Article Marketing SHOCKER!

16 years ago

Article marketing is only one of many ways of making money.

Have you investigated other forms of marketing?

Are you generating a list?

What you are going to find is what works for one does not do as well for others, testing should always be considered when marketing so that you can see if other stuff works for you.

So if you don't mind me asking what did this guy recommend as the better method to market?

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Frank Murphy

16 years ago

Originally Posted by sparrow

Article marketing is only one of many ways of making money.

Have you investigated other forms of marketing?

Are you generating a list?

What you are going to find is what works for one does not do as well for others, testing should always be considered when marketing so that you can see if other stuff works for you.

So if you don't mind me asking what did this guy recommend as the better method to market?

I absolutely agree. Article Marketing is awesome, but you should look into other techniques and methods for driving traffic to your sites/blogs as well. A VERY neglected approach is video marketing. With todays technology, creating a video is not as hard as it used to be.

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Dean Shainin

16 years ago

Originally Posted by GuruLady

Hey everyone,

I'm pretty new here but I have been reading a lot and it seems like the best way to get started with no money is article marketing. So I wrote some articles (no sales yet) and I was working hard following the tips here. But I was actually at an internet marketing seminar recently and one of the Gurus said that article marketing was one of the worst strategies. I couldn't believe it! He said article marketing is just like an online job and it's really difficult to make a lot of money with article marketing. Should I believe this? I'm really confused now!

I'm thinking this so called "Guru" does not know about outsourcing.

I'm wondering what is meant by a lot of money?

It can be difficult when you don't do article marketing the right way.

Again, it should only be one source of traffic and income...

Cheers,
Dean

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MikeLantz

16 years ago

As others have side, article writing, is just a part of a larger strategy. I personally would not spend my time writing articles for the purpose of driving traffic, but it does have its purposes...

Let me list a few reasons to write articles:

* You have something useful to say.
* You want some links for an SEO campaign.
* You need content for your site, which has something useful on it.
* You want to sell articles to others for money.
* You work for a magazine/newspaper

OK, so there are more, of course, but my point is "Article Marketing" or article writing is not a money-making strategy (unless you want to write for a living), it is just one piece of a much larger pie.

All the best.

Mike

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Chris Lockwood

16 years ago

Originally Posted by GuruLady

But I was actually at an internet marketing seminar recently and one of the Gurus said that article marketing was one of the worst strategies.

That's probably because the product he's selling is not about article marketing.

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Noel2010

16 years ago

Originally Posted by Chris Lockwood

That's probably because the product he's selling is not about article marketing.

Which was my first thought. Everything else will be the worst except the one he/she is promoting.
Wait until next year when he/she will be saying article marketing is the best..."oh, by the way, I just happen to have this course..."

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BIG Mike

Banned 16 years ago

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Terry Crim 16 years ago

I have worked with and am friends with many of the "IM Guru's" and for the most part they specialize in certain things. I have heard similar things about FFA, PPC, Social Media and other techniques and tactics from a wide range of people including varying opinions from members here at the Warrior Forum.

I know people that make great money from FFA advertising and I also know people that made nothing and just add to the negative views about how that does not work.

It comes down to how much someone loves marketing and testing as well as their patience level while they test and test and test. Those that don't put as much into a particular thing wont get the same results as those that stick with it and figure out what works for them with that particular method. PPC, Article Marketing, FFA, Social Media etc etc...

I can show contrary views to every single method talked about here on this forum, those that make 6+ figures and those that make ZERO.

For the most part the "Gurus" have specialized into their particular thing and have tried other methods but just like anyone else got tired of and lost patience before figuring out how to really make it work for them.

So yeah, you will have people tell you things do NOT work and not to even try it while you have others that are making a killing doing what others say can't work.

Treat your online endeavors as a business, be serious about it and be tenacious. Experiment, track and improve upon what works even if it is just a little bit. Though do not put all your eggs in one basket so to speak and do not rely on just one way to bring traffic, new clients/customers to your sites.

my 2 cents.

- Terry
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Mary Gallivan 16 years ago

Hi

I'm also a firm believer that article marketing is a great way to get started when you have little or no money, or indeed if you have lots of money and love writing or can afford to outsource the task.

There are many many ways to generate traffic for free and article marketing is just one of them. There's also forum marketing, Youtube, Yahooo answers, writing ebooks and reports with your own links in, etc. etc. etc.

Whatever you do don't by put off by what this person said. One valuable lesson you will learn from this is that everyone will have a different view about things.

For instance, you can ask in the forum what is the best autoresponder, place to buy domain names, article directory to submit to ........ and you will get a whole range of answers as to which one is the 'best'.

