Can anyone make a case for articles over solo ads for list building?

7 replies
I have about a $50 a week budget to spend on list building. I was looking at some solo ads. And there are all sorts of sizes and prices. Let's say I was going to spend my $50 on one ad.

Looking at fiver I could get 4-5 SEO articles done with my topic and three key words. And I can also have someone summit the articles with a full report of all the submissions. All fiver gigs come highly recommended.

Can the articles pull enough leads to replace the solo ads.

Could it be said that the leads coming from the articles may be better in the long run. Seeing there is a chance they are not on as many lists. So they are not getting pounded with emails every day.

The articles could lead people to a landing page or a blog with a gift/op-in.

Any insight on this would be great.

Thanks
#ads #articles #building #case #list #make #solo
  • Profile picture of the author Stuart Walker
    Where do these Fiverr gigs submit your articles to? I imagine if it's some mass submission it's to a bunch of low quality article directories that have no internal traffic and next to no authority and therefore won't help you at all.

    I'm not a big fan of solo ads (in the IM niche at least) but in this case I think they might be better for you if you're just going to send some badly written keyword articles made on Fiverr to directories with no traffic.
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  • Profile picture of the author mgreener
    Hi,

    You might want to look into PPC and/or Facebook ads as well.

    Articles can be effective, but only when well written, high value and posted in places that people will actually see them.
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  • Profile picture of the author JasonBennet
    There are many different ways to drive traffic to the website. Solo ads is a fast way to get traffic to your website but you will want to make sure that you are tracking your campaign so that you will know the things that you need to improve.

    For article marketing, you need to make sure that you are doing it correctly as most of the people are doing "Article Directories Marketing" as coined by Alexa Smith. Read up on Alexa Smith's post and you will learn more about the correct way to do article marketing.

    For me personally, I will use solo ads as I will be able to test out my squeeze page and sales funnel quickly so that I will know the the things that I need to edit. Once edited, I will get another solo ads to test it again. Just my 2 cents.
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    • Profile picture of the author opalfx
      i did article marketing for a while. this was before all the panda stuff and ezinearticles was on everyone's mind. i still get random clicks sent to my now expired site. the traffic is great but it takes for in my mind now that article directories are not coming up in the search as much. i'd say solo ads. it's faster and better conversions.
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      • Profile picture of the author JohnMcCabe
        One important thing to consider, especially if you operate outside the usual IM/MMO niches most often associated with solo ads, is whether or not you can find senders with qualified lists.

        Sending my solo ad for fishing tips to a hard-core SEO list would be a waste of money. Whereas placing quality fishing articles on quality, popular fishing sites would hit the target dead on.

        Another factor is the longevity of the traffic drawn from articles vs. solo ads. Quality articles, properly placed, will often generate a burst of traffic followed by weeks, months and sometimes years of visitors. With solo ads, you get the one shot and then you're done.

        Having made that case, consider the difference between a syndication-worthy article and the usual "SEO articles" offered for cheap. While I'm sure that there are writers out there who can do both, SEO articles tend to be too short, too generic and too choppy for good flow.

        Give such a writer 'three keywords and a topic' and you'll likely get back arounf 400 words of generic pablum with your keywords sprinkled throughout.

        With a $50/wk budget, you'd be better off spending $25 on a really good article and $25 to hire researchers to locate possible syndication partners, both online and offline. You'll do much better putting fewer articles in front of more of the right pepole than you will by spraying a bunch of articles to places no one will ever find.
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        • Profile picture of the author AnniePot
          Originally Posted by JohnMcCabe View Post

          One important thing to consider, especially if you operate outside the usual IM/MMO niches most often associated with solo ads, is whether or not you can find senders with qualified lists.

          Sending my solo ad for fishing tips to a hard-core SEO list would be a waste of money. Whereas placing quality fishing articles on quality, popular fishing sites would hit the target dead on.

          Another factor is the longevity of the traffic drawn from articles vs. solo ads. Quality articles, properly placed, will often generate a burst of traffic followed by weeks, months and sometimes years of visitors. With solo ads, you get the one shot and then you're done.

          Having made that case, consider the difference between a syndication-worthy article and the usual "SEO articles" offered for cheap. While I'm sure that there are writers out there who can do both, SEO articles tend to be too short, too generic and too choppy for good flow.

          Give such a writer 'three keywords and a topic' and you'll likely get back arounf 400 words of generic pablum with your keywords sprinkled throughout.

          With a $50/wk budget, you'd be better off spending $25 on a really good article and $25 to hire researchers to locate possible syndication partners, both online and offline. You'll do much better putting fewer articles in front of more of the right pepole than you will by spraying a bunch of articles to places no one will ever find.
          This advice is solid gold. Follow it to the letter...
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  • Profile picture of the author weigemeiser
    One critical consideration to your question is what are you looking for?

    If you're looking for faster results, then, generally speaking, solo ads work faster but you need to keep doing it to generate constant traffic.

    If you're looking for passive (hands-off), consistent traffic, then you should consider articles since once they are out there, they can bring continuous traffic even if drips over time. But article marketing generally work slower.

    Personally, if I am starting a new campaign, I'd like to do solo ads initially since I can see how effective my sales funnel is and get faster results. After it's proven to be profitable, I will keep doing solo ads, but I will also gradually get articles out there for long-lasting effects.

    Of course, the quality of solo ads and article sites is always crucial.
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