Writing articles is a great way to help market on the Internet. It doesn’t take a lot of time and it’s completely free. If the proper keywords are targeted then the article will get a lot of views and this will result in traffic for the person doing the article marketing. There are many great places to submit an article on the Internet. Here are the 10 best article submission sites.

Before we get to the top 10 article submission sites, let’s take a quick look at how article writing works with Internet Marketing.

There are three main parts to writing and submitting any article online. The first part involves choosing the keywords you want to target and then researching the article. The next part involves actually writing the article. The third part is submitting the article along with a call to action.

So you want to decide on the keyword phrase you want to target for an article. This will dictate what the article will be about. Once you’re ready, then you need to write the article being sure to include the keyword phrase in the title, the introduction, the conclusion, and a couple times throughout the body of the article. Then when you’re done writing the article you will submit it to one or more article submission sites.

Here are the 10 best article submission sites:

EzineArticles

Article Dashboard

Go Articles

Articles Base

Article City

Article Mark

Article Alley

iSnare

Search Warp

Idea Marketers

Not all of these sites are the same (EzineArticles is the best).
Some of them are better than others, and all of them have their own set of rules that must be followed. So make sure you know the rules before submitting or you’ll waste a lot of time and energy submitting articles only to have to rewrite them because they got rejected by the site.

For example, some of these sites allow you to include links in the article while others don’t. Some of these sites will let you have affiliate links with your articles while other sites won’t. So again, make sure you know what is and isn’t allowed on each site.

When you write an article online for the purpose of article marketing then you’ll have to submit that article to one or more article submission sites. Above you have the 10 best article submission sites. Take advantage of all these sites and you will certainly have success with article marketing.

WordPress blogs are cool, once you know how to install and configure them they are quick to set up and easy to manage. I really like that I can avoid most of the design work of a static site by simply changing or tweaking a theme that somebody else made.

One thing though has been a problem. How to make a WordPress blog suitable for use as the platform for a membership site. There have been several shots at the task but until recently I had not found anything that worked for me. Some WordPress membership site plugins were badly coded and did not do what they were supposed to. Some WordPress membership software packages had very clunky interfaces that were offputting to site visitors and some did not have the basic kinds of functionality that I needed.

Recently though things seems to have changed for the better. I am now using a new plugin set called Micro Membership on one of my sites here: Marketers College, online business training for the time being the site is not live and I am still working on the layout and content before transfering over the training vids from their current home. The Micro Membership plugin set is ONLY available through the Warrior Forum at this time but I understand that it will be going on general sale, but at a higher price, in the near future.

Lo and behold though! This morning I got an email from Matt over at Mass-Automation. He has just released a new plugin to manage WordPress membership sites as well. I have not yet tried this one but I am happy to point it out as, in my experience, any product under the Mass-Automation brand is always well made and worth serious consideration.

It looks as though both tools cover much of the same ground in basic terms. People sign up and pay money according to the schedule that you set. Micro-Membeship has a very useful future posting facility so that the webmaster can add content to the site for future months meaning that sites can be, to some degree, set and forget contentwise.

Matt’s WP Membership Tool lacks the future posting facility but there are ways to handle this function within WordPress anyway and seems to offer a little more from the perspective of managing users. There is quite a difference in cost though. Ralph Pruitts Micro-Membership tool costs, for the time being, just $17.95 for unlimited use on any domain that you own. The Mass-Automation tool is priced at $49.99 for any number of sites but with a maximum number of members of 100 - OR - $99.99 for a maximum number of members of 1000. So, much more costly but in comparison with some of the market leading WordPress membership packages this is still very good value for money given that more than one package charges $100 or more for a single install on a single domain.

For the time being I am going to stick with Micro-Memberships from Ralph Pruitt, if for no other reason than I already have the software. I will probably get hold of the Mass-Automation product as well so that I can play with it.

Bottom line, there are now several ways to make you WordPress blog able to support the ongoing revenue stream that a membership site can provide and, in my opinion, either of these relatively low cost tools will be able to meet the needs of most WordPress webmasters seeking to run subscription/membership sites.

Since I first started in business almost 25 years ago I have worked with people who provided services to my business but who were not employees. In the real world we used to call them contractors. Online we seem to call the same thing ‘outsourcing‘.

The bottom line is that the different outsourcing methods, however we call them, enable us to grow our business without taking on the responibility, or cost, of employing a permanent team. With effective use of outsourced work we can become a relatively large business without it ever looking like we are running such a beast.

Anyway, I decided to start a website devoted to outsourcing methods and techniques. The chances are that if you take a look at the site that you will pick up some new tips for how to grow your own business.

The new site is over here: Outsourcing Method Review oh, yes, we are taking a look at the new package on the topic of outsourcing training from the PLRPro guys, Dan and Marc. For a few days you can get in and try everything for just one dollar!

