Internet Marketing Coach - New York

How to Use eHow Articles to Market Your Business

Internet Marketing - How to Use eHow

eHow, for those who are not familiar with it, is a website that offers information on how to do just about anything. Seriously, you can read an article or watch a video on how to grocery shop, how to train your dog to use a dog door, or how to change your car’s oil.

eHow presently has more than 1 million articles and 170,000 videos, and more than 51 million visitors each month. And eHow is wide open to anyone who wants to contribute to their library.

What does this mean to you? It means as a writer, you have a source of potential income. And as a business owner, you have the potential to position yourself as an expert and boost your online business (while getting paid for your article contributions).

Here’s how to become a writer for eHow:

Step #1 Register with the website. Visit ehow.com click on the “join” button in the upper right hand corner and fill out the required information. On your profile page, write a bio, upload a picture and sign up for their writer’s compensation program – you’ll need a PayPal account. You’re paid based on the amount of traffic your article receives.

Step #2 Spend some time researching the website and reviewing the format. Read the most popular eHow articles and browse the categories. Check to see if your niche category is listed. Read the article submission guidelines.

Step #3 Formulate a plan. Who is your audience? What problem are you solving – what are you showing them how to do? How long will your article be? eHow recommends your article to be between 400 and 600 words. What category will you publish it under? 

Step #4 Do you have a photo? eHow recommends photos and has found that on their site, articles with images perform better. Better performance means more traffic to your website.

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Step #5 What keywords will you optimize your article for? eHow comes up near the top, if not the top, of the search engines for many keywords and keyword phrases. This means your article stands a good chance of having fantastic page rank if you choose your keywords wisely.

Step #6 Once your article is written, spell and grammar check it thoroughly. Don’t rely simply on your word processing spell check; read it carefully yourself or have someone else read it for errors.

Step #7 Log in to eHow, fill out your profile information, and click on the “Write Now” button. You can write directly on the form they provide or you can cut and paste from your document. It’s recommended that you cut and paste; that way you can be sure your content is polished.

Step #8 You now have a choice to save your article or to publish it. If it’s good to go and all of your ducks are in a row, go ahead and publish. You can edit articles after they’re published and you can delete them too.

Step #9 Once your article is published, drive traffic to it by linking to it from your own website, by social networking and other traffic-generation methods.

Step #10 Log on occasionally to track the success of your article and start formulating a plan for your next eHow article.

Writing for eHow is a great way to earn an extra income and position yourself as an expert in your niche topic(s). Sign up today and check it out.

To your success,

Sherley

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Article Marketing - Creating a Successful Outline for Article Writing

As an online entrepreneur you know the value of content. It boosts search engine results and thus drives traffic to your website. It provides a benefit to your visitor and keeps them on your website reading content and diving further into the depths of your site - hopefully to your product page. It also connects you to the reader in a personal way, forging a relationship that will hopefully be long-lasting.

So it stands to reason that you want to not simply create content, but you want to write great articles that inspire and motivate action. One of the keys to writing great content isn’t to take a journalism or creative non-fiction writing course; it’s to plan your content before you write it. A predefined structure can turn a muddled article into an easy to read, benefit-driven masterpiece. 

Of course, when people hear the word “outline” shivers run up their spine and they see their school teacher standing over them forcing structure upon them. If the word “outline” makes you cringe, then call it a blueprint or a plan. You like to plan, right? You must; you’re an entrepreneur and they’re master planners.

So what is included in an article plan?

Initially you’ll want to start with the topic of your article. What is it going to be about? You’ll also want to consider the purpose of your article. If you’re writing an article about rock climbing, is the purpose going to be to motivate someone to learn how to rock climb or are you going to actually tell them how to do it? 

Keep the purpose simple for an article. You’re only looking for one main idea; you’re not writing a book. Though if you are inspired to write a book, then that’s great too.

So now you have your topic and your article’s purpose, right? Let’s say you’re going to tell someone how to rock climb. This is a “how to” article, then.  How to articles usually involve a series of steps. Step one, find a good pair of rock climbing shoes. Step two, find a local crag that’s easy (5.6 or under in the rating scale) and so on.

If you’re writing a tips article, then that will have a different structure and so too will an article that lists things. If you’re writing an article to motivate or inspire, then you’ll want to support your topic with at least three main points. This brings us to the third phase of your article writing plan.

What’s your point? In this step you’ll start creating the skeleton of your article - the bones. You can mind map your article at this point, you can simply list the points you want to cover, the tips, the steps and so forth or you can write out a sentence or two describing each point.

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Before you start pulling it all together, you’ll want to go back to the beginning and plan your first paragraph. This paragraph is potentially the most important paragraph of your article because if it doesn’t compel readers to continue reading, well…

Your first paragraph only need be a few sentences and it should essentially tell your readers what you’re going to tell them. Continuing with the how to rock climb example, your first paragraph might read something like this:

“Rock climbing isn’t just for extreme adventure seekers anymore. Today there are more than 10,000 rock climbing gyms nationwide and thousands of people are learning to enjoy this fun new way to get and stay in shape. Whether you’re climbing outdoors or indoors, the steps to learn to climb are the same.“

Okay, at this point you have your article’s topic, its purpose, your points and your first paragraph outlined, oops, planned. Now what?

