: Yves Marie Danie Baptiste is an expert in small business marketing. To learn how to increase profits in your small business, visit: http://tinyurl.com/5nkul3.

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The Fast-Track to Using Google Adwords

August 12, 08 by admin.

Remember back when Al Gore allegedly said he “invented the Internet?” Well, he didn’t, it was Google. Alright, I’m kidding, but sometimes it does appear that way. Google has consistently launched one killer application after another, and they weren’t playing around when they entered into the pay-per-click arena with their “Adwords” program. Adwords is one of the largest online advertising networks, reaching more than 80% of all Internet users.

So how does it work? You choose keywords/phrases that are related to your products/services, write the text ads that will be shown when someone performs a search for your keywords, set a daily budget and the cost you want to pay every time someone clicks on your ad (C.P.C), and you’re ready to run. There is no activatíon fee and no minimum monthly spend amount.

Ads are called “sponsored links”, and appear along with search results on Google, as well as other affiliated search engines and “content sites” in the Google Network. This type of keyword based advertising will help you to reach a highly targeted audience quickly and easily.

Not only can you run text ads, but also image/animated ads - even video. If you’re a beginner at pay-per-click marketing, I would suggest you start out with text ads. You’ll need to “learn to walk” before you run.

So what does a text ad look like? It consists of a 25 character headline, a description that is 2 lines of no more than 35 characters, and what’s called a “display url”. This url can reflect any domain you like because when it is clicked upon, the browser will take them to your “destination url”. This is set up behind the scenes and does not appear in the ad itself.

A 3 line text ad might sound like a lot of room, but it’s not. You’ve got a small area to make a huge impact on the searcher and make them want to click. Don’t underestimate the power of a well written ad. If you don’t know a lot about how to write “good copy”, I suggest you study up. You’ll want to include what’s referred to as a “call to action” somewhere in the description. You’ll also want to include your keywords if possible in your title and ad copy so they will appear in a bold font when your ad is displayed. For help see:
http://www.google.com/adwords/learningcenter/text/18779.html

You also need to send them to the page that’s most relevant to your ad copy. This page is called a “landing page“, and you’ll want to make sure it converts. A conversion happens when the visitor performs the action you intended. For example, signs up for your newsletter, buys your product, etc. With Adwords conversion tracking you’ll be given a snippet of code to paste on your web page wherever any conversion takes place. For example, your thank you page. This allows you to track how well your pages are converting. You can also use Google Analytics. For more see:http://www.google.com/analytics/

Now that landing page load time is being factored into “quality score”, you’ll also want to pay attention to your page’s load time. Quicker is better. For more information on this topic see….

Google AdWords Help Center

Now, let’s talk about keywords. The biggest mistake most people make is choosing single keywords. You’re much better off with two and three word combinations. For example if you sell dog food, instead of targeting a generic term like “dogs”, you’d be better off selecting “dog food”. Remember, these keywords will be responsible for triggering your ads to appear, so do your homework and choose wisely. Targeting the wrong keywords can be a very expensive lesson. For help in choosing keywords use Google’s tool located at-

Google Keyword Tool

When setting up your keywords, you’ll also need to choose what’s called a “match type”. Here are your options:

1) Broad Match: The default setting. Searchers can enter your keywords in any order and your ads appear. Not the best option for targeted traffíc.

2) Phrase Match: Your keywords must appear in the exact order for your ads to appear. This is more targeted than Broad Match.

3) Exact Match: This is the most targeted option. The searcher must type in your key-phrase exactly for your ads to appear.

4) Negative Match: You choose words you don’t want your ads to appear for when searched upon. For example, typing in the word “-free” would stop your ads from appearing if someone typed that word before your key-phrase.

So who decides which ads will appear at the top? This is called “ad rank”. Ads with the highest ad rank will appear at the top. Here’s the formula, at least at this time as it’s always open to change.

Ad Rank = C.P.C. (cost per click) X Quality Score

To understand this formula you’ll need to know what factors go into “quality score”.

Quality Score is determined by :

1) How relevant the keywords and ad copy are to the search query.

