Success With Article Marketing?

[pharris1]

I've been plugging away with article marketing promoting affiliate products for about 1.5 years now. I've only made a trickle of dollars in that time. I'm not expecting quick riches. I would like to hear from anyone who has had experience with article marketing and is making a steady income with it? Is it strictly a numbers game tied in with quality content, good keywords and finding the hungry niche? How many articles should I be shooting for to post each month to improve my chances of generating steady traffic and an income?

Peter

[Mr Money Maker]

Some times a person beats a dead horse into the ground....do yourself a favor...just go on ebay, do some research and make some money.
If you took all you know and used 100% of what you learned and became real creative, you could make $25,000 a month there..I know because I have done it myself !!

[Khalil Bashir]

How many articles do you consistently post every month on average? Give more about how you are going about your article marketing so that those who are knowledgeable and successful can give proper analyses to your dilemma.

[pharris1]

I typically only post 5 articles per week. I've hit a few weeks where I posted 20. From what I've read in other posts this is low.

I use Wordtracker and then Google for my keyword research. I look for keywords with high search volume but low competing pages when searched in quotes.

I use keywords in the title, first paragraph, fourth paragraph and resource box. I usually use anchor text in the resource box directing readers to my website.

I also have a blog where I post all of my articles as well. Links there point back to my website - sometimes right to the vendors sales page.

I probably need to up my numbers per month, eh?

Peter

[pharris1]

Thanks for the suggestion. I looked at your site. Nice writing; good information. Let me know when you make your first million!

Best of Luck

Peter

[leclaims]

Do you post all of your articles to one article directory, or do you submit one article to one article directory, and then another article to another article directory, and so on....

I'm just wondering if I submit 10 articles to one article directory, am I going to get credit/links for all 10 articles or 1 link for the article directory.

[TMG Enterprises]

If you've been consistently submitting articles, you should have more than a trickle of sales by now - unless your definition of a trickle is more than mine?

It is not simply a numbers game. There is also the factor of promoting the right thing at the right time - is the thing you are promoting actually being sought after? There is also the factors in the quality of the articles, titles and resource boxes to take into consideration.

Volume is not the only way to succeed at article marketing and large volumes of articles that people don't want to read about products they don't want isn't going to get you what you want.

Basically, what I'm saying is that you have not given enough information to make an accurate guesstimate of what the problem could be.

Tina

[pheonix44]

Leverage Leverage and more Leverage. It's not about how many articles you write unless you have a plan of attack so devastating that google won't know what hit them. But even if google is not your traffic source the best way to do it is to dominate a given niche.

Build a list in that niche for consistent income and then look into ways of networking with other successful people in your niche to parlay your past success. I remember I had a list of only 100 people and figured it was useless. I found a site that had 1000s of blogs in my niche.

I contacted them one by one to see if we could share out list. These people only had a few hundred as well so they were not too up there yet to be picky. It worked and my list grew. What I'm saying is you have to take advantage of existing pools of traffic. Check to see what works and then concentrate you efforts in that area to see the best results.

When it comes to article marketing you want your content seen by as many people IN YOUR NICHE as possible. If you can figure out creative ways to do this you're ahead of the game by a mile.

Also don't be afraid to take some of your money and pay for exposure in a certain niche. You'd be surprised how many forums for instance will let you put a small banner there for only 100 dollars or less for an entire month.

[Allen Graves]

Peter,

You are obviously doing something wrong - but it is impossible to tell from the information you have given. The only thing I can tell is that you are definitely doing one or more things incorrectly.

After a year and a half you should have a solid foundation and monthly income coming in.

Can you provide some more details?

Allen

[michellegreen]

Peter, if you've been at this for over a year without results, then I agree that there's something wrong. I know of people making thousands every month with only a handful of articles posted. What you're doing is in excess of that, so I'm surprised you're not making more.

Also, how is your website set up? Do you have a lead capture form on it? Do you offer a free newsletter/report, then continue to get buyers through an autoresponder sequence?

[pharris1]

Originally Posted by Allen Graves

Peter,

You are obviously doing something wrong - but it is impossible to tell from the information you have given. The only thing I can tell is that you are definitely doing one or more things incorrectly.

After a year and a half you should have a solid foundation and monthly income coming in.

Can you provide some more details?

Allen

OK - not sure where to go with this. When I started I was promoting a relationship product. I set up a squeeze page which I still have. I've collected about 500 names with that list (slowly). I've set up an autoresponder through aweber with free giveaways, reports, small ebooks, etc trying to establish a relationship with my list. My emails were set up according to some coaching I received through an IM coaching program. what was interesting here is the sales that I made did not come from anyone on my list. The small handful that I saw came directly through links in my articles.

The other market that I am currently spending my time on is a bodybuilding program. I have a site with an index page (product review page) that I send the majority of my links to. I also post my articles to my site as I write them. I was told once that site like this can rank better in the search engines if it has quality content. I did recently set up a lead capture form on the site but it is not converting well (I offer two free reports written by the vendor). On average I am only getting about 20 views a day. This will spike for a day or two when I post 20 or more articles at once. So it is basically a presell page but my CTR to the vendors page is not that good from what I can tell through statcounter.

