Judging an E-Book By Its Cover

By Jennifer Tribe

People do judge a book by its cover, especially in the
online world. Potential customers have no other way of
judging your ebook before buying it except by appearance.
They can't pick it up and handle it. They can't taste it or
smell it. They can't hear it. They can only see it.

The more you can give them to see, and the better those
components look, the more you establish credibility in the
minds of buyers.

Don't take my word for it.

Listen to the folks at Consumer Reports WebWatch who noted
that "looking good is often interpreted as being good." One
of their recent studies revealed that almost half of web
surfers judge credibility by the design of a thing. In fact,
design far outranked all 17 of the other credibility
measures, including information usefulness and accuracy.

A cover is the single biggest visual cue for an ebook.
Thankfully, creating professional and attractive 2D and 3D
ebook covers is not hard to do. You have three main
options.

Do-It-Yourself Software

The leading product in this category is, arguably, eCover
Generator. It's a downloadable software program that
automatically creates various covers from the text and
images you specify. The software comes with a library of 44
stock images but you can also import your own images to
avoid looking like everyone else who uses the software. With
just a one-time charge of $97 to buy the software, the
advantage is that you can save big bucks if you have a lot
covers to create.

Hire a Cover Design Service

There are a number of graphic designers who specialize in
ebook covers and offer their services online. Generally
speaking, these services are cost-effective and offer fast
turnaround times. Ebook-Designer.com, for example, will
create a professional-looking custom cover for just $65.
Other reputable suppliers include KillerCovers.com and
AbsoluteCovers.com.

Work with Your Existing Designer

Although you may find in the end that it's faster and easier
to order from one of the specialists, it's worth asking your
own designer what they can do for you. If you'll be creating
a number of covers, they may be willing to negotiate a
volume rate. The advantage of working with your own designer
is that they will have an historical sense of your brand and
existing materials that can help ensure consistency.

With these inexpensive options at your disposal, there's no
reason not to have a professional looking cover for your
ebook. After all, looks sell books! Make sure you're sending
the right visual cues.


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Copyright 2005 Juiced Consulting

Turn your expertise into money-making information products
such as books, audio CDs and teleclasses! Juiced Consulting
shows you how. For a free e-zine and other resources, visit
www.juicedconsulting.com

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How to Get Great Organic Search Engine Listings

By Judith Kallos

All too often I find site owners are confused (or in denial) about
how to achieve the search engine rankings they desire on the
SERPs (Search Engine Result Pages). So, I am pleased to offer
you my version of "Organic Listings 101."

Several times each day I get approached by site owners wanting
to be in the top 5, 10, top page for organic (free) listings. The
organic results are those that display to the left and below
"Sponsored Sites" or "Sponsored Results at Google, MSN and
Yahoo!. These "Sponsored" advertisement boxes are part of
Pay Per Click programs where site owners bid for positioning.

What we're going to discuss today are the free listings that
are gained by how your site is ranked based on a combination of
unique variables (algorithm) of each search site. Which, to
muddy things up further, evolve without notice.

"You shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you mad."
~Aldous Huxley

Let's first set the stage so that we have realistic expectations
here. When I started my consulting practice back in the early
90s, it was relatively easy to get found. The volume of sites
and the level of competition were not one iota of what they are
today. Fast forward to 2005 and you have close to
12,000,000,000 (yes, that's billion) pages with a good
10,000,000 being added daily.

So how do you get visibility in the SERPs? Shuffling or adding
keywords in your Meta tags won't do it. Search Engine
Optimization (SEO) isn't the end-all-be-all either. You have
to have a well rounded, smart, long term marketing plan for your
site that includes certain basics for you to rise in the organic
rankings.

Issues for consideration to gain improved organic listings:

. Look at your Web marketing plan as a long term effort. New
sites are in Google's sandbox for 6 months or more, and it will
take time and effort to be viewed as more relevant than the sites
that are already online in the free positions you seek.

. Part of putting your plan together is to do a search with
your top keyword phrases on the various search engines so that
you are aware of the competition and the volume of sites already
successfully ranking for the terms you are targeting. This gives
you a real-world understanding of the level of competition you
will be up against.

