Get Higher Organic Rankings With Less Effort - Focus On the Major Ranking Factors

Got a website? Not enough visitors? Ready to rank higher on the major search engines but don't know how to do it? This article is for you -- we'll have a look at the basics of optimization for the major search engines, covering the key points for getting better rankings naturally for your site. Enough reading countless blog postings by folks simply speculating on search algorithms (I know, I've spent countless hours doing it myself, to no avail!) Statistical analysis of the major ranking factors used by the search engines has been performed -- there's no reason to do more. The factors and their weighting have remained relatively constant for years. Focus on these important points, then spend your efforts building a better, more attractive, more easily navigated, more informative website -- for once these visitors actually arrive, you'll want them to enjoy themselves while they're buying you out.

Let's start with the all important formula, the 40:40:20 ratio. Through statistical analysis of thousands of sites, these numbers appear to be fairly accurate across the major search portals: 40% of rankings are a result of 'on-page' factors, 40% a result of off-page factors (backlinks and same site links), and 20% a result of the page URL (the exact percentages vary slightly between engines). The beauty of this is data is the resultant simplicity of the approach to achieve better search results for your important keywords. Keep your eye on the ball, work diligently on each factor, and results will come. For the small business owner with a web presence (either as a primary sales channel or component to a larger advertising strategy) there is certainly always work to do. With discipline and focus, one can become efficient in their search engine ranking efforts.

First, on-page factors: Get your keywords in all the right places, with the right density, for each important page on your site. (Don't know about keyword development yet? Use seobook.com's keyword tool, and see what people are typing in to all the major engines. For example, a site owner that sells aromatherapy products might type in 'aromatherapy' or 'essential oils' -- the tool will return all the permutations of those terms. Develop pages following the 40:40:20 formula for each of the terms that you can, focusing on one or two keyword or keyword phrases per page -- more than that is self-defeating, diluting your efforts; make a new page instead.) So what are the right places and right density? Get the keyword in the title tag, the description tag and the keywords tag. DO NOT STUFF these tags, be elegant and think about your reader. Experience has shown minor variations to be insignificant in terms of rankings, and more often than not, it seems folks go overboard with their keywords. As often as you might think, "I'll add it in just one more place on the page", it might be helpful to always consider the possibility that one LESS time might improve your rankings too.

Let's look at the latest data for the 'sweet spots' for on-page ranking factors. A 10 to 20% density keyword density for the tile, 10% for both the meta keywords description is optimal. The keyword at or toward the beginning of each of these is optimal, but not necessary. What's this mean? If we use the term 'essential oils' again, an optimal title tag might be 'Pure Essential Oils and Accessories for Natural Health Professionals'. The keyword list would be ten to twenty words, comma separated, with the most important words at the beginning, and ALL words should appear in the body text of the page. The description can be (but doesn't have to) a well written, attention grabbing sentence -- it will likely be displayed in the organic search results, so you'll want it to be both SEO and customer friendly. Again, 20 or so words, keyword near or at the beginning. Keyword can appear twice, but no more than that. Body text: 1000 words or so (+/- a couple hundred), with a 2% keyword density, and the keyword (or words) appearing near the beginning, in the middle, and near the end of the page code (not just the output text). There are tons of density analyzers on the web -- pick one, focus on the body text number and ignore the rest. You'll get a lot of conflicting reports from various sites -- this can be confusing, misleading, and can can make you think you've got to go re-tweak other factors. Don't. You'll spend hours optimizing for that tool, only to find the next tool gives a different answer. Use the numbers here and move on.

Briefly, other notable on-page factors are image alt tags, H1-H6 tags, bold and italic text, and the number of outgoing (inter and intra site) links. Here's the scoop: Alt tags matter. Get your keywords in them, but don't overdo it. Don't use H tags, as according to the data, they'll bring your rankings down. Use bold and italics if it suits the design and readability of your site; they may be a positive factor, but not a huge one, and don't stuff your keywords in them. The higher the number of links on a page, the better. One hundred links seems optimal, but don't sweat it. Always keep in mind that usability and aesthetics are crucial too. Having javascript on the page appears to be a positive ranking factor. Finally, page size (all the text, minus the images) is optimal at 50-60k. This number is shown adjacent to the page in search results. A note on on-page code in general, a balance is important -- the search engines don't care what your page looks like from a design standpoint, they only see the code. But your customers do. And while data is not available, it is more than likely the major search portals are noticing how long a visitor stays on the page, recording whether they return to the search results to find another page. Strive to make your site clean, useful and engaging -- this will pay off in more ways than one.

Off page factors -- these include links from within your site and 'backlinks' from other websites. You MUST get backlinks to rank well, and it's probably the most challenging of all search engine optimization to do. You'll need to continuously acquire backlinks, or your rankings will stagnate, or even slowly drop. Optimally, you'll get a few links a day, with a steady increase in the total number. The two most often used routes are link exchange (asking for links from other sites, and putting their links on your site in exchange) or article distribution. There's lots of information on the web about exchanging links, read some, develop a plan and stick to it. Once you've got a system in place, you'll likely be able to hire someone to help you. Article distribution is another matter. Articles should really be quality, readable, helpful information for prospective customers. You'll get to post links within the author resource box, which serves both as an enticement for readers to visit your site, a means to give credibility to your internet business, plus search engines will also see these links and use them in their ranking algorithm. An effective linking program will utilize both these link sources. Remember, it's not the total number of links, but a consistently increasing number that has the greatest long-term results. Don't start a scheme that will give you 1000 links in one day, then none for the next month, or links that will slowly disappear -- this can do more harm than good.

Some caveats about links -- links from within your own site should be text links with the keyword in the link. So the Aromatherapy site would use 'essential oils' in all the links to their essential oils page. Off-site links should also use keywords in text links, but not always the same words. Mix it up. Here, for example, some of backlink text examples would be 'pure essential oils', 'organic essential oils', 'aromatherapy essential oil', and 'essential oils'. Further, about 30% of your links should just include the webpage address, like 'www.johnnysessentialoils.com' or 'www.bestbathproducts.com/essentialoils.php This helps your backlinks appear naturally created, rather than machine made search engine spider spam. A final note on backlinks, all pages that link to yours are not weighted equally. The older and more relevant the page, the more weight your link will garner. If your site is selling essential oils, links from a natural health website will likely be more beneficial than those from a poker website.

