Article Marketing Vs. Video Marketing

September 22, 2010 By Lisa Angelettie 8 Comments

Article Marketing Vs. Video Marketing

People often ask me my opinion about video marketing. Some wonder if it is the alternative to article marketing. While I do not claim to be an expert on videos, I know enough about search engine optimization to make and educated assessment about both strategies.

Video Marketing

First off, I want to begin by saying that I do use video article marketing as part of the overall marketing strategy for my business, BUT I do not use it in the way purported by many video experts. The experts would have you believe that you can submit videos, get ranked high in the search engines, and watch the traffic roll in. End of story.

Yet that is only partially true. Depending on many factors, you could possibly rank for your intended keywords in video search quickly BUT you most of us will not stay there.

Now if your video article happens to rank high in the search engines, I am sure you will enjoy a nice surge of new traffic to your sites, and there is no question that it is very important to your overall marketing strategy; but there are surges of traffic and there is long-term traffic. Which do you want? Which do you want to spend your time generating?

Video marketing brings surges of traffic and also high-quality backlinks to your site (which is very important). But for long-term results that STAY in the top 10 or top 20 search results (for years!) – article marketing (content) has been proven to have the staying power that we all ultimately want. Write it, submit it, forget it. The traffic continues.

Leave any comments, tips, or raise questions in the comments section below this post. It would be great to have a sustainable conversation about video marketing vs. article marketing since we all want the same results – more traffic:)

Traffic To Website: Top 10 Ways To Get It

September 16, 2010 By Lisa Angelettie 4 Comments

How To Get Traffic To Your Web Site

No matter what niche you are in, if you are online, you are constantly thinking about how to attract traffic to your website. But I’m sure that you’ve recently noticed, that getting traffic to websites is no easy feat. It’s not a quick sprint – but rather it’s a slow and steady marathon. It’s also nothing that you need to spend hundreds or thousands of your hard earned dollars on either. It’s not rocket science! It’s simple, I’ve done it for years, and this is what you need to do…

Traffic To Website Strategy 1 – Build A WordPress Blog

There are so many statistics proving that Google loves blogs. Blogs, especially WordPress blogs are built on a structure that makes it easy for search engine spiders to crawl. Which means they can find and rank your content quickly and easily.

Traffic To Website Strategy 2 – Write About Stuff People Search For

If you write articles on topics, strategies, or solutions that people search for on the web, you will get traffic. It’s a basic supply and demand theory. If you supply the information which is in demand – you will get the traffic to your website.

Traffic To Website Strategy 3 – Select The Right Keywords

Getting traffic to your website is sooooo much easier when you select keyword phrases that REAL people would use to find information on your topic. Get those right – and the traffic wouldn’t stop no matter what you do. I like the free keyword tool over at Wordtracker to conduct main and long-tail keyword research.

Traffic To Website Strategy 4 – Write Consistently

I pay close attention to my traffic statistics and my traffic steadily increases every time I publish. I can’t say it any simpler than that. Publish more and you’ll see more traffic. Especially if your site is on Google’s radar.

Traffic To Website Strategy 5 – Build Your Buzz

Beginners online have it so much easier than us oldies but goodies! How? Because you can use the growth of social media sites to create a “buzz” or a strategic conversation around your biz. All for free! The key is to not try and do everything and overwhelm yourself. Strategically pick a few social sites that resonate with you and build your buzz at those places.

Traffic To Website Strategy 6 – Build Backlinks

Creating a one-way link back to your site from another relevant site is good for two things. One – it builds your importance and relevance to the search engines like Google. Two – it funnels traffic to your site. When you build backlinks from sites that are relevant and get traffic (such as a high-trafficked article directory), some of that traffic will start visiting you. So think of it in this way. If you establish one backlink from a site that sends you 100 visitors a day, and you establish just 9 more links like that, you will receive over a 1000 new visitors and potential clients/customers to your site – a day. For free! Just by establishing a one-way link a.k.a. backlink.

Traffic To Website Strategy 7 – Rinse And Repeat!

Complete and repeat steps one through six over and over and watch your results double and triple over time.

If you have a simple traffic to website strategy that you use to build traffic to your site, please share with the community here in the comments section below.