. Understand that how your Web site ranks has nothing to do
with how good you are at what you do. It has to do with how good
your site is and how good others including the search engines think
your site is. That requires a long term realistic marketing plan
to grow your site to be the best most comprehensive resource on
your product or service for your site visitors. It doesn't happen
overnight or just because you say you want it to.

. Forget about trying to rank for one-word keywords-much too
difficult and in some cases downright impossible. Concentrate
and target 2-3 word phrases instead of one-word keywords and
you'll get more targeted visitors as well. There are several
tools to assist you in investigating what keyword phrases your
target market is actually using. Use these tools to your
advantage!

. Make sure each page within your site targets and is optimized
for only one or two, 2-3 word keyword phrases each. Niche is
what works for organic listings! The more you are about; the less
you are about any one thing. Search results are based on
numerous factors; one being relevancy for the terms the searcher
is using. If you are targeting 10, 20, 30 terms per page, that
page is not strongly about any given topic vs. another site that
has a page or pages concentrating on just one or two phrases
each. Keep in mind that less is more when it comes to targeting
keyword phrases on a page by page basis.

. To "top" the sites already out there, you have to do just
that! Top them! What makes your site better and more valuable
to your site visitors? If you don't have anything unique and
of quality or value to offer, you'll never push those who
already hold these positions out of your way.

. Plan on adding new information to your site on an aggressive
basis. Daily, weekly, minimally monthly! Resources, white papers,
"how tos" not only add value but will naturally work wonders as
keyword targeted pages. Offer the type of information those
seeking your product or service will find useful and search for
and that other sites will want to link to. Don't even think of
cheating and using content generating software.You'll get
nowhere with that approach. You need to have well written
content of value; not keyword stuffed ramblings.

. Plan on having lots of patience. Rome wasn't built in a
day and attaining great organic listings no longer happens in a day,
a month, or even a year. Any business that hopes to succeed
needs to take a consistent and informed long-term approach. This
applies to organic listings ten-fold.

Yes, without a doubt all of the above recommendations require
your time, effort and a realistic understanding of how organic
listings are accomplished. But this is the reality of how great
listings, over time, are attained. It is really quite simple - strive to
make your site the best it can be; THE site for your product or
service and your rankings will improve!

There are no short cuts or trickery for fast top 5, 10, top page
organic results. If someone tells you otherwise, they are trying
to use what you don't know to get into your pocket book. Make
a commitment to continually build your site to be the best it can
be to your site visitors and your organic rankings will happen.
Web sites and rankings are a work in progress after all!

Without implementing the above, you are left with only one choice in order to get visibility to those searching for your product or service. You will need to invest in a well planned Pay Per Click program and the corresponding budget necessary to reach your goals.

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About the Author:

Judith Kallos is an authoritative and good-humored Technology Muse who has played @ http://www.TheIStudio.com for over a decade. Check out her popular Software, Programming and Web Design Cheat Sheets @ http://www.LearnAndThrive.com

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Hey, Stop Stealing My Affiliate Commissions!

By Anik Singal

Don't get offended, I was not speaking directly to you. I
was speaking to the horrible companies who are stealing not
only my affiliate commissions, but yours too!

These companies are called "spyware." They specialize in
invading a consumer's computer through unethical means and
then literally replacing YOUR affiliate ID with their own!
It is almost as if you never even existed!

Not only that, they even steal your future affiliate
commissions by making sure that all future IDs are
automatically replaced with their own. Even more, they can
make it so that if the consumer goes to a website, a pop-up
for a competing website (with their own affiliate ID) pops
up and makes it impossible for you to get a sale.

As you likely agree, this is a major problem and it gets
bigger and bigger every day. The more we fight back, the
slicker these companies get.


How much are they really stealing?

Would you believe that studies have shown that these
companies could be stealing more than 50% of your affiliate
commissions! Some studies have shown that it may even be
higher, but 50% has been a repeated number in more than a
few studies.

That means, as an affiliate marketer, you could potentially
be making twice the money you are making now.


