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Can I Submit Same Articles To EzineArticles & Blog?

by Lisa Angelettie · 10 comments

Can I Submit The Same Articles To EzineArticles & Blog?

I guarantee you that someone asks me this question every week, no matter how many articles I write about it. So I thought I’d feature it as one of my frequently asked questions this week. Plus, it sort of ties in with my whole Google theme this week.

Q: Lisa, one of the problems I am having is that I want to use EzineArticles to promote my articles as well as my own website. Can I use the same articles that I write for EzineArticles on my website?

A: I am a big believer in repurposing articles – so my answer is yes – but with a few caveats. First of all, I need to know where you are in your business. If you are just starting out, then I definitely recommend getting some momentum going by publishing articles to EzineArticles as well as your blog.

Don’t worry about duplicate content, etc. right now. EzineArticle’s WordPress plugin will help carry this out even faster. After you’ve published the article to your site, you can publish it as is to EzineARticles throught the plugin OR you can make a few changes tot he article and then publish it to EzineArticles via the plugin.

If you are in the middle of your business, meaning that you are generating some income and have been building a list for a while, then your site/blog has probably gained some traction on the web. You are appearing in the search engines, but now it’s time to really take your optimization a little more seriously. Duplicate content starts to matter to the established webpreneur.

Now when you submit your blog articles to EzineArticles or vice-versa you need to make sure that you change the article enough that it looks like a different article to Google. This is actually much more important now than it use to be due to Google’s latest algorithm update. Sites like EzineArticles took a hit because too many websites had identical articles to the ones on their site.

Ways to make sure your articles are different are to rewrite them (which I do) or use article spinning software. An article submission service that also offers a high quality article spinning service is SubmitYourArticle.

Bonus Tip!
Also, writing unique articles will be easy for EzineArticles and your blog because you should be using links to related resources/content in your blog articles. On the other hand, you cannot add links to your EzineArticles articles (or at least only one in the body of the article) the other links are only allowed in your resource box. Having an article with no links vs. one with links helps create two distinct articles that the search engines will view as different and unique.

 

 

Article Directories – Worthwhile or Worthless?

by Lisa Angelettie · 6 comments

Article Directories – Are They Worthwhile or Worthless?

A lot of people are frustrated with their article marketing results. I know because I get some of the “huffy-puffy” emails asking me to fix what’s broken. Often they do not see the type of traffic they expected from their article submissions.

So the first thing that I make clear to all of my clients when they come to me with this issue is that submitting to article directories is NOT a worthless task. It is not outdated or a waste of time. Article directory submissions are in fact very relevant, still work, and are absolutely worthwhile.

The real key is knowing where to submit and how to submit your articles properly. I teach a lot of this in detail in my Articology training program, but I’m going to break it down quickly for you right now so that you can move forward this year making article directory submissions that are totally worth your time invested.

FIRST – Become An Article Directory Snob

article directory snobRealize that you do not have to submit your article to hundreds or thousands of article directories to make an impact. That’s article submission slumming! I NEVER do that and I still receive highly qualified traffic to my sites from my articles on a daily basis.

The reason why making massive amounts of submissions is not the key to effective article marketing is because all article directories are not created equal. Just like any other website, there are good and bad article directories — and it is a waste of time – and sometimes can even be a detriment to you,  to submit your articles to these low value directories. So with that knowledge, now you understand that you have to be a bit snobby. A bit selective. Only pick the best.

SECOND – Do Your Article Directory Research

A lot of entrepreneurs hate research. I don’t mind it. Whichever way you roll though – it has to be done in order to work smart and not hard. Select the best article directories for exposure in your niche, submit consistently,  and you will see traffic results – guaranteed. Here’s how you do a little quick research:

1. Look at the traffic statistics of an article directory. If the article directory is not getting more traffic then your site – it’s out.

2. Try searching for site info on your directory in Alexa.com. While Alexa does not give totally accurate traffic stats (it only tracks visits from browsers with the Alexa toolbar installed), it is a good barometer of the traffic any given site is getting. A low number in Alexa is good, especially if the traffic # is under 100,000.

3. Do a Google search for the term “article directory”. What sites come up in the top ten? Most of them are article directories, and I am pretty sure that they all have great traffic.

4. It’s not a bad idea to pick article directories with a high pagerank. High PR means that Google places some importance on the directory and it’s content – which rubs off on you too. I like PR4 and up, but if it’s a micro-niche focused directory I will also go for a PR2 or PR3.

5. Okay – if you aren’t going to do a little work on your end, here’s an article directory cheat sheet.

THIRD – Check Out Your Article Directories First Hand

It’s important to check out the article directories you’ve hand selected for yourself when first starting out. This is why…

1. You need to check out the writer’s guidelines of every article directory you submit to. What article directories allow you links within the article body? Which ones don’t? What is the word count requirement? How long can your resource box be? This is important because every directory has slightly different guidelines and knowing how to submit properly will save you from getting your articles rejected.

2. Look around. Does the article directory have an active community of writers? Does the directory offer tips via their own blog or forum? Activity means someone is paying attention and probably will take good care of your articles quickly.

3. What kind of promotion does the directory do? Are they on any of the social media sites like Twitter or Facebook? I like an article directory that does it’s part to attract more readers to my articles.

Conclusion – Article Directories Are As Worthwhile As You Make Them

So the conclusion to the question posed by one of my readers (thank you for the article suggestion James Burow:) is that article directories are as worthwhile as you make them. The keys: Be selective. Do your research. Get the lay of the land.

What’s your thoughts on mass article submissions vs. selective submissions (snob submissions :) ? Have any directories you’d like to recommend to folks. Good ones I mean. Share them with us in the comments section below.

