Article Backlinks And Xfactor Program Does It Work?

[Philly]

Hi everyone,

I want to ask all the xfactor users what kind of success they are having with the article back linking method that John recommends that we follow..I myself have been submitting articles related to my niche to ezine articles only and have not seen any change at all in rankings. I was also wondering if John really only uses ezine articles for back linking ?

[Shane Dolby]

actually no he says he also uses other article directories. and yes it does work just not only for backlinks but I also get traffic from them.


Shane

[Philly]

Originally Posted by Shane Dolby

actually no he says he also uses other article directories. and yes it does work just not only for backlinks but I also get traffic from them.


Shane

But he tells us in the book that he highly recommends that we only use ezine articles..but anyway John claims that this is all he does to get back links I even heard him say the same thing on blog radio..so I just don't understand why it works for one and not all...at least myself anyway...and I have not heard anyone claim that this method of back linking has worked for them yet.
I would love to hear from someone that this has worked for.

[M Thompson]

Johns style does make it very easy to spot am Xfactor site from the resource box!

Personally i think it goes against logic (this is just my personal opinion!) if I write an article and target he resource box to the article i get anywhere around a 25% click through rate.

On the few occasions where the resource box has noting to do with the articles i probably get 5% at the very most, often i'll get 0%.

I still get 4 or 5 people publishing my articles and even if johns method get 30 backlinks from an article to be honest i can get that in other ways quite easily.

As i said just my personal views established from over a few thousand articles posted to eza

[Ghalt]

Originally Posted by M Thompson

Johns style does make it very easy to spot am Xfactor site from the resource box!

Personally i think it goes against logic (this is just my personal opinion!) if I write an article and target he resource box to the article i get anywhere around a 25% click through rate.

On the few occasions where the resource box has noting to do with the articles i probably get 5% at the very most, often i'll get 0%.

I still get 4 or 5 people publishing my articles and even if johns method get 30 backlinks from an article to be honest i can get that in other ways quite easily.

As i said just my personal views established from over a few thousand articles posted to eza

John recently sent out an email stating that he is changing some of his tactics on the article content, moving more toward the idea of writing articles related to the niche.

I don't know if he's doing that in order to drive clicks through the resource box. Most of the program states that he isn't worried about clicks from the resource box...those are just bonus. The point is to create articles that other people will pick up, thereby multiplying his backlinks.

If I remember correctly, his point about writing non-niche related articles is two-fold: 1) ease of writing, and 2) popularity of articles.

Ease of writing - it is a heck of a lot easier writing 20 articles about something you're interested in, regardless of its relation to your niche, than it is to write 20 articles about "blue spotted widgets".

Popularity of articles - the point of using articles is for the backlinks. So you want your article to be syndicated, ie: picked up from the article directories by various blogs and webmasters hungry for content. The webmasters are more likely to pick up your article on a popular topic (regardless of its relation to your niche), than they will want to repost articles on "blue spotted widgets".

I've not been doing enough articles, or over enough time yet, to make a call on whether or not I think the strategy works. Frankly, I'm a "not all my eggs in one basket" kinda guy, so I prefer articles+ alot of other strategies.

[Philly]

Originally Posted by Ghalt

John recently sent out an email stating that he is changing some of his tactics on the article content, moving more toward the idea of writing articles related to the niche.

I don't know if he's doing that in order to drive clicks through the resource box. Most of the program states that he isn't worried about clicks from the resource box...those are just bonus. The point is to create articles that other people will pick up, thereby multiplying his backlinks.

If I remember correctly, his point about writing non-niche related articles is two-fold: 1) ease of writing, and 2) popularity of articles.

Ease of writing - it is a heck of a lot easier writing 20 articles about something you're interested in, regardless of its relation to your niche, than it is to write 20 articles about "blue spotted widgets".

Popularity of articles - the point of using articles is for the backlinks. So you want your article to be syndicated, ie: picked up from the article directories by various blogs and webmasters hungry for content. The webmasters are more likely to pick up your article on a popular topic (regardless of its relation to your niche), than they will want to repost articles on "blue spotted widgets".

