As a writer, do you sometimes/often/always find yourself at a loss as to what to write next? No, I am not talking about topics or subjects you already have nailed down. Rather, the simple desire to get started with something, anything to break the brain logjam. It could be a personal project or something you want to develop to show to a potential client the stuff that you are made of. Whatever, I have been there myself and have found that some of my sources of inspiration have come from blogs. You got it…sites that have sparked my creative juices and allowed me to take a concept and bring it to fruition.
Typically, I come across a blog geared toward a particular topic — let’s say aviation — and find something within that blog that catches my attention. It may be a trend, company news, even simple speculation. Oftentimes, what I read becomes the inspiration for a fresh article so I take that idea, do some additional research, and create my own new work.
No, I don’t cut and paste someone else’s writings. Instead, their pithy work becomes the seed that I germinate to produce a unique and compelling article of my own. The key here is this: it is my own voice, not someone else’s work.
We all have our favorite blogs, you can be certain of that. Spend some time on those particular blogs and see what inspires you. Who knows, but a sentence or a paragraph you read may gel your brain into producing a 500-750 word article that you can include in your vast repository of interesting and relevant work.
Gosh, I think that I may be on to something!
Showing posts with label article submission. Show all posts
Showing posts with label article submission. Show all posts
Wednesday, October 5, 2011
Wednesday, September 21, 2011
Article Theft...What to do about it?
I have read several articles, blogs, and message board postings concerning the rise of article theft. Specifically, this is where your article is lifted from your site without your permission or pulled from a third party site.
In many ways I consider the internet to be the "Wild West" in terms of lawlessness. Ignoring established and set rules is common, meaning that us law abiding folks have our work cut out for us.
It may surprise you, but I don't take action in many cases of known article theft. Why? Because, I just don't have the time to police everything. I know of authors who check every link to their site, but that work is both tedious and time consuming.
A golden rule: If someone takes my article without my permission and the content and links are still in place, I don't worry about it. If they take my article and change the content, paragraph headers, the title, or steal credit for themselves, then I will contact the offending party and demand that they make the appropriate corrections. Even for links that are broken, I generally let these types of mistakes slide.
When it comes to writing, time is money. I only respond to egregious violations while letting everything else slip by. I would rather spend my time making money instead of losing that time to chasing down violators. No, my policy or "golden rule" isn't perfect, but it saves me from being bogged down in what I find to be a wasteful pursuit.
In many ways I consider the internet to be the "Wild West" in terms of lawlessness. Ignoring established and set rules is common, meaning that us law abiding folks have our work cut out for us.
It may surprise you, but I don't take action in many cases of known article theft. Why? Because, I just don't have the time to police everything. I know of authors who check every link to their site, but that work is both tedious and time consuming.
A golden rule: If someone takes my article without my permission and the content and links are still in place, I don't worry about it. If they take my article and change the content, paragraph headers, the title, or steal credit for themselves, then I will contact the offending party and demand that they make the appropriate corrections. Even for links that are broken, I generally let these types of mistakes slide.
When it comes to writing, time is money. I only respond to egregious violations while letting everything else slip by. I would rather spend my time making money instead of losing that time to chasing down violators. No, my policy or "golden rule" isn't perfect, but it saves me from being bogged down in what I find to be a wasteful pursuit.
Article Submission Trumps Ezine Ads and Google AdWords
You may have heard advice from Internet marketing gurus that ezine ads are one of the best forms of advertising. You may also have heard that Google AdWords and other pay per click search engines are one of the best advertising methods. But when it comes to marketing your web site, article submission trumps ezine ads and Google AdWords anytime.
The advantage of article submission is trust. Suppose you subscribe to an ezine in the form of an email newsletter. You've just sat down at your PC, coffee in hand, to read your email. There in your inbox is a copy of one of your favorite ezines, the one you read every time.
Clicking on the newsletter, you see that this edition starts with a sponsor ad and then has a couple of great sounding articles and a couple more ezine ads. Sipping your coffee, one of the articles catches your attention. You read the article, and you were right. It's a great article.
At the bottom of the article, there is a link to the author's web site and a short biography. You notice the author has a link to pick up a free report with more information about the article's topic. Then you notice that right below that there's a sponsor's link in an ezine ad. The sponsor's link is for a different web site, but it also offers a free report about the same topic.
Now you might click both links. But if you could only click one, which would you choose: the one by the author of the great article you just read or the one in the ezine ad?
If you would click on the one from the author of the article you just read, you're not alone. Most people would, wouldn't they?
Now suppose you're surfing around on the web. You do a Google search on a topic you're interested in, and you follow a link to a great article with some excellent advice on the topic. Again, there is a link to the author's web site and a link to a free report with more information on the topic. Right beside it are five Google AdWords ads on the same topic. As luck would have it, they are also each offering a free report on the same topic.
You would still be most likely to click on the author's link at the bottom of the article, though, wouldn't you?
Article submission trumps ezine ads and Google AdWords because you establish a relationship and build trust with your reader. You are obviously the expert. After all, you wrote the article. And the webmaster or ezine publisher wouldn't have published the article if they didn't think you knew what you were talking about, right?
