After reading the newest ebook published by Nathan Anderson, I was floored at how it easy it was to generate great search engine results without paying a guru an outrageous sum of money to do so.  The search engines are accessible to everyone because of this new look at search engine optimization. Nathan Anderson takes the time to write down to earth explanations that any beginner can grasp and apply immediately. His writing style makes the technical jargon used by many technology nerds palatable to the amateur user.

Nathan clearly defines what a content site is and how it works. He also goes into detail about the components that make up a content site. I especially enjoyed this quote from the books opening letter. “Many SEOs are quite proud of their content creation abilities, claiming it to be an “art”. They call it “SEO Copywriting” in order to make themselves feel more important than they are… when in fact, any monkey that knows English can perform nearly on-par with these “experts.”

This comment says a lot about Anderson and the kind of person he is. The sheer simplicity of the seven clearly outlined components of a content site is indeed the work of monkeys. Thanks to Nathan’s lack of egotism and his new ebook we can all share in better search results. Nathan holds nothing back as he goes into on-page and off-page optimization factors. Anderson reveals twelve points that any SEO would charge thousands of dollars to reveal.

Just when you thought that the book was worth every minute spent signing up to his exclusive opt-in list, Nathan goes on to reveal the seven components of a content site as in a very well defined and easy to understand writing method. This portion of his new ebook clearly explains that the following seven components are general characteristics of a content site.

1. Houses primarily HTML Text

2. Includes elements of interaction

3. May include multiple media types

4. Grows over time

5. Is tightly themed (niched)

6. Takes advantage of personal passions

7. Community = Success

Anderson goes on to explain every characteristic in great detail to ensures that the reader knows exactly how to compile, combine, and complete a site that embodies “the art” of a true content site. The simplicity of every single component is emphasized with examples and clear explanations.

Nathan goes as far as to give a list of resources and tools that is unmatched anywhere on the net. He goes into the programs and tools he uses personally to construct his own content sites. It was a true pleasure to read this ebook and use the tips and techniques Nathan has given to the world. The ebook is free at artofthecontentsite.com. Take a minute download it and start living your dreams.

This article and one-way link advertisement provided by LinkAcquire.com

Art of the Content Site by Nathan Anderson Shows that better search results are attainable by anyone.

David C Skul - CEO LinkAcquire.com and Relativity, Inc. is pleased to serve his clients through traffic generating articles and one way links.

Most decent people will not stoop so low as to write trashy articles on the Internet to get business, I myself am included in that group with enough self-esteem to forgo that trick. However I did an experiment with Titles to see what type of articles get read. I learned some interesting things, which anyone who studies search engine key words probably already knew.

The truth, you want it? Well I have 690,000 page views and over 2800 articles on an online article submission website, as well as 12,000 forum posts on 7 websites and the most hits come from Trash articles such as; “Cancun Girls Gone Wild; Wilma Shows All,” “Japanese Sex Robots,” “Sex in a Cessna” and “Read this Article if You Just Want to Get Laid.” I know because I wrote those articles and chose those titles as an experiment, although the articles are not trashy the titles are boarder line indeed.

What does this tell us? It tells us that the average Human Internet Service is a piece of work, unenlightened and obviously not getting enough. Why is this? Well because human societies have made “Sex” a dirty word, which it is not. This is due to the micro-management and control of Organized Religion trying to make it something dirty, that you should feel guilty about. So people rather than discussing and/or participating in it, go to the anonymous Internet and search it.

A recent report on Television content showed it had moved to more sex scenes and topics in the last five years than since its inception. The fact is the Internet is now being clouded by mainstream and it is really a shame, but it is the truth. Think on it.

"Lance Winslow" - Online Think Tank forum board. If you have innovative thoughts and unique perspectives, come think with Lance; www.WorldThinkTank.net/wttbbs/

I’ve been frustrated lately. It seems people just don’t get it. There’s lots of talk about SEO copywriting these days, but hardly any of it is on target. The majority of the conversations, posts and articles I’ve seen deal with topics like keyword density, allowable limits, over optimization and such. These people are making search engine copywriting all about the search engines. They are forgetting the fact that SEO copywriting is still copywriting.

