Read this before you buy article submission software!

Ok, I've had some time to play with the new article submission software I just got, article post robot. I haven't been able to compare it with others, but from what I hear they're all pretty similar: they post your article onto hundreds of different directories as quickly as possible.

Although this sounds like a great benefit (hundreds of backlinks instantly for each article. Write one a day for a year and....) I've come to the conclusion that this is not the way of future successful search engine optimization.

First of all, before an article submission program can "instantly submit your article" to hundreds of directories, you'll probably have to sign up to those directories yourself. I was able to do about 3 before giving up. I could probably force myself to do 20 per hour, and in about 30 hours sign up for all of them (you need to check your mail, verify, etc.). After that, yes, article post robot is a great tool for article submissions.

Ask me why it doesn't matter. Go on, ask me.
95% of the directories you'll be submitting to are junk. Garbage, small-town, ugly graphic websites cashing in on the ads they put all around your article. Sure, you get a backlink - but the big Search Engines are smart. I'm willing to bet that one quality link from a really popular site, that people are actually visiting (about.com, yahoo.com, squidoo.com, myspace.com, facebook.com) are worth as much as hundreds of backlinks from ugly little sites that nobody would be caught dead in.

Article syndication may have been hot a year or two ago, but search engines wise up quickly. You need a new strategy.

So what should I do?!
Get links from popular sites. The sites you already have an account to - along with 500,000 million other people. Ask friends and contacts to link to you.

Also - the buzz word on the web right now is unique content. Everybody knows articles are spread around the web. That's good news if you want backlinks to your site. But if you want high search engine rankings, you need original content that can't be found anywhere else. And you need LOTS of it. It should be focused on your topics. If you can't write, pay someone to write articles. $200 bucks could buy you 50 or more great, unique content articles. Check out guru.com or another freelance worker network.

Article Post Robot: Automatic Article Submission

OK, so after reading for months about why I should submit articles to directories in order to increase my backlinks and improve search engine ranking, I snooped around a couple of article submission sites to investigate. The problem is, I'm really lazy. I wasn't impressed enough by the sites I visited. I didn't want to register or upload my article. Too much work! I wrote a bunch of articles instead, but still faced the same problem: where to start? how to begin? I could conceivably submit my articles to about 3 article directories before succumbing to fatigue. And from what I'd read, that wasn't going to cut it.

So I started to research other options. The first is manual article submission services. You pay them $15 - $25 and they'll submit your articles for you, professionally, to hundreds of services. That sounds great. But I want to write a couple of articles a day. No way I'm going to give someone $50 a day for something I could do myself if I wasn't so damn lazy.

The other option is article submission software. Surprisingly - although this seems like a really, really good idea, (Duh....everybody knows article submission is good for backlinks, everybody says you should do it, nobody wants to take the time to do it themselves...obviously a huge market) there are only 3 or 4 major players. Somebody smarter than me would write his own automatic article submission software and get in on the action.

Me, however, I've just got to bite bullet and pay like a normal person. Warning: Yes, they're expensive. I went back and forth between sites for awhile, trying to find the best and cheapest one. I would consider paying as much as 10 dollars (That's a lot! I hate paying for software.) But in the end I was convinced that there was no alternative to just buying the damn thing.

The one I chose, Article Post Robot is $127. Yeah, that's a lot. But, compared to similar software, it's still about the cheapest. And I figure, $127 is about what I spend on two months of a not very successful Google adwords campaign. If I could get a couple thousand quality back-link and improve my search engine ranking, I wouldn't need AdWords anymore.

Article Submitter Pro: $167.
Article Marketer Distribution Service: $119.95/year.
ISNare: $719.40/year.
Submit Your Article: 48 article/year, $444.00.
The Phantom Writers: 10 articles, $200.

Not to mention, with an luck, getting more visitors on my site will increase SALES which means MORE MONEY. It sucks to spend money before you've got it, but hey, that's how it works.

I haven't really tried it out yet, but I'll keep track of the results and post another review soon.

Article Post Robot's HomePage - Click Here

Getting your website translated

Most small businesses rarely think about getting their website translated, but doing so can yield huge results. Sure, we've all heard that India and China are the next super-powers, but there are plenty of other countries using the internet as well, and guess what guys: they don't all speak English. Indians speak it pretty well, some even go to training sessions to develop a north-american accent so they can answer phone-lines for off-shore call centers. But in most countries, those who can't read or write in English far outweighs those who can. Those are people who could be searching for the service or product you provide!

