Article Syndication + Email Marketing Checklist

by Victor Roy

Posted: 9 years ago 15 replies

EMAIL MARKETING

OK so I'm looking to move beyond the SEO + Adsense model I've been using with my real estate site (mentioned in this post) and I've decided to go with Article Syndication > Build Email List > Promote Clickbank and CPA offers.

Please have a look at the steps I've taken so far and let me know what you think, if I missed anything, or even if you just want to share some encouragement that's appreciated too!

All of the following was done over the last 2 days.

1. Updated my site to a responsive theme.
2. Posted a unique article on a static home page which will not be syndicated.
3. Posted and got 2 more articles indexed on my site.
4. 1 of those articles has also been submitted to EzineArticles for syndication.
5. Created a freebie to giveaway to subscribers.
6. Signed up to GetResponse.
7. Placed a prominently incentivized opt-in on my home page and in the sidebar.
8. Created 2 messages for my autoresponder series.
9. Created a thank you page.
10. Picked a fairly cheap product on Clickbank to promote, the sales page looks good, no obvious leaks, no crazy hype.
11. I've decided to promote this product with a related article instead of a review. The article deals with the subject and the product is basically 'more of the same, but in greater depth'.
12. Identified several other products that could be promoted the same way.
13. Finally tested everything to make sure people can sign up and get the freebie without any issues.

Short-term plans:

1. Begin searching for potential syndication partners.
2. Write more messages for the autoresponder. I'm going to be mailing every 5 days so I need to write a little more than 1 a week.
3. Write and index more articles, probably a few this week, and then slowing down to ~1 a week after that.
4. Submit these articles to EZA as they get indexed on my site.
5. Create a video with the same content as the article on my home page so people can watch or read, whichever they prefer.
6. Sign up to some CPA networks to add to my available offers.

Longer-term plans:

1. Repurpose the articles into videos, podcasts, and presentations to reach other syndication outlets and potential subscribers who prefer to consume content in formats other than reading articles.

#article #checklist #email #marketing #syndication

drschool 9 years ago

Seems like a solid plan to me! Thanks for sharing it.
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Alexa Smith

Banned 9 years ago

Originally Posted by Victor Roy

All of the following was done over the last 2 days.

Someone's been busy!

Originally Posted by Victor Roy

4. 1 of those articles has also been submitted to EzineArticles for syndication.

That's a tiny afterthought: it's not really "syndication". All that can ever achieve is a little "passive syndication" (i.e. you're relying on publishers who want an article in that niche going to EZA, finding it, and re-publishing it), and that tends to be slow, variable and very unreliable. I'm not suggesting there's anything wrong with it, at all (and indeed, I do it myself, after my entire article syndication process, just as a "last-stage afterthought" but doing that isn't "doing article marketing" at all, really: it's kind of "the last 1% of article marketing without the first 99%).

Originally Posted by Victor Roy

5. Created a freebie to giveaway to subscribers.

Ok, good - does it serve ALL these purposes? (Very, very important, because if it doesn't, you're significantly devaluing the list you're building).

Originally Posted by Victor Roy

9. Created a thank you page.

Good - does it give clear instructions, both in words and with pictures, about what subscribers need to do, to make sure they receive in their in-box the download link for the free report/product they just requested? (Again, essential for your open-rate.)

Identfying the potential syndication partners is something I do at a much earlier stage, myself (can't even choose the niche without doing that first, really, but possibly you have a niche in which you already know that isn't a problem?).

This traffic-generation method relies very heavily on getting them published "in the right places", and that's the bulk of my everyday work.

Originally Posted by Victor Roy

Short-term plans:
4. Submit these articles to EZA as they get indexed on my site.

I do that much later. It's the last thing I do, really, with each article. (I don't really want to be offering publishers an article that's already in Ezine Articles, if I can help it ... but the order may not matter all that much).

Originally Posted by Victor Roy

5. Create a video with the same content as the article on my home page so people can watch or read, whichever they prefer.

Ooooh ... ("rather you than I!"

).

Sounds good to me, anyway. Good luck!

Thanks
1 reply

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Victor Roy

9 years ago

Originally Posted by Alexa Smith

Someone's been busy!