What that means - generally speaking - is you are still writing promotional copy designed to cause a *person* to take a specific action. Your target audience (your site visitors) should come first. The elements designed to help the copy rank well absolutely come last.

What good is all the traffic in the world if your site copy doesn’t convert visitors into buyers? Not much. That’s why - when writing SEO copy - the human visitor comes first.

Unfortunately, SEO copywriting is getting a bad name because so much of what is being cranked out is repetitious babble. Most of these pages would never have made it on to a site, except for the fact that the site owner wanted to rank highly for certain key terms.

So, in the interest of salvaging the good name of search engine copywriting, before it’s too late, let me offer some guidelines.

SEO Copy Is:

· first and foremost - written for the visitor.

· unique and purposeful.

· natural-sounding - it flows.

SEO Copy Is Not:

· written exclusively with the engines in mind.

· mirrored, adjusted or altered to create new pages by simply changing keyphrases.

· stiff, forced or overly repetitive.

The Dos of SEO Copywriting

When writing SEO copy, you’ll want to:

· understand who you are writing to.

· choose what the focus of the page will be.

· create a plan outlining the message you want to convey.

· decide how best to communicate that message to your particular target customers.

· choose which keyphrases will be incorporated into the copy.

· make sure those keyphrases work well with the page and the planned copy.

· incorporate keyphrases as you write (not after you write), so they flow naturally with the planned message.

The Don’ts of SEO Copywriting

When writing SEO copy, you should never:

· create a plan based solely on how to rank high.

· replace *every* instance of a generic term (car) with a keyphrase (red, convertible car).

· add pages of copy simply to appease the search engines.

· rely on useless keyword density ratios and formulas.

· shove keyphrases in everywhere possible. (No, it won’t get you banned, but it will sound completely ridiculous!)

SEO copywriting is not the process of writing exclusively for the search engines. It is the process of writing copy to appeal to your visitors, while including elements to help the search engines and your visitors understand what the page is all about.

If you remember who truly makes or breaks your site’s success (your customers!) and focus on them, you’re sure to create SEO copy that rings true.

© 2005 http://www.marketingwords.com/

Karon Thackston is author of “How To Increase Keyword Saturation (Without Destroying the Flow of Your Copy).” Discover the secrets to creating SEO copy with a perfect balance between keywords and natural language. http://www.copywritingcourse.com/keyword

Search engine copywriting has become an extremely important part of the overall search engine optimization process. However, in addition, search engine copywriting has developed into a misunderstood craft.

Shoving keywords in anywhere they can possibly go is not considered search engine copywriting. The process is more defined than that. Successful SEO copywriting takes planning. Any half-hearted efforts at writing copy geared strictly toward the engines will usually result in a decline in your customer’s experience at your site.

What’s the best way to write SEO copy? Starting with a plan is always a good idea. Keep in mind, these are guidelines of techniques that can be used *IF* they make sense for your site visitors. I never recommend writing solely for the search engines. In the case of search engine copywriting, the customer is truly #1.

1) Use Three Keyphrases Per Page - Not a carved-in-stone rule, the guideline of three keyphrases per page gives good variety and helps keep the copy from sounding too repetitive. I always choose keyphrases first - before I write - because they can have a direct impact on the focus of the page.

2) Have 250 or More Words of Copy - The length of your copy depends on several things: Your target customer’s preferred communication style, whether the product is new to the marketplace, if a detailed explanation needs to be given, site design and many other factors. However, the 250-word minimum gives enough room to get your message across and offer an effective level of keyword support. Remember though, it’s all about the customer. If your target customers prefer longer copy, write longer copy. If they like shorter copy, write shorter copy.

3) Write In Natural Language - "Natural language" is a term popular in SEO copywriting. It means that the reader should not be able to (or should barely be able to) detect what keyphrases the page is being optimized for. The copy should flow as if it were not written with the search engines in mind. You don’t want the copy to sound forced or stiff. When you generate ideas for the page copy, keep your keywords in mind. Ask yourself whether you can use them in the copy in such a way that they won’t be obtrusive.

