Article Marketing | Work From Home Resources Blog

How I Get Backlinks to My Blog Posts Resulting in Sales

Posted by Alan Mater on Feb 25, 2010

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I promised another backlink building strategy if you read my post Proven Strategies to Increase Website Traffic and Generate Sales. If you were waiting in anticipation for it, the wait is now over… it’s here!

This strategy, if used correctly, can catapult your blog posts, web pages, homepage, etc. to the top of Google and other search engines. Once you’re sitting high and mighty at the top, the sales will follow (if you’re targeting the right keywords).

To get started, you’re going to need a blog post (home page will do just fine) that you want to get a lot of traffic to. This is especially if you’re promoting something big and want to earn commissions (affiliate marketing). For your home page, you’re probably promoting something, selling your own product or building your list. In any case, you obviously want traffic, so this will work just as well.

Assuming you’ve done all the on-page SEO stuff for your blog post or home page, you’re now ready to start building backlinks. But not just any backlinks will do here. While article marketing is still very effective (and I recommend using this method as well), there’s another link building strategy that works very well.

link-wheel It’s called a Link Wheel.

You may have heard of it before…. or maybe not. It can actually be somewhat confusing to people, so I’m going to explain it the best way I can without confusing you.

If you’ve heard of this strategy before but just don’t quite GET IT yet, then pay close attention here. Better yet, the diagram above should do all the explaining that needs to be done. But, I’ll still do my best here to explain everything.

With the Link Wheel strategy, you’re capitalizing on free blogs/web 2.0/social sites. Take a look at the sites in the diagram, and you’ll notice one thing. They’re all free to use and post content to, and there’s a social aspect to them (this doesn’t really matter for the sake of this strategy). Simply put, Google and the other two major search engines love these sites.

So to get started, you need to write some articles. Anywhere from 6 to 8 articles will be sufficient.

There are some key requirements needed with these articles, though. They need to contain your keyword in the title and two or three times throughout the article body. If you haven’t done so already (you should have), your blog post should contain the same keyword in its title and content. This is very important!

The articles you write for these sites only need to be anywhere from 250 – 350 words long. You don’t need a novel here, just enough useful information to make the content relevant to the keyword you’re targeting.

If you don’t feel like writing the articles yourself, outsource it to someone else. I can get 10 articles written for $27 that do just fine. That’s actually very cheap, by the way.

Once you have your articles, you need to sign up for these free sites. Once you sign up with a site you won’t ever have to do it again. This is a one-time process.

Here are the sites I recommend. This isn’t an all-inclusive list, however. You can sign up for as many as you want. But for the sake of your link wheel you only need 6 to 8 sites.

Hubpages
Wetpaint
Blogger
Wordpress.com
Gather
Xomba
Quizilla
Squidoo

There’s a couple I didn’t mention that are in the diagram. Like I said it really doesn’t matter which sites you sign up with. It’s completely up to you.

Here’s where it gets tricky…

Each article you post on a site should contain two links… one pointing to your blog post and the other pointing to the article on the next site.

BUT… those links need to contain the keyword being targeted.

For example, if I’m targeting the keyword “golf swing” then I have that in the title of both the blog post and all articles for each site as well as in the content. Also, the backlinks will contain the same keyword “golf swing.”

Follow? Just look at the diagram again and this should make sense.

Each article will do this until you’ve completed the rotation and placed one article on each site. You now have a complete Link Wheel.

Doing this correctly will boost your blog post or home page’s rankings in the search engines dramatically. Of course, you still want to perform other link building strategies I’ve mentioned in previous posts because this is not the only way I build backlinks to my posts and home page, just to clear up any confusion you may have.

Any questions about what I’ve shared regarding Link Wheels? Still don’t quite get it? Feel free to leave a comment, and I’ll do my best to answer you.

Proven Strategies to Increase Website Traffic and Generate Sales

Posted by Alan Mater on Feb 20, 2010

Okay, here it is. This post is going to contain the simple yet effective techniques I have learned during my time online to generate targeted traffic and generate sales. These are strategies I’m using for my own online business and have found to be working well and improving over time.

If you’ve been following along with us, my last post was about a struggling internet marketer who is reaching out in a desperate attempt to generate sales with his affiliate marketing website.

One of the questions asked was, “How do I drive traffic to my site that can generate sales?”

This is going to be the topic of this post, and I’ll be going very in-depth, starting with the basics and moving towards the more advanced strategies.

I apologize in advance if this turns into a very lengthy post, but please bare with me as it will be well worth your time to read through everything.

So let’s begin, shall we?

The very first thing you must understand is that everything revolves around keywords. Keywords are the life-blood of websites and how they become seen by internet users using search engines.

