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The ORIGINAL Article Syndication Business Model Is Alive And Well...

by tpw
16 replies
There are six major global companies in the marketplace, who still employ Article Syndication as a valued and profitable business model.

The original Article Syndication model continues to keep tens of thousands of writers and photographers employed around the world.

Launched in 1835, the Agence France-Presse (AFP) was the very first News Syndication company. It is a French news agency that hires writers and photographers to "gather, collect, curate, package and disseminate the news."

They pay the content creators to create content, then they sell their (local, regional and international) content -- usually by subscription -- to news organizations around the globe for use in print, radio and television (and now online) news broadcasts.

The companies that follow this model include:

UPI seems to be the weakest of the companies in this market, yet their single-month statistics are enough to make any Warrior envious...



Although UPI may be the weakest company in this niche, it still maintains operations in 7 world cities, including its headquarters in Washington, DC and offices in Beirut, Hong Kong, London, Santiago, Seoul and Tokyo.

Here is some additional information about the UPI operations:
  • Journalists contribute content from all over the world including the United States, South America, Europe, the Middle East, Africa and Asia. UPI stories and photos cover a variety of topics including international and U.S. news, politics, sports, entertainment, health, science and technology.
  • In addition to its English report, it provides news coverage coming out of the Middle East in Arabic and a Spanish-language news report from its correspondents throughout Latin America.
  • UPI's news report is read by millions of global readers each day through its clients and though its distribution partners. Since clients can choose stories that are most appropriate to their business, the readership of each story can differ.


People seem confused about the concept of Article Syndication in the IM-niche, which is frequently referred to as, Article Marketing.

Some say the model is dead... Yet, the model is still alive and well in the non-IM marketplace.

The only difference between the IM-version and the offline-version of Article Syndication is that the IMer will create the content for free, in exchange for an advertisement at the end of the article, demonstrated in the article's About The Author information, also known as the author's Resource Box.

As demonstrated in this post, the offline-version of Article Syndication is alive and well...

The IM-version of Article Syndication still works, and I continue to use it to promote my own websites.

But before you get too excited, I need to dispel some myths...
  • Article Marketing is not easy... It does require real work...
  • Article Marketing is not something that requires little work... You will want to put the work into writing a great article, and the work to find your syndication partners...
  • Article Marketing will not make you filthy rich overnight... But it does have the potential to make you a lot of money when your articles are featured in locations that capture a lot of eyeballs.


The actual Article Syndication process is scalable, but the Article Marketing part of the equation is ONLY scalable when you have consistency in your writing...

There are actually a number of very important factors that will influence the success or failure of your Article Marketing campaigns:
  1. Article Title Keyword - You don't need to put your keyword at the beginning of your title, but the usage of a keyword will get the Article Title noticed on the page.
  2. Article Title - Your Title has to grab the reader's attention and get the reader to open the article. It is more important to write your Article Title to "attract the attention of your potential readers".
  3. Article Description - (Not always available) This is your second and last chance to get the reader to open your article.
  4. Opening Paragraphs - Your title caught the reader's eye and attention. Now your opening paragraph must convince the reader to keep reading.
  5. Body of Article - The body of the article must maintain the "attention of the reader" above all other things, and it must deliver on the promise made to the reader.
  6. Readability - I never argue that your grammar needs to be perfect, but it should be good enough to not distract the reader. When the grammar or word usage causes a reader to stop reading to try to figure out what you were saying, then your "readability factor" has crippled the article.
  7. Ability of Article to Maintain Reader Interest - Maintaining Reader Interest is as simple as continuing to discuss the information that you promised to them.
  8. Closing Paragraph - Your closing paragraph is a "bridge to your resource box". It needs to "close the article" in such a way that the reader was satisfied at having given you their time. Then, it needs to create an interest for the reader to read your "About The Author" information.
  9. Author's Resource Box - At this point, it is less important to tell readers about you, and more important to "tell readers what you can do for them." If you focus on yourself in the resource box, your reader will quickly lose interest, because people really don't care about you. People only care about themselves, and they are willing to keep reading about you, so long as you are able to help them. So focus on what you can do for them, and get them to click your link.
  10. Sell Only on YOUR Website - None of us have the ability to sell what we are selling in just 500 characters of text. It just usually cannot be done. So rather than selling in our Resource Box, we want to sell the reader on visiting our website, where we can make an appropriate presentation of our offer.