Well, now you have a few choices. You can set it aside to write later. This is good if you need some time to contemplate some areas of your article. Alternatively, you can write your article, or you can write your headline. Sometimes it’s easier to write a compelling headline after the article is written and sometimes you’ll have your headline right away, once you’ve created your topic and purpose.

When you’re ready to write, simply write your content without editing yourself (save the editing for the end). Don’t put in your keywords. Don’t edit yourself for spelling and grammar; just write using the plan you’ve created.

Finally, edit your content, add your keywords in where they feel natural and you’re done. Congratulations, you’ve just written a great article! And the good news is that with practice, this planning and writing process will get faster and faster.

To your success,

Sherley

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16 Article Marketing Do’s and Don’ts

Article marketing

Article marketing has been used for years to drive traffic to a website, to boost incoming links and increase page ranking. It’s a great way to connect with new prospects and grow your business. Many business owners achieve such fantastic results with article marketing that it’s at the top of their marketing strategy. 

Here are a few important article marketing dos and don’ts to get the most from this powerful marketing strategy:

1. Do include a link to your website. While many article marketing directories do not allow you to place links in the body of your article, they do encourage you to link to your website or webpage in your author box or bio. Always include a link to your website.
2. Do make sure your article is on a subject related to your business. Some business owners make the mistake of writing content that is popular or in high demand in the hope that someone will read the article and click through to their website on an entirely different subject. For example, writing an article on home-made dog treats and then including a link to your dating website just doesn’t make any sense. Your article won’t have the impact you want it to and any links you do generate will be coming from dog sites, not dating sites, which won’t help your SEO.
3. Do spell check your content. Article directories do not check your article for spelling and grammar before they publish it.  That’s your job.
4. Don’t publish a sales page disguised as an article. It’s insulting to any readers and it won’t have the desired effect.
5. Do re-purpose quality content you already have to publish on article marketing sites. 
6. Don’t publish the same article on different marketing sites; this is duplicate content and can get you in trouble with article marketing sites.
7. Do pay attention to the specs for each article marketing site.
8. Do provide valuable and original content.
9. Don’t plagiarize; be original!
10. Do provide relevant facts and figures to give your article credibility and authority. These are the articles which are published often.
11. Do format your article for reading online. That means short paragraphs, bullet points and lists, subheadings and a clear structure.
12. Do write a polished bio – you’re an expert, so present yourself like one. 
13. Do include a call to action in your biography. Inspire and motivate readers to click through to your website.
14. Do choose article marketing sites that provide statistics so you can see which articles are published most often and viewed most often.
15. Do categorize your articles appropriately so readers can find you.
16. Do give your articles captivating headlines! Grab your reader’s attention.

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Each article marketing site or directory will have their own publisher’s agreement for you to review and approve. Be sure you’re aware of what the site requires and allows before you submit an article to them, and make sure you’re submitting to a directory that gets enough traffic to make your efforts worthwhile. Following these article marketing dos and don’ts will help you reach your article marketing efforts quickly.

To your success,

Sherley

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Article Marketing Tips - Top 5 Tips to Get Your Articles Read

Article Marketing

Writing and creating content for your website is perhaps the single most important marketing and business-building strategy available to online business owners. However, in addition to simply creating content, you want to have your articles read. Articles that are compelling pull the visitor into your website where they’ll continue to search for more valuable content. They will begin to not only remember your website as a source of good content but also as a reliable business.

Here are five top tip tips to get your articles read:

#1 Compelling headlines are a must. Your headline is the first thing that your visitor or reader will notice. It must grab their attention by appealing to their emotions, making a promise, offering a benefit, inciting controversy, arousing curiosity or stating something newsworthy.

#2 Your article’s layout is very important. How you present your content may very well be the next most important factor in getting your article read, right behind your headline. Articles that are heavy with long paragraphs are often skipped. Not because the reader isn’t interested in the content, they’re just not interested enough to spend the time reading the article for value.

In general, people tend to skim when they read online, and an article that is difficult or cumbersome to read won’t be read. Instead, use shorter paragraphs, short sentences and formatting like bold type, bullets or numbers, and subheadings to help your reader make a decision to read your article.

#3 Your intro paragraph is next in line in importance to getting your article read. It should be short and to the point, yet still compelling. Your intro paragraph is used to set the stage for the rest of the article. It’s where you let your potential reader know what you’re going to tell them.

#4 Photos, graphics and illustrations come next. For some reason we’re attracted to content with images. Maybe it’s because it breaks up the content or maybe it’s because a few good images can help you tell your story. If you can include relevant images in your content, it will draw the eye of readers.

#5 Credentials is the last tip. Sometimes a website visitor does two things: they read the headline and then they scan down to see who wrote the article and if they’re qualified to talk on the subject. This is particularly important if you’re publishing articles on websites, blogs and online newsletters that are not affiliated with your business website. Create a bio paragraph that puts you in a good light and boosts your credibility and authority.

Getting your content written is half the job, getting it read is the other half. And in addition to these top tips, it is of course essential that you market your content with a variety of marketing and traffic generation strategies.

