Most Article Directories are very similar in how they want you to enter your content so this tutorial will apply to majority of the directories in the marketplace. Ezinearticles.com just happens to be one of the most respected in the field.

1. The first thing that you should pay attention to is the title of your article. This one detail is very important to your search engine ranking but is often overlooked even by the most experienced webmasters. Most authors write titles which are catchy or “salesy”. While this is a good marketing practice, bear in mind that the title of your article is what will be displayed in the very top of the web browser. This is what is called the “title tag” and will be the first thing that the search engine robots will be looking to find. The title tag is the first indication of what this article is about. So it should be full of the keywords that your audience will use to find your article in the search engines.
2. Next you should concentrate on the content of your article. As with your title, you should also be aware of the keywords that are related to your topic. The more narrow and defined your market niche the better. Currently, the major search engines such as Google, Yahoo and MSN are moving more towards a technology called Latent Semantic Indexing. In a nutshell, this is an algorithm, where the search engines are interested in the related keywords that a web content uses but also the “atmosphere” of contents next to these keywords. This is the search engine’s way to combat web master who throw up useless jibberish in an attempt to make money with Adsense.

   Also most article directories will not allow you to place links in the article itself so you will be have to save your anchor link for the next step.

3. Finally, this last step is probably the most important detail to remember in your article marketing campaign. At the end of the article, you are allowed a short biography. On this bio, you can include html links. Here is the part that most people get wrong.

Most webmasters would just put the web address of their website, www.mywebsite.com and then link to that. The more effective way is to use a keyword. In my client’s case, he used “Photoshop CS” and then link it to his website. Targeted links using anchor text helps a site rank for that keyword. This technique is truly very simple but surprisingly few authors do this step properly and so they miss a golden opportunity.

One of the absolute best, and even better . . . “easiest” ways to get these quality, one way links is by submitting your articles to article directories. By doing so, you can not only get one way links, pretty much instantly, but you can control the anchor text used in your link. AND even better, you can get “in text” links within the body of your article. These are the best types of links you can get!

Basically, this means that you can completely control which keywords you want to rank highly for! Up until now, there was still a problem, and that was . . .

1. Finding the article directories you can submit your article to AND
2. Once you find those directories, it takes quite a bit of time to actually fill in all of your article submission details like first name, last name, keywords, short author bio, and many other required fields . . .

But, guess what? I’ve come across a brand new program created by Brad Callen and the Bryxen Software team, called “Article Submitter”. It allows you to quickly submit your website to hundreds of article directories with a few mouse clicks! No kidding…

I’ve been using it and it’s saved me literally hours of time in both submitting AND in finding these directories.

Here’s the link to check out Article Submitter.

Way back in the good old day, in a galaxy far, far away, before the invention of personal computer, I wrote articles about graphic design and submitted them to local free papers. From those articles, I got calls from readers asking questions. Sometimes an avid reader would ask me to speak at their school or organization. I would always go to these speaking engagements armed with business cards or printed samples to hand to prospective clients. After a while, this became an entire business practice.

Today you can employ a similar approach with Article Marketing using the Worldwide Web. The biggest difference is that now you don’t have to wear out nearly as much shoe leather going from place to place handing out business brochures. You can let your articles do the walking for you!

Here’s how it works in the information age. You start by writing an article with quality information that your audience will find valuable. Begin by taking the time to do the proper marketing research as I outlined in my article on Keyword Research on June 29, 2007. With the collection keywords that you found, write your article with a well defined focus, i.e. a niche. This will help the search engines place you in the proper category. You then submit your article to quality Article Directories like EzineArticles.com (I will write a separate review later about the best Article Directories and by what criterion I chose them). When the articles are posted in the directories, the URL of your website, which you posted in the author’s bio section will be counted as a link back to your site. Links, if you are not familiar with search engine optimization is how the engines such as Google, Yahoo or MSN determine your rank. High search engine ranks indicates that the search engines find your site relevant to a given field. Consequently, the higher your website ranks, the further the site will move up on the search page. The more webpages you have on the first page of the search pages, the more traffic your website will receive. And we all know that traffic equals sales. In a nutshell, that’s how Article Marketing works. However, there are a number of Gotchas that I’d like to point out to you before you go hog wild with this technique.