How does Spyware work?

Spyware is basically a program that consumers will download
onto their computer. They usually get it "along" with
another program that they download for free. Spyware
companies develop freebies for consumers to download so
they can invade their computers.

Then, the software pretty much takes over the consumer's
computer. The software can replace affiliate IDs, create
new cookies, make pop-ups appear and even steal passwords
or other private information.

In other words, spyware companies are also the masters of
viral marketing - they spread their disease via freebie
information and programs that unsuspecting consumers
download.

Who pays the price? You and I.


What is being done to stop it?

In all honesty, not much. It is not because no one cares,
but more because the more we try to stop it, the more
technical these companies get. As always, human eyes are
being required to track down and stop these companies.

Affiliate managers and companies are becoming far more
active in monitoring their affiliates to catch spyware.
Affiliates are also becoming a bit more vigilant in
reporting these companies (although not near enough).

There has been a moving trend towards software products
that block these spyware agents. Consumers are slowly
becoming more aggressive in trying to stop their computers
from being invaded (they are tired of pop-ups).


How you can help in the fight against spyware?

The biggest area we need to work on is by applying pressure
to affiliate networks like LinkShare and Commission
Junction to be far more active. Although these companies
have strictly stated that they will immediately shut down
spyware companies, more and more cases always seem to slip
through.

You cannot really blame them, since the more affiliate
sales, the more money they make. But, if enough genuine
affiliates apply pressure, these companies will be forced
to be even stricter.

Do not get me wrong, they ARE starting to become a lot more
active.

In all honesty, the next thing you can do, short of
designing a break-through program to stop this problem, is
to be more careful and report more actively. Any time you
see an uninvited pop-up on your computer that has an
affiliate ID in the link - you can be 98% sure that it is
spyware.

Take the time to report it!

Other than that, for now, being educated about spyware is
enough - spread the word and make sure more affiliates know.


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Copyright 2005 Kurma Group

About the Author:

This article has been authored by Anik Singal, an extremely
successful and young internet entrepreneur and affiliate
marketing consultant. If you like to receive his coaching
for FREE, visit the following link:
http://www.AffiliateClassroom.com/free-course.html

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More on Keywords

By Sharon Housley

Keywords are the heart to effective Internet searches.
Whether optimizing a web site or searching for a
hard-to-find item, consider tapping resources to locate a
variety of keywords. Identify keywords and phrases that are
relevant to the products, services, or information you are
promoting or searching for.

Synonyms

Use a thesaurus to find terms that are related to a primary
keyword. Searching on a synonym will often bring up
different Internet search results. A thesaurus groups words
that are similar in meaning. Usually, you reach for a
thesaurus when you have a word in mind and you are looking
for a similar term. Keep in mind that no two words mean
exactly the same thing. We turn to a thesaurus to find
different, more expressive ways of speaking and writing,
this is particularly important when related to keywords.

WebReference
Merriam-Webster

Singular and Plurals

Using the plural form of a word in many of the search
engines, may result in a different batch of search results,
than a search using the word's singular form. It is
important that websites be optimized for both singular and
plural forms of critically important keywords or phrases.

Meta Tags

Look at competitor or similar web sites meta tags to
determine if you have overlooked any obvious keywords or
phrases. This is very easy to do, simply view the source of
the web page and look for a tag in the header that says
[meta name="keywords" content=].

Conjugate Verbs

Conjugating verbs in keyword phrases will also vary search
results. Epitomize a variety of pages for critical past,
future and present tense keyword phrases.

Qualifiers

Use qualifiers to vary the meaning of a search phrase or
keyword and bring additional results. Qualifiers usually
are adjectives or adverbs that helps modify and limit the
extent of the meaning of a noun or pronoun, while an adverb
helps modify a verb in a similar way.

Abbreviations & Acronyms

Abbreviations and acronyms should be employed in a variety
of forms. Extend abbreviations and acronyms to full word
phrases to encompass as many possible combinations as
possible.

Misspellings

A significant number of searches conducted each day are
misspelled. Include common misspellings in the meta tags of
optimized pages to capture any traffic that is mistyped or
misspelled.