Article Marketing Tips - 6 Reasons Why Article Marketing Works

Article Marketing

1. Article marketing, if you’ve yet to try it, is one of the best marketing tools available to beginner, intermediate and experienced business owners. Internet article marketing, the process of writing articles and publishing them on article directories and websites, can give your website the boost it needs to start turning a profit. As you grow, article marketing will continue to establish you as an expert and drive much needed traffic to your website. Still not convinced? Here’s why article marketing works.

2. Article marketing is a superior traffic-generating strategy. Each article you write will have a bio box. Your bio will include a link to your website. As website owners republish your content on their website, they’ll of course keep the links to your website. People who read your content on these websites and on the article directory itself, will click through to your website to learn more. Additionally, the incoming links that article marketing creates will help boost your search engine results, which drives traffic to your website.

3. Article marketing helps build your credibility as an expert in your niche industry. Provided the articles you write and publish offer valuable information and benefit to your target audience, as they’re published on relevant websites with your signature box and biography you’ll begin to establish yourself as an authority.

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4. Article marketing helps to increase exposure and brand awareness. Article directories have a broad reach and extend to people all around the world. Each website your article is published on has their own target market and visitors who will, once they have read your article, be aware of you and your business.

5. Article marketing increases your recognition. Advertising experts agree that it takes three to seven exposures for a person to develop recognition, meaning they think of your business when they have a need, see a logo, hear a slogan and so on. As your content and name become prevalent online, your prospects will start to develop recognition. Article marketing helps you reach your customers and prospects repeatedly.

6. Article marketing gives you the opportunity, sometimes, to promote your products or services. Some article marketing sites allow you to have internal text links. That means that within your content you can link to product pages, sales pages, or promotions. They generally limit the number of links you can have, but this can be a great way to simply drive profits. Note that it’s important to make sure your content provides value, and is more than a sales page wearing an article costume. 

You can also accomplish these results by submitting articles to relevant websites for publication. However, because most article directories are free and writing content is fairly easy, particularly if you already have content ready to go, article marketing is a strategy that provides tremendous returns.

To your success,

Sherley

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Email Marketing - Can You Really Use Articles To Build Your List?

Email Marketing

Getting customers in your site should always be ranked as high as the importance of the quality and the excellence of the product and the services you provide. They should go hand in hand in providing your customers the satisfaction they get in exchange for the money they have paid for them. Customer service should as well be as fantastic so that the customers are provided with the same satisfaction.

One of the ways you can combine marketing and customer service is through opt-in marketing. With an opt-in list you get the opportunity to introduce your site and products on a good time basis. Opt-in marketing strategy is a marketing strategy that is virtually low cost and not time consuming. Here, you get the consent of your website visitors to subscribe to your newsletters and other promotional materials such as catalogs and free promotions.

Opt-in marketing uses your list of subscribers to send e-mail to. These e-mails will contain the materials you will send to your subscribers. It is essential that you present your promotional items in a manner that will catch the interest and the eye of your subscribers to keep them wanting for more. The best way to do this is to provide fun, entertaining and informational articles.

Well written articles full of content and useful information will help in building your list as more subscribers will be enticed your list. When they have read the samples of your contents in your sites, they will be intrigued as to what will come next. Subscribing to your newsletter will offer them a glimpse of what you have to offer next.

Many sites and companies have captured the importance of articles and this also aids in search engine optimization. As more people are heading towards the internet for their information needs, serving the right information to them via articles in your site will increase the flow of your website traffic.  With more traffic, the percentage of your sales will grow. More sales turn into more profit.

There have been the rise for the importance of well written, information enriched and keyword packed articles for the content of their site as well as for newsletters. These articles provide the information many are seeking in the internet. If your site has them, more people will be going to your site for information and research.

Well written articles would also boost your sites reputation. If they are filled with many information you will be regarded as well informed and an expert on the subjects that you tackle.  Your articles must be well researched so that the people will trust you. When you have gained their trust, they will always come for you for their needs on that subject.

In connection, you must write articles or commission them to tackle subjects that are closely connected with your type of business. If you have a site for a medicine tackling a certain disease, your articles must be about the diseases. Or if you sell materials for home improvements provide articles with those themes. Most articles searched for are tips, guidelines, methods, manuals and such. If you provide these articles to your customers and you have their trust, they will always go to your site for help and advice as well as for your products.

With the loyalty of these customers, they may subscribe to your opt-in list to receive all the information you have. If you provide them with the answers for that need, they will be happy to be receiving your newsletters as well as other promotional materials to keep them well informed. Others may even forward your newsletters to other people when they find a certain article interesting.

You should provide links in your newsletter so that when other people are reading it and wants to read more, they may click on the link and go to your site. With the articles you have in your site that are good, they may decide to sign up as well for your opt-in list. This will build your list and make it bigger.

Make sure to keep your subscribers happy and interested in your email newsletters and promotional materials. Keep on posting and writing good articles for your site and newsletter. If you are not interested in writing them or if you just don’t have the time, there are many available well experienced and knowledgeable writers available to help you out. This is an investment that will pay for itself in time.

Article Marketing Tips - 4 Things ALL Articles Must Have - Don't Forget!

