Getting traffic to your website is no easy task.  This is true especially when lack of experience holds most of us back from obtaining our true Internet marketing goals for making money online through a successful Internet business.  Article marketing is a proven method for creating large amounts of traffic to a website or blog and creating long-term and gradual increased website rankings through organic search engine marketing.  In other words, Search Engines, readers and website publishers all LOVE articles, so if you can provide for all three of these entities, then you have a literal gold mine at your finger tips.

So what are some great tips for article marketing and website promotion that most people miss out on?  Below are a few highly practical and highly effective article marketing and web promotion tips to create tons more traffic, sales and conversions.

1.  Write, write, WRITE!  All too often Internet marketers will create a bunch of 5 minute websites, write 1 article and submit it to a few different places.  They then get a decent amount of traffic, then get lazy and quit.  This is great if you are looking for short-term results, but if you are looking for success over the long-haul, then you need to consistently write, write, write!  Don’t stop at one or two articles.  If you are serious about creating long-term success and wealth online, then you shouldn’t ever stop promoting.  It is often said the most give up when they are only a few inches away from success and really, that is the only difference between you and your competition.

2.  Write, but write quality information to solve a dilemna.  Don’t write just for the sake of writing.  Put a lot of thought in every article and use the keywords you want to rank highly for.  Nobody wants to read junk, so make sure what you write is actually worth reading, or it won’t be read.  Writing to solve a problem is by far the most effective way to get a hungry audience online.

3.  Your title should say exactly what it needs to say.  Make sure your article title not only catches the attention of a potential reader, but also contains all the appropriate key words and phrases you want to be associated with in the search engines.

4.  Make sure that the links in your resource box make your article worth while.  Think about where you are sending your readers.  Are you using anchor text?  Are you using an auto responder on your landing page?  Are you providing your readers with a great place to go after they read your article?  These are all very important questions to ask yourself before publishing your article to various places.

5.  Submit, change, submit.  Every so often, I use a method of writing my article, submitting it to a few websites, then I alter my article, then I submit some more and repeat.  This helps make my content a little more visible on the search engines by providing a larger amount of unique content.  Article submission websites appreciate this and the search engines will too.  It may take a little longer to do, but who said this was going to be easy.

6.  A great way to change up article submission is to manually submit your articles half of the time, then use a paid submission service to do it the other half.  This ensures a wide range of website you are submitting to as well as makes sure your articles are getting to where they need to be.  Consider doing this as part of your article marketing strategy.

7.  Make your readers happy, offer something free in the resource box!  This is a great way for an article marketer to get traffic to their website and become memorable by giving something away completely free.  Do your readers a favor and do so.

These are great ways to not only help you, but give your readers, the search engines, the article websites and web publishers great content that benefits everyone.

A Guide to RSS Aggregators

One of the most popular features of Internet portals, websites, pages and even emails is a frame that features an organized list of news headlines and periodic updates from other web sources. Really Simple Syndication, formerly “Rich Site Summary” or simply, RSS makes this possible.

Most users visit a lot of websites whose content continually change, such as news sites, community organization or professional association information pages, medical websites, product support pages, and blogs. As Internet surfing became an intrinsic part of business and leisure, it became important to get rid of the very tedious task of repeatedly returning to each website to see updated content.

RSS easily distributes information from different websites to a wider number of Internet users. RSS aggregators are programs that use RSS to source these updates, and then organize those lists of headlines, content and notices for easy reading. It allows computers to automatically retrieve and read the content that users want, then track changes and personalize lists of headlines that interests them.

The specially made computer programs called “RSS aggregators” were created to automatically find and retrieve the RSS feeds of pre-selected internet sites on behalf of the user and organize the results accordingly. (RSS feeds and aggregators are also sometimes referred to as “RSS Channels” and “RSS Readers”.)

The RSS aggregator is like a web browser for RSS content. HTML presents information directly to users, and RSS automatically lets computers communicate with one another. While users use browsers to surf the web then load and view each page of interest, RSS aggregators keeps track of changes to many websites. The titles or descriptions are links themselves and can be used to load the web page the user wants.