With that we'll describe the last 20%: the URL. Web pages with the keywords in the address, be it the homepage or any other page on the site, rank better. If the If you're just starting a site, getting your primary kewords in the url is useful. If not, and it makes sense to do so, use keywords in the filename like www.homepage.com/essentialoilspage1.html. Again, it appears better if the file does not have only the keywords in it, like the title and meta tags. If you already have pages without keywords in the filenames, you could create new ones and create a 301 redirect from the old ones to maintain any ranking status the 'old' pages had. Hyphens are still questionable, and are probably not needed. Short filenames and shallow directory structures appear best.

Some last remarks: A page's age means something. If you want to change a filename to include keywords in it, always employ a 301 redirect if the page has been indexed already -- do a little research to get this right. Search engine ranking change constantly, and some engines are quicker to appreciate your optimization efforts than others. Be patient -- it can take months to see results if the site is new, and sometimes weeks otherwise. Don't think you made a mistake just because nothing happened the first time a spider visited your new page. Keep working on your accumulation of backlinks; you probably have lots of pages targeting various keywords you can get links for. More optimal could mean higher quality -- the engines continually get smarter, and may be keeping track of how long visitors linger on your page versus your competitors. This leads us to the final important note -- visitors are only one part of the equation. A well-designed site, product mix and pricing, and customer service all play key roles in the health of your business.

The author spends way too much time on his laptop, doing search marketing for a number of websites. He dreams of getting away, all the while smelling the wonderful pure therapeutic essential oils emanating from his aromatherapy essential oil diffuser.

Top Things Your SEO Isn't Telling You

Anybody with a website that is selling a product or a service knows that the best way to attract visitors is to have a good ranking with the major search engines.

However, achieving this through search engine optimization (SEO) takes a lot of time and effort and will not happen overnight, whether you tackle the task yourself or hire an SEO strategist to do the job for you.

If you do enlist the help of an SEO strategist, do not take everything they say at face value. Here are some of the most common things your SEO strategist may not be telling you.

* The text on your website should not be packed with keywords. Use keywords certainly but the readability of your content is paramount. Badly written text will drive visitors away wholesale so get a professional to write it if needs be.

* Reciprocal links may not be the best way to boost your site's popularity. They may help your search engine page ranking and get you some extra visitors, but you are also encouraging people to navigate away from your website.

* Don't be afraid to use multimedia on your site. Ideally you should have good quality copy and some attractive multimedia aspects as well.

* Don't believe claims from search engine strategists that they can achieve a top page ranking for your site. What if they have another client selling the same product? You can't both have a top ranking.

* It takes time for new sites to gain popularity with the search engines. Your site will get a higher ranking over time but it could take up to a year. A high page ranking can not happen immediately.

* There is no quick fix for SEO. Your website needs to be updated constantly to keep it fresh, and to maintain popularity among the search engines.

These are some of the things your search engine optimizer may not mention. But also look out for the things they DO talk about. A good SEO strategist should not be limited to techniques like meta keyword tags, but offer a multi-faceted strategy that includes article submissions, forum posting and blogs.

Hiring a search engine optimization can be expensive so you will want to get the best deal you can. I hope the above article will help you in your search.

**********
For more freelance business ideas, visit FreelanceSprout.com.

Internet Marketing Plan - A Step By Step Guide To Creating Your Highly Profitable Business! Part II

We learned that you need to brainstorm to find a profitable market if you want to make a lot of money with Internet marketing. This is a crucial step, so don't try to escape. I've made this mistake when I first started and I can tell you that I lost a lot of money as a result.

Then, we learned that you need to know exactly what your market want, and finally, you need to find competitors already spending money to advertise in this market.

Now, let's go more in depth and see where you can find them. We are going to analyze the competition.

4. Analyze your competition

It's very easy to find out what your competitors are doing in your market. There are plenty of tools that allow you to find out, but for the purpose of this article, we will use Google.

You can use any other search engine like Yahoo or msn by the way.

You need to look at the paid search results, on the right side of the screen. Basically, you are going to find out how they are making money, and adjust your strategy on what they are already doing.

You need to find your unique selling proposition. To make a lot of money, you need to be different than others. Don't try to be another "me too" in this market.

5. Create a landing page

Now that you found that your product is popular and that people are already making money in the niche, it's your turn. You need to collect a list of subscribers.

Where is the product?

In fact, you don't have a product yet. You are going to create it soon.

To learn more, download my Free Guide: "How To Earn $100K Per Year With Article Marketing".

Franck Silvestre makes thousands of dollars a year from affiliate and article marketing. Wonder what the secret to his success is? Discover how he does it at: http://www.mynetmarketingland.com/article-marketing/

Profitable Article Marketing - 3 Brand New Steps to Supercharge Your Article Marketing

Article marketing is one of the best website promotion tools that you can use to get free traffic to your website. This is done by writing and submitting quality articles that are related to your target niche to various publishing sites. Other webmasters can then use these articles for free and they can distribute them as long as they keep the author's box. The wider the distribution, the better for your website traffic. Because aside from traffic you can gather from free searches and clickthroughs, you will also obtain quality one way links to your website that will pull up your page ranking.

Here are the brand new steps to supercharge your article marketing:

1. There are many elements that contribute to the success of article marketing, but the most crucial one lies on the quality of your content. If you want others to distribute your articles, you must make sure that they are well-written, useful, informative, timely, and targeted to your chosen niche. If your articles are focus on the needs and wants of your potential clients, you will attract targeted traffic and you will increase your resource box clickthrough rates because these people are most likely the ones who are either looking for more information or wanting to buy your products.

2. Keep SEO in mind when writing your articles. Keywords and relevant key phrases should be dotted on your articles so they can easily be indexed by major search engines. Keep the keyword density at 1-3% so you will not be tagged as a keyword spammer.

3. Continuously write and submit articles to leading publishing sites. If you consistently provide online users with quality content, you will reap the rewards of effective article marketing in no time and these are; increased in traffic and sales, improved page ranking, and recognition that you are an expert on your field.