SUBJECT: Doors closing soon (don’t miss out this time)

I wanted to give you a quick heads up…

Like you, I purchased books, software, tools and everything else to try and build a successful online business.

But, one thing has made a huge difference in my success online and I want to share it with you today.

Several years ago, I discovered something called PortalFeeder.

What is PortalFeeder?

Well, it’s not a “product”.

Imagine this…. what if you could tap into a community of hotshot Internet Marketers and pick their brains, get new ideas, strategies, and answers to your top questions… everyday.

Plus, you get access to the same proprietary software and website promotion tools that they use to dominate the search engines.

Also, what if you were assigned a Mentor to help you, guide you, and provide you with a proven blueprint and roadmap for success.

If you had access to all of this, wouldn’t it be easy for you to succeed online?

Yes it would. And I am living proof of it.

PortalFeeder has really changed my life.

I am no longer an ebook junkie. PortalFeeder gives me all the latest software, training, tactics and techniques that I need to get traffic and make money online.

The bad news is… PortalFeeder is “closed” for most of the year. Membership is limited.

However, there is some good news. PortalFeeder is accepting new members again. The Bad news is that the doors are closing again soon.

That’s why I wanted to mention it to you. Once you hit the link below, you will be able to check that you are not too late:

Am I too late to join Portal Feeder

This way, you’ll get more information about PortalFeeder and be among the few people to have aspot within PortalFeeder.

I know you’ll want to find out more about PortalFeeder and what it will do for you.

Here’s the page again. Go check it out before it slips your mind:

Portal Feeder Signup

I hope to see you inside the PortalFeeder private forum. Just look for me and say HI. My nickname in the forum is Andrew W.

      

A while back Jason Katzenback of PPC Kahuna and PortalFeeder fame came up with a neat little tool to help increase conversions by finding Adwords Content Network sites that were likely to have traffic that would be interested in the product or service that Adwords advertisers were promoting.

Adwords Digger is a powerful Pay Per Click research tool for site placement - helping Adwords advertisers to find Adsense Content Network sites that are likely to be able to provide traffic that is likley to convert when they see your Adwords ads.

This software is FREE but performs a valuable role to Adwords advertisers who want to reduce their advertising costs - that is YOU, isn’t it?

I think Jason can better explain how Adwords Digger works and what it means to you as an Adwords advertiser so check out the video above and maybe mosey over to the download page.

Oh, one point, the software is referred to by a couple of different names, I dunno why that is so but Adwords Digger = Adsense Finder!

It wasn’t so long ago that it was devastatingly easy to make money on AdWords. You didn’t even need to know that much about PPC advertising. You could get ads for pennies, and you just needed to have a little bit of funds to get you started, and then you could sit back and watch your income increase as you make money on Adwords.

But, like any easy and simple way to make money, especially when you don’t have to put up a lot of money to get started, soon everybody was getting in the game, wanting to make money on AdWords. The more people there were, the harder it became to make easy money with AdWords. The increased competition drove up the prices on the AdWords ads, and what was previously cost pennies now cost dollars.

People who didn’t pay attention to their PPC advertising campaigns very closely started losing money. This came as a shock to many, who had come to depend on getting to make money on AdWords. Many people who had made a lot of money gave up, saying that it was now impossible to make the kind of profits that they used to when they used to make money on AdWords.

And those people were right about one thing: it certainly wasn’t as easy anymore to make money on AdWords. But it wasn’t impossible. You just need to work smart, not hard. You can’t just throw some money at it and walk away and expect to make money on AdWords. But if you know what you’re doing, it is still very much a reality that you can be profitable with AdWords, no matter what your budget.

What you need to do today to make money on AdWords is simple: you need to research your keywords and choose them carefully, and you need to put some time and effort into your AdWords ad and landing page.

By choosing the right keywords, you can make sure that you don’t have too much competition that will drive the price of the ad up, while still picking keywords that have enough interest and searched to drive enough people to your site. It just takes a little more thought and effort to make money on AdWords than it used to.

By taking time and care with your AdWords ad, and then making sure that you follow up with what you promised in your ad on your landing page, you will find it easier to make money on AdWords. There are so many AdWords ads out there that don’t do this that you will stand out from the crowd as a higher quality ad; the higher the perceived quality of your ads and your landing pages, the easier it will be for you to convert into a sale and make money on AdWords.

If your want to get serious about PPC marketing and AdWords, Click HERE Now to claim your $1 FULL ACCESS to PPCKahuna Now!

Very early on in my business I started using outsourcing to do some of the jobs that I did not know how to do. I was lucky in that in the ‘real world’ I had experience of working with external contractors. I applied this knowledge to my online outsourcing. I was lucky but my next experiences cost me a packet.

