What Confuses You Most About Marketing With Articles?

Thanks yuyuan,

I am really just trying to see where most article marketers are sitting right now.

I, of course, agree that things are always changing - which is why I believe some new article marketers can become easily discouraged, confused or overwhelmed.

Thanks!
AL

I would certainly admit that I have not mastered Article Marketing.

What intrigues me (more than confuses me) and, therefore, is facilitating my ongoing learning process are the subjects Yuyuan mentions above.

For example, in studying the stats provided by Ezinearticles on the few hundred articles I have published, what titles are most read? Not just the topic, but what styles are more powerful than others? Of those titles which sigs are getting the highest clickthroughs?
Is there a pattern to which calls to action are more successful than others?

I find that the Warrior WSO and Warrior For Hire forums can also provide interesting data.
Not so much the number of replies because that number can be highly misleading but the number of times a thread has been opened - was it just the subject matter per se or the call to action implied in the title that attracted a high number of readers?

Article marketing is a fascinating subject, tough at times, and can be very frustrating. However, when done well, there are few real marketing strategies to beat it.

There is a proliferation of comments along with the promotion of a number of software products that seem to suggest that the actual originality, readability and quality of the content doesn't really matter. If I was a newcomer to writing for the 'net and article marketing, I would find this very confusing.

Andrew G.

I don't even look at the top authors. Who cares? I can't write like them
anyway and if I tried it would just come out forced.

I write like me and that works well enough.

ok so do you mention the long tail keywords like 10 times throughout the article or no?

Awesome answer, Bounderby, thanks!

Let me know when you decide to switch.

Allen

Hi John,

To me it depends on your article marketing purpose. Are you doing it for lead generation, website promotion, backlinks, etc...

What is your M.O.?

Allen

Well, there's a number of ways.

First, you put Google Analytics into the html code of every page of your website or blog. This way you can see exactly from where your traffic is coming, so for example if you write 5 articles and submit them to goarticles.com, and then you see on Google analytics that you get 30 visitors per day from Goarticles -then you can see that it's working. Because you're getting traffic, and all you need to do is convert that traffic into sales $.

On the other hand, some article directories have statistics, so you can see exactly how many people have viewed your articles, in what period of time - this is also all important. On the other hand, some article directories don't have a view counter. But you can always just type in the exact title of your article and see if it ranks well on Google, if it does, you'll get more traffic from that article. One more thing, if you submit, let's say 10 articles, you can leave a link on every article that leads to your website, when you have lot's of these links, Google sees that other places are pointing toward you for that particular keyword - so your website get's ranked higher - and that brings you in EVEN MORE traffic and makes you even more potential money. So there are many benefits...

Hope that helped,
Jack

Let me guess????

Just curious, is this the point of the thread?

I guess there's always that nagging doubt in the back of my mind....will it actually work? I see where IMers have said they have started a new campaign and sent in over 100 articles. How can you write (or even have written) 100 "different" articles covering the same niche....mind boggling. Then of course there is the question of how on earth you submit(and get approved) 100 articles.
regards,
Anthony

Absolutely not!

No matter what you are doing it for, it is important, in my opinion, to submit quality, compelling articles.

Remember that article marketing is also about creating a brand for yourself and making yourself look like an expert in your field, among many other things.

Lesser quality articles will ruin it for you...HUGE steps backwards there no matter what the article was written for.

Allen

Wow. Another 50 page ebook. LOL

Here are my VERY short answers to those questions...

Yes, I use them as the anchor text. I link to my site with all of them, actually. But I'm not JUST using article marketing, I am also using other backlinking methods which have nothing to do with article marketing.

How many per article? Just one more...

I recommend niche-related blogs, websites, directories and authority sites.

I do not change any of my articles. If I rewrite an article, it is going into my arsenal as a brand new article. I don't entertain the whole rewriting concept. Tried it - wasn't profitable. Plus other reasons.

I do submit to more than one article directory. Which ones depend on which niche. They are not all the same across the board, if you do some research on your niche, you'll find the ones you need to use.

I definitely recommend sending them to your own site and collecting their email address if at all possible.

If I see two EZA articles on the first page of Google, that tells me that EZA can actually get two spots...so why not try to outrank one of them by submitting a new article to EZA. If it seems impossible, I will try using another directory or website to get those spots.

Allen

I try to link to multiple pages across the site when possible. You definitely want your linked page to be in close relation to the article...you want to keep the interest in your specific product (and the purchasing mentality of your prospect) going.

And by all means, don;t be afraid to create a new page on your website to match with a new article you have written.

If your MO is just to promote a product, I would try to get them to a page on my site that will collect their info so I can keep them as a prospect instead of letting the product owner get everything. You can continue marketing to them.

This is just the short answer - there are a lot of theories and studies that can be cited. This is justthe way I do it personally with my affiliate sites.

