Have you ever wanted to submit how-to articles to various websites, but you haven't had the time, or were even sure how to do it? Well here's a shortcut that's so easy, you won't make any more make excuses.

The website is called Top7Business.com, a business-focused article site that only accepts articles in what is call a "tip sheet" format. The outline is simple:

• A title that begins with "Top 7 _______________" 
• An introductory paragraph 
• 7 short tips or strategies, numbered 
• An author resource box that includes your URL and other valuable contact information for people who want to contact you to speak to their group,hire you as a consultant, or write more articles for their newsletters.

For the Top7Business.com site, they want business-oriented articles that are a collection of 7 tips, secrets or strategies that fit one of these categories:


Success tips 
Cool quotes 
Leadership 
Energy 
Vision 
Attraction strategies 
Innovation 
Management 
Personnel strategies 
Customer service 
Time mastery 
Self-improvement 
Selling tips 
Marketing 
Advertising 
Public relations 
Pricing strategies 
Negotiation 
Presentation tips 
Wealth building/Finances 
Email strategies 
Search engine secrets 
Web techniques 
Internet tips 
Computer suggestions 

To learn how to submit a set of "tips" go to their website and click on their guidelines. Easy to follow and quick to do!

Once you've submitted one or more, you'll be amazed at how easy it is. And you can even use that tip sheet as the basis for a longer how-to article.

This is the easiest format I have ever seen. Come on storytellers and speakers...let's show the world what we know!

You may have a new website you want to get indexed with the various search engines at the soonest possible time.  Or you may have an existing website which you want to position well in the search engine results.  Or you may have a good performing website which you want to remain competitive.  Whatever your reason may be, you’re sure to benefit from the blog and ping combo.

Now, you may have heard or read about this before, but your never realized how it works.  Or this may be the first time you have been acquainted with this surefire technique.  Regardless, much can be learned from this article as we discuss the basics and the mechanics of the blog and ping strategy.

It All Starts With A Blog

Web logs, or blogs as people have fondly referred to them in recent years, were originally designed for social purposes.  People used it as online diaries where they could post their thoughts, the events of their days, their secret desires and the likes.  But blogs possessed some very special qualities that internet marketers found hard to dismiss.

• Blogs figure prominently in search engine results.  The first few pages of some queries would yield many blogs occupying premium spots.
• Blogs are basically free web publishing tools.  A little tweaking and it could become a website of its own.
• Blogs are easy to update.  Just press EDIT or PUBLISH and you’d have new content in a flash.  No need to change the source code.  The system will easily take care of that.
• Blogs have their own communities.  Bloggers often link with one another.  This is a level of connectivity that is pretty hard to come by in other mediums.

Hence, online businessmen started using blogs for marketing purposes.

The strategy goes like this: 

1. Create a blog dedicated to the subject your main website is catering to.  Preferably, you should create an account with www.blogger.com , because this service is owned by Google, the most widely used search engine in the World Wide Web.
2. Post regularly, and include a link to your website in majority of your messages.  Also include your links with popular keywords as anchor texts.
3. Include a link to your own website on the navigation bar.
4. .Just to emphasize – you have to post REGULARLY.  This means at least every other day.  No sweat, though.  Short posts of 200 words in length would be enough.

t’s About RSS As Well

Blogs produce RSS feeds.  RSS stands for Real Simple Syndication, a technology that would allow you to broadcast any changes on your blog to subscribed systems.  This is actually the heart of the blog-ping combo.  You have to learn how to syndicate your RSS feeds.

If you’re using blogger, it’s easy.  Take your blog’s URL.  For example, it is:

www.thisisyourblog.blogspot.com

Now, all you have to do is to add the extension atom.xml.  So, it should appear like this:

www.thisisyourblog.blogspot.com/atom.xml

This is the URL of your RSS feeds.

Now you need an RSS aggregator somewhere which could pick up your RSS feeds.  Preferably, it is a website that can be easily crawled by search engine spiders.  The perfect spot for this is www.my.yahoo.com .  Simply create a Yahoo account, then go to the said page.  Find the ADD RSS button, then press on the same.  Then paste the URL of your RSS feeds.

