One of the most effective means of promoting your website is through writing and sharing short articles. This article shows how to make money online with articles...like this one!
Letting others use your articles, as long as they include your byline, is a very effective way to increase website traffic. Most articles which are posted online will include a byline which not only tells visitors you wrote it and might say how they can contact you, but will normally include a link to the website you are trying to promote.
So how does this work?Let's say I sell do-it-yourself legal forms...which I do.
I then write a short but helpful article explaining how important it is to have a last will and testament...which I did. I include a link in my byline that leads people to my do-it-yourself website.
Now, I take that article and submit it to several article directories, making sure that I include it in relevant subject areas, i.e. law, legal matters, government, or even last will and testament if I'm lucky.
On the internet, there are two major groups of people seeking information or help.
Group A is seeking information on preparing a last will and testament. Their search leads them to an article directory site where I have posted my article. Browsing through the list of articles, my title catches their eye, they look at my article, and they notice my link, click on it and find out that they can prepare a will themselves using an inexpensive package available there, thereby saving a lot of time, effort, and the potentially large fee that an attorney might charge.
Obviously, not everyone seeking that information will read my article or find it relevant to what they are seeking. Even among those who think that I have just provided them with the exact info they needed and that I am the best writer in the world, only some will actually click on my link. As is the way with Internet business, only a few who wind up at my website will actually buy anything...but there will be more than there would have been without the article.
Group B, on the other hand, provides information. However, instead of researching and writing it all themselves, they go to article directories and find articles that fit their website, blog, or ezine. They then present those articles to their readership. If they have selected my article, there will be a lot more people who will see it than if it simply sits on the article directory site collecting virtual dust.
Wait! It gets better!
1. Remember that remark earlier about posting it to as many article directories as possible? The more websites you can get to carry it, the better chance you have to eventually initiate the chain of events outlined above, hopefully resulting in a sale. So, you can enhance your own chances of success with any one article by placing it on as many article directory sites as possible.
2. If you can write several related articles, you can repeat the process as many times as you can come up with articles. This begins to create an exponential return from the fact that as some people read your articles, they realize that you have written other articles as well. Group A may choose to read more what you have written, improving your chance of being seen as an expert in their eyes, leading possibly to a sale. Group B may choose to keep an eye out and catch your next article because they like your work and know that it will fit in with the thrust of their website, blog, or ezine.
Still more!
3. Some of the website owners from Group B who found your article where you posted it on an article directory website, also run their own article directory websites and take the articles they find and post it on THEIR sites...sometimes for use by even OTHER website directory owners!Don't stop!4. Once the article is written, it can be posted by you in forums and on message boards. Although you might not be able to include your byline, many of these sites allow you to create a signature which can include a link to your website.
TIPS:
-Stick to one point. Don't try to solve the mysteries of the universe. If writing about the last will and testament, don't get off into dissertations about law, trusts, living wills, quill pens vs. ballpoints, etc.
-Keep it concise. Obviously, the subject and your style of writing will dictate the length to some extent, but most of these articles should be between about 400 words and 1200 words in length. If the topic is complex or just has to run long, break it up into Part I, Part II, and so on.
-Use your keywords. If the topic is the last will and testament, you will want to use that phrase about 3% of the time. It is a good idea to make sure it makes it into the title and first sentence as well, and, if the article directory allows, make sure it's in the description and keywords (some directories allow you to pick keywords relevant to your article).
-Check your spelling and grammar. Nobody's perfect, and most sites, and readers, will not be looking for perfection anyway. However, not many people will bother with an article replete with spelling and grammar errors.
-Research your facts. If you are presenting opinion, feel free to soar above the clouds. In fact, controversy may work in your favor in that event. On the other hand, if your article is fact-based, or if you give statistics, or quote others, make sure you've got it right before you publish it.