2) “The historical Click-through rate of the ad, and of the matched keyword on Google”.

3) It also includes your account history, which looks at the click through rate of your keywords and ads.

4) Landing page load time. And, according to Google “other relevant factors”.

One tip to improve your ad rank is to raise your cost per click, and improve your ad copy and keywords in order to up your quality score.

Ad ranking is determined slightly differently for the search network compared to the content network. For the content network it looks like this:

Ad Rank = Content Bid X Quality Score

What is the difference between the Content Network and Search Network? Good question. I thought you’d never ask. This is another option you’ll have to decide upon when setting up your account. If you choose “search sites”, your ads are displayed on search results pages only. Google’s search network consists of: AOL, Netscape, Earthlink, Compuserve, AT&T, Worldnet, Ask.com, Shopping.com, Froogle and of course Google itself.

If you choose for your ads to appear in the “content network”, this includes community websites, online publications and other information based sites that choose to display Adwords ads. Partners in the content network include sites such as: Google’s Gmail, About, Lycos, NYTimes.com, Infospace, Reed Business, HowStuffWorks, Business.com, Food Network, HGTV, MarthaStewart.com and many other content based websites.

Ads are targeted to the content of the individual pages. You’ll also have some control over where your ads appear and don’t appear with what’s called “placement targeting“. You can actually pick and choose from websites you’d like your ads to appear on, or not to appear on. You can opt ín to both search and content networks, or just one.

At this point you’re probably thinking this is a lot to learn. And you’re right - it is, but there are plenty of online resources to help you such as:

Adwords Help Center

Adwords blog

Google is a powerful Internet giant and makes for a mighty advertising partner. Make sure you harness some of that muscle, and you too can become an Internet force to be reckoned with.

About The Author
Article by Merle. “The Tricks to Paying for Clicks”. Learn everything you need to know about pay-per-click search engines at…. PayPerClickResearch.com.

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Article Marketing Success Secret: Give Them What They Want

August 9, 08 by admin.

Some people find great success with article marketing, while others think its proponents are full of bull. The difference between the winners and the losers in article marketing is most frequently defined when the writer sits down and begins to write. That is right. Success and failure is most often determined by the writers’ motivation, and more importantly, by the writers’ commitment to the reader.

Flawed Strategies

In 2005, a few of the Internet Marketing gurus took notice of the success people were having with article marketing, and they passed this news to the Internet Marketing newbies of the world. But, there was something missing from the advice given.

In a lot of cases, the people preaching the power of article marketing hadn’t used the technique themselves. Even today, few of my article distribution competitors utilize reprint articles to promote their own businesses. Most of my competitors rely upon affiliate marketing to promote their websites.

Unfortunately, the Internet Marketing newbies of the world were given a lot of bad advice. It was said that:

The only purpose of article marketing was to build links, and link popularity for search engine rankings;

The writer only needed to write enough words to meet the minimum word count requirements of publishers;

It wasn’t necessary for the content to be well-written, since the publishers do not read the articles they approve for publication;

Anything that can be done to reduce the time/cost of article writing would benefit the marketer.

The only suggestion that bore any resemblance to the truth was the first item about “building links for link popularity”, but the error in this statement was to assume that there was no other purpose for article marketing.

The Bigger Picture

I have been using article marketing to promote my own websites since 1999, and I have offered article-marketing services professionally since 2000 and under my current domain since 2001. I had been using article marketing and providing services for at least five years, before the gurus started leading the uninitiated Internet Marketers astray in 2005.

As one of the pioneers in this industry, I have always attributed three benefits to article marketing, in this order:

1. Publication in a newsletter ensures that thousands, perhaps hundreds of thousands of readers, can read ones’ article when it is published. (Frequently, publication day for my articles will generate phone calls from many potential customers and multiple sales, sometimes thousands in sales.)

2. Publication on a website increases the likelihood that your article will be found and read on websites that have targeted and loyal visitors.