What about Google Translate or Altavista Babelfish?
Online translation tools are super cool. I predict within 5 years we'll have ear-plug voiceboxes that will automatically translate our multi-lingual conversations. However, we're not quite their yet. Sure, putting those language buttons on your site looks great and professional, and it's amazing how it turns all your words into majestic looking Korean characters or squiggly Arabic writing, but does it actually bring you business?

Try an experiment - get some texts from a Spanish or Japanese website and translate it into English on google or altavista. What you'll most likely get is, for the most part, comprehensible. You can probably figure out what the site is about. But most probably, you wouldn't want to spend more than 10 seconds trying to read it. It's just too frustrating. Plus, since the English isn't perfect, we figure it's "not for us". (It's the looking at any website - see a couple of typos and suddenly ALL credibility is thrown out the window. You just can't trust someone who can't spell correctly, can you?)

People from other countries are not trying to learn English so they can read your sites. They are looking at sites in their own language. They are searching for keywords in their own language. So, if you want to try increasing visitors and sales, translating is a really good idea.

How To Do It
Finding a freelance translator has never been easier. There are millions of people who are fluent in 2 or 3 languages, many of whom are connected online and make a part-time income through freelance translation services. When I translated my site into Chinese, I found a translator from Harbin, China through his blog, http://translatorli.blogspot.com/. If want to translate your website into Chinese as well, write to him and ask for an estimate.

Translators will usually charge between $100 and $400 to translate a website, but if you're on a low budget, here are some tips for getting the maximum value.

Pay for Editing, not Translation
Here's a sneaky trick. Most translator's charge much more for translating than they do for editing. So put your text through Google language tools, and then send the resulting copy to a native speaker for editing.

Hire a native speaker, not a professional
Get onto myspace or facebook and find a teenager who's bilingual in the language you're seeking. (I live in Taiwan, and there are about 500 girls on myspace with flawless english/chinese.) Write to a few and say "I've got some translating to do, here's my budget." Even $50 maybe some pretty good money, depending on their countries economy.

Focus on Translating Language Groups
English grammar is very different from that of the Romance languages like French and Italian, so using Google language tools or Babelfish won't be able to get it all right. But - Romance language are similar to each other. To save money, get someone to translate your website into Spanish first (lots of S.American economies are not so strong, and you can find a good translator for $50 - $100.) Then use Babelfish or Google language tools to translate from Spanish into the other Romance languages: French, Italian, Portuguese...

You can use this trick between traditional Chinese and simplified, and also between Korean and Japanese. Of course, it won't be perfect. But probably better than going straight from English. However, for your target audiences (for example if you really want to focus on the 2 billion Chinese who will have internet soon) get a proper, high-quality translation from a native from the same country.

Target your writing to a specific audience.
Your sales copy might be working really well for your own country, but don't make the mistake of assuming it will work on the other side of the world. Before you get your text translated, re-write it to focus on the specific concerns of your target readers. They will have different questions, different wants and needs. (For example, they might be more concerned about shipping costs, payment or communication methods). If you've hired a translator from your target country, get his valuable advice and opinions about what you should say. Give him/her the freedom to change it up a little, rather than trying to translate word-for-word.

Are your keywords in the right place? Avoid lost sales by reading these easy tips.

If you've got a website, you know how important "keywords" are to search engine optimization. What you might not know, is that they need to be used correctly - in just the right places, and just the right amount. Using too many of them in a certain place can actually make your search engine ranking DROP like brick off a bridge.


Follow these rules if you want to maximize your Search Engine ranking and explode traffic.

1) Choose keywords that are actually on your site. Picking keywords that people are really looking for is great - if you customize your site to appeal to them. But don't squeeze them in if they're not really what you're selling.

2) Niche Markets. You don't have to sell to everyone. Actually, sometimes it's better to find a specific service you and only you can provide, and then target potential customers. Better to be a big fish in a small pond...

3) Where to put your keywords, and how many should be there!

