English Corpus

Using introductory rate credit cards has become a popular way for UK borrowers to manage credit card debt. Introductory rate credit cards offer borrowers a preferential interest rate when they first sign up for a new card. There are three main ways in which this can happen. All of the ways offer significant advantages for credit card borrowers.

0% Balance Transfers

The one that is most appealing to consumers is the 0% balance transfer offer. This offers a nil rate of interest on balances transferred to a particular credit card. There is usually a limit to how long this offer applies, but this can vary from three to 12 months, so most people will be able to find an offer that suits them.

The trick to using 0% balance transfers effectively is to move balances from card to card before the expiry of the offer period. This is known as rate surfing. Credit card companies don’t like it, because it loses them hundreds of thousands in interest. For consumers, however, rate surfing offers the chance to clear some or all of an outstanding debt. This is because payments to 0% cards reduce the debt each month instead of being applied to interest.

Fixed Low Balance Transfer Rate

Another typical introductory credit card incentive is a fixed low interest rate for the lifetime of a balance transfer. That means that the lower interest rate will apply for as long as the debt remains on the credit card. For example, if the standard variable interest rate is 13.9%, a credit card issuer might offer a reduced rate of 4.9%.

This is a good option for borrowers who have a loan or debt on which they are paying a higher interest rate. Transferring to this kind of deal can save consumers hundreds of pounds and can help them to repay debt more quickly. With this kind of deal, there is little advantage to rate surfing unless another card issuer is offering a better preferential rate.

Permanent Low Rate

A third type of credit card incentive offers a low rate on spending on the card. This is usually a few percentage points below the standard variable rate. This type of offer can be a good option for consumers who spend regularly on their credit cards. This is because most balance transfer offers have higher rates for other types of transactions such as purchases, cash withdrawals and credit card cheques.

Other Features Of Introductory Rate Credit Cards

As if low rates were not enough, many credit card issuers offer other incentives to new customers. These include:

- the ability to contribute to charity by using a particular credit card

- discounts off purchases from particular manufacturers

- cash back on purchases

- additional insurance on purchases or travel

Many credit card companies have got wise to rate surfing and now apply a one-off charge for balance transfers. It is worth shopping around to get the best combination of interest rates and other incentives.

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Let me start by saying that…

Most online brokers do not make it easy for their clients!

There are absolutely no standards for trade history reporting from one broker to the next. This presents a real challenge for any trader who wants to analyze his or her trade history.

How does one get their trades into some sort of trade analysis software or spreadsheet? How can this be done for several different brokers?

What do they provide?

Some brokers provide simple trade history reports while others provide very complex statements or reports which have so much HTML formatting that it makes it virtually impossible for any one to copy and paste the information into a personal spreadsheet! Few provide a comma or tab delimited text file or Excel file download, and even these differ greatly in column formatting.

A few brokers have interfaces to personal finance software programs such as Quicken or MS Money. But these programs were never designed to handle the volumes of trades made by the active trader, and most have serious limitations when it comes to properly matching these to IRS requirements.

Active traders need to analyze their profits and losses.
Trades must be imported and matched. This needs to do be done simply and regularly if they are to ever get a handle on their trading gains and losses.

This may be the most overlooked problem facing active traders today.

David Eich, Author
TradeLog trade accounting and tax software
http://www.armencomp.com/tradelog

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Fixing your credit report and repairing your credit are two distinct processes and problems. If your credit is bad, you can implement some of the strategies below to fix a low score.

Negotiate down the amount of debt (it’s easiest with private individuals). To do this, you must demonstrate the reason for falling behind. One of the tools you can use as leverage is offering something (not the full amount) rather than nothing. For example, explain why the lender should take $5,000 instead of $10,000. You can say “I’m calling five other creditors today. I’m offering you $0.50 on the dollar and if you aren’t interested, I’ll file for bankruptcy,” in which case they wouldn’t get a nickel).

