So the first question is:

What do you want from an article directory?

• One of the things you want is high-quality back links. There’s no point in having a back link from a low quality site, in fact according to Google it may even be possible to harm your site with a really bad back link. However, I don’t think we need to worry about that from many article directories. In addition if no-one visits the article directory then any article there is unlikely to get syndicated, so there will be no back links for reprinting.
• Another thing you want from an article directory is qualified traffic to your own website. To get that qualified traffic you need the article directory itself to rank well with Google. Which leads us quite nicely to my next question:

What will Google be looking for in 2009

The latest buzzword from Google is “user experience“. Google got to the top of the search engine pile by providing the best results. That’s also how they’re aiming to stay there. Whilst they won’t reveal the secrets behind their search engine rankings they do tell us a lot about the sort of things are looking for. Right now they’re looking for a good user experience.

There has been a lot written about the mechanics of the Google search engine. But unless you actually work for Google most of it is just speculation, so let’s take a commonsense approach.

What makes a good user experience

As far as I can tell there are two major parts to a good user experience.

What your page looks like

Whilst it is true that the Google search engine is basically a robot, which means it can’t actually look at a page in the same way human does, it still has humans programming it, clever humans! So whilst Google won’t decide that your colour scheme is bad or that it doesn’t like the look of your graphics, it will still be analysing the “look” of your page.

Google will have ideas about things like the amount of advertising on a page, the amount of graphics on a page, the amount of multimedia on a page, the amount of links on the page, and, of course, the amount of actual content on your page. They are going to have some way of measuring all of these things and deciding what balance gives a good user experience.

What the content of your page is like

This is where the quality content debate comes in. Whilst Google may not be able to tell if you actually know what you’re writing about, they will have other things that will tell them, or at least give them a good idea, if your content is any good. If people are only on your page for a couple of seconds Google will conclude that your article is rubbish. Google will also be able to look at things like spelling, and grammar.

There are also of whole host of minor considerations, such as where the links on your page lead to.

So now we have an idea of the sort of thing Google may be looking for let’s have a look at some article directories.

Ezine Articles

Ezine articles is the undisputed king of article directories. Every serious article marketer submits their articles to ezine articles. I doubt very much that they are going to topple from the top in the next year.

However, ezine articles are beginning to show the disadvantages of that size. They have a crop of new editors, and as they grow they are only going to need more new editors, and some of those new editors are a little trigger-happy. They also have to have a whole crop of people whose job it is to make sure that their system isn’t gamed, and another crop of people to keep the basic infrastructure going. But do remember that as the largest article directory they get tons of junk submissions every day so you have to feel some sympathy for their editors!

Looking at the content half of a good user experience, ezine articles has tightened its standards a lot recently. Many articles that were accepted in the past will no longer be accepted today. They seemed to have a number of petty rules, such as how money words you may including anchor text (that’s the clickable bit of text when you include a link). But they are also tightening up on spelling, grammar and basic English. They have rules about where your links may point, delivering on the promise made in your article title and many subjects that they won’t allow you to write on.

But, and this could be where ezine articles will face the stiffest competition. The look of an ezine articles page is terrible! The actual article seems to be put into the page as an afterthought, in between all the ad sense ads. Each article page is cluttered with these ads, and navigation links, the article is just squeezed in. The only graphics the ezine articles header, and possibly a banner advert. Ezine articles do not allow you to add pictures, videos, multimedia or anything but the most basic commands such as bold and italics to add interest to your article.

I’m sure ezine articles will address this in the future, they have to. But don’t expect this to be a speedy process. Ezine articles spends a lot of time making sure that its pages are compatible with a lot of out of date browsers, so adding things like pictures and multimedia will be challenging.

Ezine articles does seem to have taken note of the need to provide a good user experience, but so far they are focusing on what content authors bring to the table, and neglecting what they bring to the table. It’s for this reason that I expect ezine articles to face some serious competition over the next year, and if they don’t react fast enough they may be tumbled from the top.

• Ezine Articles Submission Guidelines
• Sign up for ezine articles membership

Buzzle

Buzzle has been quietly sneaking up the rankings. You don’t get such quick traffic as you do from ezine articles, but I have noticed that in some niches you actually get more article views from Buzzle than you do from ezine articles.

