Article Marketing is Over-Rated

[Jim Edwards]

Article marketing by itself offers limited value. Instead, leverage the content by using it in different places. Modify the article and post it to your blog. Then bookmark it to the social bookmarking sites. Then submit it to blog carnivals. Then make it a bullet point PDF file and upload it to the free e-book directories. Then read it into a microphone and record it as a podcast. Then video tape yourself talking about the topic and post it to YouTube.

Leverage, leverage, leverage. That's the key to content generation.

[Ben_Curtis]

Jennifer,
I appreciate your input. I have @ 45 live articles now (you see how new I am) and I am rethinking how to use that content in ways that will, as you say, build my empire, and not EzineArticles'. I probably need EZA right now, but as my site ranks higher, it is a good idea to put my quality content in my own "other places" as well.
Regards...

[simplosys3]

Well, I do agree with you in some parts, in the sense that if you give it all away via your articles, then there is no reason for the reader to follow the link to your website.
However, if you can really write well and manage to capture the readers attention, then chances are high that he or she is gonna want to know more. It is a delicate balance between what to write for directories and what to put on your content, if you can manage this, then article directories will deliver traffic to your website.

[zistix]

Hey all! I am new here, but I agree with ALL sides of this discussion. Do it all and you reap the best of ALL worlds. What more can be said than that? However you(individually) choose to approach your article usage, is for you to decide. Whether for time constraints, ease of using your time wisely, jumping in all head-first and headlong......you can do NO WRONG if you are ATLEAST doing something!!!

[sree94]

I would say if you are Frank Kern or John Reese and making millions of dollars a year, then yes, article marketing might be a waste of time

For the rest of us, it is a fantastic traffic source

[Shakul]

I definitely agree with point c) about the back links, getting link from small _ TARGETED_Anchor text links will greatly help.

[cosmokid]

Wow, thanks for keeping this thread alive, guys and gals!

Some updates - since this article was originally posted a while ago.

In the past five months I've noticed that backlinks from high ranking forums, edu sites, and blogs are carrying much more power than article directories backlinks. At least for the sites I've tested.

When I get a handful of extremely powerful backlinks from places like I mention above, I find that the pages I'm linking to on MY site from THEIR site rise very quickly in the SERPS - even for very new pages on very new websites I've built.

I would also like to remind people that getting overly dependent on ANY third party service or site is always a bad idea. The service or site can go down without warning. Remember when Squidoo's entire site was deindexed by Google for several weeks in June 2007 because they had a bunch of porn spammers infest Squidoo? People using the Squidoo lens strategy to get traffic were out of business for a while.

SO many people just use ezinearticles for traffic. They submit as many as twenty articles a day. Please realize that this an extremely short-sighted way to build a "business." What will you do if Ezinearticles goes down or Google decides to give backlinks from Ezinearticles much less credibility in its listings? I'm seeing this happening already since the last Google update. A lot of niches I've been studying which used to have ezinearticles showing on the first or second page of Google for certain keywords no longer show ezinearticles in those juicy spots anymore.To me, this shows a longer term trend of Google placing less "trust" in ezinearticles.

Every day, in every way, Google is tightening the screws on webmasters and making it harder to "cheat" credibility by submitting material to free third party sites or bookmarking, etc. They will always reward webmasters who are steadily building content on their OWN sites.

There's nothing wrong with doing some article submission, but please, please, please build as much content (hopefully more) on your own site. (Or focus more on building quality backlinks from sites OTHER than ezinearticles - which seems to be more important right now. I'm finding that the amount of content on my sites doesn't matter so much but the quality backlinks count more than ever.)

Jennifer

[magentawave]

I just read through this entire post (whew!) and there is lots of good info here.

I like your style of writing so just subscribed to your newsletter Jennifer.

What do you think about this plan for creating self-hosted WP niche sites...

By the way; none of these sites are in IM.

1) Create 10 to 20 reviews within a 'Review' category.
2) Post articles 5 to 7 times per week using original content with a couple appropriate affiliate links - and also content from other article directories like EA for example.
3) Build a list by creating a 'FREE Report' and newsletter and put an opt-in in the top right sidebar of every page and at the bottom of every post (which I read is what you are doing).
4) Create an ebook I will sell and put a linked ecover of it in the right sidebar to a sales page on the same site.
5) Get one way back links using Linkvana and NextGen Links.

I am doing that with 6 sites right now. I'm making a little income from Adsense but plan to take away the Adsense as soon as I'm done with creating the opt-ins for each site (Which includes doing the following: setting up the campaigns in my GR account, creating the free reports and AR newsletters for each site, etc.). When I'm done with setting up the optin, I plan on creating 10 more similar sites in different niches.

