Ok, as an IMer who knows enough to know what he needs to know and research, but not yet being a complete expert, I'm getting confused as all get-out with some of this stuff...

Here is what I'm doing, what I'm finding, and what my questions are...

Doing #1 - I've setup a new website that will sell an info-product. I've got articles on that site (a little over 10). I also have another 10 (with 9 more ready, and another 5-10 after that) articles that I will be using for article marketing via articles directories. New site is set to debut on Tuesday. I've submitted my promotional articles to 13-14 articles sites, and will be doing so with the rest soon. The purpose of the article marketing is to build backlinks for SEO purposes of the index page of my site.

Doing #2 - After that project is rolling along, I want to do some affiliate article marketing. The main purpose here will be to get an article (likely via EZA) to rank high for specific keywords, and use that article to drive traffic to an affiliate link (will likely have my own url which will redirect to a clickbank hoplink). This was described heavily in this thread - http://www.warriorforum.com/main-int...marketing.html

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As far as article marketing goes, I was getting article directories from this list - List Of Top 50 Article Directories By Traffic, PageRank

Now, I know that dofollow vs nofollow is a 'hot' topic these days, and everybody is saying to not mess with nofollow directories (as far as building backlinks and SEO goes).

The same goes for social bookmarking, which I planned on doing for: 1) the articles on my new site, 2) EZA articles published for my site, 3)EZA articles published for my affiliate efforts.

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Dumb question time:

1 - I'm assuming the dofollow vs nofollow thing is worth paying attention to, right? I know that some folks make mountains out of molehills, but this is definitely worth knowing which sites are which?

2 - How are you supposed to know what sources of info can be trusted? For example, this link (dated 25-Sept-09) - Updated: Lists of Social Bookmarking Sites | RadenPayas.com - says Digg is dofollow, yet this link (dated earlier in the month on 02-Sept-09) - Digg Goes Nofollow to Reduce Spam - Search Marketing News Blog - Search Engine Watch (SEW) - says Digg is going to nofollow. Is Digg worth messing with or not?

3 - Along those same lines, is it really worth going to all these articles and social media sites, or am I better off just picking the 'top dogs' in each, and submitting to those only, not worrying about the rest?

And if this is the case, just which directories/sites are the 'top dogs'? I'm assuming for articles, it's EZA, articlesbase, and goarticles. Any others? (I'd also say isnare, but since it seems like it's taking months to get them to publish anything...)

For social bookmarking, I'm assuming Digg, Stumble, Tehnorati, Delicious, and Propeller. Any others here?

I'm not looking for a 'perfect' system here, just trying to make sure that I'm not wasting a bunch of time. I don't mind putting the work in, but only as long as I'm getting the most bang for my buck. And when I try to research it, half the info I find is all contradictory...

HELP! ;-) Thanks.