1. Duplicate Content – the search engines are very sensitive to webmasters spamming the internet with the same content over and over again. Google in particular will penalize you for having too many duplicate content pointing back to your site. Therefore, it’s better to submit to only the best Article Directories and to have a variation of an article even if one paragraph is different. All this is a pain, I know, but fortunately software products such as Article Submitter that can handle some of the more repetitious tasks. Click Here if you’d like to learn ore about this program.
2. Don’t forget the Resource Box – in all article directories, there is an entry at the end of the article called a Resource Box aka your Signature. You would be shocked to see how many people do not put in their names in this box. Also, you must positively, absolutely put in your Web Address with the proper URL form. For Example: http://www.name-of-your-website.com/. This URL is what will be used for your all important link back to your website. You will also be given about 3 sentences to describe your website. This will be a good opportunity to set yourself apart from the competition by stating your Unique Selling Proposition.
3. Don’t Spam Article Directories – at the risk of sounding repetitious, don’t spam the directories, don’t spam the directories, don’t spam the directories! Submit only to the best directories. Other webmasters will also pick up your article for reprint on their site so don’t worry about not getting enough exposure. Here is a cursory list of directories to get you started:
   • http://www.ezinearticles.com/
   • http://goarticles.com/
   • http://www.freewebarticles.com/
   • http://www.ideamarketers.com/
   • http://www.articledashboard.com/

The process of Article Marketing definitely demands a certain commitment of time. Fortunately there are software such as Article Submitter which will help you with this process. This computer based software will take the chore of submitting to multiple Article Directories and streamlines it into an automated business process. Tedious tasks such as:

• Logging into a directory with an ID and password is done for your with Article Submitters database
• Article Submitter intelligently finds he right field to input your entries even though they may not exactly the same in all directories.
• Article Submitter never forgets to put your vital information such as your name and URL in the resource box!
• The real sweet deal is that you get to try out the limited edition of this software for free! No string attached but you will definitely want to upgrade to the Gold version to submit your articles to teh premium sites

You should definitely check out Article Submitter . It’ll make Article Marketing a joy! As always keep writing and Posting.

Brad Masterson

Well, maybe not the Mercedes-Benz right away but certainly you can get solid results if you put the horse before the cart. I must admit that I’m equally guilty of writing articles, building websites, and even developing a product or two without the proper market research. But let’s all wake up and smell the coffee! Just because it worked in a Kevin Costner movie doesn’t mean that “if you build it they will come!”

The world is littered with books and products by well-intentioned people who “knew in their hearts” that they built the better mousetrap. But without market research:

• Your ideas are a fantasy about what you think other people want
• You are wasting a lot of valuable time and capital on something that has no basis in reality
• . . . And in the end, you’re just spinning your wheels

Before the Internet, this kind of market research was very expensive but today with Internet Marketing there’s no excuse not to research. Keywords are a very important tool in your marketing arsenal because it’s like a peephole into the desires and motivations of your audience. Here are a few steps that I take before I even think about writing an article or developing a product:

1. Brainstorming – use a free keyword research tool such as Google Adwords Keyword Tools to find the keywords and phrases from a core term that people are searching on. What’s really great about this tool is that it’s from Adwords so you know that real people are searching and buying ads for these keywords. This tool will give you a feel for the demand vs. the supply. Don’t edit or reject anything just yet. This step is just to get your creative ideas flowing.
2. Discovering your niche - this is the process of finding your gem in a pile of rubbish. Now that you have this huge collection of keywords, you should look for a common thread in certain cluster of keywords. For example, let say that your core term is “dog training” and you discovered a series of phrases for “dog agility training.” You enter the phrase “dog agility training” into the free version of Trellian’s Keyword Discovery. This web based tool will give you 10 variations of “dog agility training” for free (the premium version is $70 per month which in my humble opinion is a bit pricey) and a fairly good estimate of the amount of traffic you can expect a day (this is assuming that your website is search engine optimized or that you are running a pay per click ad campaign).
3. Develop your product - with the well researched collection of keywords you are now ready to write your article, develop your website, produce your eBook. The difference is that this time you’re confident you have an audience for your product. (if you really wanted to get slick, Google Adwords Keyword Tools can even show you the seasonal trend and the best month to write about “dog agility training”!)

