Independent Digital

How To Keep The Article Directories Happy With Your Articles by Ryan Smith

When you are on your article marketing campaign, most likely your entire attention is on how to attract more and more traffic to that little backlink you are going to place in the bio box. That is all that remains important, and certainly it is the main purpose of article marketing. But is that all?

What article marketers tend to forget is the role the article directories play in boosting their traffic. No doubt the article itself has to be impressive and all that jazz, but it is also equally important that the article directory pumps your article in the right places. Good article directories already have a good SEO in place, remember!

So, it doesn’t hurt a bit to conform your articles to the whims of the article directories. Each article directory expects some things from their articles. It is very beneficial to the submitter if they know what the requirements are and if they fulfill them in their articles.

Here are some general points that most article directories desire from their articles and article submitters:-

(i) No article directory would appreciate it if you overburden them with tons of articles at one go. This is more hazardous if the anchor texts in the bio boxes are the same. There is something known as article spamming, which is frowned upon by article directories. Hence, the better way would be to submit articles in lots of ten and not more, in a single day.

(ii) Write good content. This is not only important for your own credibility as a writer and as the owner of an online business, but it is also important for the reputation of the article directory. Directories with good articles are regarded more highly by other authors. So, keep your article informative. Proofread your article and rectify all those nasty spelling and grammar errors that have crept in.

(iii) DO NOT PLAGIARIZE. This is absolutely vital. Most directories would accept multiple article submissions, i.e. articles that have been pre-submitted by the same author on some other directory. But this will not go nicely with the search engines. They would penalize your backlink and might also bad mark the directory itself. You need to keep original content. Even duplicating content (rewording it) may not suit the tastes of some extremely high rating article directories such as Ezine.

(iv) Try to make your articles in series. Most article directories love them. Articles in series generally ensure that people who read one article will read its next part also, and then the next. So, an article which is a part of a series has much better chances of getting syndicated. Not only does this help the article directory, but it also helps the website because the chances of generating traffic get multiplied.

You live and learn when it comes to article directories. Since there are several of them in the market, and each with their own whims and fancies, it is important for you to gain experience in the ways they work, and if needed, change your style a bit. With article marketing, it pays highly to appease the article directories who are going to put your articles up on them.

Ryan Smith is the author of the hot, new, ebook “Article Marketing Success.” Download your free copy at http://www.e-profitsubmissions.com

Article Source: High Quality RSS Feeds and Articles on 350+ Topics

How To Avoid SEO Penalties Due To Plagiarism by Ryan Smith

In the medieval times, they used to ostracize criminals from society; in today’s Internet age, they penalize a website. Penalizing a website is tantamount to making the website an online outcast; something that exists, but cannot be communicated with, for the simple reason that it will probably never show up again on the search results. Search engines make sure that websites do pay harshly for using illicit means to rank higher on their results. And one of the most unpardonable crimes is plagiarism.

Everyone who has had even a single day’s encounter with content development knows what plagiarism means. But, what needs to be remembered is that plagiarism is not only copying and pasting content verbatim from another site. Even retaining bits of that content in an otherwise original article is plagiarism. Today there is some speculation that plagiarism only means copying a ’substantive block of data’ according to Google’s definition of plagiarism, but it is still a risk factor. Let me put it this way, copy is copy. It doesn’t matter if one sentence is copied or the whole article. Search engines will still try to skip duplicate content to be faster and more efficient in their jobs. Consequently, the plagiarized website will be removed from further searches. Now, if that isn’t a penalty, what is?

At the same time, one needs to sympathize with today’s website writers. They are working in a highly competitive market, and there are immense pressures for doing the job on time. Deadlines are getting more and more unrealistic with each passing day. And, today there are hundreds of websites already existing on any given subject. There is a great temptation to duplicate some portion in order to make the job faster.

However, this mustn’t and shouldn’t be done. Whatever the constraints of deadlines and availability of information may be, no content must ever be plagiarized. Plagiarism is a sure way to attract the vastly debilitating SEO penalty, and that must be avoided at all costs. But there are some ways in which plagiarism can be avoided, apart from writing totally original content, of course. Here we recount some of the ways (the points are targeted at the SEO writers):-

(i) Write your own Content
I know I am repeating this point, but it is very important to put it up in the list here. The most successful, and the safest, writer is one who writes original. Do all your research on the websites, read hundreds of them if you want, but while writing the content, do not copy. Write original.