Shake it Up

Mix up the order of keywords in phrases to encompass a
broad range keyword phrases. Keyword phrase word order
variations can be a great source for new keyword phrases.

Hyphenate

Consider hyphenating search terms, as this is likely an
area competitors are unlikely to venture. The hyphenated
term could score well in search engines.

Determining Keywords

Additional Resource for Determining Keywords

Optimizing a site for a variety of keywords will give your
site the advantage of being found by relevant searchers.
The extra keywords could result in increased profits from
customers who might not have otherwise located your web
site.


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About the Author:

Sharon Housley manages marketing for FeedForAll software for
creating, editing, publishing RSS feeds and podcasts. In addition
Sharon manages marketing for NotePage, a wireless text messaging software company.

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Search Engine Optimized (SEO) Copy - The Down and Dirty Details

By Jon Wuebben

Today, being on the first page for your most popular keyword
phrase is like having the most memorable prime time
television commercial in 1973.

Essentially, that's where the power of advertising is going.
It's all about Search. And Search is only going to become
more important over the next ten years. If you can get on
that coveted first page organically, well then, more power
to you!

I know you probably have read other articles about writing
SEO copy and how it relates to achieving high search
rankings, there are plenty of them to go around. But some of
the articles are complicated; some are too long, others
boring. Still others don't explain that great SEO copy is
rarely effective just on it's own - in order to get those
high rankings (which is the goal after all), you have to do
other things too. So, we decided that what most people
really needed was a "down and dirty", easy to understand,
ten step method. You ask, and we deliver. Here are the
official ten steps in order:

1) Check your Competitors

Who are your competitors? Do you know? If you don't, you may
want to go online and do a search for your product or
service. Who is on the first two pages? That is your target.
Those are the companies that you want to compete with.
Because right now, they are getting your customers. Take a
look at their website. Notice the copy. Analyze their
business. Are they successful? What are they not doing
right? Look for the holes. You're going to meet the needs of
their customers (that they are not fulfilling) so they
become YOUR customers.

2) Research your Keyword Phrases

Remember, Keyword Phrase research is critically important.
It can also be a little tricky. Do you know what keywords or
keyword phrases your customers search for when they look for
you? Are you sure? Se what your competitors are using. You
can do this by right clicking on their home page, selecting
"View Source" and then checking their keyword meta tag.
Next, go on to Overture.com (Now Yahoo), click on "Visit the
Advertiser" section, and use their Keyword Selector Tool.
Its great - and its free. You can also use Wordtracker.com,
but it does cost $7.50/day.

3) Write Good Copy

Now its time to start writing. Or re-writing. And if you
can't write, you can hire a website copywriter to do it for
you. The bottom line is to write about benefits, not
features. Don't tell them how great your company is. They
will discover that for themselves when you overwhelm them
with your service and deliver the perfect product that meets
their every need. Make the copy to the point and snappy.
Make it sure it has impact, and asks the potential customer
for their business.

4) Integrate Your Keyword Phrases

After you figure out which keyword phrases you want to use
on your site, you need to integrate them into the copy of
your site. Think Home Page and Services page as the most
important pages to use them on. Essentially, you want to
them to make up 5% of the total words on the page. It's not
that hard actually. Just don't use them all over the place
like some stupid copywriters do - you could get de-listed
from the search engines. Definitely use them in your
headlines and sub headlines. That will get you extra points,
so to speak.

5) Check your Links, Build if necessary

Do you have any inbound links pointing to your site? If not,
no amount of awesome copy is going to get your site high
rankings. Links are very important. And even more so for
Google. Go to linkpopularity.com and see what you have. Also
check your competitors. If they have more than you, you need
to get some high quality links. You can either do that
yourself or hire someone to do it for you. It can be time
consuming and expensive. But you gotta do it. It makes you
look important to the search engines. A good way to do it is
to make sure you are listed on directories, including DMOZ
and industry related sites. Go to incominglinks.com to see
which ones you should be listed on. Then write articles and
submit them to article submission sites. That could
potentially give you hundreds of links for free.