The above list outlines 10 places where your Article Marketing can and will fail if you overlook any single detail.

It is important that our articles stay focused on the wants and needs of our readers, because the second portion of this process -- Article Syndication, relies on our ability to answer the needs of publishers.

Publishers want and need to maintain an audience for what they publish. And any article marketer, who forgets that article marketing is about the reader, could very well reduce a publisher's audience.

Publishers give us an audience for our articles, because we give the publisher's audience a reason to continue paying attention to the publisher.

We must talk to the needs of the publisher AND the reader, in order to see our Article Marketing successful...

Important to your level of success with Article Marketing is your ability to get publishers to pay attention to you and what you have written... Important to you as an Article Marketer is to find the largest possible audience you can find for your articles, which requires YOU as the author to reach out to the publishers whom you would like to publish your articles.

Herein lies the secret between people who fail with Article Marketing and the rock stars of Article Marketing. The rock stars find and cultivate relationships with the publishers who have the ability to give the Article Marketers a huge audience of targeted consumers.

And, in case you missed it, this is the exact same formula that the News Syndication companies follow, with only one minor difference -- Article Marketers give their content to publishers for FREE, and News Syndication Companies sell their content to publishers.

The bottom line is that a lot of people fail with Article Marketing for a lot of the reasons described in this post. But the fact that many people fail with Article Marketing and Article Syndication does not mean the model is broken.

Think about it...

If you are seeking success in any endeavor, do you take your advice from people who say it cannot be done, OR do you take your advice from people who have proven it can be done?

#alive #article #method #original #syndication
  • Profile picture of the author Dan C. Rinnert
    What about the oft-cited worries of "duplicate content"? I have seen arguments that, supposedly, no self-respecting website operator is going to want to publish content on their site that may be published on an untold number of other sites.

    This is often mentioned as a reason why article marketing supposedly will not work.

    Yet, at the same time, you see news publications across the country spending money so they can have access to AP (and other news agencies') content to use on their sites and in their publications--articles which would be duplicated again and again across the web.

    So, what gives?
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    Dan's content is irregularly read by handfuls of people. Join the elite few by reading his blog: dcrBlogs.com, following him on Twitter: dcrTweets.com or reading his fiction: dcrWrites.com but NOT by Clicking Here!

    Dan also writes content for hire, but you can't afford him anyway.
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    • Profile picture of the author tpw
      Originally Posted by Dan C. Rinnert View Post

      What about the oft-cited worries of "duplicate content"? I have seen arguments that, supposedly, no self-respecting website operator is going to want to publish content on their site that may be published on an untold number of other sites.

      This is often mentioned as a reason why article marketing supposedly will not work.

      Yet, at the same time, you see news publications across the country spending money so they can have access to AP (and other news agencies') content to use on their sites and in their publications--articles which would be duplicated again and again across the web.

      So, what gives?

      "Duplicate Content" is only a concern of publishers who put Google's dictations ahead of its own needs to create and keep an audience.

      New publishers worry about winning the love of respect of Google.

      Successful publishers worry about winning the love and respect of their readers.

      For the successful publisher, the publishing team does not let Google interfere with its editorial decisions, leading to its ability to deliver the content that will continue to answer the wants and needs of its readers.

      For a content website, often anchored by advertising revenues, the audience is far more important than the traffic from Google. A committed audience of readers will come directly to a website, bypassing Google to reach it, so Google's demands can be ignored.

      Think about this in terms of this website, Warrior Forum. How many of you go to Google to decide on which page you will visit first on the Warrior Forum? That is not how we do it, is it? Instead, we have a bookmark for the Warrior Forum, or we just type its URL into our browser.

      The publishers that we want to publish our articles -- those publishers with a huge audience -- don't worry about Google to bring their audience to them. They know that their audience will make sure they get to the publisher's website on their own, because the website delivers the kind of content they want to read.
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      Bill Platt, Oklahoma USA, PlattPublishing.com
      Publish Coloring Books for Profit (WSOTD 7-30-2015)
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      • Profile picture of the author Dan C. Rinnert
        Originally Posted by tpw View Post

        The publishers that we want to publish our articles -- those publishers with a huge audience -- don't worry about Google to bring their audience to them. They know that their audience will make sure they get to the publisher's website on their own, because the website delivers the kind of content they want to read.
        That makes perfect sense. If I can legitimately use content on my website, even if it is available elsewhere, why do I want to send my visitors AWAY from my site to read said information if I am able to display it on my own site? I can keep them on my site while at the same time providing them with the information they want. Sounds like a perfect win-win.