Negotiate a forbearance with credit card companies and clients with mortgages. If there was an illness, death of a breadwinner, divorce or some other legitimate reason incurring severe financial difficulty, you may have a case. Show them you had a good reason for falling behind, agree to stay current on the current payment and offer to pay X amount per month toward what you owe. You also can stick the amount owed on the back of the loan. These are legitimate ways to negotiate and repair your credit.

Beware of illegitimate ways to repair credit

Watch out for companies that will put together new tax returns for you. They’re essentially offering to dummy up tax returns. Another scam is when they take advantage of the credit reporting service’s limited window to answer disputes. If, for example, the window is 14 days, they’ll write a letter saying you don’t owe (when you actually do). It’s just a matter of time before the bank fails to meet the 14-day window; when they miss deadline, you are not required to pay the disputed amount. Not only is this wrong ethically, but it doesn’t fix your credit problem. Additionally, companies that charge you an upfront fee to get you new credit (often ranging from $100 to $1,000), especially out of other countries, is a scam.

Recommended Read

I recommend “Your Credit Score” by Liz Weston, a helpful book on different strategies of legitimate ways to improve your credit score on your own. If you feel like you need/want help, there are legitimate services available to you as well.

Pathfinder is offering consumers who visit their website a free tax savings special report & Free Tax Saving Webinar. For information about these tools visit www.Save10kinTaxes.com

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Would you like your child to be the best that he can be - to
achieve his maximum potential? Imagine how successful your
child can be with a brilliant mind, lightening fast learning
skills, an accurate, lasting memory, creativity and problem
solving skills of a genius. Here are 10 keys to developing your
child’s genius.

1. When Should I Start?

Start immediately. Do you have a newborn? Excellent time to
start. Do you have a teenager? It is not too late! There are
many things you can teach your teenager, that will increase his
chances of success in life, as well as improve your relationship
with him. Many of these things are never taught in school!

2. Make it Fun

Learning is fun! If you observe little children at play, you
will notice that by playing, they are actually performing
research of the toy they are playing with. When they feel that
they have learned all that they can learn from the toy, they
toss it aside and look for a new one. If you make learning fun ,
your child will develop the love of learning.

3. You Are Your Child’s Natural Teacher

As a parent, you are your child’s natural teacher. No matter how
many teachers your child has in school or outside of school, you
are his first and most important teacher. Your child learns from
you the most important things in life. Make sure to take
advantage of this fact to teach your child important lessons.

4. Don’t Keep Your Child Behind

We all underestimate the ability of children to learn. A newborn
cannot speak yet, so we don’t know how much and how fast he can
learn. Young children are dependant on us to provide the
learning materials to them. It is important to realize, that a
child learns a language in his first year of life! This is a
huge achievement, as everyone who has tried to learn a second
language knows.

At the time a child starts speaking, single words at first and
then whole sentences, he already understands a vast majority of
things that are said to him. His mastery of the language is
already much better than he can demonstrate by talking.

At the core of this incredible ability to learn a language, is
the skill of pattern recognition. This skill is also important
in reading, music and many other areas.It is wise to take
advantage of this incredible skill to teach the young child as
much as we can.

5. Let Your Child Lead the Way

Children are interested in different subjects at different
periods of time. Expose your child to many subjects, and let
your child show you what he enjoys most, what he is interested
in most. Then you can explore and research that particular
subject. It is much easier to teach your child a subject that he
is interested in, that one that he is not.

When you are “working” with your child on the subject of his
choice, you can relate many other subjects to it. For examply,
if your child is interested in trains, you can study about the
history of trains, about the physics of trains and how they
function, geography - study a map and look at train tracks in
different geographical areas, Mathematics - related to trains,
and much more.

6. Children Hate to be Tested

When you explore and research with your child, or teach him a
subject, never test him to find out if he learned. Trust that he
is learning, and keep going. You don’t have to worry whether your
child is learning or not, the only thing you have to worry about
is whether you are able to keep his interest. As long as he is
interested - he is learning!

7. Children Learn Fast

Children learn so much faster than we think. If you don’t move
fast enough, you lose your child’s interest. Teaching too slowly
and repetition create bordom, and bordom is the enemy of
learning.

