What a combination! The best browser Firefox and the multi-blog editor Scribefire is now integrated with the blog post improver Zemanta. Could blogging get any easier?

Scribefire Integrates Zemanta

I just updated Scribefire which is Firefox addon that enables me to post to my blogs without actually logging in and posting in the usual way. Scribefire helps me to post to different blogs easily especially when I am travelling and using my laptop as the logins are entered into this system and so I don't need to keep looking up usernames and passwords.

I also use the Zemanta addon for Firefox . Zemanta enables me to more easily link to related articles so I increase the usefulness of my articles but also points me to videos and pictures I may be able to use to improve them.

Now when I use Scribefire I can still use Zemanta which is great! You can learn more about Scribefire for desktop blog posting here...

And this video on Zemanta and Scribefire will show you how useful Zemanta can be for improving your blog posts.

Zemanta with ScribeFire from zemanta on Vimeo.

Here are some of the related articles that Zemanta offered for this blog post. You can see why I'm a fan and why other people are too!

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iSnare & Article Marketing

Send Your Articles to Hundreds of Sites With Just One Click On iSnare!

I'd like to point out to you a useful site called iSnare. The article distribution site  iSnare enables you to submit one article to hundreds of article sites for a very low maximum cost of around $2 per article. If you purchase higher distribution credits from iSnare the amount of articles you can distribute increases and the price per article reduces.

Thousands of guides have been written on Article Marketing. There are as many strategies and ways to do it as there are trees in a forest. I'll answer a few questions you have below, I just wanted to introduce you to iSnare's article distribution service first.

Why Might You Want Do Article Marketing?

Sharing articles is a good way to get links back to your site and also an effective strategy to establish your expertise in your field. By publishing  "helpful tip's" articles to specific sites, variously called article banks, article directories, ezines etc you gain in two major ways.

Your Signature - Name, URL and Anchor Text

A standard article has a title, a subtitle, a summary, the text of the article and what is generally called the signature. It is the signature area that gives you the most benefit. This is where you can declare yourself the author of the article, you can link back to your site with your site's url and you can enter  anchor text for the url to target specific keywords.

If anchor text is the only html you ever learn, it's the most important piece to use.

This is an example signature - (minus the pic) - it's a like a very low key ad.

The author of this article, Brad Pitt is a renowned actor and is often referred to as the sexiest male lead in movies. Read more about Brad Pitt by visiting...

Brad Pitt - Sexiest Man On the Planet

(The text above is  fictional except for the sexy bit!)

Now visit the top article site online Ezine Articles and examine a few article author signatures.  They are short and highly relevant and they almost all have a clickable hyperlink ( a blue link you click on to visit a website).

But they are not all web addresses with the http or www in front of a domain name, they are far more often relevant keywords that people are trying to rank for in search engine results. These keywords are called anchor text. Click on that link to visit wikipedia and it will give you the html code you need.

Establishing Your Expert Status

The second benefit of article marketing is fourfold.

1. A quality article shows people you "know what you are talking about".
2. A quality article acts as a signpost and directs traffic to your website.
3. A quality article on an high ranking site appears in search results.
4. A quality article can be republished on other people's websites

Did you notice that I am emphasizing "A Quality Article". This is because it's a complete waste of time to submit an article is that is not of high quality.

An unchanged PLR article will not be accepted for publication.  A bad article can damage your reputation. A poor article will not be read right through to the signature. Articles that are not read don't stay indexed long and will not appear in search results or be republished.

So don't waste your time on article marketing unless you intend to submit original articles that do give helpful tips to establish your expertise.

Article Marketing & Duplicate Content Issue

Getting back to iSnare and article marketing there is one more issue to tackle. When multiple articles that are exactly the same are online, search engines "hide" some - you may have seen a link on Google for "similar results".

This has led to many discussions about the benefits of submitting the same article to multiple directories. It is certainly true that articles that are at least 30% unique are better but there are only so many hours in a day!

So far as I can gather the best strategy is to write 10 unique articles to start with. The best one should be on your site. Two should go to high rank article directories such as Ezine Articles or Go Articles and one perhaps to a site like Squidoo or Hubpages. The other six mass submit to an article distribution service such as iSnare.

That way you get the all the benefits. Your duplicate articles will still be read and republished and give you backlinks from article directories and that is why article marketing is so useful. So go check out iSnare...

Click To Send Your Quality Articles to Hundreds of Sites With iSnare!

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Or Be Careful What You Say On Facebook!

Social sites are constantly shifting, changing and updating. View any trend analysis site and the graph is showing the constantly rising visitor rate especially for big community sites such as Facebook and Twitter.

You cannot afford to ignore the trends but neither should you jump in without a good plan. You need to be cautious before you post any content on the web especially if you are a business, but also as an employee.

This was brought home to me on a personal level twice. First when my nephew made unguarded comments on Facebook, agreeing with a friend's negative comment made about their boss and was fired. The boss wasn't even named!

Then my son joined a group on Facebook which was started by a workmate. This group was the opposite of a fan page and was let's say, less than positive, about the company they both worked for. They were also fired!

It's easy to say companies should ignore such minor infractions and accept the fact that people will get frustrated or be annoyed about something at work and then go into a social site such as Facebook and vent. But the web is a published document, there for all time, not just a few words soon forgotten.

Had either of them been in the pub at the time talking, this wouldn't have been an issue (unless the boss was standing just behind them listening). Facebook is like the pub to most people. They let their guard down there, they chatter and gripe in text just as if they were relaxing after work over a few drinks.

I don't know where this will go. It's hard on the boys who have had a sharp lesson in why keeping their mouths shut (especially on the web) is a good policy. At the same time, it's like the right to free speech has been taken away and Big Brother really is watching everything we do and censoring it violently.

Keeping a good reputation online is going to get harder and harder. For companies trying to keep negative comments off the web and for kids who haven't learned to hold their tongues yet. Lawyers will be scrambling to update libel laws to keep up, while enforcement agencies pick their battles between genuinely disgruntled customers and people out to cause trouble for competing companies.

Companies are going to need extra staff uploading new positive content and staff to keep an eye on where their brand is being used in inappropriate ways.

Nothing has really changed. Any freedom comes at a price, including freedom of speech. If you wish to exercise it, you take the consequences. It's just another thing to consider in our increasingly complex world. Sigh...

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