A few weeks ago was offered the opportunity to review ‘The Outsource Method’ a comprehensive training package from the guys behind PLRPro.com and several other online businesses. Dan and Marc have spilled their guts on the topic of building an online business leveraged using the power of well applied outsourcing techniques.

Here is a listing of the ten main modules in the Outsource Method training course:
Lesson One - Introduction to Outsourcing
Lesson Two - The Light at the End of the Tunnel
Lesson Three - Establishing the System
Lesson Four - Outsource Method System Overview
Lesson Five - Outsource Method Advanced System
Lesson Six - System Creation
Lesson Seven - Final Words
Lesson Eight - Outsourcing for Content
Lesson Nine - Outsourcing for Design
Lesson Ten - Outsourcing for Software

Please, check this out, it might be the best and most actionable training you ever take in your online career!

One problem with doing business online is that it’s easy to treat it as something other than a business. Many business owners treat it as if the ordinary rules of business don’t apply.

In reality, though, business online is the same as business offline: if it isn’t making money, it isn’t working.

You’d think the business world would have learned from the dot-com to dot-bomb crash that attracted investors simply on the basis of, “Hey, we’re a WEBSITE, and websites are bound to make a fortune.”

Yet, here, eight years later, many business owners still find themselves seduced by the aura of the Web, focusing on metrics that are nothing more than a means to an end.

Metrics like backlinks, search engine rankings, and even traffic are valid metrics. But they must be viewed in the context of what effect they are having on generating revenue.

What role do they each of them play?

Backlinks is a term that refers to links from other sites that point to your site. Their value is twofold. First, they are a potential source of visitors. Second, they represent a vote for the page to which it points.

This vote is important when it comes to search engine rankings. With thousands of websites that seem equally relevant as far as what is on their page, the search engines use incoming links, especially ones from high-regarded authority sites, to determine which sites other sites consider most valuable.

Backlinks can affect your revenues indirectly by bringing you visitors and by helping to increase your search engine rankings. In no way, though, do they measure your revenues.

Search engine rankings, similarly, affect your revenues indirectly. High rankings for highly searched terms bring you more visitors, but they do not directly increase or decrease your revenues.

Website traffic comes closest to affecting your revenue. It represents the living, breathing people who visit your site. Yet it still is not the key metric you ultimately want to track.

In the end, the metric that matters is revenue. You can track any of these other metrics to assess general elements of your website’s potential for generating revenue. But never let them distract your attention from revenues.

Even when you plan expenditures that affect these other metrics primarily, your ultimate concern should not be, “What will this do for my backlinks, or rankings, or traffic?” but “What will this do for my bottom line?”

Always make sure that any discussion of website work focuses squarely on what really matters to your business.

How do you know if your website is worth what you’re investing in it? How do you know if a promotional campaign will pay for itself? There are five calculations you can make to have these numbers at your fingertips.

The following list shows you what they are, where to find the data for them, how to calculate them, and how to use them once you have them.

Visitor Conversion Ratio
What it is
The percentage of visitors to your site who complete whatever action you want them to take (for example, buy your product, sign up for your newsletter).

What data you need
• Number of Sales (from your shopping cart or account records)
• Number of Visitors (from your Web referrer logs)

How to calculate
Number of sales ÷ Number of visitors X 100 = Visitor Conversion Ratio

How to use your Visitor Conversion Ratio
Most sites convert at a rate of below 1%, but sites that are well optimized for conversion can enjoy conversion rates of 10% or more. Track you conversion rate as you make changes to your site and work keep increasing it.

Cost/Visitor (CPV) Ratio
What it is
How much it costs you to obtain a visitor. Include all costs of running your website.

What data you need
• Web Marketing Costs (from your accounting information)
• Number of Visitors (from your Web referrer logs)

How to calculate
Web Marketing Costs ÷ Number of Visitors = Cost/Visitor

How to use your Cost/Visitor Ratio
Get an accurate picture of how much it actually costs to bring each visitor to your site. Then work to bring your Cost/Visitor down by cutting expenses that are not successful in producing sales.

Revenue/Visitor Ratio
What it is
Revenue/Visitor is the flip side of Cost/Visitor. It gives you a picture of what each visitor to your site is worth to you.

What you need
• Sales Revenue (from your accounting information about sales that are related to your website)
• Number of Visitors (from your Web referrer log)

How to calculate
Sales revenue ÷ Number of visitors = Revenue/Visitor

How to use your Revenue/Visitor Ratio
Compare your Cost/Visitor to your Revenue/Visitor to determine if you’re spending too much for your visitors. If you have a healthy gap between the two, you can afford to be more aggressive in obtaining visitors. If they’re close, work on raising your Visitor Conversion Rate to make better use of the traffic coming into your site, and work to lower your Cost/Visitor by eliminating spending that is not leading to sales.

Cost/Customer (CPC) Ratio
What it is
How much it costs you to obtain each paying customer. Include all costs of running your website.

