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Has Article Marketing Come Full Circle...Again?!

by Allen Graves
16 replies
Warriors,

As I was studying some of my article statistics this morning - and then comparing the "good" articles with the ones that were not performing as well as I thought they should - something suddenly became completely clear to me...AGAIN.

You can throw all sorts of strategies and techniques at your article marketing campaigns and a lot of them work really well. But on the other hand, every single one of those techniques can fail miserably if one thing is not consistently added into your articles.

And that one thing is quality content.

I don't just mean original content, although that too is mandated for a great article marketing campaign. I am talking about QUALITY content.

In my mind (disclaimer here - LOL), I see quality content - on the highest level - as being words that flow smoothly in English conversation from one sub topic to another in a logical order - without spelling and/or grammar errors.

And as I sit back and think about article writing and marketing over the past several years, I realize the one thing that has remained consistently profitable throughout all of the crazy article marketing tricks and tactics that have come and gone...and that one thing is quality content.

It has prevailed over and over, over many years - while those other tricks have all come and gone.

Now I need to say that there are still techniques and strategies that need to be used to realize a successful article marketing campaign - but I just wanted to remind everyone - from newbie to expert - that in order for anything you do to actually work, now and into the future, quality content must be consistent in your article writing.

While this is certainly nothing new and "groundbreaking", it is always good to stop every once in a while and remember the fundamentals in anything you do...especially in internet marketing.

I challenge everyone to take a look at your article statistics and look specifically at the articles that are converting into paying customers. I would bet that a great majority of them are coming from the articles in which you placed your best quality content.

And remember, don't just make your words flow together - make the entire structure of the article flow in a logical, well-written order.

Respectfully,
Allen Graves
#article #circleagain #full #marketing
  • Profile picture of the author Marhelper
    Yes, nothing replaces quality content. If you have a great strategy and have tons of viewers to the articles but they find junk content then they are not going to move toward the resource box anyway.
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  • Profile picture of the author Peter Adamson
    Amen. When I see posts saying you need to write 5 to 10 articles a day I scratch my head. How do you even get that many ideas much less write quality articles at 10 a day??
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    • Profile picture of the author Allen Graves
      Originally Posted by Peter Adamson View Post

      Amen. When I see posts saying you need to write 5 to 10 articles a day I scratch my head. How do you even get that many ideas much less write quality articles at 10 a day??
      I agree Peter, in fact, I am pushing my authors to slow themselves down a bit.

      Quality over quantity for the long term.

      Allen
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  • Profile picture of the author WritingMadwoman
    Excellent post, Allen. I couldn't agree more.

    I continue to be surprised by the performance of some of my older articles - some going back 5 years! And back then I knew absolutely NOTHING about keywords or SEO. I just wrote about a topic because I had a passion for it, and the keyword selection happened naturally. Not only do the articles still perform well in the article directories, they have been published and published again on blogs, sites and in newsletters. Not everyone is honest enough to include the bio box let alone make it an active link, but the majority do.

    Wendy
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  • Profile picture of the author mpruben
    In my SEO business I'm often asked what are the latest techniques or tricks to get high rankings. I invariably tell them to add valuable quality content to their websites and the rankings and traffic pretty much follow automatically. They will then look blank and go off searching for some new trick that may get them ranked for a day or two.

    I often wonder just how many weeks and months are wasted on fretting over tags and keywords when all you need is quality.

    You said it all, Allen.
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    • Profile picture of the author Steven Wagenheim
      Allan, sadly I am finding that quality content in itself is not enough.

      It also needs to be captivating. It needs to be information that people
      absolutely must have, even as far as saying life altering to a degree.

      My best performing articles are the ones that come with prefaces such
      as URGENT or WARNING. When people think that they're life is going to
      be seriously affected by NOT reading the information, they'll read it.

      The article itself doesn't have to be a work of great writing, though it should
      still be well written.

      It needs to be VITAL.

      In other words, a well written, critically important article will outperform
      a fantastically written "not a matter of life and death" article any day of
      the week.

      I have found this to be true over and over and over again.

      When people believe that what they're about to read is THAT important,
      they will read it.

      If you push the right buttons and then have a followup solution (resource
      box) that addresses that concern or problem, you'd have to have the
      worst sales page written not to make a decent number of sales.

      It all comes down to need.

      What does the reader need?

      How important is it to the reader?

      Can they find better info elsewhere?

      If the answer to that last question is no, then the quality of the article
      itself comes less into play.

      There are so many sub niches in the health niche that have so little info
      that ANY article of decent quality, not even great, will do the job.

      Again, I have found this to be true over and over again. While I am a
      decent writer, I am NO Hemingway.

      I don't have to be...not if I pick my market correctly.

      That will ALWAYS win out over article quality.
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      • Profile picture of the author helpandinfo
        I love article marketing. I used to find it a chore but worked my way through a barrier of sorts and now I can churn out grammatically correct articles in no time (with US or UK spellings).

        I also have an article spinner (you have to be very careful how you use it but with a little care it really can produce unique articles that make perfect sense).