Every time you’d update your blog, RSS feeds would be generated and displayed in www.my.yahoo.com .

Now It’s Time To The Ping

Once your www.my.yahoo.com is set up, every time you’d post a new entry on your blog, you’ll have to go to www.pingomatic.com .  Fill up the appropriate fields, then submit.  This will inform a lot of blog directories that your blog has new entries.  And this would drive the search engine spiders on a feeding frenzy.  It’ll be a reminder for them to check out your blog come the next relevant query.

Again, you have to do this every time you will post a new entry.  No exceptions!

How powerful is the blog-ping combo?

Your new website will get indexed in Yahoo within 5 days.  This is guaranteed!  And with Yahoo picking up your website, and with www.blogger.com being owned by Google, it wouldn’t be long until the world’s most widely used search engine would index your new website as well.

And if the blog-ping combo could do this for new websites, just think of the possibilities it could provide for older ones.  Fantastic, isn’t it?

We all know that content is king on the internet.  The maxim has been cited so many times that it has already become a cliché.  Well, it has become a cliché because it’s true.  The internet IS the information superhighway.  The processes in the World Wide Web are fueled by information.  Users search for it.  Web publishers provide it.  And when you could give the information that people want, then you’re in business.  Whether your online endeavor is based on Pay Per Click (PPC) programs or the sale of digital products, quality content will drive people to your pages.

Indeed, content is your best investment for your online enterprise.  But preparing unique, premium content is often not enough.  You must strive to regularly update your content so that the search engine spiders would constantly crawl through your pages and fetch them for every relevant query.  This is the key to good search engine placement.  It is very effective… 

 but it is also very demanding.

Writing good content is taxing enough.  Having to write the same on a regular basis could be difficult.  Having to write the same on a regular basis for several websites could be hellish.  Surely, there must be an alternative or two which could spare you from having to write your own content to update your website and win the favor of the search engine spiders, right?

Well, here are five fantastic alternatives that not a lot of people are employing.  Knowing them alone could give you the edge over your competitors in the race for good search engine positioning.

1.Try RSS.  RSS, which stands for Real Simple Syndication, is a technology that was first used by news wire services online.  RSS allows users to display specific files every time they are uploaded on a source website.  If website A, for example, generates RSS feeds to announce new articles uploaded to its server, and websites B, C, D and E are subscribed to website A’s RSS feeds, they could display the said feeds on their desktop via an RSS aggregator.  For online marketing purposes, these RSS feeds can also be displayed on your web pages.  All you need is to download some programs that would enable you to do this.  Make sure that you get an RSS-to-HTML reader, so that the RSS feeds you will display on your pages can be readable for the search engine spiders.  Afterwards, all you have to do is to subscribe to an appropriate RSS feed, and every time the source website would post new content, you’ll be able to display the same on your own website.

2.Create your own forum.  Online users normally gravitate towards forums that are dedicated to their own passions.  If your website has an attached forum, you’d be able to invite your visitors to sign up with the same.  They’ll be left to their own devices.  They’ll create threads about matters they are interested with.  They will pots messages to their hearts’ liking.  And you will have a virtual well of constantly updating content, without having to type a single word!

3.Integrate a feedback manager.  If you’re posting articles as content, then you might want to include a feedback system for the same.  This would enable your readers to leave their comments below the said article.  Basically, your article would serve as the catalyst for content that will continuously be added by interested readers who want to share their piece of mind on what you have posted.

4.Run a contest.  Offering a prize for the visitor who submits the most engaging article relevant to the subject of your website, for example, would encourage a lot of people to submit entries that you could use as your own content.  Just remember that your contest rules should include a term which states that submitted entries can be published on your website as a condition to their inclusion in the contest proper.

5.Run a mini-article directory.  Try to visit www.ezinearticles.com or www.goarticles.com .  See how these websites ensure for themselves an abundant supply of great content?  Simply follow their model, and implement the same on your website, even if it would be on a downgraded level.  You’d be able to guarantee for yourself a good flow of new content!