Do you think that is a good plan for creating sites?

Thanks
Steve

[cosmokid]

Steve,

There's nothing wrong with the strategy you've outlined here - although I can't speak personally about using Linkvana or NextGen links. I tend to be wary of using any third party linking service in case the usual thing happens a) Google figures out a way of spotting these linking patterns and decides to deindex or punish all the sites using the system and/or b) the service itself goes down and you lose all those links. Google is getting smarter about spotting paid links so be careful.

If you're publishing your own ebook in the future that sounds like a good strategy - mixing both reviews of other related products as well as informative articles related to your topic. Building a list can work okay depending on the niche, although I don't recommend it in all niches. As an ebook publisher though it will help you to have a list. In affiliate marketing, it's not needed so much. (I don't have lists for my affiliate marketing sites, just my ebook publishing sites.)

I'd focus more on building backlinks from high quality forums, blogs, and edu sites yourself instead of getting overly reliant upon third party services - just in case the Big G takes a sledgehammer to those third party services.

Jennifer

[Hililuud]

I think taht you are right that you should put targeted keyword articles on your site and that will give you organic traffic but why not get both article and organic traffic? Its all a simple copy paste a way.

I'd like to see you do article marketing for a month (post both on site and on directories) and see if you don't get more traffic.

[Hililuud]

I thank you for posting this, it gave so much information that I can use, thanks!

[magentawave]

Do you think its possible to create an authority site where most of the articles come word for word from article directories? Has anyone done that yet?

Thanks again!
Steve

[dndoseller]

I totally agree, in my experience article marketing is for people who don't have or don't want Websites.

I want links that give referral traffic AND Page Rank pass.

Except for EZA they are the worst kind of backlinks because I see absolutely NO referral traffic from articles.

I get way more actual referral traffic from blog commenting a plain old fashioned directories!

[Matt Gannon]

Originally Posted by magentawave

Do you think its possible to create an authority site where most of the articles come word for word from article directories? Has anyone done that yet?

Thanks again!
Steve

i was also thinking about this...

[MeTellYou]

Originally Posted by Tom Borowski

That should read "... INSTANT traffic from getting my articles accepted at EZineArticles." The way things are right now, it's everything but instant

This just made me smile! You guys are awesome!
Sebastian

[adamv]

Originally Posted by venomous2000

I see where you are going with this post. Very interesting. I will defiantly be keeping check to see what other people think

Nice generic post that can be applied toward any thread on any forum. Keep it up and you'll have a huge post count in no time.

(Note heavy sarcasm)

[AdamWB]

Originally Posted by cosmokid

Wow, thanks for keeping this thread alive, guys and gals!

Some updates - since this article was originally posted a while ago.

In the past five months I've noticed that backlinks from high ranking forums, edu sites, and blogs are carrying much more power than article directories backlinks. At least for the sites I've tested.

When I get a handful of extremely powerful backlinks from places like I mention above, I find that the pages I'm linking to on MY site from THEIR site rise very quickly in the SERPS - even for very new pages on very new websites I've built.

This is 100% true. Although alot of my business is based off article marketing, and I make a very comfortable living from it, I am finding that high quality backlinks, even from random non-related blogs, do far more in link juice than some silly article directory.

I have to disagree with the Ezinearticle comment though. I have articles on there that have been supplying me with traffic and income for years. Okay yeah it may go down, or google may de-list it - but I'm pretty sure that's as likely as Google going down. Its more than obvious Google LOVES Ezinearticles, and that's not changing any time soon, or ever. The owners are smart enough to know that if something is happening to their site that google doesn't like, they will change it instantly. They've done it before, and they will continue to run their site in such a manner.

What's even more, Google makes a LOT of money off of Ezinearticles adsense advertising (and so does ezinearticles), and I'm almost positive Google would most likely contact them beforehand if they had a problem with them, resulting in Ezine quickly fixing whatever issue google had. I'm just speculating, but it makes sense from a pure business perspective, and let's face it, Google is 100% business.

[lcombs]

WOW!
What a thread!
What a debate!

And it's sooo simple....

Write (or have written) your articles;
Post them on your site;
Submit them to EZA;
submit them to 2 or 3 other important directories;
submit them to all the other directories.
In that order.

If you're really ambitious, re-write them so they're unique, and do it all over again.

Oh, I forgot to mention to post them on all web 2.0 as well.

LC

[Barry Walls]

I can't believe I read it all!

Great job.

[RebeccaL]

Originally Posted by dndoseller

I totally agree, in my experience article marketing is for people who don't have or don't want Websites.

Wow, I won't spend time responding to that, but you're way off the mark there.

People who have success with article marketing are often doing a lot more than what you think. Once you have a succesful campaign going you build out from there with multiple websites plus redirected domains.

