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For Those That Doubt Article Marketing

by The Great Gordino
18 replies
Hi Folks,
I do read a lot of people 'poo-pooing' whether article marketing actually works.
Personally I love it - for a newbie with no capital they are great, and they work for experienced marketers too, so here are a couple of quick results.

Having read some recent threads with people giving examples of their success with tiny niche blogs, I thought I'd give that model a try, and wanted to use articles to use as content and traffic drivers.

One of the blogs is ranking well on page one, as is an article I wrote - keyword matched, with competition of 50,000.

Another of the blogs has not ranked on page 1 yet, but the keyword article has, with competition of 220,000.

Just thought I'd mention 2 current results valid as of right now, to show that, yes, a decent optimised article can get a page 1 ranking with lots of competition in 2010- I also have an article from 3 years ago which sits at number 1 on google page 1 with 420,000,000 competition!

People with no money, before splashing out on expensive traffic generation, do not overlook the power of just writing an article!
#article #doubt #marketing
  • Profile picture of the author Alexander CPA
    Afterall, Google loves high quality content, so if you can provide that on your article website, there really isn't any reason you can't start ranking like you are. I personally prefer to use a self-hosted wordpress blog, I've never like the idea of making money on a host which somebody else has access too, that's my only reason though.
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    • Profile picture of the author The Great Gordino
      Hi Alex,
      I do use self hosted blogs, but my point was that an article submitted to a directory can get you a page 1 ranking and drive traffic, 100% for free.

      That's great for newbies who have no money to start out, also great for anyone launching a new site, the example being my article on the directory is page 1 ranking whereas the blog has yet to get on page 1.
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      • Profile picture of the author x3xsolxdierx3x
        Yes, but the little to no monetary barrier to entry is also the main reason why article marketing is so saturated with competition. You REALLY have to know what you are doing in order to rise about the tens of thousands of other people who are attempting to earn a full-time living from it.
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        • Profile picture of the author Alexa Smith
          Banned
          Originally Posted by x3xsolxdierx3x View Post

          You REALLY have to know what you are doing in order to rise about the tens of thousands of other people who are attempting to earn a full-time living from it.
          Eeewww, well ... it's not sooooo difficult, you know?

          Most of those tens of thousands are not really "competitors" in any meaningful sense of the word. There's just a huge number of them temporarily involved, continually dropping out and being replaced by others who repeat all their mistakes over and over again, apparently indefinitely:-

          • they send traffic to article directories instead of getting traffic from them
          • they build up other people's sites instead of their own
          • they confuse pre-selling with selling
          • they "write for clicks" and "call to action"
          • they imagine that their click-through rate will determine their success
          • they imagine that they'll get better/more backlinks from spun content than from syndicated content
          • they don't really write for syndication at all
          • they don't really know what an article directory is: they think of it as a place that gives them backlinks and traffic
          • they don't appreciate that quality multiplies while quantity declines
          • they continually (have to) "rinse and repeat" instead of establishing genuine residual income

          Call me a skepchick, but however you look at it, these "article marketers" just aren't competition, really.

          The great majority of them are the ones who silently drop out.

          A small minority are the ones who end up here a year or two later announcing ubiquitously in thread titles that "Article marketing doesn't work any more, these days".

          A smaller minority still discover that it's (understandably!) easier to make a living from writing "article marketing guides" teaching all the above nonsense than it is from trying to put it into practice.
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          • Profile picture of the author Dean Martin
            Good stuff here... someone with real insight - any interest in being interviewed on this topic?

            Originally Posted by Alexa Smith View Post

            Eeewww, well ... it's not sooooo difficult, you know?

            Most of those tens of thousands are not really "competitors" in any meaningful sense of the word. There's just a huge number of them temporarily involved, continually dropping out and being replaced by others who repeat all their mistakes over and over again, apparently indefinitely:-

            • they send traffic to article directories instead of getting traffic from them
            • they build up other people's sites instead of their own
            • they confuse pre-selling with selling
            • they "write for clicks" and "call to action"
            • they imagine that their click-through rate will determine their success
            • they imagine that they'll get better/more backlinks from spun content than from syndicated content
            • they don't really write for syndication at all
            • they don't really know what an article directory is: they think of it as a place that gives them backlinks and traffic
            • they don't appreciate that quality augments while quantity declines
            • they continually (have to) "rinse and repeat" instead of establishing genuine residual income

            Call me a skepchick, but however you look at it, these "article marketers" just aren't competition, really.

