Your Host: Jill Whalen [jill@highrankings.com]
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~~~IN TODAY'S ADVISOR~~~
*Introductory Comments:
----> HRA #250 – WOW!
*Guest Article:
----> The Difference Between Article Distribution and Guest Blogging
*High Rankings Happenings:
----> $100 Off Our Basic SEO Consultation Package
----> Half-day Website Marketing Workshops – April 2–3
----> Full-day SEO Training Classes
*Advanced SEO Forum Thread of the Week:
----> Canonical and Base Tags
*Advisor Wrap-up:
----> Hello from London...well, sort of
________________________________________________________
~~~Introductory Comments~~~
Hey everyone! Can you believe this is the 250th issue of the High Rankings Advisor I've sent? That's a lot of newsletters, and it doesn't even count the 89 I previously did as part of the old RankWrite newsletter. How many of you have been with HRA since issue 001? Zip me over an email if so!
I've got another great one from Karon Thackston today, so let's get straight to it. – Jill
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_______________________________________________________
~~~Search Engine Marketing Issues~~~
The Difference Between Article Distribution and Guest Blogging
By Karon Thackston © 2009, All Rights Reserved
To many people, the idea of guest blogging is fresh and new and very "Web 2.0." Personally, I find the discussion to be a rather déjà vu–like experience. In fact, one participant on my blog responded to a post about articles by asking how I would contrast guest blogging with article marketing. He wanted to know how I chose between placing my articles on directories and writing an exclusive blog post. The short answer is: I don't.
Remembering the Good Old Days of Article Marketing
Circa 1990, the first article directories began to pop up online with the invention of ezines (email magazines). Many publishers of these soon-to-be-popular email newsletters quickly got tired of writing all the content themselves. Others decided to offer compilations of recent articles published by others about a particular topic.
The article directories provided a wonderful new outlet for gathering quality content in exchange for a simple bio at the end with a link back to the author's site. Articles were written to provide quality information to readers in the hope that they would favor the author with a click.
A few of the many benefits of article marketing were (and still are):
* Increasing traffic to your website
* Positioning before a highly targeted audience
* Branding yourself as an expert
* SEO
* Online networking and exposure before new groups of people
* Free advertising
* Infinite archiving of your material
* Almost instant propagation throughout the Internet
With changes in link popularity, it soon became common knowledge that using keyword-rich anchor text carried more weight with engines than simple URL links. As is typical with so many Internet-based marketing methods, the article marketing landscape began to be overtaken by spammers.
A Twisted Sense of Article Marketing
A push for quantity quickly took over the article marketing arena and left quality articles in their wake. The invention of article writing software that illegally harvests snippets of text from existing online content and the invention of article blaster software gave speed to those looking to distribute what are now referred to as "junk articles."
While this may have caused a decrease in the quality of links coming from article directories, the other marketing benefits remain to this day. Quality articles that get picked up from directories and republished on website pages, in ezines and on blogs still enjoy the benefits that article marketing has always offered.
Enter Guest Blogging
The advent of blogging and other social media outlets gave new opportunities for professionals to share their expertise with others. Companies as well as individuals found many advantages to publishing blogs, including:
* Increasing traffic to your website
* Positioning before a highly targeted audience
* Branding yourself as an expert
* SEO
* Online networking and exposure before new groups of people
* Free advertising
* Infinite archiving of your material
* Almost instant propagation throughout the Internet
(Hmm...sounds familiar. Where have I heard this before?)
When we look back at blogging after two or three more years, will it have followed a path similar to article distribution? Will the evil, greedy powers that be attempt to stamp out the benefits of guest blogging in the near future? It's very possible. We're seeing it to some extent already. Trackbacks and pingbacks are being manipulated by spammers as we speak.
Search Engine Optimization Issues
The same dark SEO clouds that hang over article marketing can be seen drifting toward blogs. Writers and site owners are becoming more concerned with the replication of blogs as well as articles. Entire blogs are duplicated on scraper sites every single day within seconds of the original posts being published.
Should you be concerned? I'm not.
Truth is, article marketing is not devoid of search engine benefits as some claim. While the link quality of article directories themselves may have been degraded over time, they only account for one source of links. That's because the article directories were just a jumping-off point – they should never have been viewed as the final destination of articles. The goal has always been to have your article picked up from directories and reprinted on authority sites or blogs. That's where your linking benefits come in.
Even if I get no SEO benefits from article marketing or guest blogging, I'd still do both on a regular basis. It's not an either/or choice for me: It's good marketing. Since long before the Internet was ever thought of, professionals would strive to gain exposure by having their articles published in print magazines. This type of marketing has proven to be successful for decades, online and off, and it's still a valid marketing method today.
Karon Thackston
MarketingWords Inc.
http://m1e.net/c?86763832-nSVrTTL.gIQLg%403995305-9VEZbwIaDsvLI
Share your comments and thoughts here:
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_____________________High Rankings______________________
Website Marketing Workshops April 2–3, 2009
______________________________________________________
4 Half-day Workshops to Choose From!
Already know the SEO basics?
In these half-day in-depth website marketing workshops you will learn:
* Keywords: How to research them and use them within your website
* Copywriting: For your target audience and the search engines
* Social media: How to get the word out and gain traffic and links for your website
* Web analytics: How to measure the success of your web marketing campaigns.
Register for just one workshop, an entire day, or all 4!
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______________________________________________________
~~~Advanced SEO Forum Thread of the Week~~~
++Canonical and Base Tags++
Forum moderator Jonathan Hochman posted about Google's new method for specifying canonical URLs, which the other major search engines have also agreed to use.
While it sounds like an awesome idea on the surface, some forum members have some concerns.
Read more and share your comments here:
http://m1e.net/c?86763832-x3WTst0NkMeAU%403995308-qbjkxEi57w1ww
______________High Rankings SEO Training___________________
2009 SEO Training Classes Open for Registration
_______________________________________________________
1-day SEO Training Class for beginners to intermediate learners.
You will learn what SEO is and isn't, as well as what you need to do
to bring in more search engine visitors who are seeking out exactly
what you offer.
Class is limited to 6 students and we will work on YOUR specific
website issues.
Only two seats left for the April class:
http://m1e.net/c?86763832-NSzvG4SWB0XqU%403995309-o.AV2LxJWLlwY
_______________________________________________________
~~~Advisor Wrap-up~~~
That's all for today! It's a quick issue as I'm in London for the SES conference. Well, by the time you read this I will be there. As I write this, I'm actually at the Las Vegas airport waiting to board my flight to London. (And finishing it up on the plane!) I had a great time with my daughter Jamie, who met me out there after the SMX conference last week. We saw the Criss Angel show, she rode the New York New York Rollercoaster like a zillion times, and we spent one afternoon in an arcade. I also got her in trouble with security for sitting next to me as I threw a few dollars into a slot machine (she's 20, but the gambling age in Vegas is 21). I hadn't actually seen her since last February when I was in Hawaii, so it was great to catch up.
SMX was awesome too. Lots of great sessions and keynotes, plus I talked with a number of people whom I mostly only knew online. I'm looking forward to talking with more SEO folks in London as well. If you're there, please say hi. I'll definitely be around the conference area on Wednesday in between my Orion panel and the Organic SEO Q&A session.
Catch you in 2 weeks! – Jill
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