Exactly What Is Keyword Density?

By The Davinator

There are usually a lot of questions that arise when people hear about the term "keyword density." Many people are not sure of what the term is pertaining to, or are not sure of acceptable percentages of density. This little explanation of what the term keyword density refers to should clear up some of the confusion that arises.

Keyword density is an indicator of the number of times the selected keyword appears in the web page. But mind you, keywords shouldn't be over used, but should be just sufficient enough to appear at important places. At one time, before the search engine algorithms were set up to detect such spamming, people were tricking the search engines to get a higher placement by performing what was coined "keyword stuffing".

People were completely abusing the search engines, and over time, they smartened up and got wise to it.

If you repeat your keywords with every other word on every line, then your site will probably be rejected as an artificial site or spam site.

Keyword density is always expressed as a percentage of the total word content on a given web page.

Suppose you have 100 words on your web page (not including HMTL code used for writing the web page), and you use a certain keyword for five times in the content. The keyword density on that page is got by simply dividing the total number of keywords, by the total number of words that appear on your web page. So here it is 5 divided by 100 = .05. Because keyword density is a percentage of the total word count on the page, multiply the above by 100, that is 0.05 x 100 = 5%

The accepted standard for a keyword density is between 3% and 5%, to get recognized by the search engines and you should never exceed it.

Remember, that this rule applies to every page on your site. It also applies to not just to one keyword but also a set of keywords that relates to a different product or service. The keyword density should always be between 3% and 5%.

Simple steps to check the density:

- Copy and paste the content from an individual web page into a word-processing software program like Word or Word Perfect.

- Go to the 'Edit' menu and click 'Select All'. Now go to the 'Tools' menu and select 'Word Count'. Write down the total number of words in the page.

- Now select the 'Find' function on the 'Edit' menu. Go to the 'Replace' tab and type in the keyword you want to find. 'Replace' that word with the same word, so you don't change the text.

- When you complete the replace function, the system will provide a count of the words you replaced. That gives the number of times you have used the keyword in that page.

- Using the total word count for the page and the total number of keywords you can now calculate the keyword density.

The above way of checking your keyword density is a bit of an old fashioned way, but it still does work for the purposes of figuring out what you density actually is. These days, there are many different types of softwares on the market which makes this
job a whole lot easier.

About The Author:

Davin Ogden owns and operates several web sites on the internet. He mainly specializes in SEO and viral marketing. For more information on keyword density, SEO, and many other aspects of SEO please visit his site at http://www.davinatorbiz.com

More Tips for Better Writing

By Tim North

Your readers judge you on the way you write.

This applies whether you're writing advertising copy, a college or business report, a web site, or the next great novel; and it is these judgements that will determine the success or failure of your venture.

For example, would you buy a book if you flipped through the pages and saw spelling errors? Probably not. Such errors would detract from the CREDIBILITY of what was written. Similarly, the Internet is full of web sites offering to tell you how to write fantastic advertising copy that will triple your sales. The irony, is that most of these site look like they're written by an illiterate. You know the ones: spelling errors, poor grammar, ridiculous punctuation, and way too many exclamation marks.

Good, solid writing skills are necessary whether you're writing for business, college or fiction. In this article, I'm going to look at a frequently misunderstood area: hyphens.

Yes, it sounds dull; I admit it. Wait, though, before being tempted to put this article to one side, and test yourself with these real-world questions.

Q1. Why do many dictionaries list "infra-red" with a hyphen, but "ultraviolet" without?

Q2. Why does only the first of the following sentences need a hyphen?
We will discuss public-safety issues.
We will discuss issues of public safety.

Q3. Which of these is the preferred spelling:
co-ordinator or coordinator?
mid 1990s or mid-1990s?
selfesteem, self-esteem or self esteem?

Are you certain of all your answers? If not, read on, and we'll cover some simple guidelines for using hyphens. (You'll also find the answers to the questions above.)

SEVEN SIMPLE TIPS FOR USING HYPHENS
-----------------------------------

1. The prefix "self" is nearly always hyphenated; e.g. self-esteem, self-image, self-conscious.

2. When the prefix "ex" is used to mean former, it is always hyphenated; e.g. ex-wife, ex-premier, ex-treasurer.

3. Most of the time, prefixes don't need a hyphen; i.e. most dictionaries list "coexist" not "co-exist."

4. We do sometimes use a hyphen after a prefix, though, if the main word is only one syllable; e.g. infra-red. By comparison, ultraviolet doesn't need a hyphen (according to most dictionaries) because the main word is not one syllable.

5. Use a hyphen after a prefix in order to separate a doubled vowel; e.g. pre-empt, de-emphasise. There are some exceptions, though. Most modern dictionaries spell "cooperate" and "coordinate" without hyphens.

6. We tend to hyphenate compound words only if they come before a noun, not after. For example, we write a "public-safety issue" with a hyphen, but "an issue of public safety" is written without one.

7. Use a hyphen after the prefix if the main word has a hyphen of its own; e.g. non-customer-focussed approach.

Armed with these simple guidelines, you'll soon be using hyphens like an expert. Good luck! :-)

About the Author:

Tim North (info@...) is the author of "Better Writing Skills" -- a 200-page, easy-to-understand, downloadable book that will give you a competitive edge.

You can DOWNLOAD A FREE CHAPTER that's full of practical hints and tips from http://www.betterwritingskills.com

How To Measure The Effectiveness Of Your Article Marketing Campaigns

By Bill Platt

I frequently rant on Internet marketing and some of the gurus who try to bend your ear. Why? Because many of these so-called gurus trash everything that makes sense in this Internet world,
especially when they realize that they cannot make money from the techniques being recommended.

I don't preach marketing concepts solely for the purpose of selling my products and services. (If you happen to buy my products or services, then awesome, but that is not my point when I share information from my SEO and other marketing campaigns.) I preach the concepts that I have used for myself successfully. Either you can trust me and test the things I recommend, or you can listen to the gurus and drown yourself in pity, when you realize you are not finding the success you seek.

I present things in such a way that anyone can actually go out and try my suggestions on their own, with or without my help. I want you to at least try what I suggest. I don't want you to try once, but I want you to commit yourself giving the suggested methods a chance to work for you.

Yes, I preach article marketing in connection with building link popularity value for your website (and I operate an article marketing company). But, I am not the only article marketing company out there. So, it remains possible for you to employ my article marketing techniques, without actually using my services specifically. (If you want to use my services, great, but you don't have to do so.)

Frequently, new customers come along and say, "Bill, I am going to try this once. If it works out for me, I will be back." My response is often, "Dude, you are selling yourself short, when you do something just once!"

As a person who has only written one article, you are just one in thousands of uncommitted, wannabe article writers. Your article may very likely be overlooked, because the publishers do not yet know your name or why they should care that you are writing articles.

When publishers have seen your name, 3, 4 or 10 times, then they are more likely to open your articles to see if they like your writing style and to see why they should pay attention to your message. Once publishers begin to pay attention to what you write, then publishers will open more of your articles, and perhaps publish your articles more frequently.

When you do a one-time out article, you are riding solely on a prayer, for success. (I am not in the prayer business - please see your pastor for that service.) But, if you can commit yourself to ten articles, your chance for article marketing success has been improved tenfold.

The first thing that needs to happen for article marketing to work for the promotion of your website is for you to create great content that other people want to publish. Then you must get noticed by the (ezine and website) publishers that will want to publish your articles. Once you have an audience, don't let them down --- keep giving them more content so that they can turn to you always.

To express this point, let me share a couple names with you. How many of you have heard of Willie Crawford? Willie has written and distributed 123 articles through my program, and he has 140,000 search results for his name in Google (http://www.google.com/search?q=%22willie+crawford%22).

My friend Clinton Douglas IV has written and distributed 36 articles. Google credits him with 17,500 mentions in the Google search results for his name (http://www.google.com/search?q=%22clinton+douglas+iv%22).

Both of these gentlemen suggest that they rely primarily upon articles to build their presence online. Of course, Willie is somewhat of an exception, since he has his fingers in so many pies. But, Willie still attributes much of his success to article marketing.

When it is time to measure your article marketing success, you should never go to Google's public search results and pull a simple search for your name or a link:yourdomainurl.com search. You should not even go to Yahoo's Site Explorer to find the same inforamtion.

Instead of relying on the public records for inbound link counts, you should register your website in Google's Webmaster Tools control panel at: http://www.google.com/webmasters

On the public side of Google, my site shows 33 inbound links (http://www.google.com/search?q=link%3Athephantomwriters.com) and Yahoo Site Explorer credits me with 1,478 inbound links. But, inside of Google's Webmaster Tools, I have +10,000 inbound links according to Google's records. I am not going to divulge exactly how many inbound links I have (according to Google's Webmaster Tools), but even I was surprised by the strength of my link counts.

The fact is that Google will only show you a really small sampling of the inbound links for your website, and while Yahoo is more free with this information, they also fail to show anything more than just a small snippet of the number of links you will actually have for your website.

So, if you are truly interested in learning the value that you created with your article marketing campaign, you absolutely have to login to Google's Webmaster Tools to get to the truth of the matter.

