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Need help from experienced article marketers please!

by edmltw
11 replies
I have been trying out article marketing for the past week, so far, I have only been getting free back links, but not a sale yet. So I wanted to ask the professionals here, if I am submitting an article a day to 15 different article sites manually, linking them to my pre-sale page, is there like a rough gauge of how long more will I then start to see the sales coming in? I am using click bank as my affiliate program, so i sort of like check the hops, roughly about 10 hops per 200 views on my articles, and only like 1 hop made it to the order form. Should I switch to a better selling product? Or should i improve on my pre-sales page? Or should I pump in more articles? Or should i improve on my author resources box? So far two of my articles made to the first page with the keywords I am focusing on, however, looking at my google analytics stat.s , none of my traffic (10 hits So I am guessing my pre-sales page is fine lol) Came from the keywords search. Most of them were directed from blogger itself. Which made me even more confused.

Any help will be deeply appreciated!

Cheers and regards!
Edmund
#article #experienced #marketers
  • Profile picture of the author Zack Lim
    Hi Edmund,

    There are many other factors that you will have to consider.

    Here are the 3 things that you might want to consider:

    1) The volume and quality of the articles.

    You might want to have more quantity of quality articles as this will ensures that there is consistent traffic coming to your website. You can get a lot of free and quality article marketing training from Ezinearticles.com/training and Ezinearticles.com/blog. One of the point that they have mentioned is that article marketing is a long term strategy and consistency is very important.

    2) Your Landing Page

    You might want to check your landing page and see whether it contains the relevant information that your potential customers are looking for. You will want to communicate directly with your visitors the benefits that they will get from you when they click on the link in your website. Putting a opt in form on your website will ensures that you can follow up with your subscribers and get more sales.

    3) Conversion

    You might want to check the click through rate of your article resource box, then the click through rate of your landing page to your affiliate link and finally the sales conversion of the product. This will enables you to see the stats and you will know which component that you will need to improve.

    Just my 2 cents. Hope this helps

    Zack
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    • Profile picture of the author edmltw
      Thanks Zack! Glad to hear from another Singaporean! Btw, how much is considered a decent volume of articles? Is about 1~2 articles a day for a whole month considered enough? Or should iIat least submit 5 articles a day? And also I made the landing page blended more towards the positive side of the affiliate product instead, will that be okay? Regarding the last part: conversion, I am planning to use statcounter to analyze the activity on my landing page and the click bank analytics for the click on the hop.s , However, I do not know how to check for that click through rates for my Author resource box.. Is there any method I could use?

      Thanks and Regards!
      Edmund


      Originally Posted by Zack Lim View Post

      Hi Edmund,

      1) The volume and quality of the articles.

      2) Your Landing Page

      3) Conversion

      Zack
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  • Profile picture of the author desmond11
    It takes a little longer than a week to start seeing some results. Article marketing is a process of writing lots of articles and becoming a expert in your field.

    If you are concentrating on a few niche products, try using a pen name for each one. If you're writing about "how to get rid of man boobs" one minute and "fixing your xbox" the next, you won't be taken seriously.

    If you're concentrating on one niche, you'll need to reverse engineer the top author in that category and see how they do things. What language, titles, resource box they use. There's probably years worth of intel there just by seeing what they do and how they do it.

    Try not to focus too much on the stats on Clickbank etc. I know it's hard to do that at the beginning, but you want to concentrate on writing articles. The sales when then take care of themselves.

    Build backlinks to your best converting article (the one that gets the most clicks to your website) and social bookmark them if poss.

    Hope that helps?
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    • Profile picture of the author edmltw
      Awesome! Right now I am actually doing on only 1 niche, and focusing on one product, and I will only plan to move on to another niche once I start to make money from this one. Wow. Reverse engineer? Sounds technical to me.. Do I need to learn any techniques to do that? Btw, does it mean that the more views I have for an article, it is considered the best converting article?

      Thanks and regards!
      Edmund

      Originally Posted by desmond11 View Post

      It takes a little longer than a week to start seeing some results. Article marketing is a process of writing lots of articles and becoming a expert in your field.

      If you are concentrating on a few niche products, try using a pen name for each one. If you're writing about "how to get rid of man boobs" one minute and "fixing your xbox" the next, you won't be taken seriously.

      If you're concentrating on one niche, you'll need to reverse engineer the top author in that category and see how they do things. What language, titles, resource box they use. There's probably years worth of intel there just by seeing what they do and how they do it.

      Try not to focus too much on the stats on Clickbank etc. I know it's hard to do that at the beginning, but you want to concentrate on writing articles. The sales when then take care of themselves.