Article Marketing - Keywords

The importance of articles in today’s websites and internet based companies are immeasurable. They dictate a lot in the success and the drive of traffic into one’s site.   It has become a key element in making a site work and earns a profit. A website operator and owner must have the good sense to include articles in his or her site that will work for them and earn them the many benefits articles can give to their site.

Articles have been known to be the driving force in driving traffic to a website. Articles are a factor in giving site high rankings in search result pages. The higher a site ranks the bigger slice of the traffic flow pie he gets. With a huge number in traffic flow, there are more profits and more potential for other income generating schemes as well.

But, it is not just about stuffing your site with articles; they have certain requirements as well. These requirements must be met to obtain the maximum benefits an article will provide for your site. A well written article will catch the eyes and interest of your customers and keep them coming back for more.  They would also be able to recommend your site to others.

Here are some tips to help you and assist you in making your articles. Below you will read about four things all articles must have to make it successful and helpful in making your site a profit earning and traffic overflowing site.

•    Keywords and Keyword Phrases.

An article must always be centered on the keywords and keyword phrases. As each website visitor goes to a site, there are those who are just merely browsing but actually looking for a specific something. When this happens, a searcher usually goes to a search engine and types in the keywords they are looking for (e.g. Toyota Camry, Meningitis, Tax Lawyer and Etcetera). It could be anything they want.

The Important thing is that you have an article that has the keywords that are related to your site. For example, if you maintain an auto parts site, you must be able t have articles about cars and their parts.  There are many tools in the internet that provides service in helping a webmaster out in determining what keywords and keyword phrases are mostly sought out. You can use this tool to determine what keywords to use and write about.  

•    Keyword Density

Know that you have your keywords and keyword phrases, you must use them fully. An article must have good keyword density for a search engine to “feel” its presence. Articles should at least have ten to fifteen percent of keyword density in their content for search engines to rank a site high in their search results. Getting a high rank is what articles do best for a site.

Keyword density is the number of times a keyword or keyword phrase is used on an article. The number varies depending on the number of words used in an article. An effective article must have a keyword density that is not too high or too low. With a very high density, the essence of the article is lost and may turn off a reader as well as the search engines. It comes off as overeager. A low number may be ignored by the search engines.

•    Good Article Content

Like what is stated above, you cannot just riddle an article with keywords. They must also be regarded as good reading materials. Articles must be able to entertain people as well as provide good information and help for their needs. Articles should be written well with correct spelling and good grammar. If you want people to trust you, make your work good and well thought out.

People respond well to figures, facts and statistics. Try to get great information and as many facts as you can. A good and well written article will boost your reputation as an expert in your chosen field or topic. As more people believe in you. They will be able to trust you and your products.

•    Linking Articles

And another important thing to remember. If you are going to submit articles to ezines and/or contribute your articles to newsletters and other sites, DON’T ever forget to include a link to your site. A little resource box with a brief description of your site and you should always be placed right after your articles that you have submitted. If people like your articles, they will most likely click on the link directing them to your site.

Article Marketing Tips - How to Use E-courses to Improve Your Website Traffic

Article Marketing - E-course

In today’s society, the internet is no longer just used for shopping or entertainment; it is also used for learning.  Over the past few years, online e-courses have rapidly increased popularity. What does this mean for you? This means that if you are an article writer, you can easily build off of this popularity. You can do this by using e-courses to improve your website traffic. 

Before examining how you can go about making e-courses with articles, it is best to quickly familiarize yourself with e-courses, namely what they are.  Just as they sound, e-courses are courses that are offered online. These courses, which are often hosted over the internet, enable internet users to get an education or familiarize themselves with something new, often right from the comfort of their own homes.

Although e-courses have similar goals, to educate internet users, those goals are accomplished in different ways.  There are some individuals who are considered experts in their field, such as the field from working from home.  Many experts create e-courses and distribute them online for other internet users to benefit from.  e-courses are also offered by many colleges and universities as a way to get an education from home.

Now that you know exactly what e-courses are, you can better understand how you make an e-course.  If you have never taken or viewed and e-course before, you may not realize that they are just collections of information, just like articles. In fact, that is why making your own e-course may be a lot easier then you had originally anticipated.  The way that you can create your own e-course can vary, but many article writers just take a collection of articles and combine them together. 

Of course will want to combine them in a way in which they are easy to read, helpful, and connected.  For instance, if you are interested in making an e-course that focuses on working from home, you will first want to explain what working from home is before outlining various work at home opportunities, and so forth.

When transforming your articles into an e-course, you can distribute your articles for free if you want or you can sell them and make yourself a little bit of extra cash. Once you have successfully created an e-course, your next step will all depend on your goals. For instance, is your goal to make money with your e-course or is your goal to generate traffic for your website?  If your goal is to generate traffic for your website, you may want to think about offering your e-course materials free of charge. 

Many webmaster post their e-course materials on their website, for easy viewing, but others use it as email content.  If you use your e-course material as email content, you are essentially creating and distributing a newsletter.  Newsletters are another one of the many highly rated and recommend internet marketing tactics that webmasters use.

If you are not a webmaster, just a professional article writer, you may be interested in using your e-course to generate sales. If so, there are a couple of different approaches that you can take.  For the fastest results, you may want to consider selling your e-course to an individual or company who can effectively promote it.  This will, in turn, generate income for both parties involved. 

