Is article marketing a waste of time?

There is a WSO right now from Amy Bass. She offers a 3 day free trial. Check the site, learn and apply the knowledge. Also for article marketing you can use Article Post Robot.

Article marketing is great, but why not set your sights a little higher... viral marketing is where it's at.

- Jared

Article marketing is not a waste of time. It just takes a little
bit to get going and a little getting used to how to do it right.

As long as your landing page/pages are good and the product you're
going to promote is a good converter, you should be able to make
your goal easy.

What 30 day challenge thread are you talking about?

Nobody can tell it better than Gregg who has published and profited from hundreds of thousands of articles. It requires patience and a game plan as most have suggested.

Article Marketing should be a part of your SEO strategy.

A long term business model would be to create your own Membership Site or product of your own. The key is to have a continuity income paying you every month.

Again there are many pieces that you need in place. Article Marketing is going to take you some time before you start seeing $2k per month unless you have a ton of Articles that were written by Ghostwriters and are high quality content... Don't use PLR articles unless you want to get slapped.

Bryan Dulaney
Fit Rich Life

I find that article marketing works even better if it points towards a product of your own. Best long term strategy is to have your own products.

TomG. - Blog Flipping Fool!

Article marketing is one of the most powerful long-term techniques. Why would it be a waste of time?

create a bunch of 'autoblogs' to promote your 'real' blogs - this will give them a quick boost in the serps. There's a bunch of ways to do that.

I wouldn't think so,i think article writing is a pretty good way to promote ones site,provided that article is well written and not overly concerned with selling of any sort,and is properly backed up by efficient Linkings.

Article marketing, Good method to update your knowledge too...

Well I added an extra $1500 a month to my earnings as a result of the 30 day challenge so I wouldn't say it was in vain. In fact it was worth alot more than that to me because I found a few great products to promote that will make me money for a long time to come. You can see my results here. I haven't done anything to those articles or sites since and the sales still continue to come in.

Just because there weren't alot of sales reported in the first 30 days doesn't mean people didn't make sales as a results of the challenge - if it's your first time doing article marketing you can't expect huge results straight away.

Problem with article marketing and submissions is that you are creating GOOD content for other sites Another problem is if you don't create unique content (which takes a lot of effort / money), you end up submitting same article to 100s of article directories and duplicate content penalty kicks in.

Article Marketing Works! I am in Jeremy Kelsall's Internet Marketing 30 Day Bootcamp and he told us a few strategies to use when doing article marketing.

I implemented it and after a few tries, I manage to get the "timing" correct and got a whole lot of traffic to my site.

The only problem is my landing page is not convertng. Still need to work on that.

Almost none of the reasonable methods people use to make money online are a waste of time... but I do think article marketing is one of the hardest, and most potentially disheartening ways for newbies to start out, especially given that they won't understand most of the concepts.

There are easier, quicker and more long term ways to drive traffic to a site.

For your $2000 a month, choose a profitable niche.

The niche you choose can make the difference between $300 per month and $2000.

Franck

Article Marketing does work and will work to various degrees based on your efforts. I have ONE article that has consistantly made me $200-300/month for about a year now, and a slew of others that make a sale every month or so ($20-30).

The key is to focus on what you want to accomplish with your article. Many people think if they get just one article view per day, it's a failure. But articles are forever. One view per day is over 350 views per year. If it converts 1:75, you're looking at 4-5 sales for 20 minutes of work.

I am working on a product, which will probably never see the light of day, tentatively called "With Just an Article". It's a pretty good jumpstart for people getting into article marketing, to show them how to effectively leverage just ONE article. Many people puclish an article at eZineArticles and that's it. There is SOOOO much more you can do.

Jim

I wanted to add to my post that a lot of Article Marketing Newbies tend to have the "Get Rich Quick Mindset." Article Marketing will not work for you.

As others have said, Article arketing can be a great step and tool in building a longterm, solid, stable online business, but it's rare that sales pour in the first day!

There's no reason why article marketing cannot take anyones current business and literally blast it to the next level and beyond. It works!

And I'm not saying that because of what I do...I base all of my posts here on cold hard facts. I've seen it happen over and over, again and again. You just have to give it time and realize what you are doing.

Allen Graves

Just to be clear: at what point is it "safe" to put the article on your site?
Thanks, all.

It's definitely not a waste of time. It just isn't that fastest way to get visitors to your products or affiliate products.

Gregg,
Thanks, that's what I'll do. Enjoyed your post.

Pay per click advertising definitely gets traffic faster. A campaign I set up in just a few hours now gets 200+ visitors per day for $0.08 average per click. Not bad.

In terms of scalability, article marketing is not as fast, but you can scale it up too. Just think 'more' and 'better'.

Fabian

If it is, then it's absolutely the best waste of time I've ever did. Something that makes good money can't be synonymous with "waste of time". As others have noted, as long as you do it right..

Article marketing helps you test your product's marketability, the effectiveness of your landing page and it helps you to learn a new skill.

Waste-o-time?

I think not!

I believe article marketing is the best way for a newbie and of course for anyone who doesn't have the money for a PPC campaign. Article marketing can help even the experienced test the waters before investing the $$$.

I made my first sale from article marketing so it's not a waste of time IMO. I will continue you to do it as well.

A lot depends on the niche. For some niche, within a few hours after my article got published in ezinearticles I got 2-3 sales. In other niche, even many days after the article was published I got no sales.

Your plan sounds great.

It's a method I use myself and it's worked for me for... um (thinks)... four years.

Your will work, and long as you put it into action: it all depends on YOU.

