Being an inveterate list maker, I find mind mapping to be invaluable when creating new business plans for myself and for my clients. One free resource that I highly recommend is Freemind that I found at SourceForge.net. I use it a lot, but mostly when I am mapping out an Infusionsoft campaign for clients.

Go to here to download. It does require Java so be sure to download if you don’t currently have it. Depending on what platform you are running, click on the link that works best for you.

Once the .exe file is saved, locate the file, double click on it and say “yes” to run. It takes just a few minutes and you will have a very powerful and FREE mind mapping solution that allows you to conceptually design your projects.

Words are the only things that last forever; they are more durable than the eternal hills. ~  William Hazlitt

For many people, the idea of actually sitting down and writing an article stops them cold. You may wonder if you have anything worth saying, or if your writing is “good” enough for publication. If it makes you feel any better, virtually every writer – even the professionals – start out with the same fears.  In fact, author Jeffery Deaver is quoted as saying, “I’ve often said that there’s no such thing as writer’s block; the problem is idea block.”

But once you have one article under your belt, the next ones become much easier.

Here’s a five-step plan to have you on your way to your first article:

1. Brainstorm topics.
What questions do you get about your topic area? What are the sticking points for newbies to your field? What equipment or specialized knowledge do people need to get started? Make a list of the most common questions you are asked about your business.

For instance, I recently suggested to my Veterinarian that we add a blog to the website that we built for him last year. He immediately reared back with terrified look in his eyes and did his level best to convince me that he just didn’t have a darn thing to write about.

My response? Nonsense! Apart from treating the animals in his care, his day is spent soothing anxious pet parents and answering a myriad of questions ranging from the best nutrition products to care of  a pet in declining health and everything in-between. Once he understood that he did indeed have a wealth of information to share with the community, he then offered up the excuse that he just doesn’t have time to sit down and write. I kindly agreed with him on this one, but noticed that the office manager who has been with the practice for many years was very engaged and interested in the conversation. Long story short, she is now writing a very popular blog and article series for the veterinary hospital. Just by sharing information that comes up during the course of a day, they have found that they actually have more article ideas than they ever thought possible.

Are you an ardent home cook? Do you continually receive praise for your cooking and regular requests for recipes? Perhaps your cooking niche is cooking small meals to be frozen for later use. People would want to know:

• How will cooking and freezing small meals benefit me?
• Is this a cost effective method of cooking and shopping?
• What equipment will I need? Do I need ziplock bags? Air tight containers?
• What type of spices and seasonings freeze well?
• Do I have to season the food less because the seasonings will get stronger with time?
• What are the problems I might encounter?
• Should I label my containers and date them? What are the best tools for this?
• What are some basic recipes?
• What foods last the longest and what foods will be prone to freezer burn?
• How do I avoid freezer burn?

By brainstorming with your family, friends, and even just yourself, in just a few minutes, you can have topics for your first dozen articles.

2. Choose one to begin with.
Pick one of your topics to start with. Forget about choosing the “perfect” topic – there is no such thing. Grab a pen and a piece of paper, a note pad, or sit down in front of your computer, set the timer for 10 minutes and jot down everything you can think of related to that topic. Don’t worry about complete sentences, formatting, or spelling, just get the ideas down. This is your “stream of consciousness” exercise which will then lead to more tangible ideas.

For instance, if my topic is “How cooking and freezing small meals can benefit you,” I might write;

• Save money
• Healthier diet
• Control portions
• Lose weight
• Fun
• Time saving
• Social – can do with family or friends
• Organization – helps me plan my time better if I don’t have to cook every night
• Less stress

Some people like to use mind maps to create these lists. If you’d like more information on that process, I suggest googling “mindmap software.”

3. Organize it and flesh it out.
The next step is to take the outline you created in Step 2 and organize it into common themes. You’re aiming for an article about 400-700 words, so three to five main points is ideal. If you have more than that, never fear! You can turn that information into another article or an article series. This article is actually #2 in a 11 part series.

