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Duplicate Content and What You Should Know

07 2008 Wednesday

By Robert Cerff in Featured

Is duplicate content penalty a myth or a reality? Well I would say that it’s a bit of both. Many folk have been terrorised into paranoia over duplicate content, but here are the facts.

“Duplicate content is bad.”

Okay, so I said it. But please note that I didn’t say that it’s evil or that your web pages are certainly heading to supplemental hell. But duplicate content can be bad for the following reasons.

Multiple copies of the same content are not useful to the internet as a whole
Multiple copies of the same content on your website could dilute your “link juice”
Multiple copies of the same content can hamper effective indexing of your website.
Multiple copies of the same content will confuse the search engines as to which copy may be the original.

Multiple copies are not useful to the internet. Okay so we often turn on the TV only to find that while there are over 100 channels on offer there’s still nothing on. But imagine if out of the 100 channels there were only really 8 to choose from, the others were simply showing the same thing as on the others. Duplicate content works in the same way. It serves us the same content on all the channels. The search engines quickly realised that good content ranks but that the same content shouldn’t fill all choices. This is the real penalty of duplicate content. The same content shouldn’t rank over and over because if it doesn’t meet the searcher’s needs then they wouldn’t have another option.

From the average webmaster’s point of view I would say that point 2 is the most important. Can you imagine having 3 or 4 pages all with great content, but the same content, being indexed and linked to from related websites? Sounds great, but if it is the same content then you have effectively shared the full linking power of that content over multiple pages. So in this case instead of having one page showing up on the first page of the search results, you now have 2 on the second. I know which scenario I would prefer. The other side of the coin is with dynamic URLs you may find that several different dynamic formulas may take you to the same product page. Again this could be seen as duplicate content by the search engines and with this may come the uncertainty as to which one to rank. Quite often this will result in the relegation of both of those URLs to a lower rank. Although I have a sneaky suspicion that the search engines are catching onto the dynamic URL problem and now will rank one page from a website and simply ignore the others.

Should you have multiple versions of the same content on your website as can often be the case of dynamic URLs then this may prevent the search engines from indexing your whole website. Imagine once again you are searching through the TV channels and the first 10 are all the same, you may continue searching and reach channel 20. If by this time you’re still searching then you must be really bored. The Bots don’t have time to get bored, if it reaches page 10 and all the content seems the same it will assume that the rest aren’t worth indexing. This could be a problem. Added to this if it deems none of your pages worth indexing you could face a massive uphill battle to have your pages indexed, never mind ranking highly.

Originality is a difficult one because with no way of being able to certify that you were the first to post the content the search engines rely on the speed with which it was indexed. Indexing of websites takes place at different rates. Blogs generally are crawled and indexed a lot more frequently than a website that shows updates once a month on average. In this case if you had added great quality content to your website only to have a blogger scrape it, you might lose the full benefit of this content as the blog may be indexed and be recognised as having first published it. While this is an extreme example it is a good reason to regularly update your website to keep the search bots coming back regularly.

As you can see from the points above there is no definite penalty for duplicate content. But for reasons that make good logical sense many times these pages simply don’t cut it at the highest level. The question you should always be asking is, “will this benefit my visitors?” or even, “Will this impact negatively on my visitors?” The answer to that question should quickly send you in the right direction and keep you from possible pitfalls.

Robert Cerff is a search engine analyst and marketing consultant for Prop Data Internet Solutions. He has ten years experience in e-commerce, online marketing and web development. http://www.propdata.co.za

Powerful Articles Demand Response

07 2008 Tuesday

By Mark Tyner in Featured

Everyone thinks they have it all figured out when it comes down to producing, distributing, and reaping the benefits of article posting. Don’t get me wrong here, they are headed in the right direction and even hit their objectives, but does it produce monstrous results in sales? What is the magic formula for an article that directs traffic like an expressway versus one that fails miserably?

Human Emotion is the key. When you produce an article that sparks interest in your audience, or tap into their emotions, compelling them to purchase, then you’ve hit your goal. However, the bottom line is that most marketers write and post articles constantly to boost website traffic in hopes to stimulate sales, so the quality has diminished. With a few key elements you can capitalize on the poor grade articles and realize great success posting articles that capture people’s attention and directs them to what they want. Remember that last statement, what they want.

