As I mentioned in a previous post, article marketing is NOT writing an effortless article (or buying one), submitting it to thousands of article directories and driving traffic to a generic page infested with Google Ad Sense. When creating an article marketing strategy, time should be spent writing an article that has value and/or satisfies a particular need. The title, probably the most important aspect of the article itself, should be written as bait to draw the attention of potential readers.
The biggest no-no in executing an article marketing strategy is to post the same article on your blog that you do in a directory. Not only is this considered duplicate content but its proven to be a horrible customer experience. As a user, the last thing I want to do after reading an article somewhere is click through to the blog and see the same exact article.
What I normally do [...]
Thanks to Lee Odden’s post this morning, he made me aware that there are several new web 2.0 sites, similar to Digg, arising in the market place that seem to be very useful. It’s no surprise that these sites will continue to grow at an exponential rate as Social Media dominates the online space. Here are the sites: http://www.searchnsniff.com/, http://www.marktd.com/, http://www.pligg.com/, http://battellemedia.com/searchmob/
Technorati Tags: web2.0, digg, social media, social media optimization, smo, online marketing
The question often arises for many marketers whether or not to bid on branded terms, especially if they already rank number one in the natural search results. While this argument may hold some ground on the surface, bidding on brand related terms enables marketers to occupy more search engine real estate and have greater control over the brand messaging.
Trust and credibility are also factors to consider. When a consumer searches for a branded term, and other search results are returned (perhaps retailers or affiliates), a customer can loose trust in that brand; and the company image loses credibility.
In my opinion, brand related terms are the most valuable terms in any search campaign. They are the most likely to attract the highest levels of relevant traffic because consumers are already interested in the company’s value proposition. The result is higher conversion rates and a more positive customer experience.
Okay, I know this [...]