4) Use Keyword Phrases In Headlines and Sub-headlines - IF it makes sense to do so. You will not blow your rankings if you have no keyword-filled or other tags. If your headline sounds stupid with keywords in it, don’t use them. There are countless sites online that rank highly which have no keywords in the headline.

5) Use Keyword Phrases Once or Twice Per Paragraph - Again IF it makes sense. Remember what I keep repeating? None of these guidelines are carved in stone. Read your copy out loud. If it sounds stupid or forced, take out some keywords or find ways to rework them so they flow more naturally.

6) Use Keyword Phrases In Bold, Italic or Bulleted Lists - IF it makes sense to do so. Don’t automatically bold or italicize every instance of your keywords. It will make your page look stupid, and your visitors will wonder what kind of drugs you’ve been doing!

7) Do NOT Use Keyword Phrases As Substitutes For Generic Terms - For example, do not replace every instance of the generic word "cruise" with the keyphrase "Mexico cruise vacation." Your copy will sound ridiculous.

We offer Mexico cruise vacation packages on the most popular Mexico cruise vacation ships to the most breathtaking Mexico cruise vacation destinations. Oh please!!

8) Use Keyword Phrases As Anchor Text In Links - This is certainly not always possible. If your primary keyphrase is "Mexico Cruise Vacation," you absolutely should not write every link to include that phrase. However, if you can include keywords in anchor text within body copy or in text navigation links, you might score a little extra credit.

9) Test and Track - Lastly, and above all, please remember, it may take some tweaking to get your page to convert the way you want it to. All customers are not the same, and all sites are not the same. All keyphrases are not the same. There is no magic bullet. You’ll have to test and track and see what works best for you.

© 2005 http://www.copywritingcourse.com/keyword

Copy not getting results? Learn to write SEO copy that impresses the engines and your visitors at http://www.copywritingcourse.com. Be sure to check out Karon’s latest e-report “How To Increase Keyword Saturation (Without Destroying the Flow of Your Copy)” at http://www.copywritingcourse.com/keyword.

Giving away content is a powerful way to get free advertising. For example, give other people permission to use your article on their web site or in their e-zine. The resource box at the end of your article acts as an ad. In return, you get free advertising. It’s a win/win situation for both you and the people that need the extra content.

There are many forms of free content. It could be articles, reports, news stories, e-books, e-zines, e-mags, virtual e-mail courses, press releases, web books, etc.

You can take it a step further and make giving away content an even more powerful way to get free advertising. For example, give your free e-book to one person and allow them the rights to also give it away. Do you see what I’m leading up to? Let’s say only 20 people download your e-book. Those 20 people may give away your e-book to 20 more people. That’s a total of 400 people that have seen your ad in the e-book. And it just keeps multiplying!

If you keep producing free content over a long period of time it starts building up. Now, take all your free content and create an online directory. You can use your free content directory as a web site traffic generator. You can ask people to add the directory to their web site by linking to yours.

In conclusion, giving away content gives you three powerful ways to get free advertising. You can submit free content, allow other people to give away your free content, or have people link to your web site to give away the free content. My advice is to take it one step at a time and this system will bring traffic to your web site over and over for years to come.

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Julia Tang publishes "Smart Online Business Tips", a fresh
and informative newsletter dedicated to supporting people
like you. To find out the best online business opportunities,
to discover hundreds more proven and practical internet
marketing secrets, plus FREE internet marketing products
worth over $200, visit: http://www.best-internet-businesses.com
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Ezine publishes have large amount of loyal subscribers. If you send articles to ezine publishes, readers have trust their editors’ recommendation. In turn, you will get more valued visitors to your website. Every time they publish your article, your website traffic will get boosted.

There are a number of benefits when you submit your articles to ezines:

1. You’ll brand your web site, business and yourself by submitting articles to e-zines. You could include your name, business name, your credentials, web site address and e-mail address in your resource box.

2. You will become known as an expert on the topics you write about. This will give you and your business extra credibility which will help you compete against your competition.

