I am forever grateful that Jennifer has allowed me to share my Internet marketing "tips and tricks" with Search Engine Guide readers. It is an honor to have my writings published next to articles by people like Jill who I've read since I was an SEO newbie. Based upon the reader feedback I've received, folks seem to have learned something from my ramblings which is quite rewarding for me.

But, as someone in the business of selling Internet marketing services, I also am concerned with maximizing the value of each article for my own business. In other words, how can I increase the number of potential prospects who read my articles?

Publication of my articles at Search Engine Guide is only the first step of capitalizing on each article's lead generation potential. Over time, I have developed a multi-step process for ensuring that each of my sales messages is seen by the widest number of potential prospects.

1. Article gets published at Search Engine Guide. I don't do anything until this happens.
2. Article gets posted on company website. Nothing earth-shattering here...but I am amazed how many article writers don't do this.
3. Use Tristana Writer to create RSS Feed of article and place the feed on company website. Use RSS Submit to submit the RSS Feed to several dozen RSS Feed Directories. To be sure, RSS is the new frontier for website promotion. My logs tell the story...submitting your web feed widely will bring solid traffic to your website. Not bad for a step that might take 3 minutes to complete.
4. Create press releases announcing publication of my article in Search Engine Guide.

a. PRWeb Still the "Big Daddy" of press release sites. Many of the press releases that I submit here get in excess of 100,000 reads through their extensive network. They do accept free press releases...however, I have found that to get optimum results, you need to contribute at the $40 level. I don't know whether the features available at their "Basic," "Eyecaster", or "SEO Tools" levels are worth the expense.

b. PRLeap Certainly not as popular as PRWeb...but I have found that when I check the search engines for my press releases, I see PRLeap results as often as I see them on PRWeb. Like PRWeb, you can submit your releases for free or pay for preferred placement. PRLeap gives preference to the top 30 press releases each day...I have learned that if I push my release out several days, I can get into the top 30 without paying. I assume that's not going to go on much longer.

c. Arrivenet The newest entry in effective press release sites. For converting visitors, I find Arrivenet to be on par with PRLeap and behind PRWeb. However, one beneficial feature of Arrivenet is that you have the option of deviating from the typical "press release format". PRWeb and PRLeap will bounce press releases that they feel are too sales-oriented. Arrivenet seems to run anything that I send them. In fact, they will run not only the press release, but the article too. All press releases are free, though you can pay for embedded text links within your release...I have yet to do this. Arrivenet releases also do well in the search engines.

5. Submit Articles to Article Submission Sites. I admit I didn't turn on to this until the Jagger update. I should have. Article submission brings me both targeted traffic and non-reciprocal on-topic inbound links. I believe that article submission will be the top white-hat SEO technique of 2006.

a. Ezine Articles Andy Hagans blog post about Ezine Articles is an excellent argument for why this is a superior site. My Ezine Articles page ranks very high in the SERPS when someone does a Google / Yahoo / MSN on my name, which is further evidence of site strength.

b. Article City This site only produces about 20% of the traffic and conversions of Ezine Articles and I don't like their site submission form...however, it is worth the time and effort to submit my articles here.

To sum up, when you've spent a lot of time crafting an article for lead generation, take a little extra to make sure it's bringing your company maximum visibility.

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