I've been blogging occasionally over the last two months about my ongoing experiment with writing articles. This is a super hot topic lately with the changes going on at Google and Yahoo that are impacting many websites and basically freaking people out.
Now everybody knows that writing articles is a powerful technique. You knew that, right? And everybody is writing articles, right? No. Did I? Not until recently, though I wrote a lot in blogs and did post some articles I wrote on my sites. There's two parts to this for me. Writing, which I have been doing. Distributing. Which I hadn't been doing.
I finally came out of that fog and decided that I had to see what distribution might really do. Content, such as original articles is still the basic currency of the internet. People come onto the web looking for information. Content provides that information.
But, if the content is just sitting on a blog or posted in an article directory on one website, it has very limited exposure without links. Content may be the flesh of the web, but links are the bones, the underlying structure that allows things to found and accessed.
It's in our faces right here - the two basics that you can combine to really power a successful website. Content and links. Write articles AND publish/distribute them. Simple, basic, old style site building.
One technique many are using to build sites is to get other people's articles and put them up on their sites to provide related content. I do it, you do it, nearly everyone seems to. Other people publish ezines, but can't possibly write all the content they want to provide. This is the demand that exists, right now, for your articles. There is a deep, apparently bottomless need for quality content on nearly anything imaginable. And it won't go away.
Original content on your site is a great traffic booster. Distributing your content all over the internet gets you lots of incoming links - which over time could well continue to increase as your articles are picked up and redistributed. Plus you are generating a name for yourself and qualifying yourself as an expert. Experts write about what they know and discover. They share their knowledge. I'm not talking about anyone being a genius and discovering anti-gravity (and finally eliminating rocket science). I'm talking about what's already in your head and what you can learn, research and write about.
I wrote three articles on some basics concepts to keep in mind in building and developing successful eCommerce websites. They aren't hot hot hot 6 steps to infinite wealth type writing. They're basic and based on research. Then I distributed them to a couple (not all) of the big article directories and to a large group of relevant directories and lists through SubmitYourArticle.com (which I do recommend if you're looking for an excellent and reasonable article submission service). Here are the results as of this writing (June 28, 2005):
======== Pages Reported
======== Yahoo = Google = MSN = Pub Date
Article 1 . . . 610 . . . 320 . . . . 436 . . May 19th
Article 2 . . . 253 . . . 246 . . . . 269 . . June 1st
Article 3 . . 2060 . . .1000 . . . .239 . . June 14th
. . Total . . .2923 . . .1566 . . . .944
That's a lot of pages. Now, some of those won't have any live link. Yes, it does happen even though it really shouldn't. A lot of the sites it's on won't have much or any page rank and probably quite a few sites are not relevant. People aren't always careful about selecting relevant articles. Some will be on pages that won't pass rank. However, what's left are relevant incoming one-way links - some of which will be from sites with at least some authority. Say even 20% of the links are relevant and/or from sites with some rank. That's a minimum (I believe I'm being pretty conservative with the 20% figure) of over 1000 useful incoming links based on relevant content.
I was astonished. And then I felt really stupid - I knew this, but I really didn't GET it or I would have been writing and distributing from day 1. You're looking at the truth behind the power of articles and article distribution. No tricks, no fancy high powered tools, no big expensive anything at all.
Are you telling yourself you can't write articles? I'm telling you that you can. If you can talk, you can write. If you need help, there are lots of resources about how to write - some very good ones are free, some are quite inexpensive. Other tools are more expensive.
Ghostwriters are another alternative. A little tricky and possibly slightly expensive for really high quality work, but there's also a lot of information available on how to do it right.
My advice here is - whatever it takes, start publishing your own original content on your website and start distributing it now. For building long term success, there's very little you can do that will have anywhere near the same results.
Copyright 2005 Richard Keir
Richard teaches, trains and consults, on and off-line, on business and professional presentations, programming, site building and eCommerce. Visit http://www.building-ecommerce-websites.com for eCommerce articles, information, resources and links and check our blog at http://www.building-ecommerce-websites.com for opinion and ideas.
affordable house cleaning Park Ridge ..Well maybe it's not that "little known" but some people... Read More
The Whole reason you write those articles is so you... Read More
Don't let overwhelm hold you back- follow this expert advice... Read More
Most all ezine publishers need fresh content. Article writing is... Read More
Submitting well planned articles on-line will increase traffic and can... Read More
Finding something to write about can be frustrating for all... Read More
Are you a reluctant marketer for your book? Do you... Read More
Whether you own your own affiliate website, or subscription website,... Read More
All writers aspire to recognition, but are we dedicated? Ambition... Read More
I am sure that there would have been a moment... Read More
There are two primary factors in creating a successful reference... Read More
Thanks to recent information that leaked by Google within their... Read More
By now most entrepreneurs realize that the most cost effective... Read More
Writing can be fraught at the best of times but... Read More
Back when I was in college, I belonged to one... Read More
Writing and submitting articles to article banks is a well-known... Read More
Take a look around the Web and you'll find thousands... Read More
Find definitions from Q to Z... ~~~~~~~~~~~ Q ~~~~~~~~~~~ Query... Read More
A great way for self employed professionals to enhance their... Read More
Every time I run a course on Freelance Writing, students... Read More
The Shortest Distance to Your Home Town Enterprise is Over... Read More
No one can logically argue against the fact that content... Read More
"Ten Tips" articles are the easiest piece to write because... Read More
There is probably no easier way of earning extra money... Read More
It's stunning sometimes how far article marketing has come over... Read More
affordable house cleaning Mundelein ..I was asked to write an article on a short... Read More
So how can you make your article worth reading?It's all... Read More
You want your business to be noticed by thousands daily.... Read More
There is some wisdom in saying that when you are... Read More
I once wrote an article in which I offered the... Read More
MS: Bob, how important have Ezine Articles been in achieving... Read More
Okay, so you're getting a feel for this article marketing... Read More
There are many ancient writings, which dive into the importance... Read More
You pick a pen, grab a piece of paper and... Read More
Whatever you're selling, writing articles to distribute freely amongst webmasters... Read More
Rejection is part of a writer's life. You must cope... Read More
You're Invited... Visualize your article going out like a party... Read More
This is a perennial question among writers and wannabe's. Many... Read More
Knowing exactly what an editor wants.Unfortunately, many new writers struggle... Read More
Feeling uninspired? Like you're stuck in a rut with your... Read More
I get tons of emails from people who want to... Read More
We all know that article writing is a great way... Read More
This author started with a clean website and wrote 5... Read More
Writing articles for online newsletters and websites can be a... Read More
There are many schools of thought on how to build... Read More
Are you an Article Marketer? If so, you know that... Read More
The key to selling reprints to parenting publications is the... Read More
It's no secret that writing and publishing helpful articles is... Read More
It's no secret-link exchanges are dying a painful death. And... Read More
A revolutionary marketing device that I call article marketing I... Read More
Article Writing |