Do you want to learn more about how I do it? I have just completed my brand new guide to article marketing success, 'Your Article Writing and Promotion Guide'

Download it free here: Secrets of Article Promotion

Sean Mize is a full time internet marketer who has written over 1574 articles in print and 11 published ebooks.

Search Engine Optimization Made Easy

Search Engine optimization is a difficult and lengthy process, often requiring hard works for months with out being able to notice any significant improvements. First your main focus should be on having a site about one niche which is keyword rich usually around the two percent margin is ideal for search engines. Then submit your site to the search engines. It should take about a week to get listed and then you will start to notice small amounts of traffic. As you continue to build back links you will notice your search engine positioning will improve and you will continue to get more traffic.

The more research you do one search engine optimization the better you are going to be at it and the more money you are going to make from it. If you get good rankings such as first for a popular keyword, you will get a lot of traffic and your site will become powerful and of considerable value. The good thing about this is hard work is usually rewarded very well by search engines. You can get punished with bad rankings for poor back links, which are obviously not natural as they do not match the same subject or niche of your site.

In the end the main thing you need to do is maintain a good work ethic and do not expect to see results for a considerable period often consecutive months. When you do see improvements though it will all be worth it and you should have a powerful site.

Visit Free Search Engine Optimization - Secrets - How to rank number 1 in the major search engines! This is a must see site for all those people doing SEO. Search Engine Optimization Made Easy - Immediate Success!

Keyword Optimization - What It Means

At this day and age of computers and the World Wide Web, it is only sensible to make an effort to be at par with the rest of the competition. There are, in fact, a lot of tools from which you can choose if you intend to boost the traffic on your website. Appropriate usage and optimization of these tools is the recipe to success on the World Wide Web.

One of the most commonly used tools is keyword optimization. But before you can actually grasp how it works and how it helps boost website traffic, it is necessary for you to know what it really means.

What is Keyword Optimization?

Keyword Optimization is considered to be the art of picking out the right keywords. It is, almost certainly, one of the most valuable things associated with search engine optimization. Unfortunately, it is also one of the tools that people tend to use up too little time and effort on. They are likely to come up with only a few keywords in just a short period of time, do a bit of page optimization, and then present them to the search engines. The usual results: poor rankings under keywords that are feebly related to the website in question.

Before you begin work on optimizing your website and preparing it for the search engines, you need to spend an ample amount of time figuring out the exact keywords or key phrases you should aim for. Since search engines are excellent sources of website traffic, you have to exert a lot of effort in order to take advantage of them.

How To Optimize Keywords?

Keep in mind that an ample amount of time and effort are needed in choosing the correct keywords or key phrases. So don't even attempt to rush things; unless, of course, if you're not that interested in utilizing search engines to their full potential.

Start by sitting down. Next, open up your website in one window and your preferred text editor in another. Scan through your web site's first page. After you have read it, take a break and think. Analyze what the entire page is all about. In addition to that, ask yourself these questions: Which of the words in the document accurately describe the contents of the page? What phrase or words would a person use if he wants to find documents similar to this one?

After you have found the answers to the following questions, jot down the words or phrases you have thought up. It doesn't really matter if your list would go on and on since you can always do away with some of the words afterward.

From the list you have come up with, pick one or two averagely popular keywords or key phrases for each page. Next, try to insert a few not-so-common keywords or key phrases into the body text with the hopes that they will eventually help the page turn up on some ambiguous multiple-word searches. Do the same process for all the other pages on your website. The list of keywords for every page should be different and should not contend with each other; instead each one of the lists should cover distinct areas.

Around this time, you're more or less ready to proceed with the succeeding steps of the whole keyword optimization process. Just bear in mind that the preparation stage is very crucial. Rushing to Step 2 without giving Step 1 that much of a thought is like throwing away your chances for a better and heavier website traffic.

Vanessa A. Doctor from Jump2Top - SEO Company

http://seo.xon.us - SEO.xon

Search Engine Optimisation Services Specialist Discusses What Is Search Engine Optimisation Part 13

Capture other blog RSS feeds from as many Blogs as you can. Join and use blogs that are owned and managed by Google. These blogs will get very good recognition from the Google spiders. From an SEO standpoint, use RSS feeds from many blogs and place them on your websites. Use everything that you can get hold of on the internet to change your content on your website on a regular daily basis. However, make sure that you do not 'copy and paste' somebody else's content. This is good search engine optimisation practice and it works.

Start writing keyword specific content for a website or for a blog. Remember that everything you write, be it a forum post, blog, article or press release will add content to the website that you want to promote to the top of the search engines. This will happen, as you will always point to and refer to your website in the content you write by means of a link or hyperlink.

Join many free press release services. This will obviously not cost you a cent at any time. Can you imagine how powerful it would be, search engine optimisation wise, if you wrote forty keyword rich effective press releases announcing your website. Remember, your content must not advertise anything, which is another important basic SEO technique.

People are sick and tired of adverts selling them something on the internet. Be very clear and do not advertise. Advertising does not work and is dead on the internet. You are executing a search engine optimisation campaign to market (not advertise) your website and must therefore write initially to attract the search engine spiders only and not for the people who eventually read your content.

Clyde Thorburn
Search Engine Optimisation Services Specialist
http://www.mortgageleadgenerationonline.com
clydesseoservices@freemarketingsystem.net
Landline: 2711 432 2225
Skype ID: clydethorburn
Yahoo IM: crthorburn

Productive Article Marketing - Announcing 4 Remarkable Ways to Breakthrough with Article Marketing

Article marketing isn't just about writing articles but more importantly, it is a productive way of providing your potential clients with information they need to better understand their problems and be open to your suggestions to resolve the pressing issues.

1. Sell your products. Although blatant advertising is a no-no when writing your articles, you can subtly sell your products. How? By talking about problems or issues that can be resolved by your offerings. For instance, if you are selling home security devices, you can talk about home burglary, home break ins, and the importance of protecting one's home. By doing so, you will create awareness as to how your product can play crucial role in your potential clients' lives. This can increase your chances of convincing them to make a purchase.