-Get some help. Posting your articles one-by-one on a hundred different websites can be time consuming, not to mention incredibly boring. There are services available which, for a fee, will send your article to several different article directories and ezine publishers. There is also software available which can do this, although setting up the accounts initially can still be very time consuming (and boring). HoweverFree Reprint Articles, this can be worth it.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Donovan Baldwin is a Texas writer. He is a University of West Florida alumnus, a member of Mensa, and is retired from the U. S. Army. Learn more about the importance of your last will and testament at http://legal-forms-supermarket.com/about/last_will_and_testament.html .
Monday, May 7, 2007
Team Building part 1 - Another Brick in the Wall!
The first in a series of articles giving a slightly different viewpoint on effective team building, condensed from an original seminar presented by the author, John Roberts. John is a Freelance Training Consultant and director of JayrConsulting Ltd. Part 1 deals with selecting and building the initial team. The ideas expressed are personal opinions built up from many years of experience in the Electronics/Aerospace industry, the Armed Forces, the Telecoms industry and the Training industry. There is no suggestion of this being a 100% solution applicable to or workable in all situations, but it is aimed at getting people to think outside of the norm and question the ‘normal' way of doing things.
1. Analogy - The bricks in the wall
Most people have been on some form of ‘team building' course. They vary according to contemporary fashion from things like ‘learning how to work together, to build bridges out of sheets of paper', to the more active residential courses, where people build rafts out of rope and washing up liquid bottles, to ‘cross a crocodile filled' ravine! They all have two things in common: -
(a)They tend to be very expensive in terms of cost per delegate to the participants.
(b)They are actually not very effective in building effective teams when people return to their real life situation.
Teams are about individual PEOPLE and the INDIVIDUAL skills that they bring to the team and how these should be selected and put together to form an effective and lasting entity. All that is needed can be covered in a 1-day seminar/discussion with a group of delegates with no more props than a white board and marker pen. If it is delivered in such a way that the delegates can be coerced to look at themselves and their teams HONESTLY, it can provide effective change in team culture, creating belief and ‘buy in' from delegates and without imposing high expenses on clients.
The analogy that I use to explain the basic ideas is that of building a wall, and I use two types of wall to explain the contemporary team building model and the alternative one. The contemporary model is likened to a ‘standard' brick wall and the alternative model is likened to a ‘dry stone' wall, of the type found in northern fields!
2. The contemporary model and it's shortcomings!
Visualise a contemporary brick wall: Bricks all the same size, weight and shape. In order to stand up the bricks have to be ‘glued' together with mortar. Bricks must be aligned exactly in rows vertically and horizontally or the wall will fall down. The mortar has to be replaced periodically, or the wall falls down. If a brick is not exactly the same size as all the others it has to be padded out with extra mortar, or - the wall falls down! The bricklayer has to keep tending the wall - replacing mortar etc. - or the wall falls down! Life of wall is fairly limited due to wearing out of materials, so eventually - the wall falls down! Bricklayer is competent enough, as long as the bricks match and he has an ongoing supply of mortar and the time to effect repairs.
Key: - Bricks = Individuals and their skills
Mortar = support from Team Leader and Human resources ( competencies, assessments etc )
Bricklayer = Team leader
Problems often start at the recruitment stage. The recruiter ( Team leader or manager ) tends to put together an all-encompassing job description, instead of isolating specific individual EXPERT skills that are required for the project and are very unlikely to all be expert skills for one person. You only have to look at the average recruitment advert to see the types of skill lists that people ask for from one delegate!
Human resources then compile a list of required competencies based on this information that ALL delegates have to fit into - and we are well on the way to selecting our almost identical bricks.
What tends to happen now is that you have a team of good ‘all rounders' but few people with exciting expert skills in any one thing. So what you get is a team that is competent but not outstanding and this has become the normal model that people tend to have become used to. This type of team conforms to all of the standard corporate ‘norms' and is much easier to deal with for a ‘team leader' that is also possibly not a truly expert and exciting ‘leader'.
Remember - ‘if you do what you have always done - you get what you have always got!'