Can I just say...whew!

That's a tiny afterthought: it's not really "syndication". All that can ever achieve is a little "passive syndication" (i.e. you're relying on publishers who want an article in that niche going to EZA, finding it, and re-publishing it), and that tends to be slow, variable and very unreliable. I'm not suggesting there's anything wrong with it, at all (and indeed, I do it myself, after my entire article syndication process, just as a "last-stage afterthought" but doing that isn't "doing article makreting" at all, really: it's kind of "the last 1% of article marketing without the first 99%).

I decided to go with myob's recommendation to build up a stable of articles at EZA to point to for a little added credibility. But I get what you're saying.

Ok, good - does it serve ALL these purposes? (Very, very important, because if it doesn't, you're significantly devaluing the list you're building).

I'm reasonably sure it takes care of all of that. To what degree remains to be seen!

Yes to the instructions at least in the form of words. I was thinking about going back and fleshing it out a bit more with pictures, or even a video.

Identfying the potential syndication partners is something I do at a much earlier stage, myself (can't even choose the niche without doing that first, really, but possibly you have a niche in which you already know that isn't a problem?).

This traffic-generation method relies very heavily on getting them published "in the right places", and that's the bulk of my everyday work.

I have had articles republished in this niche in the past, some of them still send a trickle of traffic years later. I just never pursued it in any kind of systematic way. I know of a few places that I'm reasonably sure I can get published, my focus will be in growing that list into the hundreds, thousands or more. There are probably millions of outlets in this niche (market really).

Ooooh ... ("rather you than I!"

I've made dozens of videos for my gaming channel so making a few for this won't be a big deal

Sounds good to me, anyway. Good luck!

Thanks!

Thanks
1 reply

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Alexa Smith Banned 9 years ago

Originally Posted by Victor Roy

I was thinking about going back and fleshing it out a bit more with pictures, or even a video.

Originally Posted by Victor Roy

I've made dozens of videos for my gaming channel so making a few for this won't be a big deal

You're obviously a great video enthusiast, Victor.

In these circumstances (i.e. of "article syndication") I'm going to risk annoying you by offering some unsolicited and perhaps even unwelcome advice, based on my own observations across 9 different niches and 6 years of doing this, during which time I've made all the mistakes there are and learned from some of them.

The demographics of "article syndication traffic" are - collectively - about as strongly "anti-video" as you can get.

I advise you not to use any videos on your "thank you page", not to use any videos on any other pages, and not to send your subscriber traffic to any video sales pages.

I occasionally "have" to promote products which include one or two small "testimonial videos" on their sales pages. When I do this, I apologise in advance for doing so, and explain what those testimonials say, so that my subscribers won't have to play the videos.

I never send anyone to any page with autoplay video on it (that would be a huge mistake, for me).

Videos are for videogame enthusiasts, people without families, people whose computer doesn't share a room with anyone, people with state-of-the-art computers and broadband internet connections, people who have speakers and don't have to worry about "unexpected sound", people who aren't at work, and so on. Some of those criteria apply to you and to me, because we're professional internet marketers. But we're not our customers, and they don't apply to all of our potential customers, and for the most part we have no way of knowing/predicting when/which. "Article marketing traffic" comprises people who like text, not video. My subscribers across a range of entirely different, unrelated niches say so, loud and clear, repeatedly, frequently and often without even being asked.

http://www.warriorforum.com/off-topi...o-content.html

"Just my perspective", as the saying goes.

.
- Thanks
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Victor Roy

9 years ago

Alexa, it amazes me that so many people are so hostile toward video. Although things like long boring unskippable autoplay videos are annoying, no question.

So thought I'd share a bit of an update on my journey...

1. I got 11 more messages added to my autoresponder series so I'm pretty much set for the next 2 months.
2. My first article was accepted and published at EZA.
3. I submitted articles 2 and 3 to EZA that where already indexed on my site.
4. I've written and got indexed another 2 articles on my site.
5. I took Alexa's advice and put pictures on the thank you page explaining how to whitelist my email address to new subscribers.
6. I recorded the content of articles 1, 2 and 3 and posted it to my youtube channel.
7. I also reworked the same content into slides and posted to slideshare.
8. Finally the big one...

