Millions of monthly visitors are able to subscribe via email to receive automatic updates whenever you publish a new article!

One way of judging the popularity of an author is by the number of Article Email Alerts subscribers they have. Below are the top 31 Expert Authors based on their number of subscribers. Their subscribers have stated a clear desire to be automatically notified via email each time that author publishes a new article.

The Top 31 Leaders (listed by number of subscribers):

1. Chip Lemin – 99
2. Steven Francesco Simpson – 91
3. Lance Winslow – 83
4. Sean R Mize – 80
5. Elisha Goodman – 70
6. Christopher Knight – 67
7. Pushpa Pal Singh – 57
8. Jeff Herring – 56
9. Karin I Manning – 56
10. Marcy Richards – 49
11. Kathryn Whittaker – 48
12. Michael Russell – 45
13. Mike Geary – 45
14. Tim Gorman – 45
15. Peter Davidoff – 43
16. Davion Wong – 42
17. Derek Rake – 40
18. Fabian Tan – 39
19. Mimi Tanner – 39
20. Jennifer Jolan – 36
21. Charles Johnson – 34
22. Rahul Talwar – 34
23. Thomas Morva – 34
24. Travis Sago – 34
25. Cathy Perkins – 33
26. Ivan Kelly – 33
27. Janet Sweeney – 32
28. Gillian Reynolds – 31
29. Doc Darville – 30
30. George Preston – 30
31. Connie Ragen Green – 28

Altogether we’re managing 21,152 permission-based email subscribers on behalf of our members. Last month we sent 31,816 permission-based emails to promote our members. Find out more.

Wouldn’t you like a bigger piece of that action? Then let your readers know how to get email alerts! And of course come back here to the blog and leave a comment to let us know how it’s working out for you!

Notes:

1) All subscribers are required to double opt-in (also known as “CONFIRM” opt-in).
2) No, we don’t share who these subscribers are with our members.
3) These emails are in addition to the category summary email alerts that go out each day for all 600+ niches we’re in.
4) Last month we sent 2.3 million permission-based emails to the 108k members of our 600 niche category alert summary emails that release currently at 10:30am CST each day.

RSS (also known as XML) stands for Real Simple Syndication and is a way for people interested in certain topics to quickly get new information, news and other good stuff without having to wade through tons of web pages. RSS Pages are not meant for the human eye, but rather for RSS Readers or Aggregators.

Every EzineArticles Expert Author has an RSS feed of their articles, which means if you’re a Member with at least one published article, you have an RSS feed that contains a title, link, description and published date of your articles.

To Access Your RSS Feed:

1. Go to your Expert Author Bio
2. Mouse over this icon
3. Click on this button
4. You’ll be taken to a web page depicting your RSS feed. Copy the URL for that page onto your clipboard.
5. Paste the URL into the appropriate field in your RSS module or plug-in application.
6. For more information, click here.

Most website and blog authoring softwares have RSS capabilities in the form of plug-ins (WordPress), modules (Squidoo) or macros (WebGUI CMS). There are also HTML templates and add-ons like CaRP available online. You’ll need to review the documentation or contact your webmaster for details about how to add RSS to your site.*

There are many different ways you can configure the display of your article feed. But no matter how you do it, you’ll be reaping these benefits:

• Easy access to your most recent articles directly from your site
• Greater exposure and more article views
• Increased credibility as an expert in your niche
• Fresh site content with each new article published

If you’d like to see an example how one Expert Author uses RSS, check out http://www.boomer-ezine.com/Published_Articles.htm

No matter how you slice it, using the EzineArticles RSS feed to promote your own articles just makes sense. If you’re not currently using this powerful tool, go add it to your site today! Then come back here and tell us about it by leaving a comment below.

* Note: Adding RSS feeds to your website requires intermediate-to-advanced web authoring skills and may be too challenging for beginners. EzineArticles Member Support cannot provide support for RSS feed implementation.

Imagine two entrepreneurs – one is the Marketer and one is the Technician. Assuming they’re selling a product or service of comparable quality, which one do you think will be doing better (5) years from now?*

It’s a safe bet that the Marketer will be doing significantly better than the Technician. Why? Because the Marketer is focused on, maybe even obsessed with, identifying the wants and needs of a very well-defined customer. They make sure that their products & services are continually promoted as the solution to those needs & desires.

