How to Make Your Content ‘Submit Worthy’

"Why won't anyone submit my content to Digg? My competitor is always on Reddit but my stuff gets ignored!" Sound familiar? Well here's how to put an end to your woes and ensure your content is submit worthy.

In order to be successful on social media news and bookmarking sites, you have to think like a typical power user. Start by understanding some fundamental truths about the users of these sites. For the most part they are busy. They skim. They want you (the publisher) to do a lot of the work for them. So here's how to cover all of your bases and K.I.S.S.

It all starts with a great title.
In the SEO world most people will tell you that your title is the most important on-page factor. Same thing is true for social media and bookmarketing sites. Your title can make or break your article. On a site like Reddit, there is no description option, so it's all about the title. Take a couple of extra minutes to put some thought into a creative title for your content. You'll be happy you did.

Subheadings are sexy.
You know what your content is about better than anyone. Why not provide a short summary right under your title? This way someone can use that as a description instead of just grabbing the first two sentences (that might be way out of context). Great examples of this can be seen on any story by the BBC.

Pictures are worth a thousand words.
Great imagery can go a long way. On a site like Digg it can mean the difference between success and failure. Digg allows you to have a thumbnail image for any news article that gets submitted. People's eyes are naturally drawn to images. So if users have the choice between a submission with a thumbnail and one without it - well....

Be sure to check this yourself on Digg though to make sure its image spider is finding the correct images. For good examples check out the Wall Street Journal, Divine Caroline, or ReadWriteWeb. Need help? Here's our creative process.

No one wants to flip through 15 pages.
Social media users are a fickle bunch. One thing that most will agree on is that they hate having to read your content spread out onto seven pages. Or check out your slideshow that is on 25 different ones. I know, I know. Each extra page view results in extra ad impressions. Social media users know this too. And they hate it. Would you rather 1,000 people viewing seven pages or 60,000 viewing two?

RSS. It's not just for blogs.
One of the biggest misconceptions I hear in regards to RSS is "My site isn't a blog so I can't have RSS." If you have new content and you want people to be able to find that content easily, put it out in RSS. Make sure people know that you have RSS. Is Time Magazine a blog? Here's a great overview to get you started.

Oh yeah, Pop culture references can also help. Like the one I used as inspiration for this post...

Blast Negative Publicity off

Blast Negative Publicity off

Google & Yahoo With These Insider

Somewhere out in cyberspace an unknown or known associate, competitor or just plain slanderously natured individual has written a particularly damning or negative article/blog about yourself or your business and posted it on the internet.
So what happens next? The nature of the beast is that the major search engines will index and crawl all of the content on the internet regardless of whether it is good content, relevant or controversial. The next thing you know when Googling your name up comes the offending article or blog on the first page of search engine results.

Annoying is an 'understatement'. This type of negative publicity has the potential to damage your business reputation and your ability to attract new clients. The bigger problem is that unless the negative article or entry is removed from the site it is posted on it will remain index-able and searchable by the major search engines for as long as the content exists and this could equate to a number of years.

First up, don't panic there are a number of positive SEO remedies that you can employ to counteract the slanderous attempts of these individuals and their effect on the search engines. Unfortunately with the Internet there is limited recourse by a targeted individual or business to defend their reputation especially when articles are written by so called 'consumer advocates' or vigilantes doing the public a 'service' yet able to post anything on their websites regardless of the dire effects it may have on the targeted individual involved and their business.

SEO Remedies to tackle negative internet publicity...

Step 1 - If the article or blog is genuinely slanderous and has no truth or merit, then approach the website owner posting the entry and ask for it to be removed. Legal representation and legal advice may be necessary to protect your business. A well written letter from your lawyer or a threat of legal action may be enough impetus to persuade the website owner to remove the post. However, be aware that if unsuccessful, it may encourage the author of such articles to focus more attention on you so it may be more prudent to try steps 2 to 5 first.

Step 2 - Examine the keywords within the offending article to see what is being picked up by the search engines. This will normally be your name and/or business name. This is easy to find by clicking on the 'cached' entry next to the search engine listing. The keywords indexed by the search engine will be highlighted on the cached page and show you exactly what the search engine is indexing and crawling from the article or blog. These keywords (name or business name or both) will be the focus of your SEO Band-Aid treatment. To push the negative listing off the first page of results on Google and Yahoo you will need to create as many new listings as possible on the Internet to be picked up by the major search engines.

Step 3 - Start with 'free classified ad' listings and post your new ads under the category of business services. Include your name and business name in the body of the free classified ad plus a relevant keyword title specific to your industry or business service provision. Free classified ad listings will show up on search engine results within the first week of posting them on the internet. Complete as many free classified ads as possible and post them for the longest duration possible.

Step 4 - Write some free articles on your area of business or industry expertise remembering to include an eye catching title and your name and business name in the content of the article and author bio. Post these articles on your website and on free article submission sites; the more the better. Make sure you allow your free articles to be syndicated for content to other sites. This improves the opportunities for your article being listed on several internet sites which has a domino effect, boosting your search engine rankings and the positive listings picked up by the major search engines. If this still does not remedy the problem, then proceed to Step 5.

Step 5 - Create as many free directory listings on the internet as possible under your applicable service or product category. Use the same title and keyword text as your free classified ads remembering to mention your business name and name if possible. You can manually find free directories by performing searches on Google and Yahoo or alternatively use a directory submitting tool such as 'Submiteaze' which is reasonably priced.

The results from employing these SEO strategies may be instantaneous unless the offending article or post has been prevalent in the search engine listings for a number of years (2 or more). You can then expect the recovery process to take up to 6 months of concentrated SEO effort to bump this listing off the first page of results on Google and Yahoo.

If all else fails...

Employ Step 1 and, if that fails, then lets hope in the very near future that just like 'spam', slanderous material posted on the internet becomes a reportable offence to the major search engines, government bodies and consumer watch dogs. And, that the consequences for engaging in such underhanded practices results in a site being dropped from the search engines and classified as a 'bad neighborhood site', plus a monetary fine of such magnitude as to deter the practice. If a site can't be indexed or is banned by the search engines, then it effectively becomes 'voiceless' and the power to publicly affect an individual's livelihood or a business's profits, growth and sales is then vastly diminished. Noting, that a banned site would still have the opportunity to remove any offensive or slanderous material and then reapply to be indexed by the search engines.

It may be argued that the search engines are not responsible for this problem. Well as the most influential body on the internet with the most power to help, who else are we to turn to? The print and television media are unable to publicly slander an individual or business without facing retribution via legal action and a public outcry, so why should the Internet be free of the same accountability?

Source: Rank1 Website Marketing