It's a matter of weighing up all the answers given, see which is mentioned more than others, test them and see for yourself. What may work for you may not work for someone else and vice versa.

It's all part of the learning process and can be quite confusing but you'll find your feet in time. You've made a start so keep on going and don't give up!

Good luck and best wishes

Mary
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LivingCovers

16 years ago

Originally Posted by BIG Mike

Article Marketing is one of the easiest ways for beginners to build traffic to a new site, obtain backlinks and here's the best part: It pays off for years to come! Every minute invested in getting a good quality backlink to your site has long-term benefits.

Everything in running a business online or off requires some degree of work. Some of the top Article Marketers or "BUMS" like Dean Shainin, outsource the writing element of it, because his business has reached the point where it's not only affordable, but frees him up for other things.

You have to decide for yourself if the effort you're making at Article Marketing is returning proportional results for you. You also have to consider what would replace it (the traffic received) if you stopped doing it. Only you can know this - not the Guru or anyone else.

Although I'm not into Article Marketing as heavily as others, I still do some as time permits. On the other hand, I've got other sources of traffic so it's not a big deal. The important thing is that I do what's right for my business, and you should be doing what you believe is right for yours.

Good insight there. But what i'd like to state is that there are some niches that article marketing is good for and some that are not. Could it be possible that article marketing is viable for every niche online?

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drr 16 years ago

I guess to each his own.

Article marketing has done pretty well for me in almost all respects, from the obvious backlinking benefits to directly getting opt in subscribers/sales to my sites.

Having said that, I have heard of others saying they have not found it effective.
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- Kael41 16 years ago
  
  Any newbie starting out should incorporate article writing and article marketing into their efforts. After you have some money coming in, outsource the writing AND the submissions and continue the trend. It's been a winner for me. Oh, and I do the "submit one article ONLY to ezinearticles.com" and "submit one article to 100+ article directories". I see results from both methods.
  
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  Allen Graves 16 years ago
  
  I'd love to know who this "guru" is. I've seen it many times before.
  
  Just days after blogging that article marketing is the best thing since sliced bread, they are shooting out an email to their list about how article marketing can kill your business and waste all of your time.
  
  Someone stated above that it depends on what they are trying to sell you. I personally agree with that statement.
  
  But here's the thing about opinions when it comes to article marketing. It happens on the Warrior Forum, it happens on other blogs and forum and it happens all over the internet every day:
  
  It doesn't matter which side of the fence the person is on, pro or con - they will force their opinion on you and throw out tricky sentences that make you THINK they know what they're talking about. But there are no facts, no proof, no credentials and no hard data to back up what they are saying.
  
  Therefore, it is completely up to you to decide who to listen to and who to take on as a mentor. If you believe them without seeing proof or knowing that they actually know the subject, then shame on you.
  
  Steve W., Tim, Josh, Dean? Sure, I'll listen to them with every bit of my attention because I know that they know the field and that their statements are backed by heavy-duty experience and cold, hard data.
  
  Mr. "Guru" that makes a living selling to internet marketers and not doing a bit of article marketing? Hmmm...What would you do?
  
  Respectfully,
  Allen Graves
  
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  MikeMondesir 16 years ago
  
  Gurulady,
  
  There are many people out there with opinions....many choose to call themselves experts, gurus,etc.
  
  I'm with Allen Graves when he says to check the credentials of your mentors.
  
  Ultimately, it comes down to whether or not they have the "rungs on the board" in your chosen pursuit...or, in the words of Tony Robbins:
  
  "Have they got a pHd in RESULTS? "
  
  To your future,
  
  Michael M
  
  Thanks
  
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Takuya Hikichi

16 years ago

Originally Posted by GuruLady

I was actually at an internet marketing seminar recently and one of the Gurus said that article marketing was one of the worst strategies. I couldn't believe it! He said article marketing is just like an online job and it's really difficult to make a lot of money with article marketing. Should I believe this? I'm really confused now!

Now I wish I could hear this word for word instead of paraphrased quote. If it came from a guru, he/she wouldn't have said anything like this without strong argument.

And was there a strong argument (with case studies or proofs) immediately after he said this?

He must have said something more after this, and the things he listed for you to do INSTEAD of article writing should have included other stuff you could be doing.

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Andy Money

16 years ago

The guru was right. It is like an online job if you were trying to get huge sums of cash from article marketing. It is manual labor and takes time. Not all of us have millions in our accounts to spend on Adwords and PPC campaigns, so don't worry about it, article marketing is awesome.

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Imran Naseem

Banned 16 years ago

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deejones 16 years ago

When someone gives you an opinion about one IM method or another, you have to consider where that opinion is coming from.