            The great majority of them are the ones who silently drop out.

            A small minority are the ones who end up here a year or two later announcing ubiquitously in thread titles that "Article marketing doesn't work any more, these days".

            A smaller minority still discover that it's (understandably!) easier to make a living from writing "article marketing guides" teaching all the above nonsense than it is from trying to put it into practice.
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          • Profile picture of the author The Great Gordino
            Originally Posted by Alexa Smith View Post

            A smaller minority still discover that it's (understandably!) easier to make a living from writing "article marketing guides" teaching all the above nonsense than it is from trying to put it into practice.
            This sort of covers my point - newbies can spend a lot of time and money on guides, when simply putting it into practice is all you need. Great point!

            Andy, you said: "The search engines want to give people great information - not 5 million respun versions of the same thing."

            This is also a good point - write genuinely good content, get it online.

            Using an established directory will cost nothing, plus it will get google to see it. It can really be that simple to get a page 1 ranking. I'm just trying to help newbies too maybe stop overthinking, and just start doing!
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            • Profile picture of the author Michael Shook
              I had not done it before, but this time I decided to try the HAHD at EZA. I was thinking that I could help myself be a more consistent writer by doing this.

              A little while ago I got a little present in the snail mail from Chris Knight, along with a note that said I was in the top 150 of number of people submitting articles to the HAHD. At that point I was in that group with less than 120 articles. It might be different now.

              It is not a rule, of course, but that information makes me really agree with the idea that Alexa has put forth, that there are not so may true competitors. Ther are some, but not so many.

              Many of the guides start off with the premise that article marketing is hard work, but this particular guide will save you a bunch of work and mae your life easier for writing articles. Then when you buy the guide, you are often presented with the same information that is in all the other guides.

              Basically that you need to find keywords to target in your article and anchor text keyword phrase, write a decent resource box, use some LSI phrases in your articles, and write in a natural tone of voice.
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  • Profile picture of the author Andyhenry
    Hey Gordon - great to see you around.

    You're right of course!

    Google loves unique and useful content.

    The problem most people get into with article marketing is thinking that re-using other people's content and 'spinning' existing PLR content is what it's all about.

    I do a lot of writing myself - not because I can't get others to do it but because I KNOW it's unique and fresh content that is actually aimed at helping people. Do I use PLR content etc? - Sure, but it's to supplement my own stuff rather than as my main content.

    If anyone is starting out now and looking at how to get article marketing to actually work for you - don't fall into the trap of thinking it's all just a numbers game and short-cutting the quality of the content to focus on getting thousands of articles up is the way to go.

    The search engines want to give people great information - not 5 million respun versions of the same thing.

    If you make sure your content is fresh and useful it also makes it MUCH easier to get other people to feature or reprint it.

    If you're able to create a lot of useful new content and get it out there - then there is an element of the numbers game to it, but like with traffic - your results are based on the quality of your traffic - not the amount of it.

    Andy
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    nothing to see here.

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  • Profile picture of the author Chris Worner
    If you have the finance, employing the services of a highly talented ghostwriter can exponentially increase your edge over the competition, not to mention increase your productivity, reputation and sales.

    Chris
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  • Profile picture of the author ongkal
    hello, alexa. i would like to thank you for all the informative comments you made with the article marketing threads in WF. i myself am starting with article marketing just recently. i am yet to see results though since my first batch of articles were submitted in less than a week. so far so good, as they are getting a few views per day.

    however, i would like to know some few tips regarding keyword research.

    how much competition is acceptable for you successful article marketers? its so rare to see a keyword "in quotes" with a competition of less than a thousand. how much do you think is too much?

    thanks,
    Ross
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    • Profile picture of the author Alexa Smith
      Banned
      Hi Ross,

      Originally Posted by ongkal View Post

      i would like to know some few tips regarding keyword research.

      how much competition is acceptable for you successful article marketers?
      I don't like to quantify competition: I like to assess the quality (I mean mostly SEO quality) of the top 5 or so SERP's listings for the keywords I might be interested in.