Advertize to emotions

This can be a tough, depending on your sales product so we will use a few examples here. I live in a large city next to an even larger lake. On my street alone there must be a boat at every other house, and most people have a hard time understanding the logic behind it. Somehow half of my street found logic behind the purchase of a boat. Maybe the boat salesman sells ice to Eskimos in the winter, no, that’s not it. It’s deeply imbedded in our society, the answer is competition. Think about that. We live in a highly competitive world. My neighbors saw each other’s boats and said wait a minute, how do I rank? I’m losing rank here. Soon the boat will be pulled with a matching new truck.

The new truck certainly wasn’t needed to get the boat to the lake. The old truck was fine and fit its purpose, simple transportation. But think of how that person feels leaving the neighborhood, full of peers, with a brand new boat. It’s the same way you feel when you leave the car lot with a brand new car, or live in a five bedroom two story home with just your spouse. Let’s face the facts. Our emotions drive nearly every purchase we make. With that understood, lets really drive home the message by offering up a few suggestions of how that person will feel with your product. Help with the reasoning behind buying your product and make it logical for them, make it a necessity even.

Back up your products with logic

You can make this happen with everything in existence that has a price tag on it. Imagine how you would benefit with the product and then verbalize. Let’s use something simple like water. Water believe it or not is a perfect example of compulsive purchases driven by marketers using your emotion and backing it up with logic. I used to think water was fine right out of the tap. Then a marketer got a hold of it and said it needs to be filtered, bottled, and infused with vitamins, flavored and everything imaginable to be healthier or beneficial like we are all super athletes. Each brand has a different twist on how their water is better or more beneficial for you. Everything from getting your daily vitamins to maxed out energy all revolve around the simple substance of water. They have paved the way with logical reasons to buy improved water that the tap stuff is out of the question.

Dare to be different

If everything was the same, competition would not exist plain and simple. Make your article stand out and your product for that matter. People want originality to set them apart from their peers. Inject your creativity starting with the title. A different, eye catching or unique title to lure them in will maximize results. Just make sure it’s on topic. Continue with creativity and personality throughout the body to set yours apart. Do not just state the facts; however use them as power statements. With a billion articles online you must be different to get notoriety, for example.

Be yourself and be honest

Honesty is just good policy. Don’t over exaggerate, make false promises, or mislead people because a major reason behind producing articles is to gain credibility. If you make your article personal and informational, that adds value to both the Internet and your readers. Offer up so of your own experiences with in the article topic and help others relate to both yourself and your writings. After the article others may read other postings produced by you. After you read an article do you look for the author? Do you look or follow the resource box at the bottom?

It’s only natural after being moved by a great interesting article. Maybe you want to learn more or respect what the author had to say. People read the article in the first place because they wanted information on the title subject. They were looking for something and the title led them into your article so it is important to follow through. It’s important to them not to be misled, and to find what they were looking for, and it’s important for you to help them get what they want. So let’s do just that.

Follow through and give them what they want

Give them what they want. It’s very important to back up you statements. The article has served its purpose, hit on the readers emotions, gave logical reasoning and sparked interest. Rather, it gave information on the reader’s initial interest because they searched for that topic. The article was personal, honest and different. Now back it up.

For example, I write articles surrounding the online affiliate market, common used tactics and practices that marketers use in small at home businesses. The subjects are pretty broad, however when the reader follows the resource box they find a website that contains everything needed for a small at home online business.

If you write articles simply because you enjoy it, there is difference from why the article is written for a business purpose. An article written and targeted for attracting traffic or to be profitable has to have this follow up quality. The ability to give either a product or more valuable information on the title topic solidifies your credibility and makes you a trustworthy supplier of the readers needs. Even a few of these tips done correctly produce results, however, perfecting them all produce the desired results.

Mark Tyner is the webmaster of YourHomeBiz-Direct. For how to market with ezine articles or article submission please visit his website and receive 5 free e-books on internet marketing.

