1. Unique Article Content :
One of the most important things is to make sure your article is unique to the article directory. Article directories are looking for unique content. Do not submit duplicate articles. That is a sure way to get your article declined, but an even better way to get your account deactivated. Run a search before submitting your article to see what kind of content is being offered.

2. Choose a Descriptive Title :
Along with writing a unique article, choose a title that describes your content well and targets your article keywords. Some articles I receive will include only one or two words. It is not a good idea to be vague. Be as specific and detailed as possible. Select a title that will draw your reader in! Another important thing to note is that a title marked in all capital letters is usually frowned upon by article directories.

3. Format Your Article Properly :
Many article directories prefer that you do not use hard breaks. In other words, as you write your article lets your text automatically wrap to the next line instead of pressing enter after every line. Also, pay attention to what the article directory requires as far as coding goes. The key is to make it easy on your reader to read the article. A formatted article also portrays professionalism and quality. Part of professionalism and quality is to use the spell check. A poorly spelled article will result in a rejection and a delay in getting your article published.

4. Length :
It is vital before you even think of submitting your article to an article directory to make sure your article is the appropriate length. It is a safe assumption that the article needs to be at least 500 words. In the process of making sure your article is a good length, do not spam the article with nonsense.

5. Keywords :
Do make sure you choose appropriate keywords that relate to your article. Keywords are vital for your article. Keywords allow for your article to be found by users searching for those words in search engines such as Google, Yahoo, and MSN Search. Keywords are very important for gaining maximum exposure for your article.

Along with these five principles, take the time to read the submission guidelines for the article directory. This may seem like a very obvious principle, but I do not have the feeling many follow it. Usually the submission guidelines are not lengthy. The principles above are pretty much standard for gaining an inclusion into an article directory, but it is always wise to read the site rules so you are sure to meet the article directory’s standards.

No one was talking about article marketing a year ago, and now this keyword is searched by thousands. Articles give you publicity, better scoring with search engines, higher ranking. Articles are the peak of content game at the moment and here are the most crucial tips to win with article marketing on your web sites:

1) Use search engine (SE) – friendly technologies.

Sitemap (Google + Yahoo).

Always use sitemaps on your sites. Create Google sitemap file, Yahoo sitemap file, submit them to relevant search engines – and you are sitting safe with all new content on your site getting indexed in days (5 days maximum). When others wait for Google sandbox for 2 months, you get your new content indexed within a week.

RSS feeds.

When you run article directory on your site, copy the content to RSS feeds. Then submit RSS feeds to MyYahoo and MyMSN. This increases indexing a lot. Plus this is extra way to make search engines see your real work on site.

RSS newsblocks.

As this technology is a nice content optimizer for search engines, they keep indexing good info inside the database of RSS news and give high relevancy content on your pages, helping you out with duplicate content crossroads.

2) Use anchoring to score on your keywords.

Anchored text is another content optimizing technology for search engines. It means that search engines can easily learn a lot from the keywords inside the anchored text to the link.

In practise it means if you wrote a promo article and submit it to article directories, make sure they allow to use anchored links in resource box to that article. After good submission you will have hundreds of sites pointing/voting for your site. Imagine if all these sites have a text link that says ‘My Keyword’ and the linking goes your www.Your-Keyword-Site-Name.com Search engines will index all these pages with anchored text and you will get up the list for this keyword. You will save hundreds on advertising budgets to one way linking.

3) Keywords in names.

Whatever type of content you have on the site, stick to your keywords in naming file names, text links, pages using your keywords.

Search engines will never stop in their fight for bigger scope for indexing. Who knows, maybe one of top search engines will announce shortly the deeper level of indexing. If you make sure to name the files on keyword-wise base, you will score, because filenaming has big potential in terms of content optimization technique for search engines.

4) Never stop growing relevant content.

When you got the bots of search engines dwelling on your site pages, make sure to update content on regular basis, quality content. Search engines loves gradual and quality growth – even 2 new articles per day are fine, if these articles fit and up to the point.

Combine the tips above with smart SEO and your competitors will stand in line to join you.

Enjoy.