      For any keyword for which I compete, I have only about 5 competitors. It makes no difference to me if those 5 are followed by 995 others or 99,999,995 others - I'm competing only with the top 5, anyway (otherwise I have no business being there at all). I'd rather have 99,999,995 competitors of whom the top 5 look beatable than have 995 competitors of whom the top few are age-old, high-PR authority sites with a million backlinks each.

      I'm no expert on keyword research, though, and others will give you more helpful answers.
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    • Profile picture of the author JohnMcCabe
      Originally Posted by ongkal View Post

      hello, alexa. i would like to thank you for all the informative comments you made with the article marketing threads in WF. i myself am starting with article marketing just recently. i am yet to see results though since my first batch of articles were submitted in less than a week. so far so good, as they are getting a few views per day.

      however, i would like to know some few tips regarding keyword research.

      how much competition is acceptable for you successful article marketers? its so rare to see a keyword "in quotes" with a competition of less than a thousand. how much do you think is too much?

      thanks,
      Ross
      Ross, one thing I see people obsessing over again and again is this notion that your competition is the number of other people actively trying to rank for a particular keyword. One of the most common measures is the number of results returned when searching in quotes.

      Maybe this has some application if you define success as search rankings. The simple truth is, getting a particular ranking is only the first step in the process.

      For all practical purposes, you have to be in a position to attract the attention of a real, live human being. And for most searches, that's the first page of search results, searching without using quotes. That's the way most people search.

      Once the results page comes back, you will see the following:

      > Some Google navigation links to other search options
      > Ten (or so) organic search results
      > Ten (or so) paid ads (Adwords)
      > The search term field (top and bottom of the page)
      > Links to deeper pages
      > Related search links

      That is your competition most of the time. And don't forget the back button on the browser and all the other external distractions.

      For some types of searches you can extend that a few pages deep, although most people will simply alter their search string before going more than 2-3 pages deep.

      So your real task has two prongs...

      1) Land your link on the first page or so by impressing the search program that your page is one of the most relevant.

      2) Attract the attention of the human who initiated the search and convince them that clicking through to your page will likely give them the result they seek.
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      • Profile picture of the author jeffreyanderson
        Alexa is right.

        Sure there are thousands upon thousands writing articles, but I'd be willing to bet that less than 1% of all "article marketers" have taken the time to master the craft of writing quality articles, thus they aren't really going to be that much competition for those of us who have learned the ins-and-outs of it.

        It works well but like anything else in IM you really have to put in the time and effort to get the right results.
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  • Profile picture of the author Eager2SEO
    Case Study:
    Look at "scholarships for mothers" on google. 30K quoted results for the kwd, there is an articlesbase article at the top position, around 30K views. Around 250 BLs. mostly forum sigs.

    27K monthly searches for that niche. His article points to a CPA submit.
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    Available for article writing or <?php | .net ?> programming work! Article samples available on request.

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  • Profile picture of the author stressjudo
    1 point and 1 question in a several parts.
    The point:
    If you are stuck for ideas for writing articles, use a sub-headline on your sales page as the title, and then write an article about it. This way, the article is directly tied to your sales page, and the reader sees continuity between the article and your site.

    The question:
    When using article marketing, is it better to distribute the article to a lot of article directories at the same time? Or is it better to distribute the article to Driectory A, then Directory B a fews days or weeks later, etc.? And is it better to post the same article on your blog or post a link on your blog to the article?

    Thanks
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  • Profile picture of the author keyuria
    I wrote one article on articlebase.com on 11th Dec 2010 and today it is ranking 3rd among 176,000,000 without quotes for the keyword 500 in 24 hours... How powerful it is and not to forget even the Press Release which I did today i.e. 12th Dec, is standing on the same 1st page at 7th position. So within just one day, I have two positions on page 1 of google. It is definately powerful.
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    • Profile picture of the author genietoast
      Good job! If it's working for you, stick with it.
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  • Profile picture of the author KevinTorrence
    What Alexa & John are saying makes tons of sense.

    Think about it. You write a good article, not only will it stand out among all the other listing in the SERPS (& draw searcher to you instead of the back button)... but when it get syndicated ... it's happily placed right in front of super targeted folks that normally read that kind of content & buy those kinds of products. It's like getting an endorsement from the people syndicating your article (whose readers already trust them).
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