Years ago, I used to do direct sales in people's homes. I learned that one of the first things you need to do is the "warm up." You've just entered someone's home, they don't know who you are as a person, and they know you're going to be trying to get money from them before you leave.
If you don't establish rapport quickly, it's difficult to overcome people's natural sales resistance. In direct sales in the home, you do that by talking a little with people before you begin your sales presentation. They get to know you as a person, and their resistance is lowered.
Most people can't do sales because they remain the "enemy," the horrible sales person who wants to sell them something. Let's face it, people hate sales people!
But imagine if you could warm up to people easily - and not just one or two people, but thousands of people. Imagine if instead of selling them something, you could educate them about something that will solve a problem and be of great benefit to them. That's entirely different, isn't it?
Article submission allows you to do exactly this, and on a massive scale. If you submit many articles to article submission sites and article directories, many will be published on web sites and in ezines around the Internet. People will read your articles and warm up to you. Solve their problems and they'll want more.
It's hard to accomplish that with Google AdWords. You only have three lines and a few words to build interest and trust and to get the click. It's also hard to achieve that with ezine ads. Even with solo ezine ads, everyone knows they are advertisements.
Article submission is the secret. Writing and submitting articles is relatively easy. Just write very helpful articles on your topic and link to your web site. Through article submission you will build your reputation. Through article submission you will gain trust. And through article submission you will get visitors to your web site that already like you, value your advice, and want to know more about what you can do to help them.
That's already an incredible benefit, but it gets even better. Article submission is usually free, or low cost if you use an article submission service. Ezine ads and Google AdWords can be very expensive, and it is unlikely you could ever get traffic coming to your site as open to listening to you and trusting you as they will be from an article submission.
This is why article submission trumps ezine ads and Google AdWords.
The advantage of article submission is trust. Suppose you subscribe to an ezine in the form of an email newsletter. You've just sat down at your PC, coffee in hand, to read your email. There in your inbox is a copy of one of your favorite ezines, the one you read every time.
Clicking on the newsletter, you see that this edition starts with a sponsor ad and then has a couple of great sounding articles and a couple more ezine ads. Sipping your coffee, one of the articles catches your attention. You read the article, and you were right. It's a great article.
At the bottom of the article, there is a link to the author's web site and a short biography. You notice the author has a link to pick up a free report with more information about the article's topic. Then you notice that right below that there's a sponsor's link in an ezine ad. The sponsor's link is for a different web site, but it also offers a free report about the same topic.
Now you might click both links. But if you could only click one, which would you choose: the one by the author of the great article you just read or the one in the ezine ad?
If you would click on the one from the author of the article you just read, you're not alone. Most people would, wouldn't they?
Now suppose you're surfing around on the web. You do a Google search on a topic you're interested in, and you follow a link to a great article with some excellent advice on the topic. Again, there is a link to the author's web site and a link to a free report with more information on the topic. Right beside it are five Google AdWords ads on the same topic. As luck would have it, they are also each offering a free report on the same topic.
You would still be most likely to click on the author's link at the bottom of the article, though, wouldn't you?
Article submission trumps ezine ads and Google AdWords because you establish a relationship and build trust with your reader. You are obviously the expert. After all, you wrote the article. And the webmaster or ezine publisher wouldn't have published the article if they didn't think you knew what you were talking about, right?
Years ago, I used to do direct sales in people's homes. I learned that one of the first things you need to do is the "warm up." You've just entered someone's home, they don't know who you are as a person, and they know you're going to be trying to get money from them before you leave.
If you don't establish rapport quickly, it's difficult to overcome people's natural sales resistance. In direct sales in the home, you do that by talking a little with people before you begin your sales presentation. They get to know you as a person, and their resistance is lowered.
Most people can't do sales because they remain the "enemy," the horrible sales person who wants to sell them something. Let's face it, people hate sales people!
But imagine if you could warm up to people easily - and not just one or two people, but thousands of people. Imagine if instead of selling them something, you could educate them about something that will solve a problem and be of great benefit to them. That's entirely different, isn't it?
Article submission allows you to do exactly this, and on a massive scale. If you submit many articles to article submission sites and article directories, many will be published on web sites and in ezines around the Internet. People will read your articles and warm up to you. Solve their problems and they'll want more.
It's hard to accomplish that with Google AdWords. You only have three lines and a few words to build interest and trust and to get the click. It's also hard to achieve that with ezine ads. Even with solo ezine ads, everyone knows they are advertisements.
Article submission is the secret. Writing and submitting articles is relatively easy. Just write very helpful articles on your topic and link to your web site. Through article submission you will build your reputation. Through article submission you will gain trust. And through article submission you will get visitors to your web site that already like you, value your advice, and want to know more about what you can do to help them.
That's already an incredible benefit, but it gets even better. Article submission is usually free, or low cost if you use an article submission service. Ezine ads and Google AdWords can be very expensive, and it is unlikely you could ever get traffic coming to your site as open to listening to you and trusting you as they will be from an article submission.
This is why article submission trumps ezine ads and Google AdWords.
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