Over the years I have experienced too many of these types of teams ( and team leaders ) and I know it can be done much better!
The problem is then compounded by the fashion for ‘competencies' and ‘Annual assessments'. Managers and team leaders are told to assess their team members annually and to concentrate on improving their ‘weaknesses'! WHY?
Firstly - any team leader that waits a year to point out a problem to one of their team should not be doing the job! Communication and feedback between the leader and all team members should be continuous and open at all times.
Next - why concentrate on improving their weaknesses - all you are going to do is end up with a collection of ‘cloned' bricks again! What you should be doing is emphasising the team members' positives and constantly improving their strengths - the very skills you hired them for in the first place. If you have someone who is a brilliant programmer, then you want to help them be an even better programmer for the sake of the project and the team - someone else in the team probably has good report writing skills or whatever.
Different people are good at different things - use it, don't suppress it!
3. The alternative model - not new but it works!
Visualise a ‘dry stone wall' of the type often used for field boundaries. Stones are all different shapes and sizes - they are selected from what is available, in the right order so that they overlap and fit with each other perfectly to provide a solid fit.
This means that no stone is the ‘wrong' size as long as you find others to fit around it. It doesn't matter if all the stones are perfectly aligned as long as they all mesh together to give the wall stability.
There is no mortar used in the wall, it's all down to the skill of the bricklayer selecting the correct stones in the first place so that the individual stones all support each other in the complete wall. The wall doesn't fall down for centuries!
The wall doesn't look as uniform and pretty as the brick wall on the surface but actually performs its' task far better. The bricklayer has to have a real skill in selecting the right shaped stones to make sure they all fit together well in the first place, but once he has done that, maintenance is minimal!
Key: - Stones = Individuals and their skills
Mortar = support from Team Leader and Human resources ( competencies, assessments etc )
Bricklayer = Team leader
The first thing that is needed before you can recruit and build a team for you project is an expert ‘brick layer' or REAL Team LEADER! ( Not a manager/coordinator or facilitator). This doesn't mean someone who happens to have been in the company the longest and is thought due for promotion. It doesn't mean someone who can write good reports and do all the administration properly - it means someone who can LEAD PEOPLE! This is someone who can control, cajole, coerce and do anything necessary to get people to perform at their own best whenever it is required, at the same time gaining respect from those around them that they have to deal with. They don't bully, shout or ‘use their position' to get things done, people respond to them naturally and TRUST them. It's NOT a promotion, it's another type of skill and you should look for this type of person in all levels of the organisation.
You can teach anyone to play the piano, but not everyone can be a top concert pianist - it is just a skill that some people have and not others. Leadership is exactly the same - you can send someone on a ‘Team Leaders' course and they will be able to go through the motions of team leading, but what you should look for is a ‘natural' - someone who has the ability to really LEAD people.
If no one of your present employees stands out as having this ability - look outside for someone. It is not worth compromising on this all important position - remember you need someone to put that wall together effectively to get the best results!
The team leader should then be tasked with putting together the team - selecting the strengths that are needed from individual people and making sure that their weaknesses are covered by other people in the team, so that you are putting together the ‘stone wall' with all the members supporting each other. As the team is growing, all of the team members should take part in the recruitment and interviewing process - after all they will have a feel for how someone will fit in with the rest of them. Giving everybody some responsibility for how the team is put together gives them all a stake in its success.
From the start there should be honest and open communication between all of the team members and the team leader. There should be no need for ‘Annual assessments'. The Team leader should be aware at all times how their team members are performing in various areas, and in an honest and open environment the team members themselves should be aware of any shortcomings and work towards solving them. A good team actually need very little maintenance input from the Team Leader and should very quickly become self-supporting, just like the stone wall.
Summary
So, if you are considering building a new team, try approaching it in a different light. Think of the people, the skills you want individuals to have - not the skills they don't have, the overall skills that you want the whole team to have and how they all fit together to give you a solid foundation. Choose a proper ‘Team LEADER' to maintain it and put contemporary ideas of ‘assessments' and ‘competencies' behind you!
