Hi Mary, I hope you don't mind me saying something to Rudy?

Article writing and submitting to different directories is a fantastic tool to branding yourself and of course your business, but like anything, if you do not do this correctly, then of course it will not work.

I noted Rudy that your business is about gas, gas saving, motor oil, a very popular niche these days.  When  you create articles about your niche from different perspectives, helping people with solutions, using humor, talking about the economy of oil these days, ( just to mention a few topics) you are not advertising but  count on it, people will read and thus you will get noted.

If you create articles that are unique, using very targeted keywords, create a good profile within the Directories, and then refer to your articles, with links, what you are doing, is branding yourself.  It is like anything, it wont happen overnight, just not very logical.

The bottom line is that Article marketing and in particular Ezine Articles not only is effective for backlinking but within my research I often find many ezine articles ranking on the search engines.

There are so many components to branding yourself and thus getting your business known, it is just amazing.  It is also work, it is also a continuous learning curve..yes?

Forums are best for getting to know people, and creating good business relationships.

I wish you all the very best and if you ever want to ask questions, I am personally finding that Mary has created a fantastic forum where valued discussions can occur.

To Your Success,

Diane
Administrative Director
BlogNet Awards

P.S. A Blogging Tip!

Free, Legal Spy System: Hot Tip For Content Creation
Did you know that you can get Article Alerts sent to you by EzineArticles.com? It works like a Google Alert, but you set it up in categories of articles published (for your niche). You instantly know hot topics, have material to suggest new posts, follow resource boxes to make new friends...etc

Mary,

It can be a disadvantage too if you possess a rare name like me.

If I put    Roger Macdivitt    into google I get pages, some things I didn't even know about, strange links etc.

It goes to show though. We must all beware of posting carelessly as the negatives could well outweigh the positive.

Let's face it. Unless somebody is specifically looking for me, who is going to just stumble across my name.

I am now in possession of a new laptop so the things I have planned are due to launch and maybe I can turn the "having a rare name" to advantage.

Roger

Right on Rudi,  and it does not mean that you agree with everyone and be patronizing to everyone.  how your true self and what you stand for.

The next step now is to move away from those direct forms of advertising.  How much better to make a forum that shows you know about your passions whether business or for fun, and people  can see you as a real business person.

Glad you are learning with us.

Roger,  So excited to see you join our discussion.  The more the merrier.  I especially like that you read the forum, that tells me you are a willing learner.  You Googled your name and responded back, that tells me you are a person of detail.

Those are 2 great components of learning to Market on the net.  As you have well said we should watch what we post, as it can cancel out all we have done for good to brand our name.

Most posters here have not a clue that people are watching them.  Many times they have been warned that not only Adlanders read their posts but all of the internet.

Bad posting in forums not only ruins our names but can affect our very community. So let's keep our community clean.

Hope you caught that people may not be looking for you  but hopefully they will find you

Rog, stick with us and re-read this thread. Changing the way you market takes time and I am willing to admit I am still learning.  I just want to put ads into every post I make.  Smack me on the hand but it is a habit hard to shake.