What data you need
• Web Marketing Costs (from your accounting records)
• Number of Customers (from your shopping cart or your accounting records)

How to calculate
Web Marketing Costs ÷ Number of Customers = Cost/Customer

How to use your Cost/Customer Ratio
Use it to get an accurate picture of how much it actually costs to bring each paying customer to your site. Work to bring your Cost/Customer down by cutting expenses that are not successful in producing sales.

Revenue/Customer Ratio
What it is
Revenue/Customer is the flip side of Cost/Customer. It gives you a picture of what each paying customer on your site is worth to you.

Where to find it
• Web Sales Revenue (from your accounting records)
• Number of Customers (from your shopping cart or your accounting records)

How to calculate
Web Sales Revenue ÷ Number of Customers = Revenue/Customer

How to use your Revenue/Customer Ratio
Compare your Cost/Customer to your Revenue/Customer to determine if you’re spending too much for your paying customers. If you have a gap between them, you can afford to be more aggressive in obtaining visitors. If they’re close, work on raising your Visitor Conversion Rate to make better use of the traffic coming into your site, and work on lowering your Cost/Visitor by eliminating spending that is not leading to sales.

Ecommerce Facts
A list of online marketing statistics includes eye-opening facts about the growth of the mobile Web, as well as consumers’ growing reliance on the Web to research purchases. (http://www.virtualmarketingblog.com/index.php/20080224/7-statistics-relevant-to-internet-marketing/)

As consumer spending tightens, consumers are turning to the Internet increasingly because of the ability it gives to quickly compare prices and get the best deals. (http://www.emarketer.com/Article.aspx?id=1006285&src=article_head_sitesearch)

Although often ignored by marketers, a new survey showed that consumers who are 62 and over are far more active online than previously thought – and show no less willingness to buy online than younger, more “tech-savvy” Internet users. (http://www.clickz.com/showPage.html?page=3629395)

If your car runs sluggishly, what do you do? You take it to a mechanic to pinpoint the problem. For most people, a car is too complicated to diagnose by themselves.

For most people, a sluggish website comes across in the same way – too complicated to fix the problem yourself. If your web business gets visitors, though, only to misfire on converting them to sales, there’s a six-second test you can do on your site that will help you diagnose a number of potential problems.

Open your page and glance at it. Let your eyes scan across the very top of your screen. Then scan down the center to the bottom of the screen. Don’t scroll down. You want to see only what your visitor sees the instant your site appears. Then ask yourself the following three questions, based solely on that six-second scan.

• Does your title grab them emotionally?
• Do they quickly grasp what you can do for them?
• Do they clearly understand what to do next?

Does your title grab them emotionally?
Does it clearly identify the problem that brought them to you? Or is it a generic label that vaguely describes your business?

You want your title to show them that you know exactly who they are and exactly what they need. Ask yourself what they’re looking for. Really put yourself in their mindset.

Think of it from their perspective (as a problem that they’re trying to solve) instead of from yours (as a product or service that you’re trying to sell). What words or phrases would they use to describe their problem? Use those words to introduce them to your solution.

For example, this article is titled “How a Six-Second Scan Can Boost Your Sales.” Would it have caught your attention as much if it had read, “Improving Your Website?”

The phrase “Boost Your Sales” caught your attention because it addressed a key problem for you. Combining that phrase with an unfamiliar concept like a “Six-Second Scan” piqued your curiosity. And the phrase “Six Second Scan” suggests a solution that is fast and easy.

Forget any misplaced ideas of what is “supposed” to be professional looking. You get no points for cool, detached formality. The only way you get people’s attention by connecting with them.

Do they quickly grasp what you can do for them?
The second thing to check is whether your page is easily to skim. Does your eye jump naturally to key points on the page? Do headings, bolded text, and graphics give you an instant “feel” for what you’ll find on that page even before you read it?

People don’t want to “work” at reading online. Big blocks of text lead them to hit their Back button and find something more friendly to their eyes. Give them an instant overview of the content and they’ll pick out and read the details they need.

Do they quickly understand what to do next?
The third thing you want to check is whether they’ll grasp THE key point of the page: the action they need to take next.

Many sites waste prime space, front and center, on a rambling introduction. Meanwhile, all the visitor wants to know is, “Can I find what I’m looking for here?”

Make sure your visitors can see, quickly and clearly, what they need to do next to solve the problem that brought them to you. Don’t count on them scrolling down to find this vital information. Put it right in front of them the instant they see your page.

Final thoughts
Granted, it takes longer than six seconds to read these guidelines. The scan itself, though, should be nearly instantaneous. If these elements are not instantly evident on your page, you need to fix them so that they are.

Your visitors will unconsciously make this exact same scan the instant they arrive. Make sure they see clearly and easily how you solve the problem that brought them there.