In the recent post, Article Marketing: 21 Tips to Help You Get Started, I suggested to set an article marketing goal of submitting 2-3 articles a week for two weeks to one directory, then add another directory, and follow that pattern until you’re submitting regularly to 5 directories. Today’s post will discuss which directories are best to submit to and why.

Before I list the top directories for article submissions, I want to share three important things to consider when choosing an article directory site:

1. Link Value
2. PageRank
3. NoFollow Tags

Link Value

Alexa is a site that ranks top websites according to traffic.  Advertisers use a site’s Alexa Rank to determine the value of a link placed on a site. There are a number of ways to increase your site’s Alexa ranking. For Alexa, the lower the number, the more traffic the site has.

Page Rank

A site’s PageRank is basically how valuable and popular it is considered to the web. There are a number of complicated factors that Google considers when ranking a page, but 10 is best and 0 is the lowest.

NoFollow Tags

NoFollow Tags were developed to deter spammers, and they instruct search engines to not influence a link’s ranking in the search engine’s index. When using an article marketing strategy to build backlinks, it’s important to know which sites use NoFollow Tags.

Top Submission Sites

When selecting a site to submit articles to, it’s important to consider all three of the above items. Here are the Top 15 sites (as of March 19, 2010) listed according to Alexa Ranking — note that four of these sites use NoFollow Tags.

(Note: The first number after the site name is the Alexa Ranking. The second number indicates the site’s Google PageRank. Some of the Alexa rankings may seem low due to the high numbers, but considering how many millions of websites are out there will put these numbers into perspective.)

1. Ezine Articles — 130 — PR 6
2. ArticlesBase — 408 — PR 6 — NoFollow
3. Suite101 — 706 — PR 7
4. Buzzle — 1150 — PR 5
5. Go Articles — 1711 — PR 6
6. Helium — 1905 — PR 6
7. ArticleSnatch — 2248 — PR 4 — NoFollow
8. ArticleDashboard — 2817 — PR 5
9. Article Alley — 3062 — PR 5 — NoFollow
10. Self Growth (articles) — 3972 — PR 6
11. Idea Marketers — 3994 — PR 3
12. Amazines.com — 4275 — PR 2
13. SearchWarp — 5708 — PR 5 — NoFollow
14. Sooper Articles — 6134 — PR 5
15. Article City — 7032 — PR 5

A note of caution

If you begin digging around the web to research about article marketing, you’ll likely find numerous automatic article submission services. There are good and bad points with these services. One thing to consider is that Google and other search engines monitor spam practices, and if you’re submitting identical content to dozens of directories, you may be flagged as a spammer.

Most article marketing experts advise to pick 5 well-respected directories and submit to those regularly. The quality of a backlink can help you more than quantity links. And if you submit just 3 articles per week to 5 popular directories, in a year, you’ll have 750 quality backlinks.

Plus, as eZine editors, bloggers, and others the content you submit, you’ll have even more links pointing back to your blog. Article Marketing is considered by some experts to be the absolute best way to grow traffic, build your brand, and position yourself as an authority in your niche without spending a dime. Yes, it takes some work, but the return on your investment of time will be worth it.

Niche Directories

There are also article directories that cater to specific niches. It’s a good idea to add a couple of those in addition to the five popular. To find directories for your specific niche, do a Google search, such as “(Your Niche) Article Directories.”

Until next time,

Happy Blogging!

Photo-sharing is a great tactic to add to your online marketing strategy. Flickr is a popular photo-sharing community where you can showcase your products and services. Here are 24 tips to help you get started:

