Article Marketing & Online Marketing Strategies from IdeaMarketers - Where Your Ideas Shine

Article PR Resources

While doing a little research on how well our promotion for ReadyToPublish.com is going, I ran across a couple sites of interest to article marketers:

• SiteProNews selected ReadToPublish as their site of the day on April 17th and also placed it on their page listing article directories.
• Bonnie Davis mentioned the site in her thoroughly comprehensive "Articles That Sell" lens. You'll find lots of great information there.

Writers: Get Higher MSN Positioning with Contextual Links in Articles

Recently, I began an in-depth study of search engine placement for articles that writers have prominently promoted on www.IdeaMarketers.com . In the process, I've gained some valuable insights on what works. MSN, in particular, seems to love IdeaMarketers articles. Titles promoted on the IdeaMarketers home page swiftly show up on the search engine. While titles are important, MSN also seems to pay attention to linked keyword phrases within articles.

I'll use one of our consistent contributors as an example. Julie Coulter Bellon, a romantic suspense novelist, has been posting excerpts of her books as well as book reviews for about six months now. She has consistently bid high enough to keep at least one of her articles on the IdeaMarketers home page at any given time.

Two of her book excerpts, Time Will Tell and On the Edge, used the primary keyword phrase "romantic suspense novel" which was then linked straight over to her web site – www.JulieBellon.com. The way IdeaMarketers works is the primary keyword phrase that you enter with an article automatically links to the URL you enter with the article. If you don't enter a URL with the article itself, it will link to the URL on your writer profile.  In Julie's case, she had both these articles set so that her primary keyword phrase "romantic suspense novel" linked to her web site's home page.

Today when I went to MSN and searched for "romantic suspense novel" on MSN, the number one natural listing was www.JulieBellon.com ! That's quite impressive for such a highly sought after keyword phrase!

After looking at trends with MSN and keyword phrases, I'm convinced that if Julie had used the phrase on only one of her articles, she probably wouldn't have come up as high. But with two of her popular articles (both of which she'd placed on our home page for several weeks) using the same keyword phrase, MSN stood up and took notice.

What can you learn from this? Select a primary keyword phrase that is most likely to describe your site and to be entered by search engine surfers. Then use that primary keyword phrase consistently on articles that you submit to IdeaMarketers. Make sure you've entered your URL correctly and test it to make sure it works! Then place a bid for promotion on IdeaMarketers that consistently keeps your article somewhere on the home page of the site.

You can switch the articles you promote, but use the keyword phrase consistently on at least two or more articles to build link popularity for the phrase.

Don't forget to also add the keyword phrase to your home page text and meta tags. While I've seen MSN listings occur simply from primary keyword phrases on articles at IdeaMarketers (with no mention of the phrase on the target site), go ahead and maximize your chances by including the phrase on your web site.

What Makes Articles Come Up Higher On Search Engines

I've noticed that people consistently bid for article positioning on IdeaMarketers and that the price they're willing to pay is steadily increasing. In and of itself that tells me that it's working for these long-time contributors, but I wanted to know exactly "how" well it's working for them. So I did a little study on the last 30 articles with bids. It was very enlightening. To view my results on the search engine positioning for these articles, go here.

Understand that this study only looks at positioning of an article on MSN, AOL and Google and doesn't explore actual traffic to the article or how many times these articles are reprinted. But it does provide useful data for article marketers.

IdeaMarketers Rewards Writers

We've added a new rewards program at IdeaMarketers.com that recognizes writers when they write meaningful articles, grammatically correct articles and more articles.

One of our Best
For those who write meaningfully
These writers have been hand-picked by our editorial staff as writers who consistently submit quality content. This award is not handed out lightly.

Top Contributor
For those who write more
These writers have submitted at least 16 or more articles to our database and thus have made a significant contribution to our site. (Note: The Top Contributors are updated daily. So if you add your 16th article, this icon won't instantly appear next to your article, but should within 24 hours.)

Ready to Publish
For those who write correctly
The RTP (Ready to Publish) emblem signifies an article that has been proofread by our staff. For information on having an article proofread go here. To view all our proofread articles, visit www.ReadyToPublish.com

We hope this new rating system will reward those who contribute quality content and also give those looking for articles a good indication of what they can expect from writers and their articles.

Being Selective About Who Uses Your Articles

The following question was submitted by Tony Novak of asktony.tonynovak.com. Since others might have the same issues, I thought it a good Q&A to post here.

Question:

"I am writing to ask if you would be willing to comment on any possible fit between my business work and yours.  I am on your e-mail list, have visited your Web sites a number of times.  I recognize your expertise in the marketing/distribution niche but I do not see any "fit" between us and I wonder if I am missing some opportunity.

I am a prolific technical writer in the tax and benefits fields and my writings rank very well on the search engines.  For that reason I do not want other people reproducing the articles and so I do not make them available on ideamarketers.  (Years ago I made my articles available to others and found them published on all sorts of spam and junk Web sites that actually competed with me for SE placement).  Yet I wonder if I am missing some opportunity by limiting the distribution of my material?"

Answer:

You could submit your articles to our site but make sure you mark Syndication as No... so they don't stream out onto other sites. Also mark the Preauthorized option as No. That will mean anyone who wants to use the article must ask you permission first. Our request for reprint forms on the site go straight to you as the author to accept or reject requests.

This way you can screen who reproduces your articles. Even if you tell everyone "no" and only have them on Ideamarketers, writers find that having their articles in prominent positioning on the  IdeaMarketers home and channel pages builds traffic to their web sites. For example, Google loves our main pages and follows the links to writers' sites.

The Most Priceless Resource Life Has to Offer

There is one resource that I esteem more than any other. It's not money, it's not gold, diamonds or land. It's people - specifically people who hold knowledge that I do not have - people who are willing to share that knowledge with me. Over years in business, I've encountered key individuals who've given me ideas and concepts that made a dramatic difference in not only my bottom-line revenues, but also in the way I looked at life. Whenever I encounter one of these individuals, I'm always grateful because I know I've just received a priceless treasure.

You see, if someone pays you with money, you have your money and that is that, but if they pay you with knowledge, that knowledge can turn into ongoing profits that serve you indefinitely. Let me tell you about one of these priceless individuals who has impacted my business with his expertise. In one telephone conversation Phil Davis of Tungsten Brand Marketing gave me an idea that I immediately acted upon. This one idea doubled the revenues from one of my most significant revenue streams within a month's time! And it keeps producing month after month at a 160%-200% level over historical averages!

If you need help with Strategic business naming, branding and positioning , stop by Tungsten Brand Marketing . Phil is available on a consulting basis, and in my experience he always over-delivers... giving you ideas and insights that pay long-term dividends.

Looking for Flowers/Gardening Content

We've just opened a new niche site focusing on flowers and gardening. It's called AsFlowersBloom.com . If you write about flower or gardening topics, please add your articles to IdeaMarketers.com. AsFlowersBloom.com pulls all its content from the IdeaMarketers.com database.