6) Use Go Rank's Analytical Tools

GoRank.com is a fantastic free resource for SEO. They have a
Keyword Density Analyzer, Link Popularity Analyzer, Top 10
Keyword Analyzer, Research, News and lots of other great
stuff. It's a great tool and something I use every day. It
will help you in your SEO copy efforts.

7) Submit to the Search Engines

After you've ensured that your website copy and all the
other important SEO considerations have been completed, it's
time to submit to the Search Engines. Do it manually. Go to
the search engine and do it yourself. Definitely don't pay
someone to do it for you.

8) Tweak the Copy as necessary, Add New Content

After your site has been up for a while, go back and take a
second look. Ask friends and customers what they think of
it. Can anything be improved? You'll be surprised what you
may hear. If something isn't working, fix it. Make it sound
better. The other thing that you should also be doing is
adding content regularly. Build free resources into your
website. This will make your customers and potential
customers happy, and it will make you appear to be more
important in the eyes of the search engines. Adding articles
to your site is a great way to give your customers new, free
content. Write about things that they would find
interesting.

9) Partner with a Great SEO Firm

You may want to also consider partnering with a great Search
Engine Optimization firm. There are probably a hundred very
good ones out there. There are also 1000 bad ones. For the
good ones, check out topseos.com. and marketingsherpa.com.
They both list reputable firms. Whoever you go with, make
sure they have a list of client success stories complete
with stats to back it up.

10) Measure Your Success!

Finally, measure your success. (or progress) Get a software
program that will provide you with some web metrics as it
pertains to your site. WebTrends and Statcounter are great
ones. There are quite a few others as well.

As you can see, Search Engine Optimized copy is only part of
the overall SEO story. There is a lot to it, so make sure
you cover every area. After all, we want to get your web
site to the very top!

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About the Author:

Copyright 2005 Jon Wuebben.
Subscribe to our Better Business Writing (BBW) Newsletter and
receive 2 free reports. http://www.customcopywriting.com/

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Boost Your Sales Copy With One Simple Tweak

By Palyn Peterson

Do you want an amazingly simple trick to move far ahead of
your competition and increase sales? With this free, no-
software little tweak, you will be able to put customized
information into a web page that is different for everyone
you invite to visit. It is incredibly simple; seriously, I
promise! All that you need is a very basic understanding of
HTML, like how to make hyperlinks, and I will teach you
everything else. Sound fair?

What can you do with this, you may be wondering? Well, if
you have a newsletter, you can create a link to your web
site and the page displayed could have your subscribers
first name where ever you want it. It doesn't have to be
their first name either; it could quite literally be any
custom variable that your newsletter managing
service/script/program has saved for each of your
subscribers -- their last name, email address, snail mail
address, gender, age, favorite color, etc.

But we don't have to stop there, not at all. You can go on
and use as many variables as you want, not just one. We'll
thoroughly cover this.

Why is this HTML tweak useful, you may now be asking? Just
imagine this, you email your list of subscribers about a new
product you have recently released. In your email, you
write a few paragraphs about the product to generate
interest and conveniently provide a link for them to click
on to go back to your website and read your full sales copy.
Since you have such a trusting reputation with your
subscribers, they give your product the benefit of the doubt
and click on the link to read more. When they get to your
sales copy, lo and behold their name is used throughout the
page!

We all learned in Marketing 101 that your sales copy needs
to be personal; that when you write it, you need to speak to
one person and in everyday language. With this cool HTML
tweak, you will be able to reach new levels of
personalization. Yes, the subscriber will be impressed that
their name is used in the middle of your sales copy, and
yes, they will have more personal interest in what you are
saying. It is a whole new experience at that point, because
you are talking to them individually. Heck, you just used
their name! It won't just be, "You will get big results!"
but, "Fred, you will get big results!"

Now, let's get on to the code! For this example, we are
going to be using an HTML file named "choppers.htm".

Open up "choppers.htm" in your favorite editor. Now, where
ever you want the subscribers first name to appear, put this
code: "" (minus the quotes), and wherever
you want their last name to appear, put: "?>" (again, minus the quotes).