I've not been doing enough articles, or over enough time yet, to make a call on whether or not I think the strategy works. Frankly, I'm a "not all my eggs in one basket" kinda guy, so I prefer articles+ a lot of other strategies.

I received that email also..and on that note how are we suppose to get more links if no one has any Interest in are boring article on blue shoes ?..I bought this program because I wanted to follow system that worked to make $300 per day for someone else..I am really lost..can not wait to read the new update.. I hope that my answers are In their. I thought it was kind of to easy to think that all I had to do was use articles for back links.

[Ghalt]

My guess is that you should be doing both. Write some niche-related articles for better link-juice and for resource-box click-throughs, and write the 'easy' articles for fast syndication.

I think there's also some magic in picking your topics and your categories. There are definitely better categories than others to write about/post in.

[Philly]

Originally Posted by Ghalt

My guess is that you should be doing both. Write some niche-related articles for better link-juice and for resource-box click-throughs, and write the 'easy' articles for fast syndication.

I think there's also some magic in picking your topics and your categories. There are definitely better categories than others to write about/post in.

Has this method of article backlinks helped you rank high on Google for a certain keyword..like the top 5 ?

[Steve Crooks]

There is no doubt about it that articles "especially" from ezine will bring in some good link love to your pages. However, article directories on their own are generally not enough, in my opinion you have to mix it up with other backlinks. There is the hope that eventually other webmasters will use your articles on their sites as well.

[Philly]

Originally Posted by Steve Crooks

There is no doubt about it that articles "especially" from ezine will bring in some good link love to your pages. However, article directories on their own are generally not enough, in my opinion you have to mix it up with other backlinks. There is the hope that eventually other webmasters will use your articles on their sites as well.

So why do you think John claims that this is all he does for back links ?..do you think he is leaving something out that we need to know ?

[Ghalt]

Has this method of article backlinks helped you rank high on Google for a certain keyword..like the top 5 ?

Yes and no.

It's hard to tell, because I don't do SOLELY article marketing. I do blog comments, social bookmarking, forum posts, etc. So it's not a 'clean' test of article marketing.

I have some niche sites (created long ago, apart from XFactor's strategy), that get a significant click-through-rate from EZA, all on niche-related articles.

But you can also go out and find high-ranking "Xfactor-ish" sites (which you WILL run across if you're doing enough niche research), and use Yahoo's Site Explorer to find out where their backlinks are coming from...and I've seen #1 ranked sites that have only 15 EZA articles and 1 repost on a blog...from articles completely unrelated to the niche.

My sites that I'm using to test XFactor's method are also only about a month old, or less. Some have been in the top 5, then dropped back. Some dropped back to page 3. Some of those have crept back up to page 2. It's dizzying.

I can't help myself, because I'm a Data Analyst by trade, so I compulsively track and test. But I think this is why John stresses to not worry about it, and to KEEP MOVING.

John would probably slap me for the time I spend tracking vs. "doing the work", noting that if I took the time I use to track everything to actually write more articles, things would take care of themselves. But I'm not in a hurry. Once I've tested it and find that it works, I'll go wide-open-throttle on it.

[Shane Dolby]

How can you be lost? its the most simple and easiest to understand thing around. I wrote a course awhile back similar to this and its funny how people just dont know how to follow simple directions..Or even read the bloody thing all the way through.

He specificaly said in the course that he uses other article directories besides EZA.

No wonder people dont make money.

Instead of following directions as set out you ask umteen million questions and never end up doing a thing.

If you think you know a better way than do it!. quit asking questions and just follow the guide it works as written! Can you improve on it yes. but as i say again it works as written!!!!

I use Johns course as a base and than added my own spins and twists. Me and My partner have tons of sites we have put up in the last 3 weeks already earning and are pushing 20 a day in that time.

Shane

[Philly]

Originally Posted by Shane Dolby

How can you be lost? its the most simple and easiest to understand thing around. I wrote a course awhile back similar to this and its funny how people just dont know how to follow simple directions..Or even read the bloody thing all the way through.

He specificaly said in the course that he uses other article directories besides EZA.

No wonder people dont make money.

Instead of following directions as set out you ask umteen million questions and never end up doing a thing.

If you think you know a better way than do it!. quit asking questions and just follow the guide it works as written! Can you improve on it yes. but as i say again it works as written!!!!