Turn A Phrase To Turn A Head

07 2008 Monday

By John Clark in Featured

There in front of me sat the unusual “tip” jar, with a twist. I stood at the new coffee shop in town ordering the usual concoction to quench my caffeine craving when I noticed the sign on the jar. The sassy and delightful gal named Nadean went to fix my brew and there was, left to consider the tip offer. Instead of the usual jar for leaving tips that you see in nearly every coffee joint from Starbucks to the local hang outs, there sat this jar with an offer facing me. Instead of the of the everyday sign with “Tips” printed on it, this one said, “Tips Make You Sexy!”. I nearly laughed out loud.Of course I had no newly found delusions that my key to renewing my sexiness hinged on whether I threw a buck in the pot or not. Still, I liked it. It turned my head, made me notice it. It was also a quick lesson in great marketing that is so often forgotten. Sticking the unexpected in places where the expected is, well… expected.

How To Select The Best Keywords For Your Site

07 2008 Thursday

By Jennifer Horowitz in Featured

As more websites compete for valuable search engine “real estate,” Search Engine Optimization is becoming much more complex.

And *keyword selection* remains one of the most important (yet least understood) pieces of the puzzle.

“Why keyword selection is so important and how to select the best keywords for your website”

To clear up the mystery, let’s break it down into bite-sized pieces by answering our most frequently asked questions about keyword selection:

“What’s the difference between a keyword and a keyword phrase? And which should I use?”

Put simply, a keyword is a single word, like “Maui.” But a keyword phrase is a more descriptive string of two or more words, like “Maui vacations.” Your approach to keyword selection will vary, depending on your industry. For certain niche markets, using single words can be a good strategy (as long as they are specific to your product or service). But regardless of your industry…

Well-researched keyword phrases will attract quality, targeted visitors to your website who *specifically* want what you are selling.

Let’s assume you sell Maui vacations, and your website is listed at the top of the search results for the keywords “Maui” and “Maui vacations.” Let’s look at the characteristics of two groups of visitors you’d attract.

Those who perform a search on “Maui” are searching for a wide variety of topics. Such as Maui’s history and culture, snorkeling, botanic gardens, hiking trails, sailing, golfing, and yes - some will be looking for Maui vacations. But only a small percentage of the people who perform a search on the keyword “Maui” are qualified prospect for your vacation packages.

Now think about the prospects who find you by searching for “Maui vacations.” Every prospect who performs this search is a qualified prospect for you. And by getting a top ranking with this more descriptive keyword phrase, you attract people who are more likely to become paying customers!

You see, someone who wants to take a vacation to Maui is not likely to search for “Maui.” They’re not going to search for “Vacations.” And they’re not going to search for “Hawaii” either. They’re much more likely to enter a keyword phrase like “Maui vacations.”

Today, more than ever, your ideal prospects are going to enter precisely what they want to find, rather than general, open-ended terms. Which means your keyword selection must target your ideal customer with laser-beam focus.

At the same time, the search engines and directories themselves are also becoming much more strict with the pages that they’ll accept and index. They’ll be watching your submissions like a hawk to make sure that they’re completely relevant to the topic reflected by your keyword phrase.

In a previous article, we weighed the pros and cons of doing your search engine positioning yourself versus hiring a reputable company to handle this time consuming task for you. Many of you have wisely realized that it can be much more time-effective and cost-effective to leave your search engine placement in the hands of experts, so you van focus on your core business.

So the most important question of all now becomes:

“If I hire a company to do my search engine placement for me, should I be expected to provide my own keywords and keyword phrases, or do they have a responsibility to advise me?”

Frankly, any company that doesn’t provide hands on consultation in this area is not helping you to maximize your search engine rankings. Keyword selection is the entire foundation on which your search engine campaign is built. Can you imagine hiring a contractor to build your house… only to have him say, “Okay, YOU lay all the bricks and pour the concrete - then I’ll do the rest?”

It’s senseless.