Do you see the "$a" in the first bit of code and the "$b" in
the second? For every custom variable you want to appear on
your web page, just put that little bit of code with a
different letter.

To explain it a little more, for every place the subscribers
first name should appear, put "". For
every place the subscribers last name should appear, put
"". For every place the subscribers
email address should appear, put "". And
so on and so forth. Yes, you can use each bit of code as
often as you want. No, it doesn't really matter that the
first name is using the code with "$a" -- it could be "$h",
"$p" or even "$z", just as long as each custom variable uses
a different letter.

Now you will need to rename "choppers.htm" to
"choppers.php". Some HTML editors do not open up .php
files, so I suggest only doing a "save as" to a .php file.
That way, you will still have "choppers.htm" to edit
whenever you need to, then just do another "save as".
Upload the .php file to your web host.

Now we need to create the link the subscribers will click on
to get to the newly created "choppers.php" file. For this
part, you need to know what codes your newsletter managing
service/script/program uses to customize your emails. Just
for this example, let's say two of them are {First-Name} and
{Last-Name}.

When you write your email, the address of your sales page in
the link you will create to go to it, will look like this:
"yourdomain.com/choppers.php?a={First-Name}&b={Last-Name}".
But when you send out your email to your subscribers, your
newsletter managing service/script/program will fill in
those codes with the subscribers first and last name. So
when the subscriber clicks on the link, the address to your
sales page will actually look like this:
"yourdomain.com/choppers.php?a=Fred&b=Jones".

If you only cared to use the subscribers first name, you
would only need to use "" in
"choppers.php", and the address to that page in the link in
your email would look like:
"yourdomain.com/choppers.php?a={First-Name}", and for your
subscriber Fred, his link address would end up looking like:
"yourdomain.com/choppers.php?a=Fred".

You have just now taken many steps in front of your
competition. You are now able to market much more
personally than most people think is even possible.

Copyright © by Palyn Peterson

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Palyn Peterson publishes the acclaimed Advanced Internet
Marketing News. A professional newsletter with a
refreshing perspective and a strong focus on no-cost
techniques. http://www.FutureInternetMarketing.com
FREE Tips, Tricks, Tools, Resources, eBooks, and More!

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Great Ways To Obtain Link Popularity

By Ronald Gibson

I hate reciprocal linking.

It is such a hassle. Even specialized reciprocal linking
sites don't really help all that much. Many of the link
requests that I do get are from poker sites that are
totally irrelevant to my site's content. Most of the sites
that I would like to link to don't respond. Some sites
supposedly do respond, but, when I search their sites, I
can't find my link anywhere. It is just so totally and
completely frustrating.

Link popularity is a major factor in search engine
rankings. How does someone like me, who despises
reciprocal linking, go about improving my site's link
popularity?

Fortunately for me, I have discovered two ways to do
exactly that. They are blogging and submitting articles.

I added the Work At Home Ideas
Blog(http://www.affiliateutopia.com/blog/) to my website
two weeks ago. Search engines love content and blogs are
about the easiest way to add fresh content to your site.
But, how can a blog improve your site's link popularity?
Most blogs feature their own RSS or XML feed. If a visitor
to your blog likes your content, then he just might decide
to syndicate your content on his website. In the past two
weeks, my blog's XML feed has been hit more than 150 times.
I expect to get at least some new links out of that.

Writing articles and submitting them to article directories
is another great way to get more links pointing back to
your site. You can place your own "resource box"(similar
to the one at the bottom of this article) at the bottom of
your articles. Your resource box wiil contain a link back
to your website. The article directory will publish your
article and--BAM-you have an instant link back to your
website. Submitting articles is a great way to get your
site's popularity going like gangbusters.

Here are some outstanding article directories that you
should be submitting to:
IdeaMarketers -- http://www.ideamarketers.com/
EzineArticles -- http://www.ezinearticles.com/
GoArticles -- http://www.goarticles.com/
ISnare -- http://www.isnare.com/
Internet Home Business Articles--
http://www.internethomebusinessarticles.com/

Here is a little tip for your article submissions. Many
article directories allow you to enter HTML code in your
articles. This gives you the ability to control the anchor
text of your site's link in the resource box of your
article. The anchor text of your link serve as keywords
for the search engines. Use a keyword research tool, such
as Good Keywords(http://www.goodkeywords.com/), to vary
your anchor text from week to week. By doing this, you
will rapidly build up a number of keywords for your site.