        Another concern, as others have mentioned, is quality. If you're putting poor quality articles out there, no one is going to want to publish it on their website, duplicate content or not. Writing an article for the sake of writing an article is not enough. It has to be something readers want or need, and if it's not something readers want or need, publishers will not want it either.
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        Dan's content is irregularly read by handfuls of people. Join the elite few by reading his blog: dcrBlogs.com, following him on Twitter: dcrTweets.com or reading his fiction: dcrWrites.com but NOT by Clicking Here!

        Dan also writes content for hire, but you can't afford him anyway.
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      • Profile picture of the author cashcow
        Originally Posted by tpw View Post

        "Duplicate Content" is only a concern of publishers who put Google's dictations ahead of its own needs to create and keep an audience.

        New publishers worry about winning the love of respect of Google.

        Successful publishers worry about winning the love and respect of their readers.
        Which is why most people have such a hard time syndicating their articles - the site worth syndicating to (the ones that will actually send you traffic) are super duper picky.

        Most people see article syndication as an easy way out when, in fact, it is probably one of the hardest and most time consuming methods of getting traffic.

        Not only do you have to write a stellar article (or hire someone and, believe me, you are not going to get syndication quality articles over at fiverr for $5) but you also have to develop a relationship with the sites you want to syndicate to. Sites that are probably bombarded with people wanting to give them crappy articles all day long.

        Someone can correct me if I am wrong, but I doubt these high traffic sites will publish your article on one email alone. You probably need to comment on their blogs, tweet with them, email them and tell them how great they are etc.... a few times before they want to look at your stuff.

        Article syndication isn't dead for people who want to work at it. But who wants to work that hard?
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        Gone Fishing
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        • Profile picture of the author myob
          Originally Posted by cashcow View Post

          ... Most people see article syndication as an easy way out when, in fact, it is probably one of the hardest and most time consuming methods of getting traffic. ...Article syndication isn't dead for people who want to work at it. But who wants to work that hard?
          As Bill said, the article syndication marketing model is not easy. But is it worth it - oh hell yeah!

          Besides websites, consider contacting niche ezines and offline outlets such as newspapers and magazines.

          There are many such publications who are eagerly looking for quality content.

          A couple of resources I use on nearly a daily basis are the Directory of Ezines and Writers' Market.

          This ebook may be helpful in quickly coming up to speed with this marketing method: Turn Words Into Traffic.
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        • Profile picture of the author tpw
          Originally Posted by cashcow View Post

          Someone can correct me if I am wrong, but I doubt these high traffic sites will publish your article on one email alone. You probably need to comment on their blogs, tweet with them, email them and tell them how great they are etc.... a few times before they want to look at your stuff.

          I have always contacted potential publishers that mattered to me by email.

          Now and again, I would comment on their blog before contacting them, but more often, my first contact would be via email.

          Generally, I would contact the publisher to thank them for a specific article. Then, I would steer the longer conversation to a discussion of their editorial policy, before I would even mention that I write articles.

          What I wanted to learn is what their criteria was for publishing a specific article. I would strive to get as much detail as I could about their decision making process, then I would create an article I planned to syndicate based on what I knew about the editorial policy of the primary publication that I wanted to publish the article.

          I would always syndicate the article as normal, but because I had specifically followed the editorial policy of the publication I wanted to publish the article, I would frequently get published in the target publication and several others.

          I managed to hit my target publication in about 70% of the time, when I had written the article by this method.
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          Bill Platt, Oklahoma USA, PlattPublishing.com
          Publish Coloring Books for Profit (WSOTD 7-30-2015)
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          • Profile picture of the author cashcow
            Originally Posted by tpw View Post

            Now and again, I would comment on their blog before contacting them, but more often, my first contact would be via email.

            Generally, I would contact the publisher to thank them for a specific article. Then, I would steer the longer conversation to a discussion of their editorial policy, before I would even mention that I write articles.
            So you would conversate with them first, right? Not just send an email with your article attached and say "Wanna publish this?". You started to develop a relationship via email? Probably a couple of emails, right?

            Lee

            P.S. Yes, I did make up the word conversate.
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            Gone Fishing
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            • Profile picture of the author tpw
              Originally Posted by cashcow View Post

              So you would conversate with them first, right? Not just send an email with your article attached and say "Wanna publish this?". You started to develop a relationship via email? Probably a couple of emails, right?