(ii) Rework and Reword
If you have to submit articles on the same topic to various article directories, then it sure doesn’t make any sense to write completely different articles each time, especially if you are linking to the same website. But, my suggestion is, do not submit the exact same articles. Reword the articles to look different. Use synonyms where possible, and try to rephrase each sentence.

(iii) Change the Sequencing
This is another good method to avoid the search engines that are looking out for plagiarism. Change the sequence of the points in your article and rephrase them. If you do this, you will not be spending more than a few minutes; but your finished product will certainly be looked upon as original.

(iv) Hire different Writers
If you are a website owner, and you need to submit promotional articles to several directories, it makes very good sense to outsource your work to freelance writers. Split the keywords you have. Never tell any one writer to write several articles on the same keyword, but distribute between your team of writers. This way you will get original content, and with different perspectives, even.

(v) Check your Articles on the Article Checkers
Howsoever much you trust your article, you must make a point to check it on Copyscape or any other such article checker tool. There might be some duplicate sentences that might have inadvertently cropped up in your article. Checking becomes all the more important if you have hired work from an outside writer.

Plagiarism itself cannot escape the scrutiny of search engines, but some methods can be employed to do short work. By using such clever techniques, the articles can be made to look very different, and will be counted as original. And remember, all these methods are perfectly legal to use.

Ryan Smith is the author of the hot, new, ebook “Article Marketing Success.” Download your free copy at http://www.e-profitsubmissions.com

Article Source: High Quality RSS Feeds and Articles on 350+ Topics

A Glossary of Web Content: Terms All Writers Should Know by David Stockwell

Before launching into any enterprise, it is a good idea to familiarize yourself with the terms used in the field. For any producer of content, there are also legal and social issues to be aware of. The following is a glossary of the main forms of content found on the web. While not complete, all writers should be aware of the differences, the legal implications, and the effects of the various forms on reader reactions and search engine rankings.

Content - is defined as any form of information, here referring mainly to text, or text and images together that form a coherent work, referred to as an article.

Free content - is work legally usable without paying a fee, although legal restrictions may exist on modification, redistribution, and attribution.

Open content - is generally free, and may be redistributed provided it remains unaltered. The open content license (OC) also allows the charging of a fee for distribution services but not for the OC material itself. The OC license also allows modification providing attribution information, OC license and zero cost remain intact.

Content syndication - refers to the distribution of content to multiple Web sites through technologies as RSS, or catalogs of articles. The most common examples are the use of selective RSS news feeds to populate web pages with relevant daily changing updates.

Original content - refers to work that is significantly unlike any other work as to be regarded as ‘original’. For example, an original work would be expected to pass the plagiarism test at http://copyscape.com. Sources of original content include vast compendiums of online articles.

Custom content, in contrast to the above forms is paid for, and developed to the clients specifications. It should be original content, without the legal limitations of the above forms as it becomes owned by the client, may be attributed to him/her, and used in any way. A familiar example of custom content is ‘advertising copy’ describing products for sale.

Creative content - like custom content, is paid for and owned, but unlike advertising copy might engage an audience to provoke comment, controversy, and be read for recreational or educational purposes. For example, a blog post would generally be regarded as creative content. The number of comments received by a post could be an indication of the degree of creativity.

Technical Content - while being custom and original, would not generally be regarded as creative, consisting of such things as specification or requirements documents, legal documents, and objective accounts such as financial or scientific reports.

User-Generated Content - on sites such as Wikipedia, YouTube, Flickr, and MySpace have taken the web by storm, and now rank among the top ten fastest growing web brands. User-generated content has the advantages of being free, although the legal usages of the content are not clear.

Destination Content - is an example of industries with unique forms of content. One major example is travel industry destination content, information and media for potential travelers about their destination.

Generated Content - usually refers to html code that is generated automatically in the course of displaying documents. As such, it is convenient and saves typing html. However, generated content can also refer to text generated to bait search engines without real creative content.