      Build backlinks to your best converting article (the one that gets the most clicks to your website) and social bookmark them if poss.

      Hope that helps?
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      • Profile picture of the author desmond11
        Originally Posted by edmltw View Post

        Awesome! Right now I am actually doing on only 1 niche, and focusing on one product, and I will only plan to move on to another niche once I start to make money from this one. Wow. Reverse engineer? Sounds technical to me.. Do I need to learn any techniques to do that? Btw, does it mean that the more views I have for an article, it is considered the best converting article?

        Thanks and regards!
        Edmund
        Reverse Engineering

        Reverse engineering an article marketer is basically finding out how they write their titles, the feel of their article (are they writing from a pro or friend point of view), how they link back to their website. Most top authors have over 400 or so published articles. It's safe to say that they've tested the hell out of everything.

        Focus On Clicks

        I don't really focus on how many views the article gets, I'm more interested in the clicks to my website. I have some articles with over 7000 views and around 600 clicks where others have 2000 views with the same amount of clicks. These are the ones you need to focus on.

        My Findings on EZA

        1. If you've got lots of views and very few clickthrus, then the title works really well and you just need to edit the copy and resource box.

        2. I mix up the direct linking to my website with a combination of the keyword and "click here". The "click here" link gets far more clicks than the hyperlinked keyword. So I use them both in different articles.

        3. I find out if the most viewed article has any backlinks pointing to it (doing a phrase match search with inverted commas). I then look to see which links they're getting, add the same and then throw a few more in for luck.

        4. If you're in a competitive niche, you're gonna have to write lots of articles and submit them between wed-fri. This will ensure they're in the recently published list for the weekend (when you're gonna get the most traffic!). I tested this and my views went up 10 fold.
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        • Profile picture of the author edmltw
          Great info there! Thanks for all the help Desmond! Its time for to get cracking! Hope to make my first sales by this month!

          Thanks and regards,
          Edmund

          Originally Posted by desmond11 View Post

          Reverse Engineering

          Reverse engineering an article marketer is basically finding out how they write their titles, the feel of their article (are they writing from a pro or friend point of view), how they link back to their website. Most top authors have over 400 or so published articles. It's safe to say that they've tested the hell out of everything.

          Focus On Clicks

          I don't really focus on how many views the article gets, I'm more interested in the clicks to my website. I have some articles with over 7000 views and around 600 clicks where others have 2000 views with the same amount of clicks. These are the ones you need to focus on.

          My Findings on EZA

          1. If you've got lots of views and very few clickthrus, then the title works really well and you just need to edit the copy and resource box.

          2. I mix up the direct linking to my website with a combination of the keyword and "click here". The "click here" link gets far more clicks than the hyperlinked keyword. So I use them both in different articles.

          3. I find out if the most viewed article has any backlinks pointing to it (doing a phrase match search with inverted commas). I then look to see which links they're getting, add the same and then throw a few more in for luck.

          4. If you're in a competitive niche, you're gonna have to write lots of articles and submit them between wed-fri. This will ensure they're in the recently published list for the weekend (when you're gonna get the most traffic!). I tested this and my views went up 10 fold.
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          • Profile picture of the author angela99
            Hi Edmund

            I do lots of article marketing, so as far as "how many articles" is concerned... just keep writing. :-)

            Are you creating your own blog/ site as well as writing for the article directories? If you haven't done that, do that first. You can create as many free blogs as you like on Blogger.

            Then post articles to your blog, and to the directories.

            Build up your blog, and then you can promote several products on the same blog; this gives people a choice of products, and as your traffic grows, you'll see sales.

            Good luck. :-)

            You've made a great start, and as you continue to invest time and energy, you'll make sales.

            Cheers

            Angela
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            • Profile picture of the author edmltw
              Hi there Angela.. Thanks for the advice.. So instead of purely inserting the pre-sales link, I should also include another link to a blog that is purely about the articles I written and other affiliate products so visitors will have more choices to choose from? Just a question, I realize I have been posting to many article directories, however only a few accepted my articles, the rest has been stagnant, and even lesser would show up on the first two pages of Google. What are a few recommended article directories I should be adding my own articles to? A few site i am already submitting to are like goarticles, buzzle, ehow and articlebase. Thanks!

              Regards,
              Edmund

              Originally Posted by angela99 View Post

              Hi Edmund

              I do lots of article marketing, so as far as "how many articles" is concerned... just keep writing. :-)

              Are you creating your own blog/ site as well as writing for the article directories? If you haven't done that, do that first. You can create as many free blogs as you like on Blogger.

              Then post articles to your blog, and to the directories.

              Build up your blog, and then you can promote several products on the same blog; this gives people a choice of products, and as your traffic grows, you'll see sales.