If you do have the time to market and promote your own e-course, you may want to examine selling it on your own.  As it was previously mentioned, a large number of webmasters offer similar e-courses free of charge.  Despite this free competition, you may still be able to make a substantial profit from selling your e-course material, even if you make it available for a low price.

Whichever way you decide to use your material, you are still advised to make an e-course with your articles.  After all, what else would you do with your articles?  Making an e-course is a great way to put your old, unused articles to good use.

To your success.....

Article Marketing Tips - Writing the Resource Box so it Makes People Click

Article Marketing

The internet is the information highway, this phrase has been used so may time it should be nominated for the Internet Cliché Award. People that go to the internet are subdivided into groups, but generally, they are out to search information. Whether for gaming, business, fun or anything else the internet has provided us with information that has proved to be very beneficial. 

Through the recent years many people have learned the secrets of Search Engine Optimization. More and more sites have seen the effects articles have done for the traffic of their sites. Some have even created sites devoted entirely to providing articles that could be read by their website visitors and have links that could lead to many sites that are related to the topics and subjects of the articles.

For example, the sites may feature many articles about a whole lot of topics. As a website visitor reads the articles they have searched for, they can find at the end of the article a resource box that can be clicked on to link them to the site that has submitted the article. Of course the article would be in relation to the site. Lets say if the article is about rotating the tires, the resource box may lead to a link to a site that sells tires or car parts.

A resource box is what you usually find at the end of an article. They will contain the name of the author, a brief description of the author, a brief description of the sponsoring site and a link. If a reader likes what they read, they would have the tendency to find out where the article came from to read more. The resource bow will be their link to the source of the article and this will entice them to go to the site and do some more reading or research for the subject or topic they are interested in.

But like the article itself, the resource box must also be eye-catching to demand the attention and interest of the reader. While the resource box encompasses only a small space, providing the right keywords and content for your resource box will provide more prodding for the reader to go to your site.

Now we know what resource boxes are, what are the benefits of having a good resource box? Mainly its driving traffic to your site. Many sites would allow articles to be placed in their sites because they can make use of the articles to fill their pages. They also get affiliation with other sites that can be beneficial for them as well. For the sponsoring site, when you get people to click on your resource box, you generate traffic that can be counted upon as potential customers.

So what would be a good content for your resource box? Basically it is keywords, learning about the proper keywords that people are mainly searching for. There are many tools you can find in the internet that can help you in determining what keywords to use.

Resource boxes can also make use of all the creativity it can get. You only get a small space for your resource box so you better make the most of it. Try to catch the attention of your reader with resource box content that can make them give a second look. Unlike TV ads, you don’t have visual aids to drive your point in. But you do have the power of imagination of a reader. With the right content, you can make them think and intrigued.

Another tip is to use keywords that should be related to your site. Do not mislead your potential website visitors. Build your credibility so that more people would get enticed to visit your site and browse what you have to offer. Make the people click your resource box by providing resource box content that makes a lasting impression. You only get one chance to wow them and hundreds of chances to repulse them.

Never underestimate the power of the resource box. It may be small in size but they will provide a significant aid in driving traffic to your site. A boring resource box will never get a job done. Be fun and creative but at the same time show that you have a great deal to offer, too much to ask for something that couldn’t fit a paragraph? Yes and no, there are many tips and guides that can help you in doing this, the first step is realizing how important a resource box could be in making people click your link and be directed to your site.

Article Marketing Tips - 5 Easy Ways To Get Your Creative Juices Going

Article Marketing

Writing an article doesn’t just mean putting down thoughts into words then typing and writing it. You have to capture the interest of your readers and get them to keep on reading. To send your message across you have to get the attention of the reader and have a firm grasp of their interest and pique their curiosity.

The main ingredient in baking up an article is a large dose of creativity. While creativity may come natural to many people, some just gets into a block or something to that effect that can drive someone crazy. Many writers have literally torn their hair out when they get writers block and just can’t seem to get their creative juices flowing. 

Putting words into images in the readers mind is an art. A clear and crisp depiction requires a certain flair that only creativity can provide. Similes and metaphors help a lot, but the way an article gets entwined word for word, sentence by sentence then paragraph by paragraph into a whole article develops the essence of the article. 

So just what do you have to do when nothing comes to mind? There is no surefire ways to get the perfect ideas but there are easy ways to get your creative juices flowing. No one can guarantee you of having the perfect mindset but many methods may aid you in achieving that state of mind. Here are five easy ways for that.

1) Keep a diary or a journal with you always. Ideas can be triggered by anything you may hear, see, or smell. Your senses are your radar in finding great ideas. Write all of them into a journal and keep it with you for future reference. You may also write down anything that you have read or heard, someone’s ideas could be used to develop your own ideas and this is not stealing. Remember that ideas and creativity can come from anywhere; it’s the development of the idea that makes it unique.

2) Relax and take time to sort things out. A jumbled mind cannot create any space for new ideas. Everyone must have a clear mind if one wishes to have their creativity in full speed. Get rid of all obstacles that can be a hindrance to your creativity. If you are bothered by something, you cannot force your mind to stay focused.