Then take your outline and build on it. If this is where you start feeling butterflies in your stomach, relax. Imagine you’re writing an email to a friend to explain to him or her the topic of your article. Again, don’t get stuck on grammar, spelling, etc. Just get the info on the page – you can always go back and edit it. Professional writers often create several drafts of their work. Very few people get it right the first time! I do recommend you write in your own voice and your own style. You will be more comfortable and so will the people reading it.

4. Proofread.
Now’s the time when you can go back through the article and edit and polish, making each sentence say what you want it to. Be sure it’s cohesive, that the statements flow together, and that it makes sense. Also be on the lookout for places where you can tighten your writing – where you use three words when just one will do, or where there are redundancies. Ensure that each word, each sentence, each paragraph have purpose.

When you think your article is finished, walk away from it for an hour or even a day. Then go back and read through again. By giving yourself some time away from your article, you will pick up previously missed errors or ones that spell check didn’t catch.

5. Submit!
After you’ve written your article and polished it until it shines, it’s time to submit it. Most article marketers submit to online directories – clearinghouses where experts post articles and editors find content to publish. While there are hundreds of online article directories, there’s no need to submit to more than a few. Each has its own pluses and minuses, so take some time to pick the best for your niche. A quick search on Google for “article directory” will bring up dozens of options. In part 9 of this series, I will give you the top 10 article directories and tips on how to use them.

If you know of large circulation newsletters or ezines in your niche, submit directly to those publishers as well. Make sure you follow the article directories guidelines exactly, as some have minimum and maximum word lengths, as well as other requirements. And if you have your own blog, absolutely publish it there. Break it into smaller pieces if you must, but publish away!

Article marketing is a valuable free marketing strategy, but it must be used consistently— and often — for the best results. So once you’ve finished one article, go back to the beginning and start writing your next. Keep the content flowing, and soon you’ll see the results of your hard work. You can’t buy better promotion than that!

Be sure to signup for our newsletter or RSS feed so these articles arrive in your email box when they are published.

Words are timeless. You should utter them or write them with a knowledge of their timelessness. ~ Khalil Gibran

Article marketing is one of the most useful methods of promoting a business online. Not only is it easy and low-cost, it works and anyone can do it!

By writing articles on your areas of expertise and offering this content free of charge to online and offline publishers, you can:

1. Spread the word about your services, products and reviews to your target market.
2. Demonstrate your professional knowledge about your industry or niche.
3. Create a body of work that continues to “sell” you and your website long after the initial article creation.
4. Create a following of interested and engaged readers who will refer you or your services to others.

On another note, other website owners, bloggers, and newsletter publishers are constantly looking for quality content to provide to their readers. You help them out by providing your well-written, targeted articles. In return they include a plug about you and your business, called the “author resource box,” at the bottom of the piece. The resource box includes a link to your site. So, they get free content, and you get free publicity. It’s a win-win situation.

You may be wondering if article marketing will work for your niche or industry. The short answer is yes! There are blogs and newsletters and ezines and websites on just about every topic under the sun, from accounting to Zoroastrianism.

Here’s a short list of businesses that can benefit from article marketing:

• Service providers (virtual or traditional)
• Virtual Assistants
• Bloggers
• Affiliate marketers
• Ebook Authors
• Info product sellers
• Online Store owners
• Coaches and consultants
• Realtors
• Podcasters
• Membership site owners
• Authors
• Speakers
• Network marketers
• Owners of niche websites

In short, if you’re selling something, offering professional services, or trying to drive traffic to your website or blog, article marketing can be extremely beneficial for you. It’s one of the most efficient ways to attract targeted visitors, to build trust among your readers, and to gain new customers or clients.

Here are some broad examples:

• Bloggers can use article marketing to attract readers to their blogs and increase their subscriber base.
• Bloggers can use article marketing to write reviews about affiliate products  and increase their revenue streams.
• Webmasters can use article marketing to create valuable backlinks, and increase website traffic.
• Writers can use article marketing to exhibit their writing skills, educate readers, and attract clients.
• Hairstylists can use article marketing to share hair care tips, showcase their expertise, and attract business to their salons.
• Dog trainers can use article marketing to share dog training lessons, and inform the public about the needs at a local shelter.
• Fitness professionals can use article marketing to share fitness and health tips, exercise tips and healthy recipes, thereby creating a body of work that tells potential clients that they know their craft and can be trusted to help clients with their fitness goals.
• Dentists can use article marketing to share information about gum disease, whitening systems, new developments in periodontal care and just about anything else that is of benefit to their patients and potential patients.