3. Your article might also be placed on the publisher’s home page. If they publish each issue on their home page this will give you some extra exposure.

4. You might get extra exposure if the e-zine publisher archives their e-zine on their site. People might want to read the back issues before they make the decision to subscribe.

5. You will get free advertising. This will allow you to spend your profits on other forms of advertising. You could buy advertisements in other e-zines that don’t publish your articles.

6. You might get extra income from people wanting to hire you to write other articles, books, or even ask to speak at seminars. This is a great way to multiply your income.

7. You could allow e-zine publishers to publish your articles in their free e-books. Since people give them away, your advertising could multiply all over the internet.

8. You will get your article published all over the web when you submit it to an e-zine publisher that has a free content directory on their web site. They’ll allow their visitors to republish your article.

9. You’ll gain people’s trust. If they read your article and like it, they won’t be as hesitant to buy your product or service. You will then be able to increase your profits.

10. You could get your article guaranteed to run in an e-zine. You could agree to run one of their articles in your e-zine if, in exchange, they run yours in their e-zine. It’s a win/win situation.

Now you see a lot of benefit. It is time to write a good article every week and submit to ezine directories. If you want to get more information for how to write articles and where to submit your articles, you can visit http://www.best-internet-businesses.com

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Julia Tang publishes Smart Online Business Tips, a fresh
and informative newsletter dedicated to supporting people
like you! To find out the best online business opportunities,
and to discover hundreds more proven and practical internet
marketing secrets, plus FREE internet marketing products
worth over $200, visit: http://www.best-internet-businesses.com
———————————————————-

Note:You may use this article in your ezine or on your site as long as the article and resource box remain unchanged

From the perspective of a business owner, webmaster, or marketing manager, the change exhibited by the Internet is profoundly exciting, yet profoundly disturbing. The information (and misinformation and disinformation) it offers, the business benefits it promises, and the rules it is governed by change at such a rapid rate that it’s almost impossible to keep up.

These changes have led to a growing appreciation of the value of quality web copy. This appreciation has, in turn, led to an influx of opportunistic ‘copywriters’ promoting themselves as website copywriters or SEO copywriters. Don’t get me wrong, there are quite a few excellent SEO copywriters out there, and you should definitely shop around. The purpose of this article isn’t to scare you; it’s to help you find the SEO copywriter who’ll deliver honest service and excellent results.

So with that in mind, take a look at the following ten tips. These are the things you have a right to expect from anyone wearing a name badge that reads “website copywriter”, “SEO copywriter”, “internet copywriter”, or “web copywriter”… (See also www.divinewrite.com/websitecopywriter.htm and www.divinewrite.com/makethemost.htm.)

1) An understanding of SEO

Obviously, your SEO copywriter must have a solid understanding of the essentials of Search Engine Optimization. They must know that ranking is essentially the result of a website’s relevance (i.e. keywords) and importance (i.e. inbound links). There are a whole lot of other factors involved, but if your SEO copywriter doesn’t understand these two basics, you should look elsewhere. If you’d like to ensure your SEO copywriter knows a little more than just the basics, take a look at www.divinewrite.com/SEOCEO.htm, www.divinewrite.com/seocopy.htm, www.divinewrite.com/seotradesecrets.htm, www.divinewrite.com/webcopyenough.htm, and www.divinewrite.com/seoarticles.htm for some clues as to what you might like to ask in order to assess their knowledge.

2) Proven experience

The proof is, as they say, in the pudding. It’s not enough that your SEO copywriter can talk the talk; they must also be able to walk the walk. Ask to see some examples of websites for which they’ve obtained some good rankings. Note that it may be very difficult to find an SEO copywriter who has actually worked on both keywords and link generation (especially article PR), so if you find one who has, and they write well, snap ‘em up! They’ll have a very broad and useful working knowledge of search engines.

3) An understanding of how many keywords to use

You don’t want to fill every page up with every keyword you’re targeting. This simply dilutes your site’s relevance and reduces readability. Ask your SEO copywriter how many keywords they would recommend targeting on each page. Hopefully they’ll suggest no more than 3, preferably 2. By targeting 2 keyword phrases per page, you can use them a lot without impacting readability.

