Newsletter and Ezine Directories

Buying ads in Ezines and Newsletters can be a good link building strategy. Often times these newsletters are archived along with the links contained within the newsletter (including the paid links). These links gain value as time goes on and are thus can be a good linking investment (not to mention the fact that you should get some traffic from the initial mailing).

With that said, we need to know where can we find ezines and newsletters to advertise on? Well, there are a few options.

First, here is a list of four directories that you can search for ezines and newsletters:

Ezine hub — http://www.ezinehub.com/
Newsletter access — http://www.newsletteraccess.com/
Ezine Locater — http://www.ezinelocater.com/
New List — http://new-list.com/

Now, what should you do with this list. Basically you should try and find sites which relate somehow or other to your site. Start with those sites which are most directly related to yours and then branch out to more tangentially related sites. The best rule of thumb is would the visitors of the sites you advertise on find your site something of value. If so, there is probably value in having a link from such a site. Of course, you should make sure that these sites archive their newsletters and that the ad links are included in the archives. You also will want to make sure that the link is a direct link to your site and does not include the no follow tag, otherwise there will be no link value to the link.

Secondly, try searching online for Newsletter directory, Newsletter list, Ezine directories, Ezine lists, etc. You are bound to find other lists in addition to the one’s mentioned above. Also, don’t forget to search for related keywords along with the word ezine or newsletter. This may or may not be helpful, but is certainly worth a shot. In addition to searching the major search engines, you may want to also consider searching social bookmarking sites such as del.icio.us and blinklist (www.blinklist.com). Again, make sure that the newsletter along with your link will be archived.

Finally, visit sites which you know are related to your own and see if they have a newsletter. If so, contact them and ask them how much it would cost to advertise in their newsletter. Once again, make sure that that newsletter, along with your link, is archived.

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What is del.icio.us and how can it help me to market my website?

Del.icio.us (or www.delicious.com) is a social bookmarking web site which allows you to store your bookmarks online.  More importantly, del.icio.us makes public all of the bookmarks saved on its site.  This makes it an excellent place to find websites or articles which other people find interesting and/or important.  It is, basically, a bookmarking community.  There are various different ways that one can use del.icio.us, but we are going to focus solely on its marketing benefits (in particular how it can help you with your seo efforts - for as we will point out del.icio.us can be a great
source of incoming links). 

You see, it turns out that del.icio.us happens to be extremely popular (indeed, that’s why Yahoo bought it!).  What’s more large numbers of bloggers seeking content for their site regularly search the pages of del.icio.us looking for something to write about and/or mention on their blog.  As such, del.icio.us is an excellent place to find both targeted visitors and quality, incoming links.  For if those bloggers find your listing on del.icio.us and like what they see they will most likely link to your site.  What’s more, people reading those blogs may also link to your site if they like what they see.  And people
reading those blogs may also link to your site, and so on and so forth.  And need we mention that the search engines in general, and Google in particular, like incoming links?

Of course this is easier said than done.  You have to know how to properly use del.icio.us to market your site (this, of course, is where we come in).  After all, there are millions of sites posted on del.icio.us and many other people are also interested in marketing their sites there.  What, then, do you have to do in order to properly take advantage of the marketing opportunities that del.icio.us provides?  Simply put, you have to create content that the users of del.icio.us like and learn how to get those users to notice that content.  Or, in more general terms, you have to learn how del.icio.us works and what makes it tick and then use that knowledge to that advantage (i.e., the "best practices" of del.icio.us).  And it is that knowledge, and how to use it, that we plan to share with you.  So read on and learn more about how tasty del.icio.us can be. 

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It seems that the advantage of organic search results over pay-per-click advertising are not quite as good as once thought. While it is true that people tend to click on organic search results 1.5 times more often than paid search results, paid search converts better. At least, that is what Click Z reported. According to a WebSideStory study paid search has a 3.4 percent conversion rate as compared to a 3.13 percent conversion rate for organic search results. The conclusion to be drawn, both paid and organic search results have their values and strengths. As ClickZ notes:

In the case of paid search, marketers have better control over the ad’s message, the landing page and the ability to eliminate low-converting keywords. For organic listings, users often perceive them as “independent,” which can increase click-throughs, but the lack of control of what the search result says, or what page it links to on the marketer’s site can decrease conversions.

You can read the full ClickZ article here and you can read the original WebSiteStory study here. Enjoy!

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Among the numberous search marketing related newsletters that I subscribe is one by John Alexander called SEO tip of the day. As it’s name implies, it’s a daily email with an SEO related tip (you can sign up for it here). I particularly liked today’s tip and thought that I’d share it with you. It relates to understanding your visitors activity on your website. John writes as follows:

…when you examine your Web activity reports…which pages are being viewed by themselves, where visitors aren’t even clicking to go to another page? Look at these pages carefully to see what you can provide on the page to keep up the interest of your visitors. You’re losing them, and you need to figure out why…are visitors confused and unable to find what they’re looking for?

In other words, if someone comes to your site and does NOT stay there is probably a good reason for it. It could be because your site is not what they are looking for, but there could be other reasons. Your site may be exactly what they are looking for, but it is not structured, organized, or presented in a way which let’s them know that fact! In other words, attracting qualified visitors to your site is only the first step in building a successful website. The second step is building your site in such a way as to convert those visitors to customers. And the first step in converting customers is designing your pages in such a way so that your visitors stay on your site. If your visitors are leaving your site then that indicates that there is something about your site which needs to be improved.