Free Marketing That Works
By Jeffrey Jettison

When it comes to marketing, whether free or costly, we are not just marketing a product. We should be marketing ourselves. No matter if its the quality of the product, the support we give, or even a professional looking website or blog. Its how you are perceived by readers , and viewers that could ultimately cause a prospect to take the next step – ie. clicking your ad, giving up an email address, or flat out buying the product. No matter what free method you use, you always have the chance to portray yourself as a professional. But the method that gives you the best chance to cover all the bases , and look like an expert in your product area, is article marketing. Hands down, no other free marketing technique works as well for short term and long term success.

Articles allow you to help the reader , and show them that you want to help them out. No other form of free marketing gives you that opportunity. Providing information to prospective buyers is your chance to build trust between you and the reader. Its becoming very hard for buyers to trust the online market. Heck, people have a hard time be trustful in real life situations. So when you offer advice or assistance, and then back up the offer with real helpful information , you are perceived as someone that has a certain level of knowledge on that subject. Which in turn , builds trust between you and the reader. People will often pay quite a bit more just to stick with a trusted name and a trusted , well known brand. We have all seen products at the grocery store. Many times the “off” brand is just as good as the “name” brand items, but significantly cheaper. Because the “name” brand is simply trusted and well-known. That is another great reason why article are the best free marketing option we have. Here are some other reasons why you should consider building a greater level of interest in article marketing:

• Knowledge is key, and you can be the knowledge provider.
• You get complete , undivided attention.
• Many articles get ranked very high on major search engines.
• You have many different options to choose from.(There are tons of article directories)
• Your trust leads to multiple sales over a longer period of time.

And those are just a few. Quite frankly, article marketing just works, period. Once you find out how certain articles get ranked on Google and Yahoo, to name a few, you will see tons of free, targeted traffic flood your sites and blogs and wherever else you send visitors. The reason why most people fail to have success with articles is their lack of knowledge. You have to know HOW it works. You can write the best, most informative articles, and still not see success.

To be honest, I have seen some pretty un-impressive articles with 20,000 views and on the 1st page of Google, just because the author knew how to set up the article for maximum success. And that can be said for all free marketing methods. Remember, when someone is looking for information, and they come across your article, you got them right where you want them. So make sure you put forth your best efforts when writing articles. It might be free, but article marketing is more than just a source of traffic, its about you selling yourself as an expert.

Use this FREE report, with the biggest unknown secret in Article Marketing, to get ranked on Google and Yahoo!

Make your Articles WORK

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Jeffrey_Jettison
http://EzineArticles.com/?Free-Marketing-That-Works&id=1931222

((sigh))

I have a confession to make. You see … it is really really simple to make a short, viral e-book. It’s not rocket science, I promise.

If you know how to use Word for Windows, you can create an e-book. Now, as far as doing market research to find out if anyone will *buy* your e-book — that’s a whole ‘nother ball game. But, if you want to make a nice little giveaway for some viral marketing, it’s easy as pie!

Step 1: Write your e-book in Word for Windows.

As you write it, keep the following in mind:

* This e-book should serve a purpose, either to generate traffic to your website or to make affiliate sales. However, it should also be informative and useful to the reader. This e-book will represent your company. Make it quality.

* Double check that all links are active before you save your final copy in Word.

* Keep your images and pictures small, because you don’t want the final product to have a large file size. When you’re saving your images, test the file types. I find that saving an image in .jpg is smaller than saving it in some other file sizes. Test yours, too.

Step 2: Go to my favorite tool, http://convert.neevia.com/

See where it says “Select the file”? Browse to your Word for Windows file and click Upload and Convert That’s all there is. Like I said, EASY EASY EASY.

Now, it’s your job to get your ebook into the hands of people.

1. Send it to your mailing list or newsletter.
2. Allow your friends to give it away.
3. Submit it to free e-book directories.
4. Use it as an enticement for people to sign up for your mailing list (You can say “Sign up and receive this cool e-book – free!”)
5. You can even give it away as a free gift to people who win your auctions on eBay to make your auction stand out from others.

So, if you’d like to have viral marketing working for you, too, get started today on your giveaway!

If you do not have a website, then you may want to consider starting one otherwise the only method you will be able to use to distribute your podcasts would be to burn them on CD.  If you use this method, you will also need a CD burner and applicable CDs.  There are also podcast hosting services that you can use to upload your podcast for users to listen to, but these services are usually more expensive then hosting for your own website.  Using your own website also offers you more control over your podcasts.

