Last week I mentioned article marketing and how using article directories is one way to promote your articles.

It is beneficial to submit your articles to article directories but there are hundreds of them. Unless you are using and automated submission service such as Unique Article Wizard it’s pointless to submit your articles to all of them.

You need to prioritize if you’re doing it manually. Forget about any of the ones not listed in the top 10.

So here are the top ranked article directories according to Alexa rankings along with their Google Page Rank:

There are a ton of blogs that are basically asking there readers to leave. They are so confusing that it actually starts to give you a head ache. And it’s not something that would be all that difficult to fix. All that matters is consistency. Consistency not only in what you write… but also in the way you present it.

Header Graphics

What is the first thing you notice when you visit a site? Is it so big fancy header graphic? Well if it is that is… it’s a big mistake.

What’s the reason someone is visiting your site? I can almost guarantee you it’s not because they want to see a huge header graphic that takes up the whole screen.

This truly is the Ultimate Copywriters Cheat Sheet. It’s so big they had to split it into two parts.

The first part covers topics such as writing headlines, readability, customer-focused copy, copywriting techniques, trust & relationship building, email marketing, copywriting blogs & resources, transcription services, copywriters, public relations, blogging and persuasive online copywriting.

The second part covers copy length, word choice, formatting & usability, active vs. passive voice, writing for personas, branding + advertising brain food, monetizing content, and inspiration + fun.

Now you can get yourself a real copywriting education without spending a fortune.

- Aaron Anderson

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Blue underlined links are the most common type seen on the web. But there are plenty of websites with links that are different colors. And there are plenty that aren’t underlined. Or both. So what is best to use?

Eric Graham did a usability split test to find out the answer to this question. He tested 4 different link formats. The lowest click through rate was 26.9%. The highest was 36.3%. That’s a 34.9% difference just by changing the color. Want to know who the winner was?

It was blue and underlined. To find out exactly what he tested this against check out his usability split test results.

- Aaron Anderson

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Nick Dalton is giving away free copies of his rApogee software until January 6th.

It’s a spreadsheet that organizes James Brausch’s RaSof Data and make it’s a whole lot easier to use.

If you use RaSof you need this software. You can get it free here.

- Aaron Anderson

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Some people say article marketing doesn’t work anymore. Which that might be true if you just write crap and expect people to love you for it. If you do it correctly it still works and could be one of your most powerful promotion strategies. Here are three common article marketing mistakes.

1. Confusing the reason for writing articles with the reason for promoting your business with articles.

There are several reasons for promoting your business with articles but their is only one reason for writing articles.

First lets talk about reasons for promoting your business with articles. Articles drive traffic to your website. They also position you as an expert in whatever field you are writing about. Now those are great and all but it should not be your focus for writing an article. Then why write articles?

This is just to claim my blog on technorati.

Technorati Profile

- Aaron Anderson

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By changing one thing on your sales letter you can increase conversions by 46.5%. Know what it is?

It’s your submit button.

Eric Graham tested 18 different versions of submit buttons and to find the ultimate submit button.

He tested things such as borders, primary link feedback, secondary link feedback, and size.

Visit his site to get the exact code to incorporate his submit button on your site.

- Aaron Anderson

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Well it’s almost time for the new year and I want to set some goals, or what I prefer to call targets, for 2008. I’m traveling to Texas and will be gone until late on the 30th so I figured I would just post them now.

I prefer to set short term for reasons that I’ll elaborate on in a latter date. But here are my goals for the first two weeks (by January 14) of 2008.

1) Release a new product.
2) Write at least 6 new articles that will posted on here as well as be submitted to article directories.
3) Make posts daily (weekends optional) totaling at least 21.

That seems reasonable to me. What about you? What are your goals? Leave a comment or send a trackback.

- Aaron Anderson

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For those of you that may have missed James’s deadline for his Christmas gift he gives another: Another Free Gift For The Whiners.

Whether you know James Brausch or not, you missed his deadline or not, take a look at this gift.

The concept is invaluable in business as well as in life in general. Thanks for the gifts James!

- Aaron Anderson

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I have to be honest. If this isn’t your first time visiting my blog I may have misled you…

I left out a little information with regards to my mailing list. Actually it’s a little different than most mailing lists you’ve probably been on before.

If you sign up you will NOT receive a bunch of hype about the next “greatest thing”. If that’s what you’re looking for you’re not going to find that anywhere on this blog actually.

I’ve wasted far too much time on that junk and wouldn’t recommend it to anyone.

What you WILL receive is a short email each time I find something useful and make a post about it. If that is what you would like go ahead and enter your name and email address into the form on the top left corner of this page.

I apologize for any confusion I may have caused.

How long have you been building your business? Are you getting any results yet? If not and you’ve been building your online business for more than a week or two this is the most important article you will ever read.

I know exactly how you feel. I’ve been there. It took 2 years of my time and over $10,000 in credit card debt for me to learn the lesson I’m about to teach you today.

But first let me tell you about the biggest problem I had.

I was stuck in the so called “study phase” of building a business or what some people call information overload.

But in reality there is no such thing as a information overload. All it is is an excuse for not taking action. If you implement everything you learn as soon as you learn it this won’t be a problem at all.

Building backlinks can be a real pain. Why not just build a useful resource that people will naturally link to? That’s the whole concept behind linkbaiting.

A good piece of linkbait will have a great title, good content, nice formatting and some social media traffic to get the ball rolling. Andy Hagan’s Ultimate Guide to Linkbaiting and SMM is a great resource that shows you exactly how to do this.

In the article he gives you 10 headline templates, 8 different hooks to use, 3 tips for formatting your content and 5 different social media sites you should use to start spreading the word. The article itself is a great example of linkbait. Check it out here.

- Aaron Anderson

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