Grow Your Business Online With Content Marketing

 Grow Your Business Online With Content Marketing Strategy

Overview

The Internet is a network of interconnected nodes of information (content.) The more densely interconnected the information becomes (the density factor) the more useful and valuable it is.

Data + Interpretation = "Meaningful" Information

I won't repeat myself unduly; however content - or information - is what people seek online.

In all fairness what people are really seeking is an answer to some question, and they usually pose their search in terms that they think in.

Keyword phrase demand and supply is at the cornerstone of content provision and armed with an understanding of the search terms, and the modalities of the user's presentation (how a person perceives the world), you can begin to provide answers to their questions in the form of articles, white papers, blog postings, forum inserts and so on.

Writing is an art, and although most people think writing is easy they'd be incorrect in that assumption: bad writing is easy, good (or great) writing is hard work.

And writing to balance the needs of a human with the needs of a computer is an artful dance for sure.

But there is some relief, since the dawn of the Internet the search engines have aimed for purity of search. In other words the engines are attempting to understand the true meaning of your question so they can return the best possible answer.

This means that so long as you write truly to meet the needs of the people (and keep an eye on the engine requirements) you will undoubtedly be rewarded for your efforts.

Writing content so the engines find you is great, however the real reason for this publishing process is the embedded links back to your select sites. As you publish and share your content, those that pick up your work and republish it will also republish your links to your selected websites.

Article marketing (for this is essentially what this is) is incredibly powerful and results in a strong and wide web of connections and links back to your sites.

Of course you need to provide content that people want to read and share...

The Strategic Elements:

Signatures

If you've been following along with the idea behind this strategy you will note that I refer to embedded links. This is the essence of your signature (or sig) file.

When you write an article or you post an entry on a blog or a forum, you are permitted to include your sig[nature]. Each environment is different but as a rule you can include at least one link to your site and you can plug yourself with a couple of lines of promotional copy - just don't overdo it!

Read the rules for each environment (blog, forum, newsgroup etc) and don't rush. The habitants of hyperspace are ruthless and take a very dim view of people abusing the rules of posting when it only takes a little time to read them.

Articles

Articles are key information pieces within the world of online and Internet marketing. Each article should be at least 250-300 words in length and really should not exceed 1,200 (750 to 1,000) is considered on the high side.

The 'sweet spot' is about 500 words.

The articles should provide the answer to some question.

"How To" articles are particularly popular as are reviews and op-ed pieces.

Writing any article or content piece should be considered carefully because the writer needs to understand marketing (remember this is why we are doing all this!) and must understand PR and other legal and publication issues like libel laws etc.

Once an article has been syndicated, so long as it meets the needs of the readers and publishers out in hyperspace, it will begin to get published.

PLEASE NOTE: Once your article is made available for others to publish, you will NOT be able to recall it, nor will you be able to change what you've said.

This distributed nature is what protects your work and also provides you with greater exposure - it also means you need to be very careful about what you say "out there."

Blogs

Blogs are amazing 'creatures.' They are currently one of the most powerful website formats on the Internet today.

"Loved" by search engines for their ease of indexing, their frequency of content change, and their focus (remember blogs usually zone in one area and discuss the subject at some length!)

Publishing your own blog is a sure fire way to improve your rankings, however it is not something you can dabble at - you need to commit to creating content on a regular basis.

The same rules that I discussed with the articles also apply here: create short posts for the most part, but occasionally sprinkle in an article between 250 and 750 words.

Try to publish something at least every couple of days - ideally you should publish at least twice a week (daily if you can muster it.)

Like I said, publishing is an excellent way to grow your online equity - however you must not overlook participating in other people's blogs. Remember a blog by definition is something that resembles a conversation with comments.

Search out reciprocal blogs, blogs that seem to share the same idea and tonality as your own viewpoint. Alternatively, go contrary - look for the opposite and see what you find.

You will undoubtedly be able to find many blogs, all craving updates and more content - so give it to them. Your payment will be a link-back to your chosen website (use your sig if you can.)

If you want to find blogs then use the Google Blog search or visit Blogger.com and use their blog search feature.

Forum Posts

Do not ignore forum posts, they are similar to blogs.

Spend some time reading the postings, (yes it takes a small investment of time) and then when you are familiar with the forum begin to share advice and answer questions. This is a medium to long term strategy and requires patience and commitment.

Your signature file is your payment for the effort since you will be allowed to include it with your postings. Remember, each sig posting contains a link back to your site - more links means more relevancy with the search engines.

Syndication Hubs

There are many article directories on the net, many are small and serve specialty markets.

Arguably one of the best directory resources on the net is currently EzineArticles.com

I *strongly* favour this directory for their stringent quality controls and the fact that articles and content placed here ends up ranking very high in the major search engines.