( Don't tell your HR manager this, unless they are lying down in a darkened room ! )
Team Building part 2 - Honesty is the Key! Will focus on the running of the team once it is built and will be published shortly
Acknowledgements
Adapted from an original article by John Roberts, freelance training consultant, Director of JayrConsulting Ltd. www.jayrconsulting.co.uk This article may be freely reproduced / modified and used in any wayScience Articles, providing this acknowledgement is left in its entirety.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
John Roberts is a freelance Training Consultant and Director of JayrConsulting Ltd.
http://www.jayrconsulting.co.uk
1. Analogy - The bricks in the wall
Most people have been on some form of ‘team building' course. They vary according to contemporary fashion from things like ‘learning how to work together, to build bridges out of sheets of paper', to the more active residential courses, where people build rafts out of rope and washing up liquid bottles, to ‘cross a crocodile filled' ravine! They all have two things in common: -
(a)They tend to be very expensive in terms of cost per delegate to the participants.
(b)They are actually not very effective in building effective teams when people return to their real life situation.
Teams are about individual PEOPLE and the INDIVIDUAL skills that they bring to the team and how these should be selected and put together to form an effective and lasting entity. All that is needed can be covered in a 1-day seminar/discussion with a group of delegates with no more props than a white board and marker pen. If it is delivered in such a way that the delegates can be coerced to look at themselves and their teams HONESTLY, it can provide effective change in team culture, creating belief and ‘buy in' from delegates and without imposing high expenses on clients.
The analogy that I use to explain the basic ideas is that of building a wall, and I use two types of wall to explain the contemporary team building model and the alternative one. The contemporary model is likened to a ‘standard' brick wall and the alternative model is likened to a ‘dry stone' wall, of the type found in northern fields!
2. The contemporary model and it's shortcomings!
Visualise a contemporary brick wall: Bricks all the same size, weight and shape. In order to stand up the bricks have to be ‘glued' together with mortar. Bricks must be aligned exactly in rows vertically and horizontally or the wall will fall down. The mortar has to be replaced periodically, or the wall falls down. If a brick is not exactly the same size as all the others it has to be padded out with extra mortar, or - the wall falls down! The bricklayer has to keep tending the wall - replacing mortar etc. - or the wall falls down! Life of wall is fairly limited due to wearing out of materials, so eventually - the wall falls down! Bricklayer is competent enough, as long as the bricks match and he has an ongoing supply of mortar and the time to effect repairs.
Key: - Bricks = Individuals and their skills
Mortar = support from Team Leader and Human resources ( competencies, assessments etc )
Bricklayer = Team leader
Problems often start at the recruitment stage. The recruiter ( Team leader or manager ) tends to put together an all-encompassing job description, instead of isolating specific individual EXPERT skills that are required for the project and are very unlikely to all be expert skills for one person. You only have to look at the average recruitment advert to see the types of skill lists that people ask for from one delegate!
Human resources then compile a list of required competencies based on this information that ALL delegates have to fit into - and we are well on the way to selecting our almost identical bricks.
What tends to happen now is that you have a team of good ‘all rounders' but few people with exciting expert skills in any one thing. So what you get is a team that is competent but not outstanding and this has become the normal model that people tend to have become used to. This type of team conforms to all of the standard corporate ‘norms' and is much easier to deal with for a ‘team leader' that is also possibly not a truly expert and exciting ‘leader'.
Remember - ‘if you do what you have always done - you get what you have always got!'
Over the years I have experienced too many of these types of teams ( and team leaders ) and I know it can be done much better!
The problem is then compounded by the fashion for ‘competencies' and ‘Annual assessments'. Managers and team leaders are told to assess their team members annually and to concentrate on improving their ‘weaknesses'! WHY?
