"Set It And Forget It" Article Marketing - The Only Way To Article Market

[Michael Franklin]

I am going to share with you how I article market....That is, write your article once and truly get traffic month after month from the same article.......

When I first started article marketing, I thought it was so cool how my articles ended up on Google. Yes, the traffic would come in at first but inevitably it would die down....All except for a few articles. A few of them kept yielding traffic every month.

Here's what these winning articles all had in common:

1) They had proper keyword density (no surprise)

2) They were informative and were user friendly (no surprise)

3) They all were among the top 3 results on Google's page one - Aha!

You see, so many of us start to hoot and holler when our article shows up on Google. Yet, statistics have shown that most clicks only occur among the top 3 results on Google. Think about it....Most of the time when you search on Google, which results do you tend to click on first?

In short, it's not enough to just write an article and rest on your laurels when you are in the ninth or even the fifth spot on page 1. You have to get it within the top 3.

Here's what you have to do to improve your odds of being among Google's top 3.

1) Research the competition on the Page One results. It does you no good to pursue a keyword phrase any further if places like Microsoft, Ebay, or Amazon (High-Authority, Established sites) are dominating Google's page 1 with that phrase. You can often tell just by looking at the domain names what you're up against but to be sure, use a Page Rank checker to see what you're competition is like.

Now, if I notice that the top spots on Google are nothing but Web 2.0 properties (Squidoo, Ezine Articles, GoArticles, blogs, etc.) then I will proceed to write up my article using proper keyword density for that keyword phrase. I make sure that it is informative and flows well. AND, I use a property that is not currently among the top 10.

That is, if I see Ezinearticles and Squidoo but no GoArticles, I might write up an article on GoArticles. The point is that Google leans towards diverse domains. Therefore, use whatever domain that has a high enough Google PageRank but not currently in the top 10 for that keyword phrase. Some of my favorites are:

Squidoo
WordPress
GoArticles
EzineArticles
BlogSome
WetPaint
Vox

2) Keep backlinking until you are consistently in the top three. Why do so many people publish an article and not even watch it's progress in the SERP's? It's crazy! You should put as much (if not more) effort into maintaining your article's ranking in the SERP's as you put into writing your own articles.

Until your article cracks the top 3, you have to get enough backlinks so that your article will crack the top 3. There are many great backlinking resources on here to help you get started.

Even when you make the top 3, your article will still do the "Google Dance" and fall out. I keep adding backlinks until the dancing is almost nonexistent. Backlinking is time consuming, but it is the crucial piece of the puzzle.

Your goal is twofold: 1) Publish articles 2) Get them within the top 3 on Google. That's it!

Only when you have an arsenal of articles that end up within the top 3 on page one can you honestly say that your article marketing is passively bringing in traffic every month. Until then, you will be spinning your wheels, writing article after article and end up on here saying "Article Marketing Doesn't Work!"....It does work but it is up to you to make it work!

[ScottTrimble]

good post, i've found consistency in what you said among my own results also

[Brad Spencer]

I really liked your post. As someone who publishes articles frequently, this really helped me out!

What bookmarking methods are you using?

Cheers,

Brad Spencer

[Michael Franklin]

Originally Posted by Brad Spencer

I really liked your post. As someone who publishes articles frequently, this really helped me out!

What bookmarking methods are you using?

Cheers,

Brad Spencer

Hi Brad,

The funny thing is that I am not big on bookmarking tools. I rarely use them. I spend more time going after backlinks. Dofollow blogs are are great place to start. I'll even go through the list of web 2.0 properties that I mentioned in my first post and spin my original article and place them in those properties. I then place anchor text to link back to my original article.

I am strictly going after long-tail keywords and I have found that just focusing on the backlinks will usually do the trick. You can always outsource the bookmarking but to me the return for the time or money invested never seemed to be worth it.

Has bookmarking worked out for you?

[Afterglow]

Awesome thread this really works as I've used similar tactics before. One of my examples in an old article in Ezine Articles that I now need to edit due to dead links it titled: "Bad Tatoos Last Just As Long As The Good Ones - FOREVER!" It's just information now since the links are dead.