1. Be sure to read the Flickr Terms of Service. Blatant advertising and pitching products is prohibited, so your marketing tactics within this community will be indirect.
2. When you create your free Flickr account (using your Yahoo! ID), you can include company information in your profile. Some Flickr users even put their blog URL as their username. For example, here is my Flickr URL: http://www.flickr.com/photos/onbloggingwell/. You can claim your unique web address through the “My Account” area. By default, your Flickr ID number is displayed.
3. If you are a business blogger, upload your icon as your “buddy icon.” If you’re using Flickr to promote your personal brand, then upload a good promo head shot of yourself. You can use Flickr’s built in image cropping feature to select exactly which part of your photo you want displayed.
4. The profile description box allows you to use HTML tags, so you can bold, italicize, or even embed a link into your anchor text.
5. Flickr photos are displayed in streams, sets, and collections. Your photo stream is the last photos uploaded. On your contacts’ pages, your very last uploaded picture is displayed, so make sure it’s a good one. A set is a group of photos centered around a theme or event. You can “batch edit” sets. A collection is a group of sets.
6. Create a set of pictures related to your blog’s topic. For instance, if you blog about golf, cake decorating, sailing, or whatever your topic, create a set or several sets of pictures that relates to that topic. On sets, the first image uploaded is the thumbnail display, so upload your best image first for each set. (But do save some great pics for your very last uploads, because that is what displays in your photo stream — see #5.)
7. Include HTML tags in your photo descriptions. Let’s say you blog about sailing tips. Perhaps you even own a sailing business. While you can’t use Flickr to advertise your business, you can blog about a particular event, perhaps a romantic sunset dinner sailing cruise that’s coming up. Then, upload sunset photos taken from your sailboat and in their description box, embed a link back to the blog post about the event. Sample description: “This photo was taken at sunset from the sailboat ____, during the annual romance is in the air sail.” Embed your link using the anchor text, “romance is in the air sail,” because that is the title of the event.
8. Include key words in your photo title. Don’t stuff the description boxes with keywords, but definitely include them in your photo titles.
9. Blog about your photos and encourage your blog readers to leave comments and/or notes at your Flickr site.
10. Tell your friends and family about your Flickr photos. You can issue a “guest pass,” which allows non-Flickr users access to your photos.
11. Tag your photos religiously. You can tag in batches. If you’re business is locally based, be sure to include your location when you’re tagging. Other tag suggestions are: type of shoot, subject names, accessories, website URL, and keywords associated with your brand, such as “romantic sailing excursions,” etc.
12. Become active in the Flickr community. Photo-sharing sites are social media communities, and you will gain more traffic back to your blog by becoming active within the social communities you choose to join. Contact back those who contact you.
13. Include your Flickr photo stream on your blog. This will make it easy for your blog readers to add notes and comments to your photos. The more notes, “favs,” and comments your photos receive, the better your chances of being featured in Flickr’s “Interesting” gallery. There are even prestigious awards to pictures that have “10 favs,” “100 favs,” etc. (Tip for making the Flickr’s “interesting” pic of the day gallery — post early in the day, like right after midnight, to give your photo more exposure throughout the day.)
14. Monitor your online reputation by searching for your name or your business/blog name. Some business persons have found photos of their products tagged in Flickr. Depending upon the description, you may be getting good or bad publicity. Finding a tagged photo of your product with a negative description, you can use the opportunity to contact the person who tagged it and offer some solutions to their issue with your product or service.
15. Join related groups. If you blog about dog training, search through Flickr’s groups and join some dog lover groups. Interact with group members. Favorite group member pictures, leave notes and comments, and participate in the group discussion boards. This will help you build relationships within your niche audience. You can even create your own group.
16. Consider a pro account. Some of the community’s active members consider “pro” members as having more clout. It’s only $24.95/year, and removes many of the limitations of free accounts.
17. Online photo-sharing can save blogger’s bandwidth and disk storage space. This isn’t as big an issue as it once was, as most hosting accounts allot a generous amount of both at reasonable prices, but if you use a lot of photos on your blog, it can make a difference.
18. Get feedback on projects. If you’re a graphic designer, post different versions of a project and ask viewers and/or group members to “vote” on which they prefer. Many publishers allow input from authors on book cover choices. Post the candidates onto Flickr and ask your readers to choose their favorite.
19. Flickr Uploadr is a great tool (for both Mac and PC) to batch upload photos to your Flickr account.
20. Post Flickr pictures to StumbleUpon and Digg to gain even more exposure. Make sure you only do this for your very best pictures. Remember, the difference between a good photographer and a great photographer is that the great photographer doesn’t show you all his photos.
21. You can set copyright choices for your photos, and many bloggers search for great images at Flickr. Be sure to respond quickly to reuse requests.
22. If you’re covering a specific event, such as a niche-related conference or convention, upload your photos as quickly as possible to “scoop” others and gain interest in your photos. There are mobile uploading tools available.
23. Many Flickr users aren’t aware of this, but stats are included in a pro account, so if you sign up for that, be sure to enable metrics so you can track your analytical data.
24. Have fun! Photo-sharing can be a fun, addictive way to interact online while promoting your blog and/or products and services. Enjoy it.

