Articles suck and are the new footprint. Stop writing articles for your links and start blogging

by Mike Anthony

Posted: 11 years ago 6 replies

Last night I was doing an inventory on my sites. Every few days I have some I am not using expire and I came across a site I did not recognize. I thought - wow I must have missed this one because the link profile is good but its obviously someone else's site now. It was real and authentic. Heres the thing -

the site had not expired. THE SITE WAS MINE. It was a network site I had gotten content for - blogging content - not article content. I had barely read it when I got it and given the amount of content I have to generate I don't remember a pile of content I have bought.

Why did it completely fool me? Because I had not ordered any traditional articles for it. I had used writers but asked them to write about something in their own experience - just like a normal blogger would. It had words like "me" and "I" and it related real stories from my writers real life.

Even the links seemed authentic and it was only after clicking on one of them I realized "hey this is one of my client's sites. go figure".

Heres the thing - writers (some from iwriters) told me they love writing this stuff. that its easy and quick. Theres a level of authenticity that only comes when writers are writing about what they know, feel connected to and liked writing.

The biggest thing?

If I couldn't Identify the site and the content looked so natural to me how could any reviewer be certain it wasn't a natural link when the articles on it ARE authentic?

I realized again what I have known for awhile. it doesn't matter if you only put one link in your article content. I can sense content created for a link just because the content is just too articlely (yeah I made up a word). Plus really the only way you can naturally change subjects on a blog s if the blog is about the person writing it and their experiences -

Sorry.

You can dream all you want but if one article is about how to get good car insurance and the next is about dog training....BZZZZZZ. Footprint alarm - not matter how good the content is thats a giveaway.

Even when the subject is the same and its all clinical and subject based people are going to ask - why would someone even blog about this?

So do less articles for your link building and do more personal conversational blogging. With a little creativity and understanding of your niche you can get real life stories and blog content that still relates to your niche without necessarily being articles about your niche.

Articles ARE the new footprint.

#articles #blogging #footprint #links #start #stop #writing

godoveryou 11 years ago

I couldn't agree more Mike.

In fact that was in a way what I was trying to get at last night when I wrote my reply here: http://www.warriorforum.com/adsense-...ml#post8473854

Not only have the results been great for readers, but these types of articles typically rank well as well.

The great thing for us marketers is that if you are writing your own content, it's extremely easy to produce huge longtail filled articles and typically in a lot less time that it would take to rewrite someone else's mistake.
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jinx1221 11 years ago

It shouldn't be that tough to rewrite an "articley" (my new favorite word) article from a personal point of view. For example about changing a flat tire:

1 - Loosen lug nuts with a tire wrench with the car on the ground.
2 - Lift up the car with a jack at the jacking point.
3 - Remove the lug nuts and pull the wheel off the hub.
4 - Examine the tire for foreign objects like rocks or nails.

Could be rewritten pretty easily:

Last night on the way home from work, I got a flat tire! I scrambled around the trunk to find a tire wrench, then I loosened the lug nuts.. man were they tight! Then I lifted my car up with the cheapo jack that came with the car, removed the rest of the lug nuts and pulled the wheel off the hub. What do ya know, there was a nail stuck in it!!

And so on. You could even throw in some story about how you tried to call AAA but your cell phone ran out of juice, yadda yadda yadda.. Instant personality
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- Mike Anthony 11 years ago
  
  Originally Posted by jinx1221
  
  It shouldn't be that tough to rewrite an "articley" (my new favorite word) article from a personal point of view. For example about changing a flat tire:
  
  Great point I did not mention. In fact i tell you what? Due to how people use language some parts of a rewrite don't even have to be rewritten. How many times are these phrases duplicated naturally?
  
  "we had a great time"
  " you know the old saying"
  "So I was thinking the other day"
  "when I got home from work"
  "women are hard to understand"
  "couldn't stand his/her guts"
  
  When English speakers talk personally they use a lot of the same phrases that if google flagged as duplicate content they would have to flag milions of natural pages.
  
  I've found personal blogging content very easy to rewrite. Change names and gender, a few nouns and change the personality for the writing and boom new rewritten content. Wish there was software more based on rewriting than spinning but even my favorite Chimp rewriter and spin rewriter all have spinning still at their base.
  
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nest28 11 years ago

I think a lot of marketers would do well just blogging about topics they like instead of making lawn mower review.com.
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- godoveryou 11 years ago
  
  Originally Posted by nest28
  
  I think a lot of marketers would do well just blogging about topics they like instead of making lawn mower review.com.
  
  You've got that right!
  
  Unfortunately, there is a problem. Monetization.
  
  I have one site that I just love to write for. It literally makes me smile to write content out for it and I just get lost doing it. It contains information that isn't available virtually anywhere else other than the odd yahoo answers response.
  
  The problem?
  
  No way to monetize it. It's in a niche that literally has no affiliate programs and trust m, I've tapped all available resources. Because the niche is so specialized to the direct community its members serve - nobody really wants to pay for advertising on a site that isn't targeted to their city specifically.
  
  So, I would say - write something you love, but something that has some kind of method of monetization as well. Think about the money first upfront, just so you know how you are going to justify all of that writing to your wife, accountant, etc...
  
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messijack 11 years ago

Yes, Blogging is one of the important factor for promoting their link in an easy way. Article promotion is also good, but the describing the content has lot of restrictions and need to be approved by the moderator.
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