Try to relax every time that you can and think about your experiences and interactions with others. Your experiences are what shape your mindset and your opinions which could be reflected on your writings. Try to discover yourself, find out what triggers your emotions. Discover what inspires you and what ticks you off. You can use these emotions to help you in expressing yourself and your ideas, with this you can grow creatively.

3) Create a working place that can inspire your creativeness. Your working place can be quite a hindrance if it doesn’t make you feel happy or relaxed. Creativity comes from being in a good state of mind and a messed up workplace that causes distraction won’t be conducive in firing up your creative flow.

Surround your working place with objects that makes you happy and relaxed. You may put up pictures, or scents, objects that inspire, or anything that can get your creativeness cranking. A clean and well organized workplace also rids of distractions and unwanted hindrances. With a good working place, you can work in peace and never notice the time pass by.

4) Set the mood. Setting the mood requires you to just go with the moment or to induce your self to feeling what makes your mind works best. Finding out what makes you tick could help you find ways to get your creative juices flowing. Set the pace and tempo for your mood and everything else will follow.

There are many ways to set the mood. Some writers have been known to use alcohol, a little sip of wine to stir up the imagination. Some would like some mood music while others let the lighting of the environment create the mood.

5) Go on a getaway and just do something unlike crazy. Letting yourself go and have fun produces adrenaline that can make your imagination go wild. Take an adventure or a solemn hike. Whatever it is that is unusual from your daily routine can take the rut out of your schedule. In no time at all, your creativeness will make use of that experience and get your imagination to go on overdrive.

Internet Marketing Tips - How to Re-purpose Your Content

Internet Marketing Tips

Re-purposing your content makes good business sense. It’s a good way to squeeze out as much value as possible from your current content. And re-purposing also helps your customers by providing fantastic content in a variety of ways.

Here are a few ideas to help you re-purpose your content:

Recycle. There’s no need to just use great content once. Recycling your content benefits everyone in a positive way. A good way to do this is to think about each piece of content and how you can reuse it.

A few ideas may be:

Article Marketing

#1 - Take a special download report and use the content for article distribution. The report is only available for download on your website but you can use several articles within the report to distribute to article directories. That content will then work to bring you new subscribers to your site.

Autoresponder Classes

#2 - Use product content to create an autoresponder series. If you have an info product available for sale (or a free one) you can take snippets of that content and turn it into an autoresponder series. This way your customers can preview the content through the AR series and the AR series can promote the actual product.

E-book

#3 - Use the content on your website for a product. If you have articles on your website or blog you can easily turn these into a product. Simply choose a collection of articles you’ve previously written and make them available in download format for customers.

You can choose to use this content as a free giveaway to gain more subscribers, or you can turn it into an actual product for purchase. Not everyone is likely to look through your whole website or blog to find the content. Also, people will often pay for the convenience of having the information at their fingertips without having to search for it.

Newsletter

#4 - Use your newsletter to attract search engines. If you have a regular newsletter which you send out make sure you also add it to your website or blog pages after sending. This will help you attract more search engine traffic and will give customers an archive to view previous newsletters.

Online Audio Transcript

#5 - Turn your audios into content. If you have audios on your website, use them to get more free search engine traffic. Have the audios transcribed and place them on your website or blog pages. This also gives your customers options, as some people will prefer to read rather than listen to an audio.

With a little thinking and planning you can make your content go a long way.

To your success,

Sherley

SEO How TO - How to Build Incoming Links

SEO How To

If you want to get your website noticed, the easiest way is to get to the top of popular search engines.  While all search engines have different formulas, they all have one thing in common: links.   All of these engines base you higher the more high quality sites link to you.  That’s why it’s important to get quality links to your site.  In addition, links not only bring in search engines rankings, people occasionally follow them too!

Here are a few easy ways to get links to your website:

Social Bookmarking

  Social Bookmarking Sites are designed so people can save their bookmarks online and then share them with their friends, family, business associates, or pretty much anyone.  You can also use this to post links to your website.  Plus, if other people see your posts, they might just go and recommend your site to someone else.

Online Directories

  These are like a phonebook for the internet.  However, many of them are very selective.  They are divided up by type of website so people can find you easily, but since they don’t take everyone, many can provide high quality links to your site as well.

Blogging

  If you have blogs you use to promote your business, these can be used to provide links to your related websites.  However, if the blog isn’t a quality link, it’s not going to help your site at all.  And microblogs like Twitter or commenting on blogs aren’t going to help your rankings either, but they may get traffic directly to your site.

Article Directories

  These are online catalogues full of articles free for anyone to copy and use.  You put a link back to your site at the bottom of the article.  Just remember that if all the content from your site is on article directories as well, it’s going to be less unique and less valuable to search engines.  You could choose to only put some of your articles on directories, or you can have two slightly different versions, one for your site and one for directories.

Press Releases

  If you’re releasing a new product or making some newsworthy change to your business, you can write up a press release and submit it to a news site.  Press releases are a great link that will also provide a lot of traffic for your site.

Many people will participate in a link exchange instead of, or in addition to, one-way links.  This is where you contact someone who already has a web page in your area and ask them to link to your site and in exchange you will link to their site on yours. 

With link exchange you have to email requesting it and it can take a while for them to reply.  It can be very slow and tedious.  While one-way links take time, they’re generally an easier way to get guaranteed links from quality sources.  In addition, most search engines can find link exchanges and discount their value when determining rankings.