3. Building links for link popularity and improved search rankings.

I haven’t ever denied the ability to use articles to build ones’ link popularity and to improve ones’ ranking in the search engines. In fact, my website ranks in the top 20 results in Google for hundreds of keywords.

But in my experience, using articles to improve search rankings is something that is ranked at #3 in my líst, because it is a long-term play. Your ability to rank in Google for specific keywords is influenced significantly by what your competitors have done before you. I have used this example many times before, but if you want to rank for the keyword “travel” against such websites as: Expedia, Yahoo, Orbitz, The Travel Channel, CNN, Travelocity, Lonely Planet, USA Today, the New York Times, and the U.S. Government; then you better bring a huge budget to the contest.

Once the newbie in Internet Marketing is aware of the challenges of the search rankings game, then the newbie is better prepared to target and get realistic results from an article marketing campaign.

What Newsletter Publishers Require From Their Writers

While it may be true that a few article directory managers do not review articles before publication, it is not true of all article directories. Directories such as EzineArticles.com, IdeaMarketers.com, Website-Articles.net, InvisibleMBA.com, ArticleStars.com, ArticleDashboard.com, and Isnare.com have editors who personally review each and every article posted to their directories, to ensure that the articles meet the directory’s editorial guidelines.

And, newsletter publishers personally read and approve every single article they publish. Why? In order for a publisher to be able to sell high-dollar advertising, the newsletter must attract and retain loyal readers. In order to get and keep readers, the newsletter must “absolutely” publish content that its readers appreciate receiving and want to read.

Herein lies “the secret to success” in article marketing. Not only do newsletter publishers read articles, seeking to find the content that will ensure the loyalty of their readers, the website publishers who have served loyal audiences for several years also strive to provide their readers only the best content available.

Article Spinner Software Stops Short Of Serving The Reader

No matter how well the Content Spinner software sellers may write their sales copy, one would be a fool to trust computers to write the kind of articles that people want to read.

Remember, the newsletter publisher and the successful webmaster are solely focused on finding content that will keep their readers loyal to them. Also remember that the “link building game for link popularity” is a long-term play that could take years to see fruition.

Given this knowledge, why would someone who is truly seeking success online be willing to trust that the article spinners are able to develop articles that would pass the “human eye test” or even the “smell test”?

What The Article Marketing Professionals Have To Say

I know that I have always suggested that one should take into account what someone is selling, before taking his or her word at face value. Since I sell ghostwriting services, it is absolutely in your best interests to take my words with much skepticism. BUT… I am not the only professional Internet Marketer with this viewpoint. Following are quotes by people whose names you may recognize.

Christopher Knight of Ezine Articles was asked, “How much must I change or rewrite my article so that your content filters won’t reject it or suspend my account?” Chris responded, “The answer is all of it. Seriously, don’t rewrite your articles. Just create new ones. It’s not that hard.” Chris added that derivative content adds no value to his website. http://blog.ezinearticles.com/2008/07/content-filtering.html

Chris McElroy from ArticleContentProvider.com says, “Computer-generated articles can never replace hand-written original content. Just getting articles into article directories does not help your link popularity, so submitting garbage will get you nothing in return. Only when your articles are reprinted in newsletters, ezines, websites, and blogs that are related to your topic do you get any value from article marketing. Those who think otherwise don’t understand the first thing about article marketing or SEO.”

Allen Taylor, who contributes to the Article Content Provider Blog was asked to review someone’s article spinner software. I am sure the guy who requested the review is kicking himself in the butt right now; since Allen proceeded to show his readers exactly how worthless the software is in the real world.

Allen concluded his review with the following words: “I would not recommend rewriting your articles. Just write fresh articles that don’t threaten to have problems like the ones noted above. Really, it doesn’t take long to write a 500-word article that can be used for article marketing or other online marketíng purposes. If you’re going to do something, why not do it right?”

Willie Crawford (TIMIC.ORG) is not an article-marketing professional. Instead, he is a professional marketer, who uses article marketing to promote the many websites that make up his online empire. Willie is a seven-figure earner, and yet, he continues writing new articles whenever he has the time to do so.

