Is Writing Articles and Submitting to Top Article Directories Still Have Value

113 replies
Is there still any value in writing articles and submitting to article directories heard the value is not there any more.

I am thinking of just focusing on article writing and submissions to top article directories only for a certain period of time .

What would be a good plan to follow weekly on article writing and submissions all done manually.

Not sure if there is any value in spinning the articles and submitting them to directories for what purpose what benefit is there if these things are all spun what is the value frustrated right now with putting a link building plan together

Thanks ...now i know what you guys went through :>) LOL
#article #articles #directories #submitting #top #writing
  • Profile picture of the author AnniePot
    From my perspective, and that of a great many true "article marketers" here, the benefits continue, in fact they have never been better.

    But, the caveat is, are you talking about writing and submitting top quality articles to Ezine Articles for the purpose of syndication? Or are you looking to article submission for SEO backlinking purposes only?

    These are two entirely different tactics.
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    • Profile picture of the author Tina Golden
      These are two entirely different tactics
      Not really. If you focus on getting syndicating, are you not accomplishing the backlinking at the same time? And generally much better quality links, too.
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      • Profile picture of the author AnniePot
        Originally Posted by Tina Golden View Post

        Not really. If you focus on getting syndicating, are you not accomplishing the backlinking at the same time? And generally much better quality links, too.
        Yes, I agree, the end result may be the same, and that's great, but my phraseology may not have been clear; I was referring to two entirely different purposes for the articles you may be writing. If one achieves both results, that's an added bonus.
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  • Profile picture of the author J Bold
    Cue discussion and arguments on syndication strategies and spinning strategies...
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    • Profile picture of the author AnniePot
      Originally Posted by redicelander View Post

      Cue discussion and arguments on syndication strategies and spinning strategies...
      Naah, not from me anyway, it's all been said so many times before, from my perspective at least, the well has run dry. I'll just close with one final observation: Top right > Search this forum
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  • Profile picture of the author Alexa Smith
    Banned
    Originally Posted by onpointinfo View Post

    Is there still any value in writing articles and submitting to article directories heard the value is not there any more.
    There's certainly not much value in using the article directories for their own traffic and their own backlinks. People attribute that to Google's so-called "Panda update" earlier this year, but the reality is that that idea was dead well before then - that was just the last nail in the coffin-lid, really.

    But the idea of using article directories as a stepping-stone to syndication, in contrast, is flourishing and probably never better.

    Originally Posted by onpointinfo View Post

    I am thinking of just focusing on article writing and submissions to top article directories only for a certain period of time.
    Don't do it for their own backlinks ... and you wouldn't want to get traffic that way, would you? For all the reasons explained in such detail in so many article marketing threads here, you don't want "potential customer traffic" coming to your site from EZA. That isn't what article directories are for, and it isn't how they work. Even with a 25% click-through-rate, you'd (a) be losing 75% of them, and (b) probably be inhibiting syndication, too. You should plan for there not to be customer-visitors to your site from article directories. You need to do whatever it takes to make sure that potential customer traffic goes directly to your site and not to article directories. When a potential customer finds one of your articles by putting one of its keywords into Google, the last place you want them finding your article is in an article directory. The EZA copies of your articles are for people searching inside EZA, not for people searching on Google. Potential customers are not searching inside EZA. Potential syndicators of articles are searching inside EZA. Submitting your articles to EZA so that others will take them from EZA and get them in front of their existing, already-targeted traffic, is what EZA is there for. (And when people do that, it will also help your off-page SEO a lot - far more than any article directory itself can ever help it. Article directories are simply a stepping-stone to better places; they're not a reliable traffic source in their own right. Google has made sure of that - fortunately, because we wouldn't to lose our traffic to them).

    Originally Posted by onpointinfo View Post

    Not sure if there is any value in spinning the articles and submitting them to directories for what purpose what benefit is there if these things are all spun what is the value
    None at all that I can see. This thread will give you the whole low-down on spinning articles.
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    • Profile picture of the author eQuus
      Originally Posted by Alexa Smith View Post

      Don't do it for their own backlinks ... and you wouldn't want to get traffic that way, would you? For all the reasons explained in such detail in so many article marketing threads here, you don't want "potential customer traffic" coming to your site from EZA. That isn't what article directories are for, and it isn't how they work. Even with a 25% click-through-rate, you'd (a) be losing 75% of them, and (b) probably be inhibiting syndication, too. You should plan for there not to be customer-visitors to your site from article directories. You need to do whatever it takes to make sure that potential customer traffic goes directly to your site and not to article directories. When a potential customer finds one of your articles by putting one of its keywords into Google, the last place you want them finding your article is in an article directory. The EZA copies of your articles are for people searching inside EZA, not for people searching on Google. Potential customers are not searching inside EZA. Potential syndicators of articles are searching inside EZA. Submitting your articles to EZA so that others will take them from EZA and get them in front of their existing, already-targeted traffic, is what EZA is there for. (And when people do that, it will also help your off-page SEO a lot - far more than any article directory itself can ever help it. Article directories are simply a stepping-stone to better places; they're not a reliable traffic source in their own right. Google has made sure of that - fortunately, because we wouldn't to lose our traffic to them).
      Great info here Lady Alexa, but it's not quite clear to me. Usually you write clearly and succinctly, but the above chunk of copy confused me -- especially the bit about inside and outside of EZA. So please, once more with feeling, and clarity -- for the sake of the clueless, like myself.
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      • Profile picture of the author PhilipT
        Originally Posted by eQuus View Post

        Great info here Lady Alexa, but it's not quite clear to me. Usually you write clearly and succinctly, but the above chunk of copy confused me -- especially the bit about inside and outside of EZA. So please, once more with feeling, and clarity -- for the sake of the clueless, like myself.
        If you write an article and put it on your own site you wait for it to be indexed on Google and then you submit it to EZA. You want people who do a search on Google for one of the main keywords in your article to come to your site and not your EZA article.

        The benefit to you of submitting to EZA is not that Google search results find your EZA article. Being published in EZA means you can be found within the EZA site by people who who are looking within EZA for articles to syndicate - to put on their site or to email to their list, which will be fine for you as long as you are credited as being the original author.

        I hope this helps.

        Philip
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      • Profile picture of the author Alexa Smith
        Banned
        Originally Posted by eQuus View Post

        Great info here Lady Alexa, but it's not quite clear to me. Usually you write clearly and succinctly, but the above chunk of copy confused me -- especially the bit about inside and outside of EZA. So please, once more with feeling, and clarity
        Sorry, Horsie ...

        I think Philip clarified it, just above?

        Two different sorts of people read articles published at EZA.

        The first group is people who use it as a directory, i.e. they go there specifically to look up articles on thyrotoxicosis because they have either a website or an ezine on thyroid disease and they want content for it (which is why article directories exist).

        These are the people for whom we're submitting our articles to EZA.

        They can re-publish our article, with our backlink(s) on their website or in their ezine. They get content without paying for it, and we get some targeted traffic and (if they have a website) a really valuable backlink on their site (it's really valuable because their site is relevant to ours: they have words like "thyroid hormone", "Graves Disease" and "Hashimoto's Thyroiditis" on their site, and we have all those words on ours, too, and Google loves that and it makes our site look really good to Google, as far as that backlink's concerned, so that gives the backlink real value to us, which the article directory backlink certainly didn't have).

        These people are not themselves customers.

        The second group is people who read our article in EZA because they originally put the word "thyrotoxicosis" into Google (as they do when the doctor's just told them they have an overactive thyroid and may end up having surgery for it), and up popped our EZA article in the SERP's.

        This is bad news for us: it means we screwed up. What we wanted to happen was that the copy of that article on our own website would pop up, not the EZA copy.

        The reason for that is that we have (let's say) a 25% click-through-rate from EZA. In simple English, that means that we lose three out of every four of those people. Only one in four of them ever gets to our own website. We're throwing away 75% of that traffic. It feeds on EZA's AdSense and EZA's "back button" and EZA's other articles (maybe) and EZA's other distractions.

        We could and should have had all that traffic at our own site instead. All those people were potential opt-ins and potential sales, but we lost three quarters of them.

        So we need to make sure that as few as possible of those people go to EZA (and as many as possible come directly to us without passing Go and without collecting $200). Fortunately for us, Google majorly helped us to achieve this, not so long ago, with their "Panda update" which devalued the article directories greatly (by their own admission), thus making it easier for us to rank our own sites.
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  • Profile picture of the author MatthewNeer
    There will always be value in article marketing as long as the web remains a text based envirionment.

    Stop and think for a moment about how people receive most of their information online. Its largely through text/copy, there is also video and audio.

    But again, videos are ranked and found because of the text that describes what they are about. So REALLY text rules the web and nothing could be more powerful than an article that just gains power and authority overtime.

    Amen.
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  • Profile picture of the author Miguelito203
    Originally Posted by onpointinfo View Post

    Is there still any value in writing articles and submitting to article directories heard the value is not there any more.

    I am thinking of just focusing on article writing and submissions to top article directories only for a certain period of time .

    What would be a good plan to follow weekly on article writing and submissions all done manually.

    Not sure if there is any value in spinning the articles and submitting them to directories for what purpose what benefit is there if these things are all spun what is the value frustrated right now with putting a link building plan together

    Thanks ...now i know what you guys went through :>) LOL
    Yeah, it still has value. It will not only opportunities to get ranked in the search engines (might get ranked one position for the article linking to your site and another for the actual product review), but you will also get traffic from the article directories. too. If you write for like Ezine Articles, there is also the potential for your article to get syndicated and get you even more traffic.

    Joey
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  • Profile picture of the author onpointinfo
    Thanks to everyone ...;>)

    I am now clearer on this issue about the value of article marketing !

    Alexa.............thanks a million for your great feedback which has cleared something up for me I was having trouble with.

    I am in the offline niche and do not sell products online I sell a service offline. And have some questions now that you cleared up some things for me.

    ********************
    This is what I understood.......... correct me if I am wrong:
    ********************
    * Do not spin any of my articles no need no benefit in them
    * the reason people spin them is not be penalized by google for duplicate content which is a myth
    * submit my articles first to my own blog until indexed in google
    * then submit them to ezine articles and as many other articles directories to help get them syndicated
    * make them longer articles 1000 words long
    * once my article gets picked up contact those people who picked them up individually and inform them if they would like to receive unique articles from me once in a while
    * i do not really benefit from backlinks from article directories so forget about backlinks..........use them for syndication purposes to help get my articles syndicated instead of getting backlinks from them
    *******************

    QUESTIONS BELOW

    1) how do i find people who look for articles to place on their sites can i not google them using some google operators any examples of how to use search operators

    2) how do i know when they pick up my articles from ezine articles or other directories

    3) can i not go approach webmasters who have related websites in my niche
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    • Profile picture of the author Alexa Smith
      Banned
      Originally Posted by onpointinfo View Post

      This is what I understood.....
      You understood plenty, OnPointInfo ... and you ask good questions.