RSS starts with an original Web site that has content made available by the administrator. The website creates an RSS document and registers this content with an RSS publisher that will allow other websites to syndicate the documents. The Web site also produces an RSS feed, or channel, which is available together with all other resources or documents on the particular Web server. The website will register the feed as an RSS document, with a listed directory of appropriate RSS publishers.

An RSS feed is composed of website content listed from newest to oldest. Each item usually consists of a simple title describing the item along with a more complete description and a link to a web page with the actual content being described. In some instances, the short description or title line is the all the updated information that a user wants to read (for example, final games scores in sports, weblogs post, or stock updates). Therefore, it is not even necessary to have a web page associated with the content or update items listed — sometimes all the needed information that users need would be in the titles and short summaries themselves.

The RSS content is located in a single file on a webpage in a manner not very different from typical web pages. The difference is that the information is written in the XML computer code for use by an RSS aggregator and not by a web user like a normal HTML page.

There are 2 main parts that are involved in RSS syndication, namely: the source end and the client end.

The client end of RSS publishing makes up part of the system that gathers and uses the RSS feed. For example, Mozilla FireFox browser is typically at the client end of the RSS transaction. A user’s desktop RSS aggregator program also belongs to the client end.

Once the URL of an RSS feed is known, a user can give that address to an RSS aggregator program and have the aggregator monitor the RSS feed for changes. Numerous RSS aggregators are already preconfigured with a ready list of RSS feed URLs for popular news or information websites that a user can simply choose from.

There are many RSS aggregators that can be used by all Internet users. Some can be accessed through the Internet, some are already incorporated into email applications, and others run as a standalone program inside the personal computer.

RSS feeds have evolved into many uses. Some uses gaining popularity are:

·For online store or retail establishments: Notification of new product arrivals

·For organization or association newsletters: title listings and notification of new issues, including email newsletters

·Weather Updates and other alerts of changing geographic conditions

·Database management: Notification of new items added, or new registered members to a club or interest group.

The uses of feeds will continue to grow, because RSS aggregators make access to any information that individual users like more convenient and fun.

Knowing “how” to think is much more important than knowing “what” to think. Those among us that understand how to gather knowledge, then how to use and apply what their small inner voice suggests are truly wise. The realization that our “inner voice” is our higher self (inject your own term, i.e., God, Angel, Spiritual Guide, etc.) asking to manifest itself can be a life changing event!

Okay, so what is a blog anyway? A blog is basically an online journal in which you can digitally pen down your thoughts, ideas, opinions and practically anything that you want people to read or you can visit www.your-own-blog.com. Blogs come in different styles, formats, and settings, depending on the preference of the user. Many blogging sites, offer built in features such as hyperlink, straight texts, pictures etc. Instead of writing texts, some bloggers choose to make their blogs more audio friendly, by using spoken word entries. This is called audio blogging.

Some blogging sites, even allow you to put video and mp3′s on your blogs. Blogging is popular all over the world. Blog is short for the term weblog. There are very few rules when it comes to blogging which means that bloggers have the freedom to express themselves in most any way they want. Perhaps the best thing about blogging is that most blogging sites are free. Anyone who wants to start a blog can do so by becoming a member of a blogging website of their choice. Once they’ve become members, they automatically become a part of that particular blogging community. They can browse through other blogs, and link them back to their own blogs. They can also make comments on other members’ blogs.

Bloggers usually communicate within themselves. This is one of the appeals of blogging. It creates a community of people sharing their ideas, thoughts, and comments with each other. Blogging is not just limited to personal usage. There are a lot of blogs that follow a theme such as: sports, politics, philosophy, social commentary, etc. These blogs build on their specific themes. In this way blogging becomes a medium in which people can share their knowledge and opinions about a variety of themes and topics.

Many groups exist within blogging communities. Of course, the members of the group have a common interest and the blogs provide a place for the group members to share their interest. Chats and forums are also contained within blogging communities.