But, building links is just one facet of a successful article marketing campaign. There is also the reputation you build for yourself when you teach your readers something of real value in your articles. There is the consistent traffic you can receive to your website when your article is published on a website that has a regular audience. And there is the surges of traffic you can receive to your website when your article is published in a large newsletter.

I have always tried to play straight with folks, so please take this advice as it is intended. If you are only going to do one article to see where article marketing can take you, spend your money on paid advertising instead. But, if you really believe that those of us who have written hundreds of articles do so, because this marketing method works, then make a serious commitment to seeing an article marketing campaign through to success.

About the Author:

Bill Platt has been providing article marketing to his clients since 2001 at: http://www.thephantomwriters.com/ He offers ghost writing and article distribution services. With lots of experience writing articles that attract publishers, readers, traffic and sales to his website, Bill wrote an ebook to share the secrets of his article writing success that can be found at: http://thephantomwriters.com/ebooks/article-marketing-traffic.html

Or read his blog at: http://article-blog.thephantomwriters.com/

How To Inspire Yourself To Write Articles Others Will Want To Read

By Bill Platt

Anyone engaged in writing articles for offline publications or online business has occasionally struggled with the question of "What to write?"

Methods To Help The Average Person To Start Writing

Maybe I am just an overly optimistic person. I have always believed that anyone committed to writing an article can write an article. The problem is that most individuals simply do not have the belief in their own skills and insight. That is the reason why we ghost writing lot will always have a job. As long as there are people who doubt their own skills or insights, I will always have a job.

One of my good friends, Clinton Douglas IV(http://www.thephantomwriters.com/recent/author/clinton-douglas-
iv.html), learned the lesson of understanding that he had his own abilities and skills that he could utilize to write his own articles. He learned that he could turn his insight into literature worth reading, by simply calling his favorite ghost writer on the phone (me) and sharing his thoughts on a topic. He was always amazed how it seemed like I could read his thoughts and mind and put his thoughts to paper, even the thoughts that he did not mention specifically to me.

Most people simply don't have a favorite ghost writer on the other end of a telephone call. For them, they should sit down to the computer and type and type and type, with little to no regard for proper spelling, grammar, or storytelling. The first draft should always be used to get one's thoughts out of the brain and down on paper. Spelling, grammar and wording can be fixed during the editing process.

My friend Clinton utilizes this technique on occasion too. He wrote an article one time, by just spilling his brain onto the page. He wrote from his heart and got his thoughts all out of his head. When done, he sent me his final draft for editing. Sure, there were many words that were fixed, a lot of bad grammar that was corrected, and wording that was massaged, before we found the final product. Once written by him and edited, we put his
(http://www.thephantomwriters.com/free_content/db/d/3:10-to-yuma- lessons-learned.shtml) "3:10 to Yuma" article out on the World Wide Web. Almost immediately, my friend Clinton started receiving compliments for his story. Many said it was very inspirational.

I believe in your ability to write your own articles, even if you do not.

Even if you can never bring yourself to write your own articles, that is fine, since we professional ghost writers are happy to write for you.

How Professional Writers Find Inspiration

When it is time to sit down to write an article, we professionals sit down and start reading. Inspiration is a thought that comes to our mind while we are reading information on our target topic. Our thought is never to rewrite what other writers are talking about. Instead, our inspired thought is often an extension of the words we read that were penned by our peers.

How many times have you been reading something written by someone else, and you felt that the author should have ventured off on a tangent that he or she left hanging? Inspiration often occurs rght here in this moment, at that very intersection of this thought.

Once you know the question left unanswered by another writer, then you will have found your own direction and inspiration for writing your next article.

Answer The Unanswered Question and More...

When you want to use articles to promote your online business, it is not enough to answer the unanswered question. You actually need to venture a bit further afield and to ask yourself one very important question: Is the person most likely to buy your product or service also interested in having this question answered?

When you write for promotion purposes, you should always try to speak to the hearts and minds of the people most likely to buy what you are selling. If your potential clients are asking the
same questions as you are, then you know what questions you need to answer for your readers. It is in answering questions important to your customers, where you will begin to find real success using promotional articles to promote your business.

Help your customers answer questions they want answered, and they will help you to earn the sales you need to keep your doors open to others.

Final Note About Inspiration and The Writing Process

This article began as a blog post, written in a blog I contribute to weekly:
http://articlecontentprovider.com/article-marketing-blog/2008/06/22/where-does-inspiration-come-from/

I often write a blog post as my first draft of an idea. Then I massage the message to make it worthy as a promotional article, an article to be read by a larger audience.

Sometimes my first draft is an answer to someone who asked me a question about my service. I answer his or her question from the hip, then I copy-and-paste my answer to a word document and massage the copy for a public audience.

Many times, this first-draft, second-draft process has helped me to create some of the very best articles I have written. Due to the fact that my original article draft is put together as an answer to a question that one of my potential clients had, it permits me to write an article that answers a question that many of my other potential customers may also be thinking.

In answering questions for the larger audience, I have found great success for myself in article marketing. Given a little bit of motivation and commitment, you can make my processes work for you too, to build your own success online.

About the Author:

Bill Platt has been providing article marketing to his clients since 2001 at: http://www.thephantomwriters.com/ He offers ghost writing and article distribution services. With lots of experience writing articles that attract publishers, readers, traffic and sales to his website, Bill wrote an ebook to share the secrets of his article writing success that can be found at: http://thephantomwriters.com/ebooks/article-marketing-traffic.html

Online Article Marketing

Article by Niki Camus

Article marketing is a revolutionary way to inform potential customers about your business. By writing an article about your specific expertise and posting it on the internet, you can successfully inform hundreds of thousands of potential customers. Article directories list hundreds or thousands of articles posted by their users. The articles are picked up by search engines and web surfers now become potential customers.

One of the most common questions asked is, "How effective is article marketing?" Well, I can't tell you how many times I have searched the internet and got to someone's website by reading their article. So my answer is, Of course it is effective! Web surfers search for anything on the internet, and the volume of people using the internet is significant. One of the most important aspects of article marketing is that it is purely targeted. This means web surfers will most likely access your information by searching for words that are in your article. This means they already have an interest in your product, which will increase the likelihood of them visiting your website.

Everyone is aware of the advantages of article writing so the internet is flooded with their articles. While this may seem like the best thing, search engines may not think so. Search Engines such as Google strive on making their users receive the best quality results. As a result, they filter duplicate content and will not display results that are exactly alike. If the same
article gets flooded on the internet it may not improve the effectiveness as much. It is important to write unique articles, which will increase your chances a lot more.

Article Marketing when approached appropriately can be very effective. It may not work overnight, but in time the traffic will increase. Submitting to several article directories will surely improve your chances, and the more unique they are, the more it will make a difference. Thirty percent uniqueness or more should be enough to not be filtered by search engines.

It probably sounds harder than it is to actually rewrite different articles but it is really not that difficult. You can keep the ideas the same, but finding different ways to write your sentences can create a big difference. First, replace words as appropriate. Not all word synonyms will actually make sense, so be careful with that. Next, try to rephrase a part of a sentence and then you go from there. Creating unique articles does not necessarily mean, you start completely from scratch, now that will be difficult. Take baby steps and in no time you'll create so many versions of your article, you'd be amazed how simple it is to get it done.

When you have created different versions of your article, the next step is to distribute them. Article directories are usually free and willing to accept your articles. Submit your articles to as many directories as possible, the more the better. Directories usually give you an Author Resource area. This is where you include a biography of yourself, as well as the link to your website. It is also important to not fill your articles with links, especially links that are not related to your article. A simple link, to your website is enough. Remember, it's important to concentrate more on informing your potential customers, rather than flooding them with unnecessary links. If you do, they'll most likely click the back button and go elsewhere on the web.

About The Author:

I am the owner of an article directory and web blog at http://www.123estuff.com. I dedicate my time to learn about and help with online marketing. My article directory exists mainly to assist marketing efforts. Also I provide daily marketing tips and information at http://www.squidoo.com/estuff.

Should You Change Your Copy When Rankings Fall?

Article By Karon Thackston

I've been on a seesaw for the last year. I have a client who, for almost 12 months, has been asking me to rewrite their home-page copy because they dropped from the top 10 to position #11 (the dreaded second page!). My question to her was always, "Is your copy still converting the way you want it to?" She answered yes every time, to which I advised, "Leave the copy alone."

"But what about my rankings?"

"Is business suffering?"

"No, we're swamped."

"Leave the copy alone."

"But it's over a year old. Don't you think it needs to be refreshed?"

"Is your copy still converting the way you want it to?"

"Yes."

"Leave the copy alone."

We'd have this same discussion every 3 or 4 months. Some people just get hung up on being in the top 10, and their tunnel vision can cause them to make decisions they otherwise would not make. Others think that, because they are tired of seeing their website copy, others are too. This is usually not true.

My suggestion was to enhance her linking campaign with some quality articles through an article distribution campaign, but to leave the copy alone since it was still doing its job. Search engine positioning isn't the whole ball of wax. Getting top 10 rankings shouldn't be your primary goal. Attracting and keeping more business is what it's all about. If that means using search engine optimization as one tool, so be it. But too many times, website owners bow to the SEO gods and sacrifice conversions and their best business sense all for the sake of saying they are #1. Not advisable, if you ask me.