SEO (search engine optimization) is the foundation of using keywords effectively, and this is how you’re going to target specific internet users to generate sales online.

Rather than going in-depth on the subject of SEO on this post, I have a few previous posts that should cover this subject thoroughly enough for you to understand. Please check them out, and if you have questions use the comment section:

Optimizing your web page for specific keywords is critical and is the foundation for which you’ll build the rest of your marketing efforts upon. Seriously, nothing else matters until you’ve done this. Don’t ignore it!

One thing I’ve learned is that backlinks are KING. Okay, so content is still KING, but backlinks are a very close second, and here’s why. Backlinks to your website or web pages are what helps to drive your site or pages higher in search engine results pages when someone searches for a specific keyword phrase. See how this is coming together?

Without building backlinks to your site, you won’t generate enough traffic to your site to generate sales. Now I know what you’re thinking here. There are other ways to generate traffic without building backlinks, and that’s true. However, the best traffic is free search engine traffic, and the only way to get it is to rank on the first page in Google, or Yahoo and Bing. I’d focus on Google as it produces over 70% of search traffic across the entire web.

Now that you understand the importance of building backlinks and getting your site or web pages to the top of search engines, you now need to start the backlink building process. There are numerous ways to go about this, and luckily for you, I’ve written many posts on the subject. Here they are:

Remember when building backlinks that you want to use your keywords for the web page you’re linking to. This is the only way that your backlinks are going to be effective in boosting your search engine rankings.

Okay, so you now have a great start in getting backlinks; however, I’m not done just yet.

Well… sorta. I have a post planned that will discuss another very effect backlink building strategy and will be posted soon, so stay tuned for that.

Hopefully right now you have a solid understanding of doing keyword research and web page optimization, and how it all ties in to building backlinks. This is all part of building targeted website traffic that will result in sales.

As always, if you have any questions about anything discussed here, post them in the comments section.

My next post will discuss the second question asked by a struggling internet marketer, but in the meantime, start applying the tips I mentioned today to your website, and you’ll soon see an increase in traffic and internet income.

5 Tips To Market Yourself On The Internet

Posted by Alan Mater on Jan 28, 2010

Build A Following Marketing yourself on the internet is very crucial to anyone that wishes to reach online success. The days of marketing a particular program or opportunity are over. People want to know about the person promoting them more so than the opportunity or program themselves. If people can get to know you and trust you, they will trust your recommendations and advice.

This is the same concept as online branding which I blogged about before. The internet makes it a little challenging to be transparent, but at the same time there are numerous methods in which you can utilize to become known and seen as an expert in your field.

Here are 5 tips to help you market yourself on the internet:

1. Create Online Profiles – Profiles are an excellent way to get your name out there. They’re also a great way to get backlinks to your site as well. Take advantage of creating profiles on Google, Yahoo and MSN.

2. Post Videos – If you have a simple web cam or digital camera with video capability, it’s very easy to create short videos and post them on YouTube. You can also get free screen capture software like CamStudio to create tutorials. Take advantage of videos to create a web presence and loyal following.

3. Article Marketing - Writing articles either for your own blog or submitting them to article directories is a great way to get yourself known. Create informational and valuable articles that people will want to read and share with others.

4. Forums – Forums are not only an excellent source of information, but they can also be used to create credibility within your niche. The more people you can help, the more people will trust you and your recommendations.

Bonus Tip:

5. Blogging – Just as I’m doing here, you should be blogging about your experiences and sharing the knowledge you have about your particular interest. This will help build up a following of interested readers and build relationships with them.

Do you have any branding tips you’d like to share? Let us know in the comments below…

What Do You Plan To Accomplish In 2010?

Posted by Alan Mater on Jan 8, 2010

2009 was a great year as I started seeing momentum with my online business. I learned a lot about what I need to do, and also about what I don’t want to do. Everything is a learning experience that I can take with me and improve upon.

Now that we’re a full week into 2010, I’m starting to plan how I’m going to build up my online business to reach even greater heights. Planning and evaluation is an important process no matter what kind business you’re in. I need to evaluate the areas where I can improve, and then plan how I’m going to do so.

Along with planning, this is the time to set goals that you want to accomplish. The goals should be realistic and achievable. Don’t set them too high, but at the same time you don’t want to set them too low as you’ll only be cheating yourself.

When it comes to making money online, many prefer building multiple niche sites to earn income from. This is a great avenue to go down and may be easier than building just one authority site.

However, I personally want to focus my time on building ReplaceYourSalary.com as an authority site and blog. That has always been my intention from the start, and right now I don’t see that changing.

Eventually, I may pan out and start diversifying my efforts into some smaller niches, but that won’t happen until I have met my goals for this site.

