Article Marketing Help Needed

You need a business plan! Desperation and family responsibilities are too much pressure for you to be flying by the seat of your pants.

Your results are better than typical, given how recently you've begun. However, if you're living off savings, your time will be better spent trying to find at least part-time work while you build your affiliate sales empire.

HTH

Vince Runza

How recently have you tried? They seem really quick at the moment. This thread might interest you.

Wow ... why 5 or 6 (rather than 1 or 2)?

Nobody can really tell you this without seeing the sales pages of the products you're promoting, and your articles. But 307 article views is certainly very low for 25 - 30 articles.

Do you do some keyword research?

Are you getting opt-ins, at least?

Are you putting the articles on your own site first or just into a directory?

Are you doing anything else with them?

Are you building a list?

You've done well to get 2 sales. If you can, try to identify and analyse what it was that made those 2 people into customers, and concentrate on it at the expense of other stuff, so that you're always analysing, learning, refining and increasingly focusing on "what works".

Good luck!

Bill_Lawrence I don't think these numbers are too bad, but I would highly suggest submitting them to ezinearticles.com as well. EZA is tops in the article marketing world and while it may take more time to get approved, who cares, you already wrote the articles and it's better to take a few days than never be up there at all.

Once you have passed the EZA probation period (your first 20 articles or so), they will start accepting you much faster. It takes me no more than 24hrs to get an article approved.

Also, amplify the effects of your articles by pinging and social bookmarking them, which builds some backlinks and puts them in front of many more eyeballs than just letting chance take effect.

Good luck my friend! Keep writing aggressively and submit to more than just 1 article company. You'll get the results trust me article marketing works, I sell about 5 of my own books per day just by writing a couple articles per day (although I have several hundred out there already).

Hope that info helps you, Jeff.

I think you are doing pretty good.

You probably expected more than just 2 sales from 25-30 articles though, right?

But what if you had 250 to 300 articles? And what if you optimized them better and did better keyword research (see what Alexa said above) adn then, what if you backlinked them so that you could push them to #1 in Google.

Then how many sales would you be getting? 100? 200? That seems a lot better, right?

And, when done right, getting traffic from articles like this can last a long time so your efforts are building ... the more you add to it, the higher your monthly income goes up.

So, it seems like you are on the right track, you just need to refine your methods a bit and take massive action. Don't get discouraged.

Lee

Keep up the good work don't give up .. Focus on solutions and you'll find them!

Bill,

Alexa has given you some priceless advice. I'm not exaggerating when I say that she's one of the most successful article marketers on this forum. Read the posts that she's linked to and take notes. You can do this!

Will

Thanks for your helpful posts, I learned a lot from these comments and I'm also trying to earn from article marketing so it was very helpful to me.

Hey guys I just wanted to update this thread. I got another sale today. I see that what I'm doing is working. I just need to produce more work. I have 31 articles now. In my first post I had 25.

31 articles written
428 article views
131 hops
= 3 sales

are those decent numbers?

Be more consistent. Submit a few articles every single day. Since you have only written 3 or 4 articles per product and have managed to make a few sales, that's a good sign. Just keep at it. You need more then 3 or 4 articles per product. Article marketing takes time to build up the traffic and backlinks that you need to make sales on a regular basis. But if you keep at it and put out more good content you will make more sales.

As you add more articles, you should vary the writing style, title format and resource box etc. As your numbers grow, you'll be able to see which are producing best results.

You can then adjust your techniques accordingly. Basic split testing.

Congratulations. I believe, based on what was mentioned here, your chosen system is working and possibly needs a bit of tweaking, testing and studying to improve it further. 3 major things are relevant, I believe. These are: your chosen niche/micro niche/target buyer market; your chosen affiliate product; and your chosen content marketing/traffic generation strategies.

I for one would be inclined, for a long term approach, to:

Do keyword research in my niche. Target keywords with a good volume of monthly searches, with the top 10 or 20 page and domain results, without quotes, having reasonable Google PR, domain age, domain authority, number of backlinks and Google PR as well as domain age and authority of the pages and domains where those backlinks are found

Do target market research. Identify where my target market frequently hangs out online, what they're talking about relevant to my target keywords, what they need relevant to my target keywords, what their relevant problems are, what they think are the most popular products relevant to my target keywords, what they've tried out and what works for them, the most likely keywords they use when they're ready to buy useful relevant products, etc.

Do affiliate market research. Identify the "best" products to sell as an affiliate and the most popular products with a reasonable number of affiliates selling the same products online. "Best" = Affiliate products which would most likely provide the buyer, the affiliate and the merchant with the most useful benefits at the most reasonable and convenient price, delivery, guarantee, warranty and rewards/incentives.

Develop similar products and integrate lacking benefits into my own products. "Lacking benefits" should be benefits useful for buyers, as identified earlier.

