Article Marketing: Quantity or Quality?

[urbt]

I have access to a very cheap source of articles that are perfectly well written but probably not the best source. Let's say for comparison's sake that these articles are half the price I normally pay for articles.

Am I better off publishing double as many articles which are of average quality, or just half as many which are of good quality?

Let me know what you guys (and girls!) think.

Ed

[Roy Carter]

Ed

I would go for quality articles every time.

Ask yourself this. Do you want your articles read all the way through to your Bio Box so that they click on the link? Do you want to deliver a useful and valuable experience to your readers?

Or are you just after the backlinks and don't care about the quality of information you are delivering.

Quality content every time for me.

[Chris Kent]

I go for a minimum quality and then for quantity.

Of course, if you create or get articles of a very high quality, I would always stick them on my site rather than article directories.

[Ian Middleton]

Ask yourself one question
- if the article YOU read is poor quality, would you want to investigate the product?

The chances are that if you are not impressed, then neither will potential customers.

Quality will always shine through!

Hope that helps?
Ian

[billnad]

There are a lot of good cheap articles out there. I know that some of the article packs in the WSOs are good but then some....have a lot to be desired.

I have never taken to much time to use the bad articles as a building block to writing better articles from them but I really have to think that working on buying some quality instead of writing some quality my be a better use of your time once you put a value on your hours working in IM

[urbt]

Originally Posted by Roy Carter

Ed

I would go for quality articles every time.

Ask yourself this. Do you want your articles read all the way through to your Bio Box so that they click on the link? Do you want to deliver a useful and valuable experience to your readers?

Or are you just after the backlinks and don't care about the quality of information you are delivering.

Quality content every time for me.

Good points. Thanks for your help, Roy. I'm not really after the backlinks as such, although they will be helpful. The articles are of good enough quality, I believe, that people will read through to the end.

Originally Posted by ProductCreator

I go for a minimum quality and then for quantity.

Of course, if you create or get articles of a very high quality, I would always stick them on my site rather than article directories.

Yes, and I think that the articles will (hopefully!) conform to my minimum standard so that I can publish them in bulk.

Originally Posted by Jackie-Jackson

if you want them for traffic - go for quality. if u want them for backlinks - then definitely quantity!

True - thanks.

Originally Posted by Ian Middleton

Ask yourself one question
- if the article YOU read is poor quality, would you want to investigate the product?

The chances are that if you are not impressed, then neither will potential customers.

Quality will always shine through!

Hope that helps?
Ian

Very good point - if the article is the only experience someone has of the product, they're going to be basing a lot of their decision on it. I might have to reconsider a bit

Originally Posted by billnad

There are a lot of good cheap articles out there. I know that some of the article packs in the WSOs are good but then some....have a lot to be desired.

I have never taken to much time to use the bad articles as a building block to writing better articles from them but I really have to think that working on buying some quality instead of writing some quality my be a better use of your time once you put a value on your hours working in IM

Yes, I've always been a fan of outsourcing (see my sig for example!). I don't really have time to do it all myself.


I've thanked everyone for their useful contributions. Thanks!

Ed

[marcust2]

Thanks Roy! Nothing but quality coming from you! I appreciate it.

Marcus Turner

[Jeff Schuman]

It is possible to do both. One good strategy is to write articles of 250 to 300 words that focus on solving one problem.

Post them in your blog, social bookmark them, and then submit it to the Ezine articles.com. Shoot to do this with 5 to 10 articles a day over an extended period of time and the results you achieve will amaze you.

[Steve Sanchez]

If you have a quality article more people will link to it. You need to be able to distinguish yourself from all of the garbage. People may read the garbage, but they won't refer it. Stick with quality. 1 quality article can get you a lot of traffic.

[Charles Washington]

I am going to say quality based on one test I did.

I tried a test in a niche with adsense. I created a blog, filled it with PLR, and wrote 7 articles. I submitted those 7 articles to EZA in January.