Article marketing is a great way to test offers and campaigns when you don't want the risk of PPC.

[PeterParker]

alot to take in here brain freeze

[Ryan_Heidrich]

That is quite a bit of stuff I didn't know. Do you twitter. You may very well be familiar with Twitter but I am finding it to be a great place to develop trust with people online and start a social discourse at very minimal or no costs

[JAIDEEP2959]

Definitely not.

If you watch weight loss section of Ezinearticles you will find some articles got over 40,000 views in the last 90 days.

People who want to purchase any ebook, come to Ezinearticles for reading review and if your article show up there, you have a great chance of making a good amount of money.

[Domenick King]

Very good thread, and insights from everybody, alot good information here, could turn this whole thread into a ebook, awesome stuff.

Peace, Prosperity & Internet Marketing

[joelraitt]

Yah, I like to get articles written for m and then use them in different ways, even send out an email with it so my list, articles, blog, and see where it goes...For instance I just put 2 articles on IM on ezines, and in the first day I have 35 views between them and 4 URL clicks...we will see where is goes! They key is to link back your articles and get them listed fast for long tail terms!

[megaresp]

Originally Posted by cosmokid

...a juicy link from ezinearticles is nice, but after you have one backlink from them, the backlinks aren't as valuable.

This isn't true.

It's especially not true if you happen to have multiple sites and/or web pages to promote. For example, a blog, Delicious, Twitter, Technorati, mini-sites, Squidoo lenses, various different pages on your main site, and so on and so on.

What's more, a series of articles may link to the same page for different keyword phrases. Anyone aspiring to page one of Google will indeed want more than one link from a site like EZA.

And of course, an author doesn't have to link only to his/her own site.

I think your comment overlooks the value of using social media, forums, blogs and article sites to create a virtuous circle. Of course, this only works if...

• You're a prolific content creator
• You're well organised
• You're patient

Note: I'm not doubting your online success, or your current strategy. In fact, I agree with the value of adding more content to one's own site.

I'm merely commenting on the idea that each additional link from Ezine Articles is less valuable than the last.

[oregoncountry]

Originally Posted by cosmokid

Recently someone asked me how to improve traffic to their website, which was still pretty new. This person was submitting lots of articles to external articles directories.

Jennifer

EXCELLENT read Jennifer, thanks so much! It was really timely for me as I am very new at this whole Affiliate Marketing thing. I have started writing, so much that I realize I can actually put a book together, or at the least, an ebook. But your post is right on, I just feel the same way about putting all my writing out there instead of on my own site. Besides that, I just don't like the idea of juggling all those sites. This way, I can just focus on my website and niche.

Yep, I think you are absolutely right and I'm going for it. denise

[jennstall]

Originally Posted by Simon_Sezs

I don't think that the "pros" bother with article marketing (I am not talking about the article marketing pros like Steven who probably generates more content than most are capable of). Do you really think that someone wanting to rank in the top 3 for the keyword "credit cards" really do a social media and article directory blitz in the hopes that they get ranked? Heck, these guys don't do blogs or CMS....if you look at their sites, they own static sites with one CPA site after another.

Take a look at their links and tell me one of the so called "common ways" that you read in the forums that they use. You would be hard pressed to find one with links from the article directories or social sites.

I tried doing article marketing for CPA offers. It doesn't work. No sooner are you getting traffic, you are also getting a notice that the offer is expired, has changed, or is being redirected to another offer.

My understanding is that most of the "pros" promoting CPA offers do PPC so they can change links and ads on the fly.

Article marketing is a long term strategy so it makes the most sense for stable affiliate products where the product itself and the links to it don't require constant updating to keep up with it.

[RebeccaL]

Article marketing works for *some* CPA offers - but rarely for ones in big niches like credit, weight loss etc. Look for highly unique offers that require very little from the user.

[Hamida Harland]

Originally Posted by jennstall

I tried doing article marketing for CPA offers. It doesn't work. No sooner are you getting traffic, you are also getting a notice that the offer is expired, has changed, or is being redirected to another offer.

My understanding is that most of the "pros" promoting CPA offers do PPC so they can change links and ads on the fly.

Article marketing is a long term strategy so it makes the most sense for stable affiliate products where the product itself and the links to it don't require constant updating to keep up with it.

It's true that offers expire quickly so you do have to keep your links up to date, but article marketing definitely works with CPA. I've only just started doing PPC with CPA (literally in the past few days) but I've made a decent amount just submitting articles to EZA.

If you use a fairly generic domain and landing page (e.g. just based on colon cleansing as opposed to targetting a specific colon cleansing product) it's easy to just change the links whenever the offer changes - you'll have to do the same with PPC anyway.