Jennifer Horowitz is the Director of Marketing for EcomBuffet.com. Over the past 10 years Jennifer’s expertise in marketing and Search Engine Optimization (SEO) has helped clients increase revenue. Jennifer has written a downloadable book on SEO and has been published in many SEO and marketing publications. Jennifer is the editor of the popular Spotlight on Success: SEO and Marketing newsletter. Follow Jennifer and stay current on SEO, marketing, social media and more. http://twitter.com/EcomBuffet

Successful Brands Are Based On Great Themes

07 2008 Tuesday

By Jerry Bader in Featured

A true brand is a metaphor for desire, a container for aspirations and the promise of fulfillment. We are all the same, each of us searching for the same things and they aren’t keywords. Most businesses think way too narrowly; too focused on the concrete instead of the psychological. Branding like history is based on enduring themes, the universal hardwired predilections that form our basic needs and wants, whether for business or pleasure.

Quintessential Brand Themes

Gerald and Lindsay Zaltman have come up with what they call the ‘Seven Giants’ in their book ‘Marketing Metaphoria.’ They describe seven classic elements that they see effecting consumer behavior: balance, transformation, journey, container, connection, resource, and control.

Balance is about maintaining or reestablishing normality; Transformation is about the metamorphosis from unsatisfying to fulfillment; Journey is about personal growth; Container is about physical and emotional constraints; Connection is about relationships; Resource is about acquiring and using tools and knowledge; and Control is about creating a sense of security, well-being, or mastery.

These themes have a marked similarity to the classic storytelling scenarios used by every novelist, screenwriter, and successful brand strategist.

The Brand Story

Effective brand strategies are based on delivering a story, a tale that embeds in the collective consciousness of an audience and becomes a metaphor for some deep-seated psychological human need.

We are taught to maintain a positive outlook, and it is definitely a more healthy approach to life than the opposite, but stories are based on tension, disruption, and overcoming obstacles. If your audience is self-satisfied, if they’re happy with the way they look, the way they feel, and the stuff they own, why would they be interested in buying your product or service? The fact is most people and businesses want more, more of everything, and the promise of more is what you’re selling.

It may not be popular to say, but the negative perspective is the more powerful. If branding is about making a memorable impression you will be more successful if you tap into your audiences’ insecurities and neediness.

Even seemly positive commercials like Dove’s ‘real beauty’ campaign is really about highlighting the audiences’ flaws: it places a mirror in front of the viewer and says, ‘look in the mirror, this is what you really look like, and girl you need makeup’ - cynical perhaps, but this marketing strategy was able to hit consumers from both sides of the psychological fence: great positive PR because of the apparent positive message, while at the same time subliminally saying, you really don’t want to look this natural do you? It’s what we call the Law of Dissatisfaction.

It All Boils Down To Creating Discontent

Archetypical stories all boil down to motivating sales by getting your audience to think your stuff will make their lives better; and in order to do that, you first have to get your audience to accept the fact that their current situation is not as good as they thought.

What good is a forty-two inch flat-screen when you could have a sixty inch one; what good is a headache tablet that takes twenty minutes to work when you could have one that works in five; and how can anyone really be happy with their face or body when just a few injections of some magic elixir will turn them into a beauty queen or matinee idol? Is there really anything wrong with wanting to reach your maximum potential? It is after all the driving force behind our economy and the ultimate motivation behind innovation.

Stories Are Content, Advertising Is Irritation

We all know the Web is about content, and the future of successful Web-marketing lies in the ability to turn marketing messages into content, and meaningful content is about storytelling. We need to stop looking at television advertising as the prototype format; the people running television have their heads buried deep in the sand beside the same people who run the music and movie industries - they just don’t seem to be able to adapt to the new Web-environment and it’s inherent nature, capabilities and demands.

Mind numbing, number crunching study after number crunching study, filled with misleading statistics, complicated graphs, and pretty PowerPoint charts don’t tell the real story. Wasting money on ineffective banner ads and irritating, over-used TV spots, while obsessing over search engine optimization and technical solutions won’t get you where you want to go.

Companies need to learn how to connect to an audience and build a relationship with that audience by delivering content in ways that people have used from time immemorial, through telling a story told by a real person with a real voice: something the Web is not only capable of doing, but is superior at delivering.

Jerry Bader is Senior Partner at MRPwebmedia, a website design firm that specializes in Web-audio and Web-video. Visit http://www.mrpwebmedia.com/ads, http://www.136words.com, and http://www.sonicpersonality.com. Contact at info@mrpwebmedia.com or telephone (905) 764-1246.