When I Buy A Domain Should I Buy The Net Version Too?

July 15, 2010 By Lisa Angelettie 7 Comments

When I started out on the web, I remember finally making the decision to buy a domain. It was a BIG deal to me because it was one of my very first investments in my new business. Sure it was only ten bucks, but money is money:) I remember that the company I bought my domain name from offered me a chance to buy the info, org, and net version too. I bought them all.

Now there can be a case made that you should buy all your extensions so that your competitors do not have the opportunity to snatch up your keyword rich domain name in another extension. This can lead to buyer confusion. Thinking that they are coming to your site and ending up on another.

There is also another search engine optimization case you can make that you can use these other extensions as doorways into your main .com site. Which is still kind of a good idea, but NOT doing this won’t make or break your business. So I don’t know if I would bother with a strategy where you are paying domain name fees year after year and it’s just “okay”.

So the question remains: “When I buy a domain should I buy the net version too?” My answer is – not anymore.

If you have the chance to snatch up a .com domain name for your business then you’re good. A com extension is the best and really only extension you need for your business. Why?

1. Most people recognize the .com extension.

2. When people hear a domain name, they subconsciously assume it is a .com name.

3. The search engines prefer .com extensions above the other versions although .net comes at a close second.

But the point here is that your site with a .com extension would probably outrank your competitor’s with a .net one. So worrying about your competition taking your domain names in other extensions is not as important as it once was. Com rules!

With that in mind, please recognize that the web is growing by leaps and bounds! Most businesses have created some sort of online presence. There was the explosion of social media over the past few years. People are starting their “side businesses” due to this tough economy. So it’s more important than EVER for you to grab your keyword rich COM domain names as soon as you think of them.

This includes your primary domain name, your sales page urls, any domains urls you use for testing or redirections. I learned this lesson the hard way, as one of my major competitors nabbed a lot of great keyword urls that I was hoping to secure for my business. So my advice to you is to not worry about .net extensions or any of the others, and grab the .com ones fast!

*If you absolutely cannot find the keyword domain name you want in an .com extension, then the next best thing is an .org or a .net one ( based on results in the search engines).

Article Marketing Vs. Pay Per Click

June 15, 2010 By Lisa Angelettie 8 Comments

As an online marketer, I have researched and looked at various marketing strategies to attract traffic and convert that traffic into members and paying customers. While I have been using article marketing for many years, I have also taken a look at, researched, and tried pay per click marketing (PPC) as an alternative. These are the some of the pros and cons I see with these marketing methods, and you can decide for yourself, which strategy may be the best for you.

Learning How To Do Article Marketing Versus Pay Per Click
Article marketing is great for beginners because there isn’t that much of a learning curve. You just have to be able to write something about your topic and publish it somewhere. Preferably where there is a lot of traffic. Learning how to publish articles is simple these days because there are so many article directories where they do all the work, all you have to do is write and submit.

If you choose to learn pay per click, there is a bit of a steeper learning curve. You have to know what keywords to target, how to write a good ad, and you need to make sure that you target keywords that are in your budget (for example 3¢ per click versus 12¢ per click). Of course there is an “art” to using both. You need to learn certain tricks of the trade to maximize the potential of using either strategy, but writing articles about things you already know is easier than writing ads that make people want to click on them. That’s called copywriting — and that is a separate skill on its own which people take years to master.

The Cost Of Article Marketing Versus Pay Per Click
One of the huge allures to article marketing for most folks is that there is only an investment of time. No money. Which is great when you are on a shoestring budget or you are testing various marketing methods. You can write the articles yourself. You can publish them for free to various high-traffic sources. Also, if you write an article that fails to bring you traffic, all you have done is wasted about 30 minutes of your time writing.

With pay per click, there is a definite investment of cash, because the whole idea is that you are paying for traffic. You run your classified ad, and everytime someone clicks on your ad and travels to your website, you pay the company that runs the ad for you (Google Adwords or Yahoo). What you pay for the “clicks” is based on the popularity of the keywords that you use. So if it costs 7¢ per click to run an ad with the keyword of “Dog Training” and you get 1000 clicks in one month, then you will pay $70 for that one ad. Just one. If that ad doesn’t work, then you’ve lost $70 that month.