      I'm a webchick and know nothing about "offline", so who knows whether I can answer any of them helpfully?

      Originally Posted by onpointinfo View Post

      1) how do i find people who look for articles to place on their sites can i not google them using some google operators any examples of how to use search operators
      This post is (at least) a partial answer.

      Think "ezines" as well as "websites". Both webmasters and ezine compilers/publishers publish content and seek articles.

      Originally Posted by onpointinfo View Post

      2) how do i know when they pick up my articles from ezine articles or other directories
      Periodically, you search in Google, putting in as your search term a ten-word fragment from each article (preferably the last 5 words of one sentence and the first 5 of the next), between inverted commas. If anyone's published your article on a site that's indexed, it shows up. (And if you change the punctuation a little in the EZA copy, by using a semi-colon somewhere instead of a comma, you'll know - when you look at it - that it was the EZA copy they re-published. It nearly always is, if you haven't given it to them yourself). And you contact them and offer them more (which they very often want).

      Originally Posted by onpointinfo View Post

      3) can i not go approach webmasters who have related websites in my niche
      Yes, and you should. It's ideal. Some of them will be competitors who won't want your articles because they won't want to give you the backlink. Others will. Not all websites belong to "marketers" anyway. (This varies from niche to niche, of course). You need to get good at using Google to identify relevant sites/blogs so that you can get pro-active and contact people, offering them "content for backlinks" (though you don't need to use those words when contacting them). Don't depend only on "passive syndication" from article directories.
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  • Profile picture of the author Wisden Writers
    Being is this service from over 3 years now, know a bit about it

    before Panda, Article Marketing was one of the best Seo Strategy for budget customers if not the best.
    After Panda, i found the results changed dramatically, and it was not that much effective anymore.
    We analyze more and more, changed our methods and now its again a fair enough link building method.

    Tips:
    Don't use same articles in all directories
    If you are not changing titles in each submission, keep it short, 4-6 words max.
    Spun Copies should be checked once before submission.
    Submit in no more than 100-150 Directories but should be 100% manual.
    It will work for sure.
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    • Profile picture of the author Ceeyee
      Why it has to be 100% manual?

      Originally Posted by Wisden Writers View Post

      Being is this service from over 3 years now, know a bit about it

      before Panda, Article Marketing was one of the best Seo Strategy for budget customers if not the best.
      After Panda, i found the results changed dramatically, and it was not that much effective anymore.
      We analyze more and more, changed our methods and now its again a fair enough link building method.

      Tips:
      Don't use same articles in all directories
      If you are not changing titles in each submission, keep it short, 4-6 words max.
      Spun Copies should be checked once before submission.
      Submit in no more than 100-150 Directories but should be 100% manual.
      It will work for sure.
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  • Profile picture of the author stevenelson
    Yes, they are still valuable if the content you are submitting is genuine and relevant to the theme of your website. Most importantly, strategic keywords must be used there in between the article text. Do not submit same article to numerous sites.

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  • Profile picture of the author Rod Cortez
    Originally Posted by onpointinfo View Post

    Is there still any value in writing articles and submitting to article directories heard the value is not there any more.

    I am thinking of just focusing on article writing and submissions to top article directories only for a certain period of time .

    What would be a good plan to follow weekly on article writing and submissions all done manually.

    Not sure if there is any value in spinning the articles and submitting them to directories for what purpose what benefit is there if these things are all spun what is the value frustrated right now with putting a link building plan together

    Thanks ...now i know what you guys went through :>) LOL
    You've already received some great explanations. Regardless of what some people and so-called "experts" have written on blogs about one or two aspects about article marketing; when done correctly and in a manner on the way the internet works (to paraphrase Ed Dale), marketing with articles can be very effective.

    About 3 months ago I decided to start a little experiment. I went into a very competitive niche with nothing but an affiliate marketing focus, meaning that I would be getting percentages of certain commissions based on what the product was, and had one person on my staff submit one article per day to EZA, IdeaMarketers.com, and Website-Articles dot net.

    Bear in mind that:

    1. We did not post the article on our own website (which is recommended).
    2. We did not do any additional back linking other than submitting the article to those three directories.
    3. We did not use any other content or media such as videos or podcasts to influence the traffic.
    4. We did not use websites like PRWeb.com or document sharing sites to get more link juice.


    In other words, we only did one aspect of article marketing and we did it dead-a$$ wrong. Yet, 30 days later we banked a little over $140 in pure commissions. That's not a lot of money and it was a total of 29 articles submitted to 3 directories (we didn't count the 30th article), but if we continued with this I'm confident that within 6 months we'd be over the $2,000 per month in net earnings, if not more.

    Here's something else we did wrong (on purpose):

    1. We did not build a list. So we did not collect any e-mail addresses (I can almost hear Celente cringe on that one lol).
    2. We did not contact any one else in the niche to joint venture with us.
    3. We did not create our own product.
    4. We did not write any short reports and have them distributed on other sites for a viral effect.

    So we did article marketing bass ackwards and we still made some money. Imagine if you just spent a couple of days reading through the article marketing threads (do a keyword search, title only, and type in "article marketing") you'll learn a ton; imagine how much more effective would your article marketing efforts be?

    RoD
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  • Profile picture of the author Rob Howard
    Rod, this goes to show that just putting your nose to the grind and just "doing it" works. Mess up. Screw up. But jump in and learn. Who knows, you may make a couple of bucks (or 140 in your case) along the way.

    Rob
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    • Profile picture of the author Rod Cortez
      Originally Posted by ccmusicman View Post

      Rod, this goes to show that just putting your nose to the grind and just "doing it" works. Mess up. Screw up. But jump in and learn. Who knows, you may make a couple of bucks (or 140 in your case) along the way.

      Rob
      My thoughts exactly. I made it a point to have this done in the simplest way possible and to make sure we did it wrong with some exceptions. The things we did right were:

      1. Keyword research.
      2. Have a decent product mix with healthy commissions.
      3. Original and valuable, but incomplete content.
      4. Consistency. It was one article a day for 29 days straight (we nixed the 30th day).
      5. Having a compelling subject heading.
      6. Having a compelling resource box.

      When newbies hit me up on Skype or via PM or e-mail and they ask me about article marketing. I advise them to do a search in this forum and read everything about article marketing from Dr. Mani, Willie Crawford, Paul Myers, Alexa Smith, MYOB, Steven Wagenheim, AnniePot, Sylviad, and a few others. If they can invest a few days just doing that, they are going to learn more about article marketing than most people.

      In fact, I'm seriously thinking of doing another experiment where we do everything wrong for 30 - 60 days and see what happens.

      RoD
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      • Profile picture of the author Rob Howard
        Originally Posted by Rod Cortez View Post


        In fact, I'm seriously thinking of doing another experiment where we do everything wrong for 30 - 60 days and see what happens.

        RoD
        That will be interesting Rod. Randomly pick a niche, pick a product and start writing. lol

        In any event, I think it highlights that no matter what "method" you choose to make money, there are always things that, if you do correctly, means you'll be hard pressed to actually FAIL completely.

        These things are understanding your market (product selection, keyword research, and compelling titles/resource boxes), and consistent effort towards your goal.

        You did half-a$$ article marketing and you STILL made money.

        Man, you got me thinking too...

        Rob
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  • Profile picture of the author the lord
    I think its still there are benefits if you write original content, akrena lot on the internet they are looking for information that they can not find anywhere else.

    If you can deliver the best content, then they can just buy the products you offer. And your article can be a backlink to your site.
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  • Profile picture of the author dm101
    You got a pretty complete tutorial on the current state of article marketing here, for sure. I've never submitted a single article to any directory, although I do write some blog posts for my own blog. I just can't disciple myself to write, maybe because I survived as a freelance writer (offline) for too many years. Now I'm trying my hand at video marketing because I like it. I suppose the same goes for both video and articles, though... you can't go wrong with putting together QUALITY stuff for people to read, and make it congruent with your keywords. That's the best place to begin, anyway. Everything after that is fine-tuning.
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  • Profile picture of the author onlinecasinodeck
    Originally Posted by onpointinfo View Post

    Is there still any value in writing articles and submitting to article directories heard the value is not there any more.

    I am thinking of just focusing on article writing and submissions to top article directories only for a certain period of time .

    What would be a good plan to follow weekly on article writing and submissions all done manually.

    Not sure if there is any value in spinning the articles and submitting them to directories for what purpose what benefit is there if these things are all spun what is the value frustrated right now with putting a link building plan together

    Thanks ...now i know what you guys went through :>) LOL
    Since the google panda update, they turn everybody to a spammer, That's why I reduce submitting my article to directories, only the top 10 I use in my campaign and spun my article about 30 unique.
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  • Profile picture of the author Benjamin Ehinger
    Originally Posted by onpointinfo View Post

    Is there still any value in writing articles and submitting to article directories heard the value is not there any more.

    I am thinking of just focusing on article writing and submissions to top article directories only for a certain period of time .

    What would be a good plan to follow weekly on article writing and submissions all done manually.

    Not sure if there is any value in spinning the articles and submitting them to directories for what purpose what benefit is there if these things are all spun what is the value frustrated right now with putting a link building plan together

    Thanks ...now i know what you guys went through :>) LOL
    Spinning is a waste, but writing and submitting articles is still very good. You will still get great backlink quality and you can still get your content syndicated to newsletters and blogs this way.

    I would make sure you are doing as much as you can each week and submit to about the top 10 directories.

    Benjamin Ehinger
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  • Profile picture of the author addison.agnote
    I still believe that article submission still have value but the content to be submitted must be original and high quality.
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  • Profile picture of the author onpointinfo
    Thanks for all the great feedback I have received since I posted this question about the value of articles and submission to directories.

    Now that I have been following this thread for a few days, it has sparked some questions and confusion for me.

    The confusion is should I submit and use the top 10 or top 50 directories for distribution or just 1 - 3 of them since my thinking tells me the more I place my article at in only top directories the better I am off and chances of syndication.

    *********************
    The other factor is if there is no benefit in submitting to many directories for purposes of syndication is there some chance of benefiting from traffic, and also from building trust to my site even though I may not benefit from a page with a PR 0 i can benefit from the trust level of the site my article is in

    *********************
    Another thing that is bothering me is should I pick up a good software article submission tool or a article submission service - use some top article distribution service to help me get syndicated .

    So should I be doing this manually and submitting to top 50 for now till I figure this all out not too comfortable just submitting to only 2 -3 since I am so new to this or should I go and get a tool or service to help me for a certain period of time and then stop using them

    Here are some tools below to help automate the process and sorry I am not a affiliate to any of these products, just kidding but thought I should get that out of the way since I am not promoting any affiliate products.

    Which tools or service do you recommend below if I were to go with any of them

    * article samurai
    * isnare
    * submityourarticle.com
    * thephantomwriters
    * article demon
    * article automation robot
    * articlesubmitauto.com ( submits to ezinearticles for me too )
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  • Profile picture of the author Rob Howard
    Onpoint...if you read Rod's post, I think the gist of is...