The Technician, on the other hand, is focused on delivering a quality product or service first and marketing second. This is true even in the quality of their writing. Their attitude is one of: If I build a better mousetrap, the world will beat a path to my door.

If you want to really thrive online, you must understand the battle the Marketers are waging in your niche and work to embrace and/or counter their advantages.

True Marketers are market demand specialists in that they create a market demand for their products and services. Their weapons include an arsenal of metrics, analytics, research, surveys and skillful copywriting. Their battle tactics include plenty of campaign planning and management coupled with fast execution and follow through.

True Technicians are product specialists in that they create and polish a product or service that best suits the needs and desires. Their weapons are limited to the quality of their product or service and the inherent demand that generates. Their battle tactics include product/service improvements, technical innovation, word-of-mouth advertising and genuine expertise.

So let’s look at the difference between how a typical Marketer writes articles versus how a Technician writes articles:

Typical Marketer

• Leaps to quickly quantify the metrics behind how success will be defined
• Determines what specifically must happen in terms of quantity and quality of article production
• Does keyword research to project market size and depth of possible impact
• Plans deployment, syndication and follow-up to ensure the articles in their inventory are an appreciating asset that reflects favorably on their enterprise and brand(s)

Typical Technician

• They will normally do some comprehensive research, and as a result create too many words per article
• They obsess over the proper use of language, spelling, grammar and sentence structure
• They generally produce very high quality articles; which often comes at the price of low article volume and limited marketing impact

It’s fairly obvious that to be truly successful in your online marketing efforts, you need to be a Technician who writes and thinks like a Marketer. You must produce a large quantity of high-quality articles that reflect well on your brand while at the same time dominating your niche using numeric metrics (rather than gut feelings) to advance your market position.

The TECHNICIAN’S Task: Take a fresh look at your article writing & marketing strategies through the eyes of the analytical metrics-driven Marketer. See the building of your article writing inventory as part of a campaign or a series of campaigns designed to achieve very measurable objectives in terms of lead generation and traffic attraction.

The MARKETER’S Task: Give one piece of article writing advice to non-marketer Expert Authors to help them see the world through your marketing eyes. What would you recommend?

* Does this blog post look familiar? It should. It’s a slightly modified version of a post written by Chris back in May of last year. It got a great response then and we felt that with a few tweaks it was even more apropos today. We hope you’ll agree.

A landing page is not your home page – although many business owners believe that it is.

Your landing page is the page that a potential customer gets after clicking on a link in your resource box – or as the result of a search engine link. The page is designed to display content relevant to the article they read (or the keywords they searched for) and is optimized specifically for those keywords or phrases in search engines.

(10) Tips for Creating Smooth, Effective Landing Pages

1. Your landing page needs to be directly relevant to the content your reader just read…ie: the reason they clicked on your link. This may seem obvious, but you’d be surprised how many people write about yoga, and then send their readers to a landing page on debt consolidation!
   
   
2. Create more than one landing page. If you only have one product or service to sell, then you can optimize your home page to accomplish your goals. However, if you have more than one book, report, CD, service or other thingamabobber to sell, then you’ll want a page for each category – or each item.

   You must make sure that the content on each of these pages is unique! Don’t just change a few words here or there. Don’t duplicate – or you may not get the listing in search engines that you’re looking for.
   

3. Don’t skimp on design. Nothing tells a visitor to surf on more than a web site with a poor or dated design. If your site looks like it was created with HTML 2.0 then most likely your reader is going to assume either a.) your technology and ordering platform is not safe or b.) you are behind the times and should be hawking encyclopedias door-to-door rather than selling online.

   Unfortunately, you can judge a book by its cover, particularly on the Internet and you’ll lose conversions if you don’t look the part.

   But before you spend thousands on new web design, remember that function comes first – and a functional and clean site will work well for anyone. Keep the design clean and the functionality will speak for itself.

   It’s WAY more important to have a working order or newsletter sign-up form, than a Flash video on your landing page.
   