A lot of entrepreneurs benefit from blogging by promoting their businesses on their blogs. With the rapid growth of blogging communities, entrepreneurs have found that this is a very cost-effective way to promote their products/services.

Some bloggers use their blogs as a means to advertise things such as ebooks, while other bloggers, and use their blogs to shed light on current issues, events, news and catastrophes. It seems the uses of this communication medium are limitless!

Blogs are also being used by many teachers and professors. Lessons that they have discussed and taught can be posted on a blog which allows students access to this information 24/7. This provides a way for students to keep up with assignments and projects.

One of the advantages of blogging is that it is made up of only a few templates. In comparison to websites that are made up of numerous individual pages this is a much simpler format. This make it easier for blog users to create new pages, because it already has a fix setting that include: slots for title, body of the post, category, etc. This is especially useful for first time users, since they can start blogging right away. They can choose from a number of templates that blogging websites provide.

But by far, the most popular blog type is the one that takes the form of a personal journal. This is the kind that is usually used by first time bloggers. Individuals who want to document the daily struggle of their everyday lives or go on www.profit-pulling-toolbars.com, share poems, rant about their issues or perhaps world issues, or simply post their opinions will find that blogging offers a place to do just that.

Blogs varying in topics, themes, and set-ups, can be found in blog directories. Browsing through these directories is beneficial for first time users. They can check out a number of blogs before deciding on any. This provides an opportunity to get acquainted with what these blogging communities are like. An educated decision can then be made about which blogging community better meets the needs and appeals to the interest of the newcomer…allowing a first-timer to get exactly what he/she is after. Blogging is fun, simple, and easy. If you haven’t tried it yet, do it now! You’ll enjoy it.

Let’s take a look at what you’ve learned so far: search engine strategies, building links, and promoting your website through traditional media and emails. While search engines, emails and linking strategies are usually free, traditional media needs a special budget. If you have a good budget for website promotion, here are some online strategies you might want to consider:

5. Online Paid Advertising Strategies

If you want your online business to bring you rapid results, you need to employ paid advertising strategies.

The most popular paid advertising solution is PPC – pay per click. You can buy PPC advertising from Yahoo or Google. Your ads will appear in the sponsored results. The position of the ad within the sponsored results depends on how much you pay for a particular keyword phrase in comparison to other companies. This is a tricky investment though: you should first learn how to use PPC, unless you want to pay more than this advertising solution is really worth. You could also use CPM (cost per thousand views)

Buy text ads: some companies offer you the possibility of buying advertising space in their newsletters. The best approach is text links. Choose companies that you know having a large target audience. Check your web stats to see how much traffic and real revenue this paid advertising strategy brings. You could also purchase banner ads, but, statistics show, they don’t work as well as they once did.

Build up an affiliate program. This is known as PPA – pay per action. That’s how you build a network of resellers who will get a percentage of your wins by promoting your products. What you need to do is: determine how much you are willing to pay in commissions and how you are going to manage the program. If you are online business savvy you may know how to set up the technical details. If not, choose a company.

Froogle your products – this is free. There are two reasons to froogle: clients all over the world can find your products and the product page could rank higher in Google.

List your products on Auction Sites: eBay, Amazon, Yahoo! Shopping etc.

6. Other Website Promotion Strategies

To achieve success with your website you need to use all possible (ethical) means.

Here are a few “supplementary” strategies:

Bookmarks. When visitors bookmark your website, they actually vote for its quality. They will also have your website in their favorites list, so you can be sure they will come back for more. Google also likes social bookmarking. So, don’t be shy: ask your visitors to bookmark your website.

When you post comments in forums (not just any forums, but serious discussion forums, eventually related to your industry), blogs and other discussion groups (see Google Groups), don’t forget to provide a link to your website in your signature.

Sweepstakes are great: people love to win. So why not organize sweepstakes every so often to stimulate your visitors? Offer prizes that will encourage people to become your clients.

All these tools will certainly boost your website’s popularity. As you see, success doesn’t come over night: you need to build it up through continuous effort, hard work and the correct financial approach.