Bum Marketing With EZA Dead?

Completely agree....

Bum Marketing was a nice way to make some extra money, but article marketing by itself is not a business - it's a nice promotion method, but not a business.

Short answer - EZA is not dead, but bum marketing with EZA has evolved from its original sense and the original Travis Sago way is no longer anywhere as effective.

It all depends on one's experience and perspective

"It is/was about looking at what Social Sites are getting love from the search engines and getting your bootie there.

This, in my opinion, has NEVER been easier.

There are so many social sites that have huge ranking power
that you can get ranked faster and higher than ever before."

This is absolutely, 100%, true, and these sites are just getting more popular and trafficked, with each day. Those who control the quality of their databases will emerge as leaders.....and, people will continue to be able to catapult and reinforce their own websites and personal brands off of them.

Well, here's the rest of my evening shot, but what the heck. Sit back folks
because this is going to take a while. I hope you get something out of it.

I started writing articles long before Bum Marketing, or for that matter
article marketing in general, came into vogue. I learned early that content
made the Internet go round...regardless of where that content ended up.

In other words, it could be your site, a web 2.0 site, the site of another
marketer looking for guest authors or whatever. I've written for many sites
and many people. I still have all my guest author blog logins, though I don't
use them as much as I used to. I just don't have the time.

Point is, if you're using just ONE avenue to get your content seen, you're
missing the point of syndication. While it is true that EZA is the only article
directory I submit to, it is NOT the only place where my articles go.

I have my own blog, Squidoo lenses, hub pages, Blogspot blogs and guest
blogs...mostly WordPress...where you will find much of my writing.

And this doesn't even include all the people who scraped my articles from
the directories.

Plus...I wrote like a madman for years. A lot of Bum Marketers think that
they can write a few articles and make a mint. Good luck with that.

Now, having said all that, the variables that go into how successful or
unsuccessful an article marketing campaign is are numerous to say the
least. And Bum Marketing, at least at the core, is not the problem.

The problem is all the variables and the human intervention required. All
of these things can derail a campaign.

Here's a short list:

1. The niche chosen.

If you think you're going to venture into a niche like debt relief or gambling
or some very competitive niche just by writing a few articles, submitting
them to directories and doing nothing else, forget it. You'll be lucky to get
one view, let alone many.

2. The keywords chosen.

I can't believe how many people don't have a clue how to do keyword
research. They either target keywords so generic that hardly anybody is
interested in their article or so specific that there isn't enough traffic to
fill a thimble. You need a good mix of keywords to get the traffic, the
responsive traffic that you need.

3. The title chosen.

If your title doesn't grab people's attention, they're not going to read the
article...period. My advice to Bum Marketers or article marketers in
general is to learn how to write a sales letter. THEN you'll come up with
better article titles.

4. The directories chosen.

Some directories are worthless...period. Test and discard. If a directory
doesn't perform, chuck it. Don't waste your time submitting to directories
that give you a few views. I'm testing a directory out right now that so
far has been disappointing, but the owner says it's going to take a little
time for the articles to be indexed. So I'm having patience. But eventually,
I'll know if it's worth it to keep submitting.

The above all has to do with how many views you'll get without doing
anything else other than just submit and pray.

But what if you want to help things along?

Well, then you have...

5. The social bookmarking sites chosen.

Some just aren't worth it. And with sites like Digg, you need to have an
army behind you to get enough Diggs to make a difference. Social
bookmarking is going to help more for backlinking than actual visitors, in
most cases, UNLESS you have a really hot topic.

6. The social networking sites chosen.

This has become a big part of article marketing, like it or not. Get people
to follow you on sites like Facebook and Twitter. But not just any people.
People who are REALLY interested in what YOU have to say.

And then finally...

7. The X Factor

I'm not going to go into detail on this one. I'm referring to those less than
ethical practices that some article marketers use. I refuse to use them
but I'm not your Jiminy Cricket. You have to do what YOU feel is right.

** Warning ** Some of these tactics CAN get your accounts deleted.

So, what's the answer?

Today, if you want to be successful as an article marketer, you can't look
at yourself as an article marketer. You have to look at yourself as a
content provider.

1. Thoroughly research a niche and know it...COLD.

2. Set up an authority site and load it up with content that's fit to be in
a magazine.

3. Syndicate that content everywhere you can think of.

4. Become a real authority on your subject.

Without realizing it, this is what I did early on as an article marketer.
While I didn't set up my own blog until about 2 years ago, my articles
appeared all over the place.

People knew who I was, even if I didn't have a site to go to.

Today, I get more views at my blog daily (since I took all those articles
and reposted them...argh) than I do from any article at EZA.

Had I set up my site in 2003 and done this...well...that's water under
the bridge.

And yes, as was pointed out, you have to write some kick ass articles to
get Google to notice you...and not these 250 word pieces of crap that
some article marketers call articles.

Anyway, this is the reality of today. Unless you tap into something that
hardly anybody knows about, you've got an uphill battle with getting
views and making sales.