Again - let your child lead the way. If your child is ready to
move to a new subject or a new concept - follow his lead.

8. Confidence and Self Esteem

Confidence and self esteem are most important to your child’s
success. As you know, even the most talented, intelligent
person, if he doesn’t believe in himself, will never attempt to
take on a challenging assignment or a challenging position. This
can be hazardous to his career and success.

Praise your child often. Honest and sincere praise will do
wonders for your child’s confidence. Never criticize. Make it a
habit at the end of the day, before your child goes to bed, to
review his achievements and successes. Notice even the smallest
things!

9. Goal Setting

Teach your child to set goals early on. No matter what your
child’s age, you can start the day talking about the plan for
the day, and the goals you would like to achieve that day. When
your child is ready, you can start setting weekly goals, monthly
goals and yearly goals. Make a plan to achieve these goals, and
make sure your child knows that the plan is flexible and can
change.

10. It’s OK to Make Mistakes

Make sure your child knows that it’s OK to make mistakes.
Mistakes are learning opportunities, they are feedback about
what works and what doesn’t. You will never make mistakes if you
never attempt to try and achieve anything. This realization leads
to a stronger confidence.

As a parent, you have the ability to contribute to your child’s
future, to help your child achieve his maximum potential. But
don’t wait! The earlier you start - the better your child’s
chance to achieve brilliance and explosive success.

For the last 26 years, Esther Andrews has studied, researched
and practiced the ways to develop a child’s intelligence. She
served as the principal of the School for Gifted Education for 5
years. As a result of this experience, she developed her own
method and philosophy, that proved to be extremely successful
with her own 2 highly gifted children.

In her Ezine, Ebooks and seminars, she shares her experience and
knowledge with other parents, who are interested in providing the
best for their children.

Visit us at http://www.all-gifted-children.com.

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Should you find yourself getting in over your head with debt, you might be a prime candidate for a debt consolidation loan. These loans are designed for those with a heavy burden of debt, and are used to consolidate a large number of debts into a single manageable payment. The debt consolidation loan is used to pay off the other debts, leaving only the loan itself in need of repayment.

How much should I borrow?

Considering that a debt consolidation loan is designed to replace other debts, the amount that you borrow should be as much as you need to pay off the total sum of your outstanding debt. If you’re unable to get the total amount that you need to pay off all of your debts, then you should at least borrow enough with your debt consolidation loan so that you can pay off your largest debts (and hopefully make headway toward the others.)

How much debt do I need to have before consolidation?

There isn’t a set amount of debt that you must have before considering a debt consolidation loan; the loan is simply a way of handling debt that is reasonably beyond your ability to pay it back. Many debt consolidation loan companies offer loans of £50,000 or more, though a growing trend is to offer loans starting at £5,000 as well so as to take care of outstanding debts before they climb as high as the larger loans. Lesser loans can also be used as a debt consolidation loan, though they occasionally have other criteria that must be met (especially in much smaller loans.)

What collateral do I need?

As the bank or finance company will obviously be aware of your debt problem when you apply for a debt consolidation loan, you’ll need to be able to supply collateral for the loan (meaning that you’ll have to be able to guarantee the loan with some property that the lender could sell should you not repay.) The collateral can vary depending upon the amount of the loan as well as the lender, with the most common forms of collateral being automobile titles and real estate property deeds. As these are usually higher-priced items, using them as collateral allows for a larger debt consolidation loan… not to mention giving a greater incentive for repayment.

A debt consolidation loan can give you a new start if you can’t handle all of the various payments you’re expected to make that you can’t afford. It’s also a great way to pay off old debts that may have been turned over to collection agencies, and should be looked at as a viable option before considering more serious actions such as bankruptcy.

You may freely reprint this article provided the following author’s biography (including the live URL link) remains intact:

About The Author

John Mussi is the founder of Direct Online Loans who help homeowners find the best available loans via the http://www.directonlineloans.co.uk website.