Allen

If I knew that, I'd be sippin a Mai-Tai on my yacht in the Caribbean!

The only thing you can do is try to hit more home runs than ground outs.

AL

Man - you guys are insatiable! LOL, JK.

This would have to be analyzed on a case by case basis.

My best guess is backlinks, LSI, lots of testing on the author's part and a little luck.

Allen

What's the latest consenus in article marketing in regards of submitting the same (or similar) articles to different directories, in regards of effectiveness over using one article directory for the same campaign?

Also because I've been doing quite well with article marketing this thread hasn't come at a better time because another thing I can't get my head around, is that if there are any strategies and techniques that should be avoided and any compulsary measures needed to maintain a long life article that can live at the top of google for months to come.

I think a chat with another article marketer would help clear up these particular confusions by comparing technical analogies of what is a good way to make our articles picked up by the right readers.

Though right now my biggest confusion is about pinging my articles RSS feeds.

I think it might be a bad thing to do this every article, and instead better done evey few articles?

It would also be great to have a chat with another article marketer and discuss each of our strategies and see if there is any similiarities or major differences. (in regards of the technical techniques used)


Best Wishes
Intrepreneur.

Here's the bottom line on article outsourcing, at least IMO.

You have to look at what it's going to cost you and what you expect to
get out of it.

If you're just looking for backlinks, then spending $25 per article is pretty
ridiculous, in my book. However, if you know an article is going to bring
you in a nice return because you're in a hungry market and have a hot
product, then you can spend a little more.

As far as whether or not you have to write articles yourself, no, of course
not. I do because I simply don't trust anybody else to do my writing for
me, especially in the MMO niche. I'm the authority so I'm going to do the
writing.

In other niches, if I know I can make some good money, I'll consider it
if I don't feel I can pull of the writing for that niche or if I know I don't
have the time to write as much as I'd need to.

Then, I'll outsource and use a pen name. That way, I don't have to
worry about anybody associating me with the niche.

Even then, so far, I've still done my own writing even for niches that I
don't know a lot about. I simply do my research.

With outsourcing, it's hit and miss as far as finding a good writer unless
somebody recommends one who has a reputation. Problem is, those
with reps don't usually write $5 articles, though there are exceptions.

Read some of the outsourcing horror stories here at this very forum posted
by people who have hired article writers.

They're not pretty.

Hi LilBlackDress,

Thanks for your encouraging words, and I actually do that from time to time (read and get inspired by others articles, study their techniques). I believe that I can write decent articles in English some day, although at the moment I am more occupied with getting results (earning money) so that I can free up some time later and improve my writing skills

Thanks Steven, for your words of advice. I know outsourcing can be risky, and I will be careful with how much I invest into it for now. I also appreciate your explanation on Google's rules on duplicate content, having thought about it recently myself.

Everybody is going to have their own opinion about this. Here's mine. Take
it for what it's worth to you.

Each article directory has a different submission process. Therefore, no
truly automated submission software can submit to all of them with no
manual intervention. The cheap ones submit to directories that do have
similar enough structures but these directories are usually so awful that
they're not worth submitting to in the first place, not even for backlinks.

Personally, I don't use automated software. I submit manually to the few
directories that I know are going to bring results. For example, I know of
no software that will allow you to submit to Ezine Articles, which IMO is
the top directory. Same with the other top directories.

And if one exists, you're still going to have to manually intervene in the
process.

I did use a good submitter a long time ago, but I had to do almost as
much work using it as I would have had to do without it so for me, it
just wasn't worth it.

If your goal is to submit to hundreds of crappy directories just for backlinks
then go get a cheap one. It should do the job fine. But if you want to
submit to the top ones, get a really good one (I don't personally know the
best ones today as I stopped following that part of the market) but
understand that it won't be a totally automated process.

Article marketing is about so much more than links - although anyone would be crazy to deny the benefits of the links.

There are two different worlds to think about when it comes to backlinks.


These are:

1. Links that point from your articles to your web pages.
2. Links that point from other pages to your articles.

The number of backlinks to a web page is one of the factors that the search engines use to decide where to rank your page in their search results. Generally, the more links you have pointing at that page, the higher it will rank.

Therefore, the links you produce doing article marketing is one way to help get your webpages ranking highly in the search engines.

Secondly, by getting links to point to your articles, they too will have a better chance of ranking highly in the search engines which will help your website doubly, since the links to your site (your articles) have links pointing to THEM as well.

And yes, you almost always want to use anchor text. I suggest the main keyword phrase of the page being linked to. For instance, if I was linking to a page on songwriting tips, I would do it like this --> visit our website for more on songwriting tips ...

...instead of saying, for more on songwriting tips, click here.

This lets the SEs know that the page is about songwriting tips and they will give more weight to that page for that particular search phrase.

Hope that clears it up for you. That was the basic rundown of the whole thing.