Hope this helps your belief in his post, It does mine.

[wordwizard]

In theory, I knew I was supposed to do some backlinking, but in reality, I often forget. Thanks for pointing out just how worth it this can be!

And there were some cool other little tips in there too ;-)

Thanks!

Elisabeth

[Michael Franklin]

Thank you all for the kind words....

Be sure to go through all of your existing articles out there...You can still breathe new life into your old articles! Take all of them regardless of how old they are and run them through steps 1 and 2 of my orginal post in this thread. You probably will find many of them are excellent candidates.

I have hundreds of old articles that I'm going through and adding new backlinks too. Many of them are already climbing up the rankings.

You probably have a lot of valuable content that's just itching to get to the top of Google. Try it out and see. You will be pleased with the results!

[Jon Steel]

I really appreciate your posting. I was kind of confused about the article thing - but you really clarified it for me...thanks a bunch...

js

[melanied]

Another great way to get backlinks to Web 2.0 properties is through blog networks like Free Traffic System - there are paid networks as well. They're quick and they work!

[Michael Franklin]

Those of you with lots of old articles, you're probably wondering which articles to add backlinks to. This should help you.....

A good rule of thumb is take a look at your article stats in Ezine (or other articles sites) and see which articles have the best click through rates for your links. Those are the ones I would focus on.

Some articles just don't make an impact on the bottom line, so focus on your best performing articles and you will see good results!

[Preben Frenning]

Great tips! Thanks
However, I have a few notes...

1. I have spot 2 and 3 with 2 different articles for the same keyword - Both on EZA.
2. Instead of doing a regular search for the long tail keyword, use the "allintitle:long-tail keyword" in google. That shows the websites with the keyword phrase in their title - Which is what google relies on the most. So if few of the autohrity pages show up using that command, you can be sure to dominate it

[Geode]

Thanks for that Mike, good information.

[Joseph Then]

That's one reason why SENuke existed...

[tommygadget]

I think that in another thread, it was advised that you link to your eza article from the other article directory submissions. That way, your eza article gets to the top with the added link power.

TomG.

[Michael Franklin]

Originally Posted by Preben Frenning

Great tips! Thanks
However, I have a few notes...

1. I have spot 2 and 3 with 2 different articles for the same keyword - Both on EZA.
2. Instead of doing a regular search for the long tail keyword, use the "allintitle:long-tail keyword" in google. That shows the websites with the keyword phrase in their title - Which is what google relies on the most. So if few of the autohrity pages show up using that command, you can be sure to dominate it

1) Obviously, if you can dominate all of the top three, then you'll really be sitting pretty!

2) allintitle:"keyword phrase" is an excellent way to look at the true competition. I take it a step further to determine which web 2.0 property I will use for my article....If I find a keyword phrase is an excellent candidate, then at Google I will enter: site:"domain name" allintitle:"keyword phrase" for each domain (squidoo.com, vox.com,etc.) to find which domain has the LEAST competition for that keyword phrase. The domain with very few or no results is the winner and that's the property that I use for my article.

The reason being is that Google will favor new properties in the top page rankings over the same ones.

Again, to find which property has the least competion for a keyword phrase, enter at google:

site:domain name allintitle:"keyword phrase"

[Yogini]

Mike,

Great post. Do you find that setting up backlinks to goarticles is more effective than to ezinearticles? I have seen threads on the forum backlinking to ezinearticles though I think Angela says that backlinking to goarticles works better. Also since I think there would only be 2 links in google to the same phrase per domain (ie ezinearticles) than if you see an article with the phrase in top 3 already in ezinearticles would you still try to get yours in since there is a nice benefit for being in the most viewed in 90 days section.

Debbie

[Preben Frenning]

@MidwestMike - Wow! That is pretty hardcore!
And I'm sure it works like a charm!

Perhaps you could make a "Keyword Competition Research" software based on this formula? That might be a nice WSO

I'll definately try that out some time

Thanks again

[Mike Hersh]

Well said!