    Don't get boggled down in details. Make a plan and go with. Learn along the way.

    If you are submitting to 3 sites and it isn't working, submit to more sites. You could start with the top 3 sites, Ezinearticles for sure and another 2 you like and go from there.

    If it isn't enough, add some more.

    Try out different titles, keywords, resource boxes, etc. When you find winners, copy and emulate.

    Then, when you are ready, start aiming for syndication (getting other people to post your articles). Try your hand at guest blog posting.

    See where I'm going at this? Start simple, expand, test, tweak, grow.

    You aren't going to have the perfect plan right from the start. You are inexperienced and that's ok. You are GOING to screw something up. And that's ok too.

    Jump in and start learning. That's the best way to do it. And you may make a few bucks while doing so.

    Hey, college you PAY to learn...out here, you get PAID to learn. Sounds good to me!

    Rob
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  • Profile picture of the author Brad789
    OnPoint - Brad here. I think Annie is absolutely correct! The motivation behind an article marketing capaign determines its true success.

    All the internet experts - worth their salt - say the same thing. Articles, blog posts and all materials must - simply must be high quality. Quality breeds value and value draws qualified - truly qualified customers.

    The other point I get on this issue over and over is building a relationship first with the customer. Setting a sales funnel that starts with a quality article, leads to a landing or squeeze page that offers 1) a free quality resource and 2) accepts the visitor's email address. Once the address is captured, we can start focusing our quality writing on our "list" to get even more tightly focused in the message to qualified customers.

    That is my view - hope it is useful in your search. Best of luck and prosperity to you.

    Cheers!

    Brad
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  • Profile picture of the author cashtree
    this is a good thread thanks for posting and yeah from what i've read they still have a ton of value.
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  • Profile picture of the author onpointinfo
    Hey music..

    I hear what you are saying thank you and do agree you do learn from your misakes !

    And brad and others great feedback too keep them coming ..thanks !
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  • Profile picture of the author H.Miller
    Submitting articles to directories still has the value. The key is to put out valuable content. At the end of the day the search engines want good content for their users. So article marketing will always have value as long as you do it the right way. You can't post crappy articles and expect to get traffic. Write good quality articles that actually help people and you will reap the rewards.
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  • Profile picture of the author grandstar
    Syndication seems to be the way to go. I have started writing articles ony worthy of syndication. We have to think like journalist now and SEO experts.
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  • Profile picture of the author YasirYar
    Article marketing is definitely worth the work. However, you need to make sure that you articles are keyword optimized. Select one keyword and build an article about. Don't submit the same article on every article directory. Instead, spin the articles and post different article on each article directory. This helps in building links and driving traffic to your website.
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    • Profile picture of the author Alexa Smith
      Banned
      Originally Posted by YasirYar View Post

      Instead, spin the articles and post different article on each article directory. This helps in building links and driving traffic to your website.
      Urban myth, here - it's simply not true.

      It doesn't actually help either of those things any more than if you don't spin them.

      For those of us making our livings and building our businesses as professional article marketers, there's no advantage at all (not for traffic, and not for backlinks) in mass-submitting different versions to different article directories rather than doing the same without the spinning.

      A backlink to a given page, from a given page, is not somehow, magically, imbued with any extra link-juice by having been attached to content that's been "spun" instead of to content that's been "syndicated" (that would certainly take quite some explaining, wouldn't it?! ).

      http://www.warriorforum.com/main-int...necessary.html

      Article Marketers - Lay the Duplicate Content Myth To Rest Once and For All | Internet Marketing and Publishing
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      • Profile picture of the author jimmel196
        OK. I am still just a little confused about a couple of things. I understand the following:

        1. I should write quality, original content .
        2. I then should submit that content to my website first.

        After this; What exactly is the syndication process? Is the fact of submitting to EZA and other quality directories the syndication process? I seem to get stuck right here. Also if my articles that are on EZA get picked up by people and used as there own content, without my resource box or back links to my website, am I benefiting in any way from that re-published article? Thanks.
        Jimmy
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        • Profile picture of the author Alexa Smith
          Banned
          Originally Posted by jimmel196 View Post

          What exactly is the syndication process? Is the fact of submitting to EZA and other quality directories the syndication process?
          No; that's really just the very last stage of it, Jimmy. It would be a mistake to depend solely on passive syndication from article directories. (But I admit that that was actually what got my own business going, originally, because at the time I knew no better!).

          For a quick general introduction to article syndication ...

          this thread may get the engine running,
          this one may get you some distance along the runway,
          this one may get you a little bit further and then ...
          parts of this one may even get you off the ground.

          Originally Posted by jimmel196 View Post

          Also if my articles that are on EZA get picked up by people and used as there own content, without my resource box or back links to my website, am I benefiting in any way from that re-published article?
          No. But they're not normally damaging you either. The thing to do, when that happens, is to contact them with one of two pre-written, fill-in-the-blanks emails you have in stock for the purpose, ensuring that either your backlinks are added to their illicitly syndicated content (best outcome, of course), or the content's removed (or the whole site's removed by the hosting company).
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  • Profile picture of the author MattVit
    Not to "blow my own trumpet", but submitting to Google News publication sites is much more effective, as Google regards these as authority sites. (don't forget, Google News sites are hand-picked by Google, so Google views them extremely favourably).

    So, having said that, I offer this service...!! (see sig..)

    Please excuse the blatant advertising, but I hope it was relevant and useful.
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  • Profile picture of the author steven sanderson
    A great big YES !!, but dont waste time doing it yourself, go to elance and get someone to put them on loads of article sites for you, just 1 article on 10 sites obviously equals 10 !!.
    We had someone put some articles with our links on a load of sites and we watched one of our niche sites, Photography to be honest, shoot to page one for wedding and portrait photography, it was on about page 5.

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  • Profile picture of the author RobBritt
    Very interesting discussion. I've been using Ezine for years in my article marketing and didn't have all the insight that has been discussed here. I get some traffic from the link in my signature and I guess the prestige of being a "expert ezine" contributor. I also direct potential clients there to let them judge my writing style and range.. some folks like to see that sort of thing before they hire me.
    I think the directories are definitely worth posting to for a variety of reasons..
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  • Profile picture of the author bigwillstyle
    Writing articles and submitting to top directorys is still very effective. Also you may want to try press releases for massive backlinks.
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  • Profile picture of the author Mike Tyler
    Sure it has value!

    The real value in articles lie in autoblogs with pagerank copying your article with your resource box in place.. Free dofollow backlinks from hundreds of websites in your niche! Just that is all good for me.

    Mike Tyler.
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  • Profile picture of the author mike116
    I've been going about this whole article marketing concept completely wrong after reading this thread. No wonder I wasn't getting very far with it all. Thanks to all for the enlightenment....

    One question I had - In talking about writing for syndication, the recommendation there is to put together articles in the 1000 - 1500 word range. In addition, I now understand to put the article on my site first, have it indexed by google and then work the syndication route. Should the article on my site be the same 1000 - 1500 word article that I'm trying to use to syndicate? I guess I thought that articles on my site shouldn't be longer than 500 -600 words (or you're going to lose the reader)...or is that another myth that I have believed as fact?

    Thanks again.

    Mike
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    • Profile picture of the author Alexa Smith
      Banned
      Originally Posted by mike116 View Post

      Should the article on my site be the same 1000 - 1500 word article that I'm trying to use to syndicate?
      Well, it's up to you ... but there's not much point in having a different one on your site from the one you syndicate? It's only extra effort for no extra reward. So the short answer is "yes", really. (I know that many successful article marketers here are writing 1,500-word articles but I admit that I've rarely written one quite that long, myself. I often get to 1,200 words).

      Originally Posted by mike116 View Post

      I guess I thought that articles on my site shouldn't be longer than 500 -600 words (or you're going to lose the reader)...or is that another myth that I have believed as fact?
      I think so.

      I think that a lot of people imagine that people won't read much beyond 600 words without getting bored because they don't think they themselves will too often do that. Hence all those "You are not your customer" comments, and so on.

      Secondly, you'll inevitably lose some people and gain some people, with whatever decisions you make: it's about filtering, really, and the comments offered here apply.

      However ... I'm not putting all those articles on my own site primarily for people to read them, to be honest. I mean, I don't mind people reading them, if they want to, and I'm in favour of anything that keeps them on my site rather than leaving it, but I'm putting them on my site first for SEO reasons, really - so that my site can be the cumulative, long-term beneficiary of all those initial indexation-rights (which some marketers so unwisely give away to article directories ). So I'm publishing them for Google to read them, more than for people to read them. I want people to read them on other people's sites (so that I can be the beneficiary of other people's targeted traffic and context-relevant backlinks). Once people get to my site, I want them reading my introductory stuff, my product reviews, my incentivised opt-in, then my autoresponder emails, my other niche/product information, and so on. Not more articles, really (though some do, I know). Once they get to my site, my primary objective is to get them to opt in (and my second choice for them is to buy a product from a ClickBank link, but obviously that doesn't happen very often without opting them in first).

      Originally Posted by aarisseo View Post

      Writing unique and well written articles and submitting those articles to article directories, it is old but really an effective strategy to increase page rank of your site.
      This really isn't right at all. Submitting "unique" articles to directories is a very bad idea. And submitting articles to article directories really isn't about "increasing the page rank of your site". If you honestly imagine it is, then try it and see how far it gets you. But don't hold your breath, while waiting, because that's what all the people thought who started off threads here with titles like "Article Marketing Is Dead". (The successful article marketers I know tend to be more interested in paying money in to the bank than in increasing the page rank of their sites, anyway).
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      • Profile picture of the author passiveincomebiz
        This and other threads with Alexa contributing have been enlightening. I wonder what is Alexa's view on services on this very forum that offer ranking services by submitting properly spun PLR content to their own private blog network.

        People who use these services leave testimonials saying that they have gotten page 1 rankings using these services. So does this prove that article marketing for SEO still has some life left?
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        • Profile picture of the author Alexa Smith
          Banned
          Originally Posted by Fish-Oil-pills View Post

          I wonder what is Alexa's view on services on this very forum that offer ranking services by submitting properly spun PLR content to their own private blog network.
          My view (and my experience, and the view and experience of others I trust, and the view and experience of respected authors whose books I trust) are that it works exactly the same way with unspun content.

          It doesn't really matter very much what the content is, with those services, because almost nobody reads it and it isn't even written for anyone to read, really, apart from search engine algorithms.

          The value of the backlinks isn't somehow, magically, changed by the content to which they're attached having been put through a spinner.

          And it isn't changed by being listed in Google's main index rather than in the supplemental index, either.

          "Those backlinks", if one has enough of them, can perhaps, still, sometimes add up to something, and maybe for sufficiently non-competitive keywords, they can still add up to some "ranking value". I hope and trust Google will find a way to make that no longer so, and they're certainly trying, and they certainly intend to, and they say that pretty openly. What I know for sure (and anyone spending much time reading threads here can identify this, too, because it's something that many Warriors learned during 2011, sometimes to their very great cost) is that a business which depends on Google for its primary traffic is only ever one algorithm-change away from a potential disaster.