2. Make your articles scannable. People online do not usually read the articles word for word. They mostly skim through the article content looking for keywords that will take them to the information they need. Help them out by making your articles scannable. Use subheadings, bullet points, and numbered lists. You can also use short paragraphs for every idea that you present on your article.

3. Master the art of selling. In article marketing, it is not enough that you have the ability to produce quality, well-written articles. You must also know how to use the elements that can potentially persuade your readers to make a purchase. Be credible, persuasive and learn how to build up your product so your potential clients will see it as "something they cannot leave without".

4. Make use of powerful resource box. It should be compelling enough to get online users to click on your website's URL.

Want to learn how to sell high ticket products online? Download my brand new free guide here: "How to Sell High Ticket Products Online"

Sean Mize teaches a powerful, highly advanced system of creating and selling high ticket products online.

Sean Mize is an internet marketing mentor who teaches people to generate over $15,000 per month online via automated systems and product funnels.

Revealing Article Marketing - 7 Strategies For Shocking Profits with Article Marketing

It's your job to provide your readers with profound information if you're going to have any success online with article marketing or anything else online today.

I'd like to offer you a fast condensed, brief crash course on article marketing and writing and quickly demonstrate to you how these little "viral cash generating machines" can quickly increase your traffic and sales.

Stay focused on your niche topic and provide useful information and you will have mind-blowing results...

Here are 7 very effective strategies for explosive article marketing:

1. Quality is most important! Do your research and write your marketing articles to educate your readers.

2. Folks like it when you're specific... so give them specifics. Offer links to additional resources if needed.

3. Use popular search engines like Google and Yahoo to read over similar articles and find websites focused on your subject to research your topic.

IMPORTANT: There's nothing illegal or unethical about using information you've discovered from another article or website to create an article of your very own. Just remember -- NEVER copy someone else's work word for word. This is copyright infringement. You can take notes from an informative article you've read and use that information to write your own article just as long as you put things into your own words.

4. List everything you already know about this subject in an easy to reference list.

5. Next, go to Google and do a few searches on the topic. I'm sure you'll find several listings related to the subject. Yes, you might have to be clever in your search, but rest assured -- you'll find the info if you dig deep enough.

6. Then, read over the best of those articles and websites you find and make yourself an ultra-resourceful list on your topic.

7. Finally, take your notes and construct your own marketing article in a simple, easy to read format.

Dean Shainin has helped hundreds of Internet marketers create wealth from their own online information product empire using article marketing tactics, secrets and techniques. Grab your free 10 page PDF Ebook from his "Secret Bum Marketing Golden Article Writing Formula" loaded with tactics and secrets at: http://www.bummarketingwiz.com/golden_writing

How To Get More Clicks From Your Article Marketing

Article marketing has emerged as the easiest, fastest and least expensive way to build traffic to any website, and build name recognition for yourself as an authority in your field.

In a nutshell, it works like this. You (or someone you hire to ghostwrite for you) write a number of short articles that typically range from 300 to 900 words in length. You keep the articles informative, without an overt sales message. The tone of your articles must be helpful and useful to readers who have an interest in your topic.

Next you submit your articles to any of the hundreds of online article submission sites, also known as "article banks," and agree that anyone can reprint your articles for their websites under certain conditions. These conditions include the fact that you maintain your copyright over your own materials, that the article be reprinted exactly as you published it, without any changes, and that your name and website also be kept intact.

Finally, and most importantly, the person reprinting your article must agree to also publish your "resource box" along with the article.

The resource box is where the magic of article marketing takes place. This is where you can put your sales and marketing message. It is also where you tell readers about yourself and about the services you offer. And finally, the resource box is where you place a link pointing to your website.

When people read your articles, whether they find it on the article bank you submitted the article to, or on another website that reprinted your article, they will naturally read your resource box as well. They may then click on the link to your website and get more information about what you can do for them.

But the key word here is "may." If your resource box does not motivate readers to click on your link and visit your website, the whole effort involved in writing the article will go to waste. Many people spend a lot of time writing very high quality articles only to let down when it comes to crafting the ideal resource box.

Don't make this mistake, make sure your resource box gives readers a reason to click on that link. Don't just offer a benefit, for visiting your site, offer benefits they can have right now. Use phrases like, "find out how," or "learn more about," or "don't lose another minute." Appeal to your readers' need for immediate gratification, and you get more clicks and more visitors for every article you write.

Charles Brown is a copywriter and internet marketer who teaches entrepreneurs how to create superior marketing campaigns, write compelling web content, capture more leads, build huge email lists and use autoresponders to turn casual website visitors into buyers. His popular newsletter, Tightwad Marketing Ideas is a must for any entrepreneur wanting to successfully market any business without spending a fortune.

Link Baiting Articles - How Should They Be Written?

In today's realm of online information-gathering and dissemination, many observers say that the best way of obtaining quality inbound links is through generating a lot of high-value content that people would like to link to.

You gather inbound links when other online publishers and Web masters link to your website, or one of your pages. The larger the number of links that you can get, the better it would be for your web site and the better you are likely to rank in the search engine rankings.

Inbound links may create wonders for your page, as not only will they get you targeted traffic from the Web sites linking to you, as even search engines attach higher importance to websites that are being linked to by other websites. This serves as sort of a vote of confidence for your content. The process of generating content for the sake of getting inbound links is generally referred to "link baiting".

Link baiting Is A Relatively New Concept in Obtaining Inbound Links

As mentioned earlier, link baiting is the method of generating content for the purpose of getting inbound links. However, does this method mean that you generate content just to obtain inbound links?

Actually everything works in tandem and although link baiting is a relatively new term, the concept has been present for more than a decade, although it initially existed in a crooked form. In the same manner as link-exchange programs, it was the same thing but back then, where they used to exchange links indiscriminately. Unlike before, nobody was worried about the link value provided, just so long as a reciprocal link was gained, so people welcomed almost every sort of link.

As the initial system created havoc online, search engines eventually began to stop ignoring link exchange activities and considered only those links that were linked to high-value content. This created the need for unique link-worthy content. The quality of content not only adds value to your Web site and enhance your conversion rate, it also encourages the others to link to your web pages. This linking, which originated out of the value of your content, in effect will greatly improve your search engine rankings.