I’m slowly getting there, but I have a long way to go before I reach the amount of growth and income I expect to get from this site. The potential is and always has been there. 2009 was very evident of that.

My goal for 2010 is to have systems in place that are going to help me reach my desired income. Systems can be anything from having the right people for the job, to having the right processes in place.

This means I’m going to be outsourcing a good majority of work this year in regards to marketing my website. This I feel is the only way I’m going to be able to be most productive and achieve the goals I have set for myself. I’ll still be doing a good portion myself, but there are some areas I’d rather leave to someone else.

There are also new processes I have learned and will implement this year that should dramatically boost my site and earnings. I’ll mainly be focusing on Web 2.0 sites and article marketing. This combination has proven to be effective, and I need to start utilizing this marketing strategy.

Another area I need to do more with is video marketing. I hadn’t done much on YouTube last year, and I want to change that this year. Video is an incredible medium with so much potential. I want to really grow my OnlineWealth channel up and get more exposure with my current videos and also future videos.

Specific goals I have set for this year are:

At least $1,000/month income
Blog minimum of 4 posts a week
Alexa Rank – 100,000 or less

These are the main areas I’ll be focusing on this year. Like most people, time is my biggest concern. This is why I’ll be outsourcing some work so that I can focus on other areas of my online business. If you look at all of the successful internet marketers and online business owners, every single one of them outsources. It’s time for me to follow that successful pattern.

What do you plan to accomplish this year? What are some goals you have for yourself personally or for your business? Share them in the comments below…

October Blog Post Roundup

Posted by Alan Mater on Nov 4, 2009

Last month went by very quickly. Luckily for you I was able to get quite a few blog posts written. I hope you enjoyed them all and learned a thing or two. In case you missed any, you can check out last month’s blog posts in this blog post roundup.

Increase Web Traffic with Traffic Exchanges

How To Maximize Your Results With Traffic Exchanges

New TwitterLink Comments Plugin Installed

Flip Switch Profits Review – A Realistic Way To Make Money Online?

September Income Report

Internet Marketing Articles – 1 Month Free PLR Membership

80 High PR One Way Backlinks Each Month

Ezine Articles – Free Website Promotion

Easy Free Keyword Research

Discover Commercial Intention of Keyword Phrases

Ezine Articles – Free Website Promotion

Posted by Alan Mater on Oct 23, 2009

By now you should know how effective article marketing is for your online business. However, there’s another way in which you can use your articles that a lot of people overlook or never think of.

There are thousands if not hundreds of thousands of ezines (electronic magazines) available on the internet. In fact, if you have an email list of subscribers, then essentially you own an ezine. And I’m guessing you provide your subscribers with useful ezine articles on a regular basis.

Keeping this in mind, have you ever found it difficult to keep creating ezine articles to send to your list? A lot of successful ezines have been around for years and have tens of thousands of subscribers. That’s a long time to try to keep creating ezine articles to keep the subscribers interested.

So, what does an ezine owner do in this case? It’s very simple. They allow other people to submit ezine articles to them which will be sent to their subscribers. Can you see the possibilities here?

This opens the doorway for you to get your message out there to thousands of people that might have never known about you otherwise. This is absolutely huge!

Here’s how it works…

You first find ezines that are related to what you do or what you provide. If you own a website or online business, then find ezines related to that. Next thing you’ll want to do is contact the ezine owner and ask if you could write articles for their ezine on a weekly basis.

If they agree, you’ve just set up a very good proposition for yourself. Now all you have to do is create an article every week for that ezine. It shouldn’t be very difficult as you should already be familiar with the niche.

Now, the most important part is to then create an “about the author” section at the end of your articles. This only has to be one or two sentences about yourself, what you do and what you provide. Of course, you’ll want to leave a link to your website so that the readers can check it out.

This results in getting interested people to visit your website. The goal is to get them to subscribe to your ezine (newsletter), make a purchase, fill out a form, click a link, etc. You want them to take action!

Ezine articles can be an effective way to promote your website and should be part of your overall marketing strategy. Now, a problem with this is that it can take a lot of time to search for and find related ezines.

I recommend you use the Directory of Ezines to find ezines to write articles for. Not all ezines will allow article submissions, but the Directory of Ezines has an awesome search interface that will allow you to search for only ezines that do. There are many other search parameters as well, including categories, specific keywords, ezines that allow solo ads and more.

There are many perks to becoming a member of the Directory of Ezines, especially if you become a lifetime member, which is what I am. At least check it out and see if it’s right for you.

No matter how you find potential ezines to partner with, just remember, this is free advertising for your website that has a lot of positive potential, so don’t ignore it. Ezine articles can have a huge impact on your online business.