          Here's something interesting: one of the most well-known, biggest and (I think) most successful backlinking services widely promoted and widely used in this forum had a major change of heart, in 2011, about "spinning". Its owner announced (in a now-deleted WSO) that he had done a lot of testing and discovered to his surprise (not to many other people's surprise, I can tell you) that it made absolutely no difference to the ranking potential of the service provided whether the content was spun or not, and that (after many years of spinning!) they were no longer spinning. I thought this was really open and honest of them, and a real credit to them, to admit it so openly. I'd like to mention that I don't know why that particular WSO isn't still available, and I'm absolutely not trying to imply any criticism of it in any way. Its proprietor spoke freely here of their ability to build about 500,000 backlinks per day, I think on their own blog network. I know people who feel they've benefited from that service, and they may be right. Whether it will continue to be viable in future, of course, can only be a guessing-game. My own guess is that just as the ranking potential of this sort of backlinking is clearly declining very noticeably, it will continue to do so, but it's also possible I might be wrong about that.
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          • Profile picture of the author passiveincomebiz
            3 cheers for Alexa. Thank you -- especially considering you last contributed to this particular thread in Oct 2011. I have been "stalking" alot of your contributions in the last 3 hours and have learned much. Thanks again. I have "thanked" you as well.

            Originally Posted by Alexa Smith View Post

            My view (and my experience, and the view and experience of others I trust, and the view and experience of respected authors whose books I trust) are that it works exactly the same way with unspun content.

            It doesn't really matter very much what the content is, with those services, because almost nobody reads it and it isn't even written for anyone to read, really, apart from search engine algorithms.

            The value of the backlinks isn't somehow, magically, changed by the content to which they're attached having been put through a spinner.

            "Those backlinks", if one has enough of them, can perhaps, still, sometimes add up to something, and maybe for sufficiently non-competitive keywords, they can still add up to some "ranking value". I hope and trust Google will find a way to make that no longer so, and they're certainly trying, and they certainly intend to, and they say that pretty openly. What I know for sure (and anyone spending much time reading threads here can identify this, too, because it's something that many Warriors learned during 2011, sometimes to their very great cost) is that a business which depends on Google for its primary traffic is only ever one algorithm-change away from a potential disaster.

            Here's something interesting: one of the most well-known, biggest and (I think) most successful backlinking services widely promoted and widely used in this forum had a major change of heart, in 2011, about "spinning". Its owner announced (in a now-deleted WSO) that he had done a lot of testing and discovered to his surprise (not to many other people's surprise, I can tell you) that it made absolutely no difference to the ranking potential of the service provided whether the content was spun or not, and that (after many years of spinning!) they were no longer spinning. I thought this was really open and honest of them, and a real credit to them, to admit it so openly. I'd like to mention that I don't know why that particular WSO isn't still available, and I'm absolutely not trying to imply any criticism of it in any way. Its proprietor spoke freely here of their ability to build about 500,000 backlinks per day, I think on their own blog network. I know people who feel they've benefited from that service, and they may be right. Whether it will continue to be viable in future, of course, can only be a guessing-game. My own guess is that just as the ranking potential of this sort of backlinking is clearly declining very noticeably, it will continue to do so, but it's also possible I might be wrong about that.
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      • Profile picture of the author Martin Lee Jr
        Originally Posted by Alexa Smith View Post

        However ... I'm not putting all those articles on my own site primarily for people to read them, to be honest. I mean, I don't mind people reading them, if they want to, and I'm in favour of anything that keeps them on my site rather than leaving it, but I'm putting them on my site first for SEO reasons, really - so that my site can be the cumulative, long-term beneficiary of all those initial indexation-rights (which some marketers so unwisely give away to article directories ). So I'm publishing them for Google to read them, more than for people to read them. I want people to read them on other people's sites (so that I can be the beneficiary of other people's targeted traffic and context-relevant backlinks). Once people get to my site, I want them reading my introductory stuff, my product reviews, my incentivised opt-in, then my autoresponder emails, my other niche/product information, and so on. Not more articles, really (though some do, I know). Once they get to my site, my primary objective is to get them to opt in (and my second choice for them is to buy a product from a ClickBank link, but obviously that doesn't happen very often without opting them in first).
        Hey Alexa

        First - I want to say, I have been following some of your other posts in reference to the proper way to do Article Marketing and found your advice very helpful.

        However I would like to ask - when you put the articles on your website first, do you format it like a blog, (I mean by adding pictures, video, screenshots, etc...) or do you upload it to your website exactly the same way you would submit it to EZA which would be in text format?

        Thanks!
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        • Profile picture of the author Alexa Smith
          Banned
          Originally Posted by mlj2577 View Post

          I would like to ask - when you put the articles on your website first, do you format it like a blog, (I mean by adding pictures, video, screenshots, etc...) or do you upload it to your website exactly the same way you would submit it to EZA which would be in text format?
          Ooh, as for EZA, text, really ... I'm not one of those techie-chicks: I don't do video or screenshots. (I do have pictures on my sites but not normally in the articles.)
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          • Profile picture of the author Martin Lee Jr
            Originally Posted by Alexa Smith View Post

            Ooh, as for EZA, text, really ... I'm not one of those techie-chicks: I don't do video or screenshots. (I do have pictures on my sites but not normally in the articles.)
            O Ok. Thanks!

            So one more question

            If I write an article on my website and I do add this type of media, (images, screenshots, videos) and then I submit the exact same article to EZA, (without the media of course) do you think it will get rejected because they see these images and videos - or will they just ignore it focus on the text and accept the article as long as the author name remains the same?

            - Martin
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            • Profile picture of the author Alexa Smith
              Banned
              Hi Martin,

              Originally Posted by mlj2577 View Post

              If I write an article on my website and I do add this type of media, (images, screenshots, videos) and then I submit the exact same article to EZA, (without the media of course) do you think it will get rejected because they see these images and videos - or will they just ignore it focus on the text and accept the article as long as the author name remains the same?
              I haven't done it, myself, but I'll be astonished if the fact that the original version on your site had that media in it is a reason for them to reject it.

              They don't mind if it's the same as or different from how it was previously published. They just want to check that there's no reason to imagine it's stolen content (and that's what they're checking the name for). So as long as it complies with their editorial guidelines, I can't imagine why that would give them a problem at all.

              (I'm assuming the article itself won't actually refer to a picture/video that's no longer there, and so on - in other words that the text alone will still make sense?).
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          • Profile picture of the author GlenH
            Google has well and truly started to head-hunt dubious blog networks and artificial linking building strategies.

            If they haven't caught it now, they soon will.

            It's just a matter of time.

            This is blunt, but tried and true..

            Create your own quality unique content that is interesting, engaging and informative for your human visitors to read.

            Put that content on your own website or blog. When you get it ranking, then start to seek out other potential sites in your niche where you can syndicate that same content.

            Sure....that going to takes some work, but I guarantee if you put the effort in now, and you take that path, your content will still be around long after Google has wiped out all that rubbishy spun content.
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        • Profile picture of the author AnniePot
          Originally Posted by mlj2577 View Post

          ... However I would like to ask - when you put the articles on your website first, do you format it like a blog, (I mean by adding pictures, video, screenshots, etc...) or do you upload it to your website exactly the same way you would submit it to EZA which would be in text format?
          I thought it would be helpful for me to chip in here

          I've been 'article marketing' in what I describe as it's purest sense for many years.

          All my articles are posted first to my own blogs and in 99.9% of the time I always add appropriate, focused images. I've never split-tested my theory, but I feel a good, focused illustration just does that extra 'something' to draw the reader's attention when they first arrive on the page, and causes them to decide the piece is worth reading.
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          • Profile picture of the author Alexa Smith
            Banned
            Originally Posted by AnniePot View Post

            I feel a good, focused illustration just does that extra 'something' to draw the reader's attention when they first arrive on the page, and causes them to decide the piece is worth reading.
            Agree completely with this.

            Besides which, especially when you're writing fairly long articles, I think it's desirable to have something on the page/screen to break up the text a little bit, somehow (i.e. not just a sidebar with another list of text in it!?). Video is beyond me (and I'm not sure I'd want it, to be honest), but pictures do no harm at all.
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          • Profile picture of the author Martin Lee Jr
            Originally Posted by AnniePot View Post

            I thought it would be helpful for me to chip in here
            All my articles are posted first to my own blogs and in 99.9% of the time I always add appropriate, focused images. I've never split-tested my theory, but I feel a good, focused illustration just does that extra 'something' to draw the reader's attention when they first arrive on the page, and causes them to decide the piece is worth reading.
            Exactly!

            I agree - I think focused illustration will add more value to the article, and more satisfaction for the reader.

            Thanks ladies for your thoughts on this. I will now go do some testing to see how it all works out.

            - Martin
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  • Profile picture of the author onpointinfo
    Welcome Mike ...

    I see you joined the discussion... lots to learn and plenty of help !

    I too have 500 word articles which I also have to make them into 1000 word articles. Although, I have been thinking of mixing it a little bit make some 1000 and others 500.

    The 1000 would be for syndication purposes ! And the 500 would be just to keep the blog flowing

    Alexa ...can give more insight into this matter...she taught me
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  • Profile picture of the author HarryMartin
    Hi,i have recently used article writing for backlinking.It really helps me a lot and my website is in top ranking now.
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  • Profile picture of the author HarryMartin
    Originally Posted by onpointinfo View Post

    Is there still any value in writing articles and submitting to article directories heard the value is not there any more.

    I am thinking of just focusing on article writing and submissions to top article directories only for a certain period of time .

    What would be a good plan to follow weekly on article writing and submissions all done manually.

    Not sure if there is any value in spinning the articles and submitting them to directories for what purpose what benefit is there if these things are all spun what is the value frustrated right now with putting a link building plan together

    Thanks ...now i know what you guys went through :>) LOL
    Hi,i have recently used article writing for backlinking.It really helps me a lot and my website is in top ranking now.
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  • Profile picture of the author ruby2011
    It is still profitable for article submission. My main purpose of article submission is to get high quality backlinks, and it really works. When i checked the statistics i found surprisingly that one third of my sales were come from article sites. The page ranked top in SERPs when i searched the target keywords.
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  • Profile picture of the author onpointinfo
    Hi Harry ...

    What do you mean - where did you submit them to for those backlinks ?

    Article marketing has been killed by the panda update or rather certain--- please explain
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  • Profile picture of the author webmarketer8
    I guess it really just depends!!!
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    • Profile picture of the author aarisseo
      Writing unique and well written articles and submitting those articles to article directories, it is old but really an effective strategy to increase page rank of your site.
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  • Profile picture of the author gregsmith007
    I don't think so ... google decreased the value of articles directory..
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  • Profile picture of the author AndreasJacobsen
    thank you for the work you put into that article Alexa you got a "thank" from me
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  • Profile picture of the author murtuza
    Here are few points that you should keep in mind to make sure that article writing and submission pays off big time for you.

