Syndication: the process of distributing articles, stories, columns, photographs, comic strips, or other features for simultaneous publication in a number of web sites, newspapers or periodicals in different localities.

When I first started IdeaMarketers.com back in 1998, article marketing was a novel concept. The idea of writing an article and then accepting a resource box and link back to your site for "payment" wasn't commonplace.

I actually received a lot of flack from "professional writers" who felt they should be paid for their articles and couldn't see the logic in allowing others to use them for "free." Still others felt that having every "Tom, Dick and Mary" writing articles would lead to pitiful content - that only those professionally trained should be allowed to write; and that when they did, they should always receive monetary compensation.

It took a while, but the rest of the Net caught on to the fact that business professionals could express themselves quite well in writing. And when they did, it was a phenomenal way for them to establish themselves as experts in their fields and gain more traffic to their Web sites.

Article marketing eventually became a "staple" in any effective online marketing campaign. Unfortunately, like any innovative idea that becomes commonplace, there are those who abuse it. There are those who write illiterate, keyword-stuffed articles simply for search engine optimization purposes, but these tactics are dying on the vine because search engines have caught on and implemented algorithms to protect against these tactics.

Unfortunately, because many fear Google will "ban them" for duplicate content, they throw the baby out with the bath water. Article syndication is still a powerful marketing tool, and I believe it's here to stay. The original reason I started IdeaMarketers.com back in 1998, had absolutely nothing to do with search engine optimization, and that reason still works. An effective marketing campaign just needs to go back to the original reasons article marketing started.

Establishing Name Recognition

If you're an expert on branding, and people see your informative articles on branding across the net, then they are going to perceive you as the go-to-guy/gal for branding. It doesn't matter whether they found those sites through a search engine, a friend's referral, a link off another site, or a print ad. If you're there enough, you're the expert.

Marketing Your Site

When you write an article on your area of expertise, the site running your article will link to your web site for more information. Again, it makes little difference how someone arrives at your article. The fact remains, that if you've done a good job with the article, and you've placed an effective call to action and link at the bottom, people will click over. The great thing is that these people are pre-qualified visitors who are more likely to follow-through with whatever you're pitching on your site (assuming the page you send them to ties in with the article they read).

The Beauty of Syndication

At IdeaMarketers.com we offer live syndication feeds that webmasters can put on their sites to beef up content. They may choose from over 140 categories of articles to stream onto their sites.

The beauty of this live-feed syndication is that as the author, you are in control of what is being displayed. Not only can you log into your account and remove old articles that are out-of-date, but you can update and make corrections to them. When you make changes, these changes are instantly reflected on any sites running the syndication feed displaying your articles.

Another benefit is that the site running the article can't fiddle with it. They can't remove the links to your site. They can't change your affiliate links to theirs. They can't modify your article to suit their own purposes. They can't slap ads in the middle of it. Your content is safe and you can control it through your writer account.

What about duplicate content, you might ask? If your article is out on all these sites that are running a syndication feed, are you going to be penalized for duplicate content? According to Matt Cutts of Google, as long as the syndicated articles link back to the source site, you're all right. That's why we link syndicated articles back to your writer profile that lists your articles. It's also why we put a statement that links back to our site that says, "Reprinted with Permission from IdeaMarketers.com." This protects both the author and the site running the content.

The only caution I might interject here is that if you're going to run your articles on your own site, you'll probably want to reserve some unique articles for it. This way you have unique content on your own site. Some people put their newest articles on their site and run them there for a while before gradually moving them onto article sites.

To learn more about how you can use IdeaMarketers to syndicate your articles, listen to a free audio course on article syndication.

Marnie Pehrson, a mother of 6, has been highlighting truth and talent for 15 years. Whether it's writing a novel that spotlights individuals who've made a difference in the world or helping a talented entrepreneur create a platform for his life's work, Marnie underscores truth and talent in innovative and compelling ways. She is the creator of www.IdeaMarketers.com and helps experts promote their products and services online. For more information on her various projects and books, visit http://www.pwgroup.com. Contact the author, Marnie Pehrson , at marnie@pwgroup.com
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