Whatever your passion or field of expertise, article marketing can benefit you and your business. When used correctly, it can successfully attract targeted traffic to your website or blog, grow your mailing list, help you become an expert in your field, build trust with your readers, make your website more popular, spread your name and website across the Web, add backlinks to your site, allow you to “advertise” free, brand yourself and your business, and generate sales.

As you can see, the benefits of article marketing are numerous. So who can benefit from article marketing? You can! And, it starts with just one article.

Next in this series:

5 Steps to Marketing Your First Article

What Makes Quality Content?

What Kind of Articles Work Best?

Offline Article Marketing Secrets

How to  Find Article Writers and PLR (Private Label Rights) Articles

Advanced Article Marketing Skills

How to Write a Killer Resource Box

Top 10 Article Directories

Five Tips to Marketing Your Articles to Get Them More Exposure

Tracking Your Article Marketing Results

Be sure to signup for our newsletter or RSS feed so these articles arrive in your email box when they are published.

Everyone’s an expert at something. Sharing your expertise or that of your virtual assistance clients may land you (and them!) that big media opportunity you’ve been looking for.

We all know about HARO (Help a Reporter Out) which was founded by in 2008 by Peter Shankman. Every day, HARO brings nearly 30,000 reporters and bloggers, over 100,000 news sources and thousands of small businesses together to tell their stories, promote their brands and sell their products and services. If you are not on this email list, you need to be!

Another resource for experts looking for more media exposure on the talk show circuit is Radio Guest List.com. Here you can get radio interviews and podcast publicity guests interview bookings for free.

Free radio, Internet radio, satellite radio, talk radio, podcast and TV talk show guest experts interviews booking service and call for sponsors and advertisers. Post your radio show guests, publicity or sponsorship needs online and they will email their list of experts, authors & PR firms automatically.

Source: Radio Guest List.com

If you are an author, guest expert “source” or PR firm looking for publicity interviews, or interested in sponsoring or advertising on radio talk shows or podcasts, please register to receive our FREE emails from radio, podcast, and TV talk show producers and bookers who want to meet you.

Here’s the deal:

• You will get emails from local radio stations, online talk show hosts, podcasters, satellite radio (XM/Sirius), and even the occasional TV show looking for guest experts to interview (or sponsors for their shows).
• These shows are not usually big names – this service is designed to help smaller stations and podcaster shows that are looking for guests.
• While these shows do not all have big audiences – their listeners are usually very targeted.
• You can also request a link back to your website from the hosts (good for SEO!).
• Most important: ONLY RESPOND TO SHOWS THAT ARE SPECIFICALLY LOOKING FOR YOUR EXPERTISE. Do not spam the bookers! You will be REMOVED from the list if I receive complaints.
• The emails are free.

Please drop back by let me know how this free service works out for you or your clients.

As a virtual service provider are you sharing your knowledge, your passion and expertiese with others in your industry and with potential clients?

If not, why not? By offering a newsletter or ezine to visitors to your website you can:

• Speak directly to your targeted market.
• Deliver consistent messages about your products and services.
• Share information, tools and tips about your industry.
• Build that critically important “know, like and trust” factor while stimulating good will and building your expert status by generating consistent and usable information.
• Reach various audiences such as customers, prospects, trade groups, media, potential joint ventures partners, etc.
• If you are an affiliate marketer your newsletter can be used as a sales, advertising, PR, educational and/or promotional tool.
• Produce cost-effective and measurable results.

These tips are offered as a way to help you get started, to encourage you and /or your group to do some brainstorming and to help you gain some clarity regarding the all-important purpose of your newsletter.

Some questions to answer before you get started that will help you craft your newsletter or ezine.