How Hard Do You Have To Work Using Article Marketing vs. Pay Per Click?
One of the attractions to PPC marketing is the fact that you can attract traffic almost overnight. Once you have your ad live, people can click and come visit your site. So the effort is minimal, once you’ve done the initial work of writing the right ad for your market. Sounds a bit easier than writing 25 articles and waiting for the traffic to come in huh? Well not necessarily.

While you may need to write and publish a good amount of articles to bring in a steady stream of traffic, you certainly don’t have to “wait” for the traffic. Luckily for entrepreneurs in this day and age, you can PUSH your articles in front of existing traffic. This is done via social media sites, and the traffic comes instantly.

So as you can see, there are many ways to get traffic. You can attract it. You can buy it. Or you can step in front of it. One way is free and the other can cost you. I’ve used both and have found that they both have their strengths and weaknesses, but as an overall long-term strategy, I have and continue to choose article marketing.

Related Websites

Should I Buy A .Com, .Net, .Org, or .Info Domain?

May 28, 2010 By Lisa Angelettie 9 Comments

Thinking of building a new site? Have you considered registering a .com, .net, .org, or .info domain name for it? Well, in the world of publishing information on the web, it is always important to consider some basic (SEO) search engine optimization factors when writing articles and building other content for your business. One of those basic SEO strategies is to pick a SEO domain extension for your new site, blog, landing pages, etc. that the search engines view as important. That will help make the content that you have on that particular site be seen as more important.

There is a hierarchy when it comes to domain extensions, and it’s more important than ever to know this information and more importantly act on it because as time marches on and the web grows – domain names are being reserved by the boatload. Don’t let your competitors get all the good keyword rich domain names!

.COM
This domain extension is the most common and the most important in the eyes of the search engines. It is considered the industry standard, and so my first recommendation is to always try to secure a keyword domain name in the .com extension. I mean try really hard. Most people who surf and search online think in terms of .com

Of course if the name doesn’t make sense for your business, then don’t. But if you can find one or better yet several domain names with your keywords in it AND it has a .com extension then you should secure them. Domain names are really a small investment in a long-term SEO strategy that will benefit your website for years to come. I always tell folks at seminars and during coaching calls, that my one biggest regret is that I didn’t secure enough .com keyword domains when I had the chance.

.NET
This is the second runner up. The next most important extension in terms of a regular business. If you are securing keyword domain names for a “for profit” online business — then .net is the way to go if you cannot find your name with the .com extension which is happening more often these days.

Now here’s the thing with this extension, if you have a “killer” .com domain and can grab the .net for it – then do it. You can always use it as a doorway page to your main site as long as you add different content to it. But you do not need a .net domain for every .com you own. The .com holds much more weight and is enough to have in the grand scheme of things.

Also, if your #1 competitor has the domain name you are looking for with the .com extension, then I wouldn’t bother with the .net. You’d have to work too hard to outrank them in the search engines. Just look for a better .com name.

.ORG
Now .org domain names hold as much and sometimes even more weight then .net extensions, but I put them third because it looks really silly to have an .org domain name for a magic tricks site or a marketing site (or most “for profit” sites). In hindsight, they probably should have reserved .org names for people who really run organizations like they do for .gov or .edu sites. But I digress, my point here is that the search engines give me them just as much value as a .net – so if you can’t find the domain name you want in either a .com or .net extension than this is third best option.

Now even if you do run a real organization, like a non-profit for children or something, you STILL will do better in the search engines with a .com – so keep that in mind.

.INFO
Many registrars run specials on .info names. You can pick these up some days for .99 cents. So do I have to tell you the importance of this extension? There isn’t much importance placed on them at all. I don’t know why, really no one does. The fact is that the search engines do not view .info websites as very important. SEO experts have run a lot of tests on this theory as well. They have created similar sites at the same time, but one as a .com and one as a .info. Even with little competition, the .com ranked very quickly and over 4 months later – you still couldn’t find the .info site in the search engine results at all. So need I say more. Don’t buy these.