    I have used these concepts for my websites and have got solid returns from my articles.

    Each article gets me approximately 10 visitors to my website in long run and approximately 3 leads.

    If I wish to get 1000 leads this month I know I will have to write 300 articles this month.

    I am telling you the above stats based on my testing and tracking. Your results can be different in your niche.

    Here are few points to keep in mind when you are writing articles...

    1. Write high quality articles. Crap articles don't get enough views and click through rates.

    2. Get a powerful headline template from a copywriting expert. If you do this and create your headlines based on proven copywriting principles you will get more views to your articles.

    3. Quantity is important. If you write just 1 article per day, I feel it is not sufficient. Focus in writing atleast 5 articles every day. I personally write 15 articles per day.

    4. Develop expert knowledge in your niche. Grab all the expert products in your niche to increase your knowledge base and then create an outline based on your knowledge. When you write your articles your outline will give you tons of ideas to write your articles.

    5. Increase your typing speed or grab 'Dragon Naturally Speaking Software Version 10' or above.

    It would not be possible for me to write 15 articles per day if...

    a. I was not able to type 120 words per minute.
    b. I did not have sufficient knowledge in my niche.

    I can write one article in 4 minutes and get around 15 done in an hour or sometimes in an hour and a half I get lazy. You have to cultivate the above 2 skills to write in a speedy fashion.

    6. Don't focus much on keyword optimization. Just make sure that your keywords are there in your article title and then try to give the best quality. Keywords will naturally appear in your articles.

    7. Submit your article manually to ezinearticles.com

    Mass submit your articles using an article submission service or a software you like.

    In the resource box put your niche keyword in the anchor links for which you wish to get top ranking in the search engines.

    8. Don't submit your articles that you put on your website. Your website must have unique high quality content.

    Hope this helps...:confused:
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    • Profile picture of the author passiveincomebiz
      Thank you

      It is your last point that concerns me. I always thought that you would not want to submit the article on one's site to places like EZA but rather write separate articles for syndication on EZA. But experts like Alexa and say publish on your site first the then on EZA.

      I have good quality site maybe 85 pages and haven't submitted any of them to EZA. But know it seems like I should.

      Originally Posted by murtuza View Post

      Here are few points that you should keep in mind to make sure that article writing and submission pays off big time for you.

      I have used these concepts for my websites and have got solid returns from my articles.

      Each article gets me approximately 10 visitors to my website in long run and approximately 3 leads.

      If I wish to get 1000 leads this month I know I will have to write 300 articles this month.

      I am telling you the above stats based on my testing and tracking. Your results can be different in your niche.

      Here are few points to keep in mind when you are writing articles...

      1. Write high quality articles. Crap articles don't get enough views and click through rates.

      2. Get a powerful headline template from a copywriting expert. If you do this and create your headlines based on proven copywriting principles you will get more views to your articles.

      3. Quantity is important. If you write just 1 article per day, I feel it is not sufficient. Focus in writing atleast 5 articles every day. I personally write 15 articles per day.

      4. Develop expert knowledge in your niche. Grab all the expert products in your niche to increase your knowledge base and then create an outline based on your knowledge. When you write your articles your outline will give you tons of ideas to write your articles.

      5. Increase your typing speed or grab 'Dragon Naturally Speaking Software Version 10' or above.

      It would not be possible for me to write 15 articles per day if...

      a. I was not able to type 120 words per minute.
      b. I did not have sufficient knowledge in my niche.

      I can write one article in 4 minutes and get around 15 done in an hour or sometimes in an hour and a half I get lazy. You have to cultivate the above 2 skills to write in a speedy fashion.

      6. Don't focus much on keyword optimization. Just make sure that your keywords are there in your article title and then try to give the best quality. Keywords will naturally appear in your articles.

      7. Submit your article manually to ezinearticles.com

      Mass submit your articles using an article submission service or a software you like.

      In the resource box put your niche keyword in the anchor links for which you wish to get top ranking in the search engines.

      8. Don't submit your articles that you put on your website. Your website must have unique high quality content.

      Hope this helps...:confused:
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      • Profile picture of the author murtuza
        Originally Posted by Fish-Oil-pills View Post

        Thank you

        It is your last point that concerns me. I always thought that you would not want to submit the article on one's site to places like EZA but rather write separate articles for syndication on EZA. But experts like Alexa and say publish on your site first the then on EZA.

        I have good quality site maybe 85 pages and haven't submitted any of them to EZA. But know it seems like I should.
        I would not advise you to do this. I may be wrong based on experiences of different marketers. But based on my testing of one of the skin sites this is what I did. I created a unique content site based on silo structure, lsi and keyword optimization.

        I then made sure that I linked all the pages of the site with my articles.
        The results were fabulous. The site got over 10k visitors in 6 months. Actually it was an offline skin clinic project I am not working right now in.

        What I would suggest is that you write more articles and distribute them all around in article directories, blog networks, etc. In your articles start deep linking your site, what I mean is that link all your 85 pages within that article. This should get you better ranking and traffic rather than posting your current 85 articles on your site to article directories.

        Just my 2 cents...
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    • Profile picture of the author Alexa Smith
      Banned
      Originally Posted by murtuza View Post

      If I wish to get 1000 leads this month I know I will have to write 300 articles this month.
      Please don't take it the wrong way, Murtuza, but on that basis I would have given up, long ago, myself ...

      One article syndicated once to one ezine with tens of thousands of subscribers can bring me 1,000 highly targeted leads. (I don't always know exactly which one, it's true).

      The concept of writing 300 articles in a month is just unimagineable to me. I'll do well to write 25 articles in a month.

      This thread may really help you a lot: http://www.warriorforum.com/main-int...s-per-day.html

      Originally Posted by murtuza View Post

      1. Write high quality articles.
      I congratulate you. Again, please don't take it the wrong way, but many of the full-time professional writers here find it difficult to maintain an output of one high quality article per day.

      Originally Posted by murtuza View Post

      I personally write 15 articles per day.
      I just can't respond sensibly to this stuff any more ...

      Murtuza, I urge you, for your own good, to avoid burn-out, and to increase your earnings per article dramatically, to read two or three little article marketing threads here. They will help you, if you let them! ...

      http://www.warriorforum.com/main-int...ries-work.html (just posts #2 and #6)

      http://www.warriorforum.com/main-int...ml#post5035794

      http://www.warriorforum.com/main-int...ml#post5397695

      Originally Posted by murtuza View Post

      8. Don't submit your articles that you put on your website.
      Sorry, but this one is just "completely wrong" - there are no other words for it ...

      If you have a look at this thread, you'll find a huge succession of experienced, professional, successful article marketers explaining at length and in detail all their shared reasons for doing exactly that. Whatever model of "article marketing" you're using, this one's a no-brainer. http://www.warriorforum.com/main-int...eza-first.html
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      • Profile picture of the author ELK
        I've been checking out some relevant sites and even emailed a couple of people about syndicating my published-on-my-site content and I've seen some amazing things. This whole "duplicate content is evil it must all be 100 unique to us forever" viewpoint is everywhere.

        Trust me, I'm not deterred, but it's still amazing and eye-opening.

        One website owner emailed me back and said that if it's already published on my site (even when I qualified that I could submit it to his site exclusively after that), he said he couldn't accept it because it would be "duplicate content". Others simply had a "must be completely unique" statement on their terms of service. These sites have "submit" and "be a writer", but they aren't actually syndication-friendly in the sense that Alexa and many others describe.

        By contrast, I did find a site that had an article about syndication being great and welcomed posts from others. Had some qualifications and guidelines, but still honored the point of syndication being mutually beneficial.

        I guess I shouldn't be completely surprised when I find extremely insightful detailed posts on a thread by myob, Alexa, Richard Van, et al that are immediately followed by comments that completely dismiss that advice with some nonsense about what you "really need to do".

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        • Profile picture of the author NicoleBeckett
          Originally Posted by ELK View Post

          I've been checking out some relevant sites and even emailed a couple of people about syndicating my published-on-my-site content and I've seen some amazing things. This whole "duplicate content is evil it must all be 100 unique to us forever" viewpoint is everywhere.

          Trust me, I'm not deterred, but it's still amazing and eye-opening.
          The amount of misinformation out there is definitely frustrating. That's one of the worst parts about the web - that rumors/speculation/etc get passed around as fact. Kudos to you for having the patience and the determination to stick with it!

          Originally Posted by ELK View Post

          One website owner emailed me back and said that if it's already published on my site (even when I qualified that I could submit it to his site exclusively after that), he said he couldn't accept it because it would be "duplicate content". Others simply had a "must be completely unique" statement on their terms of service. These sites have "submit" and "be a writer", but they aren't actually syndication-friendly in the sense that Alexa and many others describe.
          The only way I would submit a "unique" article to a site is if the site offered me tangible benefits that I couldn't get anywhere else.

          For example, I post articles on Site Pro News. They let you pick if you want your submissions to be "exclusive" (meaning you haven't posted it anywhere else yet, including your own site) or "general" (meaning you have posted it other places first). I always do the exclusive ones, because the exclusive articles get featured on Site Pro News' home page, get Tweeted on their account, get sent on their RSS feeds, and get sent out to their email subscribers. If you submit a "general" article, you don't get any of that. To me, the added exposure is well worth the time it takes to write the article.


          Luckily, under their guidelines, I'm allowed to syndicate the article anywhere I want after a few days after Site Pro News has published it. Plus, a ton of sites syndicate my articles when they find them on Site Pro News' home page... To me, it's a win-win. But, again, there's tangible benefits to doing it that way.

          Just another option to keep in mind
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          • Profile picture of the author ELK
            Thank you, Nicole. I'll look into that and see if it would apply to my niche - not really sure what that is, but I'm happy to seek it out.

            I do have one particular authority site that has a much larger restriction on posting my content, but it is pretty much one of THE handful of sites to get your stuff posted on in this area. I'll gladly do something exclusive for them simply because of how well-targeted it is and the amount of exposure I'd get for people who'd want to hear more from me. For that site, since I know have things set up so I can start adding content as I choose, I'm making a considerable exception.

            I haven't yet seen another site that would compel me to do the same. Since I haven't submitted anything yet (just got things set up recently), I don't yet have a sense of particular tangible benefits. But the authority and relevance of the site should help enormously.

            Again, thanks for your feedback!
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        • Profile picture of the author John Coutts
          Originally Posted by ELK View Post

          I've been checking out some relevant sites and even emailed a couple of people about syndicating my published-on-my-site content and I've seen some amazing things. This whole "duplicate content is evil it must all be 100 unique to us forever" viewpoint is everywhere.

          Trust me, I'm not deterred, but it's still amazing and eye-opening.
          My initial research came up with pretty much the same results. It's obvious that finding good syndication outlets is not push-button simple.