Spamdexing - or search engine Spam, are web pages created or modified automatically and expressly to improve rank and attract search hits to a website. Spamdexing is generally regarded as dishonest, though not technically illegal. Wikipedia has quite a good glossary of terms and techniques related to deceitful search engine optimization techniques.

Conclusion:

Content must be original and creative to boost the search engine rankings over the long term. It must also be creative to engage users in a blog, and provide the feedback, contributions, and excitement that form the basis of respected, authority site. Ultimately, any shortcuts to search engine optimization that compromise creative quality will, sooner or later, be detected and the engine algorithms modified with drastic effect on your rankings.

David Stockwell PhD is helping people to develop and market web-sites by applying statistics similar to those developed in ecology to discover new species.

Custom Content: From Content Creation to Web Dominance.
Niche Modeling: The Science and Statistics of Niche Modeling.

Article Source: High Quality RSS Feeds and Articles on 350+ Topics

Armand Morin Speaks at Dan Kennedy Superconference by John Braun

The leading internet marketing guru, Armand Morin, gave an eye opening presentation at the Glazer-Kennedy Superconference in Chicago on April 22, 2007. I got a chance to speak with him personally and was totally impressed with not only his knowledge, but also his down-to-earth approachable attitude.

These are the highlights of his presentation.

Do not get blogged down with Blogger.com
Blogger.com is affiliated with Google. There are millions of blogs posted daily on this site. Contrary to popular belief, Blogger.com is NOT the best place for your blog.

Why? For the most part, it uses its own search engine to find blogs. The reason is to prevent Google from getting bogged down with blog searches. There are too many blogs.

This is bad for you if you have a blog on Blogger.com because you will reduce the ability to get your blog listed on major search engines. It can still happen, but it is not quite as likely.

Your best bet is to use a program called Wordpress (often purchased FREE from your web host) and install your blog on your domain name. This way, the search engine will be able to locate the information on your blog and link it to your site directly.

Another tip about blogs: You can sign up with Google Adsense and place the ad near your blog. This can do a few things for you. First, it can make you a few dollars with the clicks you will get from the people viewing your blog. Second, it can help improve your search engine rank when you link to the site. Last, it can make your site look more professional because it is associated with Google. So, go ahead and give it a try.

Submitting articles on the internet
Submitting several articles to article directories will put you on other sites and give you a higher search engine status. The key is to submit articles that pertain to the subject of your website. Make sure the headline is relevant to your website as well. For instance, if you own a carpet cleaning company, submit an article on the subject of pet odor removal. Pet sites may pick up the article and other sites that are give spot removal tips on carpeting. It will give you huge credibility.

You can submit your article to directories that will make the article available to over 1000 different sites. One site, ArticleMarketer.com does this for a very small fee.

Submit articles often. At least once every week. It may take a couple months for you to see the benefit because Google may not send its robots to your site often if you do not have high traffic. But soon, you will reap the benefits.

Oh, by the way. If you do not like writing, you can purchase articles for as little as $3 from EzineArticles.com. I suggest you change the headline and parts of the article to fit your website subject matter. This is a quick and easy way to send out articles on a regular basis.

Final words of internet wisdom
If you decide to use Google Adwords, do it on the most highly ranked sites in your subject keywords. For instance, if you have a company in Atlanta, it is VERY hard to get on top of the search engine in Atlanta (or any city for that matter).

So, do a Google search for Atlanta. Find the highest ranked sites that offer advertising on the site. Place an ad there and you will instantly be linked with one of the tops sites in that subject.

Sure, you will get some hits directly from the site. But here is the best part of the deal. You will be linked to one of the top websites in that subject keyword. Which in turn will rank your site higher with that subject. Cool, huh?

John Braun is a copywriter with Hitman Advertising. To get your FREE REPORT entitled How To Choose The Most Profitable Advertising for your service business, visit www.HitmanAdvertising.com

Article Source: High Quality RSS Feeds and Articles on 350+ Topics

Website Content - Important For Your Website by Guido Nussbaum

As with any commercial venture, the nature of the game is to make money. Websites are no different and there are many ways to generate income from your online presence. Unless you are a well known and well established retail merchant, you will need to find a way to have users come to your website and (hopefully) purchase something through your advertisements. Whether you have your own product, utilize affiliate marketing or furnish pay per click advertisements, you need some bait to draw your potential customers to your site.