To record your podcast, you will need an audio recorder and microphone so that it can be recorded from your computer.  You can perform a search using your favorite search engine for Mixcraft or Audacity; both of these programs are suitable for recording podcasts.  Once you have selected a recorder and purchased a microphone then all you will need to do is record your podcast, save the file and get it ready to distribute using your chosen distribution method.

When recording your podcast, you will need to include a few elements.  First, your podcast will need a nice introduction message.  Your introduction message should not be too long, but yet provide enough information about yourself or your company and what your podcast is about.  Once you’ve completed your introduction, then you can record your podcastís actual message.

If you plan to include advertisements in your podcast, then you will also need to make sure that you inform your listeners of a break in the podcast before each advertisement.  This is so they will know that an ad is about to be played, and will not think that your podcast is completed.  A simple message like “We’ll be right back after a word from our sponsors” will let your listeners know that the podcast has not ended.

Finally, you will want to add a closing statement at the end of your podcast.  Your closing statement can inform listeners of what your next podcast is about, or you can just say a simple goodbye and thank them for listening.  When you complete your podcast, make sure that you end on a note where your listeners will feel satisfied about your information.  If you end your podcast with a subject not completely covered, then your listeners may feel a sense of missing something.

You can also add nice background music to the introduction and closing statement of your podcast.  If you decide to do this, make sure that you use music that you have obtained permission to use.  It is not legal to use copyright protected music in podcasts without permission.

This is one virtue a site must possess to lead the race in the ruthless competition in the Internet based business. With so many competition and rivalry going on, every method of marketing must be employed and utilized.

It doesn’t matter if you have a killer product or a fantastically designed website, if people don’t know that you exist, it doesn’t matter, and you are not going to make it big. Worse of all, you business could just get killed.

While there are so many methods and schemes used by so many e-commerce sites today, there are still some of those that can help you with an extra boost in the popularity ratings. One of these is the so called Viral Marketing.

While the term Viral easily depicts a virus, a word very much dreaded by all computer owners, it is not what it seems. You do not actually use a computer virus to spread your business; on the contrary it just might kill you. Everyone has had enough of all those pop up ads and spywares.

Viral Marketing Overview

Viral Marketing also known otherwise as Viral Advertising is a marketing technique used to build the public awareness of one’s product or company. They use many forms of media to reach out to the public without actually promoting the product by riding on in other forms of addictive means that could get a person hooked and be obliged or amused to actually pass it on, with the product or company advertisement along with it.

In a nutshell, companies ride on the idea that if people like the content of a media they will pass it on to their friends and family. They sponsor the certain media, such as a cool flash game, funny video, amusing story and such, which one may pass on to another with the company brand or logo or the products description or any other content to help promote the company or its product.

Viral marketing has become a popular means of advertising and marketing because they are relatively low cost. To avoid being tagged as spam mail, viral marketing counts on the eagerness of one person to pas on the product. If a person sees the name of the person they know as the sender, they won’t block it and open it as well.

Many companies offer incentives such as discounts and rebates when they help in spreading their viral marketing. They rely on the number of recipients a viral marketing gets from one person in determining the amount or number of incentive they can be attributed with.

Using Viral Marketing to your advantage

The main and foremost advantage of viral marketing is that you get a lot of publicity and public awareness about your site and your company. You get to generate a flow of traffic that are potential customers. With a little ingenuity and imagination, plus some incentives or prizes, you can reach out to a great number of people and announce your existence.

Most every site and companies are catching on to the effectivity of Viral Marketing and Advertising. Not using it could kill your business. Along with other schemes and methods in promoting your site, like Search Engine Optimization and such, viral marketing could easily push you ahead in the rating games.

Viral Marketing could be a sneaky way to get people to know about you and your company. You get them to pass your advertisement along. They are also very low cost that not investing in it could be downright a business suicide. All it takes is a great idea, a good addicting game, a funny story many ideas are still out there. Create a gossip or a buzz, many movies are promoted by using scandals and gossips to make them moiré popular. Remember the movie “The Blair Witch Project”?

Many big companies have tried viral marketing and have had many success stories with it. A classic example is Microsoft’s Hotmail. They were the first known big company to utilize the scheme and it has worked wonders for them.

Now it’s your turn to use viral marketing to work wonders for you. Act now and reap the benefits Viral Marketing will provide for you and your sales figures.