Associate Programs Newsletter #282

I have a real gem for you today.

It's a website where you can get articles written exclusively - just for YOUR website - for no charge.

Think it's too good to be true?

Read on...

CONTENTS:

1. Exclusive reprint rights to articles
    - not just another article directory
2. Don't panic over hyphens in domain names
3. "Blogger deleted all of my blogs"
4. Has Google created an invitation to spammers?
5. User-generated content: multi-million-dollar deals
6. Where to get more info on user-generated content
7. Thought for today: An investment

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1. Exclusive reprint rights to articles   
    - not just another article directory
==============================================

How would you like to have articles written exclusively for your website and not have to pay for them?

No, there are no membership fees, either.

When I say exclusive, I don't mean you share the articles with 500, 100 or even 10 other websites. I mean exclusive in the real sense of the word - ONLY YOU have the right to publish them.

Yes, it IS possible, although I imagine the site will be utterly swamped with requests now that I'm writing about it. To put it mildly, there may be some delay.

The site - http://www.1st-4-articles.com - looks just too good to be true. I kept going over it, trying to find the catch.

To get exclusive rights to use the site's articles, you simply email the site's owner and ask, or put in a request for articles to be written for you.

There is one problem, though - the topic you want may not be available.

Jamey Ferguson, who told me about the site, says: "They only ask that you include links back to their sites (like everyone else does).

"I even had them write a custom article for my site. They will do this for you as long as they approve of your site and if your site is related to their categories in some way (so they can link back). I was very happy with the finished product."

Mary Baker, who runs 1st-4-articles.com, was a senior executive for over 20 years working for huge corporations such as AT&T, Citibank, British Airways and AmeriCredit.

"It's very difficult and stressful to keep downsizing your staff because of mergers, acquisitions and even airline terrorism," she says. "I grew very tired of the corporate rat race and brutal office politics."

When the last company she worked for closed its doors almost two years ago, Mary's husband, Jim, asked her to help him write some articles for a website he was building.

Jim had worked as a mechanic for many years. He was an ASE Master Certified auto technician and did everything from owning his own repair shop to being the lead technician at an Infiniti dealership.

Grueling hours and heavy labor finally took their toll on him. He became disabled and unable to return to work after having two major back surgeries. He had to find something he could do working from home and so he immersed himself in computers and affiliate marketing.

After studying for many months, he built his first website.

"He told me that if I worked half as hard for us as I did for the companies I worked for, I would never have to go back to corporate America," Mary says.

"I decided to humor him and write some articles for his websites while I was looking for a job. Writing has always been something I've enjoyed but never really had a chance to pursue."

That was in April, 2004. Mary has been working from home ever since.

"My husband was right! I have never gone back to the corporate world. One website soon turned into 30..."

At first they submitted their articles to several article directories only to find that they weren't getting proper credit
for their hard work.

"We spent days and days chasing down our articles via CopyScape to find webmasters who had ripped off our content and didn't bother to make our links live.

"We started 1st-4-Articles.com and decided we would only offer our content exclusively to sites who met our strict standards (quality websites, not scraper sites, etc)."

Mary and Jim have since branched out to offer to write custom articles for approved websites as long as the basic concept of the article is mutually beneficial to both parties - the topic has to be compatible with their links.

Here's a list of their categories, so far:

    * Bras and Lingerie
    * Business/Office
    * Electronics
    * Fashion and Apparel
    * Fitness
    * Health
    * House and Home
    * Jewelry
    * Outdoors
    * Pets
    * Wedding Related

They've been doing this for about six to nine months and Mary says it's too soon to tell how it's going to work out. They feel they've reached just the tip of the iceberg.

"However, we think we are on the right track and remain optimistic that as long as we supply well written material things
will only improve over time.

"So much of what I see as far as content is nothing more than a bunch of keywords stuffed into an article that is more spider food than quality informative reading for real people. Our goal is to provide both."

In the beginning Mary wrote everything herself. However, with 30 websites she finds it more and more difficult to do anything but manage her writing staff.

"I still write most of the Home pages and main pages of our sites, but I have basically evolved into the Technical Editor.

"I enjoy working with my writing staff and I review every single article to make sure it is worthy of publishing. Basically, if I wouldn't put it on my own site, it's not good enough for publishing."

I saw some articles on 1st-4-Articles.com which did not contain links, and so I asked Mary about them.

"As 1st-4-Articles.com has evolved, so has our process for links back to our sites. Instead of just putting in some links, we now wait to see what type of site wants the exclusive rights to that particular article and then we decide where we want our links back based on several different factors."

Links in the articles lead to their websites, but none of the links go to 1st-4-Articles.com.

"We decided from the very beginning to block our site from the search engines. We vowed that we would not be just another article database.

"Duplicate content benefits no one. Even though it could eventually mean good links back to our sites, we firmly believe that the people who publish our articles should get as much benefit from the content as we do from the links pointing back to our sites."

I asked Mary how she would cope if she received a large influx in demand for articles on a wide range of topics.