Willie said: “I’ve looked at numerous ‘article spinners’ and seen that the output from them was generally so incoherent that it would have been an insult to my readers.”

“I respect my readers and realize that writing is communicating one human to another. That’s why all of the articles that I publish are unique and not software generated variations of my work.”

Communicating One Human To Another

Those people who have found the greatest success utilizing article marketing as a promotional tool are those who understand that article marketing is best-used as a tool to communicate “one human to another.”

At the beginning of this article, I suggested, “Success and failure is determined by the writers’ motivation, and more importantly, by the writers’ commitment to the reader.”

Successful newsletter publishers are those who have made a commitment to keep their readers interested and reading every issue. Successful webmasters and bloggers are those who have made a commitment to keeping their readers satisfied and coming back to their websites frequently. All are looking for article content that will attract readers to their publications and ensure reader loyalty.

The successful article marketer is the person who understands his or her audience and gives his or her audience exactly what they want.

The article must convince the newsletter publisher that his or her subscribers will value the message in the article enough to read the next issue. The article must convince the Webmaster and Bloggers that the article will keep a reader on his or her website for a while longer. And finally, the reader must be thankful for having been given the opportuníty to read the article.

In the end, the decision is yours. Are you simply happy complaining about what could have, should have been with the articles you have written. Or, do you want to invest what will be required to make sure your article marketing campaigns are successful?

About The Author
Bill Platt has been helping online marketers with article ghostwriting and article distribution services since 2001, through his website: thephantomwriters.com . If your small business finances are being pinched during this era of high gasoline prices, get your copy of the ebook, “How to íncrease the Fuel Mileage Of Any Vehicle” to learn how to improve your gas mileage by 30% or better:

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The Myth Of Being Successfully Solo In Business

August 6, 08 by admin.

There’s a breakneck pace that many new solo business owners assume. With an infinite number of things to do, and about a dozen hats to wear, it gets overwhelming, fast.

And, that’s nothing compared to what happens once the business actually has some momentum under it. That’s why one of my clients with a brand-new business was asking me: “Mark, how do you get it all done? Your business has about 100 times more going on in it than mine does, and I’m overwhelmed just with what I’m trying to get done.”

Here’s my answer: “I don’t get it all done.”

Which strikes at the heart of the most dangerous myth in business: the bootstrap myth, known in this particular instance as the myth of the successful solopreneur.

Why This Myth is so Dangerous

The myth says that you can do it on your own, you can bootstrap your way to success, and that when you go solo, you don’t need anyone else. That’s the whole point of being self-employed, or running a personal-sized business, right?

This rugged homage to individualism isn’t just in the U.S., as some have claimed. I have seen this myth in action across the globe: Canada, the UK, mainland Europe, Asia, Australia and Africa.

It seems as if it’s just hard to get it: we can’t do it ourselves.

The Physical Reality

When you’re an employee at a company, you get to do your job. And, unless you think upon it, you might not realize how much other people do just so you can do your job.

Who prints and signs your check? Who makes sure the office building gets cleaned? Who stocks the office supplies closet, or goes out and sells to clients so there is revenue to pay you?

It’s humbling, but when you become self-employed, all of those functions fall into your lap. And it is impossible, literally impossible, to do them all. If you’re overwhelmed trying to make your business work yourself, there is good reason for it.

Frustrating - but don’t despair. It may help to understand why it is this way.

The Spiritual Reality

As my Sufi teacher tells me, “Be the earth for your brothers and sisters. If you don’t carry them, who will?… When you look into another’s eyes, see the reflection of God looking at you.”

The depth of this teaching really struck home when I realized that he wasn’t talking to me personally - this teaching was for everyone. We’re all asked to carry each other. Which means that we also need to allow ourselves to be carried.

When someone offers help, do you say: “Yes!” or do you say: “Nah, I can get it.” If the bootstrap myth is operating in your business, there may be a hundred subtle and not-so-subtle ways that you avoid or turn away from help.”

Lord knows I do.

