Does Article Writing Still Work?

Penguin and Panda can do nothing about your strategies to get direct traffic. Your best bet with Search engines is to ignore them and focus on direct traffic. And yes articles do get you direct traffic.

This is one of the most common way people use to bang in affiliate sales, wont hurt to try

Ezine and the other directories were a goldmine once upon a time, though like all of the other money making strategies, eventually they dry up. Regarding driving traffic to your business, I would recommend looking at guest posting instead.

Guest posting involves the same amount of writing work, yet if you can find blogs with similar communities to yours, the process can be much more fruitful.

It certainly doesn’t work as well as an SEO tactic as it used to. Panda devalued most if not all article marketing directories, so consequently they don’t rank as well and for fewer keywords.

Ah Jeez, I almost miss Alexa. The point of article marketing was never to do with page rank... FFS tae a look at some of the long standing members of the WF who still write articles in EZA - for SYNDICATION. To give others who are too busy or too witless, something to syndicate!!!

Yeah, EZA has had its day - except their article writing training is bloody good! And so are their templates.

Article marketing has moved on and ArticlesBase.com is the new thing, but the point is in creating a following in their own ecosystem and being RE-PUBLISHED.

If you think of this stuff in terms of page rank then you have no clue what page rank is. Page rank refers to relevance of a specific page to a search term, not to the whole site.

Article marketing works (if you pick the right place and know what to expect, e.g. BizSugar and IBOToolbox - great places to get traffic but not for syndication).

Peace!
Dave

From an SEO stand point, article marketing isn't as powerful of a tool as it used to be.

But if you're creating useful, insightful content and you want it to be read by as much people as possible i'd say that having your content publish on article sites is a good idea, since your content can get picked up and syndicated on various sites, just like DoubleohDave said.

Joel

How old is that report? I have a ton of articles on Ezinearticles and get about
1 click per month! They use to work well but don't anymore.

Where is Alexa when you need her?

-Ray Edwards

It still works IF and only IF you are going to submit an ORIGINAL ARTICLE (to be published only in one place) to niche-specific blogs.

That's pretty much the most effective way if your focus is SE traffic and direct traffic.

You can play around with syndication but its so risky for certain niches that it might not be worth it.

Thanks for the feedback everyone. Who is this Alexa people keep referring to?

articles will only work if you know what you are doing otherwise it will be a waste of time and resources

Yes it can still work, but it's a lot harder now. I mean think about it...when was the last time you saw an Ezine Article in the search engine results?

I haven't seen one in a couple of years. I think Ezine Article type directories have been spammed and saturated.

So their search engine reputation has taken a huge hit. The best thing you can do is start your own blog and publish an article on your own site.

It's hard to rank in Google for certain terms, but if your content is top quality Google will find it and reward you for it.

You can also write an article and start publishing it on other bigger blogs...A.K.A guest blogging.

This still works today, and can bring you massive traffic and authority.

Wish you much success,

John Matos

Yeah, I gotta agree Alexa's ability to disect, inform, and set the record straight on matters concerning article marketing & article syndication was mind numbing, as she knew her craft!

Personally, I entered this arena just as Panda and Penguin updates were coming into effect, and learned NOT to rely solely on SEO, as there's been many horror stories from marketer's who lost tons of money during the process.

As far as 'spinning' articles, Alexa saved my @$$ from making the mistake of polluting the internet with spun garbage.

Lasty, if you write articles to inform readers, and position your articles strategically, and with a strong call to action (pre-sell, opt-in, or to sell) then; Yes, article marketing, syndicating articles, guest blogging... Always have worked, and always will.

The way people were using sites like EZA pre-Google Slaps is no longer viable, like it once was. All of this 'Alexa' talk is simply using articles to build an email list, to which products are then sold via the list.

People like Alexa are simply using articles as a traffic source - they use articles, which they get published on other people's websites/eZines/newsletters, etc., to drive traffic to their sign-up page to get an email address and build their list. Some people use SEO/Google to do this, Social Media to drive traffic, Solo Ads, other paid traffic, etc.

And some people use articles to drive traffic.

Think about all of the blogs you have visited, from straight up MMO blogs, to freelance writing blogs, etc., and all of the posts on those blogs that were guest posts. I myself have visited such blogs and then clicked on the resource box of the guest poster to check out their site and read more of their stuff. That is all article marketing is (one specific form) - driving traffic to a squeeze page, usually to capture an email address. There is no big mystery about it all - it can be a guest post on a blog in your niche, publication in an eZine or email newsletter, etc., and it is used to drive traffic to your squeeze page.

The trick is getting your articles syndicated - published on someone else's site that has your potential customers visiting it. EZA is/was a passive way of doing that due to how highly EZA articles were ranking on the SERPs. That no longer works like it did. And now you need to convince people to publish your stuff.

Whatever one thinks about Alexa (I don't have the starry eyed view of her many do), she is a great writer - very good with words. If you are going to choose the article syndication route, well, the better writer you are, the more success you are likely to enjoy, IMO. It is like everything else - sure, article marketing works for SOME people, but not others.

I've seen plenty of claims about article syndication, including one guy who posts here who claimed, a couple years ago, to be pulling in half a billion dollars from article marketing and using a cheap workforce of not yet graduated college students, etc. Maybe so, but I will not believe a claim like that on the surface without some sort of backup or proof.

Article marketing was heavily tied into Google as a traffic source, and that is how that Steve dude referenced made his money - until Google took that traffic away. People like Alexa use articles (not Google directly) as their traffic source - get your article published somewhere that has readers in that niche, and siphon off other people's traffic. And, again, important in all of this is that since this traffic you want to send to your sign up page is dependent upon your articles, you better be a damn good writer if you want to make bank - your article needs to hook and compel the reader to visit your email sign up page.

It is no different, in the end, then people using a freebie to get people on their list, except with articles, it is a bit less 'bribe like' and getting the article syndicated is your actual traffic source.

IMO.. this still works, it just isn't as effective as it used to be.. but this doesn't mean that you shouldn't do it!

I do article/content writing everyday, but not on EZA. I put all of it on my blog. My email subscribers seem to love it, and the monetization that i have on it speaks for itself. It's in your best interest to write articles, but place them on your own site - and drive direct traffic to your articles/content page.

Sites like EZA and Articles Base are dead. You'd be much better off starting a blog and posting a few high-quality articles to that than trying to do article marketing (bleck!). Quality over quantity – and on your own domain.