Article Two in the series Some Parasites Are Good For Their Host. Article One addressed our parasitic, but symbiotic, relationship with Search Engines; and how they could not survive without our “user generated content”.
If you are a webmaster, like me, you are a parasite! However, we are all mostly good parasites because we are beneficial to our host.
Our host for this article are content submission sites. Without us, content distribution sites would die! We provide the “user generated content” that they need to make money (sell advertising).
In ancient times, way back in 1996 
search engines drove 95% of traffic to our web sites. Yahoo was king, Google was a twinkle in the eyes of the founders. Alexa was queen. In all, if you were not in the search engines you were invisible on the Internet. Has that changed? You betcha’!Content is still the supreme ruler. Targeted (insert optimized here) for a bazillion niche Internet categories (insert keyword here) . Yet, your content has new friends for “content distribution” beyond the search engines. Um, host! Content’s life went through a change several years back when the “no_follow” tag became popular. When you look at the link I put to the left you will notice a ‘nofollow” reference. What this means is I want you to go read the wiki article to better inform yourself about the nofollow tag, but I don’t want to give wiki web page any “juice”.
Just how many articles though can be written about Viagra, or HGH, or acai juice (another juice, but different than “Google juice”)? Nah. Pick another category.
With the nofollow tag in place I am instructing the search robot that the link is not important for content ranking. This is the infamous Page Rank value; that moves your content page up in search results. However, I digress. With your article properly submitted to a content website you can garner direct visitor traffic, from the content site, to your site. Granted, one article submission, even if you write content like J.K. Rowling (Harry Potter), will probably bring only a handful of website visits, but collectively a hundred articles submitted may bring your website more visits than can be counted on hands and feet.
Ergo, content distribution now takes a chunk out of what used to be pure search engine traffic to your website. Better than submitting your articles to “content farms” (e.g., articlebase or eHow) is to submit to other websites that have a similar, yet not identical, keyword category to your website. Content farms have, of late, been often in the news with the advent this past February of Google’s algorithm update called Panda (aka Google Farmer).
So, how can you be a good parasite in your category neighborhood? Any website owner knows the challenge of writing fresh content. If you write the content and suggest to the website owner that their visitors may find your article of value you have a better than 50/50 chance that your article will be published on their website. Without the dreaded nofollow tag. Meaning that you, as a good parasite, get to use the good reputation of their website to bump you up a couple of notches in search results. However, the direct traffic benefit from their site to yours’ will outweigh any traffic from search.
Don’t be shy! Your email to the site owner, offering fresh content that they did not have to spend time writing, will come as a welcome message. Most of the time. Remember, offer “original” and “unique” content. If you offer the article to more than one website at least make some synonym changes to keep each article unique. The last thing you want is the website that posted your article to see it on ten more sites with the “identical” article. Also, don’t be pushy or sale pitchin’. A simple statement “thought your site visitors would find this article of value” will suffice.
Another wonderful source of content distribution are press release sites. Either free, or a small token fee, gets you into the “News” category of news websites (OK, maybe not CNN )and the search engines; and more importantly to possibly hundreds of niche category websites. What gives you the best fresh squeezed juice is for your article to be posted on “relevant” sites. Although most surfers only get to the “web” results at Google (65% market share of search), Yahoo (17% share), and Bing (8%) there is a “brave new world” to submit your article in the form of a press release and get to the “news” cycle search results.
Remember, with the millions of new content pages generated daily you need a “hook” to get read. Think outside the box. The best means of getting your article noticed is to create controversy, or thought provoking, even sarcastic. Would you have read this far in my article if the subject was ‘webmaster tools’? Likely with that as the headline I would have garnered a your yawn. However, “Some Parasites Are Good For Their Host”, when the article is about “webmaster tools” causes a brief pause.
Another means of content distribution is an eBook. Giving it away free, to bring repeat traffic to your site, is more valuable than the small amount of coin you might earn by selling it. Besides, unless you are ready to invest hours in diligence, and cease and desist messages, your eBook, if good, will get plagiarized! Give the razor away (your eBook), sell the razor blades (your site content) is a long standing, and valid, marketing strategy.
Oh wait! One more thing! Another means of content distribution is your registered users list. See, I have sent you this content via email because you opted in to receive it. You didn’t get this by email? Hmmm. Let’s check to see if you are registered. 
But wait! That’s not all! (this is my best Popeil Peeler impression) Another means of content distribution are “pings” and “trackbacks”; which are sure to get you content mentions on another site similar to yours’. Originally a staple of blogging software most any content management system today will have a plugin to ping. ..and many can trackback.
What is ping? It is a means of notifying other websites that you included a link to their site in the article you wrote. Hey, we all have egos. And by including an automated message to another website owner that you have written about their site, and given a link, albeit a “nofollow” link, you have better than a 50/50 chance that they will reciprocate. Sometimes, the reciprocation is automated as it slips into the comments” section of their web page.
This is a multi-part article focused on our many parasitic relationships. For example, what if nobody “tweeted”? When we tweet, we give twitter “user generated content”! The objective of this article series is a new basics course for webmasters to hone their skills and be a better parasite!
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