by CHICKMELIONfreelance
We know that quality content for your web page as a marketing tool is the ideal, but how does one keep fresh content on their web page that satisfies the readers, the search engines and your business budget all the same time? A simple truth about the Internet today is that any site without consistent updated quality content is not seen as important enough to merit spidering by the search engines. This can leave your web site and your company-- pages and pages behind your competitors in the search listing and article marketing is all about getting yourself on the front pages!
Writing and submitting articles to article banks is a well-known method for promoting one’s website and as a means of optimizing position in the search listings. It serves a few good purposes. Regular submissions by you about your profession, product or service will build you as an expert in the eye of the reader. In addition, these articles stored in article banks usually in the very least have an author’s box at the bottom of the article that allows you to provide a link back to your website. This link is valuable in two ways. First, it provides direct traffic from those reading the article to the website. Second, the link counts as a vote to the website when a search engine robot crawls the article. This will help your website rank higher in the search engine results pages.
To help you understand and optimize your efforts, let us first consider the politics of search engines:
- By routinely adding fresh website content with back links more search engine indexing opportunities are created;
this in turn provides better visibility to traffic searching your particular niche;- more search engine traffic leads to more online popularity and viral online linking;
- this increased linking to a website results in more perceived relevancy by the search engines;
- and again resulting in higher search engine listings;
- which can promote more traffic because of its visibility;
- ...and the cycle continues.
What counts is quality! Your content as well as your web page must be able to attract targeted visitors to come time and time again. This is where you will be in contact with them and avail yourselves the opportunity to turn them into loyal customers. Successful internet marketers typically write and distribute at least one article per week to various article banks, as well as doing double duty in their own ezine/newsletter and keeping fresh keyword content on their own pages.
That is a lot of writing ! And if you are not in the business of writing you will soon find that the demands of article marketing, (though very profitable if used strategically) can pull an entrepreneur away from what they do best and that is run their business. There are various different methods used to tackle the content issue from: hiring freelance ghost writers, buying PLR content, spinning and article rewriting to refresh them for reuse, as well as using an article bank your self. Let’s take a closer look at each one.
PLR CONTENT....
PLR is short for private label rights meaning when you purchase PLR products they are free for your to alter and use as you wish, after all you just bought the rights to them;. just add your name/logo and off you go!. There is no shortage of PLR content being offered on the net and no matter what you are in business for, there is no doubt a PLR option that will fit quite well with your needs. These have some fantastic marketing applications. In this day and age “value added” is the catch phrase. Consumers are being wooed continually with free offerings by savvy entrepreneurs to get their foot in the door so to speak. These free offerings such as e-books, video tutorials, programs and dvd’s are usually attached to an opt-in list such as a newsletter that keeps the entrepreneur and their business forefront in the consumers eye on a regular basis. You can even buy PLR articles as well and freely submit these to article directories with your name on them. Now here are some things you will need to consider when you purchase PLR article material for a SEO ( search engine optimization) campaign:
You are not the only one purchasing this particular article there fore the content may not necessarily be fresh.
Even reputable PLR sites offer content writing services to combat this issue with in house writers submitting to blogs and websites on a regular basis.
Though you are satisfied with the article you may have to consider a few re-written copies to distribute not only to get your monies worth, but to avoid being penalized by some well known search engines (like Google for example) who frown greatly on duplicate content. They have some massively sophisticated algorithms that can detect duplicated content rather effectively and you may find yourself at the back of the search listings as a penalty.
There are those that argue that Google doesn’t out right penalize for duplication but rather duplicate content is identified by advance filtering techniques and rarely features well in SERPs (search engine results pages)... to me when your investment and your results do not get you to where you had worked so hard to be; this sounds like being penalized. With a few extra dollars or a few extra minutes of time you can ensure that a few versions with a fresh spin are available for use. It can make the difference between being on the 7th page of the search listings as opposed to the first.. Think about it, when you do any searching yourself - how far into the page listings were you willing to go?
ARTICLE SPINNING AND RE-WRITING...
In attempts to stay one step ahead of duplication penalties entrepreneurs have turned to a few means of article re-writing, they can purchase programs to spin or re-write an article and if all else fails have an article spun by hand the old fashioned way. Why do I mention the old fashioned way? Because these programs though effective in providing very good word substitutions or sentence rearranging, they are not so good at making the content come across as clear and relevant. Editing will still need to be considered to polish a re-write so it actually makes sense. The last thing you want is your name and reputation tagged to an article that is senseless. Some professionals claim that having a program re-write an article effectively loses the articles soul. Perhaps take a few free programs that are out on the market out for a spin and you be the judge. But don't forget to spin the title too, or else you are shooting yourself in the foot!
MAKING A WITHDRAWAL FROM THE ARTICLE BANK ....
When it comes to balancing time, money, and tasks at hand it makes perfect sense to throw in a free article from the bank once in a while. I say this for a few good reasons. While you may be a “re-upholsterer” and establishing yourself as an authority in your field or area on your site, you can draw from a wellspring of clients who may be found in an interior designer’s blog. As mentioned earlier, the articles at the Article Bank have back links, follow the link and make a deal to swap content. This is a profitable means of both link sharing and networking. that can save the both of you a bit of coin as well as time. Don’t forget, quality content is still key.
THE FREELANCE GHOST WRITER...
Though you may want to take on an article or two yourself, or buy some PLR content and spin them a few times; it may be well worth your while to get to know and have on hand a freelance writer. One that is willing to get to know you and your business, takes the time to research the material as well as become familiar with your competitors material, can help with keyword research, back linking, and re-writes. This will free you up to focus on the million and one areas your business demands of you daily.
You want them to ghost write for you because it is more valuable for you to have your name on the content in order to establish yourself as “the expert”. This builds a relationship of trust towards people who frequently come across your name when searching for information on your subject matter. Any freelance author worth their weight in salt will realize this.
Whether it be on your website, at the bank, or on a complimentary website with keywords and back links articles can certainly provide ample exposure for you to reap the benefits from .
