1:  Register with valid E-Mail:  Almost all the good article sites require that you not only register but confirm your e-mail address.  The good ones won’t spam you so you needn’t worry about that.  They will send you information on your article such as approval or denial and that is information you need to know anyway.  Almost all the good sites require that you become a member as well.  It is almost always free,  if it isn’t, find another site.

2:  You must write good and relevent articles:   Article submission sites have a philosophy of give and take.  If you give them good relevent content (your give) then you can take a free high quality link from their site (your take).  To get your article listed your article must contain relevent information.  You can of course, promote your product of service but if your article does not contain information relevent to your industry it won’t get published.  All good article sites have an approval process,  if you send them a PR piece, they won’t run it.

3.  Pick 3 or 4 good article sites:  Most peoples first thought it to bombard 1000 article sites but this will not help you and can even hurt.   Search engines don’t like to see massive amounts of duplicate content and may devalue your site it you do this.   Bombarding article sites with 1000 submissions worked well for about three months 8 years ago.  Search engines caught on quick and took measures to prevent it.  Remember that an article site wants unique content that can not be found everywhere else.

4. Don’t use article submission software.  It doesn’t work as SEO   I know that it is tempting to think that having your article on 1000 directories will help,  it won’t.  Good article sites require that you create an account and submit manually.  Good sites do not allow automatic submission.  Manual submission can be time consuming.  Remember,  good article sites don’t want it to be to easy, they want dedicated and professional writers.  If it was as easy as clicking a button in submission software everyone would be doing it that way.  Search Engines hate to see the same article in 1000 places,  they know that it is an SEO trick and will catch it immediately.  You aren’t going to fool Google, Yahoo, and MSN.  They have teams of people who are constantly refining the way their search algorithm works.

5. Read the guidlines on the article site:  Yes, this is time consuming but article sites often have very different guidlines on where you can put links and how many.  Many only allow a link in the resourse box (a text box that the article author can use for a brief bio or links).   If you do not follow the guidlines they will send you a nice e-mail telling you that your article was rejected and why. I have been guilty of not reading the guidlines myself, I got rejected but fixed the problems and was then approved.

6.  Submit to the correct category:  Most article sites categorize their articles because their subscribers only want to be notified about articles that are in a particular market segment.  If your article is in the wrong category, it won’t get picked up.  Good article sites have a very large group of categories to choose from.

7.  Deep Links (links to a page other than homepage):  If you are writing about a particular subject and you have additional information on your site, link to that page instead of your home page.  This allows people to go directly to the information they need.  Search Engines like this practice because it improves efficiency and an orderly flow of information.  Play nice with Search Engines and you will get the higher rating that you want.

8.  Be patient:  All SEO takes time,  it can be frustrating,  often it takes alot of time for your article to appear.  It must first be approved, then the search engines have to index the article site, they they must index any other sites that pick the article up.  Count on a month and a half minimum.

9.  Monitor your submissions:  Some article sites may not approve your articles or they may not get picked up by anyone.  If this happens, move on to another directory.  Some directories are more dominant in certain industry segments than others and they are not about to tell anyone which ones.  So, the only way to succeed is to keep at it and find your best article sites through process of elimination.

Yes, it is time consuming but the end result is higher ranking in search engines and higher traffic to your site.  Lots of people do not take the time to do SEO properly.   If you do,  you will have the advantage.

The answere,  You need to do both,  here are the major reasons why

1.  Search Engine Optimization (SEO) can be done for free.   You would be crazy not to take advantage of it.  Free marketing is great but search engine competition is high so make sure you do your SEO carefully. SEO can also take many months to be indexed by search engines.

2.  Advertising isn’t free but it is instant:  Unlike SEO Marketing, Web advertising is instant,  you message can be put on tens or thousands of sites within 4 hours (our network includes over 80,000 sites) and you can get guaranteed traffic.  The increased traffic will also help your sites rating.  Remember, Web Sites are also judged by Search Engines according to how much traffic they get.

3.   Search Engin Marketing only gets your name in front of people who are searching for it:   Lots of people buy things or become interested in things through advertising.  If people don’t know about a product, they can’t search for it.  That being said, people who click through to your site via a search engine are well qualified customers.

4.  SEO is effective but very time consuming:  To do SEO properly you need to vigilantly watch your backlinks, manually submit to directories, write and manually submit newsworthy press releasese, write and maually submit and write excellent information articles, and meticulously optimize your web pages for keyword density.   Advertising takes no time at all and someone else does the work for you.