While there are .BIZ and a lot of other new domain name extensions, they really do not hold too much more weight than an .net, so having said that, I think it’s better to just find a name based on the top 3 domain extensions in this hierarchy and your keywords. If you cannot find one, then you may need to reconsider your keywords or your approach to even penetrating your niche with content on the web. Grab your keyword rich seo domain names while you can.

Article Marketing SEO: Writing Your First Paragraph

May 20, 2010 By Lisa Angelettie 9 Comments

The Article Marketing SEO Series
Part III – First Things First! Writing Your First Paragraph

When the search engines decide how to rank content they look at many factors. While there are many small hidden factors on analyzing content that search engine developers will never reveal – many of us interested in article marketing seo have at least got the basics down. So far we know that the content whose keywords are found in the domain name rank well. We discussed that in detail in part 1 of this series. We also understand that article titles are extremely critical to ranking high in the search engines as well. Okay we’ve got that down. Now I want to talk to you about another often overlooked element of an article that ranks well and that’s your first paragraph.

There are some marketers who already know that the first paragraph is pretty important but do some janky stuff like stuff those first paragraphs with keywords. That’s a big no-no and very obvious to the search engines. Yet it’s critical that the search engines see that your title reflects what you are going to discuss in the article. So…

1. Unlike articles for print media, you cannot waste 100 words creating “build up” to your topic. Online media is different. You need to get straight to the point, and you do that in the first paragraph.

2. Your main keyword needs to be naturally placed in your first paragraph. You really only need to write it once there though because you will also naturally mention it again throughout the body of your article.

3. If you have a related keyword or keyword phrase then you can add it to the first paragraph as well.

4. The search engines like when you link out to a resource related to your article’s topic. While many article directories prohibit this because they do not want directory visitors to click off their websites — it is actually a best kept SEO secret that one-way linking (in and out) is quite favored by the search engines. One link in the first paragraph is a great start. Especially if it is linked with keyword rich anchor text.

Need to catch up on the Article Marketing SEO Series? Read the series in order:

Article Marketing SEO: Introduction
Article Marketing SEO: Part I
Article Marketing SEO: Part II

Article Marketing SEO: Article Titles Ain’t Sexy!

May 18, 2010 By Lisa Angelettie 7 Comments

The Article Marketing SEO Series
Part II – Article Titles Ain’t Sexy

My undergraduate degree is in print journalism. I wrote for my college paper and for a community paper during that time, and then went on to land a few jobs in journalism after I graduated. One of the things I stressed about with every article I wrote during those days were the titles of my articles. They had to be clever. They had to be catchy. They had to be better than the last title I wrote. Heck, they needed to be sexy! Well that was then and this is now, and in the wonderful world of article marketing SEO – article titles ain’t sexy!

Don’t get me wrong, article titles are still extremely important, but in different ways. In fact, the title of your article is the #1 skill that you have to get right or you are simply writing for yourself – and not for others to find and read your work. It took me a minute to understand that concept in the old days, because I had been trained every since I was little (writing book reports, term papers, etc.) to write “clever” titles. I’m sure the same holds true for you. You have been taught these same principles by English teachers etc. So now I have to re-teach you how to write titles that search engines love and that REAL people search for. So here it goes…

The most important strategy for writing article titles that attract traffic is to write them the way that people will search for them. This means that your articles will be rich in keywords, may be kind of short, and aren’t sexy at all — but that’s okay. Traffic is our goal. Here’s an article title example using dog food as the topic:

Bad: Want To Cook Doggy Style? (Play on words. Kind of cute. Yet no one would type this to search for information on how to cook food for a dog.)

Better: How To Cook For Your Dog (This is better. A how to title always works well.)

Best: Cook For Your Dog: Yummy Recipes (This is best, because the keywords are up front.)

This is a really easy concept to implement when you know HOW the people in your marketplace search for information, but what if you aren’t sure? That’s why I recommend researching good keywords and keyword phrases. What this will do is tell you what words prospects in your niche use to search for information. That way you can create an entire list of article titles that are keyword rich and likely to rank well in the search engines.

Tools you can use to do your keyword research include Google’s free keyword tool, Wordtracker’s free tool, or Noble Samurai’s paid keyword tool. My recommendation is to begin with the free tools until you get the hang of doing keyword research. Then perhaps later you can invest in a paid tool.