              Good luck. :-)

              You've made a great start, and as you continue to invest time and energy, you'll make sales.

              Cheers

              Angela
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  • Profile picture of the author kelvin yeo
    Edmund:

    Here's what I have figured out based on my experience. Might be different for other people so bear this in mind ya.

    If your goal is to make sales (whose isnt eh?), then your sole focus should be on getting clicks on your hoplinks. In general, a decent cb product will convert at 1 in 50 hops (at best) all the way to 1 in 200 (at worse). If you get 300 to 500 hops with no sale, then you wanna look at another product.

    If you're using article marketing (instead of say PPC) this is the best way to test whether a certain product will convert decently and make money. You gotta get enough clicks on your hops to make that judgment call you see.

    Now in your case, you have a pre-sales page that your articles lead to right? And then any visitor to your site will have to click on a hoplink to get to your affiliate product ya? So in fact there are 3 "actions" that visitor has taken -- firstly to choose to read your article, then click on your resource box link, then on the pre-sale page to finally click on your hoplink.

    The problem with this sequence is that there 2 "uncertainties" -- whether that product will convert and whether your pre-sale page will do its job well. For me, I will test the product first by writing articles with resource box links that go direct to that affiliate product merchant page. Only when I know the product can convert do I insert a pre-sale site into the picture.

    So for me I will test niches and products by writing enough articles to generate at least 300 hops so that I know the product will make me money. How many articles will generate that number of hops? It really varies with each niche. I just write as many articles as I need to to get my 300 hops. Of course, you can use PPC/Adwords to do this testing too but I recall you saying you wanna stick to free methods for now.

    As for your articles, a decent click thru rate on your resource box link is about 15-25%. So for every 100 views, you should be aiming to get 15 to 25 clicks on your resource box links.

    Hope this helps a bit dude.
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    • Profile picture of the author edmltw
      Hey Kelvin..

      Hmm.. Regarding placing the affiliate links directly on the resource box.. Not many high ranking article directories allow that when you post an article.. Is it just a myth? Or is there a well-known article directory which you can post your articles too.. Could I like PM you my articles and pre-sales page so you can help me suggest improvements? Sorry about imposing on you though..

      Regards,
      Edmund

      Originally Posted by kelvin yeo View Post

      Edmund:

      Here's what I have figured out based on my experience. Might be different for other people so bear this in mind ya.

      If your goal is to make sales (whose isnt eh?), then your sole focus should be on getting clicks on your hoplinks. In general, a decent cb product will convert at 1 in 50 hops (at best) all the way to 1 in 200 (at worse). If you get 300 to 500 hops with no sale, then you wanna look at another product.

      If you're using article marketing (instead of say PPC) this is the best way to test whether a certain product will convert decently and make money. You gotta get enough clicks on your hops to make that judgment call you see.

      Now in your case, you have a pre-sales page that your articles lead to right? And then any visitor to your site will have to click on a hoplink to get to your affiliate product ya? So in fact there are 3 "actions" that visitor has taken -- firstly to choose to read your article, then click on your resource box link, then on the pre-sale page to finally click on your hoplink.

      The problem with this sequence is that there 2 "uncertainties" -- whether that product will convert and whether your pre-sale page will do its job well. For me, I will test the product first by writing articles with resource box links that go direct to that affiliate product merchant page. Only when I know the product can convert do I insert a pre-sale site into the picture.

      So for me I will test niches and products by writing enough articles to generate at least 300 hops so that I know the product will make me money. How many articles will generate that number of hops? It really varies with each niche. I just write as many articles as I need to to get my 300 hops. Of course, you can use PPC/Adwords to do this testing too but I recall you saying you wanna stick to free methods for now.

      As for your articles, a decent click thru rate on your resource box link is about 15-25%. So for every 100 views, you should be aiming to get 15 to 25 clicks on your resource box links.

      Hope this helps a bit dude.
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      • Profile picture of the author kelvin yeo
        Originally Posted by edmltw View Post

        Hey Kelvin..

        Hmm.. Regarding placing the affiliate links directly on the resource box.. Not many high ranking article directories allow that when you post an article.. Is it just a myth? Or is there a well-known article directory which you can post your articles too.. Could I like PM you my articles and pre-sales page so you can help me suggest improvements? Sorry about imposing on you though..

        Regards,
        Edmund
        Edmund:

        Affiliate links are not allowed, you're right. BUT redirects are ok as long as you have your own domain name as the primary link. Do the redirect at your domain registrar side.

        Sure, happy to help a fellow warrior, so go ahead and PM me your stuff. Might need a couple days to get back to you though -- a bit pressed for time this week...
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