Cheers

Angela

Wow, Angela Booth responded to my thread! I am a huge fan, but had no idea you were a member of this board! If you say my plan will be successful, then I have no doubts.

I stumbled into freelance writing last December. Since then I have had an up and down career writing articles and website content for people. I wish I knew the secrets to getting consistant, higher paying jobs (By higher paying, I am talking .04 cents per word).

Thanks for all the responses to this thread. I am going to give it a go and see what happens. The way I see it, people are paying me $10 per article. They must be getting a larger return if they are willing to put that cash out there.

Article marketing can never be a waste of time. It is here that you get more traffic and are paid more. Any intelligent and attractive article marketing does influence people to buy it and get you money. But a shabby work cannot take you anywhere. So your target should be the right niche, selection of right keywords, and the way it is all presented.

I think it depends on whether you like writing and can write.

I haven't written a single article and probably won't. It would be a waste of my time. I don't want to work 15 hours a day/ I work 2 or 3 and make 5 figures per month.

I use other methods to drive traffic that work very well.

There is another thread in here that expounds on that.

The thing with article marketing is that it takes time to get to 200-500 visitors per day. At the least, it will take months.

With PPC, you can set up a campaign in hours and get 200 visitors per day at click prices of below $0.10, if you have the right keywords.

But you'll want to do both just to increase overall traffic.

Fabian

Article marketing should be part of your arsenal of getting traffic. Article marketing is a long-term traffic source. I don't think it would be a waste of time at all. All you have to do is spend about 20 to 30 minutes writing one article. Once you submit it, it will be there forever and it would just keep spreading as time goes on.

Jeff

Article marketing, in my experience, is a great strategy for long-term traffic and possibly sales. If you want instant income, run an ad in the newspapers. My conversions off the newspapers are ENORMOUS ... of course it will depend on what it is you're selling, but the bottom line is they will visit your site because they WANT to genuinely check out your product or opportunity. Surfers, on the other hand, tend to browse more. I will never in a million years top my offiline conversion rates online. Try it! And there's no better time to promote in the papers than now ... as the rates are going down to entice customers who've migrated to the net back.

Hope that helps,

Anthony

The trick with article marketing is consistency. If you just blast 5 articles out to the directories and sit back and wait for the money to roll in then you are going to be very disappointed.

It's worth remembering that the articles will bring you traffic over and over again put the work in, reap the rewards over time.

Thanks
Pete

I believe the important thing with article marketing is that you gotta do it regular. Keep creating some unique content at regular intervals.

If one of your articles get featured somewhere, then boom your traffic will explode.

No, article marketing is not a waste of time. Articles can create your PR. Article Post Robot is good for this.

I really believe you've got to examine the profitability of the niche you're in.

I've found some niches are almost EASY to make money in with article marketing. And others just don't convert, no matter how hard you work

Article marketing has always worked for me, the key is to find a niche and write good quality articles that provide the reader with some good information they actually need without giving everything away. Your resource box should then lead to the product that they are actually looking for.

The most important thing to consider is whether or not you have a specific game plan. Is that plan based on theory, experience, free information you picked up, or expert coaching?

It is very easy to say "Yes, all the hard work is going to pay off..." -- or, "You'll start to see a good amount of sales in 30 days..." -- but, without knowing exactly what you are doing, how can anyone, that has successfully reached the goal you are seeking, give you an honest answer?

Many of us come to this forum because we are seeking help. The fact is, if you want to be successful, find out what the successful are doing, and follow their lead. So, coming here is the first step.

Now that you are here, find the most successful article marketers and do what it is they do. Follow people that have a specific plan for achieving success in article marketing.

If your budget will allow you to purchase their best product, do so. If not, find the level you can start at (purchasing information) and as you begin to earn, use a portion of your profits to upgrade your training. Yes, this is very basic, but you may be surprised how few people actually do this.

To this I will add ... there is an article you may find helpful by Yaro Starak. Just do a Google search for -- article marketing -- the title ... "Is Article Marketing Worth Your Time?" (currently in the number two spot on Google).

He is an article marketer that has found some success blogging and may have some helpful information in his article, along with some tips that may help with your blogging in order to reach your financial goal.

The bottom line is simple ... find those that have succeeded through article marketing and "copy" their blueprint for success.

Hope something here helps,

Kelly

It works without a doubt! Good, quality content has been and will always be devoured by the SE's.
Most people don't like article marketing or have a negative opinion about it because they're lazy. (oops, did I say that out loud?)
It takes a little work, but it does pay off.

Your plan sounds great looking forward for it

Yes working on these approaches and they work.

I make almost all of my income from article marketing alone. It's an incredibly powerful technique if you know how to use it right and understand it completely. Trust me - I made a lot of mistakes along the way and learned a lot in my journey with article marketing. Now, I understand how to achieve success with articles, as well as know that it takes time to see it work.

Eventually, if you do it right, you begin to see a snowball effect over time.

Article marketing works, and is residual if done correctly. I just took a 3-4 month break from my IM stuff, and still pulled in the numbers you are talking about above. It is all in how you structure your business and marketing efforts.

Mike

Article marketing is certainly not a waste of time, provided it is done in the right way. Articles enlighten surfers on the usefulness of your product and thus enhance their interest in it, thereby increasing chances of purchase.

i personally think i cant get enough articles out.

I actually have to hold back, article marketing, press releases == Great.

Of course, dont only focus on A/M...but its only one factor and i think its important.

I guess you need to really be producing quality articles that add value and work on perfecting the headlines, so people actually click on it.