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Okay, You’ve entered what you think is a low risk trade, having deduced that this was the perfect time to go long. Your indicators all line up, and CNN reports good 1st quarter results in the sector your trading. Now, you watch in utter dismay as it turns against you, hitting your mental stop, and you impulsively decide to ride it out, hoping (a traders worst enemy) it will reverse and make it to at least break even. Inexorably, it continues to head down, and you finally get out, looking at another gut wrenching loss.

You’ve just become a victim to the most common pitfall that befalls the majority of traders. Listen, most people, when they get involved with trading, imagine some barefoot maverick making million dollar trades from his dockside home on a laptop from a lawn chair, with a view of his yacht named “Shorted Gold”. And most traders subconsciously behave like that’s the way to do it. In reality, most million dollar trades are initiated by some MIT graduate math nerd, who talks to himself in a nondescript back room of a brokerage house, but no one can hear him over the racket the computers make as they crank out Black-Scholes estimations with Brownian probability curves tweaked for each market sector…You get the drift.

You can’t succeed against this kind of competition by letting your emotions get in the way. Most traders don’t get it. They flail around buying software programs, trading systems, stock market advisory newsletters and, you know, the thousands of come on’s sold on the internet and on the back of trading magazines.
Let me tell you a secret none (I would capitalize this but they won’t let me do it on this site, so I’ll say it again, none) of these sellers, Wall Streeters, or any broker will admit to.
Are you ready? Come closer so you’ll hear this.

It’s not the Trading system that matters.

Hoof, you say. I know it flies in the face of all the articles and advice you’ve read, but the most important piece of advice you’ll ever get, and don’t forget it’s from me, is to watch yourself, as you do what your doing. Watch yourself as you trade, watch your emotions, and have the discipline to override any impulse to do anything other than your pre arranged plan.Do me a favor, before you do your next trade, do this one thing and I guarantee you will be grateful. Get yourself a couple small 4×6 or so cosmetic mirrors from the drugstore or from around the house. Set them up in front up your computer in such a way as to see yourself as your watching your monitor, a side view. Now stay with me here, it sounds crazy…. before you click the next buy or sell, look at the mirror and ask these questions in the third person,

“Why is he buying (or selling) now?
Answer out loud so you can hear it.

“On what factual basis is he basing his decision on?”
Again, out loud.

“Is he letting fear or hope alter his view on this trade?
You have to answer this one out loud and truthfully.

“If it goes against him, at what point will he exit, and if it goes well, what is the profit exit? Ditto

You see the beauty in this? It helps you separate yourself from your emotions, so that you’ll never be hoping a trade will go well, or be in a trade because you just had a loser and you’re trying to get even before the market closes.

Okay, I lied a little. Some systems are somewhat better than others, but if you only do this one thing, watch your emotions as you trade, you will do ok. Without that no expensive software or newsletter is ever going to make any difference. What makes the difference is you and your ability to control your emotions. You must first deal with the most difficult thing we all have to deal with, which alas, is what makes us all human after all..

Before you lose another dime to Wall Street sharks and brokerage houses, check out Paul Nickel’s low risk trading strategies at http://lowrisktrading.info/ and learn about the best tool to becoming a shark yourself.

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As demonstrated by revelations on the much maligned competence and foresight of Michael Brown and the treatment alloted to Scooter Libby all of you supposed NeoCon Insiders should pause to reflect on the reality you presently face. You may think you are a NeoCon Insider but if you were only brought on board as recently as 2000 you are most probably not.

No matter how elegant your office space or how impressive your title and rich your paycheck the chances are that in this administration you are there either for the same reasons Scooter and Brownie got their jobs or you are there for something that is, perhaps, even more devious. If, like others, you were astonished to have received your appointment you should allow the shivers of fear to percolate through your nervous system. It is only reasonable to be nervous.

All administrations must needs fill thousands of appointments but only this administration has done so with such a devious agenda, laying out the battle ground in advance in curious ways.

G. Gordon Liddy fell on his sword because he was self programmed to do just that; it accorded with his views. That will not be the case with yourself. The NeoCons doubtless noted what good cover he made.