And yet we are meant to both help and be helped by each other. This is one of the ways that we experience the Divine in our lives, through the actions, support and love of others.

Yes, I mean you. You are supposed to receive the Divine through the actions, support and love of others. You can’t do everything yourself. And that’s as it was designed to be.

Watch the wing-stretching and contortions you go through as you learn to receive more help. It will do much more than help your business, it will be a real experience of healing and growth for you as well.

Who can afford to hire an entire company of help?

Of course, not all of the help you get will be free, and there’s so much of it to get. And you can’t hire it all, especially early in your business. So what do you do?

After going through some big transitions ourselves, having grown up in a small retail business, and having worked with hundreds of clients, let me share some insights into how to prioritize.

Keys to Being a Successful Pseudo-Solo

First, Invest in Information and Learning.

I know, I know - it seems like a lot needs to get done, right now. Remember - millions of people have already done what you’ve tried to do. So, the best thing to do is to learn from some of them.

Get books from the library, or buy them. Take classes, free or otherwise. Find people you admire who have successfully navigated what you’re trying to do and take them to tea or lunch and ask them questions. I’ve done about a dozen interviews with folks I admire and have them up in our online community for just that reason: The Business Oasis.

Make sure the information resonates with you. As just one example, marketing professionals out there are all saying more or less the same thing, so you can find one that your heart really resonates with and is speaking your language.

Second, Get Help With the Numbers.

I’ll say this once: if you’re running a business, you shouldn’t be doing your taxes yourself. There are too many deductions and pitfalls and details. You want to hire it out, even if you think you can’t afford it.

Related to that, as soon as you can, hire a bookkeeper to keep your accounting clean from month to month. Not only will it help you at tax time (imagine filing your taxes in the beginning of February!), but it will also help you understand your business better, simply knowing how money flows in and out.

Third, Experiment With a Virtual Assistant.

You may not be able or ready to hire out help. You also may have no idea how or where to start. I suggest finding a virtual assistant you like, who has strengths in areas that you get overwhelmed by easily, and hiring them for a very small project, maybe an hour or two. Then repeat in a month or so.

Over some months, as you both get to know each other, you’ll get more comfortable with asking for help, and receiving it. Your business may need to develop before you hire a significant amount of help, but if you start small, it will be a much easier transition. And you’ll get there much more quickly.

Getting help in your business is a huge topic. The trick is to face the simple truth that you can’t do it all yourself, and that spiritually it’s enormously beneficial to receive help.

Then, first get help by learning through books, classes, and other resources, second get help with the numbers with an accountant then a bookkeeper, and finally practice outsourcing to a virtual assistant in small, do-able, bites.

And watch how much more successful you can be as a ‘pseudo’ solo business owner.

The best to you and your business.

About The Author
Mark Silver is the author of Unveiling the Heart of Your Business: How Money, Marketing and Sales can Deepen Your Heart, Heal the World, and Still Add to Your Bottom Line. He has helped hundreds of small business owners around the globe succeed in business without losing their hearts. Get three free chapters of the book online: HeartOfBusiness.com

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The Truth About Creating A Passive Income Online

August 1, 08 by admin.

By Kenneth Koh

Creating a passive income online is something that you probably have heard of. Many business opportunities use the idea of “creating a passive income online” to sell you their systems. It works because I’m using this trick too. But does passive income really exists?

In this article, my goal is to share with you some essential truth about creating a passive income online. I know most of you are more keen to learn how to create a passive income online. I’ll talk about it in future. But before I do that, it is important for me to cover some grounds and get your mindset right.

Passive Income Doesn’t Exist!

First of all, I need to get this straight - passive income doesn’t exists, at least not according to what most newbies define as passive income.

Most people define passive income as “making money without having to do anything”. If you are one of them, you will be very disappointed when you realize that this is not true.

Do you realize that whenever you get into an opportunity that ‘claims’ to give you a passive income, you end up being overwhelmed with lots of sh*t and often have to work like a dog? That’s when most people give up.

Truth is, there is no such thing as making money without having to do anything. If such opportunity exists, it’s most likely a scam (unless you’re talking about putting your money in the fixed deposit).

