How many articles do you write around the same keyword phrase?

No...It is not self-competition. It will improve your blog ranking among the search engines. You can write as many articles as you can can on the specific keywords.

I've had 2 different articles I wrote around the same keyword phrase show up on the same page in Google SERPs. They were listed on different directories, which might have had something to do with it, though. I'm not sure if I've ever seen 2 or more different articles (my own) from the same directory show up, but it's an interesting question.

LSI comes into play. You'll naturally use different variations of the keyword juxtaposed with other related words when you write different articles around the same keyword. One of them might strike the right chord with Google and get ranked well, whereas if you'd only written one and moved on, you might never see a good ranking.

Bottom line - it's too complex to worry about too much. I often write multiple articles with the exact same keyword in mind. If your site converts well, the payoff for the time you put in writing and submitting each article should be enough just from the sales or list opt-ins you get from visits from the directory that everything else is icing on the cake. Honestly, I don't even track where my articles rank at Google unless I notice a spike in traffic that tracks back to there.

John

I write as many as possible. I kind of have to change the words up or I'll go a little crazy and feel like I'm repeating myself. After looking at your stats you'll also get a better idea of which keywords need another 10 articles and which ones you can ignore completely.