As you know, I have been using Article Post Robot for some time now.   I recommend it.  As I have always said, this is the best article directory submission software that I have ever used. 

Well, until last week.

I am not ready for a full review yet, but I wanted to let you know that I am currently evaluating Automatic Article Submitter from Milan Kosanovic. 

To be honest, I am blown away.

So far, I see at least four totally killer things that I have been looking for:

• Advanced category handling (critical for article approval)
• Support for a few top article directories that are missing from APR
• Advanced spinning support that includes a thesaurus
• A time-based article drip feature (APR guys introduced this in Article Drip Robot, which I have not tested.

This software is very exciting.

No hard sell here.  I have a full review coming.

But, just in case you want to check it out, you can find Automatic Article Submitter here.

Thanks,
Mark

It's Wednesday, and you know what that means. It's time for another weekly Internet Business Fortune Cookie.

If you Google for "Chinese Food Restaurant" in my town (without the quotes), Pei Wei Asian diner is at the top of the list. So, I ate there this week. Pei Wei makes what I call "Americanized" Chinese food. Actually, they have Chinese, Korean, Thai, Japanese and other Asian influences present in their menu. It's not really authentic, but the quality is good.

I had their Lemon Pepper Chicken -- extra spicy -- and brown rice. It was pretty good. The fortune was good too.

"Life Always Gets Harder Near The Summit"

I have been trying (although not all that hard yet) to get a first position ranking in Google for "article directory list" (without the quotes) for my article directory list page. (Feel free to help me by linking to that page with the text "article directory list").

This is not a "perfect SEO situation" because I am targeting multiple phrases with that page.  However, it was easy to get to the 11th spot (first listing on page 2), and I am currently somewhere in the middle of page one as of this writing.

So, what will it take to get to position one on page one?  Check out this analysis from Market Samurai for my keyword phrase (you can click on the image to get a better view):

As you can see, Market Samurai is showing the top ten pages for the target keyword, and where they are showing SEO strengths.  Red is hard to attack (page is doing a good job) and green is easy to attack.  You can see that my page in the fourth position (varies from day to day) has one red item -- DA (masonworld.com has been around for a while).  I have 305 backlinks to my page and 7490 to my domain, and that is pretty good -- yellow.  You can see that the competition that is ranking above me has many more domain backlinks and good domain age.

What is a little frustrating is that my page tags are pretty well optimized (yellow) for the keywords that I am targeting, but a couple of sites above me are not optimized at all for "article directory list".

The bottom line is, sometimes it is hard to get to the top position for a keyword in Google, and sometimes it is even harder to understand why.

As the cookie says, Life Always Gets Harder Near The Summit.

Have a great day.
Mark

Photo credit: Uploaded on July 17, 2006 by headcase

Several weeks ago, I announced my new Article Directory Ranking List. It that time, I had a few dozen directories listed -- and I was focused on the directories that I personally considered to be the best.

Now, the Article Directory List has been expanded to include over 400 Article Directories -- all ranked by Alexa and Google PR using my "special algorithm." The ranking algorithm takes the log of the Google Page Rank +2 and multiplies it times 10,000 over the Alexa score, then adds an offset. This results in a number that ranges from about zero to around 100.

Anyway, check it out and let me know what you think.

Note that I have focused on directories that work with Article Post Robot -- almost all (but not quite all) of the directories listed can be posted to automatically using that software. Because of that, the special discount offer for Article Post Robot is still available for MasonWorld.com readers.

My goal is to have the best article directory listing on the internet, so comments, diggs and stumbles are appreciated!

Finally, note the the list is still in beta. If there is something you would like to see (that can be automated) please let me know in the comments below.

Tell me what you think!

Thanks!
Mark

A several posts ago, I reported on the release of Article Post Robot version 1.7. Since that time I have been using that new version of the software to post articles to article directories with relative ease. As I mentioned before, Article Post Robot can post to well over 400 article directories.

Spin That Content

Article Post Robot also has the ability to spin content.  Let's say you have the following sentence in your article:

Internet Marketing is a great way to earn a living.

