Three Things You Must Do Before You Submit To Article Directories

To all writers and non-writers out there, now is the time to start digging up those creative writing skills.With modern communication technology comes the popularity of information-based marketing, which is one of the oldest and most effective techniques in getting targeted prospects to sites and converting them into buyers. This is

You won't find many article marketing secrets being given away online, because very few people properly understand the power of this internet marketing tool. It is more than simply a way of getting links back to your website, but a very powerful tool that if used properly can increase your sales to another level.

If you are provided with 'secrets' then they are well known by almost everybody. I will admit that even the 'secrets' I am about to divulge are not secrets at all, but well known article marketing techniques. However, what I will also say is that the three provided here are neither appreciated nor used by all of those that profess to be marketing 'gurus'.

I know that because I have purchased many of their books and they don't suggest what I suggest: I know my systems work and can prove it through my website listings. However I must stop because I am becoming dangerously close to advertising, but I have done so as to indicate about the maximum you can do on article directories to advertise yourself: and that is your free tip. Do not advertise in your articles if they are intended for submission. Leave that for your 'author's resource box'.

The most common purpose for people writing articles and offering them to directories for publication is to get those all-important back links from the directories. However, just stand back a bit and think why the directories are in existence. It is not for your benefit. It is not to provide you with a free means of improving your Google PageRank, but they exist to make money. And why not? Otherwise there would be no point in anybody offering an article directory to all of these online writers.

You don't pay to have your articles published on the directories, so what is their purpose? How do these people make money? Two ways in fact: the first is by means of AdSense. If you do a search for an article on a specific topic, you will certainly find one because articles have been written on every topic on the planet. On the same page you will find AdSense ads. The reason for this is obvious and also psychological.

It is because most articles are not worth reading, and visitors generally have a quick look at them before leaving the directory site to seek proper information on their topic or niche. That is when they are liable to click on the AdSense ads and make money for the directory owner. That is added to the second way they make money which is from payment for speeding up the listing of the articles. You've seen the thing: get listed in several weeks or pay a few dollars for an instant listing. Like most other serious marketers, I pay.

Whichever means they use, article directories realize that it is to their advantage to get high search engine listings for as many articles as possible. They then have their sites visited by as many people as possible, and also have writers use them. That provides them with more visitors to click the AdSense ads and also as an inducement to other budding authors who might pay for listings. I don't pay for a listing in a site that never displays my articles on Google.

Here are three secrets or tips, that you can use in your own article marketing campaigns:

Secret #1 is that if you write the article on a topic related to the content of a page on your website, then the directory (and by that I mean the owner, but let's call it 'the directory' for simplicity) will do all the SEO work and get your article listed so as to get as many visitors as possible. That earns them money. What that means to you is that you get free SEO done on your article.

Why do you think that your articles have to be of a minimum length and of a certain standard? To be listed by search engines, especially Google, that's why. You can use this information to your advantage, but your articles must be at least 500 words. Your resource URL must be one related to the article, and if you make it your blog, that is even better. Place links on your blog to all your other relevant online ventures.

Secret #2 is not really a secret as a submission technique. When you have finished writing your article save it and submit it as a text file. Most people write using Microsoft word, or some other word processing software that uses their own formating code embedded in the article. You don't see it, but the search engines do and it could harm the listing of the directory web page containing your article.

Secret #3 is that many sites offer two or three links in the author's resource. That allows you not only to present links to two or three pages on your website, but also that these links need not all be from the same site. You could provide a link to a page relating to the article (as you always should), one to one of your other websites or Squidoo lens, and a third to your blog URL. Never ignore these possibilities. Open up your mind.

There are several more article marketing secrets that I could give you but that would render this article far too long. You might also require some elementary HTML instruction to provide you with a working knowledge: HTML, or hyptertext mark-up language, is not really a computer language but a means of linking text to files, and it can also be used to format text, graphics and tables on websites and any other medium that can read HTML and transfer it to the intended visual formating.

However, the above secrets are sufficient allow you to use them as SEO techniques that will improve your chances of a high search engine listing. Learn them and use them, and even if you think that they seem fairly elementary I bet my bottom dollar that nobody is using all of them in their article marketing campaigns, because most people are still thinking in mono as far as article marketing is concerned and have to reach the analogue stereo age let alone digital.

Get modern and look farther than you can see, or the internet kids will soon gobble you up for breakfast! Yesterday's techniques are today's tomorrow.

If you are interested in more of Pete's article marketing secrets, and some of the best are to come, then visit his Squidoo lens at SEOcious or perhaps his blog at My SEO Blog where you will find more about his personal SEO philosophy. Pete suggests them in the above order for some reason. Me? I don't care! I just want more ice cream.