Buzzle is a little bit different from the traditional article directory. They don’t allow syndication of articles. So you won’t find your article from Buzzle repeated elsewhere. In addition Buzzle also insists that articles submitted to them are completely original. And something that I find highly annoying, if they reject your article they simply delete it, no friendly e-mail, no chance to resubmit.

However, Buzzle does keep up with the changes on what Google is looking for, they have tightened up their guidelines, and they have recently started accepting an image for each article.

It can take a while to become an author for Buzzle, as part of the application process is to submit a sample of your writing, which is then reviewed by their staff. They also warn you that if they continue to reject your articles then your account will be cancelled.

I can see Buzzle becoming a serious competitor to ezine articles.

• Buzzle submission guidelines (This may be available only if you are signed in as an author)

• Sign up for Buzzle membership

Website-articles.net

This article directory is really an article marketer’s club – with a directory attached. The main draw here is the information shared with the members. There is a monthly newsletter, a private forum, and regular updates from the owner about what’s going on in the world of article marketing and article writing, and insights he has gained from watching the statistics of an active article directory. As an example, there has been a recent posting on how to use keywords in article titles, and what format is getting the best article view rates. I’d love to share, but the members of this site are sworn to secrecy!

A number of people are put off by the $10 a month charge for being a member. I am very happy about this. It keeps the dilettantes and spammers away! This means that the owner of the directory does not have to spend time every day wading through crappy articles that were not worth submitting in the first place, and that he certainly won’t be approving for publication. Instead he can spend his day approving articles, and in a rare instance that he can’t approve an article sending a decent e-mail telling you how to correct it so that he can approve it. He can also spend his time improving the directory.

The article pages in this directory are a joy to look at, there is no advertising, and the article takes centre stage. The article can include things like video, audio and especially pictures.

The owner here is in regular communication with his members to find out their ideas and where possible to implement them. This owner is the biggest asset to the article directory, he is actively working to improve it and get a good Google ranking. Being an active article marketer too he can see the perspective from both sides of the fence.

This directory is small now, but it also has a cap on membership. This directory is providing an excellent user experience, both in the look of the page and content on a page. This directory will provide a serious challenger to Buzzle and ezine articles.

• website articles submission guidelines (These are currently under review as what is permitted in each article is under review and new features are added)
• Sign up for website articles membership

Searchwarp

Searchwarp is more of a community with an attached article directory. As such it is stamping down on articles that are too commercial. Its submission guidelines make it very clear that the purpose of each article is not to sell anything. And they also exclude a number of categories such as credit cards, gambling, affiliate marketing programmes and pharmaceuticals.

Despite, or perhaps because of this, this directory is ranking quite well. In addition this directory allows you to include an image with your article.

If you can fit your article into their guidelines than they are a good source of traffic, and their popularity with Google is rising.

• Searchwarp submission guidelines
• Sign up for Searchwarp membership

There are a few other article directories that are currently providing me with traffic. However, all they offer is a basic text article without the ability to add images or multimedia. I am watching them carefully to see how they adapt to the demands of the market.

• Go Articles

• Article Dashboard

• Amazines

• Articles Base

About My Articles

When I sit down to write articles I usually write them in sets of between five and 20 articles (usually between 10 and 15).  I use mind maps to help me organise my research and outline my articles.  I then use Dragon NaturallySpeaking to actually write the article, and finally I use the ubiquitous word to edit it.  My articles are usually in the 500 to 600 word range.  This is how I do it, I hope it’s helpful for you.  But mind mapping isn’t for everyone, some people just find it more trouble than it’s worth.  So take from this article what you can use and ignore the rest.

The Research

If it’s a subject I already know well I can mainly skip the very first part of the research and move straight on to titles.  If I’m writing about a subject I’ve recently written about them I can just pull up my research map.

For a subject that is new to me I open up a blank mind map and title it with my subject.  Then I go to Google and start my research.  Whenever I find a useful website I copy its  address into the mind map, for every branch of the mind map there is a note section — which is one of the reasons I use a mind map rather than simply bookmarking sites.  As I start to see subtopics then I can add branches to my mind map for these and organise each website into an appropriate branch.