Firstly - any team leader that waits a year to point out a problem to one of their team should not be doing the job! Communication and feedback between the leader and all team members should be continuous and open at all times.
Next - why concentrate on improving their weaknesses - all you are going to do is end up with a collection of ‘cloned' bricks again! What you should be doing is emphasising the team members' positives and constantly improving their strengths - the very skills you hired them for in the first place. If you have someone who is a brilliant programmer, then you want to help them be an even better programmer for the sake of the project and the team - someone else in the team probably has good report writing skills or whatever.
Different people are good at different things - use it, don't suppress it!
3. The alternative model - not new but it works!
Visualise a ‘dry stone wall' of the type often used for field boundaries. Stones are all different shapes and sizes - they are selected from what is available, in the right order so that they overlap and fit with each other perfectly to provide a solid fit.
This means that no stone is the ‘wrong' size as long as you find others to fit around it. It doesn't matter if all the stones are perfectly aligned as long as they all mesh together to give the wall stability.
There is no mortar used in the wall, it's all down to the skill of the bricklayer selecting the correct stones in the first place so that the individual stones all support each other in the complete wall. The wall doesn't fall down for centuries!
The wall doesn't look as uniform and pretty as the brick wall on the surface but actually performs its' task far better. The bricklayer has to have a real skill in selecting the right shaped stones to make sure they all fit together well in the first place, but once he has done that, maintenance is minimal!
Key: - Stones = Individuals and their skills
Mortar = support from Team Leader and Human resources ( competencies, assessments etc )
Bricklayer = Team leader
The first thing that is needed before you can recruit and build a team for you project is an expert ‘brick layer' or REAL Team LEADER! ( Not a manager/coordinator or facilitator). This doesn't mean someone who happens to have been in the company the longest and is thought due for promotion. It doesn't mean someone who can write good reports and do all the administration properly - it means someone who can LEAD PEOPLE! This is someone who can control, cajole, coerce and do anything necessary to get people to perform at their own best whenever it is required, at the same time gaining respect from those around them that they have to deal with. They don't bully, shout or ‘use their position' to get things done, people respond to them naturally and TRUST them. It's NOT a promotion, it's another type of skill and you should look for this type of person in all levels of the organisation.
You can teach anyone to play the piano, but not everyone can be a top concert pianist - it is just a skill that some people have and not others. Leadership is exactly the same - you can send someone on a ‘Team Leaders' course and they will be able to go through the motions of team leading, but what you should look for is a ‘natural' - someone who has the ability to really LEAD people.
If no one of your present employees stands out as having this ability - look outside for someone. It is not worth compromising on this all important position - remember you need someone to put that wall together effectively to get the best results!
The team leader should then be tasked with putting together the team - selecting the strengths that are needed from individual people and making sure that their weaknesses are covered by other people in the team, so that you are putting together the ‘stone wall' with all the members supporting each other. As the team is growing, all of the team members should take part in the recruitment and interviewing process - after all they will have a feel for how someone will fit in with the rest of them. Giving everybody some responsibility for how the team is put together gives them all a stake in its success.
From the start there should be honest and open communication between all of the team members and the team leader. There should be no need for ‘Annual assessments'. The Team leader should be aware at all times how their team members are performing in various areas, and in an honest and open environment the team members themselves should be aware of any shortcomings and work towards solving them. A good team actually need very little maintenance input from the Team Leader and should very quickly become self-supporting, just like the stone wall.
Summary
So, if you are considering building a new team, try approaching it in a different light. Think of the people, the skills you want individuals to have - not the skills they don't have, the overall skills that you want the whole team to have and how they all fit together to give you a solid foundation. Choose a proper ‘Team LEADER' to maintain it and put contemporary ideas of ‘assessments' and ‘competencies' behind you!