1. What audience do you want to reach?
2. What consistent message do you want to convey?
3. How often will you produce it?
4. What is your corporate philosophy and personality? Will your newsletter be written in technical terms, or will it be couched in conversational tones?
5. How can you use it most effectively to help build and brand your business?
6. Who will have primary in-house responsibilities?
7. Who will oversee the production? Layout and design? Content/articles/photos? Timeline?
8. What parts of the process, if any, will be outsourced?

It’s up to you to determine which purposes your newsletter will serve, but the time spent analyzing and focusing before starting it will save you many headaches along the way.

Who we recommend.

Aweber

Constant Contact

Infusion Soft

Weekly Recommended Resource

Or, in this case, “resources!”.

A well thought out and impeccably maintained membership site allows you to deliver specialized and well packaged knowledge, expert guidance and personal tutelage.

I am often asked what my favorite builders tool for a membership site is. Hands down, I recommend Wishlist Member but there are other membership platforms that we also work in for our clients and can recommend from experience.

Customer Hub is a membership center for Infusionsoft users.

Digital Access Pass offers excellent sequential content delivery for your drip campaigns. (This is also a “hands down” recommendation).

InfusionWP is a WordPress plugin that will turn a normal WordPress site into a full featured membership site, with all the imaginable protection controls at your disposal, yet drawing its data from your Infusionsoft application.

Membergate Subscription Web Site Manager is a high end solution for large membership sites.

Social Sam. This platform ranges from free for your first ten members to $8 per month for up to 100 members on up to $2,000 for 100,000 members.

If you have recommendations for other membership site tools or builders I would love to hear from you!

Denise Griffitts

Weekly Recommended Resource

This free search engine simulator tool from To the Web.com shows you just how the search engines “see” your web page. I recommend you test your site(s) right away. I tested all of mine and found that one of them had the following meta tag incorrectly installed which means that Google DOES NOT FOLLOW that link.

<meta name=’robots’ content=’noindex,nofollow’ />

I am a web developer and know better, but these things do happen and you need to be sure that you are building and testing your pages correctly. Find the best tools for the job at hand and use them!

Here are the basic No Follow question and answers from Google, Ask.com and Yahoo.

How does your search engine treat the No Follow attribute?

• Google : The Googlebot does not follow that link.
• Yahoo : If we find a link we make it available to our algorithms to find new content, whether it has a ‘no follow’ attribute or not. However, if the ‘no follow’ attribute is present, it means that no attribution is given to the target from the source of the link.
• Ask.com : We have never officially supported No Follow, so your questions don’t apply to our crawler/ranking.

If a site has no web citations and only has one link pointing to it, and that link is from a Wikipedia entry, would your search engine find that site and index it even though the link uses a No Follow attribute?

• Yahoo : Yes, the link is available to our crawlers for finding the target. Then the target will be crawled and indexed based on our algorithms.
• Google : Assuming that link is still no-followed per Wikipedia’s current practice, we will not find much less index that page (remember, this is page, not site related; if links to other pages on that site are not no-followed, we will see and potentially index those pages).On a related note, though, and echoing Matt’s earlier sentiments… we hope and expect that more and more sites — including Wikipedia — will adopt a less-absolute approach to no-follow… expiring no-follows, not applying no-follows to trusted contributors, and so on.

Is there any quality given to sites which attract No Follow links from authority sites, besides the lack of the passing of PageRank, Link Authority or “Search Juice”?

• Google : Since the Googlebot does not follow no-follow links, this isn’t really an issue.
• Yahoo : As promised in the semantics for the ‘no follow’ tag, the anchor text and attribution will not be carried over to the target of a ‘no follow’ link.

I get so many requests for tips and advice on the resources that my Virtual Assistance and Web Development companies use that it seems a great idea to publish a weekly resource.

These are online resources that will help you develop, gain knowledge, find new information and absorb new ideas.

Enjoy!

This Weeks Recommended Resource

WordPress Tip of the Day is a free video podcast from the “Internet Genius” Ben Cope that delivers high-quality video training for WordPress in 5 minutes or less every day in a format that is easy to follow, easy to understand, and always free!