I have not touched the blog, nor performed any kind of maintenance or link building. Most all of the traffic has come from those 7 articles. Since January, that site has earned $50 in adsense plus $22 from a CB product.

It took me two hours to write those7 articles, so $38.50 an hour to date isnt too bad.
Take care in SEOing the articles to proper keywords that can get you traffic.

[maxdog]

I can show yo a trick that will put everyone of your articles in top three in one day any subject good or not. Most viewed articles are powerful. Let me know

[gussie789]

I believe that quality is always best.

If you put out quantity and someone reads it there is really no drive toward the product, the desire to see what you are offering is just not there and the main purpose of the article in the first place is to sell the product. Stick with quality.

[InternetMarketingCenter]

Quantity seems appealing in a pure SEO sense but if you want traffic that will actually convert, quality is everything.

[James A. Miller]

Quality with no huge quantity is useless in article marketing.

Quantity is what gives you traffic. As long as your articles aren't just fluff and grammar mistakes they'll do fine.

BTW. Keep your articles 300 words or shorter.

[cashcow]

What do you mean by quality?

If you mean they are written with a targeted purpose in mind to presell the reader on your solution (that they will then find at your website) then I think quality is best because for these types of articles the benefits from the traffic that you will get from the article probably trump the benefits you would get from more links of lesser articles.

But, if by quality, you simply mean that they are nicely written informative articles on your topic then i would go with quantity because I think if they do not engage and presell the reader then their big benefit is the backlinks.

[JayXtreme]

I find that a happy medium can be had when it comes to article marketing... find articles that are well written with good structure, and publish them in big numbers


Peace

Jay

[jeewant]

I think both- it really depends upon your audience. At times, you have an audience searching for a NUMBER of facts and at other times, you have an audience interested in getting deeper into a single fact or figure- see your market and then design your content.

[Gabe77]

A balance of the two is the ideal. Let's say you have quality written articles, if there's not enough of it in the internet, you're not maximizing traffic. If you can't do all the writing yourself, find someone to write them for you. Build a good working relationship with him/her to ensure that output meets your standards.

[patJ]

I only use articles for backlinks. Therefore, quantity. The landing page you are linking to however.. needs to be of high quality.

[Hamida Harland]

Quantity is important, but for the sake of your readers quality shouldn't be sacrificed either. A huge quantity of articles won't do much good if no one wants to read them.

[wf_ken]

first try cheap option and measure results, then try higher quality for the same price and measure again.

[Chris Stigson]

Originally Posted by Jackie-Jackson

if you want them for traffic - go for quality. if u want them for backlinks - then definitely quantity!

Exactly! That's my opinion and the way I do it. I write most of the articles on my sites myself so I know they are good, researched and quality, but when I need back links I just hire a dude I got for $2-$3 and he pumps out a butt load in 2-3 days for me... Then syndicate those with articlemarketer.com, uniquearticleqizard.com or submityourarticle.com or a combination thereof.

- Chris

[Hililuud]

Since you said they are not terrible articles, then use them and gain the real-estate.

[venomous2000]

I would go for quantity because it increases youjr site PR and you get a lot more traffic to your site with 50 more articles out there (random number).

[Allanon24]

I would suggest 60% focus on quality and 40% on quantity. Both are important, but my experience is that quality articles rank better plus it is easier to get backlinks.

[ObsidianKnight]

Why not test them yourself.

Add a surname to your account, publish the "minimal quality" ones under the surname. Then post the higher quality ones under your own name.

This allows you to do both, quantity and quality, and it will be easier to track. Also if you find the quantity ones do not do well, you can just fire your other persona.

[alexander13]

Urbt,

Roy, hit the nail on the head. It depends on your goal. Just getting links then go for the quantity.

If Getting better results and some links is your goal then go for quality.

In the spirit of the web I choose to post higher quality articles so people finding the info get value out of it.

[epicbob]

I agree with the others who say that you should use articles that are worthy of being read. Not all of them have to be of excellent quality. When I look at some of the most published articles on EZA, they are not always of the greatest quality, but they are not junk either. Set a minimum bar and stick with it.