So what is a passive income then?

Here is my definition of a passive income - “A passive income is an income system that does not trade time for money.”

If you go with my definition, you are less likely to be disappointed and more likely to succeed because you’re prepared to work hard to create such a system.

Once you get the definition right, all you have to do is spend most of your time creating different streams of passive income and spend less time making money.

“Huh, what are you talking about, Kenneth?”

If you understand what I am talking about, good for you. If you don’t, let me explain.

Most people spend time to make money. One obvious example is working for a monthly salary. Some other less obvious examples include the following activities:

- Staring at the computer screen to trade the stock market or forex.

- Selling products in Ebay (unless you have plans to turn it into a system).

- Posting ads to sell Clickbank products (unless you have plans to turn it into a system).

- Providing freelance services such as graphic design, article writing etc (I hope my freelancers are not reading this!)

If you are pressured for money, yes, go find a job and do some part-time freelance jobs. But if you want to be rich, spend most of your time creating different streams of passive income.

You need to understand that making money and creating a passive income are two different things.

Creating a passive income may not make you money, although the ultimate goal is to make lots of money passively. When creating a passive income, you are creating a system that does not trade time for money and in the process of creating this system, you may spend more than you earn.

Many people can’t get pass the idea of losing money before making money. That’s why most people fail to create their first passive income online. On the contrary, those who are ‘lucky’ enough to create their first stream of passive income online will continue to create the second stream and third stream because they’re used to the idea of losing some money before getting it all back, multiplied. Another reason is because with their first passive income established, their risk appetite is higher and they are more willing to lose. The last reason is because they are more experienced now.

If you’ve just started out, go find a job to make money. But don’t spent too much time on it. Take 3-5% of your monthly income and most of your spare time to create a passive income online. Online opportunities cost much lesser than offline opportunities and 3-5% should be enough for you to learn the ropes. How soon you’ll see your first passive income established depends on how fast you learn and how hard you work.

Get your definition of passive income right and spend most of your time creating a passive income online. Once you’ve created your first passive income, go on to create the second, the third and more streams of passive income. This is possible since you don’t trade time for money with these systems. This is the sure way to make a fortune rather than just making a living.

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10 Key Things to Look for in a Good Web Designer

August 1, 08 by admin.

The pace of business today is positively supersonic. There doesn’t seem to be enough time for anything anymore, and businesses of all sizes are working harder and faster all the time.

It’s important to work smarter, too. And that means when you have to choose an important vendor for an essential service, you need to slow down and make a deliberate, careful decision. This is particularly important when you are getting ready to put your company’s face on the World Wide Web in a new or newly-refurbished web site.

Before listing the ten key things to look for in a good web designer, let’s define a few terms. Even though you may encounter variants on the name – like web developer, web artist, webmaster and so forth - we’re talking about an individual who, alone or with some assistance, is going to “get you up and running.” This means more than simple design.

You may need someone who can help you conceive and write copy. You may need someone who can plan smart site structure. You may need help getting a domain registered, files uploaded, e-mail accounts set up, and other technical details. You will definitely need someone who can do just about anything, or quickly find out how, or have an associate who can at the ready.

With these caveats, and serious encouragement to shop around for price and professionalism, here are the ten things to look for, in rough order of importance:

1) Experience
You will need someone with all the techniques, tools and tricks that will help you prepare your web site and accomplish your online goals. You should confirm that the candidate knows the entire alphabet soup of protocols, web markup languages and coding utilities: HTML, XML, CSS, PHP and so on. Ask all prospects for a portfolio, ask if they can “hand code,” find out how many years of experience each has, etc.

When you interview designers, on the phone and/or in person, you will get these answers swiftly enough. But take due time to get more important insights as to the individual’s character, level of expertise - and how well your personalities mesh. You will be working closely together, after all.

2) Customer Service Orientation
As important as experience is a mindset and attitude of making customer service a priority. If a designer/developer is too busy to answer e-mails or phone calls, will they be able to keep the production schedule? Ask for references, and make a point of actually calling them. Ask the prospect’s previous clients if the web developer was responsive, on time and effective.