I am happy to report that, after holding at #11 for many months, this company's site is now back in spot #5. While we can't say with any certainty that it has driven any more business to their site than being at #11, the managers are quite pleased.

Never Change Your Copy?

Is this my advice in every case where rankings drop? No. There are instances where you do need to change your copy if your rankings decrease. Ask yourself (or your client) these questions:

1) Are conversions suffering?

If you're experiencing a decline in conversions, by all means take a look at your copy. It might need some help. But keep in mind that decreasing conversions may also be due to a new and more complicated shopping cart, recent design changes that impaired usability for your visitors or a dozen other reasons.

2) Have products or services changed?

If you have products or services to add or remove, certainly you'll want to change your copy to reflect that.

3) Has business fallen off?

If, due to the decrease in search engine positioning, you've tracked a definite lag in business, then yes, you'll want to make an effort to gain the lost rankings back. But, changing the copy isn't the only way to do this. If you answer no to the other questions, I'd leave the copy as-is and opt for an article distribution campaign first.

4) Other than hoping to appease the SEO gods, is there any other reason that the copy mandates changing?

If the answer is no, don't change the copy.

With all of the above, if the answer to each question is no, leave the copy alone.

There are as many reasons for your positioning to change as there are days in the month. Guessing at and trying to adjust for mysterious shifts usually does little good. Plus, while you're chasing the golden ring, you may be losing sales.

About the Author:

Learn to write emotionally driven SEO copywriting with Karon's Step-by-Step Copywriting Course at http://www.copywritingcourse.com. Read Karon's copywriting blog at http://www.marketingwords.com/blog.

Thirty-Two Tips in Writing Articles for the WWW (Updated)

Article by Craig Lock

"Give a man a fish and you feed him for a day; teach a man to use the Internet and he won't bother you for months...or perhaps even years! (Sorry men... however, I presume this principle also applies to our women-folk!)."

Articles are an incredible source of traffic and free advertising for your online business, as they create LINKS (which are a vital criteria for the major search engines in their rankings of your web- site). Writing articles can provide you with enormous amount of exposure on the Web (sounds "rude, that). You are branding yourself on a shoestring budget - it hasn't cost you a cent, but a little time and effort.

People want quality content for their ezines and their web sites; however, the competition for content is fierce. Every Web site owner wants content and hundreds of writers want their content visible on the Web. It's FREE promotion through your signature file at the end of your article*.

If you can write an article about your business, you can increase your links in 24 hours! As the internet adress in your resource box at the end of your articles gets picked up by the main search engine spiders, like Google and Yahoo.

Writing a free content article is simple and follows a similar professional approach as an article for a standard, paying market. Here are some pointers in writing articles for the www:

Firstly,

1. Offer Something of Value, a Real Benefit to people. Articles that give good helpful information or explain how to accomplish something are usually best, and will be read most often.

2. Try to get into the publishers mind. See things from their point of view - why should they publish your article? In what way will it benefit their readers?

3. Accept that writing for the web is different to writing for the off-line world. People tend to skim and scan (note alliteration) when reading online. They read quickly scrolling down the page.

4. Identify your target audience.

5. Give your article a catchy title that will grab attention and make people want to read.

6. Keep your title reasonably short. Put some thought and effort into your heading - again to get your reader's immediate attention.

7. Be professional and take your article writing seriously. Write about something you know professionally. Don't be overly casual in your writing (ie. don't write exactly as you speak)

8. Keep your paragraphs short.

9. Be Clear and Concise. Get to the point quickly (enough waffle with maple syrup, Craig!).

10. Target your article to your audience with "focused information".

11. Be brief, if you are a "waffler", like this writer. People want immediate information online and have limited time usually - it's the "instant coffee, sorry generation.

12. Write briefly and concisely (redundant words, meaning the same thing, Craig!) Try to keep your article under 1,500 words. Most paying markets usually only accept between 500 and 2,000 words... and with a bit of luck they may even "pick up" your great article. Try to be concise in your wording. Brevity is the hall-mark of good writing...or so say many of the teachers of writing!

13.. Use the OCCASIONAL exclamation mark (!) to get your readers attention. Forget the ALL CAPITAL LETTERS and exclamation points!!!

14. Be credible (big word, eh?) at all times.I try to write my articles in a "conversational style with dashes of my funny humour".

15.. Use HUMOUR. People like to have a bit of fun with the occasional laugh, whilst being informed on a serious subject. At least I believe so!

16. Write from "your heart", so that you come across as a REAL person. Just write what comes naturally with INTEGRITY...and BE YOURSELF.

17. Be totally honest in your writing and don't "borrow" too much from others content. It's so easy to "steal" on the www - so do your own work and if you "borrow ideas or material, ACKNOWLEDGE. "Incidentally, I have borrowed some ideas in this article from some good writers and well-known internet marketers - thanks a lot, David, Michael, John, Meredith, Joe, Edward, Ken and Mark).

18. Be humble.and don't talk down to your readers.

19. Use bullets (not live, please, oops er sorry, bad taste) in your articles - it makes the points easy to follow.

20.. Don't forget your byline ...or your "business card". Make sure that you resource box at the end of the article provides enough information to identify yourself and provide contact information. It's FREE advertising.

21. Offer a free report with your article - this is an easy way to collect a list of adresses for marketing your product(s). An instant target market.

22. Check all the links in your article before submitting it.

23. Offer your articles by autoresponder

24. Conclude with a strong message. Your final point (and paragraph) should be a message that summarises your article or gets your reader to take further action, like "GET STARTED" (as I've done in this article).

25. Pay attention to feedback you get for your articles. Getting constructive feedback about your articles can help you to write better through encouragement. A very powerful motivator to write more articles..

26. Finally, make sure your layout is good (not one of my strong points!), as this greatly enhances your prospects of getting published Use plenty of white spaces, as this makes your piece more easily read.

27. Proof-read. Double check your articles for errors: spelling, grammar and punctuation. Use a spell-check. Go over your article carefully and be an editor yourself.

28. Make sure your article flows properly.

29. Re-read and re-read, until you get it "just right."

30. Keep a file of articles you've written or ones that lie unfinished. You may have many new ideas since then. Set aside time to work on them. You may even put them in the form of an ebook, as my "techno-friend", Stefan has done.

and finally...and most importantly

31. Remember the "kiss" principle: Write simply and keep your meaning (message) clear (As Ernest Hemingway advised). Never use a big word, when a dimunitive will do (get it)!

Self discipline is the key to writing success. "Aim for perfection, but settle for excellence" in your article writing... then just "give it a full go with all you've got".

and finally (and most importantly)

32. Don't treat writing articles for the www. as a loborious and necessary chore of internet marketing, but some FUN in your writing (as I have done in this article)

SUMMARY:

The internet is such an amazing medium for communication and SHARING information. I've just submitted this article and it's been published almost instaneously (big word!) in a few places. So YOU TOO can write articles on your chosen subject in your internet marketing efforts, as the more articles you write and submit, the more you will find web sites LINKING to yours (as many of the major search engines use the number of links as a factor in placing your web site in their rankings).

It's a "numbers game": MORE TRAFFIC = INCREASED SALES ("the more you tell, the more you sell")

Share YOUR unique knowledge and skills to help others "out there in cyberspace."

Writers and internet marketers - Grab this moment in history well. "Carpe diem" (seize the moment!).

Why not start writing articles for the www in your unique area of interest, knowledge and or expertise?

YOU CAN DO IT by writing articles for the www ... and so and "by giving, you receive" (far more).

"Whatever you can do, or dream you can, begin it. Boldness has genius, power and magic in it." - Johan Wolfgang Von Goethe (German philosopher)

Happy writing

Craig Lock (Eagle Productions Books)

P.S: We hope that these tips help in your article writing. In my opinion it's the best internet marketing strategy. To your internet marketing dreams in 2008...and beyond.

As the ancient Chinese philosopher said so well, "A journey of a thousand miles starts with a ... broken fan belt and a flat tyre"... er sorry... a single step.

About the author:

Craig is a writer, who believes in sharing information with a 'dash' of humour, as well as encouraging people to believe in themselves and helping others to find their talents and gifts, to strive for and accomplish their goals and dreams in life - whatever they may be.
http://www.selfgrowth.com/experts/craig_lock.html
http://www.myspace.com/writercraig+ http://www.craiglockbooks.com

"Whatever you can do, or dream you can, begin it. Boldness has genius, power and magic in it." - Johan Wolfgang Von Goethe (German philosopher).

Write For Robots Write For People

Article by Andy Crestodina

Without good web copy, the best team of designers andprogrammers in the world can't help you. The goal is good writing and a clear, concise message that speaks to the target audience.

But let's assume that you already have that: Maybe you're re-purposing some amazing copy that you've used for another medium—a print piece, perhaps. How can you adapt it to work well online?

If you want people to find you, you have to speak to search engines. But if you want them to stay, you have to speak to people. Writing for search and writing for visitors are often competing endeavors.

Write for people

Think of how you look at a newspaper: skim headlines, take inthe first few sentences of interesting articles, and if anopening captures you, read on to get to the meat of the piece.