Discover the little-known secrets that can have big SEO results

Your keywords need to be found in the right places, and in the right proportions, in order to have good SEO with Yahoo, Google and the other big internet giants. Did you know, for example, that the first sentence of your body text is a hotspot search engines check for keywords? Or that having more than 16 words located there will cause them to think you're key-word stuffing? (Many Search Engines have a number which is the "optimal" length for various categories.)

Take advantage of the following simple checklist to jump-start your successful search ranking.

Your keyword(s) should be in:

1. The Meta/Header document title (9 words max)
2. Meta/Header keywords - position matters! Most important keywords should come first
3. Meta description (30 words max)
4. Body text
5. Body text bold
6. First sentence of body text (16 words max)
7. URL (You probably can't change this one if you've already made your site)
8. H1 (72 characters max)
9. H2 (34 words max)
10. Same Site Links (91 words max)
11. Outbound link URL’s

Go through your website and check to make sure your keywords can be found in all of these places, and also check the length to make sure you're SEO compatible. However, make sure it doesn't make your body text or headlines sound strange, fake or keyword-stuffed. If visitors get turned off by keyword saturation, your efforts have been wasted.

How to live your life like a great headline to get everything you want and achieve all your dreams.

That's right. You CAN get everything you want and achieve all of your dreams. The reason you may have not yet found this unlimited success is because you haven't learned the game rules to life.

Of course, I won't pretend to know what life is for, but I do know enough about it to tell you what WORKS and what doesn't. Learn to live your life like a headline, and you will become a master of Online and Offline marketing skills which will allow you to get what you want, all the time.

Why Is the Headline such a big deal? If you know anything about internet marketing, you know that people aren't obligated to read your content. Unlike writing a paper for school, there is no one out there who will read your writing just to be nice. There's a lot of content out there, and yours (until they actually begin reading it) looks just like everyone else's. The way to get them to read what you have to say is by making it worth their while. You have to give them a reason to listen - and that's what your headline is for. Your headline will promise them a benefit for sticking around and seeing what you have to say.

This can be really tricky - you have to figure out what your USP (unique selling point) is, or what sets you apart from your competitors, and you have to catch their interest by promising something they want.

There are lots of kinds of headlines, and I won't go into detail about the different kinds of headlines on this post. I just want to convince you of how important they are, both online and off.

Online, a website is responsible for 80% of your conversions. All those people who come to your site but then leave right away - it's because your headline hasn't caught their interest. (Ok, maybe they weren't really looking for what you're offering - but if not, then your site description or keywords aren't precise enough to pull in the right kind of visitor).

The reason I know how important this is, is that I know most small businesses with a website, including my own, aren't taking advantage of such a fundamentally profound and yet simple trick for improving sales. Get a great headline, and you WILL do better online business. Make it your first, number one priority.

If you're like me, you waste headlines with descriptions of the products, or empty words like "Welcome" or "Introduction". You avoided promising benefits or hyping your services because, well, it sounded like salesmanship and nobody likes to be sold to.

Nevertheless, if you don't give readers a reason to be interested, right away, without having to search around for it, then they're GONE. Therefore, not only should headlines be great, but they should be the first and main thing you see. (Maybe not in size 46 font and blood red, but still significantly larger than regular font text to stand out.)

Now for the more important part of this message: bringing these simple headline tips into the real world, into your real life, can revolutionize your dealings with people. 99.9% of people talk about themselves ALL THE TIME. They like to complain, they like to give advice, they like to tell stories. Almost the only time they listen is if they're attracted to the other person, and even then, they'll get bored fast.

If they want something from another person, they talk about themselves even more: "I really need this," "Please help me out"... This might work for friends, but if you want your boss/coworker/perfect stranger to do what you want, you need to give them a big reason why they should. If you promise them a reward, if you think about what's in it for them, if you talk only benefits, they will be lining up to help you.

Headlines are important in other situations as well. Let's say you want a promotion, or have a great idea at work. You might indirectly and softly hint around, trying to get someone to give you their full attention, trying to get the respect first, before giving away your hand. Turn your idea, or your bid for a promotion into a headline.
"I have an idea that could improve our profits 320%." "Here's a way to solve the problem of X quickly with no extra cost." "Last year I was able to this for the company. If I could move up into this position, I'd have time/resources to do X..."

Anyway, you get the point.