This means that at a glance I can see how much information I have for each sub topic, what the subtopics are, and where I need to do more research.

Then The Titles

Once I have a grasp of the subject I will open up a new mind map that will form the basis of my outlines for actually writing the articles.  The title of my mind map will of course be the subject.  Then I will think of my titles.  I have a titles swipe file, templates swipe file, and of course my research to help me find suitable titles.

One of my favourite resources at this stage is my templates swipe file.  I have a mind map whose initial branches titles and whose sub branches are subtitles or parts of the article.  Four example a sample title will be “Don’t Make These (Blank) Mistakes In (Blank)”.  This will then have some branches of :

• introduction
• mistake one
  • About the mistake
  • Why it is a mistake
  • What you should be doing instead
• mistake two
  • About the mistake
  • Why it is a mistake
  • What you should be doing instead
• mistake three
  • About the mistake
  • Why it is a mistake
  • What you should be doing instead
• conclusion.

I can simply copy this branch over to my subject map and fill in the blanks.

Now The Subtitles

As soon as I’ve got all the titles and templates that I want I can look at each article individually and fill in its subheadings.  I should be able to fill in the subheadings from the research that I’ve already done, or because they come from one of my templates swipe files.  This is usually a very quick part of the process.  I know what I want to say in the article — because of the title.  A lot of my articles will be from templates so while I will need to do is fill in the blanks for the sub heads.

Final Bit Of Research — The Notes

A subject I know well, or that I find very simple I probably won’t need to make any more notes.  I will be able to go straight to writing the article at this stage.

If I don’t know the article well I will probably go into the notes section each sub branch, look at my research notes and make a few notes of my own stop I usually do this in bullet points format, after all it’s just from me.

Onto The Writing

Once I have all my articles and outlined I then export the mind map into word.  I then simply print it off, fire at Dragon NaturallySpeaking and write my articles.  Then I can edit them in word and have a finished article.

So there you have it that is how I do it.  If you have any comments, need any more explanations, or just want to tell me how wonderful I am please leave me a message in the comments and I’ll get back to you as soon as I can.  I hope you found this helpful. If you want to follow me on twitter

The International Monetary Fund says that Irish house prices are overvalued by 30%, which is a frighteningly high figure. The governor of the Central bank disagrees, he says: “the recent falls have brought prices back to realistic levels.” The National Irish bank says in its quarterly report: “house prices have almost ‘bottomed out‘ and that sales activity will return to normal in the second half of the year.” But then when you look at the actions of mortgage lenders, you can see that they are thinking houses are currently over valued. So who should you believe?

I talked to a friend of mine – an estate agent, he says that when a property comes in it either goes out again so fast they barely have time to print the details – or it sits on the books for months. The properties that are selling like hot cakes are of two main types:

The most popular type is a property that can be significantly improved or extended, there are lots of property developers out there and they like these, as they can quickly do the improvements and re-sell the house. Which brings us to the second type of property that is selling quickly – houses that are in good shape ready to move into (such as those just improved by a developer) so I heartily recommend those books on how to make your home attractive to potential buyers.

I also asked about new builds, these seem to be making mortgage lenders very jumpy right now. My friend told me that the ultra luxury (as in million plus) and the just more than starter level (2 bed 2 bath), are selling even before show homes are finished.

Then there is location to consider. Some of the more expensive areas of the country (South County Dublin and Wicklow for example) have seen large price drops. However in Galway city prices have recently increased!

But what does this mean? Will house prices fall further? I am going to be frustratingly unhelpful and say – it depends on the property and on the area! The discussion above is just broad brush strokes. After all demand for housing is still rising. If you are a property investor then there are turbulent times ahead between house prices and mortgage lenders. But if you are looking for a home to live in for a while, now might be a good time to pick up a bargain. But be cautious, don’t plan on buying with the smallest deposit you can right now – and hope to re-mortgage in a few years. That is a risky tactic right now. Buy a home you want to live in.

And above all get a professional to help you with the mortgage, you will need every advantage you can get.

