------- Clearing Up the Confusion E-Zine ------- Vol 1, Issue 20 In the two weeks since our little Kaylie was born, we've started to get things under some semblance of control. I don't expect that my life will ever be the same and, you know what? I'm more than OK with that. After all, the only way really to live is to keep growing and changing. I can't think of a much bigger change than what happened to me the first time I held my daughter. Now, on a far less profound level, we'll be talking about a different kind of growth -- the growth of our web presence. As we continue our series on the subject, this issue we'll touch on writing articles for sites such as EzineArticles.com. ---------------------------------------------------------------- In This Issue... ---------------------------------------------------------------- 1. Article: Take Out Your Pen ... Again! 2. Blog Posts 3. Shameless Self-Promotion 4. The Fine Print ---------------------------------------------------------------- 1. Article: Take Out Your Pen ... Again! ---------------------------------------------------------------- So, you've got your website all set up. You've started a blog. You've even got an e-zine that you send out on a regular basis. So, what now? Now it's time to let other people spread your name. One of the best ways to do this is to make some of your content available on content sites such as EzineArticles.com (EA). What? Write *more*? OK, just calm down. This is the easy part. If you are already posting to your blog and writing an ezine, then you have a stockpile of perfectly good articles ready to be submitted. It might take a little bit of tweaking, but in a few minutes you can take almost anything you've written that's of general interest and submit it to EA. After you submit the article, it goes through an editorial process. From my experience, it seems mainly to be for the purpose of making sure you've followed the submission guidelines (so you might want to read that prior to submitting). When you first start submitting, this process will take around a week to complete. After you've submitted ten articles, though, the folks at EA will consider you for "Platinum" status. Once you are there, the process is much faster (around a day or two at most). So, why would you want to go through all of this trouble? Because after you've made your content available for all to use, they will. Part of the agreement, though, is that they have to keep your bio attached to the article -- a bio which can include links to your personal or business website. You may want to consult with a search engine optimization (SEO) expert or a professional copy writer on how best to craft that bio. To sum up: You start with the content which you've already written. With a little work it is ready for anyone to use on their website/e-zine/blog. They add it to their venue making you look like an expert *and* creating links to your own website. That's about it! Lately, the Google Alerts that I've set up for "Greg Peters" and "Cyber Data Solutions" have been returning a number of my own articles that people are using to flesh out their own sites. Give it a try yourself. You may be surprised at how popular your ideas are. Copyright 2007, Greg Peters ---------------------------------------------------------------- 2. Blog Posts ---------------------------------------------------------------- Links to posts on the "Clearing Up the Confusion" Blog from the last year: Thursday, August 02, 2007 -- What You Do -- Once More, With Feeling! http://clearing-confusion.blogspot.com/2007/08/what-you-do-once-more-with-feeling.html Wednesday, October 24, 2007 -- Email Purge http://clearing-confusion.blogspot.com/2007/10/email-purge.html ---------------------------------------------------------------- 3. Shameless Self-Promotion ---------------------------------------------------------------- The "Clearing Up the Confusion" E-Zine is a production of Greg Peters, owner, chief cook, and bottlewasher of Cyber Data Solutions. CDS has been helping website designers develop better web presence for their clients for more than a decade. Visit us on the Web at www.cyberdatasolns.com to see how we can help your webmaster. ---------------------------------------------------------------- 4. The Fine Print ---------------------------------------------------------------- Subscribe: You can subscribe to the "Clearing Up The Confusion" E-zine at: http://www.cyberdatasolns.com/ezine Questions: If you have any questions, concerns or comments regarding the Clearing Up the Confusion E-zine, please email Greg Peters at: gpeters@cyberdatasolns.com This content may be forwarded in full, with copyright and contact information intact, without specific permission, when used only in a not for-profit format. If any other use is desired, permission in writing from Greg Peters is required, with notification to the original author. We never send the "Clearing Up the Confusion" E-zine uninvited, and we NEVER share, sell or rent our mailing list to anyone. Your privacy is safe with us.