I use Johns course as a base and than added my own spins and twists. Me and My partner have tons of sites we have put up in the last 3 weeks already earning and are pushing 20 a day in that time.

Shane

I did follow the guide and It is not working !...that's the problem.

[m4ster]

How much time has passed since you've started, how many websites you've built and how many articles you've submitted?

Those are all simple questions, but whole process is based on that. If you haven't done enough of that, that's probably the cause of your failure.

[Steve Crooks]

No, I don't think so because the type of keywords he targets are generally lowish competition that don't need so much off page link love as higher competition keywords. As always, it is very niche dependent as well.

Originally Posted by Philly

So why do you think John claims that this is all he does for back links ?..do you think he is leaving something out that we need to know ?

[Shane Dolby]

So the Problem is one of 2 things you picked the wrong niche's or you have not let enough time to go by.

[Philly]

Originally Posted by Steve Crooks

No, I don't think so because the type of keywords he targets are generally lowish competition that don't need so much off page link love as higher competition keywords. As always, it is very niche dependent as well.

Hi Steve,

The way I pick a niche is with Mnf ..I look for exact match keywords with no more than 100,000 competing pages and soc green light..Is that the right way to do this ?..also only buy domains with the exact keyword in the domain..no words at the end...com or org..no .nets for me.

[XFactor]

Originally Posted by Philly

Hi Steve,

The way I pick a niche is with Mnf ..I look for exact match keywords with no more than 100,000 competing pages and soc green light..Is that the right way to do this ?..also only buy domains with the exact keyword in the domain..no words at the end...com or org..no .nets for me.

Just got pointed to this thread.

Philly, I would say that 100,000 is a lot of competition for a micro-niche
site, not sure where you go that figure as it is indeed high to start.

About your sites, yes this method works, as a backlink is a backlink
when it comes to search engine spiders crawling them back to your sites.

But also - yes - you can make some extra clicks when writing for your
niches, of which I have been testing lately.

As far as your progress is concerned, you are not giving anyone here
enough information.

We would need to know your exact keyword you are having trouble with
in order to fully help you, of which I realize you probably do not want to
do in public.

- John

[Philly]

Originally Posted by XFactor

Just got pointed to this thread.

Philly, I would say that 100,000 is a lot of competition for a micro-niche
site, not sure where you go that figure as it is indeed high to start.

About your sites, yes this method works, as a backlink is a backlink
when it comes to search engine spiders crawling them back to your sites.

But also - yes - you can make some extra clicks when writing for your
niches, of which I have been testing lately.

As far as your progress is concerned, you are not giving anyone here
enough information.

We would need to know your exact keyword you are having trouble with
in order to fully help you, of which I realize you probably do not want to
do in public.

- John

Hi John,

I have A few questions:

1) What is a good number for competing pages "exact match" if 100,000 is not ?


2) What is a good soc number ? 10..20..30..?


3) Is ezine articles still the one and only source you use for back links like you state in the book ?


4) And is it correct that we should use ezine articles and only ezine after the first 2 sites are built ?

[nettech]

IMO, it seems like your keyword research may not be targetted enough. I would suggest something less than 20,000 exact match and something thats lest than 20 SOC, thats a good start, although I generally go for something even less than that, generally SO = <10 and exact phrase under 10k, I'm in the process of writing the content for these sites so when I get the results I'll hopefully let everyone know how I get on. Its obviously working for John and others so it may be your keyword resarch.

Just my £0.05

[nettech]

John, oher than EZA and GoArticles, are there any other Article Directories you use or recommend?

Thanks
Zaheer

[bigbyte]

The article submission method is working, but it is a slow process. SEO in general is slow if you go white hat this way. You can also mix it up with other things. But as mentioned before it really depends on your niche. And even if Micro Niche Finder gives you a green light, it might take more work than anticipated. I have a couple of sites that are just moving up very slowly. However, think long-term and do not expect super results right away. Keep building new sites and do more SEO work.

[hamburglar]

Here is my success so far in regards to ranking high:

I have 5 sites.

4 sites have SOC of less than 10 and low competition, around 20 k or less.