• The history of your credit payments
• The amounts your owe on lines of credit
• How long you have had credit accounts
• How much new credit you have and have applied for
• Which types of credit you have

First Steps To Repairing Credit

The very first thing to do is get a copy of your credit report. With that information you will be able to tell where you stand. A significant proportion of credit reports contain errors. There may also be negative entries that you can get removed – and you want to make sure that all the positive things are being reported.
Choosing a Credit Repair Kit or a Credit Repair Company

Take a look at your credit report – are there positive things on it? How many negative things are on it that need removing? How many debts that you are still paying are on your report.

Essentially if your credit report looks fairly simple and you have the time and patience then you need to get a good kit. A good Credit Repair kit will educate you about credit scoring and credit repair and give you all the letters you need and guidance about when and how to use them.

If it looks as if you have more complicated problems, which could include debts still to be paid then you may be better off with a credit repair company. Reputable companies will offer you a free consultation to start with so that they can tell you how much they can help you. A good company can also negotiate on your behalf with creditors for reduced payments and lower interest rates.

So the choice is yours. If you are confident that you can deal with it yourself then get a good credit repair kit. If you have complex problems – or simply lack the time and patience then hire a company.

There are two components to great abs, the first is to exercise efficiently:

• Resistance or weight training is where you should spend most of your time.
• Focus more on free weights rather than machines that do half the work for you.
• Use exercises that work multiple muscle groups for the best effect.
• Keep to short and intense workouts
• For the cardio portion of your work out do things like interval training.
• Work out every other day so that you can maximise recovery

The second component to sexy abs is to reduce the layer of fat carried over the abs, these healthy eating tips will help with fat loss.

• At every meal eat a small portion of lean protein.

• Try and make most of your food choices those that are low on the glycemic index.
• Plan your meals ahead of time and when shopping for the ingredients remember not to shop on a full stomach.
• Whilst gaining muscle follow a diet designed to lose 1-2 pounds per week, so that your total fat loss is in the region of 2-3 pounds per week.

These tips will help you to get sexy 6 pack abs quickly. In addition you will have more energy and fell better about yourself – making it easier to maintain a busy lifestyle.

The first step in using a food diary to help in weight loss is to keep a good diary. Use these columns:

• Time
• Food and / or drink
• Where and with who
• Feelings

When a food diary is first used the benefits will start right away. A food diary encourages a focus on food, simple knowledge that anything eaten will be written down will often mean that more thought is given before eating. Binges can be stopped before they start, and healthy choices are often made in the knowledge that it will all be written down. Thinking about food also stops those times when we almost unconsciously reach for a candy or a cookie.

Keeping a diary is also a regular affirmation that you are eating in a healthy way, every time a diary entry is made it motivates and reinforces the desire to lose weight through healthy eating.

As the food diary is used even more benefits appear. A health care provider or dietician can look at the diary and make recommendations, not just about specific weight loss issues but also about general health, what you are eating may be impacting your health in other ways.

A food diary can also be used to track your progress, you can see evidence of how much healthier your diet has become, it can also act as a motivator to see that you are eating better today than you were some time ago.

The food diary also helps to look at the reality of the food choices that you make, it is often said that the first step to correcting a problem is acknowledging that it exists in the first place. Looking at a food diary will show where the problem areas are and allow you to acknowledge them.

Analysis of the food diary will also provide valuable insights, and so give you new areas to improve and refine your weight loss efforts.

You can analyze the diary to check that you are getting the right proportions of fat, protein and carbohydrate. It is important to eat a balanced diet especially when dieting. You can also check for vitamin, mineral and other nutrient intake and start taking supplements if necessary or just adjust your meals.

One of the biggest benefits of keeping a food diary and analysing it is the ability to find your “bad choice” triggers. Once you know what causes you to overeat or reach for a mega chocolate bar then you can take action to either remove the trigger form your life or learn to deal with it in a way other than through food.

Persevere with keeping a food diary, in the beginning it may seem like a lot of trouble for little gain. But this is a proven strategy and the benefits build over time.

So please ignore the mess while I get started and if you want to hire me – or contact me then please use the contact form – to the left.

Thanks