I've been working my *** off reaching out to about 100 bloggers/webmasters/ezine publishers a day with some good results. So far I've got replies back from 20 potential partners.

10 want unique content only.
4 said yes but they're not going to make a firm decision until the new year.
4 said yes and have scheduled to post 1 or more of my articles.
2 have already posted one of my articles (the same article actually).

1 went live yesterday around noon EST, the other went live this morning at 8am.

Results

Website #1 - Sent 106 visitors yesterday and so far another 73 today
Website #2 - Has sent 38 visitors so far today

From this 17 people have subscribed to my freebie list and...

Drumroll...

I got 1 sale for a commission of $37!

Wooo happy dance!

Thank you so much to all the Warriors sharing their knowledge and experiences. It's inspiring and if you dig enough you can find out all you need to get started.

[ 1 ] Thanks
3 replies

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Alexa Smith

Banned 9 years ago

Originally Posted by Victor Roy

I've been working my *** off reaching out to about 100 bloggers/webmasters/ezine publishers a day with some good results. So far I've got replies back from 20 potential partners.

10 want unique content only.
4 said yes but they're not going to make a firm decision until the new year.
4 said yes and have scheduled to post 1 or more of my articles.
2 have already posted one of my articles (the same article actually).

1 went live yesterday around noon EST, the other went live this morning at 8am.

Ok ... thanks for the update. Congratulations on the sale. It's a start. Perhaps an awkward time of the year to be starting, a week or two before Christmas? Let's hope after the holidays the "strike-rate" and response-rate will both improve? Good luck and good wishes ...

Thanks
1 reply

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teeowl

9 years ago

Hi, please how do you get syndication partners when you are just starting a new website?

I just posted some of my unique articles to EZA and I also made them into video articles and posted them to youtube.

Originally Posted by Alexa Smith

Thanks
1 reply

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Alexa Smith Banned 9 years ago

Originally Posted by teeowl

Hi, please how do you get syndication partners when you are just starting a new website?

Some of the suggestions here may help: http://www.warriorforum.com/main-int...ml#post6575732

Originally Posted by teeowl

I just posted some of my unique articles to EZA

I strongly advise you never to put unique content into Ezine Articles. Here's a short-ish thread which explains why, over the course of a few of its posts: http://www.warriorforum.com/main-int...marketing.html

(Posts #2 and #6 of this thread may possibly help, too: http://www.warriorforum.com/main-int...ml#post5068872 )

.
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teeowl

9 years ago

Hello,

Do you have to rework the content when putting it into slides (i used my own content as it is) and posting to slideshare?

How did you get bloggers and webmasters to contact? (was it through google your keywords and contacting them)

Originally Posted by Victor Roy

7. I also reworked the same content into slides and posted to slideshare.
8. Finally the big one...

I've been working my *** off reaching out to about 100 bloggers/webmasters/ezine publishers a day with some good results. So far I've got replies back from 20 potential partners.

10 want unique content only.
4 said yes but they're not going to make a firm decision until the new year.
4 said yes and have scheduled to post 1 or more of my articles.
2 have already posted one of my articles (the same article actually).

Thanks
1 reply

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2015 - my year of breakthrough!

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Victor Roy 9 years ago

Originally Posted by teeowl

Do you have to rework the content when putting it into slides (i used my own content as it is) and posting to slideshare?

You don't HAVE to, but I did just to make it flow a little better. My slides are basically bullet-point versions of my articles.

How did you get bloggers and webmasters to contact? (was it through google your keywords and contacting them)

You got it! Googled my keywords and starting emailing the sites that popped up.
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Alast

9 years ago

Originally Posted by Victor Roy

Results

Website #1 - Sent 106 visitors yesterday and so far another 73 today
Website #2 - Has sent 38 visitors so far today

From this 17 people have subscribed to my freebie list and...

Drumroll...

I got 1 sale for a commission of $37!

Wooo happy dance!

Thank you so much to all the Warriors sharing their knowledge and experiences. It's inspiring and if you dig enough you can find out all you need to get started.

I'm incredibly jealous right now. I've been working full-time for roughly two months; sent over 700 emails to publications, had probably 30-50 publications publish my article(s) and haven't had anywhere near the success you've had. The most traffic one has given me was about 30 unique visitors - and that was from two articles.