[MosaicDan]

This is a topic near and dear to my heart because my private training service revolves exclusively around article marketing as the traffic generation source and then we direct that traffic to lifetime income programs.

I currently train approximately 200 paying members over 11 months. So I think I have a fair bit of experience in this.

My conclusion is that you have to a have a minimum level of quality. But that quantity will beat out quality any day. Without exception, our highest earning students have the highest volume and quantity.

Yes, we do focus on getting the articles good, but forget it, there is no contest. We even have members who don't write/speak english as the first language who makes multiple affiliate sales almost daily because they can follow instructions and pump out a large quantity of articles.

Chris Knight, CEO of ezinearticles.com, even had a good post on his blog called "Blast your Inner Perfectionist" -- the gist of which is that, although quality is important, don't sit around trying to turn your articles into masterpieces. That quantity was more important.

And being in the position I am in with a article marketing training service and getting to see who makes the most sales and who makes the least, that's exactly what my experience has shown as well.

Regards,
Dan

[teenmoney]

Originally Posted by urbt

I have access to a very cheap source of articles that are perfectly well written but probably not the best source. Let's say for comparison's sake that these articles are half the price I normally pay for articles.

Am I better off publishing double as many articles which are of average quality, or just half as many which are of good quality?

Let me know what you guys (and girls!) think.

Ed

I would test. That is just me. But if the articles were really half the price I would buy a normal amount of articles. Submit them and see if they work. The best way to find out if they convert is to actually put them to work for you.

[epicbob]

Thanks for the great info Dan. Hearing from others who are successful with article writing means a lot. You mentoring service might be something that I really need. I will take a look.

[Fabian Tan]

I think one needs a balance in this area.

Taking 2 hours to write a Shakespearean like article does no good for anyone (unless the article is being published on a magazine or other publication that will give you massive exposure).

Submitting articles full of grammatical and factual errors will get you very little results for a lot of effort as well.

Business wise, you can probably make a lot of money by exaggerating on both quantity or quality, but quality will matter in the long run.

Fabian

[DillonLoh]

Originally Posted by MosaicDan

This is a topic near and dear to my heart because my private training service revolves exclusively around article marketing as the traffic generation source and then we direct that traffic to lifetime income programs.

I currently train approximately 200 paying members over 11 months. So I think I have a fair bit of experience in this.

My conclusion is that you have to a have a minimum level of quality. But that quantity will beat out quality any day. Without exception, our highest earning students have the highest volume and quantity.

Yes, we do focus on getting the articles good, but forget it, there is no contest. We even have members who don't write/speak english as the first language who makes multiple affiliate sales almost daily because they can follow instructions and pump out a large quantity of articles.

Chris Knight, CEO of ezinearticles.com, even had a good post on his blog called "Blast your Inner Perfectionist" -- the gist of which is that, although quality is important, don't sit around trying to turn your articles into masterpieces. That quantity was more important.

And being in the position I am in with a article marketing training service and getting to see who makes the most sales and who makes the least, that's exactly what my experience has shown as well.

Regards,
Dan

Thanks Dan. Thanks for giving me confidence on the article marketing by listening to those that success in it.

Originally Posted by Fabian Tan

I think one needs a balance in this area.

Taking 2 hours to write a Shakespearean like article does no good for anyone (unless the article is being published on a magazine or other publication that will give you massive exposure).

Submitting articles full of grammatical and factual errors will get you very little results for a lot of effort as well.

Business wise, you can probably make a lot of money by exaggerating on both quantity or quality, but quality will matter in the long run.

Fabian

Hi Fabian,
Your point is solid. We really need to get a balance out of those both items. For me, I prefer to focus on quantity because this is a number game, but for sure the quality of the articles won't be jeopardized.

[Nomics]

If you've found an unbelievable price, then go for quantity. Just get them out there so they can build your back links, and then you can always go back and clean them up/revise to increase their quality (use as blog posts).