        Then I have an article submitter than with a couple of clicks is submitting to 600+ article directories

        Life is good.

        cheers,
        Russ
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        • Profile picture of the author Allen Graves
          Originally Posted by helpandinfo View Post

          I love article marketing. I used to find it a chore but worked my way through a barrier of sorts and now I can churn out grammatically correct articles in no time (with US or UK spellings).

          I also have an article spinner (you have to be very careful how you use it but with a little care it really can produce unique articles that make perfect sense).

          Then I have an article submitter than with a couple of clicks is submitting to 600+ article directories

          Life is good.

          cheers,
          Russ
          I think you missed the point, Russ.
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          • Profile picture of the author AffiliateTraining
            "I think you missed the point, Russ."

            LOL.

            Yeah, you're right Allen. I only maybe do an article a week these days, I send it to my list, I post it on my blog, then I submit it to EA too... (couldn't really give a you-know-what about what most people think duplicate content actually signifies).

            When you say something important/significant/useful/interesting (or fill in the gaps) you don't really need to sweat it at all. You just need to spend your most fruitful hours writing the stuff that actually makes money.

            I was stunned on here yesterday with the guy who wrote 82 articles in a day. OMG. He was nuts, obviously. If he'd poured all of that 82 worth into one decent money shot article, or even an ebook, it would serve him so much better. Quantity means absolutely nothing.
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      • Profile picture of the author Allen Graves
        Originally Posted by Steven Wagenheim View Post

        Allan, sadly I am finding that quality content in itself is not enough.

        It also needs to be captivating. It needs to be information that people
        absolutely must have, even as far as saying life altering to a degree.

        My best performing articles are the ones that come with prefaces such
        as URGENT or WARNING. When people think that they're life is going to
        be seriously affected by NOT reading the information, they'll read it.

        The article itself doesn't have to be a work of great writing, though it should
        still be well written.

        It needs to be VITAL.

        In other words, a well written, critically important article will outperform
        a fantastically written "not a matter of life and death" article any day of
        the week.

        I have found this to be true over and over and over again.

        When people believe that what they're about to read is THAT important,
        they will read it.

        If you push the right buttons and then have a followup solution (resource
        box) that addresses that concern or problem, you'd have to have the
        worst sales page written not to make a decent number of sales.

        It all comes down to need.

        What does the reader need?

        How important is it to the reader?

        Can they find better info elsewhere?

        If the answer to that last question is no, then the quality of the article
        itself comes less into play.

        There are so many sub niches in the health niche that have so little info
        that ANY article of decent quality, not even great, will do the job.

        Again, I have found this to be true over and over again. While I am a
        decent writer, I am NO Hemingway.

        I don't have to be...not if I pick my market correctly.

        That will ALWAYS win out over article quality.

        Great points, Steven.

        And if you really want to make more money and see clicks like you wouldn't believe, here's a huge secret I haven't shared with anyone before.

        This will literally change your entire outlook on making money with articles and it works every time in every niche.

        Just kidding.

        Trying to practice your points.

        Allen
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  • Profile picture of the author thegamecat
    Just poking a bit of fun - it's "grammatical errors"

    I totally agree btw, no matter what you do great content is always going to captivate your audience like no other.
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  • Profile picture of the author Lindsay Brynn
    I agree with this! This is why I only write 2-3 articles a day and sometimes that is pushing it. In the long run that has proven to be a great deal better than throwing out ten 300 word pieces that were only written to drive some traffic. I also enjoy the writing a lot more. It doesn't feel like work if you're actually interested in what you're writing, and I'm sure the reader appreciates it too.
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  • Profile picture of the author DAS_Matt
    Yes, quality does make a big difference. Quality builds more trust. More trust brings more clicks. More clicks means more eyeballs. More eyeballs means more money.
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  • Profile picture of the author SurviveUnemployment
    You hit it right on the head, Allen. Quantity is only good in that "even a broken clock is right twice a day" sort of way. Churn out enough articles and a couple of them, the ones of the highest quality, will grow legs and run for you.

    I am a relative newb to article marketing, but one thing I have noticed is that people do view your profile. Personally, I wouldn't want them to find a bunch of crummy articles. I want them to find good articles and buy several of the products those articles direct them toward because they trust my credibility.

    An aside if I may:

    I'm finding that my best performing articles are not even 1/5 as popular as my average blog posts in terms of the number of reads but the click-through is five times as high. On a blog post, I might get one affiliate/CPA click per 30 reads, but with EZA it's closer to 1/5. Why is that? It's weird. Is it because of "the competition" clicking the links?
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    • Profile picture of the author Allen Graves
      Originally Posted by SurviveUnemployment View Post

      An aside if I may:

      I'm finding that my best performing articles are not even 1/5 as popular as my average blog posts in terms of the number of reads but the click-through is five times as high. On a blog post, I might get one affiliate/CPA click per 30 reads, but with EZA it's closer to 1/5. Why is that? It's weird. Is it because of "the competition" clicking the links?
      Unfortunately, EZA does not give you full web statistics. So without knowing your niche and reading your articles, I couldn't even guess. And that's all it would be without seeing the traffic flow...a guess.

      Weird, though.

      With that crappy looking article page I am surprised anyone gets clicks.

      Just my opinion, of course.

      Allen
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