Site #1 and site #4 ranked on the first page with the FIRST INDEX!!!! Why?? Because of extremely LOW competition and SOC.

You are looking for numbers SOC < 10.

You are asking open ended questions in which I think people have given you gold nuggets. Test out EACH method.

Now here is a teaser for you.

SITE #4 HAS 0 BACKLINKS. NO ARTICLES WRITTEN AT ALL, YET IT RANKS ON THE FIRST PAGE, (# 4 position i think)!!!

Wanna know how? LOW SOC. Instead of chasing high exact phrase count with high competition look to the low ones. You will be surprised the amount of gold there is.

TRY EVERYTHING AND ELIMINATE WHAT DOESN'T WORK. It is really that simple. If you only have 1 or 2 sites then you really have no good sample to judge why your sites rank low. You must gather a big pool of sites and try many different things until you understand what works and what does'nt.

JUST DO IT!!

[carlos123]

I am a newbie at this but if I might jump in and suggest something I plan to do and which I think has been mentioned around here somewhere (though for the life of me I can't remember exactly where)....

Try doing some keyword research on the article ideas you think you might like to write about and which are somewhat related to your web site niche. Choose some really low hanging fruit keywords that would not make decent web sites in and of themselves (traffic is too low...say over 500 but less than about 1000 local search volume) but which show some searches occuring in the search engines. Write articles around those keywords. Such articles should get picked up by the search engines and might generate some traffic for you.

In other words...instead of just writing articles for articles sake...write some articles around keyword phrases related to your niche that are what one would consider very low hanging fruit (i.e. easy pickings).

Of course keyword research is the most boring and time consuming part of all this (I am doing it all manually at this point using just the Google Adwords Tool mainly). It pays to not rely only on what a piece of fancy, schmanzie software tells you is a good niche keyword by a green light in it's interface.

Just a thought for what it is worth. Take it with a grain of salt as I am, like I said, a newbie here.

Carlos

[AJsVRE]

One other thing to think about, not EVERY single site is going to have the same results. Especially if you've picked higher competition keywords. Even if you pick one that has a SOC less than 10 and less than 10k results.. Google doesn't do everything the same way all the time.

I forget where it was mentioned in the ebook, but it was said that things can TAKE TIME to rank. Sometimes they rank right away, and other times it takes them a MONTH to settle down and rank on the first page. So.... how long has it been since you built the site and started getting some links to it? It may just take some time is all.

Edit - I'm not saying that to be mean, I'm just trying to point out a possibility. The other thing.. if you get frustrated and give up.. then what?

[Steve Crooks]

Well it certainly works for John and a lot of other people are reporting success as well but it isn't how I do things personally.

The other problem is that if everyone uses the same tools, using the same methods to pick niches then a lot of those keywords are going to get saturated with similar sites. Think a bit more out of the box and look for other ways of choosing niches and keywords.

Originally Posted by Philly

Hi Steve,

The way I pick a niche is with Mnf ..I look for exact match keywords with no more than 100,000 competing pages and soc green light..Is that the right way to do this ?..also only buy domains with the exact keyword in the domain..no words at the end...com or org..no .nets for me.

[simpleadsense]

Originally Posted by Philly

Hi Steve,

The way I pick a niche is with Mnf ..I look for exact match keywords with no more than 100,000 competing pages and soc green light..Is that the right way to do this ?..also only buy domains with the exact keyword in the domain..no words at the end...com or org..no .nets for me.

You should be looking for exact phrase counts of 10,000 or less with MNF. The lower the better. I bought MNF quickly after starting with Adsense and first chose a niche where I grabbed several keywords with right around 5000 exact phrase match (EPM) and was ranked first page in one week, since then I have developed several other sites around different niches one of which is using phrases that are in the 20,000-25,000 EPM range. Using the same methods as my first site it has taken me over a month to start seeing some first page rankings.

If you are looking for quick and easy rankings go for the low hanging fruit as ever one likes to say, however, sometimes the Adwords cost makes it well worth putting a little more effort and waiting the extra time it takes to get ranked.

Additionally, although a niche may be green for it's SOC and have a low EPM it may be hard to break into due to the PR of the sites on page 1. Try to work with niches that have an average PR of 3 on the first page (add the PR of the top tent sites and divide by ten).