Internet Marketing Articles – 1 Month Free PLR Membership

Posted by Alan Mater on Oct 16, 2009

Awhile ago I posted about David Hurley’s Internet Marketing PLR Article Membership. Well, David has just informed me that he’s offering all new members one month of free access.

However, you have to sign up using this link: http://www.grasp-the-nettle.com/Free-Article-Marketing-Offer.html.

You’ll receive 10 expertly written internet marketing related articles every month, with your first month free of charge. I’m so sure that you’ll like David’s articles that you’ll want to continue receiving his articles month after month. But, if not, no worries.

Also, don’t forget that for a small upgrade fee, you can have those articles re-written by yours truly.

I’ll rewrite your 10 articles and make them unique to use for your own site, blog or to submit to directories.

August Blog Post Roundup

Posted by Alan Mater on Sep 2, 2009

August came and went so fast. The summer is almost gone, and Fall is right around the corner. I didn’t do too much posting the past month, but if you happened to miss anything, you’ll find the posts below.

Get Top Quality Internet Marketing Articles

My JV Partnership Endeavor with David Hurley

Thank You To All Of My Readers

Google Adsense Alternative – Yarie.com

My JV Partnership Endeavor with David Hurley

Posted by Alan Mater on Aug 19, 2009

I promised I would update you all on what my new online endeavor was, so here you go!

In my previous post about David Hurley’s Internet Marketing Article Writing Service, you may have noticed I mentioned that David is an online friend of mine. There is also good reason why I talked about David’s service and am endorsing it.

Not only does David offer a better PLR article service than most other services, but he also offers an additional service as well. David provides an upgraded membership to his article writing service where members will receive rewritten, unique articles each month.

These articles are unique to the articles that regular members receive, thus making them even more valuable. As an upgraded member, you will receive 10 unique PLR articles each and every month for as long as you’re subscribed to the service.

Now, this is where I come in.

As David and I work side by side in various online communities, we are familiar with each others talents, services, etc. David runs quite a few websites, as well as handling a lot of offline obligations. Due to this , he needed to find a way to ease his workload.

A couple of months ago David contacted me about possibly doing some work for him. I gave him some prices and discussed the terms of what all would be involved. At the time David decided to contine handling everything himself.

Not long ago I was contacted again, this time getting full confirmation that David wanted to turn over the rewriting part of his article writing service over to me.

This would result in an increase in my workload, but it would also increase my monthly income. Since David already had a few clients that required rewritten articles, he needed to be able to get the articles to them in a timely manner. Seeing this as a mutual benefit for both of us, I gladly accepted the offer.

Why did David pick me to head up the service? Well for one, I’m a certified proofreader and have the credentials and experience to perform the tasks that David was looking for. I’m very honored to be a part of what David is doing for the internet marketing community and look forward to our long-lasting partnership.

When you join his internet marketing articles service, be sure to check out the upgraded membership benefits to get the details. You’ll also be able to read more about me and the rewriting service that I’ll be providing for his PLR articles.

Even if you decide not to upgrade, you’ll still receive 10 articles every month that are limited to a maximum of 100 members. The reason for this is so there’s not a lot of saturation in the market, and this avoids having 100’s, if not more, of the same articles all over the web.

Being a basic member is still very beneficial if you don’t have the time to write your own articles, so I urge you to check out David’s article PLR service and see if it’s right for you.

Get Top Quality Internet Marketing Articles

Posted by Alan Mater on Aug 16, 2009

Writing top quality articles is very time consuming. You may have an idea of what you want to write about, but when it comes to actually writing the articles, it just takes time. You may be asking why you would even have a need to write articles, and the answer is very simple. Articles help you grow your online business.

Articles allow you the advantage of getting your name, business and message in front of thousands of readers and seen as an expert… all for FREE. For internet marketers and online business owners who have multiple tasks to complete every day, writing can be a chore.

Introducing… David Hurley, expert internet marketer, English professional and article writer. David is the owner of Grasp-The-Nettle.com and provides an article writing PLR service for internet marketers. His articles are internet marketing and online business related.

What sets David’s service apart from other PLR services is this:

High quality, relevant and useful articles – NOT the usual run-of-the-mill, thrown together stuff
Free from grammar, spelling and syntax errors commonly found in other PLR article packages
Limited membership – Articles exclusively available to only 100 members
Reasonably priced

David’s service provides you with 10 internet marketing related articles each and every month to use for your own use. Why spend countless hours writing your own articles, when you can have David save you the trouble?

I’m a personal friend of David’s and have worked side by side with him for several years through various forums and internet marketing communities. I have been impressed with his professionalism and all the work that he does with his various online businesses. I can assure you that anything David does is top notch!

To learn more about David’s article writing service and his risk-free guarantee, go to http://grasp-the-nettle.com/Article-Marketing.html. I promise you won’t be disappointed.

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