Feature journalists and copywriters often strive to evoke emotion and pique your curiosity early on. Once they've captured your attention, they develop the central themes of the story.

Web writers, on the other hand, structure content in a sort of inverted triangle: meat first, details later. Why the stark contrast?

Well, think of how you look at web sites: Click, glance, click, scan, read a little, click, next page, click, click. Your eyes quickly gather an idea of what the page is about, your brain decides if you're interested, and then you read a bit or move on. The entire process takes only a few seconds.

To support this quick-to-click behavior, web copy should be easy to scan and understand at a glance. It should include plenty of:

* Bulleted lists (like this one)
* Captions
* Headings and sub-headings
* Bolding
* Short paragraphs
* Links

Write for robots

If you're concerned with your rank in search engines, this next part's for you. Targeted web content is one of the keys to successful search-engine optimization (SEO) . There are 3 basic steps for creating web copy that will boost your search position:

1. Research the optimal phrases for your business
2. Select your keywords through careful analysis
3. Show your relevance with optimized copy

Let's look at an example: Say you're creating a site for your Chicago-based knitting store. To show search engines that you're relevant, you'll have to boost your keyword frequency — which means that you might have to bend the rules of writing for people.

Ideally, your key phrase will appear 5 – 7 times in the body text of the page (links and headers don't count here—although your keyword should definitely appear there as well). So you start with this:

"Learning to knit is easy. Just sign up for our convenient classes."

But, since "knitting classes" is the target phrase, you change it to this:

"Knitting is easy to learn when you sign up for our convenient knitting classes."

In the first case, "knitting classes" never appeared as acomplete phrase. In fact, the word "knitting" didn't show up at all. As a bonus, "knitting" appears twice in the revised sentence.

True, the first example sounds better. But if you're competing for search-engine ranking, you're better off with the second version.

Ready for a real challenge? Work the word "Chicago" into the page 5 – 7 times—and keep it next to "knitting classes" if you can. This is where it gets tricky. After all, you might lose visitors if your copy is too clunky and repetitive, like this:

"It's easy to learn knitting in Chicago if you sign up for Chicago knitting classes."

Or even worse: "A new class of Chicago knitting classes is now available in Chicago for those interested in a knitting class."

This is called keyword stuffing, and I don't recommend it. It goes too far. Instead, spread out your phrases so the text makes sense for humans. This is easier to achieve if you have a few hundred words on the page. (After all, search engines love text-heavy sites.)

It's all about striking a balance. Don't sacrifice your message for your rank. Instead, focus on getting people to your page and keeping them there with targeted, concise content.


About The Author:

As a principal and strategic director at Orbit Media Studios, Andy draws on his knowledge of marketing, usability, and interactive design to lead strategic planning for the firm and its clients. Orbit specializes in web, print, and video design & development http://www.orbitmedia.com .

The Surprising Maxim that Maximises Your Copywriting Results

By Kris Mills

Who was it that said, "Modesty is a virtue"? Whoever it was, I'm sure they weren't referring to the field of sales and marketing, where self-promotion is the name of the game ... or were they?

Take a good look at anyone who is a roaring success in sales, in copywriting or in marketing and you'll see that one of the secrets of their success is in being able to really connect with people one-on-one, on their level. Sure, that means developing a great rapport with them, being a great listener and being a great communicator and more. But there's one factor that separates these greats from the wannabes.

It's called the "Modesty Maxim". The people who master this element of rapport, achieve mastery.

Here's how it works in copywriting. It can be used in a very similar way in sales too.

When you're writing to (or speaking with) a prospect who has a certain problem that they want to solve, chances are they are feeling a little insecure about a certain aspect of who they are.

With that, it's important that your copy starts by coming down to their level, where they are now at emotionally and then bring them up to the level where they want to be.

Here's a story of Mary Bryant. Mary is a 42 year old mother of four from Atlanta, Georgia. She was 25kgs overweight and had been that way since her youngest child was born about 10 years ago.

Mary looked in the mirror everyday and hated the image that stared back at her. She felt ugly. She hated those extra rolls of fat around her waist. She hated her double chin. She hated the saddle bags under her arms.

She desperately wanted to lose weight. She wanted to be able to look in the mirror and like what she saw.

One day Mary decided to visit a weight loss centre. The weight loss consultant was friendly and asked her questions about herself, but as she did that, Mary felt about an inch tall.

Mary was embarrassed by her weight. What made it worse was the weight loss consultant was reed-thin and looked like she had never had an inch of fat on her bones in her entire life.

'She thinks she's better than me,' Mary muttered to herself. 'She is probably thinking to herself, "That fat slob. How could she let herself go like that?''

On and on went Mary's mind chatter then after about 15 minutes, Mary was fed up with the "high and mighty attitude" of the weight loss consultant, so she left.

Because Mary was so entrenched in her own problem, she was in a very emotional and not very rational state. In fact, her emotions were clouding her judgment.

After Mary left she recognized just how irrational she was being, so she decided to visit another weight loss clinic and try again.

Again, she was greeted by a 'reed-thin' weight loss consultant with a smile. Again, she was asked about her goals and her personal situation.

But what happened this time was that this weight loss consultant told Mary her own story of how she was a mother of five and just 18 months ago she was more than 30 kilograms overweight ... and how she had tried diet after diet and nothing was working ... how she hated looking in the mirror everyday ... how she just didn't want to get out of bed at all.

Mary's eyes lit up. Mary looked at this blonde, waifish woman and finally realized that just maybe she really could be like that too - that maybe if that weight loss consultant could lose 30 kilograms, maybe she could lose 20 kilograms.

See the difference?

The weight loss consultant in the second example shared her story with her and doing that achieved two things:

First - Mary no longer felt inferior to the weight loss consultant because the weight loss consultant had once been in the same situation that she is in now.

Second - Mary felt that getting results was now achievable because she was talking with someone who had been in her situation and won.

Here are some other situations where the Modesty Maxim applies:

1. Wealth Creation

If you're a multi-millionaire who wants to teach the "Average Joe" how to get rich, it's important to show how rich you are now, but it's also vital that you tell them how you were like them once. For instance:

--- "How a lazy high-school dropout went from dead broke to $10 million in assets in 7 years" ---

Some Classic Headlines that Employ the Modesty Maxim

--- The Man with the Grasshopper Mind ---

Anyone who has loads of mind-chatter can instantly relate to this headline and subsequently the man mentioned in the ad. They want to know ...

How much is his situation like theirs?

What did this man do to fix the problem?

What is his life like now?

--- How a new discovery made a plain girl beautiful ---

Again, a great example of "before and after".

Most women want to look more beautiful but many feel that it's something you need to be born with. This headline promises that beauty is available to even "plain girls".

--- "They laughed when I sat down at the ---
--- piano but when I started to play" ---

Many people who want to play the piano don't learn for fear of looking ridiculous. This headline resonates with those people.

See how these examples connect with the reader?

What other examples can you think of? How can you apply the Modesty Maxim in your marketing efforts.

About the Author:

This article is written by Kris Mills and is part of the Freelance Copywriting Success Home Study Course developed by Words that Sell and the College of Copywriting and Marketing. Kris is an internationally recognized direct response copywriter and author who has produced record-breaking results for clients in dozens of industries. For dozens more interesting articles, more information about the course or about Kris' copywriting services visit http://www.collegeofcopywriting.com/ or
http://www.wordsthatsell.com.au/

Someone Stole My Site: How To Defend Yourself When Someone Plagiarizes Your Text

By Karyn Greenstreet.

I knew one day it would happen. Someone stole the text from my website and used it on their own website. Dirty rotten scoundrels!

According to the US Copyright Office website (http://www.copyright.gov):

"Copyright protection subsists from the time the work is created in fixed form. The copyright in the work of authorship immediately becomes the property of the author who created the work."

What Do You Do?

Here are some ways to discover which sites have stolen your text:

1. Find some text on your website that is so "you" that it's unlikely that anyone else would write a phrase or sentence that way. Go to http://www.google.com, and put that phrase or sentence into their search, within quotation marks. For example, one phrase that of my own that I searched on looked like this: "you'll end up struggling to make your business a success, and all your passion and enthusiasm will drain away." (Go ahead, type it into Google and see who's got my text on their site.) You have to put the phrase within quotation marks so that Google knows to search for the whole phrase with all the words right next to each other.

2. Make note of the sites that have the same text as yours. While it is completely possible in millions and millions of websites that someone might have written the exact same phrase, it's worth investigating every site that comes up.

3. Another great place to search for plagiarized sites is http://www.copyscape.com

Here are some steps to getting a site to take down plagiarized text:

1. Gather as much information about the offending site as you can.

2. Print out all pages from their site where the plagiarized text resides.

3. Try to find a contact name, phone number and email address from the site.

4. Go to http://www.internic.net/whois.html and get all their registration information. If they are not in the USA, go to Google and type in "whois" plus the name of their country. You should be able to find a whois site that can get their DNS record for you.