          However, like you I am not deterred either. I'll keep searching and I will find what I need eventually. It will just take me a little longer than I initially thought, that's all.

          I am not surprised at this, to be honest. The 'duplicate content' hysteria is everywhere. No one takes the time to work out exactly what it is all about. Misinformation is everywhere.

          I had a client tell me the other day that an article I had written for him contained duplicate content, and that I needed to correct it, or he would demand his money back.

          Before giving him his money back and telling him to go far, far away, I asked him what the offending piece actually was. He pointed to the phrase, "Features and Specifications" (it was a product review).

          I suppressed the urge to send him a letter containing anthrax powder, or something equally nasty, and simply refunded his money, adding that I would prefer not work with him again as he was clearly an idiot.

          John.
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          • Profile picture of the author danr62
            Originally Posted by John Coutts View Post

            I had a client tell me the other day that an article I had written for him contained duplicate content, and that I needed to correct it, or he would demand his money back.

            Before giving him his money back and telling him to go far, far away, I asked him what the offending piece actually was. He pointed to the phrase, "Features and Specifications" (it was a product review).

            I suppressed the urge to send him a letter containing anthrax powder, or something equally nasty, and simply refunded his money, adding that I would prefer not work with him again as he was clearly an idiot.

            John.
            Now that is clearly silly beyond reason. How many pieces of content across the web have that phrase? Let me check:

            Only about 16 million, according to Google.

            Did your client actually think that they all got slapped for it?
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            • Profile picture of the author myob
              Personally, I don't even bother with publishers demanding "unique" articles. There may be conditions where this may be a marketing advantage as mentioned, but IMO it's a waste of valuable production time in the long run. Establishing syndication networks for your articles will give the best ROI, even if you can only find one or two a day. For any given viable niche, there are easily millions of potential syndication outlets. The investment in time and effort in building an asset-based marketing model is well spent.
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              • Profile picture of the author celente
                Originally Posted by myob View Post

                Personally, I don't even bother with publishers demanding "unique" articles. There may be conditions where this may be a marketing advantage as mentioned, but IMO it's a waste of valuable production time in the long run. Establishing syndication networks for your articles will give the best ROI, even if you can only find one or two a day. For any given viable niche, there are easily millions of potential syndication outlets. The investment in time and effort in building an asset-based marketing model is well spent.
                Yes, and also creating and forming relationships with these bigger networks or article syndication owners will real in some big money.

                I actually meet and have drinks with some of them. Now that has given me some great results. Not becuase I like a drink, but because these guys are normal...like you and me, and their problem they keep telling me is that they are craving for content. Good content. Isnt that funny. People always think they have enough. No...people....they are craving for it. And will always crave for it.

                The sydication craze has only just stated, but we have been doing it for years. Find people and big traffic sites, and or blogs and talk to the owners, even make friends with them, and you will be surprised at how much traffic you can get doing this. Forming relationships and giving them top notch quality stuff for their subscribers.

                By now after reading all those stupid spinning threads in here, you are probably realising the article market game is changing, well you would be correct. Its actually going to be harder for you to do well with articles, but at the same time a lot easier. If you know what you are doing, and using 1 of the syndication tactics if gave above. The game is changing, so do not put your hand up at it, embrace it, and adapt your business around it. You can get massive traffic from doing this, more than you will ever get from writing a jibberish article, and then spinning it 8 times till sunday and spamming to 2001 article directories. That is so 1992.

                Now go out there and make it happen.
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            • Profile picture of the author John Coutts
              Originally Posted by danr62 View Post

              Now that is clearly silly beyond reason. How many pieces of content across the web have that phrase? Let me check:

              Only about 16 million, according to Google.

              Did your client actually think that they all got slapped for it?
              I think it's a measure of the hysteria that exists in many people's minds about duplicate content, what it is and what it is not.

              There's so much misinformation floating around on the subject that people often err on the side of caution, not knowing what else to do.

              Personally, I don't need clients who are as stupid as the one I mentioned, but that's an extreme example. I rarely have clients who even mention duplicate content, but if they do, I simply ask them to find another writer. I want an easy life.

              John.
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      • Profile picture of the author murtuza
        Originally Posted by Alexa Smith View Post

        Please don't take it the wrong way, Murtuza, but on that basis I would have given up, long ago, myself ...

        One article syndicated once to one ezine with tens of thousands of subscribers can bring me 1,000 highly targeted leads. (I don't always know exactly which one, it's true).

        The concept of writing 300 articles in a month is just unimagineable to me. I'll do well to write 25 articles in a month.
        I agree with you. I too have many of my articles that get picked up by an ezine publisher and they mail out to their list.

        Here I am talking about predictable guaranteed instant traffic.

        A newbie cannot expect to write a dozen articles in a month and expect that some one will pick up his article and mail out to a list of 10,000 subscirbers. You can call this a jack pot or probably it happens if you have built a good rapport with ezine publishers for a long time.

        I am talking about reliable instant traffic for a newbie who does not have a budget to do ppc or any paid advertising. That newbie can easily write a 5 to 10 articles a day and can expect to get 15 to 20 visitors instantly in a weeks time and get started making some money in a niche.

        However in the long run yes, those articles can end up driving thousands of visitors, no doubt about that, but here I am talking about instant traffic that rolls to a site within 48 hours.

        What I have noticed that most of the newbies don't have patience to wait for months and keep writing articles to see some initial profits. If they focus in writing 5 to 10 articles per day they can see profits almost instantly if they have set up a good sales funnel that converts.

        Originally Posted by Alexa Smith View Post

        I congratulate you. Again, please don't take it the wrong way, but many of the full-time professional writers here find it difficult to maintain an output of one high quality article per day.
        I don't find it difficult to churn out 10 quality articles a day.

        The only way you can do this is that you are following one niche and not focusing on a dozen niches at one time. You have acquired solid expert level knowledge in that niche and you have put few years learning that niche thoroughly. Once you have done this you have created a solid outline that includes your entire information model.

        This is what I have done. When I write my articles I don't have to think. I just look at my outline and get several ideas what to write and then I just have to type. I don't research content for every article, the content just flows out of my subconscious mind.

        You can do this when you have a vast ocean of knowledge in your niche. When you have this churning out one article in 5 to 10 minutes becomes easy. And also your articles will be of decent quality that ezine publishers will be willing to publish on their websites.

        Originally Posted by Alexa Smith View Post

        I just can't respond sensibly to this stuff any more ...

        Murtuza, I urge you, for your own good, to avoid burn-out, and to increase your earnings per article dramatically, to read two or three little article marketing threads here. They will help you, if you let them!.
        I make on average $30 profits per article in the long run. If this is not the best it is actually reasonable profits per article. If I get someone to write an article for $3 that's almost 1000% return on investment.

        And if a newbie focuses in writing 5 to 10 articles per day in a niche, successfully creates a powerful sales funnel and gets the profits of one article to $30 I personally feel that any one can then start outsourcing their articles after few months and can make an autopilot income for years to come.

        The added advantage will be direct instant traffic, tons of links pointing back for top google ranking and articles published at several websites and blogs.

        Originally Posted by Alexa Smith View Post

        Sorry, but this one is just "completely wrong" - there are no other words for it ...

        If you have a look at this thread, you'll find a huge succession of experienced, professional, successful article marketers explaining at length and in detail all their shared reasons for doing exactly that. Whatever model of "article marketing" you're using, this one's a no-brainer.
        I agree that people have different views about this, but I personally feel that if I have unique content on my website that is no where else it is better in the eyes of search engines.

        I had did a testing of creating a unique content site in a skin care niche and it worked tremendously well in Google. With around 600 skin care articles on the site arranged in a proper silo structure the site was doing tremendously well and was ranked top for terms like skin, skin care, skin clinic in Google India. The best part was that the site got over 10,000 visitors from search engines without getting hundreds of incoming links, it got its ranking from just unique content posted out there.

        If you have been following top ezinearticles experts like Sean Mize, Lance Winslow who have generated over 20,000 articles, they are too following this same strategy. These guys are constantly submitting 10 to 20 articles every day since years and they are doing this for a reason. They are not only getting instant traffic but long term back links and top search engine ranking.

        If you have been following article experts like Sean Mize these guys are following a simple model...

        1. Write 10-15 articles a day.

        2. Pick up a niche and build a list.

        3. Build relationship with your list.

        4. Setup a solid sales funnel in that niche that converts.

        5. Outsource the entire process.

        This is all what I am personally doing. I may be wrong based on the strategy followed by other marketers but every one has a different working model.
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    • Profile picture of the author John Coutts
      Originally Posted by murtuza View Post

      I can write one article in 4 minutes ...
      I can write an article in 4 minutes too!

      I can't read it back and make any kind of sense out of it though, and neither can anyone else ...
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      • Profile picture of the author murtuza
        Originally Posted by John Coutts View Post

        I can write an article in 4 minutes too!

        I can't read it back and make any kind of sense out of it though, and neither can anyone else ...
        I don't read it though, rather I give it to a one of my feelancers to read my article, remove few typos if there are any and then submit it to ezinearticles and various other places. This leaves me to keep writing for an hour or 2 and churn out 10-15 quality articles a day. If you write an article and simultaneously check it, it slows you down. Rather you should write 10 articles and then go about checking all of them and then submitting all of them. This helps in speeding things up...
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  • Profile picture of the author chrissyb
    This is one of the things that still confuses me - has it been clarified here - are we all saying you shouldn't make a blog post and then copy and paste it to multiple article sites?

    I actually had some feedback from Ezine that said and i quote:

    "You are welcome to submit content to EzineArticles that you have
    already published elsewhere."

    That might be fine for them, but not good for your own sites SEO.

    Is that correct..?
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    • Profile picture of the author danr62
      Originally Posted by chrissyb View Post

      This is one of the things that still confuses me - has it been clarified here - are we all saying you shouldn't make a blog post and then copy and paste it to multiple article sites?

      I actually had some feedback from Ezine that said and i quote:

      "You are welcome to submit content to EzineArticles that you have
      already published elsewhere."

      That might be fine for them, but not good for your own sites SEO.

      Is that correct..?
      Actually it's much worse for their SEO than it is for yours.

      In reality, it's not bad for your SEO, it just isn't particularly good, as far as "link juice" goes.

      What is good for your SEO is getting the article syndicated to quality and relevant sites.
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      • Profile picture of the author chrissyb
        Originally Posted by danr62 View Post

        Actually it's much worse for their SEO than it is for yours.

        In reality, it's not bad for your SEO, it just isn't particularly good, as far as "link juice" goes.

        What is good for your SEO is getting the article syndicated to quality and relevant sites.
        So this means forgetting copy and paste to article directories and get your technology articles, for example, syndicated to CNET....
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        • Profile picture of the author danr62
          Originally Posted by chrissyb View Post

          So this means forgetting copy and paste to article directories and get your technology articles, for example, syndicated to CNET....
          Go a head and paste it to EZA. It is still a backlink even if it's not a very good one. More importantly, though, is that other webmasters and ezine owners can syndicate it directly from EZA. This is a good thing and is what EZA was created for.