While the free keyword research tools are great they do require a bit of repetitive work for your labor to bear fruit. If you want some of the tedious work done for you, I would recommend an old workhorse like Keyword Elite.

Keyword Elite is computer based keyword research tool that’s divided into 5 different modules. Each module performs a different research task. For example, Module 1- “Create a keyword list” allows you to gather 10,000 keywords in a few short minutes. Module 2 – “Analyze pay per click listings” shows you the amount bid on these keywords on different search engines such as Google Adwords, Overture or Miva. This information is especially valuable if you want to run Adsense ads on your website or Blog and you want to know the most profitable keywords. This module also shows you the monthly search as opposed to the results to give you a view of the competitive market. There’s a lot more to say about this program but it’s probably more material than is appropriate for a blog. You can tell that I’m enthusiastic about Keyword Elite. I’ve been using it for 3 years now and have found it to be indispensable! If you are interested in Keyword Elite, you can click here to jump to the website. On it, Brad Callan, has tons of video demonstrations. At the very least, you’re sure to learn a lot about keyword research, and search engine optimization!

Until next time, please keep writing and keep posting.

Brad Masterson

I know, I know…You’re probably asking yourself what on earth does this have to do with Article Marketing or Search Engine Optimization? Well, last year these friends asked me to help them boost their search engine rankings. I was so impressed with the Neti Pot technique that I suggested that they write an article about it. I also knew that the topic was sufficiently strange to attract a lot of attention. And that when they were finished, I would help them submit it to as many directories as I can.

Article Marketing was good medium for them because it was an effective way to:

1. Increase credibility in your industry

2. Gain new clients

3. Develop a rapport with your existing customers

4. But most importantly, in the information age, article marketing raises your search engine ranks by getting you incoming one-way links (stay tuned for more information about this in future posts).

My friends wrote the article and we submitted them. The results astounded us! In first month, we had boosted their average positions about 50 points in the major search engines! (you can see some their articles on: www.articlebiz.com and www.savearticles.com). With continuous application, my friends’ website, www.acupuncture-dc.com was able to gain the first page listing in Google for “best acupuncturists dc” “acupuncturist dc sinus” “licensed acupuncturists dc.”

This is not bad for very little cost and a bit of elbow grease. The perseverance part is something I would like to stress to you. Even though you can achieve great results with Article Marketing, you may have second thought after you copy and pasted your fiftieth entry for your name and email address! Fortunately, their are some very good software out there to help you with the most mundane repetitious task of Article Directory Submission. The product that I like very much is by Brad Callan called Article Submitter.

This software currently contains around 700 article directories, all free to submit your articles to. It is the most straightforward program that we’ve come across, in that all you need to do is:

• Input your article details (i.e. title, article body, bio, etc.) into the software

• Click on the directory you want to submit to

And then the program will automatically fill in your article details. Then, you simply click the submit button and your article is instantly submitted to the directory. When you’re done you can simply move to the next directory, go through the list, and by the time you’re finished you’ll have roughly 700 one way links pointing to your website.

I can’t think of an easier way to get links. Of course, if you’re going to get links this quickly, it’s important to submit different variations of your articles, to make things look more natural to the search engines.

You can do this very easily via Article Submitter when you create your project in the beginning.

The software is constantly being updated and their is an incredible community of users established that all work together to make the software better and better, so you know you’re getting great value for the money.

I hope that you enjoyed this post on Yogic Techniques, Article Submissions and Search Engine Optimization. In later posts, I will be talking more in-depth about Duplicate Content and Latent Semantic Indexing. Both very hot topics in the Internet!

Until next time, keep writing and keep posting!
Brad Masterson