Set up a website with a blog section, a sales point section, an affiliate product review section, a relevant content section, a video panel and a squeeze page section offering a free product as a free download upon signing up to my mailing list. Buyers of my own products and affiliate products will also be offered to sign up to my mailing list upon purchase. I can find free scripts and templates which can be modified then integrated into such a website.

Develop static pages for my website (landing page, about, contact us, privacy policy, disclaimer, etc.).

Optimize the visual impact and navigability of my website for my target viewers.

Optimize the search engine "crawlability" and "indexability" of my website. I will carefully read and analyze the things mentioned by Google about these things. I will then optimize my server (to tell search engine bots if an update has been done after their last index) and meta information (title, keywords/tags and description).

Write sales copy, or copies if I have multiple products, as well as affiliate product reviews then post them on my site, in relevant sections, then place a comment box as well as other things which can help viewers easily bookmark and share those pages with their friends, family, relatives and colleagues, below each page.

Develop a 5-minute video introduction to my website and content then post it on the homepage of my website.

Develop a free product for download upon signing up to my mailing list and effective squeeze page content. I'll include links to my sales page/s and affiliate review pages in the free product. Later, I'll send updates and newsletters to my mailing list, including updates about my products and affiliate products whenever necessary, for the benefit of my mailing list subscribers.

Write articles for submission to dofollow article directories, ones with the highest relevant traffic, the highest Google PR, the oldest domain age, the highest domain authority and with the largest amount of backlinks from sites with the highest Google PR, the highest domain authority and the oldest domain age. I'll also consider nofollow article directories with the highest relevant traffic, the highest Google PR, the oldest domain age, the highest domain authority and with the largest number of backlinks from sites with the highest Google PR, the oldest domain age and the highest domain authority.

Write content pages offering information/advice which would provide my target audience with benefits not found in my articles before I submit my articles. Take note of which content page is the "best" one compared to the others in terms of providing supplemental info/advice/content for which article.

Post my articles and content pages on my website's relevant section. Optimize those pages, like what I did earlier, and also place an auto ping code on each page as well as the comment box and other things to easily bookmark and share those pages with my target audience's friends, relatives and colleagues. Take note of the URLs of the content pages.

Place the appropriate content page URL as resource box links of each article. Also place links in my posted articles and content pages, pointing to my relevant product/s and affiliate product review pages.

Ensure my website and pages are W3C and XML compliant. Also ensure my website and pages comply with most if not all Web accessibility standards whenever possible.

Optimize all my pages in terms of main tags (title and headers) as well as alt attributes.

Develop software which could provide my target audience with more relevant benefits and make it available on my website.

Develop an optimized robots.txt and sitemap.xml for my website, carefully considering all posted pages of my website.

Submit my sitemap.xml to Google.

Submit articles to the article directories.

Convert my articles and content pages into MS PPT presentations then submit it to dofollow document-sharing sites with the highest relevant traffic, highest Google PR, the oldest domain age, the highest domain authority and with the largest amount of backlinks from websites with the highest Google PR, the oldest domain age and the highest domain authority. Nofollow document-sharing sites will also be considered, especially if it has high relevant traffic, Google PR, a well-aged domain and high domain authority.

Convert those MS PPT to videos then submit them along with my introductory video to dofollow video directories with the highest relevant traffic, the highest Google PR, the oldest domain age, the highest domain authority and with the largest amount of backlinks from websites with the highest Google PR, the oldest domain age and the highest domain authority. Nofollow video directories will also be considered, especially if it has high relevant traffic, Google PR, a well-aged domain, high domain authority and with the largest amount of backlinks from websites with the highest Google PR, a well-aged domain and the highest domain authority.

Go to Google and use my keywords to search for the top 10 or 20 results. Identify which of those results allow people to contribute relevant and timely content offering useful info/advice/utility yet to be found on those page and domain results and also allow links with the content which point to any page or domain providing supplementary info/advice/utility/benefits yet to be found on the contributed content. Contribute such content on those sites.

Identify which of the top 10 or 20 page and domain results do not allow the things mentioned above, especially ones with a large mailing list base. Contact the webmasters of those sites, including webmasters of sites allowing the things mentioned above, and negotiate if it would be possible for me to provide them with relevant content (written materials, video content, audio content or software) in exchange for the content posted on those pages and domains along with my links as well as for them to place my banner ad links and business info/contact details and URLs on their newsletters and updates for their mailing lists.

This can be 100% outsourced to a team of professionals for constant updates, maintenance, improvement, testing and implementation. Afterwards, I can move on to my next target niche then outsource that, too, and onwards.

Great advice above. ^

Just focus on getting your KW research right, ie target keywords that you can rank in the top 3 for.

Focus on less CB products until you are getting consistent sales, AND THEN promote 5 or 6.

Keep article marketing and backlinking the articles you have created.

Remember to do further KW research on the articles you are creating so that they have a good placement in Google. This will help your rankings and your direct visitor count.