While you are at it – write variations of your titles using the same or similar keywords. This will help when you go to submit and publish variations of your articles. And that’s it! Easy article marketing seo optimized titles that ain’t sexy but pack a powerful search engine punch!

Next time we will talk about the essential elements you need in the first half of your article. Things that the experts don’t tell you! Those secret sallies:)

*Next article: First Things First! (writing your first paragraph)

Need to catch up on the Article Marketing SEO Series? Read the series in order:

Article Marketing SEO: Introduction
Article Marketing SEO: Part I

Related Websites

Article Marketing SEO: Get The Domain Name Right!

May 13, 2010 By Lisa Angelettie 10 Comments

The Article Marketing SEO Series
Part I – Get Your Domain Name Right

I’ve probably told this story many times, but I can’t reiterate it enough. If I had to do it all over again and build all of my older websites from scratch, the first thing I would have done is chosen keyword rich domain names for ALL of my sites. It’s not that I hadn’t heard that advice before, when I was building my sites — but I basically ignored it because I think I fell victim to a couple of things:

1. I didn’t really understand the importance of SEO. I didn’t quite understand it at the time, and there was also a lot of conflicting information out there about how tenuous it would be to rely on SEO for traffic building. So I didn’t focus on it that much. Luckily, I finally realized how important article marketing SEO is and that the “rules” around it have typically stood the test of time.

2. I didn’t know how to find the right keywords in my niche. It wouldn’t have made too much sense to purchase keyword domain names when I had no clue what keywords to select. I would have been shooting in the dark. I’m not saying that forking over 10 bucks for the wrong domain name will break you, but it starts to add up if you find out you have chosen a keyword phrase that no one in your niche searches for or that you have no chance of ranking well for.

3. I fell victim to endless branding messages. If you have been marketing your business for any length of time online, I’m sure you have run into many branding articles, branding coaches, branding blah blah blah. Eck! Don’t get me wrong, branding is very important. Heck – I’m still working mine out. BUT when you get so much conflicting branding information it’s hard to figure out what to do.

For example, I was told conflicting messages by two super successful coaches that I worked with. I went with the advice of one of those coaches, and decided to use the url name “lisaangelettieblog” for my article and information marketing website. The coach thought my name was memorable and that it would be a good strategy. Okay – I like my name too, but in hindsight I should have used a keyword rich domain name for this site.

Why? It would have helped me rank higher and faster for my main keywords, so for all the top 10 rankings that I currently have for my keywords, I had to work harder than necessary to attain them. Most of that, believe it or not, was due to my url name. Search engines like Google look at several factors for ranking content, but seeing the keywords in the domain name is a strong predictor of your article marketing SEO success.

Getting The Domain Name Right Is Crucial

Now that I’ve written and published a lot of articles on this site and many of my other sites, it’s a little too late to change my url. If I did, I would lose my ranking for many of my keywords because the url address for those articles would change. That’s why if you are just starting out (even if you have chosen a url and have a site up) STOP and go search and register a keyword domain name for your site. It’s not too late for you:) Obtaining a keyword rich domain url is your FIRST major step for ranking quickly in the search engines.

If like me you have an established site but still want to benefit from article marketing SEO, then there are a few ways around not having a good url. Some of which I will talk about in future articles in this series. *So continue on with me and read the next article in this series: Article Titles Aren’t Sexy

Need to catch up on the Article Marketing SEO Series? Read the series in order:

Article Marketing SEO: Introduction

Article Marketing Vs. Video Marketing

Article Marketing Vs. Video Marketing

Video Marketing

When I Buy A Domain Should I Buy The Net Version Too?

Article Marketing Vs. Pay Per Click

Related Websites

Should I Buy A .Com, .Net, .Org, or .Info Domain?

Article Marketing SEO: Writing Your First Paragraph

Need to catch up on the Article Marketing SEO Series? Read the series in order:

Article Marketing SEO: Article Titles Ain’t Sexy!

Need to catch up on the Article Marketing SEO Series? Read the series in order:

Related Websites

Related Websites

Article Marketing SEO: Get The Domain Name Right!

Need to catch up on the Article Marketing SEO Series? Read the series in order:

Related Websites

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