          In addition to that, you should actively be working to find more outlets for your articles which are relevant and have traffic of their own.
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    • Profile picture of the author JohnMcCabe
      Originally Posted by NicoleBeckett View Post

      The only way I would submit a "unique" article to a site is if the site offered me tangible benefits that I couldn't get anywhere else.

      For example, I post articles on Site Pro News. They let you pick if you want your submissions to be "exclusive" (meaning you haven't posted it anywhere else yet, including your own site) or "general" (meaning you have posted it other places first). I always do the exclusive ones, because the exclusive articles get featured on Site Pro News' home page, get Tweeted on their account, get sent on their RSS feeds, and get sent out to their email subscribers. If you submit a "general" article, you don't get any of that. To me, the added exposure is well worth the time it takes to write the article.

      Luckily, under their guidelines, I'm allowed to syndicate the article anywhere I want after a few days after Site Pro News has published it. Plus, a ton of sites syndicate my articles when they find them on Site Pro News' home page... To me, it's a win-win. But, again, there's tangible benefits to doing it that way.

      Just another option to keep in mind
      Nicole, thanks for posting this example. A few people have asked me how I decide which sites I'll do exclusive or first-publication content for, and I've had a hard time getting the point across. This is a great example of the thought process behind the decision...
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    • Profile picture of the author NicoleBeckett
      Originally Posted by chrissyb View Post

      This is one of the things that still confuses me - has it been clarified here - are we all saying you shouldn't make a blog post and then copy and paste it to multiple article sites?

      I actually had some feedback from Ezine that said and i quote:

      "You are welcome to submit content to EzineArticles that you have
      already published elsewhere."

      That might be fine for them, but not good for your own sites SEO.

      Is that correct..?
      No, it's not correct

      Whether you post a "unique" article or an article that's already been published on your own site, you're going to get the same thing from EZA (and any article directory, for that matter) - a PR0 link. And, it's going to be a non-relevant PR0 link to boot, making it the lowest of the low, as far as link juice is concerned.

      What you're really using the article directories for is a platform to get your articles syndicated - by sites that have a higher PR and that are relevant to your niche (remember, Google admits that it uses relevancy of links in its algorithm, so the more relevant, the better). Syndication will get your content in front of targeted readers, and, from an SEO standpoint, it's going to give you relevant links - all of which is a good thing.

      You're going to get both of those benefits whether you publish "unique" articles or not.
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      • Profile picture of the author chrissyb
        Originally Posted by NicoleBeckett View Post

        No, it's not correct

        Whether you post a "unique" article or an article that's already been published on your own site, you're going to get the same thing from EZA (and any article directory, for that matter) - a PR0 link. And, it's going to be a non-relevant PR0 link to boot, making it the lowest of the low, as far as link juice is concerned.

        What you're really using the article directories for is a platform to get your articles syndicated - by sites that have a higher PR and that are relevant to your niche (remember, Google admits that it uses relevancy of links in its algorithm, so the more relevant, the better). Syndication will get your content in front of targeted readers, and, from an SEO standpoint, it's going to give you relevant links - all of which is a good thing.

        You're going to get both of those benefits whether you publish "unique" articles or not.
        So most of the article directories PR is useless - the only thing submitting to these directories is good for is as a shop window for your work and maybe I few clicks to your site?
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        • Profile picture of the author Alexa Smith
          Banned
          Originally Posted by chrissyb View Post

          So most of the article directories PR is useless
          Indeed so.

          There's very little point in submitting to article directories for their own backlinks.

          They're all PR0 links anyway, but page rank doesn't affect "linkjuice" (backlink value) so much in these post-Panda days anyway - what matters is relevance. And there they score zero!).

          Originally Posted by chrissyb View Post

          - the only thing submitting to these directories is good for is as a shop window for your work and maybe I few clicks to your site?
          It depends what you mean by "shop window".

          The purpose and function of article directories (which have never changed, by the way!) are fully explained in this little thread, if it helps (see posts #2 and #6): http://www.warriorforum.com/main-int...ries-work.html
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        • Profile picture of the author JohnMcCabe
          Originally Posted by chrissyb View Post

          So most of the article directories PR is useless - the only thing submitting to these directories is good for is as a shop window for your work and maybe I few clicks to your site?
          The PR of that newly-minted article page is going to be zero. Any 'juice' passed from other pages is extremely diluted, and any juice available to be passed is diluted even further by the sheer number of outbound links on your article's directory page.

          I'd call that close enough to useless to consider it that way.
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  • Profile picture of the author chrissyb
    I should say I enjoy article writing, however the whole article syndication submission aspect for SEO makes me shout...
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  • Profile picture of the author star007
    I agree that article marketing is still alive and well. I have articles that I wrote a couple of years ago that still bring traffic to my sites.
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    • Profile picture of the author AnniePot
      Originally Posted by star007 View Post

      I agree that article marketing is still alive and well. I have articles that I wrote a couple of years ago that still bring traffic to my sites.
      But what you are referring to is Article Directory Marketing. See this earlier thread ...

      http://www.warriorforum.com/main-int...ml#post5068263
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  • Profile picture of the author chrissyb
    There's so much info out there on this - so i feel a bit silly now, but you live and learn :-)

    I've read through as much of the links to other articles posted by Alexa - but could you direct me to what happens if your work is syndicated - I haven't got a clue.

    Chris
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  • Profile picture of the author smithangie28
    Article Marketing is by far the fastest, easiest, and free way to earn online. It is still by far, the best way to earn from home and I recommend it to anyone who is serious about making money online.
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  • Profile picture of the author Sohel Parvez
    Originally Posted by onpointinfo View Post

    I am thinking of just focusing on article writing and submissions to top article directories only for a certain period of time .

    What would be a good plan to follow weekly on article writing and submissions all done manually.
    getting backlinks though articles is very effective than other
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    • Profile picture of the author John Coutts
      Originally Posted by Sohel Parvez View Post

      Originally Posted by onpointinfo View Post

      I am thinking of just focusing on article writing and submissions to top article directories only for a certain period of time .

      What would be a good plan to follow weekly on article writing and submissions all done manually.
      getting backlinks though articles is very effective than other
      They say perpetual motion is impossible, but here is clear evidence to the contrary - this belief keeps revolving round and round and round and round, ad nauseam ...
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  • Profile picture of the author Leah Mullis
    Does anyone on here recommend a specific article submission software to use for article marketing?
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    • Profile picture of the author Alexa Smith
      Banned
      Originally Posted by Leah Mullis View Post

      Does anyone on here recommend a specific article submission software to use for article marketing?
      Hi Leah, welcome to the forum.

      That wouldn't be for "article marketing"; it would be for "article directory marketing", I think? (Attempting to use article directories for their own backlinks and/or their own traffic?).

      The use of such software rests on the premise that there's some advantage to mass-submitting to large numbers of article directories - a common perception, I know, but not one shared by many people who are actually making a living from our articles. We all seem to think that the only beneficiaries of that sort of software are the people selling it.

      This little thread might be very helpful to you: http://www.warriorforum.com/main-int...ries-work.html
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      • Profile picture of the author Leah Mullis
        Alexa - thanks for your reply - I tried to send you a PM but it didn't go thru - I'm new to WF so not sure of all the rules and everything!

        I thought that when you write articles, you want to post on your own website, than submit them to 100+ directories so google 'finds' you and when someone types in the keywords you are targeting. That's why I wanted to know what kind of article submission software is recommended. If it's not best to do it that way, then are you supposed to post your article only to your website? How do you get google to find you/your website when someone types in the keyword? Any help is sincerely appreciated!
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        • Profile picture of the author Alexa Smith
          Banned
          Originally Posted by Leah Mullis View Post

          Alexa - thanks for your reply - I tried to send you a PM but it didn't go thru - I'm new to WF so not sure of all the rules and everything!
          Don't worry ...

          You can receive PM's, but not send them. To send them, you need either to join the War Room or to have made 50 posts.

          Originally Posted by Leah Mullis View Post

          I thought that when you write articles, you want to post on your own website, than submit them to 100+ directories so google 'finds' you and when someone types in the keywords you are targeting.
          Nooooooo ... you want to make sure (gradually/eventually) that when someone inputs one of your article's keywords into Google, the copy of the article they find is the one on your site.

          There's really no value at all in submitting to multiple article directories. Those are non-context-relevant, PR-0 backlinks of virtually no value to your own site's off-page SEO. And you certainly wouldn't want your potential-customer-traffic coming to you that way.

          Originally Posted by Leah Mullis View Post

          If it's not best to do it that way, then are you supposed to post your article only to your website?
          To your site first. Then to any other sites relevant to the niche, with pre-targeted traffic, on which you can get it published (as a "guest post", or just an "article with your backlink" or whatever). And one of the ways of doing that is to drop a copy of it in Ezine Articles (and in one or two other directories, if you like - but not 100!!), so that people can see it's available for re-publishing. That's what an article directory is: a depository of content available for re-publishing. don't try to use them for their own backlinks or their own traffic! That's going down the path that leads to all those threads you'll find here called "Article Marketing Is Dead". There are 100+ of them. They're all posted by people who were doing article directory marketing (trying to use directories for their own backlinks and/or their own traffic). They're right: it is dead. (It isn't "article marketing", though - fortunately! ).

          Originally Posted by Leah Mullis View Post

          How do you get google to find you/your website when someone types in the keyword? Any help is sincerely appreciated!
          You don't submit your articles anywhere else until Google has indexed them on your website first. Once they're indexed, they're indexed.

          Post #2 of this "How do article directories work" thread, as and when you have the time to click on the links in it, and check out the threads listed there, will really tell you "The Whole Story" ... ("all the news that's fit to print" ) http://www.warriorforum.com/main-int...ries-work.html
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        • Profile picture of the author murtuza
          Originally Posted by Leah Mullis View Post

          Alexa - thanks for your reply - I tried to send you a PM but it didn't go thru - I'm new to WF so not sure of all the rules and everything!

          I thought that when you write articles, you want to post on your own website, than submit them to 100+ directories so google 'finds' you and when someone types in the keywords you are targeting. That's why I wanted to know what kind of article submission software is recommended. If it's not best to do it that way, then are you supposed to post your article only to your website? How do you get google to find you/your website when someone types in the keyword? Any help is sincerely appreciated!
          Here's the model I personally use...

          1. Write one article in your niche. Include your keyword in your title. Don't try to optimize it much with your keyword, just focus in writing unique content.

          2. Post this article to your website.

          3. Write a second article. Post it to ezinearticles.com and other article directories. You can use any software you wish to do mass submission. I have used article marketing robot in the past and it worked good for me. You can use any software that works for mass distribution, that does not matter.