3) Original copy and Graphics
Creating professional and 100% original web graphics separates the adults from the kids every time. Most anyone can do some “quick and dirty” copy writing and slap it on a page with some pictures and hyperlinks. On the other hand, a talented and veteran designer will demonstrate knowledge of page layout, have a way with color and know how to place elements on a page for best appearance and web site performance. Take a good look at a number of the sites each prospect has built, and make sure no one is using “templates” or “starter pages” that come with some software programs or are available (even free) on the Internet.

4) Creativity
You need to decide right away (before you even start talking to designers) just how much the designer you find will be involved in the conceptual process. Your designer may need to help you with some of the “big picture” questions, such as marketing, web copy writing (for search engines) and how to generate traffic. You want someone creative, but not a “diva” who won’t follow instructions or work with your ideas to bring them to fruition.

5) Marketing Experience
The easiest way to find out if your prospective web designers are good at marketing web sites is to view their site and their portfolio. That you are considering selecting them to design your site is a good first indicator that their designs convert. You’ll further want to ensure that you can find what you’re looking for on their site quickly and easily and that you can do the same on some of the sites in their portfolio.

6) Cost
Pricing for a professional web site of 10-15 pages with the standard features runs all the way from $500 to $5000. It may be that your idea is so complicated that you might have to pay for an estimate. For a full picture of all the costs involved in the project, ask for all the costs to be broken out individually - domain name and hosting, graphic design work, marketing fees and web development matters.

You may need to place a deposit if the job is large enough, and you should have all payment terms worked out before work starts. You can work out an hourly rate, a flat fee or some combination of the two. Leave nothing unstated or assumed: Get every detail in writing, including deadlines and how many revisions are included.

7) Job Timeline
After you ask the developers how long the process will take, make a point of asking references if the project was, in fact, completed on time. A basic web site may take as little as a week, while more involved and technically challenging sites could take a month or more. You need to know what the real-world turnaround time is for the specific people you are considering.

Communication Skills
Don’t hire anyone who insists on speaking to you in “computer-ese” or won’t explain unknown terminology. You have to communicate with this person about things that are important to your very survival, so you need to be clear at all times. If you cannot establish a good working relationship, it won’t matter if you have Leonardo Da Vinci working on your code, it just won’t work out.

9) Full Service
There may be one or two things that your designer/developer cannot do, but for the most part you should be able to find a reasonably-priced professional who can handle just about everything. If the designer needs help installing a particularly complicated shopping cart, or your site requires some heavy database programming, it is reasonable to expect that your designer might need some assistance. All of this should be spelled out in the pricing, of course (see #6, above), and you shouldn’t be surprised by anything your designer is telling you. If you are, you overlooked something in this list!

10) Availability
Are these prospects full-time web professionals? Or are they moonlighting from some other job, even a completely unrelated one? It may be that a part-time web designer who’s working at McDonald’s really can do a great job for you, but will he/she be available to meet with you during normal business hours? No matter what decision you make - full-time pro, part-timer or student - you must be able to get hold of your designer.

Finally, do you homework before speaking with anyone. You don’t need to be an expert - after all, you’re hiring help, because you’re not - but you need to know enough to know what you’re hearing. If you are uncertain of your ability to keep on top of what’s going on, get a fríend with at least basic web knowledge to help you locate, interview and assess candidates.

Use all of this “head” knowledge to narrow down your list of candidates, but don’t be afraid to use your intuition (”heart” knowledge) to get a feel for each person’s honesty, integrity and character. Using this mix of study, inquiry, discussion ,and feel, you will start to develop judgments about the candidates. Following this procedure thoroughly should result in your finding a good match for your Internet needs.

About The Author
Moonrise Productions is a full services San Francisco web design company. They provide complete design services, web application and ecommerce development and more. With New York, San Diego, San Francisco, and Los Angeles web design presence – no matter where you are, we’ve got people to serve you.

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