How To Measure The Effectiveness Of Your Article Marketing Campaigns

07 2008 Friday

By Bill Platt in Featured

I frequently rant on Internet marketing and some of the gurus who try to bend your ear. Why? Because many of these so-called gurus trash everything that makes sense in this Internet world, especially when they realize that they cannot make money from the techniques being recommended.

I don’t preach marketing concepts solely for the purpose of selling my products and services. (If you happen to buy my products or services, then awesome, but that is not my point when I share information from my SEO and other marketing campaigns.) I preach the concepts that I have used for myself successfully. Either you can trust me and test the things I recommend, or you can listen to the gurus and drown yourself in pity, when you realize you are not finding the success you seek.

Press Releases Aren’t Dead

06 2008 Wednesday

By Jennifer Horowitz in Featured

There used to be a lot of hype about online press releases. Recently it has died down a little bit. We are still finding that it works well for clients. But there are some very definite rules to follow.

When done properly press releases are a great way to generate publicity, drive traffic and boost search engine rankings.

The key to a successful press release is to have a clearly defined purpose.

Why are press releases important?

More consumers than ever are reading press releases online and consumers may be interested in a topic that the media may not be. So, there are releases where the target audience is the consumer and then there are releases were the target audience is the media. The releases targeted at the media are usually bigger news and more likely to be something that the media will run with and create an article out of.

Keep in mind there are journalists that have columns about websites; they cover what’s new, what’s hot, what’s popular on Blogs and sites. So, something that may not have been newsworthy to the “regular” media may be considered newsworthy to these new crop of journalists.

You should start by defining your target audience. Is this a story for the public, something that is potentially good for the mass media or something for the web reporters out there?

No matter who you target, your press release really needs to be creative to catch the interest of the chosen audience.

Press releases need to be stand out among a sea of thousands of other press releases that are being released every day. So, you’ll need to create an interesting hook. How do you do that?

Ask yourself these questions:

Who will care about what I’m saying and why will they care? In other words what is the focus of the release, what is the part that will excite, anger, interest people?
Is it something that is unique in your industry?
What are the benefits of the product/service/news you are announcing?
Is there anything controversial about this? If so, playing it up is a great way to get attention.

Next you’ll want to define your keywords for the release:

Doing keyword research will help you use keywords within the release that you know people are looking for.

Next you will make sure that you write a compelling title. Ideally it will include one of your keywords and it will pique the curiosity of people scanning headlines.

Since the launch of Google’s Universal Search and Blended Search from Yahoo, images are fast becoming another way to make your content stand out, so make sure you use an image with your press release.

It never hurts to have an SEO Firm take a look at your release. Have them go over your press release for any recommendations for better optimization. A fresh set of eyes, especially ones that are specifically trained in optimizing content can go a long way in helping your press release be found in the search engines.

So, there you go - a quick lesson in press releases.

How To Inspire Yourself To Write Articles Others Will Want To Read

06 2008 Tuesday

By Bill Platt in Featured

Anyone engaged in writing articles for offline publications or online business has occasionally struggled with the question of “What to write?”

Methods To Help The Average Person To Start Writing

Maybe I am just an overly optimistic person. I have always believed that anyone committed to writing an article can write an article. The problem is that most individuals simply do not have the belief in their own skills and insight. That is the reason why we ghost writing lot will always have a job. As long as there are people who doubt their own skills or insights, I will always have a job.

One of my good friends, Clinton Douglas IV, learned the lesson of understanding that he had his own abilities and skills that he could utilize to write his own articles. He learned that he could turn his insight into literature worth reading, by simply calling his favorite ghost writer on the phone (me) and sharing his thoughts on a topic. He was always amazed how it seemed like I could read his thoughts and mind and put his thoughts to paper, even the thoughts that he did not mention specifically to me.

Most people simply don’t have a favorite ghost writer on the other end of a telephone call. For them, they should sit down to the computer and type and type and type, with little to no regard for proper spelling, grammar, or storytelling. The first draft should always be used to get one’s thoughts out of the brain and down on paper. Spelling, grammar and wording can be fixed during the editing process.