Congrats, though.

Thanks
1 reply

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Victor Roy

9 years ago

Originally Posted by Alast

Congrats, though.

I followed your challenge and honestly I almost decided against going the article route because of your struggles. After reading brittlesnc incredible success it was easy to imagine that you can just send a few emails and the money will roll in. Seeing the 2 extremes is pretty sobering.

As for my bit of success, don't feel bad, it could just be a case of beginners luck. Or it could be my niche. Or it could be that I already had an established site. Or that I had some authority built up from posting on niche forums. Or all of the above.

Today was interesting...

1. I got ZERO replies from the emails I sent out (again about 100).
2. Article #2 was accepted and published on EZA already, wasn't expecting it to go live so fast!
3. I finished up article #6 and it was indexed within a few hours.
4. I posted videos and slideshows of it along with articles 4 and 5.
5. I syndicated those videos across my social network which includes: facebook, g+, twitter, pinterest and 4 niche forums.

Today's Results

Website #1 - Sent 17 visitors
Website #2 - Sent 0 visitors
Youtube - 0 visitors
Slideshare - 2 visitors
Social - 3 visitors

Got 1 more sign up to my freebie list, so that's a total of 18 plus 1 on my buyers list. No new sales.

Still waiting for those other 4 websites to post my articles. However, Website #1 agreed this afternoon to post another of my articles next week, so that's really exciting considering the traffic I got from the first one!

[ 1 ] Thanks
1 reply

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Alast

9 years ago

Originally Posted by Victor Roy

I must be doing something wrong. This is my second real attempt at article syndication (I admit my first attempt was a failure - the one which I started a challenge for) and although I made my first sale around two weeks ago, I haven't had success since. I do have 34 subscribers right now, and some magazines publishing my articles between January and March (I'm relying on those to bring me traffic) but I haven't had luck with blogs/newsletters/online magazines whatsoever.

When you search for publications, do you at all look at their social media following? I'm now going to focus on publications (blogs) which have hundreds of thousands/millions of followers, because I know they should bring me lots of traffic. I'll also focus on magazines and newspapers as well - but I suspect their social media presence is unimportant compared to online publications.

Thanks
1 reply

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Victor Roy

9 years ago

Originally Posted by Alast

When you search for publications, do you at all look at their social media following? I'm now going to focus on publications (blogs) which have hundreds of thousands/millions of followers, because I know they should bring me lots of traffic. I'll also focus on magazines and newspapers as well - but I suspect their social media presence is unimportant compared to online publications.

As we discussed privately, I haven't been focusing on the social presence of potential syndication partners, but the two sites I previously mentioned are both doing well socially so it may be a good indicator for sites that will send good amounts of traffic. I think the thing that makes the real difference is how ENGAGED their audience is.

Anyway, as promised here's my latest update...

Yesterday I took a bit of a break and didn't contact any sites. I did however...

1. Finish writing articles 7 and 8.
2. EZA posted article #3.
3. Website #1 posted a second article of mine.
4. I got 3 new positive replies from webmasters I contacted last week
5. I contacted 200 more websites and within hours got 5 more positive replies.
6. Posted a video and slide version of article #6.
7. Finally Website #3 posted one of my articles this morning as well.

Results

Website #1 - Sent 173 visitors over the last 2 days.
Website #2 - Sent 14 visitors over the last 2 days.
Website #4 - Sent 42 visitors today.
Youtube - Sent 1 visitor.
Slideshare - Sent 2 visitors.
Social - Sent 4 visitors.

For a grand total of 236 visitors - 26 new subscribers - and 1 new sale!

Total commission so far: $74

[ 1 ] Thanks

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chris29 9 years ago

What WP theme are you using or could you point me to a good one?

One with an opt-in box on the right or top.

Any free themes I could use? Something clean and responsive. I've been searching through the WF :

http://www.warriorforum.com/main-int...t-opt-box.html

http://www.warriorforum.com/main-int...ml#post4732432

http://www.warriorforum.com/member-c...ml#post8661552

...haven't found anything favorable. Any suggestions?
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