There is a lot more to article marketing than just writing an article and post it in the article directories. You should always check how it's going on the search results and try to get it to a better place.

Good information,

Mike G

[rooperoy]

Very useful tips. Thank you

[PrettyJenny]

This is such a great guide, I'm doing a big part of what you were mentioning. I'm normally lazy to build backlinks, this will motivate me a bit
Thanks a lot!

[Tyler Jonsson]

Thanks for the motivational message. I know I certainly need to ramp up my (non-existent) Article Marketing efforts.

[Mark Coverdale]

Originally Posted by mrkrabs

Nice post!

Originally Posted by Geode

Thanks for that Mike, good information.

Originally Posted by rooperoy

Very useful tips. Thank you

Originally Posted by andywang

Thank you for your post!

Guys, there is a thank you button that you can use to show your appreciation for an informative, helpful post, which this is.

The OP will appreciate your thank you, you won't get your "post count up" but it still shows you like the info.

[bluefoot]

Originally Posted by Mark Coverdale

Guys, there is a thank you button that you can use to show your appreciation for an informative, helpful post, which this is.

The OP will appreciate your thank you, you won't get your "post count up" but it still shows you like the info.

FYI, I found you need to have 15 posts before the Thank You button is available.

[Gallery Sites]

Originally Posted by MidwestMike

Some of my favorites are:

Squidoo
WordPress
GoArticles
EzineArticles
BlogSome
WetPaint
Vox

How do you post on WordPress?
Are you referring to a blog?

[wordwizard]

Originally Posted by MidwestMike

1) Obviously, if you can dominate all of the top three, then you'll really be sitting pretty!

2) allintitle:"keyword phrase" is an excellent way to look at the true competition. I take it a step further to determine which web 2.0 property I will use for my article....If I find a keyword phrase is an excellent candidate, then at Google I will enter: site:"domain name" allintitle:"keyword phrase" for each domain (squidoo.com, vox.com,etc.) to find which domain has the LEAST competition for that keyword phrase. The domain with very few or no results is the winner and that's the property that I use for my article.

The reason being is that Google will favor new properties in the top page rankings over the same ones.

Again, to find which property has the least competion for a keyword phrase, enter at google:

site:domain name allintitle:"keyword phrase"

That's excellent advice. Also explains a few things... Thanks so much.

[JonathanBoettcher]

Excellent tip - backlinking to articles is probably the most overlooked method of article marketing success...

[RevenueGal]

Great information and I agree on all the advice!

[TelegramSam]

"Set It And Forget It" Article Marketing - The Only Way To Article Market.


This sounds great. But most people "Forget" to "Set It" in the first place.

[vicone]

Perhaps you could make a "Keyword Competition Research" software based on this formula? That might be a nice WSO

There is already keyword research software that will do this, and more. For instance, MicroNicheFinder has a column called SOC (Strength of Competition) which indicates the phrases recommended for targeting. It is a "once only" payment.

Ivan

[Andrew Maule]

Originally Posted by MidwestMike

2) Keep backlinking until you are consistently in the top three. Why do so many people publish an article and not even watch it's progress in the SERP's? It's crazy! You should put as much (if not more) effort into maintaining your article's ranking in the SERP's as you put into writing your own articles.

Until your article cracks the top 3, you have to get enough backlinks so that your article will crack the top 3. There are many great backlinking resources on here to help you get started.

Even when you make the top 3, your article will still do the "Google Dance" and fall out. I keep adding backlinks until the dancing is almost nonexistent. Backlinking is time consuming, but it is the crucial piece of the puzzle.

Your goal is twofold: 1) Publish articles 2) Get them within the top 3 on Google. That's it!

Only when you have an arsenal of articles that end up within the top 3 on page one can you honestly say that your article marketing is passively bringing in traffic every month. Until then, you will be spinning your wheels, writing article after article and end up on here saying "Article Marketing Doesn't Work!"....It does work but it is up to you to make it work!

Bingo! This is very true.

Not until recently did I stop submitting articles and focus more on backlinking the ones I already had...