4) Clear agreement on who will provide keywords

Someone needs to perform a keyword analysis in order to figure out what words you should be trying to rank highly for. Your SEO copywriter should be able to do this for you, but it’s quite often more cost-effective if someone a little closer to the business does it. Either way, make sure your agreement with your SEO copywriter makes it very clear who is performing this task. Don’t assume the SEO copywriter is going to do it, because they may assume you’re going to do it, and then you’ll blow your budget.

5) Keywords or keyword phrases

Expect your SEO copywriter to offer some advice regarding how specific you should be with your keywords. In most industries, the competition for keywords is so fierce that you’ll be forced to target very specific keywords in order to rank – at least at the outset. For instance, if you’re in IT, you probably wouldn’t start out by targeting the keyword “IT”. The competition is immense (at the time of writing, there were approx 3,240,000,000 results for this search in Google.com) and the IT giants already dominate the search engines for this keyword. Instead, try using a more specific keyword phrase like “IT infrastructure consulting new york” (at the time of writing, there were only around 4,000,000 results for this search in Google.com). The other benefit to targeting more specific keyword phrases is that you’ll generate more relevant leads.

6) Agree on word count per page

Always make sure your SEO copywriter gives you an indication of the number of words they expect to write per web page. While it’s necessary to have a decent body of words on most of your web pages, you certainly shouldn’t have too many. What “too many” is all depends on your industry, the objective of the page, and the needs of your audience. It’s always a delicate balance, but it’s certainly possible to rank highly with only 100-200 words per page. So don’t be fooled into paying for copy you don’t need!

7) Density targets & measure

SEO of a web page is NOT guess-work. A good SEO copywriter will talk about density measures. This is a measure of the number of time the keyword phrase appears on the page. It’s expressed as a percentage of the total word count of the page. So if your page has 200 words, and your keyword phrase appears 10 times, its density is 5%. As a rule of thumb, your SEO copywriter should be aiming for a density of approximately 5% for your primary keyword phrase and 3-5% for your secondary keyword phrase. If your density measures are much higher than this, readability will be reduced, and you’ll risk being perceived as spam by the search engines. Make sure your SEO copywriter understands keyword density, is prepared to state the target density for each keyword phrase, and is also happy to be measured by that standard (should you decide to measure).

8) Where to place keywords

The question of keyword placement has been the subject of much debate amongst SEO copywriters. While it is still unclear how much impact placement has, there is a general consensus that it has SOME impact. Be sure that your copywriter is aware of this impact. Popular opinion has it that keywords are more effective if they appear in headings, bolded text, links, and generally toward the beginning of the page.

9) Some comment on structure & links

Websites are generally better indexed by search engines if their spiders can traverse the entire site using text links. This means your SEO copywriter should be linking each page to every other page using text links. If your site is complex, this may be impractical, so your SEO copywriter will need to create a hierarchical structure for your site. First, they should break your subject material down into categories. Then for each category, they should write a summary page. These summary pages should be accessible from higher level pages via text links. They should also be accessible from each other. Each summary page should link – using text links – to a number of pages discussing the finer details of the category. And each detail page in a particular category should link to every other detail page in that category (once again, using text links). This way the spiders are able to travel from the top of your hierarchy to the bottom, and from left to right across any level.

10) Don’t believe grand promises

SEO copywriters can play a significant role in increasing your search engine ranking. But they can’t do it overnight. By optimizing your site for your target keyword phrases, an SEO copywriter is simply declaring the relevance of your site. If you engage an SEO copywriter to write helpful articles containing a byline with a link back to your site, you can then submit these articles for publication on the Internet, and this will steadily increase your ranking. But if an SEO copywriter tells you they can dramatically increase your ranking in a matter of hours or days, be wary. NOTE: Your SEO copywriter should be able to submit your articles to various submit sites on the Internet. These sites are closely watched by hundreds of thousands of publishers of e-newsletters and article pages from all around the world. High quality articles are quickly snapped up and published prolifically. And each time your article is published, you’ve got another link back to your site, thus increasing the importance of your site (to the search engines).