What ways do you use photo-sharing? Please leave your comments, questions, and suggestions below. And, until next time,

Happy Blogging!

We haven’t discussed too much about how to make money blogging, but that will be the topic of the next few Marketing Monday segments. In some ways today’s online market is easier to sell to than even a few years ago. Social media has increased our audience. Yet in other ways, it’s more difficult because the online community has quickly learned to identify ads and sales pages.

The key to online marketing is to “pre-sell” your target audience by creating such a desire in your readers before you even launch a product that they have their credit cards in hand the day your sales page goes live.

So, how do we do that? Three steps:

Create a Desire

Your target audience already has some desire to buy your product or they wouldn’t have found your site. Either they’ve heard of you or your product or they’ve typed a phrase into a search engine that led them to your site. Because they are already interested in your product or service, your big job here is to make sure your site is the one they come to. This is done by implementing search engine optimization tactics.

One way to entice web searchers to choose your site from the list of search engine results is to use the post description to create intrigue. This is easily accomplished using the WordPress All-in-One SEO Pack plugin. By default, search engines will display the first 160 characters of your post in the search engine results. You can override those 160 characters with a “sales pitch” for your post by writing your own 160 (or less) character blurb in the description field of your post page. (Note: This field will appear automatically once you’ve installed, activated, and configured the plugin.) Think back cover copy type of blurbs when you write your post descriptions.

So, now that you’ve created desire in your audience to visit your site to learn more about the service or product or topic they’ve searched for, your next step is to keep them there and make sure they keep coming back.

Build trust

I’ve said this before on this blog. We’ve “evolved” beyond the information age into the referral age. More and more web users are seeking sites they trust to provide them the information they desire. Set yourself apart from the crowd by positioning yourself as an authority in your niche, displaying a likable personality on your blog, and by providing lots of free content to your readers. And by lots, I mean lots.

Many online marketers make the mistake of trying to sell to first-time guests. You’ve probably seen it. You do a search, choose which site you want to visit, and, while you’re right in the middle of reading the first article’s first paragraph — BOOM — a popup box floats down in front of your line of site, begging you to buy the blogger’s newest product. That will do nothing for you except add your site to that reader’s “never come back again” list.

Use blog posts, podcasts, video, and free reports to inform your readers about the topic they’re researching. The information you provide will let them know you know your stuff, plus they’ll be impressed that you didn’t greet them at the door with your hand out. Now you’re ready for the next step.

Provide MORE free content

Yep. Rinse and repeat step two. You can trade a free report for their email address, but don’t attempt to sell them anything until you give them some more content. And make it good, informative content, not just a bunch of fluff.

So, how do you launch a product or service if you’ve already given everything away?

Ah — the secret is that you don’t give it ALL away. The secret ninja tactic of the successful online marketers is that yes, they give away a LOT of information, but all that free content, while being useful, focuses on WHAT the reader needs to do to solve their problem. The actual product explains the HOW to do it.

For example, if you’re writing a blog that helps parents prepare to send their student to college, you can give a lot of information that will really help your audience. A dorm room checklist. Ways to finance their college tuition. What to look for when selecting a college. And the list goes on.

Then, when you get ready to launch your eBook that will give specific step-by-step instructions on where to find scholarships, how to fill out the FAFSA, how to write an application essay that will knock the socks off the admissions committee — your audience already trusts you as an authority in the college-prep field. Plus, if you’ve done a good job thus far, they understand that the information you’re about to sell them will actually save them more money than the cost of the eBook (and it should!).

This is not a scam process. Scammers don’t provide any value once they’ve enticed the audience to buy. People like to buy, but they don’t like to be sold to. If you’ve consistently built the desire and trust in your audience during the pre-sell by providing useful information, they will gladly open their wallets when you’re ready to roll out your product. And they will be glad they did.

Until next time,

Happy Blogging!