5. Go to http://www.alexa.com and find whatever information you can there.

6. Finally, write to the offending site owner and tell them that you found plagiarized text on their site. List the URLs of the offending pages along with the copyrighted URLs of your own pages. Give them two or three days to either delete the pages, or re-write them so that they no longer include your text.

This is not the time to play nice guy! Tell the offending site owner that you are copying their hosting company and domain registrar on the letter or email, and do so.

Make sure when you write this email or letter, you don't use any passive language, and do not say "please". Demand your rights. It is illegal and unethical for them to do what they did and they need to stop doing it immediately.

Another great resource is http://www.waybackmachine.org.

This allows you to check what their websites looked like throughout the years. You may be able to pinpoint the date when those people served themselves with a hefty spoon of your web content.

Someone pointed out to me that sometimes the offender is the website designer, not the owner of the site. If you are an owner of a site, and you did not write your own text, ask your designer where he or she got the text. Make it clear to them that you will not tolerate any plagiarized text and that you will hold them legally responsible in any charge or lawsuit that comes up over the copy on your website.

Some final notes:

Always put a copyright statement on your site. If it took you a long time to write your text, you should be the only one benefiting from it, not some unethical person who is looking for a shortcut.

If the site doesn't comply with your request, you might have to get your attorney involved. Only you can decide if the expense of an attorney is worth it for you.

I have written to the six sites that stole my text. Two have complied and taken down the offending pages within three days of my request. If the others don't comply, I will be posting their websites in my blog. I'm not afraid of a little publicity, but I bet they are.

About the Author:

Karyn Greenstreet is a Self Employment expert and small business coach. She shares techniques, skills and strategies with self-employed people to boost motivation, create clear goals and cohesive plans, and increase profits. Visit her website at http://www.PassionForBusiness.com

Write A Winning Business Plan-The Neatest Trick In The Book

By MaryAnn Shank

"Writing a business plan" sounds really tough, and it can be. But there are a number of things the smart entrepreneur can do to make it easier.

For instance, justwhatkindofstuffyouthinkgetsreadlikethis? Imagine pages full of that, with virtually no margins, no paragraph breaks, no breathing room. Lenders, investors and angel investors are confronted with piles of business plans like that every day.

Take a breath. Then lure your reader into the plan with snappy headlines and easy to read formatting.

Do you know why the Wall Street Journal and USA Today use headlines? Because it's the only way anyone will read a story. More to the point, it's the only way anyone will buy their paper. (Mmmm, sounds like you may have something in common with newspapers.)

Take a look at your favorite newspaper. Those headlines tell a story. Sometimes they ooze with conspiracy, and once in a while they stand majestic. Note:

Martha Jailed
The War is Over
The Watergate Starts to Smell

Your business plan needs to do no less. The headlines and section heads need to draw the reader in, not with an announcement, but with an invitation. Compare these:

The Executive Team
The Audio Industry
The Advisory Board

with these:

Strong Executive Team is Led by Industry Insider
Audio - the Industry that Reinvents Itself
7 Top Scientists Lead the Advisory Board

So which set are you going to read?

Lenders of all ilk get far too many business plans - certainly more than they can possibly fund. Simply getting your business plan read is a big step in the right direction.

Try this trick. Imagine that you are indeed writing a newspaper, one that competes with another strong paper in your town. What headline would you put on that paper to encourage readers to buy yours, and not the other?

Honesty, of course, is essential. But within that honesty there are a thousand ways to make the same statement. How many ways are there to say that it is spring time?

· It is spring
· It is April 22
· Lilacs are in bloom
· Snow is melting in the mountains
· Baseball camps are in full force

And how many ways are there to say that your business idea is a good one?

· This is a good idea
· An innovative approach
· A sure-fire winner
· A strong contender for funding
· A strong team in an equally strong market
· Lots of community support
· This fills a need in the marketplace
· The company draws on the experience of each of its members
· Two years of strong growth
· Impressive projections

Now jot down some headlines for your company. You may or may not be able to use them. Try first just to jot down every idea, a brain storming session.

Now use the best of those headlines to help structure your business plan. If "Nobel Prize Winner Heads Advisory Board" is your strongest headline, then lead with that story. If "A Prime Location in a Prime Shopping Center" is your strongest headline, then that is your lead.

Let the strength of the headlines pull your business plan up a notch or two. The power of your business may surprise even you!

Before you actually begin writing, take the time to really look at a good publication, something like the Wall Street Journal. Look at the styling and the use of headlines and sub-heads. Note how the ideas keep a steady flow, with an invitation to read.

Your business plan likely won't look like the venerable WSJ, or any other major publication, but odds are that it will look a whole lot better than most, and it will therefore be read much more readily. And that, after all, is what you are after.

About The Author:

MaryAnn Shank is an innovative pro in the world of business plans. The best of traditional and cutting edge techniques are at her website http://www.businessplanmaster.com .

Building Relationships Through Your Sales Copy

Building Relationships Through Your Sales Copy

By Cathy Qazalbash

Whenever you try to sell anything you need to build a relationship with your reader. Few people will buy without this vital connection between you and those reading your sales copy. It doesn't matter what sort of sales copy you are using. It can be a small classified ad or a full-blown Sales page. Unless you can build up this vital relationship with your reader you will make little or no sales.

How do you define a relationship built on merely reading your sales copy? It is the feeling a reader will have about you when reading your ad or sales letter. Your aim with any of your sales copy is to build a good rapport with your reader.

What sort of feelings do you want to create in your reader?

1. Empathy
2. Your product/service can help them resolve their problem
3. Trust
4. Need to buy

A feeling of empathy: Your reader wants to feel that you understand their needs and wants. When you sympathize with your readers' needs they will be able to form a bond, they will be able to say, "yes this person understands what I want and understands the problems I am facing."

Creating a feeling that you can and will help them resolve their problem. Do not just reel off facts and figures. Show your reader positive and strong reasons why your product will help them. In
this way they will feel that you are genuinely interested in solving their problems and really have a product /service that will do this.

Trust is the main ingredient in building a relationship with your potential customer. Sales can be made or lost on this all-important feeling. When people build trust in you and your product/service they will buy.

How do you achieve this?

1. Personalize
2. Empathize
3. Persuade
4. Prove your trustworthiness

Create the need to buy your product

1. State the problem your reader has and emphasize their need to resolve it. Declare your USPS (unique selling position) State what your product/service can do and how it will greatly help your reader solve a problem or satisfy a desire.

More techniques that will help you build a relationship.

1. Use of "trigger words"
2. Presenting your sales copy (this reflects on you as a professional)

"Trigger words" are words that touch your reader's emotions. They make them feel good and be more inclined to buy. for example: Do not just "build your business" "skyrocket your business." You can see one trigger word can make your reader feel elated and optimistic that this can happen. With this feeling in mind a sale is very much more likely, and you have achieved this with one word. When you use these trigger words you will build a good rapport with your prospective buyer, and increase your chances of a sale.

Presentation is critical to the overall impression your visitor will get about you. When your ads and sales pages look good your reader will be impressed and perceive you as a true professional.
First impressions are indeed lasting and if your visitor sees you as a professional they will build a good relationship with you as they read your copy.

So next time you send out an ad however small remember that everything your reader sees in your copy will build a relationship and can make or break your sale. Strive to impress your reader, build a relationship and then close the sale with your stunning ad copy.

About the Author.

Cathy Qazalbash is an experienced freelance writer/copywriter
and publisher of the A-Y-B free marketing newsletter
http://advertise-your-business.com
http://copywriting-for-websites.com
http://a1-newsletters.com

Top 10 Copywriting Tips

By Denisse Michaels

1. Be Emotionally Compelling
Your words must have power so people take action and buy. Don't be dry, stuffy or boring. Rock their world. What you think is a little "over the top" is probably just right. Show them empathy, caring and concern that makes them feel connected and helps them quickly suspend their rational disbelief.

2. Learn to Write Great Headlines
This valuable skill is not to be taken lightly. You need to use numerous headlines in a sales letter. They need to grab your customer's attention. Look at advertising headline in major magazines. Experts say a good headline can result in 8-10 times more sales than a so-so headline.

3. Use Magic Words not Tragic Words
Use words like "amazing, discover, breakthrough, free, happy, money, you, yes, incredible and others. Magic words positively pre-dispose people to your message. Don't overuse but don't underestimate how far a little hype can go. Also, use vocabulary at an eighth grade level or less.

4. Ask Questions
Questions draw readers in and make them get involved. The smart money is on asking only questions you know will get a "yes" answer. Get potential customers in the habit of saying "yes" so when you ask them to buy they are positively prone to say "yes" again.

5. Write to One Individual Reader
Address your copy to one person. "You" not "the public" or the mythical "they." You'll create a more personal relationship. People buy more from people they feel they have a relationship with.

6. Brevity the Soul of Wit?
Your copy must take reader through the natural buying steps of attention, interest, desire and action. So brief may not be best. Answer every question in your marketing message so they can naturally take action

7. Share Your Triumph over Tragedy Story
People are drawn in by stories of others who have triumphed over adversity. We tend to root for the underdog. Most entrepreneurs have a story of how their product or service helped them. Don't hide that story from view. Take it out, dust it off and watch the magic that happens.
8. Build Urgency and Scarcity
We're bombarded with thousands of marketing messages daily. Build a marketing message that includes a sense of urgency and scarcity so people have a reason to say "yes" now. Say "limited quantities" and offer an early bird special for early sign up. Give customers a reason to say "yes" now.