Conclusion

An SEO copywriter is a valuable addition to your marketing function. But you need to make sure you choose wisely. When you know what questions to ask, the battle is half won.

Happy hunting!

* Glenn Murray is an SEO copywriter and article submission and article PR specialist. He is a director of article PR company, Article PR, and also of copywriting studio Divine Write. He can be contacted on Sydney +612 4334 6222 or at glenn@divinewrite.com. Visit www.DivineWrite.com or www.ArticlePR.com for further details, more FREE articles, or to download his FREE SEO e-book.

Promote your website using articles - Internet is all about information! At any given time, majority of web users surf the Internet in search of some kind of information. That’s why it is only natural that marketing with the help of providing sought after information to web surfers should be a key method in your online marketing strategy. There are various ways of exploiting this effective and low-cost method of web marketing. One of them is to write articles related to your business field and distribute them for free!

There are numerous inherent benefits in this fairly simple and innovative way of promoting your website and your products.

You can establish yourself as an expert in your field

People trust and tend to buy products from somebody they consider to be an expert. Once you start writing articles and if these articles provide valuable information, it won’t take long for you to get accepted as an authority in your subject matter.

Augment your own knowledge

If you write articles, apart from the knowledge that you already have, you still have to do some home works on the relevantmaterials – gathering and culling information, data, surveys, etc. This process eventually improves your own grasp of the subject as well.

Get targeted traffic to your site

As far as web marketing is concerned this is the main reason why you should consider writing articles. Each of your articles that you allow others to republish should carry a resource box which includes a short description of you as an author and a link to your website. If readers like your articles, they will visit your site to check out what else you have to offer.

Increase link popularity of your website

All your articles published in other websites with a backward link to your website will help boosting your link popularity. Link popularity indicates the number of web pages that link to your website. Many search engines use it as one of the main factors in their algorithm which determines the search engine ranking of a certain website.

If you are a novice writer and would like to pursue this unique method of promoting your website, you don’t have to worry about where to start. There’s a load of information available on the Internet about writing. However, before even you start writing your first article, no matter how good you are in your chosen subject matter, you still have to do some extra research to seek out an interesting topic, gather relevant materials on the topic, evaluate gathered information, organize your thoughts and plan your article.

While writing an article, maximum time and effort, probably, you will spend on preparation rather then the physical process of writing itself.

Here are five steps for novice writers to jump start their website promotion through article writing.

Step I: Choose a topic

If you feel this method of web marketing suits you, the first step from here is to choose topics for the articles you plan to write. While choosing topics, if your purpose is to attract targeted traffic, make sure that you stick to the subjects relevant to your business field.

From the broad base of your business field try narrowing down several subjects that could be interesting to your prospective readers. Use those subjects and related materials as your article topics.

Step II: Gather materials

Once you have a topic to write about and ideas to focus on, brainstorm surrounding it and find several key phrases relevant to this topic. All of the information needed for you to explore your ideas and illustrate your points you can get from the Internet.

Here is the process of retrieving information from the Internet:

• Use Google and other search engines to find information on the search terms you identified. One of the best search engines for this purpose is www.vivisimo.com. Vivisimo’s clustering and meta-search method will help you finding many relevant information that you might not have thought of.

Step III: Make an outline

Spend sometime on planning your article and develop an outline of the article. Process of making an outline of your article will help you visualize your finished product. An outline is a visual and conceptual list of your ideas and their place in the article. It should reflect your logical thinking process – the way you want your readers to see it, a beginning and a culminating point.

Step IV: Write the article

Write your article addressing your readers in second person. Try starting your article with something that will spur interest in your readers. Your article should consist of words within the range of 600 to 900. This size for articles became a standard for ezines and, therefore, many ezine publishers simply don’t accept larger articles.

Step V: Edit your article

After finishing, read the article loud. Work on the sentences that don’t sound quite right. Stack the article aside and come back to it in a day or two. Revise it. You will find many ways to improve it this time. Your friends and co-workers can help you too. Let them read the article and make their suggestions.