The conferences the Bush Administration held before this administration was assembled were different than any administration in the past. Real NeoCon Insiders, such as John Fund, provided the names for appointments, such as your own. They had unusual criteria for their suggestions, criteria that included if you could arguably be spun as incompetent when the time came for you to go off the back of the Sleigh. They knew the G. Gordons were thin upon the ground. You can think of it as an appointment but the reality is very much like being the guest of honor at a cannibalistic barbecue. In ancient times they always ensured the guest of honor for the ceremony was well fed. Easy to see why.

The NeoCon Cabal was not focused on the ordinary goal of an incoming administration. Their agenda was more personal. They were looking to reformat for the purposes of efficient thievery while placing patsies to take the blame. This is like laying land mines in the bureaucratic morass to prevent them ever reaching someone important. You were nominated as a land mine; notice the land mine never survives.

That was in accordance with the traditional tactical plans of Rove, Cheney, et al. It was necessary to lay down in advance the cover that would cut off possible prosecution and blame for the train of disasters that, if examined, would be revealed to be clever transfers of wealth taking place right out in open under the coloration of administrative business and policy.

On some level you are probably beginning to realize this. It is obvious when you stop listening to what they say and watch what happens. Stupidity and incompetence can only explain so much, after all.

New Orleans and Katrina? A fabulous opportunity to gentrify and move out into other states the pesky voters who were a bastion of blue in a world the NeoCons see as better red.

That is one example. Notice the aftermath of 9/11, too. That allowed for the cancellation of that pesky Bill of Rights and allowed BushCo to offer to his core constituency the free use of America’s military to mount a take over on oil fields of the world. Clever move. In this way money is taken from the pockets of Americans and transferred into the wallets of the PetroElite, allowing them to acquire oil while minimizing their costs. It is a wonder that the military serving over there were not required to don company uniforms for their tours of employment as PetroSecurity.

You, as the faux Insider are probably growing uneasy about all you see going on around you, and rightly so. You thought you caught the gold ring, serving in the Inner Circles of Power only to begin to suspect you are Wolf Bait, fated to dive off the back of the Sleight of State when it is your time to serve the Straussian Select.

Of course, there is another explanation for your presence.

Perhaps you are there to still the voices that would otherwise be raised in alarm. If you got that appointment and are not primarily intended as a Land Mine you are probably Hostage of Affinity. By that I mean that you were placed because you have lots of friends outside the administration in a group, such as the Evangelical Bemused or in such ideological groups as conservative and libertarian.

To create the appearance that this administration was actually going to carry out the promises made to those groups they needed ‘presence’ from those groups. You are ‘presence.’ Your friends are reluctant to attack you and that is why you are there. Slightly naive and credulous chumps like yourself provide essential cover and could, in times of need, become Land Mines. By so doing the NeoCon Cabal silenced those in your own ideological affinity group who would have long since be up in arms denouncing the predatory behavior of the Bushanista.

All groups hate to believe they have been taken for a ride; all groups hate to attack their own.

Now it makes sense, right? There is a reason the administration ignores you unless it is time to trot you our for a round of ideological ratification. Don’t feel too neglected. You will doubtless get your own turn as Wolf Bait when the time comes. The canny ones among you are now gathering information, copying papers, absconding with office supplies, placing money off shore, and reconnecting with those neglected friends who have been so less important since they became Insiders.

Humility is good for the soul.

This concludes our first Lesson to the Faux NeoCon Insider. Don’t forget to send a thank you note to John Fund, or that other Real Insider, for getting you this great job!

Next: The 401K Syndrome and the profits of Tyranny.

NeoCons are not Conservatives, Republicans, or Americans. They are opportunists working on the build out of the perpetual ATM machine from our pockets to theirs.

Melinda Pillsbury-Foster is the author of GREED: The NeoConning of America and A Tour of Old Yosemite. The former is a novel about the lives of the NeoCons with a strong autobiographical component. The latter is a non-fiction book about her father and grandfather.