5.  Advertising creates valuable information:  When you advertise, you get a report on where people are coming from,  that tells you a lot.  Everyone thinks they know who their market is, but often they really don’t.  In knowing what type of sites your clicks are coming from you will better know who your online customer is.  It may not be the type of customer you think you should be marketing to.

6:  Advertising helps refine your marketing message:  When you purchase text ad advertising you can enter in an unlimited number of text ads all with different text and a different markeing message.  You get a report of which ads are being clicked on which will tell you which message is connecting with the public.  This information is INCREDIBLY IMPORTANT.  Just to get this data is worth the advertising cost alone.  It tells you exactly what your customers are looking for.  You can use this data to further refine your SEO and to make changes to your site and other advertising messages so they are more effective.

These are just some of the reasons why you need to do both.  Any effective marketing strategy is going to include both SEO and web advertising.   You simply can’t get it all done one way.

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First, do not fall for the literally thousands of website that “will submit your web site to 10,000 directories for only $24.95” These services all use directory submission software that usually incorrectly categories your directory entry and your entry usually gets rejected by the directory anyway.  Most of these sites claim to “hand submit” but it just isn’t the truth.  We tried a few and got 150 directory submission confirmations in 10 minutes (It takes about 10 minutes to hand submit to just one directory” so there is no way possible that they are doing hand submissions.   Even if you use a service that does get you in directories they are usually directories just set up for SEO and are saturated with low quality sites and are often only around for a short period of time (so you link will soon be useless).

Search engines do not favor new and SEO friendly directories.  Search engine companies have smart people who make sure these illegitimate directories do not carry any weight with their search engine.  Three guys in Pakistan are not going to outsmart Goggle.  It is tempting to believe, especially when you have a new site with little traffic, but it just isn’t true.  We tried it several times (when we where younger, more naïve, and possibly just a little bit less jaded) and it simply does not work.  Remember, search engines have a huge interest in their searches producing relevant data to their customers.  If a brand new site with little content or traffic can beat out well-established sites with lots of good info and traffic, no one would trust them anymore.  Search engine companies literally have teams of people that continually update their search algorithms to ensure relevant search results.

Okay, that paints a pretty bleak picture but all is not lost.  There are quality directories that you can hand submit to that will improve your sites rating with search engines.  First, we will cover the “best” directories.  These are not listed in order as “best:” is always changing.  Of the three best directories only DMOZ allow for free listing.

1.  Yahoo:   Yahoo is a very high quality directory but the main drawback is price.  It cost about $300 a year to be listed in the Yahoo directory but it is yahoo, one of the oldest directories and search engines.  It commands a great deal of respect not just from Yahoo but also from all search engines.  It is expensive but give your site a lot of credibility.
Yahoo Directory

2.  Best of the Web directory:  This is an older directory (started in 1994) with lots of high quality inbound links, and is a favorite of many SEO enthusiasts.  The older a directory is, generally, the more weight it has with search engines.  Last time we checked it cost $240 for a lifetime listing.
Best of the web directory

3.  DMOZ (The Open Directory Project).   DMOZ is also one of the oldest and most respected directories and is universally loved by search engines.  Also IT’S FREE!   The drawback is that DMOZ is run by volunteers who do not get paid, so directory work is probably not their biggest priority.  It can take a very long time
DMOZ (The Open Directory Project) Directory

Although the three aforementioned directories  are considered the best directories, they are not the only game in town and there are plenty of other very high quality free directories you can list your site at.  All submissions must be done manually and make sure you follow their instructions.  Each directory has its own guidelines so make sure you read them.  Yes, this is time consuming and tedious but it is the only proper way to do it.  You can see a great listing of well trafficked and well respected directories at the Web Ad Helper Free Directory List.   Plus, all of them are free!

Lastly, the final category is niche directories.  These directories are usually for small segments of the business market and are very targeted to a certain type of service of product.  Search engines love these directories as they are targeted and tend to be more reliable.  To find them, just type in your business field into a search engine (ex.  Macintosh Compatible Software) and put the word “directory” behind it.  If there are directories for your niche, check them out and do a submission.  Niche directories tend to approve submissions more quickly as the receive a lot less submissions than general directories.

Best of luck, you truly can improve your rating with search engines but the only way to do it is to put in the time by manually submitting to high quality directories.  There is not a magic bullet out there, we have looked, we wished there was but if it did exist everyone would be doing it and soon, it wouldn’t be magic any more.

City, State, Month 1, 2008 — The first paragraph is your lead.  It should be strong and contain the most information.  You must be able to grad the reader’s attention and the lead should be able to stand on its own.  Keep the lead paragraph to 3 or four concise sentences.

The rest of the press release provides further details that support the lead.  It is important to cover who, what, when, where, and why in the first couple of paragraphs.  In the same manner as your lead paragraph, your supporting paragraphs should each be kept to three or four concise sentences.