The Different Types Of Link baiting

Link baiting is basically considered as building links with a twist. Rather than go hunting out links, you in the process, are bringing the links to you through unique and popular site content. In simple terms, experts con sider link Baiting is just like fishing.

As you publish a new page on a topic and release it on the web, you are hopeful that others pick up on the content and see it as fresh and interesting, and link to it. The article is the bait, and the link is the catch. A creatively written and interesting Web page can capture huge links on its own with little to no effort from you. Here are the different link baiting types that writers and Web masters employ to generating good links.

- News Hook. A news hook is where you provide content that others don't have, but will want to link to. A specific example of a news hook is a "scoop" where you are the first, or one of the first, to report on some information of general or industry news.

- Attack Hook. This type of hook works much like a contrary hook, however takes things to a newer level. In this hook, you not only present a contrary point of view, but you also turn it into a personal attack on the original source.

- Contrary hook. This is employed when you contradict or counter something someone else says. Usually, you will start with a link back to the original story, which would be their link bait, and then present your contrary viewpoints.

- Humor Hook. A humor hook involves using humor to attract links. The humor can be in the form of a story, or it can also be a piece of satire or a list of funny items.

- Resource Hook. This hook provides useful information for others to link to. It can be a list of resources, a compilation of links to articles. Your resource can be a how to or tutorial based on your industry.

Link bait refers to the unique and interesting content that other sites naturally want to link to. The kind of link bait can be something original, or it may be one that is original in idea, something that is contrary, one that is humorous, or something that is useful.

http://seo.xon.us - SEO.xon - SEO Firm

Vanessa A. Doctor from Jump2Top - SEO Company

Profitable Article Marketing - Announcing 3 No-Brainer Ways to Improve Your Article Marketing

Article marketing is an expensive strategy that is highly recommended by most of the best online marketers in terms of traffic generation and product promotion. While this strategy can be effective, this can be confusing for first time users. If you are one of them, this article is for you because it includes the 3 no-brainer ways to improve your article marketing campaign.

1. Identify your objectives. Are you utilizing article marketing to promote your products and services? Or are you using it so you can generate more links from other websites and blogs? It can also be that your main goal is to drive traffic to you site. Establishing your objective can greatly guide you in writing your articles that you will submit on article submission sites.

2. Understand the process of article marketing. In order to benefit from this technique, you must know the elements by heart. Some writers fail to recognize that in order to succeed in article marketing they have to understand search engine optimization so their articles will get indexed. Other writers fail because they don't know the best articles submission sites where they can post their articles. To get maximum exposure I suggest ezinearticles and goarticles.

3. Use attention-grabbing titles. This is especially crucial if you would like to use your articles as link baits. Remember, without a compelling headline, it will not really matter if your article is well-written and useful because most likely, it will not be read at all. Great article titles are brief, concise, keyword-rich, and communicates the benefits they can offer the potential readers. If you are able to master the art of creating compelling titles, you have won half the battle of having your articles read.

Do you want to learn more about how I do it? I have just completed my brand new guide to article marketing success, 'Your Article Writing and Promotion Guide'

Download it free here: Secrets of Article Promotion

Sean Mize is a full time internet marketer who has written over 1574 articles in print and 11 published ebooks.

Amazing Article Marketing - Discover 4 Maximum Ways to Excel with Article Marketing

As you know, article marketing is the process of writing and distributing your articles online. But do you know how you can excel in this marketing tool and get ahead of the pack?

In this article, I will tell you the 4 maximum ways to improve your article marketing to augment your website's traffic, improve your search engine ranking, increase your sales potentials, and obtain maximum online revenue.

1. Avoid using duplicated content. This can greatly tarnish your online credibility. Nobody would trust a marketer who doesn't have the ability to produce articles on his own. If you don't have the knack for writing, I suggest that you hire ghostwriters who can provide you with quality articles for reasonable prices. Although you will have to spend money on this method, you will get the credit online and you can establish yourself as an expert.

2. More articles mean more traffic. Strive to produce and submit articles on a regular basis. As you know, each submission grants you one quality inbound link. Thus, it follows that if you are aiming at driving huge traffic to your site, you must be willing to multiply the number of your submission.

3. Go with the best publishing sites. Submit your articles to submission sites that have quick review and posting time, have steady and huge traffic, and those that are indexed by Google. These are the sites that can give your articles maximum exposure to increase their chances of being picked up and republished.

4. Optimize your articles. The success of your article marketing effort largely depends on how easy it would be for online users to find your articles online. Convince search engines to index your articles by sprinkling just the right amount of keywords on your content.

Want to learn how to sell high ticket products online? Download my brand new free guide here: "How to Sell High Ticket Products Online"

Sean Mize teaches a powerful, highly advanced system of creating and selling high ticket products online.

Sean Mize is an internet marketing mentor who teaches people to generate over $15,000 per month online via automated systems and product funnels.

Top 3 Article Promotion Tips

Quality articles that are written and targeted for a niche market are in serious demand. Content is king on the internet as publishers seek valuable content to add to their web sites so that they offer their visitors value. By providing valuable content you will be able to draw visitors to your web site and gain leads that will convert up to ten times better than leads from other sources. You also get this free traffic without spending a dime on advertising. Below I list three valuable techniques that you can use to promote your articles.

Article Promotion Tip 1
Submit to high quality article directories and announcement lists. By doing this your articles will be spidered by the search engines and show up for keywords that you target. Publishers will also pick up your articles and publish them to their web sites improving your link popularity and consequently your search engine traffic. Make sure that you anchor your target keywords in your bio to improve your search engine rankings for those specific keywords.

Article Promotion Tip 2
Use syndication to distribute your articles. Once a web site publisher decides to accept your content it will be automatically published to their web site once you syndicate it. This makes the article distribution process effortless. However, the big disadvantage of this method is that it can become complicated to setup.

Article Promotion Tip 3
Distribute your articles using RSS. RSS stands for Real Simple Syndication. You need to register your RSS file with news aggregator sites that are interested in accepting your feed.

Using these three methods of article promotion you can gain free targeted traffic for your internet business.