My friend Clinton utilizes this technique on occasion too. He wrote an article one time, by just spilling his brain onto the page. He wrote from his heart and got his thoughts all out of his head. When done, he sent me his final draft for editing. Sure, there were many words that were fixed, a lot of bad grammar that was corrected, and wording that was massaged, before we found the final product. Once written by him and edited, we put his “3:10 to Yuma” article out on the World Wide Web. Almost immediately, my friend Clinton started receiving compliments for his story. Many said it was very inspirational.

I believe in your ability to write your own articles, even if you do not.

Even if you can never bring yourself to write your own articles, that is fine, since we professional ghost writers are happy to write for you.

How Professional Writers Find Inspiration

When it is time to sit down to write an article, we professionals sit down and start reading. Inspiration is a thought that comes to our mind while we are reading information on our target topic. Our thought is never to rewrite what other writers are talking about. Instead, our inspired thought is often an extension of the words we read that were penned by our peers.

How many times have you been reading something written by someone else, and you felt that the author should have ventured off on a tangent that he or she left hanging? Inspiration often occurs right here in this moment, at that very intersection of this thought.

Once you know the question left unanswered by another writer, then you will have found your own direction and inspiration for writing your next article.

Answer The Unanswered Question and More…

When you want to use articles to promote your online business, it is not enough to answer the unanswered question. You actually need to venture a bit further afield and to ask yourself one very important question: Is the person most likely to buy your product or service also interested in having this question answered?

When you write for promotion purposes, you should always try to speak to the hearts and minds of the people most likely to buy what you are selling. If your potential clients are asking the same questions as you are, then you know what questions you need to answer for your readers. It is in answering questions important to your customers, where you will begin to find real success using promotional articles to promote your business.

Help your customers answer questions they want answered, and they will help you to earn the sales you need to keep your doors open to others.

Final Note About Inspiration and The Writing Process

This article began as a blog post, written in a blog I contribute to weekly (the Article Marketing Tips Blog).

I often write a blog post as my first draft of an idea. Then I massage the message to make it worthy as a promotional article, an article to be read by a larger audience.

Sometimes my first draft is an answer to someone who asked me a question about my service. I answer his or her question from the hip, then I copy-and-paste my answer to a word document and massage the copy for a public audience.

Many times, this first-draft, second-draft process has helped me to create some of the very best articles I have written. Due to the fact that my original article draft is put together as an answer to a question that one of my potential clients had, it permits me to write an article that answers a question that many of my other potential customers may also be thinking.

In answering questions for the larger audience, I have found great success for myself in article marketing. Given a little bit of motivation and commitment, you can make my processes work for you too, to build your own success online.

About The Author:

Bill Platt has been providing article distribution to his clients since 2001 at: http://www.thephantomwriters.com/ He offers ghost writing and article marketing services. With lots of experience writing articles that attract publishers, readers, traffic and sales to his website, Bill wrote an ebook to share the secrets of his article writing success that can be found at: http://thephantomwriters.com/ebooks/article-marketing-traffic.html

Article Source: thePhantomWriters Article Submission Service

10 New Rules to Get a Flood of Traffic from Online Publicity

06 2008 Thursday

By Donna Gunter in Featured

I started submitting press releases in the 80s when I was a college student to help promote one of the many activities I coordinated as the vice president of service for a national service fraternity to which I belonged. Since that time, and especially since the advent of Internet marketing, the philosophy behind the strategy of submitting press releases and measuring the success of a release has completely shifted. The number of clippings from newspapers running your release used to be considered the hallmark in determining the success of a release. That’s no longer the case.

In today’s marketing environment, submitting press releases online is a very viable strategy for attracting attention to your website and to your business. However, the strategy is very underutilized by online service businesses. Why? Because most of us are still operating under the rules of traditional press releases. Many of the traditional rules of writing press releases no longer apply in today’s Internet marketing age.

Should You Change Your Copy When Rankings Fall?

06 2008 Wednesday

By Karon Thackston in Featured

I’ve been on a seesaw for the last year. I have a client who, for almost 12 months, has been asking me to rewrite their home page copy because they dropped from the top 10 to position #11 (the dreaded second page!). My question to her was always, “Is your copy still converting the way you want it to?” She answered yes every time to which I advised, “Leave the copy alone.”

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