9. Use Strong Testimonials
You can say great things about you, but a satisfied customer can really brag. To get testimonials just ask. Testimonial should be 4-6 sentences in length and tell a quick story. Each testimonial should answer a different objection.

10. Offer a Powerful Guarantee that Reverses Risk
Many new entrepreneurs worry if they offer a guarantee people will rip them off. In fact you'll gain far more business with a strong guarantee than you'll lose from returns. Make your guarantee simple. Amazingly, the longer the guarantee time, the less likely a person will ask for money back.

About The Author:

Denise Michaels is a successful marketer, speaker, trainer and marketing mentor. Her amazingly helpful, step-by-step ebook, "Secrets of Money Making Sales Letters" at
http://www.SalesLetterEbook.com can transform your business and cash flow. Discover Denise at http://www.MentoringwithDenise.com

Five Fantastic Ways To Automate Content Update

By N. Robbins

We all know that content is king on the internet. The maxim has been cited so many times that it has already become a cliché. Well, it has become a cliché because it's true. The internet IS the information superhighway. The processes in the World Wide Web are fueled by information. Users search for it. Web publishers provide it. And when you could give the information that people want, then you're in business. Whether your online endeavor is based on Pay Per Click (PPC) programs or the sale of digital products, quality content will drive people to your pages.

Indeed, content is your best investment for your online enterprise. But preparing unique, premium content is often not enough. You must strive to regularly update your content so that the search engine spiders would constantly crawl through your pages and fetch them for every relevant query. This is the key to good search engine placement. It is very effective, but it is also very demanding.

Writing good content is taxing enough. Having to write the same on a regular basis could be difficult. Having to write the same on a regular basis for several websites could be hellish. Surely, there must be an alternative or two which could spare you from having to write your own content to update your website and win the favor of the search engine spiders, right?

Well, here are five fantastic alternatives that not a lot of people are employing. Knowing them alone could give you the edge over your competitors in the race for good search engine positioning.

1. Try RSS. RSS, which stands for Real Simple Syndication, is a technology that was first used by news wire services online. RSS allows users to display specific files every time they are uploaded on a source website. If website A, for example, generates RSS feeds to announce new articles uploaded to its server, and websites B, C, D and E are subscribed to website A's RSS feeds, they could display the said feeds on their desktop via an RSS aggregator. For online marketing purposes, these RSS feeds can also be displayed on your web pages. All you need is to download some programs that would enable you to do this. Make sure that you get an RSS-to-HTML reader, so that the RSS feeds you will display on your pages can be readable for the search engine spiders. Afterwards, all you have to do is to subscribe to an appropriate RSS feed, and every time the source website would post new content, you'll be able to display the same on your own website.
2. Create your own forum. Online users normally gravitate towards forums that are dedicated to their own passions. If your website has an attached forum, you'd be able to invite your visitors to sign up with the same. They'll be left to their own devices. They'll create threads about matters they are interested with. They will pots messages to their hearts' liking. And you will have a virtual well of constantly updating content, without having to type a single word!
3. Integrate a feedback manager. If you're posting articles as content, then you might want to include a feedback system for the same. This would enable your readers to leave their comments below the said article. Basically, your article would serve as the catalyst for content that will continuously be added by interested readers who want to share their piece of mind on what you have posted.
4. Run a contest. Offering a prize for the visitor who submits the most engaging article relevant to the subject of your website, for example, would encourage a lot of people to submit entries that you could use as your own content. Just remember that your contest rules should include a term which states that submitted entries can be published on your website as a condition to their inclusion in the contest proper.
5. Run a mini-article directory. Try to visit http://www.ezinearticles.com or http://www.goarticles.com . See how these websites ensure for themselves an abundant supply of great content? Simply follow their model, and implement the same on your website, even if it would be on a downgraded level. You'd be able to guarantee for yourself a good flow of new content!

NOTE: You have full permission to reprint this article within your website or newsletter as long as you leave the article fully intact and include the "About The Author" resource box. Thanks! :-

About The Author:

Nial Robbins owns the work at home directory website located at: http://www.NDR-HomeBiz.com Come by and visit us today! Also, be sure to check out our "top pick" work at home opportunity at: http://www.NDR-HomeBiz.com/pips.html

Write Great Copy For Success

By Joe Kennedy

Hate Writing Articles? Too Bad! Read on.

Well Get over it! Your online or off line business will be DEAD in just months with out solid articles.

There are far more failures out there, than successes.

Writing articles will give your business the blood flow of success. Isn't that what you are in it for?

This is the wild west and you have to stake out your claim. Do you want your business to flourish?

Do you want to shape this business the way you want? Or leave it to chance?

Well get over the notion that you hate to write articles! Start short and sweet. Let your potential customer know why they should go to your site and do business with you. Or just tell them to go to your competition!

So what are your options? How can you make this work without the stress?

When I first started in business, there was a lot I did not know and did not want to do. Let me tell you, what a big mistake that was. It cost me money, it cost me time and a couple of times it cost me my business!

Don't let this happen to you! Stop right now and stake your claim for your future. Your business will only succeed when you take control of it!

There are a couple of solutions to this problem. If you have a lot of money go hire the best copy writer you can find. Or take a course given by one of the experts.

Writing becomes easier and easier every time that you do it. Become that winning copy writer. It is your business, so what was it that made you want to start it? Was it your passion? Well get out there and tell the world!

"The pen is mightier than the sword." Shakespeare Passion is what wields that sword, so write with your passion. Learn how and the world will beat a path to your website.

Help is out there, if you really want to give your business a chance. Get a good coach to guide you along the way. If you are like me you will see the value of good coaching.

Success of your business hangs on the ability to write good copy. Don't let your business die like so many others.

Take control, turn your hate for writing into your strength.

You're about to learn the real secrets to success online. Taking this next step is like getting a breath of fresh air to a drowning man!

Don't be a statistic, another business failure.

"Success is the pursuit of a worthy goal!" Earl Nightingale

You're About To Learn 'Secrets To Success' That Most People Will Never Know About How To Really Create Wealth...

About The Author:

Joe Kennedy is a successful online marketer and pro skier. Certified coach. Founder Positive Impact International and a Success coach at http://tinyurl.com/zmr9h Joe can be reached at http://www.nowyoubeyou.com

The Key To Creating Headlines That Sell

By Robert Greenshields

E. Haldeman-Julius never wrote a book, but he knew how to sell them. He sold literally millions of books in the 1920s. If a title didn't sell over 10,000 copies a year, it went to a place in his office called "The Hospital," where Haldeman-Julius gave it a new title. It the book didn't break through with the new title, it went to "The Morgue."

One of his books was first called Art of Controversy. It sold less than the 10,000-copy minimum with that title. Haldeman-Julius resurrected the book as How to Argue Logically, and sold over 30,000 copies. The contents of the book did not change. All that changed was the title - and its sales figures!

Another successful patient in his "hospital" was a book that sold only 3,000 copies when released as Patent Medicine. Haldeman-Julius simply added one magic phrase, and he found that The Truth About Patent Medicine sold a perfectly respectable 10,000 copies.

In fact, the phrases, "How to." or "The Truth About." have proven to be consistent bestsellers for marketers. Other winning phrases are, "The Facts About.," "The Key to.," "The Story of.," and the all-important question, "Do You.?"

No matter what you're selling, the most important part of your copy is its title or headline. Another legend of marketing, John Caples, wrote, "On average, five times as many people read the headline as read the body copy. Therefore, unless your headlines sell your product, you've wasted 90% of your money." He went on to say that your ad should offer a clear benefit to the reader, right in the headline, such as a "whiter wash" or "more miles to the gallon." The content of your copy may be stellar, but if your prospect never reads it, where does it get you?

Today, some copywriters consider it hip to use clever headlines that make the reader guess at their meaning. If that's your purpose, then so be it. But if the purpose of your marketing is to sell your product or service, forgo the trendy and tell your reader why they should continue to read and buy from you.

The magic phrases first discovered by Haldeman-Julius worked well, because they told readers exactly what benefits they'd receive from his books. They would learn to argue well, possess the truth about medicine, or get the facts they wanted.

Although short and simple is best in advertising, a long headline that really says something is much better than a short one that says nothing. One of the most famous headlines of all time was written by John Caples for the U.S. School of Music: "They Laughed When I Sat Down at the Piano - but When I Started to Play." You can adapt this ad to your own uses. It's still being used effectively today.

Or follow the example of master copywriter David Ogilvy, who wrote out his headlines and practiced them on friends and family. He's famous for this still-famous headline, "At 60 miles an hour, the loudest noise in the new Rolls Royce comes from the electric clock." It was hugely successful and more than rewarded Ogilvy for the 104 other headlines his loved ones auditioned, before he came up with the winner.

You can use the wisdom of these marketing greats in your business today, no matter what your field. Try out your headlines on those around you. Remember to make the benefit clear to your readers. Play with Haldeman-Julius' magic phrases in the title of your articles, reports or ad copy. With practice, you'll come up with your own magic phrases that sell.