Resource Box Vs. Bio Box

by Lisa Angelettie · 4 comments

Resource Box or Bio Box – Is There A Difference?

When you write and publish articles on the web, do you write a resource box or a bio box at the end of your articles? Are you sure that you even know the difference? It’s important that you do because one will convert readers into subscribers, customers, or clients. The other will probably put the reader to sleep! So let’s clear it up right now so that you see better results with your article marketing this year.

Bio Box

Many writers and even article directories refer to the last paragraph of their articles where you can place links to your website, etc. as a bio box. While most use the terms bio and resource box interchangeably (including myself), unfortunately many writers treat their bio boxes as just that – A place to add biographical information about themselves at the end of their articles.

ex. Lisa Angelettie is a published author and mother of 3 from Elkins Park, Pennsylvania. She writes about article marketing, newsletter and ebook publishing from her home office. Visit her at http://LisaAngelettie.com

I could write a little more, but you get the drift. It’s biographical. It’s boring. And only people who were truly interested in me before they even read my article will click the url. Most others will click away.

I think that a lot of people write bio boxes because they’ve seen it done before. If you read major magazine articles, you will often see a short bio blurb at the end of a freelance article. Most of us grew up reading these types of bio blurbs, so they are familiar to us. We think that that is what we should be doing, but the reality is that this “old school” bio box format does not work on the web — especially with article marketing. Instead we all should be using a…

Resource Box

Resource boxes are different. In this paragraph we should make sure to include some sort of additional resources for our readers. The point is to keep the reader interested and to motivate them to take a next step, also known as a call to action.

ex. If you’d like more article marketing tips like this one, grab my all-new article marketing report at: http://LisaAngelettie.com

Again, I could write a little more, which I usually do about why folks should take action, etc. but I just wanted you to see the essential difference. It’s not necessary for me to add biographical information about myself in a resource box, it’s more important that I get the reader to take some sort of action other than clicking away.

You only have a certain amount of space to write a resource box. So it’s important you write with maximum impact. Do not bore the reader. In fact, after just reading one of your info-packed articles, the reader probably wants more tips from you. That’s why it’s best to lead the reader to a page where they can read more, get something free, or opt-in to gain more access to your information.

What If I’ve Already Written Bio Boxes?

If you have bio boxes at the end of articles that are getting views, then you are wasting prime article real estate. You need to update them.

So if you’ve already written a lot of articles and have included a bio box instead of a resource box, most article directories have a place in their interface for you to write a resource box that you can use for all of your articles on that particular directory. So instead of manually adding a new resource box to all your old articles – you should be able to rewrite your resource box and then add it to the end of your old articles.  This is a task you could also outsource to a virtual assistant or intern.

What’s A Good Resource Box Call To Action?

After years of article marketing, it’s been my experience that resource boxes that offer a free resource such as free book chapters, free audio, toolkits, ebook, videos, templates etc. are the ones that convert the best. People love free stuff. Make it a high value item such as a multimedia resource (audio or video) and people will really bite.

Conclusion

Are you willing to share a few of your resource box secrets with the readers here? We’d love to seem them. Share your resource box examples or your resource box tips in the comment section below. One external link allowed this time:) So make it a good one!

Article Rewriter – Does It Work?

by Lisa Angelettie · 7 comments

Article Rewriter – Does article rewriter and article spinner software work?

Q: Hey Lisa, just wondering what your thoughts are on article rewriter software and article spinner software? I’m wondering how I can produce more unique articles in less time and thought that this would be a good strategy. I see them being advertised all over, but wanted to know if you use them.

A: While I enjoy writing, I am always looking for a way to produce more in less time too. Article marketing is a numbers game for sure – so it makes sense to look for short cuts. The reality of those short cuts though is that they are either  just plain crappy and create unnatural articles that no real person would read OR they take forever to use. You could probably write 3 new articles in the same time it takes to “rewrite or spin” an old article.

So when people ask me for a referral for article rewriter software, I typically don’t have any except for one service that I use myself, and that’s SubmitYourArticle. The reason why I prefer them is that their article rewriter is pretty fast to use (after you get past the short learning curve) and they publish your articles to high quality and high impact sites and newsletters. They’ve been around a long time, so they’ve established good connections with publishers. Many of these new article rewriter softwares and services cost you a lot of time spinning the articles and more time submitting those spun articles to no-ranked, low-trafficked blog networks.

My final thoughts on the matter are that I rather you submit your own unique articles to directories and 3rd party blogs, but if you must use an article rewriter then SYA is the way to go.

High Ranked Article Directories

High Ranked Article Directories Pagerank is a number that search engines like Google assign a website based on it’s relevance and importance. No one knows for sure, but there is some secret algorythm that Google uses to decide what websites deserve what ranking. The criteria has changed over the years. Pagerank use to be much [...]

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Submit Your Article

Submit Your Article This isn’t quite a review. It’s more of a overdue recommendation I think, because one of the most frequently asked questions I am asked by clients as well as visitors to my sites is “Is there an article marketing submission software you recommend?” Let’s face it, article marketing is a numbers game [...]

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How Do I Guest Blog?

How Do I Guest Blog? Should I Guest Blog… If you are on a few marketing lists, you may have noticed that one of the latest offers is for you to buy an ebook or course on how to properly become a guest blogger. Some of you may be wondering what guest blogging is, how [...]

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Best Article Directory List

Lisa’s List Of The Best Article Directories There are several ways to approach article submissions. The first is to submit your articles to lots of article directories for more backlinks and to possibly rank for long-tail keywords from several places. But the preferred method by me is to hand pick the best article directories (most [...]

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