          I follow one simple rule. I donot submit my articles that I post on my website to other article directories or anywhere else online. I want pure unique content on my site. It has worked for me in the past when I have done this for certain test websites therefore I follow this rule.

          One more thing I want to advise you is that don't get confused. The more posts you will read here you will get confused more and more.

          I may be wrong by giving you the advise to not post your articles on your website any where else and many will argue on this, but the fact is that everyone has a different working model that works for them.

          There will be someone who might be posting their articles on their site and also in article directorires and this might be working excellently for that guy.

          There will be someone who might be spinning his articles and it works for him.

          In short you will find opinions of hundreds of people out here in this forum and more you read, more confusion you will create for yourself.

          So what to do in this situation. Here's one simple advise. Pick up one model and start using it. It can be any model you personally feel might work for you.

          Here's what you need to do next. Take action on that model. When you take action here are the numbers you should figure out in your niche...

          1. How much traffic does one article get to your site instantly within next 30 days?

          2. How much traffic does one article get to your site in the long run, that is in next 12 months?

          3. How many leads are you getting per article instantly in next 30 days?

          4. How many leads are you getting per article in the long run in next 12 months?

          5. What is the revenue that you are generating per article instantly in next 30 days?

          6. What is the revenue you are generating per article in the long run, that is 12 months?

          The reason you should know the above numbers is that you will have control over your actions. You will feel confident about the work you are doing even though it might not be theoritically correct.

          Here are some of my numbers I have figured out...

          I know that when I submit one article in one of my niches it gets me 3 visitors, one lead to my site almost instantly.

          In the long run one article gets me 10 visitors and 3 leads approximately.

          The long run revenue I generate per article, that is out of 3 leads is $30.

          Some one in this forum might argue that these are worst numbers to ever get from writing articles, but that is ok with me. I have control.

          If I get up tomorrow morning and write 10 articles I know that these 10 articles will drive me 100 visitors in next 6 months, get me approximately 30 leads and make me $300 revenue instantly.

          This is just an example. This will get me to take massive action once I know my numbers.

          Therefore my advise to all newbies in this forum is to stop reading opinions and do some of your own testing. Get your own numbers in your own niche because your numbers will be different from my numbers.

          Here are 4 steps to success...

          1. Create a system.

          2. Test it.

          3. Scale it up.

          4. Re-invest your profits.

          So with the above article model...

          1. You create a system, that is a sales funnel of 10 products, emails, squeeze pages, etc in your niche.

          2. Test it. Put in 100 articles in your system and get all the above numbers.

          3. Scale it up - If one article makes you $30 profits, what is stopping you to write and submit 100 articles or even 1000 articles. Scale up your system.

          4. Re-invest your profits - Hire a team of freelancers to write and submit your articles. Take a portion of your profits and put it back in your system and write more articles, get more back links, write more unique content for your site. The profits will keep coming in as you have done your testing.

          That's it...

          - It is all about MATH and SYSTEMS than it is about where to submit articles, how to submit them, what does Google or Yahoo say, etc.

          I hope this makes sense... All the best....
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          Want to know my true story & how I got started with my internet business? What kind of problems I faced to get started & how I finally cracked the internet code? I have also prepared a 30 day blueprint for you to get started. No signup is required, just rush in to check out pure content ==> how to start an online business - And yeah, if you like what you read don't forget to 'like' & 'tweet' it. All the best :0)

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        • Profile picture of the author John Coutts
          Originally Posted by Leah Mullis View Post

          Alexa - thanks for your reply - I tried to send you a PM but it didn't go thru - I'm new to WF so not sure of all the rules and everything!

          I thought that when you write articles, you want to post on your own website, than submit them to 100+ directories so google 'finds' you and when someone types in the keywords you are targeting. That's why I wanted to know what kind of article submission software is recommended. If it's not best to do it that way, then are you supposed to post your article only to your website? How do you get google to find you/your website when someone types in the keyword? Any help is sincerely appreciated!
          Leah, the best way to discover what article syndication marketing is all about is to do a search (use the Advanced Search function) for a whole bunch of Alexa's posts on the subject.

          Alexa, and a few switched on others, cover it in precise detail. There's information there that you can't buy anywhere else - and it's free. You just have to dig it out and read every word. OK, that might take a little while, but it's really, really, more than worth it.

          Once you find the all information, make notes, collate it all in a meaningful way, and you will have the best step-by-step blueprint to article syndication marketing on the planet.

          Alternatively, write an article, spin it 10,000,000 times, submit it to every directory known to man (and woman), and join the merry band of hopefuls.

          Your choice ...

          John.

          PS: Find a post by TiffLee, any post, and in her sig file you'll see an offer for a free download of a PDF on article syndication marketing. It's worth getting, and again, it's free.
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      • Profile picture of the author Leah Mullis
        Thanks Alexa! I checked out those threads you suggested but found I was sometimes going in circles!

        You definitely cleared up a lot of my questions - i sincerely appreciate all your input. You are a valuable resource in WF

        Thanks again!
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  • Profile picture of the author celente
    P.S...

    I am getting a sore mouse arm hitting the THANKS button on Alexa's posts.

    And heck she is writing that stuff herself, without using some spinning program. No wonder it makes so much sense. Ha ha ha.
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  • Profile picture of the author Randall Magwood
    I would still do article marketing, and submit to the top article directories. But writing articles for the purpose of SEO is counter intuitive. You should be writing articles to get promotion for your website, and if you get good search engine rankings because of it, then great. It'll become a spinoff of you driving traffic to your site and making money.

    I don't recommended any illiterate article spinner software, because your content will come out laughable... causing you to create the entire article all over again by hand. You will get alot of backlinks from article marketing. But this shouldn't be the focus of your article marketing efforts.
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  • Profile picture of the author MajonInt
    We have been doing marketing for 15yrs now and Backlinks still have value. As always if your content is professional and the sites you submit to are high quality then you will get good results from your article marketing.
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  • Profile picture of the author jefffffffrey91
    Can anyone refer me to a list for legitimate free online site submission directories? Preferably, cell phone and technology related. Here's a list of good ones I've come across (meaning they're actually free and spam free):

    Top Online Shopping
    ShoppingAide
    TXT Links
    REMlinks
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  • Profile picture of the author Paul Gram
    [DELETED]
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    • Profile picture of the author John Coutts
      Originally Posted by Paul Gram View Post

      Article writing and submitting to top directories still works for us. We test some site rankings doing nothing but that.

      In regards to spinning, in our experience, when done right, it has worked wonders for us (and still continues to do so) but our spins are not at all like all of the other 99% of spun crap out there anyway. I know Pat Flynn spins and has had great success with it as well so I wouldn't discount that strategy at all, especially when it's primarily for backlinks.
      I'll concede that some people may try to spin their articles with some thought to quality, though they are definitely in the minority, and it may well work wonders for them, as you claim it does for you, but will it continue to work well into the future?

      Google doesn't like spinning, and seems to be working to eliminate this type of content. I personally would not back this horse when there are such powerful forces actively trying to unsaddle the rider.

      I'd much rather engage in an activity that has stood the test of time, and will always work, regardless of what may happen.

      John.
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  • Profile picture of the author gfonline
    I did read back through the thread, I'm sure i just missed it, but if you post your article as a post on your blog first then submit it to ezine, don't they reject it because they find it on your blog first? Also, what about the duplicate content issue with Google? It sounds like what you are saying is that google may only index one page of duplicate content and by posting it to your blog first that will be the one they index?
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    • Profile picture of the author JohnMcCabe
      Originally Posted by gfonline View Post

      I did read back through the thread, I'm sure i just missed it, but if you post your article as a post on your blog first then submit it to ezine, don't they reject it because they find it on your blog first?
      As long as the author names match, you have no problem. EZA is not concerned with whether you published your article someplace before submitting it to them. Their only concern in this regard is that you have the right to submit it. If you submit to your blog as 'Admin' and to EZA as 'Joe Blogger', the mismatch raises questions of stolen content.

      Originally Posted by gfonline View Post

      Also, what about the duplicate content issue with Google? It sounds like what you are saying is that google may only index one page of duplicate content and by posting it to your blog first that will be the one they index?
      Google will index all copies it finds but, for any given search, they will only show one copy in the SERPS. While it used to be fairly common to land multiple copies on the first page, that's much rarer these days. By indexing yours first, you up the chances that your original will be the one they pick.

      As for me, I want them to pick copies of my articles in this order:

      > The original on my site.
      > A copy syndicated on an authority site.
      > Other copies (article directories, lower authority sites, etc.)

      Every time a set of targeted eyeballs lands on one of my articles, it's a good thing. The reason for ordering my list the way I did is because as you go down the list, the chances of losing those eyeballs to something that does not benefit me goes up.
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      • Profile picture of the author rooze
        Originally Posted by JohnMcCabe View Post

        As for me, I want them to pick copies of my articles in this order:

        > The original on my site.
        > A copy syndicated on an authority site.
        > Other copies (article directories, lower authority sites, etc.)
        Hi John,

        I'm curious to hear how often your objectives are met. If you search for a string of unique text from one of your articles, is the sequence you've listed above commonly observed, or do you find that in many instances the authority site will appear in the SERP's ahead of your own?

        Cheers

        Rooze
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    • Profile picture of the author Alexa Smith
      Banned
      Originally Posted by gfonline View Post

      if you post your article as a post on your blog first then submit it to ezine, don't they reject it because they find it on your blog first?
      No.

      They don't care where else it's been published before, or how many times. As long as it isn't stolen content, obviously (the names/pen-names need to match).

      Article directories don't require previously unpublished content.

      More information here: http://www.warriorforum.com/main-int...ml#post4309204

      And here: http://www.warriorforum.com/main-int...hese-days.html

      And here: http://www.warriorforum.com/main-int...eza-first.html

      Originally Posted by gfonline View Post

      Also, what about the duplicate content issue with Google?
      There isn't one.

      This is "syndicated content", not "duplicate content": Article Marketers - Lay the Duplicate Content Myth To Rest Once and For All | Internet Marketing and Publishing
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      • Profile picture of the author JohnMcCabe
        Originally Posted by rooze View Post

        Hi John,

        I'm curious to hear how often your objectives are met. If you search for a string of unique text from one of your articles, is the sequence you've listed above commonly observed, or do you find that in many instances the authority site will appear in the SERP's ahead of your own?

        Cheers

        Rooze
        Truth be told, it's a mixed bag. I think some of it depends on how closely related the themes are, as well as the difference in perceived authority.

        While I prefer to have my own site come up first, I'm not all that unhappy if the authority site outranks me. What I give up in distractions or leaks, I somewhat make up in the implied endorsement.

        What I can say is that the directories and other lower-level sites seldom outrank the own-site/authority-site combo.
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  • Profile picture of the author Synthetic
    Yes , i think it's still have a good value. For me personally!
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    I have seen sinking ships go down with more grace than you ;] creatine monohydrate
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  • Profile picture of the author eman1
    Article marketing does still work and is one of the best ways to get long-term, high-quality traffic.
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