Now this site I've only had about 4 to 5 months. Perhaps I just need to step up my game, consistently submit 20+ articles a week for a few months and see what happens. Make minor adjustments along the way to see what works.

When I say a trickle of income I might get one or two sales then not see another sale for 5 or 6 weeks.

I don't know if I'm allowed to post my link to my site here but here it is anyway:

Product Comparison Page

Feel free to tear it apart and offer critical review. I have no ego to protect. I just want to succeed at this.

If there is other specific information anyone needs that will help determine any problems let me know.

Peter

[Fun to Write]

Peter

As someone who has a product review site in a crowded niche, I'll be honest with you. This muscle building site has nothing unique or interesting on it. The copy reads more like a product description than a genuine review. There are tons of similar one page review style sites like this online. Most promote the same products.

People searching for this type of information may have seen other sites like yours. They may have even bought from someone else's site. Burn the Fat is being promoted on thousands of sites. Ho hum for your visitors.

Both of your niches: relationship (get your ex back?) and muscle building are extremely competitive. You've gotta have a site that offers visitors something fresh - a unique perspective on things. Your sites need some originality and personality.

Uniqueness sells online.

When I decided to do a review site in the diet niche (extremely crowded), I purposely didn't do the three reviews on one page format. I did my own thing and actually took the time to write thoughtful reviews of each product.

Still, I haven't really promoted that site much (I started article marketing for it), and consider it a trickle income earner. It makes a few sales per month. I know that when I start promoting it more heavily, it will make a more steady income. I'm comfortable doing more promotion because the site converts. Plus, many pages have good positioning in Google.

Your sites are trying to tell you something, Peter. They are not converting well and it won't matter how many articles you throw out there.

You need to make a decision to either revamp the sites completely, or find a new niche where you have less competition.

[Vanquish]

If you want to make daily sales make sure you are consistent and write at least 5 articles a day to begin with. Make it a goal and write it down the night before you go to bed so when you wake up you have your entire day organized. Also make sure you have a strong call to action in your resource box and get atlest 25% click through rate. If you get good at resoruce boxes you can get a 40%+ rate like I do in some niches.

[rcwilson4au]

For the most part, article marketing is a numbers game. While it is necessary to make sure your articles are optimized for the proper keywords, you need as many articles as possible. Think of articles as high quality backlinks. The more the better!

My company does article marketing for our customers. If you are interested, click the link in my sig!

[michellegreen]

Ok, if I were to come across your site I probably wouldn't sign up because you're yet to show me how credible you are. If I feel that way, then your other prospects do too.

Do you have a blog?

A blog will allow you to build a relationship and it will also allow your visitors to get to know you before they sign up. Unfortunately people are wary about handing over their contact details to complete strangers unless they see you're offering something really compelling.

By posting variations of your articles onto your blog, you're building your credibility and showing your personality. People like that. Just a thought and I hope it helps you!

[Dennis-White]

I would ramp up, your articles submitted to 5 a day and try this out for 30 days, I would also start to create 1 video narrative and submit to youtube a day as well. Increase posting, pinging and bookmarking your blog.

Get involved with adswaps, here on the WF and keep building your list. Your on the right track but the markets your in are very competitive not saying you cant make money just you need to do a lil more then your competiters to make some serious doe!

Once you get going invest in creating your very own product for these niches and focus on selling them ahead and along with your affiliate campaign.

[pharris1]

People searching for this type of information may have seen other sites like yours. They may have even bought from someone else's site. Burn the Fat is being promoted on thousands of sites. Ho hum for your visitors.

I've seen many sites similar to mine with similar products. In such a competitive market is it even possible to create a site that is original enough to convert sales?

Your sites are trying to tell you something, Peter. They are not converting well and it won't matter how many articles you throw out there.

You need to make a decision to either revamp the sites completely, or find a new niche where you have less competition.

Any suggestions as to what to do with the site or how to revamp it? The version that is up now is my third revamp and I'm running out of ideas. Should I rewrite the the product reviews as you suggest? Go to a one page review of the main product only with links to the other products? Would before and after pictures be helpful? I'm really not sure how to make this unique.

Ok, if I were to come across your site I probably wouldn't sign up because you're yet to show me how credible you are. If I feel that way, then your other prospects do too.

Do you have a blog?

I do have a blog where I post my articles to as well that includes links back to my site and the vendors sales page. The blog is basic - just text, no pics, videos, ads, etc.

One of the ideas behind my site design was to keep it simple, not alot of distractions for those viewing it. The thought being give them few choices and that would guide them to click to the sales page I'm marketing.

Thanks for you input. Any other suggestions based on my comments would be appreciated.

Peter

[Magic Mel]

This is, for all you article marketing pros. suppose you write an article, highly optimized for keywords in title and body.

Next you submit it to EZA, can you use an article re-writer and create an new article, using the same keywords in the title? If this can be done, do you use that new re-written article and submit it to EZA?

TIA