[promo_guy]

I have sites ranking pretty easily with millions of results if you have the main keyword in the url/domain and have good on-page optimization. Article marketing is good, but it's not the only method to get backlinks and rank.

Don't rely on one method as Google et al want to see backlinks from a range of sites and sources. Sure, if your keyword is relatively obscure, you may not need ANY backlinks!

For example, I have a domain with NO content, the keyword in the domain, NO backlinks and is on pg 1 at #5. Why? The low-hanging fruit idea. I just hope I get the traffic! lol

Don't be afraid to target higher than green SOC. Even basic SEO can get you good results unless you're targeting something highly competitive like "loans" or "mortgages".

Take the information given and put your own twist to it. There is no "do it this way only" method. Ya know?

I guess what I'm tryin to say Philly is, don't rely on just EZine. Diversify

[M Thompson]

Just some information about what i do with adsense

First off as i think was mentioned above, google stats are not the best in the world, When i build my adsense sites I never even look at the competition on google. If it has more that 1000 searches, and has a green SOC i know I can rank #1 for it. (I rank #1 for a site with 6,000,000 competing pages relatively easily)

I always start by getting my on page SEO 100% correct, I use wordpress as this makes it easy and i can have a site up in 15 minutes.

I then submit an article to ezine articles for each page i've built, I'll then let the site settle down for a while so i know what i need to do to get #1

Once i know what i need I'll spin articles and submit them to various resources, I'll always add unique articles to ezine articles..

Ezine is for income & links everywhere else is for backlinks only. so if you want a quick injection of cash add articles to ezine articles if you want a quick rise up the ranking submit 30 spun articles to various resources.

If you go to my blog Mark Thompsons Internet Marketing Blog and look about 2 weeks back you'll see a free guide called the article leverage guide v2 It will give you a heads up on getting hundreds of backlinks easily.

[Philly]

Originally Posted by M Thompson

Just some information about what i do with adsense

First off as i think was mentioned above, google stats are not the best in the world, When i build my adsense sites I never even look at the competition on google. If it has more that 1000 searches, and has a green SOC i know I can rank #1 for it. (I rank #1 for a site with 6,000,000 competing pages relatively easily)

I always start by getting my on page SEO 100% correct, I use wordpress as this makes it easy and i can have a site up in 15 minutes.

I then submit an article to ezine articles for each page i've built, I'll then let the site settle down for a while so i know what i need to do to get #1

Once i know what i need I'll spin articles and submit them to various resources, I'll always add unique articles to ezine articles..

Ezine is for income & links everywhere else is for backlinks only. so if you want a quick injection of cash add articles to ezine articles if you want a quick rise up the ranking submit 30 spun articles to various resources.

If you go to my blog Mark Thompsons Internet Marketing Blog and look about 2 weeks back you'll see a free guide called the article leverage guide v2 It will give you a heads up on getting hundreds of backlinks easily.

Hey Mark,

Just want to say thanks man..I really appreciate that.

[arttse]

I am researching a niche atm. I have identified 10 long tail keywords specific to that niche. This niche has very good search results and very low competition.

A dot com domain is available for all 10 long tail keywords.

Am I better off getting all 10 domains and putting one article on each website or should I just get one domain and put all 10 articles on the one website?

Feedback appreciated.

[clickbump]

In a word, YES. But I'd much rather be scoping out my next niche than writing, LOL. So I sorta do a mix between Xfactor method and Google Sniper...

I try to hit the mark with the niche selection so I don't have a lot of work to do before getting in the money...It's been pretty successful so far, but I still pump a few articles out to support my misses... (and I only use EZA)

[kumkum]

I also doing x-factor MN adsense project..

but i just grab from the forum thread , not buying his ebook nor joining forum.

It's almost 2 weeks , and one of my site pages were on google pages 2

dunno whether it'g good or not

but i'm just go on and trying to make another site..

I will try until 3-6 month doing this..

there's a lot of if not too much ..
new thread popping and new method coming up.

but i just want to do a basic from those john thread...
and add some little white SEO to it..

