Lisa Angelettie

Bestselling Amazon Author

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Can I Submit Same Articles To EzineArticles & Blog?

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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?

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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

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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?

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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

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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 easier to acquire. Now it’s a lot harder which is why it makes sense for article marketers to submit their articles to directories that not only get a great deal of traffic but also are highly ranked.

If a site with a high rank has a link on it to your site, it’s like being associated with one of the “cool kids”. You gain instant credibility in Google’s eyes. But all high pagerank backlinks are not equal. There are some article directories who use a “nofollow” policy on the links in their resource boxes. That means that you don’t benefit from any of the wonderful pageranking juice by having a link there. You can only benefit from the traffic (the readers) who will hopefully click on your link and visit you.

So should you submit to article directories that use the “NoFollow” policy for their links? For me it depends on how many people in my niche I believe frequent that directory. If I think they visit that directory or that directory holds major ranking in the search engines for my keywords, then I say yes. That traffic and potential clicks is worth the submission.

So here’s the deal. I’ve gathered a short list of high ranked article directories on the web, their pagerank, and whether or not they support “Do Follow” links in their resource boxes or the “No Follow” policy. Submit articles based on your discretion…

High Ranked Article Directories – PR8

1. ehow.com (No Follow)
This is a very popular and highly trafficked website, so you would definitely benefit from the traffic clicking back to your site, BUT you will not benefit from any of their ranking power.

2. Squidoo.com
This isn’t quite a typical article directory, but you can build a “lens” over at Squidoo and fill it with content and articles on your topic. For awhile, Squidoo lenses ranked super well, like Wikipedia pages — they still have superior ranking but they are not quite a “sure thing” as they use to be. Still it is totally worth building a Squidoo page on your topic.

3. Technorati.com
Technorati has evolved over the past two years. This is a great place to submit articles and benefit from it’s huge traffic streams and pagerank.

High Ranked Article Directories – PR7

4. Suite101.com
I have a soft spot for this site. Great ranking and high article standards make this a really great spot for submitting articles.

5. ArticlesAlley.com (NoFollow)

6. TheFreeLibarary.com

High Ranked Article Directories – PR6

Here’s where we get to quite a few of the well-known article directories. They all have great pagerank, high traffic, but submission guidelines vary and quite a few are NoFollow.

7. EzineArticles.com
Highly Recommended for beginners. Very supportive and active community.

8. Hubpages.com
Site functions a lot like Squidoo – creating content rich pages.

9. ArticlesBase.com (NoFollow)

10. Buzzle.com

11. Helium.com (NoFollow)

12. Brighthub.com

13. SelfGrowth.com
This site is especially useful for soft topic niches such as relationships, wellness, life coaching, therapists, chiropractors, etc.

14. isnare.com

High Ranked Article Directories – PR5

15. ArticleSnatch.com (NoFollow)

16. ArticleAlley.com (NoFollow)

17. Bukisa.com (NoFollow)

18. ArticleDashboard.com

19. IdeaMarketers.com

20. ArticleCity.com

21. SearchWarp.com (NoFollow)

22. SooperArticles.com

23. ArticleTrader.com

24. A1articles.com (NoFollow)

25. Triond.com

26. ArticleBlast.com

27. Site-Reference.com

28. ArticleSlash.net

Submit Your Article

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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 AND the more short cuts we can use to expose our content to the largest number of people is a high priority on the article marketer’s list. I have kept quiet for many years, and would randomly give my recommendations – but now I’m speaking up. The only article marketing submission service that I recommend to my clients is: Submit Your Article.

In the beginning of my online career, I would recommend services and software based on affiliate revenue. Like many newbie marketers, I wanted to earn money through affiliate marketing, so I would promote the latest, greatest article marketing software programs or services. Well as you can imagine – that was big mistake!

Practically every one of those services I recommended was overpriced and the software programs were horrible. They were janky, spammy, and did not do a very good job. I learned that because I also invested in these same programs to publish and promote content for my first site (GirlShrink), and was terribly disappointed at the quality and the results.

Over the years I have tried many and I do mean many different article submission softwares and services and have only found true results, accountability, affordability, and reliability with one service and that is Submit Your Article. And yes that is an affiliate link, but it is the only link you will probably ever see from me for a service of this type. I use Submit Your Article myself and I have no direct or personal relationship with the owner.

So Why Submit Your Article?

There are a few reasons why I think this is the only article submission software to go with after testing many different options…

1. Submit Your Article actually has a network of real and well ranked websites, ezines, and article directories that they will submit your articles to. They don’t use a huge network of 0 ranked homemade blogs, created just yesterday, for the sole purpose of publishing your articles to. That is what a lot of article submission services do by the way! So buyer beware.  Your submissions are a waste of time.

2. They use something called ArticleLeverage ® to help you create unique versions of each article you submit. This is optional of course and yes there are other services out there that offer something similar, but I find this is the easiest to use and does a good job of creating unique versions of your articles.

3. The price is right. This is an affordable service for the average marketer.

New Submit Your Article Gold Level

Submit Your Article is about to unveil their new Gold Level membership which will include some new and exciting features and functionality for creating and publishing unique content to the web and other publishers. As well as powerful link building! I don’t know the details yet (you know how marketers love to build up anticipation:) but I’m sure that it’s going to be features that are going to really enable you to create many unique versions of your articles and publish them to high quality publishers in a very efficient way. I can’t wait:)

The great news is that you can lock in your rate as a Gold Level member, but paying at today’s rate. So if you join today, you can start submitting your articles to their powerful league of publishers AND you can lock in your Gold member status just by joining. So if using an article submission service is something that you have been thinking about, and you were finally waiting for me to give a recommendation, this is it. Go learn more about it – Submit Your Article.

How Do I Guest Blog?