Here's your chance to drive massive traffic to your web site:

Download your free ebook Secrets Of Article Marketing

Mark Abrahams is a full time internet marketer who has helped others to earn a living online.

It's All About Promoting a Website

If you are not promoting your website properly, you are not going to benefit from the existence of it. The more traffic you are able to generate from your site, the more successful your venture will become. People come to know about your website when you start promoting it properly. There are many unique ways in which you can promote your website.

Contextual Advertising

The best way to attract more visitors to your site almost instantly is try placing your advertisement in some Contextual Advertising Network. This advertisement method work well for you, as your site is seen by millions of people around the world. Websites around the world, which are joined as publishers of these networks, will begin showing your advertisement instantly.

Reciprocal and One-way Link Building

Reciprocal link building is the free method of promoting a website. When you place a link on your site, the other site places a link of your site. Reciprocal links are a good way to locate a website. Building reciprocal links and one-way links is very important to attract search engines.

Blogging

You can start your own blogs discussing something related with your website. Insert liberal links to your site from these blogs. You also can visit other blogs and start commenting on the subjects posted by others. This also is one best way to attract visitors to your site.

Unique Content

In order to attract visitors or search engines, you need to have fresh and unique contents in your site. These content should be clear and must use keywords properly. Use your creativity in developing a unique content. Without a unique content it is not possible to attract visitors to your site.

Visit http://www.giftsspace.com/learningcntreasysearch.php?words=Contextual to learn more about advertising your website.

Gijo George Visit http://www.giftsspace.com for Unique Crafts from Around the World.

Online Article Submission Sites and Editor Choice Strategies Considered

It appears to that there are some professional writers who wish to have the online article submission sites that the post on upgraded and to only list extremely well-written articles. They would at very least request that they receive a preference so their articles are not lost in the masses of all the articles submitted.

Why do they request this? Because it will help their article marketing efforts and they feel they are much better writers and their articles have much more worthy information in them. Their hopes are to get their information displayed in such a way to help the reader find them over all the others.

Of course we know that people come in from the Google, MSN, Yahoo search engines directly to the article and that these search engines spider sites like this constantly. So in reality all articles whether they are marked "Excellent" or Editor's Choice in the end will be seen fairly equally as the reader clicks into the site.

A few expert authors have made comments that better articles might be available for browsing the list and reiterated the concept of "Editor's Choice" a concept which has been bantered about for almost a year now at the top online article submission site. It appears that many others online article authors like this idea?

For me personally as a reader and seeker of information, I know when I find a great article with good content, I look up the author and read all their articles on the subjects I am interested in learning about at that time and surf their various websites too, so all that makes sense to "me" personally, although others might disagree.

A software system with Artificial Intelligence that might be able to pick out great articles is intriguing because it could go thru all the 580,000 articles on let's say the top online article submission that are already posted and put a "star" or something by them to help readers more easily find them.

"Lance Winslow" - Online Think Tank forum board. If you have innovative thoughts and unique perspectives, come think with Lance; http://www.WorldThinkTank.net/. Lance is a guest writer for Our Spokane Magazine in Spokane, Washington

Article Marketing Revealed - 4 No-Brainer Ways to Jumpstart Your Article Marketing

Article marketing, which is the process of distributing articles to submission sites, has earned the nods of most marketers and online entrepreneurs. It's not only because it is currently the best and easiest way to earn quality inbound links but it is also the most effective way of establishing expertise to gain the trust of online users.

If you are considering using this marketing tool to augment your website's traffic and increase your sales potential, these 4 no-brainer ways can help you jumpstart your article marketing strategies:

1. Submit quality articles. This is the key to succeed in this marketing technique. You have to ensure that your articles are well-written, content-rich, and useful to convince your readers that you are truly knowledgeable on your chosen field. When you are able to earn their trust, they are most likely to visit your website to either get more information or subscribe to your email marketing list.

2. Write about topics that are closely related to your business and potential clients. This is the secret of driving quality traffic to your website. Simply put, if you want to attract people who would like to buy television, you must write articles about television.

3. Make your articles worth reading. People read articles for one good reason: they would like to be informed. Thus, it is very important that your articles contain information that they would like to learn about or solutions that they can use to resolve their pressing issues.

4. Take full advantage of your resource box. Most leading article submission sites allow contributors to use up to 3 hyperlinks on their resource box. Take advantage of this and use two anchor texts using the most compelling keywords in your niche and one absolute URL. By doing this, you will increase the chances of your website being visited by your potential clients.

To learn more, download my free guide, "How to Generate $15,000 Per Month Online" here: "How to Generate $15,000 Per Month Online"

Sean Mize is an internet marketing mentor who teaches people to generate over $15,000 per month online via automated systems and product funnels.

3 Tips to Make Viral Marketing Work for You

While some forms of Viral Marketing may work better than others, there is sure to be some out there that works best for you. There are so many ways to get started but probably the most important thing is to first determine what product or service you are trying to sell/give away. Once you have that established, the rest should be fairly easy.

Probably the best and cheapest form of viral marketing is word of mouth. This is such an important aspect of Viral Marketing. There are a couple of ways to help push along the word of mouth process though.

1. Offer something for Free - People love free stuff. This is commonly used when dealing with software. For example lets say you have created a new software. What many have done before is that you can offer a limited version of this software for free. Then when people realize how much they need this new program, they can then pay to get the full version.

2. Using e-mail/Newsletters - It's important to stay in contact with your customers to let them know when new products become available. As long as someone has had a positive experience with your products, they begin to tell others. This will help you to gain more targeted traffic to your site.

3. Utilizing Social Networks - This is a tool that many independent filmmakers or musicians use. It's a very popular form of viral marketing on sites such as MySpace. Just by spending a few minutes a day, you can get your films, music or any other products into plain site of any of the members of these pages. This may not always bring you targeted traffic, but it can be a very effective word of mouth tool.

Get more information and tips on Viral Marketing here!

Scott Bannon earned his first online revenue in 1995 and has made a full time living online since 2000. Get valuable advice and tips from Scott's free blog for webmasters, O'Bannon's Leap where he chronicles the ongoing leap of becoming a webpreneur.