Ms. Pillsbury-Foster has been active in politics since the Goldwater Campaign. She left the Republican Party to join and become active in the Libertarian Party in 1973, working as an activist and party officer until she left the Libertarian Party in 1988. She received 5% of the vote in a four way race in 1982 for California’s 20th State Senate Race while also serving as Southern Vice-Chairman for the California Libertarian Party. She was elected to six terms as a state officer, eventually serving on National Committee.

In 1988 she rejoined the Republican Party and became a member and country officer for the National Federation of Republican Women and also served as a Regent for several years.

She is also the the founder of the Arthur C. Pillsbury Foundation and the mother of five children, one deceased.

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One thing I’ve learned and that I’d like to share with you is the importance of having a mailing list. What sort of mailing list am I talking about? In this case it’s a list of names and email addresses, that list can also include home addresses. This ‘list’ forms your database of customers who have opted in which is crucial for online success.

Many take the view that you can have a profitable internet business without a list. That’s almost like saying you can have a profitable candy store with no customers. If no one buys from you then you will not make money, period!

Consider your list as being the most important aspect to your business because it is your customer base. Treat your customers well; Let me say that again… Treat your customers well!! I can’t emphasise this enough. Give them solutions to their problems and they will come back to you over and over again and give you repeat business. Did you know that people do business with people that they like and then they tell their friends too.

So how do you find out what sorts of solutions people are looking for? Well one of the ways to do this is to browse the many online forums that are out there, you may already be a member of a few yourself. There are forums that cater for all tastes, and the vast majority of posts to these forums are of the “I need help variety.” Taking the time to do just a little research will give you an idea of how you can provide help in a particular area and pay dividends in the long run.

If you get stuck then ask yourself this question. “What do I know allot about?” As an example, you may have a strong interest in baking cakes and over the years have acquired recipes for delicious homemade cakes just like grandma used to make. Guess what, somebody out there might need one of your recipes to make a special cake for a birthday or other celebration.

What you do next is create a simple step by step mini course on how to bake one of your special cakes using one of your recipes. You can include things that only you know about, for example use four eggs instead of two, bake for an extra 5 minutes to get that extra special lightness, you get the idea.

You can create a simple webpage around cakes and recipes and offer your mini course in exchange for a valid email address. Your potential customers are giving you permission to email them with information of value and you get to capture an email address, because in order to receive your mini course they need to supply a working email address.

To monetise your website you can put your recipes and techniques into an electronic book or eBook which you can then be instantly delivered to the desktops of your customers, who will glady pay for your unique information.

In my next article we’ll talk about you how you can bring targeted traffic to your website. By targeted traffic, I mean visitors to your site looking for solutions to their specific problems.

Till next time!

Irving Austin

In the mean time I would strongly recommend that you go over to http://www.internetprofitmentor.com to learn more about these powerfull concepts. There you will also get access to over 12 hours of videos and a free 120 page ebook.

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Recently I rewrote and edited my last Media Motivators article on the McEddie “Everywhere” McGuire personal brand and turned it into a media release.

It generated two high profile radio interviews on ABC and commercial radio and a Google search on the words “Eddie McGuire” positioned my story on the first page at number 10 out of a possible 3.2 million mentions.

It also prompted one news editor to contact me and ask if I could write a column for his influential, high-profile and award-winning newspaper.

So how did I do it? More importantly, how can you turn your expert knowledge into a news release that gains you tens of thousands of dollars worth of media coverage for free?

And what are the secrets of writing media releases that get used instead of deleted and ranked highly in Google?

This is a question critical to gaining ongoing media coverage in a consistent way for any organisation or individual.

How to write a news release that generates free publicity is a great skill to have. The good news it is a learned skill!

This article covers media release writing in detail - the 7 secrets of writing a great news release.

1. Strong News Value

Your media release must have a strong news value and not be trying to sell something or be blatant advertising. The media will see through this.

Conflict, drama, currency, relevance, proximity, prominence, and timeliness are the strongest news value.

Ask: what is new about what we’re doing?

2. A Well Written Headline

A headline must grab the attention of the editor or reporter.