Search Engine Optimization - How to Write an Search Engine Optimized Article Part II

Search Engine Optimization - Key to writing good SEO articles

The key to writing good SEO articles is to be true to the subject at hand. Make sure that your SEO article contains relevant information and a substantial proportion of keywords scattered throughout the article. Include a keyword or phrase in the title of your article. Include a minimum of 2 keywords or phrases in the beginning and ending paragraphs of your article.

Finally, scatter keywords in the body of your article. If you have a 500 word article, a minimum of 1 keyword or phrase per paragraph in the text body is recommended.

Write your article for your product, not for the sake of keywords. As you go on with your article, you will be using your keywords when you describe your product and when you give out instructions on how to use the product. Write about how the product came into existence and how it has developed through the years. Cite instances where the product has been particularly useful to you or to an acquaintance.

When writing the article, do not force the keyword issue. Your articles must be forthright, literate, easy and entertaining to read. Some writers sacrifice grammar for the sake of a keyword placement. Don’t do that. When searchers are directed to an article of yours and it happens to contain spelling errors, wrong grammar and a generally sloppy composition, they might decide to look for another article or website that contains more nicely written content.

If you are unable to compose your own article because of time constraints, you can use freelance websites to hire article writers who will do the job for you. Prices for an original SEO article containing 500 to 750 words max range anywhere from $1 to 15$. Just be sure to communicate well with the writers so that they fully understand what you require. Ask for previous work samples so you can judge whether their skills are up to your standards.

If you come across a writer offering his service rather cheaply, don’t rush in and call yourself lucky. The best way to be sure that you have found a cheap but quality conscious worker is to ask him to provide one article to you. In exchange you will pay him for that one article and use it as criteria for judging his qualifications.

Try writing an article yourself before hiring it out to someone else. You of all people know  your business best and what your customers will read.

Search Engine Optimization - How to Write an Search Engine Optimized Article Part I

Search Engine Optimization - Why do I need keywords in my articles?

Keywords or phrases are tools used in internet marketing to achieve better rankings in search engines. At a certain point in time, webmasters abused this system by saturating the content of their websites with keywords to be able to achieve a high ranking.

However, this resulted in search engine users getting results that had no relevance whatsoever to their query. To combat this abuse, search engine webmasters developed algorithms to decipher which websites have relevant content and which websites did not. Now, the whole focus for keyword utilization has shifted to content rich articles with a keyword ratio average of about 12% of the whole article.

The whole reason for this shift in keyword utilization stems from the fact that search engine sites track and record the abuse of keywords. If you happen to have an article of 500 words containing nothing but the word “porn”, chances are your site will be banned from the search engine.

This shift has also created a whole new industry in writing. You will definitely be able to get search engine optimized ( SEO ) articles written by professional SEO writers or you can write them yourself.

Part II - Key to Writing Good SEO Articles

Article Marketing - Use Articles to Get Customers to Your Website

Article Marketing

Are you an article writer? Do you write interesting articles; articles that your readers can’t wait to finish reading? Or do you write traditional, boring articles; articles that your readers may not even finish reading? 

If you answered traditional boring articles or even a collection of them both, you may want to reexamine the way that you write. After all, it isn’t a secret that readers actually like to enjoy what they read. That is why it is extremely important that you write captivating content.

The subject of your articles isn’t as important as the way that your articles are written, but it is still important. For that reason, you will want to write articles that interest you, but also ones that will draw in readers; readers that will buy your product or service.

Find “hot topics,” that your customers are interested in reading. Once you have found an interesting and popular topic to write about, you can then focus on the way that your article is written. 

You can use your articles to create back-links to your website. These back-links are used increase website traffic.  The only problem is that many article directories only allow links at the end of an article. This means for you to benefit from article distribution and back-linking, your readers must make it to the end of your article. 

It is extremely important that you go the extra mile to ensure that your articles are interesting and easy to read. An article that is easy to read is important.  You can write a captivating article, but if it difficult to read, it won’t do you any good.  When it comes to easy to read articles, grammar is an important component. 

Many internet users claim that the number one turn off is articles that are poorly written. There is no quicker way to lose a reader than to have an article that is poorly proofread. 

In order to sound professional, many article writers use big, technical sounding words.  This is okay to do is some cases, but it is typically advised against.  The only time that you should use big, technical words if you are writing an article that will be read by experts in the same field. 

The second biggest turn off for readers is content that regularly contains words they do not know or understand.  In a way, this is similar to creating dry, boring content.  If your readers cannot understand exactly what you mean, they may find reading your article to be useless or a waste of their time.

Creativity is extremely important.  Creativity is what can turn an otherwise boring article into one that your readers will not only enjoy reading, but one that they may also recommend to others. Even if you do not consider yourself to be a creative person,
you are urged to sit down and brainstorm.  You may find that it is the best way to develop captivating article ideas.