Scott also participates at Build The Dot Com a free resource for webmasters, by webmasters.

Internet Marketing Plan - A Step By Step Guide To Creating Your Highly Profitable Business! Part II

We learned that you need to brainstorm to find a profitable market if you want to make a lot of money with Internet marketing. This is a crucial step, so don't try to escape. I've made this mistake when I first started and I can tell you that I lost a lot of money as a result.

Then, we learned that you need to know exactly what your market want, and finally, you need to find competitors already spending money to advertise in this market.

Now, let's go more in depth and see where you can find them. We are going to analyze the competition.

4. Analyze your competition

It's very easy to find out what your competitors are doing in your market. There are plenty of tools that allow you to find out, but for the purpose of this article, we will use Google.

You can use any other search engine like Yahoo or msn by the way.

You need to look at the paid search results, on the right side of the screen. Basically, you are going to find out how they are making money, and adjust your strategy on what they are already doing.

You need to find your unique selling proposition. To make a lot of money, you need to be different than others. Don't try to be another "me too" in this market.

5. Create a landing page

Now that you found that your product is popular and that people are already making money in the niche, it's your turn. You need to collect a list of subscribers.

Where is the product?

In fact, you don't have a product yet. You are going to create it soon.

To learn more, download my Free Guide: "How To Earn $100K Per Year With Article Marketing".

Franck Silvestre makes thousands of dollars a year from affiliate and article marketing. Wonder what the secret to his success is? Discover how he does it at: http://www.mynetmarketingland.com/article-marketing/

Website Traffic - Why Article Marketing Blows Away Pay-Per-Click Marketing

It's always great to compare traffic generation strategies because you can tell which strategy is giving you results and which isn't. Or maybe both strategies may be giving you results but you want to know which is more effective in generating qualified prospects.

Two of the most popular traffic generation methods online today are article marketing and pay-per-click marketing. This article won't talk about what both methods are (there are already tons of articles on that) but will compare the two to see which strategy you should invest your efforts in.

Personally, for me, article marketing blows pay-per-click marketing out of the water. Pay-per-click marketing consists of Google's Adwords and Yahoo's Search Marketing, so that's no small statement I'm making. Well, there's a reason why I say article marketing is more effective.

Let's say that you spend $10 a day on Adwords. That's $300 a month. Now take that $300 and spend it on 100 articles written by a freelancer. Those 100 articles will bring you traffic for a long time, whereas your Adwords traffic was a temporary thing. And prospects generated from articles are way more responsive!

You'll often people willing to spend crazy amounts for cost per click on Adwords, but you won't find that many 'insane' competitors in article marketing. Although the competition has grown massively in recent years, it is still nothing compared to pay-per-click marketing.

And that's why I say article marketing trumps over Adwords, Yahoo Search Marketing, or any other pay-per-click network. If you don't want to write, outsource your articles. You'll see some terrific results from this marketing strategy if you do it right.

Fabian Tan is the author of the free 51-Page Report:

"Murder Your Job: How To Build Cash Sucking Autopilot Businesses In 30 Days Or Less!"

Head over to http://www.MurderYourJob.com to get your free copy now before it's gone!

Article Marketing - Discover 7 Secrets To A Prospect & Profit Pulling Resource Box For Your Articles

Article marketing, to be successful, requires the ability to create a prospect and profit pulling resource box. You can write an incredible article and if you blow the resource box you have wasted your efforts.

So here are seven secrets for creating a prospect and profit pulling resource box.

Secret 1 - NAY - NAY stand for Not About You. The Resource Box is not about you. So do not cram all your credentials and the fact that your mother really likes you into the resource box. This is not the place for a "virtual ego wall" where you get to display all of your accomplishments.

Secret 2 - It's all about the reader - The Resource Box is all about the reader and what they need next. They have read your article looking for information and/or a solution to a problem. Think in terms of what the reader might need next. And then provide them a way to get it.

Secret 3 - It's invitation time - you want to ask the reader to take an action that leads them to your website or blog to get the free bonus you are offering. In marketing circles this is called a call to action. I like to think of it as an invitation. An invitation has a nicer sound to it, and I even use that language in my resource box. For example - "for more tips and tools on how to write a great quality article I invite you to visit" and then you give your website address. You are not hard selling here, you are simply extending a kind invitation. It's a kind invitation for the reader to take the action you want them to take.

Secret 4 - Offer them good stuff - you want to offer the reader something of value for free. The days of offering a free newsletter and having people jump all over it are long gone. Nowadays you almost have to write a sales letter to get someone to subscribe to the free newsletter. So instead offer the reader something tangible, of high perceived value, then they can get right away. For example - "I'd like to offer you free access to two of my article writing templates. You can download them by going to and then you give the website link.

Secret 5 - At least one complete URL - a complete URL would be something like this (http://www.yourwebsite.com (). While it's nice to have anchor text because it looks cool you must assume that the website, blog, or newsletter owner that uses your article may not know how to use the html necessary to create anchor text. So by using a complete URL you are assured of having a clickable link in your resource box.

Secret 6 - Keep it short - It's really hard to believe that someone would do this, but I've actually seen a resource box or two that were almost as long as the article. Keep it short and sweet. Give your invitation remind them who is from and get out of there.

Secret 7 - At the end - I usually only mention my name at the end of the resource box, and then only to make sure my name and brand is linked in the mind of the reader to the good stuff they are going to get when they click through. It will usually look something like this - "From Jeff Herring - The Article Guy and GreatArticleMarketing.com" - Notice I said to just mention your name. This is not the place to attempt to prove you are the expert. If you have not proven you are the expert in your article, its way to late to try to do so in the Resource Box. In fact, if you have not demonstrated that you are the expert in the article, the reader probably will probably never make it to the resource box anyway.

I invite you to use these resource box secrets to strengthen your article marketing.

And now I would like to offer you free access to 2 of my Instant Article Templates when you subscribe to my free Article Marketing Minute, a 52 week audio/video newsletter on Article Marketing. You can get your instant access at http://www.ArticleMarketingMinute.com

From Jeff Herring - The Internet Article Guy & the Great Article Marketing Network

Must-Have Internet Marketing Tools

A carpenter, no matter how skilled, won't be able to work without his hammer. A painter can't paint without paint. Skills and experience are always helpful in any kind of business, but they aren't enough in the long run. You need tools, materials, or resources to help you attain your goals. The same holds true in Internet marketing.