But like I said, there's a lot more to article marketing than just the links!

Respectfully,
Allen Graves

I believe it means they have read it.

You are assuming that all articles are created equal. That is definitely not the case. Some articles will always outperform others so answering your question would be speculation based upon all articles performing the same.

Just keep producing and learning which ones work and expand. Then you will know how many.

The answer is.. there is no answer.

You need to get a general understand of what articles do well for you and on average how many people you need to visit your site in order to gain a sale.

If you need 100 people.. then how many good articles do you need to get that 100 to make a sale?

Then your turn the key and write, write, write.

This above is extremely general because every niche, every article, every writer is different. You need to test and analyse yourself to understand.

No one, no matter how much of a guru, can give you a defined answer because they don't know.

I have banged my head trying to come up with a reasonable answer for you, Darrin...and I just can't.

I can tell you (just like a whole lot of others) like to see proven results before attempting a new marketing strategy. You want to see a solid and definitive statement from one of the experts in that marketing field.

Unfortunately, there are an almost infinite amount of variables in the world of article marketing. For many, it would be literally mind-blowing to start to understand them all and how they work together.

I have been diligently studying article marketing and its results for many years and I am not even close to fathoming the entire variable matrix.

Therefore, it is pretty much impossible for a human to fill in the X, Y and Z of your formula. It wouldn't be accurate for anyone and would vary WIDELY from article to article.

If you ever find someone who answers this question for you - turn around and run the other way! If your problem is simply a lack of profitable results, then I believe you should look into why the results are poor instead of looking for some kind of substantiating information.

Allen Graves

I do agree with Allen alot on his point.

Some points to note however; that if you are not seeing results, some place you can trace back to are:

1) Your niche
2) Your landing page
3) Your title
4) Your article body
5) Your resource box

These are some of the "on site" factors you may wish to consider.

"off site" variables include building links for SEO and staying power, submitting RSS and marketing through web 2.0 sites etc.

I guess the main question really boils down to:

- how your prospect perceive the value of your offer
- If they have other choice
- their "mood" of buying on the spot
- their mindset on purchasing through the Internet
- Plus many others uncontrollable factors...

Though I do not have an exact answer, I must say article marketing is a tactic. If donw well, can generate a steady flow of traffic to your website. The whole success or make money thing however, revolves around how you market your product/services...

I personally suggest that what you can do is to learn about the strategies of article marketing and take advice from experts like Allen Graves, Tim Gorman, Dean Shainin..

Look at how they write their articles and how they syndicate them. Test and see what works best for you.

Regards
Kenji
PS: There will always be articles that is a winner and articles that are downright failing, so you cannot really put in the figures like what Allen said..

What people mean by marketing your articles is to drive more traffic to your articles. For example, if you find that there is one particular articles that is bringing you a lot of traffic and conversion, you can consider driving more traffic to it or getting more back links for the article so that it can rank higher on organic listings.

An simple way to look at this is:

Article Marketing = Using articles to market your business/products/service

If you submit to article sites only, that is call article submission and not article marketing. What you are doing is leaving everything to chance to determine if your article gets picked up or not...

In short, do consider the following:

1) Are you submiting to your "market directories" ? - eg: body building article directories are directories where most "body builders" will probably go and look for tips and ideas.. are you missing out on this traffic and potential customers ?

2) Are you contacting Ezine publishers - If you are producing good content articles, instead of letting publishers "chance upon" your articles, are you looking to "market your articles" to them ? They are constantly looking for new content that provide values, if you can provide them with free valuable content, you are first.. marketing through his list and second, branding yourself...

3) Articles are meant to build your "expert status" - That is why you submit quality contents. But, are you "marketing your product" with the article or just building your brand... are you using "selling without selling" method occassionally in your articles ?

4) Backlinks - Are you building backlinks to give your articles staying power(if you are doing just articles.. and no website etc) ?

The list could go on.. but, you get the idea. It is about marketing your service, business through articles to get prospects into your marketing funnel...

Hi Johnny,

Well, you don't have to point to an article at all. You could point to your website's home page, a squeeze page, a page set up specifically for traffic coming from that article, a specific part of your sales funnel, etc...

But to answer your question directly...yes.

Allen

There are other ways but heres one...

Plagiarism Checker

I have to disagree that it is a numbers game. Though it may have a slight effect.

It is the quality of the article that counts. It is the way you build backlinks and staying power.

Leave everything to chance... and you will have trouble seeing results. You can have thousands of articles out there but if they are not optimized and of poor quality.. no chance will you ever make anything out of it.

Like I said, you have to "milk" every marketing juice out of your articles

- establish authority and expert status.
- Optimzed articles
- Relationship building with publishers
- establishing a category in prospect's mind
- funneling your prospect
- etc

Only then will you "truely be flying".

regards,
Kenji