"Getting the word out about our site could be the opportunity of a lifetime since we do not allow the search engines to spider our site. In the worst case scenario, I envision having to advise webmasters that they may have to wait a couple of weeks for their articles.

"I'm always looking for talented writers to add to my writing pool - so perhaps that word will spread as well."

A two-week wait? I think Mary is probably far too optimistic. I think she'll be utterly swamped with requests now.

If you want to get some articles written for your site without paying for them, check out...

http://www.1st-4-articles.com

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2. Don't panic over hyphens in domain names
===========================================

Some scary stuff has been published recently by SEO people. (Come to think of it, SEO people have been publishing scary stuff for years, much of it mere speculation.)

In early February, one warned us that in late February Google would penalize domain names with hyphens in them.

Here's what Google engineer Matt Cutts said back on August 25:

"...Google doesn't algorithmically penalize for dashes in the url."

This week, I went to Matt's blog and asked him if this was still true.

His reply:

"We don't use hyphens as a spam signal."

It would be hard to say it any clearer than that.

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3. "Blogger deleted all of my blogs"
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Here's a cautionary tale for anyone using Blogger software.

Jim Hutton writes:

Hi Allan, I read with interest your review of Blogging to the Bank ( http://www.AssociatePrograms.com/blogging ) and while I haven't purchased the ebook yet I just wanted to relate my own experiences using the free Blogger service.

I'm pretty much a technophobe and started using Blogger since it was user friendly, easy and free. Much like the author's story I was self taught for the most part and had created over the space of a year about 50 blogs on a wide variety of subjects and was earning about $100 a day mainly from AdSense and a few affiliate programs.

I was thrilled with my results until January 27 of 2006 when Blogger deleted all of my blogs with no explanation and support refuses to respond to emails and even a phone call didn't get a reason. I suspect that some of my blogs were a little spammy but Blogger does suggest adding AdSense.

Anyway, I'm currently studying WordPress so I can host my own blogs and so it's back to square one for me but it is a cautionary tale about relying on Blogger.

I had misgivings about using exclusively Blogger but I was getting quick search engine inclusion and good results so I didn't have a backup plan.

I would advise against using and relying on Blogger for income since they can and will shut you down without providing a reason.

Just my 2 cents.

--

Thanks, Jim. I think your tip is worth a lot more than 2 cents.

Don't base your whole business on one industry, one bit of free software, one affiliate program, one web host, one affiliate network, one website, one web-based system... The history of affiliate marketing warns us that failing to diversify is risky.

So if you use the tips in Rob Benwell's Blogging to the Bank - http://www.AssociatePrograms.com/blogging - you might want to also follow Jim's example and try WordPress.

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4. Has Google created an invitation to spammers?
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I hope I'm wrong, but I think there's a serious flaw in Google's new Google Page Creator. To me, it looks like an open invitation to spammers.

I explain why in a post on our affiliate forum:

http://www.AssociatePrograms.com/discus/ftopic16553.html

Please tell me I'm wrong, someone.

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5. User-generated content: multi-million-dollar deals
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We all know that if you target a small niche, you'll have a better chance of being successful.

However, if you like thinking big look at the way media companies are paying millions for online businesses.

Here are three recent examples:

• News Corp bought MySpace and other sites for $580 million.
• NBC Universal is buying iVillage, which operates websites for women, for about $600 million.
• Fairfax has bought TradeMe, New Zealand's main auction site, for $NZ700 million (about $US460 million). Sam Morgan set it up in 1999 at the age of 23.

These multi-million-dollar deals have one very important factor in common. The sites being bought all have user-generated content.

They've all figured out how to generate enormous revenues by encouraging other people to create website content for them.

Here are more signs of the user-generated content trend...

Yahoo! has snapped up Flickr and del.icio.us.

If you've been ignoring user-generated content, perhaps now's the time to look into it.

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6. Where to get more info on user-generated content
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If you want some powerful ideas on user-generated content (and whole lot more delicious stuff), I know just the place.

I strongly recommend to get the superb report and video which John Reese is giving away.

It's superb, thought-provoking stuff. It will set your mind buzzing with ideas.

Getting other people to create your website content for you is one of the main topics in the Reese report he's giving away.

John Reese is far from ordinary. It takes very special qualities to organize a million-dollar sales day.

If you subscribe to his newsletter, you'll learn about something even more intriguing - how he spent about 120 hours setting up what he calls a "little side business".

In just over a year, it has generated 17.1 million page impressions and $526,744 in AdSense revenue, with NO advertising.

He calls it "virtual real estate". I call it mouth-watering.

His newsletter subscribers receive all the juicy details. This is absolutely must-have information for affiliates.

John's newsletter is expensive. But so is getting your ideas and information from people who don't know what they're talking about. I regard his newsletter as an absolutely essential investment. I'm a subscriber.

Get a sample.

Try the report and video he's giving away...

[UPDATE: John plans to stop publishing the Reese Report so he can concentrate on a bigger project.]

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7. Thought for today: An investment
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"An investment in knowledge always pays the best interest." - Benjamin Franklin.

All the best

Allan Gardyne