Good luck

You need to do some keyword research and try a whole range of "proven" products to promote. Dont shy away from niches which are heavily saturated also. Using tools like market samurai etc. can help to find some good long tail keywords, also in saturated niches. And then let someone write and submit *consistently*. Once you see what works, continue with the same niche and product.

More good news, I believe I have at least 2 or 3 more sales. When I lasted reported I earned $25, now as I look at my account I've earned $94 for December 6, 2010. Also, I've just written 2 more articles. I'll try to write at least 10 tomorrow.

I have $220 in profit now.

I really wish I knew how to build a list. I could just imagine the possibilities but I don't even know where to begin with that.

Hey all that depends on the targeted place. First you've to submit to article directories, especially major directories. Next make targeted people your friends, find them in social networks.

All the best

For the product that generated 2 more sales...

8 hops
2 sales = $70 profit

I tweaked my writing style a bit. Maybe this was the reason for better conversions. I closed yesterday with $94 in profit. I just wrote another article for this product and plan to submit it to as many directories as I can.

Got another sale yesterday, I just wrote 3 new articles. I'm just updating this to show that with some work and consistency, you can make money online.

You may be losing them somewhere in the middle of the article, or at the end. Writing online articles is a skill that takes time to learn and develop. One tip is to always remember that you're writing for real people, and you should aim to write in an informative, but conversational tone.

You want to subtly motivate the reader into wanting to learn more about how they can solve their problem or issue. Then your resource box needs to be all about how you can help them find a solution.

And, yes, I think you need to broaden your product promotion niche to other categories, which have buyers. The IM niche is notoriously super competitive, and you can also have success promoting other types of products.

Since you already have a couple of sales, you're on the right track, but I'm not sure you want to depend solely on this as your family's only income source.

Many people will tell you to do this or that but Im not that type of person to give you instructions..but I will say you are just a little off track when it comes to marketing..and the only way for anyone to help you is to talk to you one on one...

If I was you I will be focusing more on link building if you are promoting your own site.

Hey guys here's another update. I had 2 more sales, 1 yesterday and another this morning.

I earned $51 from those sales.

I believe the key is just to keep writing even if you don't get any sales for a few days. You don't have a chance when you don't put anything out there. I have 47 articles now and I've made almost $400.

Well, I've found another product to promote. I'm about to write 3 more articles now.

Hi Bill,

Please make a business plan and study some about article marketing. In short i can say that if you write high quality articles people will pay more attention to and will regard you faster as an expert.

Get some of Dan Kennedy`s work if you can.

Best regards,

Alex Fields

I think you can post your articles to more directories and this will give you a better result.i also think you should go for other internet marketing strategies to get more sales.

This is such a helpful thread. As a complete newbie, this is packed with the information and inspiration I needed. This whole business can be overwhelming, but threads like these are what keep me going. Thanks to everyone.

Bill

Take the time to get through Ezinarticles probationary period. Once you are at expert they review your articles in 48 hours or less. I think it's great you've found some products to promote that convert well. Work on the closing paragraph (resource box) to get the reader to act. Don't be too passive in closing. Keep up the great work. Patience and persistence.

Best,

Kater

I used to be a big advocate of the article directories (and I still use them some) but I now know that the best place to use content is on your own website. I know that it is a lot easier (initially) to get an article on the first page of Google by submitting it to the article directories, but long term you are limiting your income.

pick a niche, do keyword research, buy an exact match domain name, start building content on the site, build some links, and watch your rankings soar. That is oversimplified of course, but it does work!

I also agree that you’re on track and you’ll see that doing this will also be beneficial in the long run in helping your site boost up its ranking. And congratulations on your profit! Now that you’re able to hit it, just continue on doing what you do to gain more in the end.

Hey Guys,

I hadn't had a sale in a few days but today I broke through again. I made $172. Here's the screenshot. I know it doesn't look like much but im gettin there...

Hey Bill,

Wow! Congratulations on your successful day! That's FANTASTIC! Keep rocking it!

I agree with a lot of what everyone has touched upon... You have to do your keyword & market research, and target the right keywords that will bring you CUSTOMERS, and not just keywords that will bring you a measly prospect doing "research".

I wrote an ebook that walks you through the entire process of this, which I'm selling for 40 bucks on the market, but I'm thinking on offering it as a WSO soon.. I think a lot of people here would benefit from it... If you want, I can hook you up with a review copy if you promise to put into good use.

I would also suggest a little underground trick... Buy some traffic to the articles that you want to rank exceptionally well, and get into the "Most Viewed" section on ezine (or wherever your articles are)... You can get really cheap traffic from Amazon Turks & Donkey something (just google it - can't remember their name).

Let me know if I can help you in any way!

Rock on!

~Omar

P.S. How long have you been writing articles the way you do?

I agree, you need a business plan to bring more exposure to your business. There are plenty of free article directories where you can submit your content. Just make sure to know the guidelines before writing any content. This will ensure that your articles will be approved.