4. Demand action! OK, well, at least call for it – nicely, but firmly. You want your call to action to be noticeable and exciting, but not annoying. Think of your call to action like a toddler. You want to say “Can I have some ice cream, pretty please?” and look adorable while your asking – rather than the much more annoying and whiney, “Gimme some, gimme some, gimme some now!” (Think Veruca Salt in Charlie and the Chocolate Factory).
   
   
5. Be clear. Make your call to action readable, simple and powerful. Offer something in return. Use large text – but not obnoxiously large. Use a font that is clear and in a color that contrasts with the rest of the page. Use images to break up the text, but not so many that the content is lost.
   
   
6. Break it up. Put your most important information up top and break up supporting points into a bulleted or numbered list.
   
   
7. Make the sale. Try not to send your visitor to another page unless you have to. Make the sale right there. If you’re looking for newsletter sign-ups or registrations, put the text field right there in front of them. If you want them to buy now, start that process. You can always send them more links and information after you put the money in the drawer!
   
   
8. Keep it simple! Don’t put all of your options on your one landing page. If you have different plans or customizations – save them for later. Your goal right now is to inform and convert your visitor – confusing them with different plans and options will only make them surf on.
   
   
9. Get physical! OK, well maybe not physical, but interactive at least. Create a landing page that gets your viewer doing something. Have them sign-up for something, follow you on Twitter, friend you on Facebook or order your product!
   
   
10. Testify! Have some great testimonials? This is where to use them. Engender trust and respect from your viewer by showing them other customers’ (good) opinions of you.

Remember that landing pages need to be integrated into your overall site structure so that they can be organically searched and indexed.

Utilize some of these tips (not all will apply to every landing page) on your new landing page(s) and let us know what’s working for you. Have another way to give your readers a smooth landing experience and convert visitors into customers? Leave a comment and let us know!

Do you know where you’re going? Can you see the future for your business? Did you know you can build your article marketing campaign to not just reflect your vision but to build to it?

Take a drug store giant like Walgreen’s, for example. Their marketing strategy through the years has been to find high-traffic corners and take control of their area. Any competitor must compensate for their own lack of superior real estate. This has been Walgreen’s way to preemptively position themselves for success in almost every target market. They have a vision for themselves and they build to it.

By making yourself the only choice in your niche – and putting your product or service on a higher level than your competitors – you automatically elevate not only yourself but your customer base.

• Don’t assume that anyone else owns your corner. They may be louder than you right now, but they may not have the service or products necessary to back up the position. Get going and follow through, you may get your corner after all.
• Cover all aspects of your business. This is often missed and is essential. Don’t be an expert in just one aspect of your niche. Make sure you are the go-to person for all of it. And if you don’t know it (yet) make sure you can find it – or get it quickly.
• Think of your articles like a guidebook directing your reader directly to your business. Decide what to lead with and build on each article with new aspects and ideas that will keep your brand in your readers’ mind.
• Use your uniqueness. Have a tagline or headline that is particularly popular? Use it for the title of a book or blog. Use it over and over (it’s yours after all) and get it known.
• Say it – and then be it. When Federal Express said, “When it absolutely, positively has to be there overnight,” all anyone else could say was “Us too!” Own your niche – don’t be a “me too!”
• Most don’t have your resolve. Succeeding in article writing & marketing, just like in business itself, takes continuous action over the long-haul. Don’t assume your competitors (even if they are #1 right now) have the same long-term resolve that you do. Keep at it till you are #1!

Remember that even though a competitor may offer a quality that you possess – if you claim it and make it your own, you will preempt them in your niche.

Now take some time to develop and/or review your article marketing plan. Does it a provide a clear path to claiming your corner? Does it capitalize on your uniqueness? Does it put you ahead of the competition in your niche? If not, it may be time to reevaluate your strategy and develop a new plan.

You’ve probably heard the terms “Author Photo”, “Author Bio”, and “Extended Author Bio”. What you might not know is the astonishing value these items can provide, or more specifically, how a great Extended Author Bio can increase the success of your article marketing campaign.