By using your blog's RSS or XML feed and submitting
articles, you can increase the link poularity of your
website without all of the hassles of reciprocal linking.

Copyright 2005 Ronald Gibson

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About the Author:

Ronald Gibson is a Web Designer and Web Marketer. He is
the Webmaster of AffiliateUtopia.com, which offers
information about some of the best money making
opportunities on the Web. For more information, visit:
http://www.affiliateutopia.com/

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6 Article Marketing Smarts: How To Get More Reprints And Exposure

By Priya Shah

Article marketing is the latest buzzword for marketers
looking to promote their sites and products online. But
how do you measure the success of your article
marketing campaign?

It probably depends on what you expect your article to
achieve for you - better branding, more sales, or more
publicity.

One way to measure article performance is to check
how many times your article has been picked up and
reproduced on various sites.

To do that, just copy and paste the article title in quotes
into a search engine like Google, and you'll see how
many sites it's been reprinted on.

My article "How To Get To The Top Of The Marketing
Food Chain" shows 1061 links in Google.

That means Google has indexed 1061 sites on which
this article appears.

This gives me about 1061 quality links to each of the
sites I included in my resource box.

As you can see, this makes article marketing a very
powerful way of building quality links.

So how do you ensure that your article gets picked up
and reprinted by as many publishers as possible?

1. Pick A Topic That's Hot Or Always Fresh

For instance, my article on Neuromarketing got picked
up pretty quickly because it was a hot topic.

The problem with hot topics is that they also tend to cool
off quickly. So while they may get a lot of reprints over a
short time, they may get very few reprints once the craze
is over.

There are some articles that are slow starters but
eternally fresh, like the one I wrote here: "To Be A Champion, Become A Child"
(591 links in Google)

These are the ones that will give you reprints over a
longer period of time. I think in the long run, these are
more valuable.

2. Target A Large Audience

Another way to get a lot of coverage is write an article for
a large target audience or one that is very active online -
like bloggers.

This article gave me 164 links back, mostly from other
blogs, even some for which I had to use a translation
service :-)

This one shows 248 links back. 316 links for this one.

But again, it's the quality of links back that matters - not
the quantity.

Another large target audience is the health market. I get
a lot of links back from my health articles.

3. Craft A Catchy, Relevant Title

A catchy title ensures that your article gets the attention
of publishers - the first step to getting your article
published.

Follow the basic rules of copywriting to make your
article interesting and readable.

Publishers are more likely to pick up an article if its title
includes the keywords that they (and you) want to target.

Use your main keywords in your title, preferable in the
first half (like I did in the title of this article), to ensure
better rankings for those who reprint it.

4. Offer Publishers A Monetary Incentive

Give people an incentive to publish your article. I have
an affiliate program and I allow publishers to use their
affiliate link for my ezine in the resource box.

Allow publishers to earn by publishing your article and
they will gladly reprint it.

5. Write An Article Series

Break up a long article or report into a series of articles
like I did with my "Marketing With Blogs" series here.

Marketing With Blogs - Part 1, 2, 3 and 4
http://www.blog-maniac.com/marketing-with-blogs1.htm
http://www.blog-maniac.com/marketing-with-blogs2.htm
http://www.blog-maniac.com/marketing-with-blogs3.htm
http://www.blog-maniac.com/marketing-with-blogs4.htm

These gave me 5270 links back in all. As you can see, a
series of articles can be a very powerful link-building
technique.

6. Distribute Your Article Widely

Ensure that your article is distributed to the best and
most appropriate article directories and announcement
lists online.

Feel free to browse through my own collection of article
directories and announcement lists


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Priya Shah is the CEO of eBrand360. She writes the Marketing Slave blog and publishes an internet marketing newsletter.

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