About The Author:

Robert Greenshields is a marketing success coach who helps business owners and independent professionals who are frustrated that they're working too many hours for too little reward. Sign up for his free tips on earning more and working less at http://www.MindPowerMarketing.com

Self-Promotion Writing Tips for Companies

By Tammy M. Ratcliff

One of the best ways for companies to "get their name out there" is through self-promotion. This is a little different than straight up advertising and usually more effective. Self-promotion involves providing information to potential clients by way of a written article instead of the standard sales pitch. Any company can proclaim their greatness on a banner or a billboard; however, when a company offers free advice concerning their area of expertise, it makes a much stronger statement to the potential clients. Here a few things to keep in mind when writing articles for self-promotion.

Catchy Titles

An article's title is one of the most important devices used in getting a reader's attention. The title can literally make or break an entire article since it will most likely determine whether or not a reader keeps reading. If the reader doesn't finish the article, he will not see the link at the bottom that leads to your company's website. So, while creativity is always appreciated, accuracy is much more important.

In other words, the title really needs to say exactly what the article is about. If George Clooney's name is in the title, the article better be about him. People do not like to be tricked
into reading something that has nothing to do with the subject they are looking for. The goal with self-promotion articles is to provide useful information to people who might use your services. George Clooney may be the hottest man in show business, but if he doesn't use or endorse your product or service, it is best to keep his name out of it.

Beginning Paragraphs

An article's first paragraph is just as important as its title. This is, hopefully, the attention getter! The first paragraph should feed off of the title and set up the rest of the article. It should do so in an informative, interesting way that encourages the reader to keep reading. This is also a good place to set up a general scenario that most readers will be able to relate to. If the first paragraph is successful in grabbing a reader's attention, the likelihood greatly increases that the reader will finish the article, thus discovering the company responsible for its content. Mission accomplished!

Length and Language

Time is so important to people today. Therefore, when writing self-promotional articles, keep them relatively short (around 700 to 1000 words). Make sure they are written so they are easy to understand. When a person is seeking information today, they want to be able to find it fast and read/learn it even faster. Big words and long articles are just not compatible with this
mindset.

The Professional Edge

You may know everything there is to know about cars, but if you can't put your thoughts to paper in a clear, concise manner, consider hiring a professional writer. Self-promotion through writing Internet articles can only be successful if the final product provides a positive representation of your company. Therefore, if your article is filled with misspelled words and dangling modifiers, the only thing it will succeed in doing is making you look incompetent. People who run their own companies often do not have time to spend looking up the rules of punctuation and parallelism. However, writers do! If need be, take advantage of someone else's writing expertise to help promote your business in the most professional way.

Editing

Editing is another area where outside help could be needed. Even the most careful writers make mistakes. Unfortunately, once an error is printed, it is too late to correct, and even the tiniest typo can mar the judgment of a potential client. Because of this, hiring an editor may be a worthy investment. An experienced editor will go beyond checking for misspelled or misused words and look for shifts in voice or tense, as well as subject-verb agreement. Using an editor doesn't guarantee an error free article, but it increases the likelihood a great deal.

Conclusion

Self-promotion using Internet articles can be a great way to increase your business. This type of instructional marketing emphasizes knowledge instead of gimmicks. Taking the time to create a well-written article may seem counterproductive to your actual business, but the results will speak for themselves.

About the Author:

Tammy M. Ratcliff is a staff writer and editor for the Phantom Writers(http://thePhantomWriters.com) and Links And Traffic (http://www.LinksAndTraffic.com).
The Phantom Writers specializes in ghost writing articles and distributing them as free-content on the World Wide Web. If you would like to promote your business using self-promotion articles, the Phantom Writers will be able to help you. If you would like to talk to a person about our services, call Bill Platt at (405) 780-7745, 9am-6pm CST, Mon thru Fri.

How To Write Headlines That Electrify And Tantalize Customers

Peter Geisheker

Did you notice the title for this article? Of course you did and that is why you clicked to read this article. As legendary advertising guru David Ogilvy said in his book, Confessions of an Advertising Man, "The wickedest of all sins is to run an advertisement without a headline."

Yes, it is true that the most important tool in print advertising is the headline, be it for a space advertisement, a website, a sales letter, a billboard, or a press release. Headlines are the difference between success and failure in advertising.

In print advertising, the headline is so important that it is considered to be 80% of the power of an ad. The reason for this is that five times as many people read a headline as read the body copy of an ad. Consider how you read a newspaper or a magazine. If you are like most people, you scan headlines and you only read the news stories and advertisements that have a headline that catches your attention and interest. That is why writing an attention grabbing headline is so vitally important in advertising.

So, how do you write a good headline? Actually, it is not as hard as you think. In fact, decades of research has been done on advertisements to see which headlines generate the most leads and sales and here is a summary of what works.

1. Your headline should flag down readers who have a specific problem. For example, if you are selling cosmetics that help middle age women look younger, your headline should state that benefit. For example, "How women over 40 can look 10 years younger in 10 minutes with XYZ Cosmetics."

2. There are two words that work like magic in headlines - "How to." People are drawn to headlines that say "How To" like bees to honey. Why? People are curious and want to learn "how to" solve a problem. Therefore, always try to start your headline with the words "How to".

3. If possible, use the words "FREE" and/or "New" in your headline. Both words are magnets that draw in readers to read your advertisement.

4. Make your headline sound like news. A great way to learn how to do this is to buy a newspaper and read the headlines, particularly the headlines on the cover page. People want news, so make your headline sounds like a news headline from a newspaper and people will want to read your ad. Words that suggest news are "New", "Announcing", and "A Major Breakthrough".

5. Longer headlines sell more merchandise than short headlines. Try to make your headlines 6 12 words in length.

In summary, the headline is the most powerful tool in advertising. If you want to create successful advertising, become a master at writing attention grabbing headlines.

About The Author:

Peter Geisheker is the CEO of The Geisheker Group Marketing Firm. Peter develops and implements strategic marketing programs for small businesses. For more information please visit http://www.geisheker.com.

Think Global Act Global: Writing for Your Online Market

By Kalena Jordan

When you write web site content and design your pages, do you truly act with your target audience in mind? Or do you think global and act local?

I am amazed at the number of web sites I see that claim to target a global market, yet design and write their content for a regionally-specific audience. Not sure what I mean? Take the site I saw yesterday, for example. I won't embarrass the site owners by pointing to the specific domain, but let's just say the site is based in the U.S. and sells high quality gold chains throughout North America, Europe and Australia.

Now the owner of this site was complaining loudly in a webmaster forum that his pay-per-click campaign was having no luck converting sales from overseas visitors, particularly in the UK and Australia. He had spent a long time developing and tweaking a landing page for the campaign and he couldn't work out why hardly anyone outside the U.S. was buying. I took a look at his landing page and could see the problems straight away:

1) He used the American English spelling "jewelry" throughout the page without considering that persons who use British English spell it "jewellery".

2) He provided a toll-free phone number for persons in the U.S. to call, but did not provide any contact phone number for persons located outside the U.S.

3) He used the word "national" throughout the page, immediately isolating anyone outside the U.S.

4) He promoted "free shipping throughout the U.S." but did not specify shipping costs for persons outside the U.S.


The owner of this site had not even considered that persons outside the U.S. might search for keywords in anything other than American English. It didn't even occur to him that there may be an alternative spelling of his main keyword and he didn't think about the logistics for purchasers outside his country. No wonder the page wasn't converting outside the U.S.! He had made the classic mistake of isolating a large chunk of his audience by sending everyone to a one-size-fits-some page.

What he should have done was to create a separate landing page using British English spelling and shipping/contact information applicable to persons overseas. He could then have set up a unique PPC campaign targeting only UK/Australian searchers with regional keywords and ads leading to the British English landing page.

I see similar problems occur quite often in the online travel industry where you not only have to deal with regional spelling options, but also regional jargon. Think about the word "accommodation". Apart from the fact the word is commonly misspelled, it is used most often in the UK, Australia and New Zealand to describe places to stay while traveling. In the U.S., the words "accommodations" and "lodging" are more commonly used. Same goes for "holiday" and "vacation", with the latter being more common in the U.S. The word "traveling" itself is spelled "travelling" in British English! So you can imagine the minefield of problems webmasters must face promoting their travel sites online to a worldwide audience.

I don't mean to single out a particular country, but Americans seem to find it especially difficult to step outside their regional mindset. I am always receiving emails from the U.S. with helpful suggestions for fixing my "spelling mistakes".

The funniest email exchange I ever had in relation to this was from an American web designer. She had seen our Australian-based web site (with a .com.au domain) and emailed me to tell me it was "full of errors" and that if I wanted to present a professional business to site visitors, I should correct them. So condescending! I asked her to elaborate and she pointed me to these words she felt were spelled incorrectly:

optimisation
counselling
organised
enrolment
colour
catalogue
favourite
centre

Resisting the urge to use a few offensive words I'm sure she would recognize, I tactfully explained that our site was only targeting the Australian market and that we use British English spelling in Australia. Her response? Perhaps if we wanted to be taken seriously by an international audience, we should consider using the "more proper" American English. Flabbergasted, I pointed out the fact that American English was a derivative of British English and was not widely used outside her own country. Wikipedia has more about the differences between the two here. And let’s not forget that although it is the most common language used on the web, English is used by less than 30 percent of the world’s total Internet users.