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How Do I Guest Blog?

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 to get started doing it, and if it’s it even worth bothering to do. So I thought I should give you my two cents on this topic and hope that you gain some clarity on what would work best for you.

Guest Blogging – Definition

Guest blogging is pretty much as simple as it sounds. You serve as a guest author, guest writer, or guest blogger on someone’s site. A format which often tends to be blogs. It is something that you may often see me refer to as publishing content on a 3rd party site in some of my other articles. You write an article and publish it on another site, as their guest. Sounds easy right? But what’s the point?

Guest Blogging – The Point

The reason why many people choose to add guest blogging as part of their overall marketing strategy is because of a few reasons. First, having an article featured on another site puts your work and your message directly in front of a group of fresh prospects. Fresh eyes. Especially if the site has great traffic and/or a loyal following.

Second, guest blogging can give you a tremendous amount of credibility and visibility in your marketplace. While people have been guest blogging since blogs have been around, trust me when I say that I highly doubt all or very many (if any) of your serious competitors are guest blogging. It’s not something a lot of entrepreneurs are doing and so the lane is still wide open for you to stand out front and center in your niche.

Third, you get great backlink juice! When you guest blog, it usually is at a blog that has a similar, lateral, or complimentary topic. At the end of your article, you will be able to have a short bio with a link to your site and Google loves when one site links to another “related” site.

Guest Blogging – How To Get Going

So now that you see the point of guest blogging,  you probably want to know how to get started. Well, no worries. it’s easier than you might think. Websites (even the good ones) want more content – and user generated content is the best because site owners have to do zero work. The reality is that website traffic improves the more you publish.  So that’s why sites want and need content on a regular basis. Follow these simple steps and you should be well on your way…

Site Selection
Select sites that you are familiar with. That you read. Ones that you follow. These will be the easiest to generate article ideas for, and the site owners will be able to tell that. They rather publish work from people who actually read their stuff – then just people cruising by. Blog owners want communities, not one-time guests.

If you follow a site or blog that accepts guest posts, more than likely there will be a link on the home page that reads “write for us”, “submit article” or something similar. It will be easy to find. If there isn’t a link for article submissions or writer’s guidelines, then you can always choose to send an email to the owner with your article idea. More than likely they will gladly accept.

Writing
This is the easy part. Write your best. Send your best stuff in when you are writing for another site. You want to make an impression and you want to stand out among the other writers. No pressure:) I rather you submit something then nothing – but since you’re doing it – make sure to give it some polish!

Link Love
When you write an article as a guest blogger, it is “best practices” to link internally to other articles on the site within your article. Some sites may even require this, or some may not approve your article without a few internal links. So to just nip all of that in the bud, make sure to internally link to other articles on the site. It’s nice to do for the blog that allowed you to write for them in the first place and it makes for site stickiness.

Signing Out
Your bio or resource box for a guest post is typically shorter then one you would write for an article directory. So you have to make every word count. You typically only get about a few sentences. So make your call to action strong, link to your site or squeeze page with keyword rich link text, and that’s it – you’re done.

Conclusion
If you’ve had some experience guest blogging, want to show off a few of your guest posts, or feel that there is something that I may have left out of this introduction to how to guest blog, please let us know in the comment section below and let’s get a conversation going about the highs and lows of guest blogging for your biz. I’d love to talk more about it!

Best Article Directory List

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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 traffic, most published, good PR ranking) and submit articles to only those top article directories.

Here is my updated list of the best article directories on the web by pagerank as of: March 29, 2011

PR7 – Best Article Directories

  1. Suite101 – This is the big kahuna of article directories based on its PR ranking, time on the web, and the fact that you get paid ad revenues for your work.

PR6 – Best Article Directories

  1. EzineArticles – If you’re just starting out in article marketing, this is the one to start with. People do not just submit to or syndicate articles from this site, it is a real community. Great support and development.
  2. ArticleBase -This is another article directory biggie. Continued development on this site as well.
  3. Isnare – iSnare is a  strong article directory and submission service.
  4. SelfGrowth -Sign up as an expert on this site and you can submit articles to this directory. Lot’s of networking on this site.
  5. WebProNews – This is an old and respected directory which must approve your content. Also, you can only submit original articles – no duplicates.
  6. Helium – Cool and up-to-date article directory.
  7. Buzzle -Another strong article directory with simple site design.
  8. American Chronicle -This is a network of article sites whose results often appear in Google News results.
  9. TheWhir -Great article directory for web business topics.

PR5 – Best Article Directories

  1. ArticleDashboard -Another long time directory. They also sell their template for folks who want to create their own article directories.
  2. SearchWarp -This directory promotes authors in a nice way. Your picture and latest article is featured on the home page.
  3. Article Snatch – Another strong directory, but it is a “no-follow” directory.
  4. ArticleCity -Standard article directory. They’ve also added a video article section as well.
  5. IdeaMarketers -This is a popular article directory with writers because the site founder offers so many ways for writers to promote their content.
  6. Site Reference -A content site with built-in article submission.
  7. Article Alley -Another solid, standard article directory.

PR4 – Best Article Directories

  1. Submit Your Article -This site is a dual article submission service and article directory. It is the ONLY submission service that I recommend.
  2. GoArticles -Being the largest free article directory on the web is its claim to fame, although bigger is not necessarily better.
  3. Articles Factory -Basic article directory with sturdy ranking and traffic.

PR3 – Best Article Directories

  1. Amazines – This is another solid article directory, worth submitting your articles to.

UP & COMING  – Article Directories

  1. Interesting Articles – This is the first up and coming article directory I am recommending. User friendly layout and very social media friendly.

Want More Best Article Directory Tips?

Do you have any directories to add to the best article directories list? Add them in the comments section and I’ll check ’em out!

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