Must-Have Internet Marketing Tools

The following Internet marketing tools may not be considered a necessity, but the benefits you can derive from them are not something you should disregard.

Get People to Subscribe to Your RSS Feeds

RSS feeds are one of the easiest ways to update past, present, and future customers of the latest going-ons in your business or website. RSS saves time and effort for everyone and since they're simple and relatively free to create, giving them a chance wont hurt your business. To maximize the benefits from RSS feeds, consider posting a link to RSS FAQ in your page so that people who haven't yet tried subscribing to RSS feeds will finally have an idea of what they're missing on.

Make Good Use of Emails

Although the system of sending and receiving emails isn't flawless, it's certainly more reliable and effective than having your mail handled by the post office. Emails are one of the most underestimated Internet marketing tools online and it's high time you put them into good use.

Firstly, use emails for an efficient way to provide customer service and support. Being able to respond to your customers' inquiries and concerns in a reasonable period of time will build consumer loyalty and strengthen your customer base.

Use email to send newsletters to your customers. Instead of spending a lot of money having actual newsletters printed and mailed, create a digital version and send them for free to your customers. And since there's no need to worry about the costs of creating and distributing newsletters, youre free to send them out more frequently than usual. Of course, be sure not to flood the inboxes of your customers or your plan would just backfire.

Lastly, create an email-based auto-response system so that you can right away acknowledge specified actions taken by your customers.

Create Events that Allow Interaction and Participation

It can be a contest or an event where your customers can interact with a famous figure. It doesn't matter what kind of event you end up organizing just as long as it can generate positive hype for the business.

In creating events, you must keep the following considerations in mind.

Firstly, there must be something you're offering in exchange. For contests, the rewards are obviously the ones serving as an incentive for people to visit your website and participate. Be sure that you spell out the rewards or benefits clearly.

Secondly, what you get from these events must be naturally greater than what you're spending on it. Don't offer what you can't afford to give. Thirdly, don't forget to have press releases created. They'll make sure that your target market is aware of your event.

Get a Blog

People tend to prefer businesses that they can boast of being personally familiar with. With a blog, you can get your customers to know more about you as a person and hopefully win their trust and loyalty in the process. It's also a good way of learning more about your target market and using this knowledge to improve your products, services, and operation.

http://www.DaeganSmith.com is an Expert Online Marketer

"Learn How To Make $85,147,717 Per Month While Quickly And
Easily EXPLODING Your Network Marketing Organization by 7,141
People Without EVER Buying Or Calling a Single Stinking Lead?"
Get Your Free MLM Wealth CD Now! http://www.easymlmprofits.com

Did You Miss Out on Google Cash Detective?

The eagerly awaited launch of Google Cash Detective has been and gone. At 12 oclock noon US Central Time on 4 June, affiliate marketers waited in front of screens all around the world on the very edge of their seats. With beating hearts and credit cards in hand they waited for the Google Cash Detective order page to appear.

Google Cash Detective is the new PPC monitoring software that promises to help you get ahead at affiliate marketing. And you just have to watch the demonstration videos to be impressed. The videos show how Google Cash Detective can identify an advertising campaign that could earn a profit of $200 every day. With the ability to earn profits like that, it is not too difficult to justify Google Cash Detectives price of $497 - or $397 for the first 100 Google Cash and AdwordMentor customers.

Since Chris Carpenter announced weeks ago that the software was coming, affiliate marketers have been enthusiastically gearing up for the launch. Checking out niches. Compiling lists of topics and keywords they want to research. And finally the hour of the launch arrived. But Google Cash Detective quickly sold out and within a few hours it was all over. A message at the site read, Thank you to everyone who visited on opening day. Im sorry, but we sold out very quickly.

It certainly appears as if Chris Carpenter has made good on his promise to remove the order page after a certain number of sales, in order to observe the effects that the software is having on the PPC industry.

I have respect for Chris Carpenter. And I like his products. He has built a reputation as a leader in the affiliate marketing industry and he always comes across with a down-to-earth, practical approach. When you see a new product from him, take my advice and try to get in on it. Quickly if the Google Cash Detective launch is anything to go by.

So what if you are one of the marketers who missed out? Perhaps you are worried that Carpenters new customers will now be poaching all your most profitable advertising campaigns and youre completely cut out of the action.

Well, I have some good news. While Google Cash Detective is truly impressive there are several similar competitor and keyword monitoring tools available. They will also enable you to generate profitable keywords lists, investigate cost per click and traffic volumes for any keyword, and effectively spy on your competitors advertising campaigns.

Brad Callens Keyword Elite is impressive, and it analyzes keywords data not only at Google but also on Yahoo, Miva, and Enhance advertising networks. Keyword Elite also comes with the ability to take the selected keywords and create targeted AdSense web pages with the click of a button. At $176 this is very good value.

Chris Lee & Goran Nagys Competition Dominator is another solid tool. It even has a strong endorsement from Chris Carpenter on the sales page. Competition Dominator will uncover your competitors advertisements at AdWords, Yahoo, and MSN, along with the keywords, ad positions, frequency, and landing pages. It is priced very close to Keyword Elite at $167.

Finally, there is Undercover Profits. At $291 a month this is quite a bit more expensive than the other tools. And they boldly claim to enable you to adopt the best practice of your competitors. For everyone else, profitability is only temporary. It's only a matter of time before a UCP member finds you and takes you out! I just visited their web site and theyve sold out too, although it looks like they might open up some more sales spots soon.

In conclusion, dont give up if you missed out on Google Cash Detectives launch. You certainly shouldnt sit idly by while Google Cash Detective customers snap up your best keywords and advertisements.

For more information on each of these tools, visit
http://www.affiliateadventure.com/analysistools.htm

Scott Adams is the author of Affiliate Adventure, a comprehensive guide to building an affiliate marketing business online. Its available now at http://www.AffiliateAdventure.com