Writing articles is a skill like any other you develop by practicing. Why not start doing it now, and at the same time get targeted traffics to your website?

Nowshade Kabir is the founder, primary developer and present CEO of Rusbiz.com. A Ph. D. in Information Technology, he has wide experience in Business Consulting, International Trade and Web Marketing. Rusbiz is a Global B2B Emarketplace with solutions to start and run online business. You can contact him at mailto:nowshade[at]rusbiz.com, http://ezine.rusbiz.com, http://www.rusbiz.com

In the early days of developing my home business, I went for the numbers instead of focusing on targeting prospects. It took me a while to appreciate the importance of targeting (quality) instead of just going for the big numbers (quantity).

For online marketing, it helps greatly to get your website in front of people who are actually looking for the product, service, or opportunity that you are offering. This refers to the concept of marketing your sites to your target audience, rather than wasting your time, effort, and money on people who are not already interested in what you have to offer.

Be wary of "massive action" techniques in this era when many ISPs feel their hottest marketing theme is the blocking of incoming emails, which they decide their customers do not want to receive (they are the self appointed "information police").

Many of the sources of cheap, high volume leads supply you with leads that have absolutely no interest in your particular business (or product or service) and furthermore, have been put into the list in such a manner that can get you into trouble with your ISP because you are unwittingly spamming (many of these bulk lead lists are created by robots that crawl the Internet and harvest email addresses) the recipients.

In order to be effective in the promotion your particular proposition, whatever it is, you have to seek out your target market. This is as true online as it is offline. Just because you are able to reach huge numbers of people with your message on the Internet far more cheaply and quickly than you can offline, does this necessarily mean you should?

What’s the point of devoting your time and energies to marketing to a massive group of people without first knowing whether they, as a group, have a general interest in what you are offering?

It is much more efficient and effective to first find out where your prospective customers congregate, and then target that congregation, than it is to use a shotgun approach and hope that one of your pellets will somehow find its target (you know… throw enough up against the wall and something is bound to stick). You will find that by selectively targeting your prospects before marketing to them, your conversion ratio (the proportion of your target market that takes positive action and actually purchases your product or service) will be much higher than the results you would otherwise achieve without first taking the time to target your prospects. Once again, quality wins out over quantity.

It seems that a great many webmasters have not stopped to ask themselves the all-important question…What is the purpose of my web site? For some reason, many of them seem to think that the purpose of their web site is to give away freebies. Or it could be to be a "showcase" for their products. Or it could be to create links to all kinds of resources. Or it could be to have fancy flash graphics and build a brand name.

One of the biggest mistakes people new to web design make is going for more "flash" than substance. They bog down their site with a bunch of fancy colored backgrounds, 3-D text, flash presentations, etc. If a visitor to your site is using a 56K connection and has wait to more than 8 seconds for it to load (which can easily happen on sites heavy with graphics), you can expect to lose about 1/3 of your visitors.

If you’re a business, the purpose of your web site is to sell a product or service. Your web site should have one main focus. It should not be selling a dozen products, a dozen opportunities, or linking to a bunch of different affiliate programs. Presenting too many options has a tendency to confuse your visitor. When someone visits your site, it should be clearly obvious what one action you want him or her to take.

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This article is freely available for reprint provided that the resource box at the end of the article is left intact and the article is published complete and unaltered. If you are using this article on a website or e-book, please make sure that the link in the resource box is live or clickable.
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Kirk Bannerman operates a successful home based business and coaches others seeking to start their own home based business.

Visit his website at Legitimate Home Based Business for more details.

Webmasters are always looking for ways to increase their traffic and exposure. This is natural and will never change. No one is ever content with their traffic levels.

But problems arise with this reality as well. While it is good to be motivated to get as much traffic as possible, it is tempting to try and cut corners and use tactics that are temporary rather than permanent solutions.

And there are myriad tactics that can take your entire business down the tubes as well. The trick is not to be tempted with short-term gain over long-term income from your web business.