Watch this short video to discover the benefits of an Extended Author Bio and how to create one that really works.

Downloadable Versions:
           

In a nutshell, use your Extended Author Bio to give your readers:

• More Information About You and Your Company
• Social Networking Links
• Website/Blog URL’s
• Links to Products You’re Selling

(3) Easy Steps to Creating an Extended Author Bio:

1. Log into your account
2. Upload an Author Photo [learn how]
3. Fill out the Author Bio Form [learn how]

Bottom Line: The links in your Extended Author Bio are FREE links that can potentially increase your social networking reach and traffic to your website or blog. This process takes a minimal amount of work, yet will help maximize the amount of traffic you receive through the EzineArticles system.

Remember: Many other EzineArticles features require you to have an Author Photo and an Extended Author Bio.

Check out all of the EzineArticles videos on our video archive page at http://EzineArticles.com/videos/

If you missed our July 1st #HAHD Celebration Teleseminar yesterday… here’s the replay:

[Download the MP3] (56 minutes / 19MB)
(Sorry, no transcript available.)

If you participated and completed the HAHD challenge, here’s how to claim your mug.

Answer: Any article for which you do not own the exclusive rights to the content.

As you can probably guess by the title, we’re not overly fond of Private Label Rights content. That’s because the typical PLR scenarios look something like this:

• An author will buy a PLR article pack and submit it as his or her own…
• Or, an author will try to rewrite PLR content and submit it as his or her own…
• Or, they will buy content from a ghostwriter and not triple check the content for originality, only to find out later it’s not original.

This happens far too often and we’ve expended an enormous amount of effort to tag, identify, and not accept this type of content.

As a matter of fact, we feel so strongly about PLR articles that we don’t even allow them to be promoted in our members’ articles. Here’s what the EzineArticles Editorial Guidelines have to say about the matter:

1) i. MUST NOT contain information on: …the promotion of Private Label Rights articles as a good thing (it’s not)…

What’s OK:

• If an article talks about purchasing PLR or resell rights and creating e-books without any reference to article marketing/writing/re-writing or distribution.
• If an article talks about purchasing PLR or resell rights on an e-book and promoting that e-book without any reference to article marketing/writing/re-writing or distribution.
• If an article explains OTHER uses for PLR or resell rights without any reference to article marketing/writing/re-writing or distribution.
• If an article explains PLR or resell rights as a general topic, and does not include any reference to article marketing/writing/re-writing or distribution as an author’s original work.

What’s NOT OK:

• If an article is promoting the use of PLR or resell rights for article writing, re-writing, or distribution as an author’s original work, and as a good thing, it WILL BE rejected. – this is NOT OK. You must submit work that is 100% exclusively owned by you.
• If an article talks about purchasing PLR or resell rights to an e-book and breaking it up for article distribution as an author’s original work – this is NOT OK.

We have a tight automated system in place that continues to feed us information, provides details, and continues to clean out suspect content daily/weekly/monthly. If you did get a PLR article to pass, it won’t be alive for long. In addition, our relationship with you won’t be long-lived either as we terminate accounts that practice this.

(3) Steps to Avoiding the PLR pitfall:

1. Do NOT buy articles from PLR article packs.
2. Do NOT spin your articles with content rewriting software.
3. Submit ONLY 100% ORIGINAL CONTENT.

Using and promoting PLR articles may [falsely] seem like the perfect way to generate a large number of articles quickly…

The downside is that these articles are inherently useless and dangerous. They will NOT be approved by EzineArticles, they will NOT entice your readers to action and they will NOT deliver traffic to your site. They will, however, COST you money and time, DESTROY your credibility and inevitably cause your membership to be Suspended, Terminated and/or Banned.

Whew! That’s a lot of negativity for one blog post! Please share something positive in the comments. =)

EzineArticles alone is a great place to gain exposure for you and your business, but it also serves as a excellent stepping stone for even more exposure through online distribution. Articles you publish on EzineArticles have a good chance of being picked up and republished by a variety of online publishers.

This stroke of good fortune can significantly increase the size of your audience… provided you haven’t mistakenly done something to limit your articles’ ability to be picked up in the first place.