( Don't tell your HR manager this, unless they are lying down in a darkened room ! )
Team Building part 2 - Honesty is the Key! Will focus on the running of the team once it is built and will be published shortly
Acknowledgements
Adapted from an original article by John Roberts, freelance training consultant, Director of JayrConsulting Ltd. www.jayrconsulting.co.uk This article may be freely reproduced / modified and used in any wayScience Articles, providing this acknowledgement is left in its entirety.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
John Roberts is a freelance Training Consultant and Director of JayrConsulting Ltd.
http://www.jayrconsulting.co.uk
7 Ways To Make Money With Articles
Are you leaving money on the table when it comes to profiting from your articles? Read this article to learn how to milk your articles for the most money.
If you write and submit articles on the Internet, you need to make sure you are getting the most money out of each article. Here are the 7 different ways to make money with articles:
1. Promote Your Website
Add your author bio at the end of each article with a short ad for your products or services and a link to your website. People who like your article and click on your link will be more ready to buy from you than a cold prospect.
2. Promote Affiliate Products
You can promote affiliate products in your author bio, and make commissions on all the sales you refer. Just register a domain name (so your link at the end of the article looks professional), and redirect it to your affiliate link.
3. Content Sites With Adsense
Use your articles to build content websites packed with useful information. Content websites are likely to get lots of free traffic from search engines. Place the Google Adsense advertisements on your pages, and get paid for each click.
4. Blogs
Start publishing a blog. Search engines love blogs because they are regularly updated with fresh content. Blogs tend to get a lot of traffic from search engines. Break-up your articles into smaller chunks and turn them into blog entries.
5. Mailing List
Collect your website visitors names and e-mail addresses – ask them to sign up for your newsletter. Regularly e-mail your articles to your newsletter subscribers, along with promotions for your website.
6. Information Products
When you accumulate enough articles, compile them into an e-book. Turn your articles into book chapters. Change a few things here and there, and you will have a new information product to sell.
7. Viral E-Books
Instead of selling the e-book that you made from your articles, you can also use a viral marketing approach. Add promotional copy to your e-book along with links to your website and affiliate links, and give it away. It will spread around the Internet like a virusFree Reprint Articles, advertising your products and services and putting more money in your pocket.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Melanie Mendelson will show you how to write money-making articles in 30 minutes – even if you can't write! Learn more about her 30 Minute Article Writing System at http://www.WriteArticles-GetWebsiteTraffic.com
If you write and submit articles on the Internet, you need to make sure you are getting the most money out of each article. Here are the 7 different ways to make money with articles:
1. Promote Your Website
Add your author bio at the end of each article with a short ad for your products or services and a link to your website. People who like your article and click on your link will be more ready to buy from you than a cold prospect.
2. Promote Affiliate Products
You can promote affiliate products in your author bio, and make commissions on all the sales you refer. Just register a domain name (so your link at the end of the article looks professional), and redirect it to your affiliate link.
3. Content Sites With Adsense
Use your articles to build content websites packed with useful information. Content websites are likely to get lots of free traffic from search engines. Place the Google Adsense advertisements on your pages, and get paid for each click.
4. Blogs
Start publishing a blog. Search engines love blogs because they are regularly updated with fresh content. Blogs tend to get a lot of traffic from search engines. Break-up your articles into smaller chunks and turn them into blog entries.
5. Mailing List
Collect your website visitors names and e-mail addresses – ask them to sign up for your newsletter. Regularly e-mail your articles to your newsletter subscribers, along with promotions for your website.
6. Information Products
When you accumulate enough articles, compile them into an e-book. Turn your articles into book chapters. Change a few things here and there, and you will have a new information product to sell.
7. Viral E-Books
Instead of selling the e-book that you made from your articles, you can also use a viral marketing approach. Add promotional copy to your e-book along with links to your website and affiliate links, and give it away. It will spread around the Internet like a virusFree Reprint Articles, advertising your products and services and putting more money in your pocket.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Melanie Mendelson will show you how to write money-making articles in 30 minutes – even if you can't write! Learn more about her 30 Minute Article Writing System at http://www.WriteArticles-GetWebsiteTraffic.com
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