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.
detailed home cleaning Park Ridge ..Proven and Exceptional Click-Through ResultsTesting has proven again and again... Read More
Thanks to recent information that leaked by Google within their... Read More
1. What is the single most compelling subject from your... Read More
How does a writing agency market itself effectively in a... Read More
As we prepared to move our 12,000 article database from... Read More
Don't let overwhelm hold you back- follow this expert advice... Read More
Writing for the internet requires that you create a large... Read More
If you want to increase the amount of visitors to... Read More
You want your business to be noticed by thousands daily.... Read More
Most authors are wasting their time producing dozens to hundreds... Read More
There is probably no easier way of earning extra money... Read More
Much has been touted about the effectiveness of article writing... Read More
A recent debate started me thinking about how some marketing... Read More
Abandon your frustrations and get a fresh start by trying... Read More
Most business owners are overwhelmed with the day to day... Read More
Sharing knowledge on the web can be a very powerful... Read More
One of the most tried and true methods of self-promotion... Read More
Writing articles has proven time and time again to be... Read More
Who remembers the 1979 movie, The Jerk with Steve Martin?... Read More
You know that writing articles is the best free way... Read More
People who have an idea for a website sometimes require... Read More
Still following along on the Copywriter's Crash Course in article... Read More
Understanding the rules of correct formatting for online articles will... Read More
It is important for all webmasters to realize that if... Read More
Last time on "Because your articles suck" ? we discussed... Read More
express cleaning service Des Plaines ..Submitting articles once or twice a week can yield 15... Read More
If you are an article writer, you may have been... Read More
The ezine article is of major importance to the world... Read More
A great way for self employed professionals to enhance their... Read More
As you write the outline for your next article, there... Read More
Some six weeks ago, I began writing and submitting articles... Read More
Abandon your frustrations and get a fresh start by trying... Read More
Overture reports over 1 million queries for article keyword related... Read More
Find definitions from Q to Z... ~~~~~~~~~~~ Q ~~~~~~~~~~~ Query... Read More
You are running out of ideas, you sit down in... Read More
Publishing articles on the Internet is a tremendous way to... Read More
A true test for many writers that will require your... Read More
Find definitions from H to P... ~~~~~~~~~~~ H ~~~~~~~~~~~ Haiku... Read More
When I started Ezine-In-A-Box I wanted to help people publish... Read More
I've been able to distinguish 3 main categories that people... Read More
It's amazing how quickly free articles can generatetraffic - my... Read More
Whether you own your own affiliate website, or subscription website,... Read More
Most authors are wasting their time producing dozens to hundreds... Read More
Last month, I began promoting Jason Potash's "Article Announcer." I... Read More
Writing articles is one of the most powerful, if not... Read More
Online publishers, ezine subscribers, and Web visitors want short, useful... Read More
Last time on "Because your articles suck" ? we discussed... Read More
This free way to promote or publicize your book or... Read More
As a follow up to my previous article on the... Read More
Find definitions from A to G! ~~~~~~~~~~~ A ~~~~~~~~~~~ About... Read More
Article Writing |