Many webmasters are aware that "content is king" and that you have to brand your site to make sales and build credibility. But most people only take these facts at face value and only as they pertain to the search engines. Big mistake.

Your content is your lifeblood for more reasons than search engine placement. This is your "face" on the net.

So if you’re using new strategies to bring in more targeted traffic, make sure you don’t use something that could kill your business just to get some short term traffic.

Many people are putting article directories on their sites these days. Having a set of articles on your site is great for building credibility and making more sales, if you do it right.

But as is always the case, I see people taking that to the extreme and missing the point entirely. Now I see some webmasters completely emptying out the big article directories like GoArticles.com to put hundreds or even thousands of articles on their sites.

With no editorial review they just take the whole category their site fits in best and grab up any and all articles in it. Remember, anyone can get into an article directory whether they can write or not. Whether they are an expert or not. Want those guys on your site representing you?

I have a smaller article directory than most people at http://webmastertraffictools.com/articledirectory/

Why so small? Because I review each and every article that is submitted there. There is a very good reason for this.

To get someone to first visit your site takes money and time. Once you have them there it is easier to get them back if you impress them.

Whatever methods of temporary website promotion you use, you have to keep in mind that you want something that will work for you for years, not months. Therefore, if all you ever do is troll for temporary traffic you will ALWAYS be promoting as hard as you are today. Wasn’t part of the reason you started working online to work less and make more?

Me, I want to have a network of sites that eventually promote themselves so I can spend the rest of my life on vacation. If you don’t start laying down the foundation of that kind of system, you are never going to be able to retire with your site(s) supporting you.

Putting up content for content’s sake is redundant. Other people’s content is already on hundreds of other pages.

You don’t stand out in the crowd that way alone. It is temporary at best if it works at all for you, and once people get to your site and realize you have harvested all your content from a directory they have already read through, you’ve made an enemy, not a customer out of them.

AND if you were unscrupulous enough to even reprint articles from people who spammed that directory with ads, poor english, poor advice, and everything else, I guarantee your visitors are leaving your site with no respect for you, whatever you sell, and with a deep hatred of "sites like yours" on the net.

That is not a long-term plan for a web business. See what I mean by temporary? No repeat traffic is no business at all.

So while my article directories are smaller, they have timely, relevant content from expert authors who can spell and who really spent time on their pieces.

Therefore I get repeat traffic, more clicks on ads, more sales of products, and a real income from that directory that will last as long as I own the site.

Points to Ponder:

1. Content is not king. GOOD content is king.

2. Repeat business is cheaper than new business.

3. Your name and brand are the only thing of singular value and importance to you on the web.

4. And short-term solutions to getting in the engines are always just that: short-term

Someday, if you are one of the webmasters I talked about above who only see the short-term picture, you are going to get tired of all the work you have to constantly do to keep traffic coming in.

And the worst part is, since you will have no foundation to rely on when you need a break, you won’t be able to take one. If your focus on website promotion is always on short campaigns and tricking search engines temporarily into thinking your site is of actual value, once you stop what you’re doing (probably from sheer burnout) your income also stops.

But if you have the foresight to build a base for your internet business, and you pay attention to and have standards for the kind of content you put up, you will be able to walk away from your business from time to time and the traffic and interest will still be there.

For me it is unthinkable to base my entire business on temporary solutions for getting traffic and sales when, if you have seen what you can make in the short term,why not get set up to reap those rewards for life?

But that’s just me. I profit greatly from people doing it the other way. Simply because when someone comes to my site and sees content of value, they feel as though they have found an oasis in a desert of trash. A place they will visit more than twice and gladly bookmark.

You can figure out the value of that kind of response for yourself, as it pertains to your business in particular.

Between the two choices, I’ll take repeat and recommended traffic over fly-by-night, angry, resentful traffic any day of the week!

Jack Humphrey is the author of Power Linking 2 Evolution at http://power-linking-profits.com and the CEO of Web Fox Media, LLC at http://webfoxmedia.com where he accepts a limited number of new clients for copywriting, marketing consulting, and professional web development.