If you have an article that is already geared towards a high volume keyword and it isn't getting views...what do you do? You backlink it until it's on the front page and THEN you get those views. Backlinking an article with a PR6 already is way easier than backlinking your PR0 site and bumping it into the front page. Backlinking is key and the more you do it the easier it gets, at first it seems like one hell of a long road.

[Floyd Bogart]

For me the most useful part of this post is the reminder to hit the articles themselves with backlinks. I tend to concentrate on the site I am trying to create traffic for. Boneheaded I know as I have read this advice many times before...

I will now go and do what I already knew I should have been doing!

Lol

[ildarius]

Great post!

So you mean to say that once the article reaches the top 3 position in Google it usually stays there, as opposed to article that rank below 3 and then disappear?

[Mark Coverdale]

Originally Posted by bluefoot

FYI, I found you need to have 15 posts before the Thank You button is available.

So post something with substance. I'm sick of those crappy one liners of "thank you for a great post".

90% of these people release a WSO as soon as they hit 30 posts. It smothers the real marketers here trying to add value like the OP has done.

Anyway, back on track.

[Michael Franklin]

Originally Posted by ildarius

Great post!

So you mean to say that once the article reaches the top 3 position in Google it usually stays there, as opposed to article that rank below 3 and then disappear?

Not necessarily....

You need to check every day to watch your position on page 1.

If you're bouncing all over the place, continue to backlink.

If you find that you've maintained a top three position, still backlink BUT at a much slower pace....Let's say you do 5 backlinks/day and your site is now in top 3 and has stayed there for the past 2 days. You do another 5 backlinks and the next day, it's still in top 3. Now, reduce backlinks to 3/day. If still in top 3 by the next day, reduce again. IF NOT, increase backlinks. You will increase or decrease based on how well your site is maintaining among the top 3.

Ultimately, you will get to a point where you are solidified in the top 3 every day without having to backlink anymore. Congratulations! Just remember to check it once in a while. But for the most part, you can now focus on other articles and repeat the process.

[Michael Franklin]

Originally Posted by Yogini

Mike,

Great post. Do you find that setting up backlinks to goarticles is more effective than to ezinearticles? I have seen threads on the forum backlinking to ezinearticles though I think Angela says that backlinking to goarticles works better. Also since I think there would only be 2 links in google to the same phrase per domain (ie ezinearticles) than if you see an article with the phrase in top 3 already in ezinearticles would you still try to get yours in since there is a nice benefit for being in the most viewed in 90 days section.

Debbie

Actually, they both work....EzineArticles and GoArticles are both excellent! GoArticles tend to respond faster to backlinks most of the time. However if I see 2 GoArticles on page 1 for a keyword phrase and no EzineArticles, I will lean towards EzineArticles. Be sure to do your domain research as I mentioned in my original post.

Of course it's nice to have additional readers of your articles when you are in the most viewed section on EzineArticles! But, only by reaching the top of the organic results can you see passive results from your articles every month.

[redrossero]

This is a good strategy for competitive keywords. However, before go wild and build backlinks you must be sure that you choose the right keywords in the first place.

[Nigel Greaves]

Mike,

Thanks for such an informative post and sharing your knowledge even further with the follow-up posts you've made. I'm sure a lot of Warriors who build backlinks to their main site never even think of doing it with submitted articles.

It reminds me of the quality posts that we use to see all the time on the WF.

One thing in particular struck me a pure gold:
"Now, if I notice that the top spots on Google are nothing but Web 2.0 properties (Squidoo, Ezine Articles, GoArticles, blogs, etc.) then I will proceed to write up my article using proper keyword density for that keyword phrase. I make sure that it is informative and flows well. AND, I use a property that is not currently among the top 10."

Thanks again,

Nigel

[Michael Franklin]

Originally Posted by redrossero

This is a good strategy for competitive keywords. However, before go wild and build backlinks you must be sure that you choose the right keywords in the first place.

Of course choosing the right keywords is EVERYTHING!