Now, that is a great sentence (don't you think)?  The problem is, you may not want to publish that exact same sentence 400 times across the internet as part of your article.  You might want to mix it up a little instead.  No problem.  With Article Post Robot, you can "spin" the sentence like this:

Internet Marketing is a {{great|fantastic|stupendous|super}} way to {{earn|make}} a living.

When you put a word or phrase in double brackets within an Article Post Robot article, the software will randomly select one of the choices within the bracket each time it posts.  So, the above example will result in eight possible sentences, selected at random each time you post to a directory:

Internet Marketing is a great way to earn a living.

Internet Marketing is a fantastic way to earn a living.

Internet Marketing is a stupendous way to earn a living.

Internet Marketing is a super way to earn a living.

Internet Marketing is a great way to make a living.

Internet Marketing is a fantastic way to make a living.

Internet Marketing is a stupendous way to make a living.

Internet Marketing is a super way to make a living.

Do this enough times in your article, and you can actually post 400 unique articles instead of 400 duplicates.  While it is not clear just how important "duplicate content" is, common sense says that it is better to publish 400 well written unique articles than 400 copies of a single well written article.

Outsource The Configuration

One small bummer about Article Marketing is that you need to register with most article directories before you can post.  This can be a real drag if you do it yourself.   My recommendation:  Outsource.

Your time is valuable.  Instead of spending your weekend typing the same information into article directories over and over again, hire someone offshore to do it for you.  For tasks like this, I recommend a data entry specialist.  You can easily find one on ScriptLance -- but I recommend Mr. Jeevan.  You can reach him via email or GTalk at [dwarlords at gmail dot com].  He is a student with bills to pay and works very hard with competitive prices.  Jeevan can register you at all of the directories supported by Article Post Robot at a fair price (pennies per directory).

Special Deal For MasonWorld Readers

As I mentioned before, I have arranged for a special discont on Article Post Robot exclusively for my readers.  Check it out today.  Also, don't forget to check out my article directory rankings, updated weekly.

Regards,
Mark

From my point of view, when I promote products, I assume some risk. After all, I am essentially vouching for someone's work.  I am basically telling you that I have checked something out, so you don't need to worry about it as much.

So, I am pretty choosy about stuff that I promote.  Clearly, if I promoted junk all the time, people would stop listening to my advice. In fact, I usually only promote things that I have actually paid my own money for.

A while ago I paid my own money for  Article Post Robot. As you know, I use Article Post Robot for semi-automation of article publishing tasks. After looking around quite a bit, this was the best software that I could find.

Recently, however, I was checking up on the product and realized that it had not been updated for a while. I contacted the developer, and he told me a few months ago that an update was planned, but there was no firm date.  Not knowing what the future was for the product, I was thinking about pulling my ads down until the developer came through with new code.

Introducing Article Post Robot Version 1.7

Well, thankfully, there is need to do that. David from SRTSoft really cam through for me and just released a much needed update this morning. Announcing Article Post Robot 1.7. The update includes:

• A cleaned-up site list, with some new sites added.  As of this version, APR includes about 460 article directories and 54 mail lists.
• Added the option of "ArticleMS" script powered sites to the list of customized sites.  So, now when you are manually adding new sites, there are 4 kinds of sites can be added as customized sites.
• There is now a "Check Virus" checkbox option. Users can turn the software's virus checker On/Off.  No thanks -- I am voting for "ON."
• Added "Update Page Rank" feature in Article Sites table's popup menu.  This is cool, and a nice companion to my Article Directory List.
• Added "Summary" in preview window.
• Fixed a bug in spinning subtitle.
• Fixed some other bugs reported from users.

If you already own APR, you can log into your account and find the new update in the download area.  For existing users, it is free to download.

Special Discount For MasonWorld Readers

Article Post Robot normally retails for $127.  I contacted David, and he has offered a special deal for MasonWorld.com subscribers. For a limited time (I am not actually sure how long), my affiliate link is associated with a special discount.  The special MasonWorld.com price is $97 (limited time, act now, operators are standing by, blah, blah, blah).  Seriously, David tells me that the discount link only works if you come from MasonWorld.com (you have to click through from my site with my affiliate link).  If you have trouble finding the discount page, let me know.

If you do not yet own  Article Post Robot, I recommend it. The software is still not perfect in every way, but I use it and it does a great job for me.