              Lee

              P.S. Yes, I did make up the word conversate.

              Yes, you nailed it exactly.

              Sometimes the email exchange would go for 6-8 emails before I asked them if I could submit an article to them for their consideration.



              One lady with whom I started a relationship based on this approach told me a couple years ago that when my articles hit her email box, she takes a look immediately and ALWAYS pays attention. She said that if she sees one of my articles in her mailbox, it will likely be a perfect fit for what she needs.

              She has published more than two dozen of my articles, since about 2005, to her newsletter with a subscriber base of 3/4 million readers.
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              Bill Platt, Oklahoma USA, PlattPublishing.com
              Publish Coloring Books for Profit (WSOTD 7-30-2015)
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    • Profile picture of the author AnniePot
      Originally Posted by Dan C. Rinnert View Post

      What about the oft-cited worries of "duplicate content"? I have seen arguments that, supposedly, no self-respecting website operator is going to want to publish content on their site that may be published on an untold number of other sites.

      This is often mentioned as a reason why article marketing supposedly will not work.

      Yet, at the same time, you see news publications across the country spending money so they can have access to AP (and other news agencies') content to use on their sites and in their publications--articles which would be duplicated again and again across the web.

      So, what gives?
      Maybe this video by Greg Grothaus of Google will help you understand the true interpretation of those two words "Duplicate Content."
      Duplicate Content & Multiple Site Issues - YouTube
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  • Profile picture of the author YasirYar
    Thanks for a very exhaustive discussion on the best article marketing strategies. Content is indeed still king!
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  • Profile picture of the author thebitbotdotcom
    Its about the information and the quality of the information.

    Its about having that information on your site so that people can find it THERE.

    Sometimes, you have to ignore what Google says and offer quality even if its not unique.

    They just want everyone to have unique content and not build links to make their job easier.
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  • Profile picture of the author Alexa Smith
    Banned
    Thanks for starting an excellent thread, Bill.

    Originally Posted by tpw View Post

    If you are seeking success in any endeavor, do you take your advice from people who say it cannot be done, OR do you take your advice from people who have proven it can be done?
    This is always one of the two key questions regarding article syndication, and perhaps most other IM-related subjects, too!

    I think another big, related question for people, in the broader context of "article marketing", is whether they want to be guided by people who are making their livings just by selling software, services and information products relating to article marketing or by people who have successful experience of making their livings from article marketing itself.
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  • Profile picture of the author ampeloi13
    when properly executed 'Bum Article Mrkting' is still viable. original and quality content.
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    • Profile picture of the author AnniePot
      Originally Posted by ampeloi13 View Post

      when properly executed 'Bum Article Mrkting' is still viable. original and quality content.
      You've lost me. What does that have to do with the OP's post about ORIGINAL Article Syndication Business?
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  • Profile picture of the author myob
    [DELETED]
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    • Profile picture of the author Dan C. Rinnert
      I can give an example of how NOT to do article syndication.

      I have a site which gets a lot of visitors. It's in a specific niche. I get eMails about once a month from a guy offering a free article for use on my site.

      One mistake is that he says it can be used in my print or online media. That tells me he didn't look at my site because, if he had, he'd know there's no print version. Plus, it's a generic message, not personally addressed.

      So, two mistakes right there. Neither of which are the big mistakes because some webmasters probably wouldn't care about that sort of thing.

      The next mistake is that the article is on a topic which doesn't even have anything to do with my niche. Um, hello? Why do I want to publish an article, even if free, that my readers will likely not be interested in? That's a big mistake. Poor targeting. At least pick a site related to your article's niche.

      The other big mistake is that I have writers guidelines posted on my site. This person does not follow them. If you're not following the guidelines for writers that I have, why would I waste my time with yours when others showed themselves to be capable of following them? Why reward those who don't follow my guidelines over those that do? The guidelines are there for a reason.

      So, the method he is employing is, I would say, not the best method for article syndication. I could imagine this sort of person giving up at some point and proclaiming article syndication doesn't work because he couldn't manage to do it successfully.
      Signature

      Dan's content is irregularly read by handfuls of people. Join the elite few by reading his blog: dcrBlogs.com, following him on Twitter: dcrTweets.com or reading his fiction: dcrWrites.com but NOT by Clicking Here!

      Dan also writes content for hire, but you can't afford him anyway.
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