What to Avoid:

• Using language like “In my other articles on this site” or “here at EzineArticles…”
• Placing a reprint rights statement in your resource box which prohibits distribution. We don’t allow this and will place your article in problem status for being in violation of the reprint rights.
• Writing article parts. Article parts are not distribution friendly and may hurt your chances of being picked up by publishers. Every article should stand alone.
• Adding graphs, charts, or other formatting which are not as easy to reproduce as plain text.
• Using your first article to introduce yourself to the EzineArticles community. Do not say things like, “This is my first article. I am looking forward to writing many more. My future articles will be about…” This doesn’t make sense when published on other sites.
• Writing articles which are 1000’s of words long. Several shorter articles (400-700 words) will outperform one long article (over 1000 words), and are more likely to be picked up by publishers.
• Writing research papers which are stuffed with sources and references. Publishers are looking for you to share your own unique expertise; they may be turned off by an article which looks like it’s only appropriate for a peer-reviewed journal or academic site.
• Writing ‘time sensitive’ articles. Publishers won’t be able to update or change your content, so make sure it is “evergreen.” It should be as useful and informative today as two years from now.

Best Practices:

• Imagine your article will appear on many different sites, and realize you may not always know which sites they are. Use wording which applies to a broad context.
• Imagine your article will be reproduced in many different formats: to websites, blog posts, ezine newsletters, email alerts, or RSS feeds.
• Picture what it will be like to read your article 2 years from now. Does it still deliver the same value?
• Write in ‘plain text’. Rely only on sentences, paragraphs and lists to get your point across. Keep the format simple and make sure the article is easy to reproduce.
• Keep it short (400-700 words) and make sure YOU are the primary source of your unique ideas. Leave the research papers to college students. ;-)
• If you include a reprint rights statement, make sure it adheres to the EzineArticles TOS for Publishers.
• Put yourself in the publisher’s shoes… If you were going to reproduce someone else’s article on your site, what would turn you on/off?

Avoiding these pitfalls and following these best practices won’t guarantee your articles will get picked up by publishers. The content of your article still needs to be fresh, lively and interesting enough to appeal to a larger audience.

What optimizing your articles for republication does do is prevent an otherwise great article from being automatically disqualified before it’s ever given a chance.

Do you use other ways to optimize your articles for easier distribution? Leave a comment to share them with the rest of the EzineArticles community.

EzineArticles is now a “stumbler” at StumbleUpon.com!

It’s no secret that the EzineArticles team spends a LOT of time on the Internet. In the course of any given day we might stumble upon scores of pages that contain a nugget or two of article marketing value.

Some of these nuggets get passed directly on to our members. Other nuggets get distilled into the ingredients for blog posts and newsletters. Still others get tucked away for future reference. Sadly, though, many are lost to a mouse click as we continue to move through our day.

To help prevent the loss of these valuable nuggets of article marketing wisdom, we’ve now become a “stumbler” at StumbleUpon.com. This service allows us to share these nuggets with you and other EzineArticles members. It also allows you to send nuggets to us that we can check out and then share with the rest of the EzineArticles community.

Follow this simple process to see what we’ve stumbled upon:

1. Surf to http://www.stumbleupon.com/stumbler/EzineArticles/
2. Click on a category below the EzineArticles logo (Reviews, Favorites, Photos, Videos or Discoveries)
3. Click to view stumbles that are of interest to you

If you like what you see, you can also…*

• Give us a thumbs up
• Share our stumbles with others
• Read our reviews
• View our friends and subscribers
• Subscribe to our favorites
• Send us a message with your article marketing stumble(s)
• Write an EzineArticles stumbler testimonial
• Send us a friend request

Admittedly, most of our current stumbles will bring you directly back to the EzineArticles site. This will change as we add more and more recently discovered nuggets to the list.

Fun Fact: Did you know that StumbleUpon.com is one of the leading referrers of traffic to your articles on EzineArticles.com? Each month they send tens-of-thousands of visitors to our site.

Do you have any stumbles you’d like to share or thoughts about this concept? Leave a comment and tell us what’s on your mind.

* You may need to become a stumbler to gain access to some of these special features.