Don't Forget Research Time
Don't Forget Research Time
Robert Nixon
You should remember the internet was made as a research tool.
The whole concept is for someone to 'get on the internet' to
find something.
Whether that 'something' is your website or not, they will spend
some time investigating, checking various results until they
have determined their 'quest' is over.
I recently checked my site stats given me by my hosting company
and found many hits and page views were coming from search
engines. Each engine is listed, along with the search term used
and the page of my domain that was returned in the search.
Most of these had been directed to a newsletter page.
I had not submitted my newsletter pages separately, nor have I
ever submitted my 'newsletter list' page to the engines, but
there it was !!
I do, however, write articles and submit them to various places
that look for articles.
You may have what they are looking to find on your website but
they may never see is because you have not spent the time to
submit your information as an article. Even testimonials count.
Here are some rules you may want to follow:
1. Write about something you know about. You don't have to be an
expert, all you have to say is " in my opinion", or " I have
observed".
2. Don't try and disguise an advertisement as your article, you
can do that in another way at the end in the 'About the author'
tag. Besides, this is the ONLY place you can do so that will be
allowed by the editors.
3. Allow others to use your articles as 'content' for their
newsletters, etc. As long as the 'About the author' remains
intact.
4. Save your newsletter summary page as a separate page in your
domain.
http://www.cpucash.net/newsletterlist.htm
5. If it is categorized by month save each month as a separate
page in your domain.
http://www.cpucash.net/january2005.html
6. Save your articles on their a separate page in your domain.
http://www.cpucash.net/RobertArticles.html
What the results will show is the title of the page returned by
the engine and a few words, normally the first 25 or so, that
follow, with a 'hyperlink' for the researcher to 'click' on to
see your page done for you pointing to the title page given as
the result.
How do you benefit?
First: You had to do nothing for someone to be directed to your
site as far as promoting. All you had to do is follow the steps
above ( 4,5,6 ), and follow your normal procedure of insuring
you have 'tags' correctly inserted when you created the page.
About the tags. Some question the 'revisit-after' tag as being
useful, I always put it in, just in case. Remember they go
between the tags BEFORE the tag.
The Cpu Cash Network January 2005 Newsletter Page
Second: If the searcher likes what you have written, then they
WILL click on the link you have chosen in your 'About the
author' area to find out more.
People will and do spend HOURS at a time researching, or as the
current 'catch phrase' says, ' Surfing the Internet'.
What do you in addition that may help?
You will have to spend some time doing some research on your
own.
Find places that are looking for articles. They know that many
of those reading the articles will also look at their ads that
are on the sides, top and bottom to the page ( in other words,
all around YOUR article ) as they read your article.
Remember the Newsletters you subscribe to?
Well, ALL of us publishers are always looking for articles,
start with contacting those, or checking for a link for
submitting articles.
The bottom line is to get people to purchase your product or
service, if the 'hard sale' or direct approach is not producing
for you as you would like, then you have to also consider your
'indirect sales' approach.
The hard sell is like when you go to a convention where ALL of
your competitors are also.
The indirect sale is where you hand someone your business card
at lunch or a social gathering. At this level, people remember
you first, then look at what you do second, BUT will always
associate YOU with what you do !!
In conclusion: Is research time worth the effort? This is for
you to determine and it depends upon who is doing it. You want
to be on the result end, with others looking for you, NOT you
looking for them.
Robert Nixon