Article Marketing - How to Increase Website Traffic Using Articles - Part II

Although article distribution is a nice and easy way to generate website traffic, it is one that needs to be handled properly. If not handled correctly, you may essentially end up wasting your time.  The first step in using article directories to your advantage is focusing on a topic that you would like to write about.  For the best success, you will want to write on a topic or an issue that is, in one way or another, related to the website readers will be directed to.  Any article may increase the traffic that your website sees, but if you rely on internet sales, you will need to go a step further.  For instance, if you are selling a service, such as an answering service, you may want your article to focus on the benefits of using an answering

service.

Once you have determine what the main topic or focus of your articles will be, you will then need to examine how you will write them.  If you find yourself having a difficult time figuring out what to write, you may want to think about creating yourself an outline.  An outline will act as a guide for you. An outline will not only help you know what to write, but it will
also help to ensure that you do not leave out any important information.

Once you have created yourself an outline, you can begin to start writing. When doing so, it is important that you keep your content interesting and easy to read.  Be cautious of using technical words that many internet users will not understand. Although your first thought may be to create informational articles, you want to be cautious of providing too much
information.  You need your readers to click on your links, to get to your website.  If your article is too informative, they may already have found what they needed, thus the needed for visiting your website may have been eliminated.  You will want to leave your readers wanting more information.

After your article has been compiled and thoroughly proofread, you will want to submit it to the article directories of your choice.  Although you might assume that your job is done after this point, it isn’t or at least it shouldn’t be. Article distribution is a great way to generate traffic, but it needs to be done on occasion. In fact, article distribution should be
done on a regular basis. You may want to set a goal for yourself, like submitting at least five articles a month or even more.  This will help to ensure that your readers are always given new, updated information to read and absorb.  In fact, the more articles you distribute the more links you will create.


Article directories welcome your content with open arms. In exchange with providing them with free content, you will be getting free links to your own website; thus increasing its
traffic.

Article Marketing - How to Increase Website Traffic Using Articles - Part I

 

Are you a websites owner who has been looking for ways to increase your website traffic? If so, you are defiantly not alone.  Each year, millions of website owners wonder why their website didn’t see more traffic.  Instead of wondering, you are urged to take action. After all, there are a number of different ways that you can go about increasing the traffic that your website sees. The good news is that a number of these ways,which include article distribution, are relatively easy to implement.  Despite being easy to implement, the rewards may be immeasurable.

Article distribution is an internet marketing technique that is used by many webmasters. Despite being a relativity popularity marketing tactic, there are still many webmasters who are unfamiliar with article distribution. If you are one of those business owners, you will want to read on.  Taking the time to familiarize yourself with article distribution could be your best minutes ever put to use.

Article distribution involves the use of websites that are known as article directories. Article directories are websites that host a large collection of articles.  To make finding and reading those articles easier, most article directories place each of their articles into categories.  Popular categories include education, business, automobiles, and travel.  In each
article, the writer is able to create a link to one of their websites.  That link is often accompanied by background information on the website in question or the webmaster. Each time one of your links is clicked, internet users will be directed to your website.  This connection will increase the amount of traffic your website sees and it may also help to increase the amount of profit it generates.

Part II - Coming tomorrow

Web Design: Good Content is Still King

 

 It used to be that if you wanted to make money on the Internet, you could create web pages that were simply links and ads and, if you knew enough about search engine optimization, you'd make money.  If you're like me, you really hated it when you found these pages and immediately hit the back button to find a new page.  After a while, popular search engines created programs to find and weed out these sorts of sites.  After that, content became more and more important.  
 
Good content is not only important to get to the top of Internet searches, it's also important to help make you money once people get to your website.  If they show up and find bad or no content, they'll probably be like me and just leave before they can click on links or buy any products.  They figure if your website isn't high quality, neither is anything they can find there.  Good content helps them stick around longer and builds faith in the quality of your site.
 
Quality content is also important for getting links to your site.  You can submit your content to article archives.  People then use your content, which includes a link to your site.  This raises your search engine rankings.  Quality content also gets people talking about you, whether it's on blogs or their own Website.

So, what is good content?  Good content should be written specifically for your target audience.  If your customers are newcomers to the Internet, you don't want to use technical jargon that they won't understand.  Similarly, if you are marketing to seasoned businessmen, you want to use more specific terms and ideas so they view you as a reliable source of information.
 
It may seem obvious, but good content should be well written.  You may be able to get a good price on content from various sites, but that doesn't mean the product is worth it.  Many people offer content that is great for search engines with high keyword use, but if it's not readable, people aren't going to stick around your website very long and you're probably not going to make much money from it. Plus, you're probably not going to be able to get anyone else to post your content and link back to you. 
 
Many Internet marketers focus on keyword density when looking for content.  They require a certain quantity of the words they want to be search engine keywords.  While this can work, the problem is that when you try to use specific words so many times it becomes repetitive and lowers the quality of the writing.  Good content writers can deliver articles that use the words enough just by writing an article on a specific topic.  If you have quality writers, you don't need to worry about keyword use.  
 
It helps you if your content is original.  There are hundreds of services out there that will give you great content to post on your website for free, as long as you don't change it.  This is great for them because it generally contains a link back to their site and boosts their search engine rankings.  It helps you out because it gives you content; however, if the content is all over the Internet, it's not going to do you much good in getting yourself high on the search engine lists.

It may take you a while to find quality writers, or to learn to write yourself, but after you do you will quickly see the benefits.