“A quote from someone involved or knowledgeable is important to give your press release a human factor,” said Bob Smith, Director of Marketing for WebAdhelper.com. “It let’s people hear directly from someone familiar with whatever is being talked about.” Read a couple of press releases from other companies.  You will almost always find a quote.

The last paragraph should include a brief summary and or details about availability, shipping, time lines, etc.  Sometimes trademark acknowledgements are put into the summary.

About Company:

Include a short company background or a background of the person quoted if their participation is newsworthy.  If the person is a member of the company generally you should stick to company info.  If the person is not, and is well known, it is proper for them to have their own about description.  You can have more than one about description if it is relevant.  If your press release involves another company, a separate about should be written about them.

Contact:

Bob Smith, director of marketing
WebAdHelper.com
555-555-5555
http//www.webadhelper.com

1. Have a strong lead:  In press jargon the first paragraph is called the lead.  Your lead always needs to be strong and effectively communicate your message as quickly and concisely as possible.  Think of it this way, if someone was to only read the first paragraph, would they understand what your press release is about?   The rest of your press release should provide the details that support your lead.  Remember, journalist see tons of press releases a day and you only have a few seconds to grad their attention sufficiently for them to continue reading

2.  Who, What, Where, When, and Why: The five W’s are what any journalist looks at.  It is the first thing that they teach you in journalism school.  A good press release will always answer these questions.

3:  Do not sound like an advertisement: Again, news sites and publications sell advertising, they don’t print it for free.  If you sound like an advertisement you will have zero chance of having your press release picked up.  Avoid any terms like “best, favorite, etc”.   Journalists are looking for news not biased opinion.

4:  Why should they care: Companies launch products and websites all the time.  What makes yours special?  What makes yours different from all the other ones out there?  If you have something new or different write about how it.  What is your angle?

5:  Brevity is the sole of wit: Your press release does not have to be long.  Publications and new sites have a limited amount of space that they dedicate to press releases.  Communicate your idea as effectively and efficiently as possible.

6:  Vocabulary: Speak plainly and limit the use of insider jargon.  Don’t use a big word when a small word will do just as well, that is of course, unless your target audience where all English majors in college.

First,  always remember, the ultimate goal of any press release is to get picked up by traditional publications or by online news sites so make sure that your press release is newsworthy.  Publications and online news sites are not in the business of giving free promotion.   Remember that these sites primary source of income is advertising and they are not going to give it away free.  If your press release is news worthy then it is valuable to them.  If you press release just talks about how wonderful your are, it won’t get picked up.

Standard Press Release:  A standard press release is generally only on the press release site for a couple of days which is generally plenty of time for any publication or news site to pick it up and add it to their publication or site.  News companies subscribe to press release sites in search of content and are alerted to relevant content when it is posted.   In the couple of days it is up on the press release site any links you have written into your article will be visible to search engines and should help your page rank.  Press release sites are popular and get indexed by search engines constantly.  A couple of days of free PR is always a good thing.

Featured Press Release:  The main reason for purchasing a “Featured Press Release” is that it will remain on their site for longer or forever (it differs from site to site) and the link to your site will remain active and help your ranking in search engines.   We generally do free submissions and build our links with directories and articles but it can be valuable to have your release perpetually on a highly rated press release site.  If you do want to buy a “featured” press release, here are some things to look for.

1.  How much does it cost:  Price varies from site to site

2:  How long does it stay up:  Some sites will archive your press release and keep it up forever, some will keep it up for a month.  It varies from site to site.

3.  How good is the press release site:  Check the ranking of the site on Alexa (www.alexa.com).  The better the ranking the more weight your link will carry with search engines.

Here are some big strengths of banners ads:

1. Branding:  Your logo and your name get seen.  Often people come to the site because they remember the visual
2. Visual:  If your product needs to be seen.  Only a banner ad is going to show it
3. Convey more info:  Advertisers can convey much more information with a banner ad.  There is a much larger area and “a picture is worth a thousand words:”

Text ads also have some major advantages.  They include:

1. More sites accept text ads:  A wider variety of sites is always a plus
2. Cost:  You can get about three times the number of views with text ads as you can with banner ads.
3. Simplicity:  It can’t get any simpler than text
4. Variations:  Easy to create several text ads and rotate them since you don’t need an graphic designer to make them.

The above are good guidelines to consider before your campaign and if you have questions your account manager can always help you.  Also,  you can always switch from banners to text of vice versa at anytime during your campaign.  Just contact your account rep and they will be glad to help.

For more info please go to banners vs text