Thanks,
Mark

In the past few months, I have written about the value of article marketing.  One of the questions that always comes up is "what article directories should I submit to."  As you know, I follow the article marketing strategy outlined in Article Marketing Domination, and I use Article Post Robot to post my articles.  Still, the question remains, "what are the best article directories."

See, the problem is that you can find excellent article directory lists, but they are out of date as soon as they are published.  After some discussions with my buddy, Article Marketing guru Josh Spaulding, I decided that what was needed was a site that ranks article directories on an on-going basis.  So, I fired up the text editor and wrote a simple Perl script to do just that.

Introducing the MasonWorld Article Directory List

I have created a script that looks at various stats for the major article directories and ranks them.  The script runs every Sunday night, providing you with a weekly ranking of the best article directories.  Currently, ranking is based on Google Page Rank and Alexa score.  However, I have lots of additional features planned, including additional ranking criteria.

Your suggestions, comments and ideas are appreciated.

When I first got started in Internet Marketing, I ran across a lot of discussion about "article marketing."  Article Marketing is often confused with "bum marketing," but they are not really the same thing.  It all seems so obvious to me now, but I remember having a hard time getting a clear description of article marketing. So, I'd like to offer you what I consider the key ideas behind article marketing. If you want to know more about article marketing, I am going to point you to my five favorite resources at the end (which are great, but not required to become an article marketing guru).

So, what is Article Marketing?

Article marketing refers to a traffic generation method that depends on submitting informative "articles" to sites called "article directories." These articles generally consist of an article body that has generally useful information, and an article resource box that contains links back to the author's site. This technique is sometimes mistakenly called "Bum Marketing."   Actually, as pointed out by Josh Spaulding, Article Marketing is one of the tools that Bum Marketers use (so named since it is so easy even a bum could do it.)

Good article directories have great traffic and strong Google page rank, so publishing your information there increases the chance that people will see and read what you have to say. Additionally, article directories allow people to copy and republish their articles, provided the article is unchanged and the resource box is preserved. This means that your article with your links could end up on multiple sites with lots of exposure.

There are literally hundreds of article directories, the most famous of which is eZineArticles. (As an example, you can see one of my articles about Viral Marketing.) The fact that there are hundreds of article directories opens up the possibility of submitting your article to many directories and multiplying your exposure. (There can be downsides to this, however, as we will discuss below).

Two Sources of Traffic

The beauty of article marketing is the possibility of two complementary sources of traffic. This is a key point that is often not understood. When you initially submit your articles, if they are well written, you should expect that they will be spread and read. If you write an effective resource box, those same readers will want more information and click the links in the box.

This simple idea generates immediate traffic to your site. Eventually, as the article ages, it may fall lower in the article directory as it gets buried by newer articles on the same topic. This usually means that click-through traffic from articles will fall off as a function of time. Sometimes articles go viral and the clicks keep coming, but this is not usually the case.

Not to worry. Now your article has spread around the net with links to your site at the bottom. Google sees these (correctly) as backlinks to your site. Done properly, these backlinks can help you rank for the pages that the links are pointing to. So, while your direct click-through traffic is falling off, your organic search engine traffic will increase. Pretty cool, eh?

A word about content and keywords

There are lots of things to think about when you are writing articles for article marketing. Most importantly, you need to have a keyword strategy for the content on your site and the content in your article. It may not make sense to directly compete with your own website, for example. Rather, you may want to choose keywords for your articles that complement the content on your site.

For example, if you have a site on "blue soap," you may want to write an article on "green soap" knowing that people interested in green soap will also be interested in blue soap. You need to think about this carefully.

Earlier, I mentioned that you could submit the same article to multiple directories. You can, and I do. But you need a strategy for that as well to balance the effectiveness of the submission against the impact of duplicate content. Google expects syndicated content to be duplicated, but there are still tradeoffs that need to be considered (beyond the scope of this brief article).

Article Marketing Resources

As promised, here are five resources that I actually use for article marketing. I have purchased these tools myself. Don't misunderstand me: you can be successful in article marketing without any tools. These are the tools that I personally use to improve the quality and productivity of my article marketing efforts.