I am actually in the process of detailing this entire process so that you can see everything....proper keyword selection...writing the articles...getting into the rankings...how to build upon your results...etc.. I even have a good sample campaign that you can run with.

It turns out that all of these details have become too lengthy for a post so I will make it available as a free report. It should be available soon....I'm just trying to add some finishing touches as well as proofread my own writing (which can be hard to do on 4 hours worth of sleep!)

Anyways, I'll keep you posted as soon as it's available.

[Michael Franklin]

Originally Posted by SimonP

In reality how many backlinks should you require on a site that is in the top three...a rough figure?

I wish I could give you a good rule of thumb but every keyword phrase is different.

My philosophy has always been the more backlinks the better. Obviously, you don't want to be doing it 24 hours a day (although you might find some good outsourcers for that!). Still, the only way you will know is by testing.

I tend to look at the competition in the top 3 currently and use a FireFox tool like SEOQuake to get an idea of their pagerank and backlinks so I know what I'm up against and then go from there.

[pearlydean]

Hi Mike, I have just started using article marketing this week so this is very valauble information for me. I have found some great long tail keywords for the niche I am researching and am beavering away writing articles as we speak. I have cut and paste the info you provided (hope you don't mind!) and will add it to my processes now.

Cheers Keith

[ReyRey]

Very good post. I never really though about certain things you mentioned. I hardly ever use goarticles. But will definitely try them more often to see what results I can get from them.

ReyRey

[Yogini]

Mike,

Do you find there is a freshness bump with ezinearticles? I sometimes see a new article will crowd out one that was there previously for same keywords , even if there are some backlinks.

Debbie

[Michael Franklin]

Originally Posted by Yogini

Mike,

Do you find there is a freshness bump with ezinearticles? I sometimes see a new article will crowd out one that was there previously for same keywords , even if there are some backlinks.

Debbie

Good question....Yes there does seem to be a freshness bump. Most articles do not have any backlinks pointing to them so every time a new article comes out on that same topic, they tend to get bumped.

But backlinks always prevail over freshness. When you have enough backlinks to your article so that your article is solidified in the top 3, it will not be susceptible to the "new article bump".

[Tim45]

Hey Mike, I'd like to get a look at some of your articles so I can get Ideas and maybe learn something. Also what is your best method for getting back links?

[havefunandlive]

This is very informative!

Thanks for the info.

[Darren Cooper]

Hi Mike,

I take a slightly different approach in that I tend to target the article directories or web 2.0 properties that ARE ranking in the top 3, rather than ones that aren't there.

But I will definitely try out your method as well, thanks!

By targeting existing article directories, I find that during the backlink building process you sometimes get the bonus of showing up as a 'double listing' in Google. Also, sometimes the top ranked article has so many backlinks that a 'double listing' is good enough for me.

In terms of keyword density, although I think it is somewhat relevant I tend not to focus on it that much. I have found that backlink anchor text is much more important.

Thanks again.

[Ray Erdmann]

"..Keep backlinking until you are consistently in the top three..."

What recommendations would you suggest in this area? (back-linking that is?)


Thanks,


Ray E

[Michael Franklin]

Originally Posted by Ray Erdmann

What recommendations would you suggest in this area? (back-linking that is?)

I highly recommend Angela Edwards' monthly backlinks. She really saves you a lot of the time and hassle of finding high PR sites to backlink from. Best of all, they work!

Look for her backlink package in the WSO section.

[Michael Franklin]

Originally Posted by daria19

In terms of keyword density, although I think it is somewhat relevant I tend not to focus on it that much. I have found that backlink anchor text is much more important.

I agree....If I had to choose which factor is more important, I would have to say backlinks. Plus, sometimes your articles will flow better if you don't optimize the keyword density. It's a judgment call but one that you get used to as you do more and more articles.

[elle56]

Originally Posted by melanied

Another great way to get backlinks to Web 2.0 properties is through blog networks like Free Traffic System - there are paid networks as well. They're quick and they work!

I subscribe to an article network membership site. It's an article re-writing and spinning software. I still have to manually re-write though. It's works for me as well.