|
Article Banks and Google Alerts Harness Your Publishing Power
|
By Melissa A Rosati
[Hits: 29759]
|
|
Content is the currency fueling the Internet. Yet, articlebanks, repositories for authors to promote their content, arestill the Internet's best-kept secret.
I learned about article banks through a casual chat at anetworking event. A few days later, I posted my first article,Five Secrets to Winning Book Proposals. What happened next mademe a true believer in the marketing prowess of free content.
My website stats skyrocketed. In one day, I had 933 newvisitors, 40 new newsletter subscribers and six client leads.The days and weeks that followed provided more encouragingresults.
Previously, my cat Harvey was my only loyal visitor. Hismotivation for coming to the website was the heat generated fromatop the computer's monitor that displayed myhomepage--cute--but not a business-building strategy. Articlesprovide a new level of expertise, consistency and ubiquitousInternet coverage for any business.
>From my experience, I found that placing an article in anarticle bank is like dropping a pebble in a pond. The energyexpands the rings of influence. Five Secrets, now published inover 20 e-zines, still produces client leads and the occasionalfan letter.
If I can do it, you can, too. Here are several tips for gettingstarted with article banks.
With any marketing activity, you want to measure iteffectiveness. Web statistics are important. Contact your hostprovider about receiving regular traffic reports. I suggestreviewing them on a monthly basis.
I also think it is important to track where articles appear. Isuggest that your first step is to benchmark where you are todayon the Internet by setting a Google Alert for your name or thename of your business. Every time your article is posted to awebsite by a third-party, Google will send you the link viaemail. This is a great way to track where you content appears onthe web.
Step 1: Go to Google. On the search page, select MORE, this islocated directly above the search box in the right-hand corner.
Step 2: Under Google services, the first service listed isALERTS. It is marked by an alarm bell. Click ALERTS.
Step 3: You are now on the WELCOME TO GOOGLE ALERTS page. Youcan create an alert using the form given on this page.Alternatively, you can click the link MANAGE YOUR ACCOUNT thatwill allow you to create a free account in order to set multiplealerts.
Step 4: Set-up a Google Alert for your name. Be sure to put yourname in quotation marks. ("Melissa Rosati"). Quotation marksinstruct Google to only pull references where these two wordsappear together. Without the quotation marks, I would receiveevery generic MELISSA listed on the Internet.
Step 5: Select NEWS AND WEB. This command specifies that Googlewill search the eight billion pages on the web and will retrievefor you all of the pages where your name appears. You may chooseto have Google report to you every day or once each week.Depending on your current web presence, Google will send youyour first alert within one to two weeks. As your articlesexpand on the web, the alerts will come more frequently.
Step 6: Do a search for "article banks." You'll find banks thatare free as well as sites that may offer promotion for a fee.Personally, I stick with the free sites and find them to beeffective. Once you've selected an article bank, you may be ableto specify that your article appears in more than one section.For example, Alumbo.com will allow you to choose up to 10sections.
Every site will have its own submission guidelines. By acceptingthe submission terms, you agree that e-zines, newsletters orother content sites may reprint your article. Most article banksalways state that a third-party must produce the article in itsentirety and that your name and copyright notice must appear.
Each article bank expects that your submission will contain fivekey elements.
Headline: Help the reader solve a problem. People go to articlebanks to find a quick solution to a problem. Construct yourheadline as a question or in tip form--Five Secrets to WinningBook Proposals, for example.
Description: Make the article description one compellingsentence that addresses the problem.
Article Body: This is your core message. Remember, net readersneed short paragraphs and short sentences. Reading is tough onthe screen. Think--short and white space.
Subtitles: Include key words related to your topic. This givesyour article more pizzazz with search engines.
Resource Box: By all means, highlight your expertise. Always saysomething like "To learn more, visit....." This is how you drivetraffic to your website.
Don't let your cat be your only returning website visitor. Whenused consistently, article banks give you terrific exposure inshort period on time and will keep working for you for months tocome.
C 2005 Melissa A Rosati. All Rights Reserved
|
|
|
|
|
|
