Friday, October 28, 2011

ArticlesBase gets indexed very quickly by Google

Still on the subject of article directories: I just submitted an article there. Not only was it published very quickly, it was in Google straightaway as well. And it also came up when I did a backlink check using Yahoo. That was noticeable because I did have at least one other article with a backlink to that site. That article was indexed by Google at least a week ago, yet it wasn't showing up as a backlink.

I don't have detailed knowledge of how all this works. So I may be drawing a false conclusion. But I think the fact that the ArticlesBase link appeared in both Google's results and Yahoo's backlinks immediately says something about how highly that article directory is regarded by these search engines.

So, if you do have a new site that you are keen to get indexed as quickly as possible, then writing an article about its subject and putting the URL in your author bio-box, then submitting this to ArticlesBase is a very good idea.

The only drawback is that the link will be nofollow. However, that might not be such a negative SEO-wise in the long run, as this post explains

Tuesday, October 25, 2011

GoArticles versus Sooper Articles

Having used various article directories over quite a long period now, I can see patterns start to emerge with them. For example, I've noticed that when you submit articles to Goarticles, they do get used by other publishers quite quickly.

Of course that's what you want to happen. However that can also be a problem in that they might not faithfully cite you as the writer, with bio-box links intact. Or if they do do that, they might be using nofollow links -- or the site is just not well regarded by the search engines. If Google then indexes your article at this site before it does at Goarticles (which is PR 3, I think now) then you are being penalized, or at least not getting good value from having submitted there. Outcomes such as those described above have resulted when I have submitted articles there in the past.

But one thing that I've noticed with Sooperarticles, which I'm using more and more now, is that very soon after you get the notification that your article has been published it's right there in Google. So, there's virtually no chance of penalization occurring.

The downside with Sooperarticles, though, is that it sometimes take a while before your article is approved by one of the editorial team. Still, I think that's a small price to pay.

Monday, October 17, 2011

Find and write for Twitter daily newspapers

One thing that has become increasingly popular among avid Twitter users is to start a daily newspaper using Paper.li. This is an excellent way of giving your followers lots of interesting reading material.

Some of these dailies get a large number of views, so it's great if you can become a regular, or even occasional contributor to some of them. If you're pretty active on the site, have a decent number of followers and tweet interesting content then this is certain to happen eventually. 

But you can increase the odds of this occurring by looking for these daily newspapers on Twitter, then following their creators. The favourite phrase that people use to announce their latest edition is to tweet "The (insert title here) Daily is out!". Because these editors often use a specific keyword in the paper title, then all you have to do is search for that phrase, inserting a keyword describing a subject you tweet about often.

The other way of finding them is just to search for those keywords in Paper.li itself. This has the advantage of showing how many views each paper is getting as well.

If you use these methods you're sure to get more and more of your tweets included in these papers, thereby substantially lifting your profile on Twitter. If you're primarily tweeting blog posts then of course you'll get extra clicks on them. Google takes Twitter activity into account so this should help a bit with SEO as well.

Of course, if you do get included, then it's a good idea to retweet the newspaper edition to your followers. That's a way of saying thanks to the paper's editor as well as increasing the odds that he'll include your tweets in subsequent editions as well.

Thursday, October 13, 2011

Joining many different affiliate programs is a good idea

Everyone knows the saying "don't put all your eggs in one basket". That's good advice generally. It also applies to affiliate marketing, as a recent experience confirms.

See, I've been promoting various affiliate programs on a few different websites. They come from different networks like Commission Monster and Check My Stats. A couple of them have been working consistently, and I've come to count on getting a small but regular flow of commissions from them.

On one of them I'd racked up forty bucks for the month so far. But then all of a sudden this just disappeared. As far as I can tell this was because the merchant had just cancelled its relationship with that particular affiliate network. So all earnings that had not been paid out just dried up.

It's not much money, of course. However it's a bit annoying. And as well as that saying I cited at the top of the post, there's another one worth remembering: "Don't count your chickens before they hatch."

I'm glad I've signed up to several different programs, so it's not such a big problem. However if I'd put all my work into promoting just one affiliate program and was earning substantial monthly payments and that went belly up all of a sudden -- well, it really would be back to square one and be very disheartening.

Wednesday, October 5, 2011

GhostBloggers is a new online marketplace like Constant Content

Because of the immense demand for unique online content, there are countless websites out there where writers can sell their work. However the vast majority require them to write to quite stringent specifications and sometimes tight deadlines as well. Of course that's hardly surprising. The work is being commissioned, and those who will ultimately publish it get to call the shots.

As someone who's been a bit spoiled by the freedom of blogging over the years, I find it very hard to warm to this particular way of doing things. Basically, if I'm going to get into writing content for others I want that to be more on my terms. I'd much prefer just to write what I feel like writing, then offer it for sale. If someone wants to buy it, that's great. If not, no trouble. I'll just keep writing for the fun of it.

I'm sure there must be countless other bloggers who have this attitude, and quite a few webmasters seeking content who are also okay with it. That's why I've long found it a bit strange that there are so few "online content marketplaces" using the model described above. The best known of these is Constant Content, of course, and there are a couple of others.

That's why it's good to know that another one has arrived on the scene just recently. It's called GhostBloggers and it looks like a well run site, with many writers signed up already. The default pay rate it has for work on offer looks very good for writers. (One of the sad ironies of the internet is that while the number of writing opportunities has gone through the roof, the average price per word that writers can charge for their work has just plummeted!)

I encourage other bloggers to sign up and put some articles out there for sale. I'll do the same if and when I find the time. And if anyone has had any experience using GhostBloggers, please feel free to include your thoughts in comments below.

Tuesday, October 4, 2011

Commission Junction payment in Australian currency received today

I've been promoting affiliate programs on my various blogs and websites over the years. Most of these are in-house Australian ones, or run through big affiliate networks with a strong presence in Australia (such as Clixgalore, Check My Stats, etc).

I joined Commission Junction a while ago -- which doesn't have an Aussie version (yet) -- because it's got a great reputation and lots of really good things to promote. I received my first payment from them in the mail today.

It was in Australian dollars, which was a bonus. That makes everything easier, since you don't have to pay for the currency exchange fee (which if I remember correctly is at least ten bucks per cheque) and you only have to wait three working days instead of twenty one for it to clear.

Other Australian affiliate marketers should check it out if they haven't already. 

New Weebly website indexed quickly by Google

I've posted quite often about the website builder and hosting company Weebly. I have built several websites using their platform, and have been very happy with the service.

I just built another little geo-specific niche site with Weebly. It's about garage sales in Perth. I only bought the domain recently and set it up with the host less than a week ago. It's only got a few pages of content up, and I haven't built any backlinks to it at all. But it's already there in Google's index.

Not only that, it's on page 4 of Aussie Google's results for the phrase that comprises the domain. I don't want to link directly to the site yet, because I don't want to risk any ranking penalty (even though I suspect that's highly unlikely). In any case, you can see it halfway down the page here.

This is clearly good news for anyone building a site with Weebly. I'd happily join their affiliate program and promote them enthusiastically. But unfortunately membership to it is not open to people from outside the United States yet.