Life goes on.. be persistent

[tjcocker]

Look, I didn't subscribe to John's thing but he'd be the first to tell you that YOU need to test and try whatever works for you. His method is not gospel. Ooohhh, I'm kinda giddy that I got to say it before anyone else including John...

Learn new things, move on, learn others, adapt, etc..

It's the only way in this business. Don't expect to buy a product and have 100% faith that it will do everything for you. Sorry but you're in the wrong business if you need that sort of thing. Get out now and give up.

Otherwise, use your mind and overcome. You will find success that equals your effort.

[mrlong]

Originally Posted by tjcocker

Look, I didn't subscribe to John's thing but he'd be the first to tell you that YOU need to test and try whatever works for you. His method is not gospel. Ooohhh, I'm kinda giddy that I got to say it before anyone else including John...

Even though you're 'giddy' and even though you didn't subscribe to 'John's thing', I'm wondering how you can feel that you can speak for him and tell us what he would say?

Unless I'm missing something you don't know him. Makes it rather difficult to tell others what 'he would say' doesn't it?

Mike

[tjcocker]

Originally Posted by mrlong

Even though you're 'giddy' and even though you didn't subscribe to 'John's thing', I'm wondering how you can feel that you can speak for him and tell us what he would say?

Unless I'm missing something you don't know him. Makes it rather difficult to tell others what 'he would say' doesn't it?

Mike

Jeez, I read his thread here at WF, and I read him saying basically what I said no less than a half a dozen times...

He's said himself many times that we all need to find what works for us.

Why so paranoid?

[SladeK]

Sorry to butt in here, but just had a question regarding this general adsense method. I have only been involved in IM for a month now, so bear with me.

Say I find a keyword that fits all the criteria in terms of searches per month and low competition, and that keyword is:

digital wrist watch <--- this would be the keyword for my homepage

Now, for additional pages, do I find simply long tailed keywords for that keyword that fit the criteria.

IE:
Digital water resistant wrist watch
Digital wrist watches
Strapless digital wrist watches

Or is it more important in a situation like this to go for keywords with brand names in them to make the site look a little less spammy?

Or am I just over analyzing this and should just get to work and figure it out for myself?

[tjcocker]

Originally Posted by SladeK

Sorry to butt in here, but just had a question regarding this general adsense method. I have only been involved in IM for a month now, so bear with me.

Say I find a keyword that fits all the criteria in terms of searches per month and low competition, and that keyword is:

digital wrist watch <--- this would be the keyword for my homepage

Now, for additional pages, do I find simply long tailed keywords for that keyword that fit the criteria.

IE:
Digital water resistant wrist watch
Digital wrist watches
Strapless digital wrist watches

Or is it more important in a situation like this to go for keywords with brand names in them to make the site look a little less spammy?

Or am I just over analyzing this and should just get to work and figure it out for myself?

You could also target "digital watch", "wrist watch", etc. Your long tail keywords don't really need to have all the words from your main keyword in them, but they should relate. You can go for brand names, or general types, (red wrist watches). Some of them you'll find after your site is live and it starts to rank for long tails. You could rank well for some of them with no dedicated pages, just your main page.

I guess the answer is try it out and see what happens. Testing is the only way to know for sure.

[distinctly_digital]

I think I've missed something; what is a 'soc' score?

[kevin campbelle]

Originally Posted by distinctly_digital

I think I've missed something; what is a 'soc' score?

SOC- Strength Of Competition.

It's one of the ratings fields in Micro Niche Finder.


Kevin.

[distinctly_digital]

hows it calculated? Do you have to use Micro Niche Finder?

[Intrepreneur]

Another faster way of getting a quick backlink is to comment on a blog with a recent commenters sidebar. Saves a lot of time with the Xfactor method.

[catzilla]

Lots of responses here already but thought I'd add my 2 penneth...

Xfactor's system is working for me very well. As well as new sites that are getting some decent traffic I tried it on some of my older sites that are in very competetive markets. From being way down on page 7 or 8 in google, after adding 15 new articles to EZA for my main keywords the site is not at no's 3 and 4 for some high traffic keywords. Very impressive.

I always knew that EZA works well - sometimes you just need reminding!

Xfactor's course is well worth the investment.

Mike