Article Marketing: Time for action
I've posted on here before about starting a freelance article writing service. I work as a UK-based magazine editor in my day job and I'm hoping to expand my horizons and do bit of freelance work.
Now I really am starting from scratch on this. I'm going to build myself a simple Wordpress site; I've got a domain and the intention is that I can use the website to simply advertise my services.
Obviously the challenge at this stage in the game is that no-one knows about me! I want to keep my business and freelance work totally separate so I'm not even on the starting blocks yet - yet alone out of them!
What I'm looking to do is write/load some articles onto my website and then submit them to a number of 'selected' article directories. The aim of doing this is simply to get my name out there. I'll include backlinks back to my own website and hopefully blog owners and the like will use my articles on their own sites. This will mainly be a brand building exercise in effect.
So my question is, with the plethora of article directories out there, are all still credible in light of the wealth of Google updates that we've had over the past year or so? Can you guys recommend any that still hold weight?
Am I right in assuming that some directories won't allow posting on any other sites? The site that springs to mind is Infobarrel who won't even allow you to post any articles submitted to them on your own site let alone others!
I'll also probably offer my services in the Warrior For Hire section here. I'm not looking to compete at the lower end of the market and you certainly won't see me offering my services for $5 an article but for those people wanting decent quality articles written by a native English speaking writer, I'm hoping I can get some business there.
Sorry guys I've rambled a bit. In a nutshell - am I doing this the right way by writing articles and submitting them to my own website first and then offering them to article directories? If so, which directories would you recommend?
Finally, in the context of the above, can someone enlighten me how/if social bookmarking sites like Reddit, Stumbleupon, Digg and Squidoo could help me in my quest here (or not)? I've never really understood the benefits of say setting up a Squidoo Lens for example and what it's supposed to do. I'd certainly appreciate your thoughts on social bookmarking per se!
Many thanks for any advice/help you can give me.
YC
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