The point of this story is that you absolutely have to think outside your market if you are going to advertise on the web. As ignorant as she was, my email friend did make me realize that many of her compatriots might also think our site was full of errors. American English is more common on the web and I've since learned to cater to that trend. I try to remember that in all writing I do for the web now, whether it's in my daily blog, the syndicated articles I write regularly or web page content.

Whenever you design or write for a web site that has an international audience, make sure you address each market. It pays to undertake detailed keyword research into your markets you are targeting so you can capture the correct regional jargon and spelling that people are searching for. Remember it's not enough to think global, you've got to act global too.

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About the Author:

Article by Kalena Jordan, one of the first search engine optimization experts in Australia, who is well known and respected in the industry, particularly in the U.S. As well as running a daily Search Engine Advice Column, Kalena manages Search Engine College - an online training institution offering instructor-led short courses and downloadable self-study courses in Search Engine Optimization and other Search Engine Marketing subjects.

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How to Create Search Engine Friendly Web Site Copy

By Kalena Jordan

Search engines read text and not much else. Because they can’t generally index graphics, search engines rely on the text in web sites to provide information about the site content, which they can compare with search queries.

Webmasters therefore need to use body text on any pages on the site that they want indexed by the search engines and ranked highly for matching search queries. Not graphical text that was created in design software, but actual, visible body text. Not sure if your site uses graphical or body text? A good rule of thumb that I learnt from search engine guru Danny Sullivan is to try and highlight the text with your mouse. If you can drag your mouse over individual words in the text when viewing it in a browser, chances are this is body text and the search engines can read it.

Figure 1



Figure 2

The most important page on which to use body text is the home page. Above is an example of a home page that uses graphical text instead of body text. Figure 1 shows what content the site visitors see, while Figure 2 shows the content a search engine sees and indexes.

How much information about a site’s content does a page like the one above provide a search engine? That’s right, very little. With next to no text to be found, the search engine would have to rely on the page’s Title and META Tags to tell it what the page is about. With such little information to go on, it is unlikely that a search engine would consider this page a relevant match for search queries relating to its content. To remedy this, it is widely recommended that each web page you want listed in search engines should contain at least 250 words of visible body text.


Keyword-Rich Text

While it’s a good idea to use plenty of body text on web pages, if that text doesn’t contain relevant keywords and phrases that people type in to the search engines, there’s not much point, because a site isn’t going to be found for logical search queries anyway. Many web sites make the mistake of including text on their site that is either unrelated to their products and services, or full of marketing-speak like “Internet solutions” or “superior services”. The Internet is plagued with web sites selling particular items without once making reference to those items in their site text. Weird huh?

For a search engine to find a site relevant for a particular search query, it MUST find that search query somewhere in that site. The easiest way to ensure this is to include logical keywords and phrases within the visible text on web pages, as well as in the Title and META tags. The best way for webmasters to find keywords that searchers are actually using is by conducting keyword research of their target market on a site such as Keyword Discovery or WordTracker.

Once it is determined what search terms perspective visitors are commonly typing in to search engines, they can then be compared to the goods and services offered on the site and the body text can be adjusted accordingly. Sites lacking any keyword research tend to use very generic, unfocused body copy, or sales-oriented “hype”. Neither style contributes to high search engine rankings.

Target keywords and search phrases placed strategically throughout your body copy give your pages a much higher ranking potential on search engines for related searches. But it’s not as easy as throwing the keywords into your site text willy-nilly. You must ensure that the keywords are integrated seamlessly so their repetition is unobvious and so that the text flows smoothly for the reader.

Don't compromise the readability of your copy to achieve this - hire an expert copywriter to strike the right balance if need be.


SEO Copywriting

Before writing your web site copy, you should research potential keywords and phrases that your target audience may use in search engines and then narrow the list down to your priority terms for each page, sorted in order of importance. You should then use those target search terms as a basis for the creation of optimized Title and META tags for each page on your site. Once you’ve done that, it’s time to integrate those same target search terms into your visible web page copy. We call this SEO copywriting. But exactly how do we do it?


Speak to Your Audience

Don’t lose site of the reader when writing your body copy. Integrating your keywords is important, but not if you are sacrificing the readability of your site and losing the attention of your audience. Put yourself in their shoes like you did when researching your keywords. What are they looking for? What do they need? How will your product/service help them? Does it represent value for money?

Be emotive when describing your products and services. Describe how your product/service will make them feel or look, how it will improve their lives, give them more time etc. Use trigger words that people respond to such as “free”, “success”, “you”, “cash” etc. Not sure what these are? Check out Words That Sell reports. These reports are perfect if you are targeting a specific industry or profession because they define what keywords people in over 38 industries respond to and what they expect when making a buying decision.

Not sure who your audience is or what they’re looking for? Why not ask them? Use a free survey service such as Survey Monkey to learn more about them so you can write “to” them and not “at” them. You could even draft various styles of body copy and obtain feedback from your site visitors to determine what copywriting style works better for them.


Use Easy to Understand Language

The Internet is no place for verbosity. People are in a hurry - they want to find what they seek quickly and easily with the least hassle possible. You can help them in this quest by ensuring your site pages use simple language and easy to grasp concepts throughout. For example instead of "brand-building web information architects", use "website designers specializing in brand promotion". Keep the large chunks of text on each page to a minimum, using bullet points, white space, graphics, lists and sub-headings to break it up and make it easier to read. This rule of thumb is especially important when creating landing pages for pay per click and other advertising campaigns.

Use examples to get your main points across or to demonstrate your product benefits. Use the old WIIFM (What's In It For Me?) adage when composing your body copy to keep the user's interests at top of mind. Remember your international visitors by incorporating regional word usage (such as organize versus organize or jewelry versus jewellery) and avoid technical jargon that could alienate. Want your visitor to take a particular action? Spell it out for them in plain English, for example Click here to Buy Now, Subscribe to our free newsletter, Bookmark this page now etc. These references are called “Calls to Action”.


Build Your Copy Around Your Keywords

You should always build your page copy around your keywords and not the other way around. If your existing page copy doesn’t contain any of your target search keywords, you’re going to have to rewrite it! Start from scratch if you have to. The secret is to focus. Search engines aren’t going to rank your web site about socks highly if your body copy talks about foot sizes. You need to get specific. It sounds really obvious, but if you sell socks, make sure your site copy has plenty of references to the word socks! If you sell green wool socks, target the phrase "green wool socks" and not "foot apparel in lovely shades of emerald"! Who's going to search for socks using that phrase?

At the risk of sounding like Dr Seuss, if you want to be found for, big socks, small socks, cotton socks and wool socks, then mention them all. Better still, sort your copy into categories based on your various products and services. If you sell wool socks AND cotton socks, then have a page dedicated to each kind. This allows you to target niche keywords within your copy and meet the search engine's relevancy guidelines for related search queries.


Keyword Integration

So imagine you've added plenty of text to your pages and the copy flows well for the reader. You've researched your keywords and phrases and now you're faced with the dilemma of integrating the keywords into your copy. So how do you satisfy the search engine's craving for keywords without interrupting the copy flow for the reader? The answer is: very carefully.

Let's take a look at a practical example. We have a client that specializes in luxury adventure travel. Before I optimized their site, part of the home page copy read like this:

"We specialize in providing vacations for people who want a personal service. We bring to our efforts a fanatical obsession with quality and exclusivity. We also bring a freshness, an outward-going passion for discovery which justifies our growing reputation as one of the world's top travel providers. We can put together packages that include all adventure activities, accommodation, transport and food".

Extensive Keyword Discovery keyword research for the client had determined that the site should target the following key phrases:

• adventure travel
• best adventure vacations
• tailored travel
• overseas adventure travel
• luxury travel packages

So taking our original home page text, the challenge was to integrate these keywords carefully and naturally so as not to disturb the logical flow of the copy and lose the interest of the visitor. Here's how I did it:

"We specialize in providing the best adventure vacations for people who want a personal and tailored travel service. We bring to our efforts a fanatical obsession with quality and exclusivity. We also bring a freshness, an outward-going passion for discovery which justifies our growing reputation as one of the world's top overseas adventure travel providers. We can put together luxury travel packages that include all adventure activities, accommodation, transport and food".

Note that the key phrase "overseas adventure travel" accommodates the phrase "adventure travel" too. Voila! The search engines are happy because the site contains text content relevant to related search queries, the client is happy because we were able to integrate the keywords without distracting the visitor and I'm happy because I know the site is going to rank highly for the client's target search terms.

Now it’s your turn – go tackle your web site copy!

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About the Author:

Article by Kalena Jordan, one of the first search engine optimization experts in Australia, who is well known and respected in the industry, particularly in the U.S. As well as running a daily Search Engine Advice Column, Kalena manages Search Engine College - an online training institution offering instructor-led short courses and downloadable self-study courses in Search Engine Optimization and other Search Engine Marketing subjects.

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