The adage “Content is King” is very true on the world wide web. Without articles and information to present to people searching the web for things that interest them, they would simply move on to the next site. There are several ways in which you can fill your website with information to hold your user’s attention.

The first option many newcomers take is to write their own content or hire someone to ghostwrite the information for them. This will work well if you are articulate and can present your information in an easily understood form. If you are hiring someone to write the information for you, the cost of putting together a decent sized website can stretch a new webmaster’s budget.

Another way to fill your pages with information is by using article directories. These websites are designed as repositories of articles on a multitude of subjects that you can pick and choose as you will to put on your own website. The advantages to using article directories is that you can quickly add content to your site that will be of interest to your viewers. The downside to using article directories is that for one, you cannot change the articles at all. These articles are provided as a service and either the author or the directory site retains the copyright.

Directory articles are provided free, but have hyperlinks to the author’s own websites imbedded in the byline information at the bottom of the article. This provides the person who furnished the article an extra back link to their site which aids them in increasing their rating with the search engines.

A third option lies somewhere in between these two choices. A growing number of web companies offer article packs grouped into specific niche interests. These collections of articles are sold with “Private Label Rights”. This means you can do whatever you want with them. You may put them on your site and attach your own byline. You can resell them to others and most importantly, you are permitted to edit and modify them to include your own unique details and information. This is the preferred method of utilizing these private label articles.

Most of the major search engines will discover and assign a lower ranking to webpages that have duplicate copy on them. In order to work your website toward the first pages of a search engine result you will need among other things, to keep your content as unique as possible. A packet of private label articles will generally cost less than if you had to hire someone to produce your content for you. The simple task of modifying the articles for your website can give you the satisfaction of being a part of your site’s development. With just a little effort you can take the basic articles you bought this way and turn them truly into your own creation.

A new and unique program has just launched and you can be part of it. We provide you with lots of free content at the PLR Niches
http://www.plr-niches.com

Article Source: High Quality RSS Feeds and Articles on 350+ Topics

Articles: My Top 10 Article Directories for 2006
By Chris Le Roy

Article Directories have become one of the critical tools in your seo strategy however not all article directories are equal. Over the last few months my team and I have been evaluating over 700 Article Directories and from those we have assessed what we consider our top 10 article directories.

We have looked at a number of difference attributes when assessing the article directories including the following:

1. Number of People Reading the Articles
2. How Quickly Articles Are Approved
3. Whether you can access your article statistics
4. Level of Support and help from the article directory owners
5. The Terms of Service
6. How Easy it is to submit articles

After reviewing each of these core attributes the number one article directory on the internet is certainly hands down Ezine Articles. Managed by Chris Knight this site is the epitome of outstanding service to article writers. Ezine Articles runs a program in which writers with over ten approved articles have their writer rating upped to a Platinum Status which enables the writers to have their articles approved within 24 hours.

If article directories do not approve articles regularly then the whole value of the article will never be realized and that is why we have given article directories that regularly approve articles a higher position in the top ten then those who do not.

Finally out top ten article directories for 2006 are:

Number 1: Ezine Article (www.ezinearticles.com)
Number 2: Article Dashboard (www.articledashboard.com)
Number 3: Go Article (www.goarticles.com)
Number 4: Search Warp (www.searchwarp.com)
Number 5: Afro Articles (www.afroarticles.com)
Number 6: Amazines (www.amazines.com)
Number 7: Article Teller (www.articleteller.com)
Number 8: Article Alley (www.articlealley.com)
Number 9: Article OnRamp (www.articleonramp.com)
Number 10: Article-Gems (www.article-gems.com)

If you would like to access over three hundred article directory’s visit our Article Directory List. If you are looking for other great online and offline web marketing web information visit Online Marketing

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Chris_Le_Roy
http://EzineArticles.com/?Articles:-My-Top-10-Article-Directories-for-2006&id=395851