• Article Marketing Domination. This is an excellent eBook by article marketing guru Josh Spaulding. This eBook covers all of the details that i have glossed over above, and is a complete reference. You can do article marketing without knowing all the details, but you will get lot better results if you have all the facts. Most things in life are like this.
• Article Post Robot. A tool for submitting articles to multiple sites. It is really tedious and boring to submit the same article to 50 article directories. Article Post Robot automated this process. This is not the most elegant tool on the planet, but it works very well for me on over 50 article directories (the software supports many more).
• Instant Article Wizard Pro. IAW Pro is an amazing tool for article research. I just learned about this tool this week, and have used it a few times with incredible results. Basically it searches the web for research on your keywords and mashes the pieces together in reasonable sounding paragraphs. Cuts article writing time down by a factor of ten or more in my experience. Even if you have no intention of buying this thing, you have got to see the video.
• Micro Niche Finder. One of the most important parts of Article Marketing (not really covered well in this article) is keyword selection. I use Micro Niche Finder for all my keyword research.
• Josh Spaulding. OK -- he is not a resource, actually. He is a person - a really nice one. Josh is my "go to guy" and mentor for Article Marketing, and the author of Article Marketing Domination.

The Bottom Line on Article Marketing

Article marketing is a great way to promote your website, affiliate products or affiliate program. By writing an article that delivers value and offers a subtle mention of your affiliate product or critical keywords, you're well on your way to getting the proper exposure for your promotion (whatever it is). Simply put, Article Marketing is a great way to promote your business online.

Regards,
Mark

Welcome to a page in the MasonWorld Internet Marketing Dictionary.

Want to add to one of the definitions below? Or perhaps something you were looking for was not here? Just leave a comment below. I hope you find this resource useful.

Regards,
Mark

Fall Down—And then Pick Yourself Up

Don’t be afraid to fail. Push hard until you fall down. But once you do, pick yourself up; and get working on the new project.

Fight for Small Gains; Fight Harder for Large Gains

Working hard is important, but only when it means the payoff will be big. Keep that in mind before you slave-away on a project with no clear estimate of how much you will get in return.

Figure Out How to Organize Your Business Better

Many businesses are sub-optimally organized. Parts that need not be automated are automated. And parts that aren’t automated need to be. Figure out how your business can be better organized; and make an attempt to realize that vision.

Figure Out Which Parts of Your Business Are Not Working

As with all businesses ventures, some things go well and others do not. Get rid of the things that aren’t working; and focus on the things that do.

Find New Affiliates

Finding new affiliates is just as vital as finding new joint venture partners. They provide a way for you to expand your business; and do so without needing your direction. Spend time seeking out new affiliates each week.

Find New Joint Venture Partners

Expanding your network is an important part of growing your business. Don’t plateau once you have forged a couple of useful partnerships. Instead, keep working to find new partners; and to work with them to realize projects.

Find New Strategies Each Day

Each day, push yourself to learn something new about Internet marketing. Don’t stagnate at your current level of knowledge; push yourself to learn more, so that you can continuously become a better marketer.

Find Ways to Motivate Your Current Affiliates

In addition to looking for new affiliates, you should try to motivate existing affiliates. Offer special deals (where commissions are temporarily higher), give them promotional materials, and offer to accept emails from them directly.

Find New Ways to Get Visitors to Buy

Always look for new ways to get your visitors to buy. You could create a squeeze page and get them to sign up; or you could give a free product away—and get people to buy it.

Find New Ways to Sell Old Products

If you’re like most Internet marketers, you have a large store of old products. Instead of just sitting on them, figure out how you can re-package them into new products that you can sell or give away.

Find Ways to Innovate

Innovating is hard, but necessary. Each day, try to come up with a new way in which you can do something that none of your competition has thus far.

Fix Problems with Your Current Website

On a regular basis (perhaps once each month), spend time working on your website. Instead of putting up new products and deals (as you normally would), focus on improving existing features, so that they provide higher value to customers.

Friends Can Offer Helpful Suggestions

Whenever you can, ask for the perspective of a friend. Ask how they like the look and feel of your site; ask what they think about your products; and ask if they have any suggestions.