3. A Well Written Lead Paragraph

A lead paragraph must continue to hold the attention of the editor or reporter and summarise what the story is about.

4.Quotable Quotes

Quotable quotes add credibility and human interest to a media release. They are the flesh that goes on the facts or bare bones of the story. They must be memorable and well crafted.

Take this quote from a famous athlete who had just come out of retirement, “I’m bored, I’m broke and I’m back!”.

Nice - simple, memorable and direct. Plus the media love it because of its honesty, structure and rhyming nature, especially the alliteration with all the first words starting with the letter ‘b’.

5. Clarity In Writing Style

Clear writing is a sign of clear thinking. Don’t try and put the whole story across with every detail. Remember, the aim is to get the media interested in the story and then call for more detail.

A media release is not the same as an article, promotional brochure or detailed announcement to the Australian Stock Exchange!

6. Strong Call To Action

Your media release must end with a call to action. What is it you want people to do after reading or hearing your message?

Invest in your stock, buy your book or vote for you!

7. Comprehensive Contact Details

A news release should always contain current contact details for the media to follow-up.

At a minimum these are landline, mobile, web and email.

Thomas Murrell MBA CSP is an international business speaker, consultant and award-winning broadcaster. Media Motivators is his regular electronic magazine read by 7,000 professionals in 15 different countries.

You can subscribe by visiting http://www.8mmedia.com Thomas can be contacted directly at +6189388 6888 and is available to speak to your conference, seminar or event. Visit Tom’s blog at http://www.8mmedia.blogspot.com

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Search engine optimization seems to be becoming more and more difficult, with search engine algorithms becoming more complexed with what they require to be important. However, one thing for sure is that backlinks in particular are still one of the most effective search engine optimization techniques.

When you receive links to your website, search engines view this as a vote for your site. Now the value of this vote depends on a number of factors such as the number of outgoing links the page with your link on has, the number of incoming links the page has, and whether the site that contains your link is seen by the search engines as an “authority” site.

There are many contributing factors for your website to rank highly in SERP’s, but one thing for sure is that you need to continually build the number and quality of links pointing to your site. This could be through a number of methods:

1) Reciprocal linking - you contact other webmasters to offer the opportunity to provide a link to their website for the same in return.

2) One-way linking - this can be from many methods. Write articles and submit to article directories, add a link in your sig in forums, post opinions on blogs with a link back to your site (providing that the site owner does not mind!), and link directories.

There is no doubt that one-way linking is more powerful than reciprocal linking by a long way. Also consider that reciprocal linking should be conducted with sites that are relevant to your own websites theme.

Link building using your chosen keyword is also important. For example, should you have a website that you would like to rank highly in search engines for the phrase “Dog Beds”, then if possible have website owner’s link to your site using the search term as the actual link to your site. This shows the search engines that your site is relevant to this keyword phrase, and will rank it highly should you receive many links like this. Merely gaining links to your site is not the ONLY optimization that you must do for your site, as mentioned earlier, but it is certainly a significant contributing factor in search results.

An important note to remember is to never link to “link farms”. These are sites that contain hundreds upon hundreds of outgoing links on one page. Search engines do not tend to look upon them favorable, and in any case if your link is also on this “link farm” page, the benefit will be minimal due to the large number of other links taking a share of the value of links from the page.

There are many free article directories, and free link directories where it is possible to gain good quality links to your site. However, paying for a link from a link directory is often very rewarding. You may find that paid directories will guarantee the acceptance of your website within hours to a couple of days. This is compared to many free directories often taking months to review your submission, and may not even approve it in the end. There are some exceptions but the key is to find them. Another good point to remember is that many new link directories that are well setup will possibly have categories with very few websites currently accepted. This provides a great opportunity to submit your site to benefit from the page’s link value to the fullest.

The new directory at www.articleblotter.com/directory offers the perfect opportunity to gain one-way links to your website. The site also allows you to write and submit articles if you choose to in order to gain links. Also keep upto date with article marketing information and site news with the article marketing blog.

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