A person with certain goals and skills, who is a highly experienced IMer, might think article marketing is a complete waste of time. And that might be absolutely true...for them. But it's not necessarily true for someone with different goals, skills, and experience.

So just because someone says something is a waste of time, or the worst possible way to try to make money online, doesn't automatically make it so.
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Michael Dominic

16 years ago

Originally Posted by Imran Naseem

Article Marketing is powerful - its made me a lot of money.

That "guru" - if you want to call him that is way out of line. Article Marketing brings results in the long-term and many people find it difficult, but its not difficult at all. Its one of the best ways to make money on the Internet for anyone starting out..

Most definitely.

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jhongren

16 years ago

Originally Posted by GuruLady

Hey everyone,

I'm pretty new here but I have been reading a lot and it seems like the best way to get started with no money is article marketing. So I wrote some articles (no sales yet) and I was working hard following the tips here. But I was actually at an internet marketing seminar recently and one of the Gurus said that article marketing was one of the worst strategies. I couldn't believe it! He said article marketing is just like an online job and it's really difficult to make a lot of money with article marketing. Should I believe this? I'm really confused now!

Hi, it really depends on where your targeted customers are.

If your customers are offline and don't read articles, of course article marketing is the worst.

So before you market to your customers, understand what they want, how they buy and where they are.

Cheers,
John

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Vince Runza Online

16 years ago

No surprises here. Any marketing method takes work to get it up and running. Once you do get some revenue coming in, outsource the chores so you can work ON your business, not just FOR it like a clerical worker or drudge, churning out articles like Steven Wagenheim...

Did I say that out loud?!!!

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Roy Carter

16 years ago

Vince - You DID say it out loud! [:0]

In fairness, Steven does say that what he does is not for everyone. He enjoys writing and is amazingly prolific in terms of the amount of articles he writes. I think he posted recently that he had just hit the $150k earnings mark from his article writing, so as long as he enjoys writing he is on a winner.

As you rightly say though, outsourcing is the way forward if you don't want to sit down all day writing articles over the long term. I do a little of both.

Roy

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cashcow

16 years ago

I think it all depends on where you are at, how much money you have and if you like to write.

With over 3,000,000 views at ezinearticles, I think it might be an understatement to say I am an avid article marketer but I can kind of see what that Guru was thinking.

Sometimes you will write an article that brings in a lot of dough right away, but for me article marketing is a lot of time spend for not that much money - UP FRONT - but the thing about it is that those articles bring you money virtually forever.

In fact, I have one website that got de-indexed by all the search engines over 2 years ago (I have no idea why as it was a white hat, unique content site). To this day, the site still makes me about $60 a month. I haven't even looked at the site in 2 years nor have I done any promotion. That money is all from articles written years ago! I know $60 a month isn't earth shattering but what if I'd made 100 of those sites back then?

So, I think maybe article marketing is a slower, steadier way of making money. More of a long term thing I guess. And, like everyone else has said, it should be just one piece of your overall marketing strategy.

Lee

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Phil Jacobson 16 years ago

I'm certain that Article Marketing can work and can make money.

Although I'm not speaking from too much experience yet, I know of many who have made money this way.

It's all about how you go about it I suppose. Submitting rehashed articles to generic directories may be quick and easy but it might not get you the quality you are after.

Article marketing can be great in that you can continue to get traffic long after the article has been published.

Phil
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- Michael Ellis 16 years ago
  
  Article marketing attracts newbies because it's easy - just write some content, throw in an affiliate link, post to an article directory. Sounds like a breeze, right?
  
  Well, it's not really that easy. Article marketing does work if you know what to write about and if you know how to write in a way that makes the reader want to take action (click your link). If you don't know how to do either of those things, then you're just wasting your time and building up the article directory's Adsense potential. Sadly, most newbies (and contract article writers) don't know how to do these things and do end up feeding the article directory more Adsense content.
  
  Those are the basic prerequisites. Once you have those nailed down, you need to work on a system…You need to figure out what you're going to drive traffic to - your site or an affiliate site... but that takes the "easy" element away from it all, then overwhelming part sets in.
  
  Take a look at Travis's Bum Marketing Method. Travis offers some great advice for newbies using this method. His link is bummarketingmethod.com
  
  Long term, I certainly wouldn't recommend article marketing directly to affiliate links, this leaves far too much profit on the table and severely limits your long term potential. But initially, it's good experience.
  
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  bauger 16 years ago
  
  Well are urus really gurus or just some fancy title they use. I think if youuse different methods to get traffic you will be successful. Everyone has their own sucess and failure with article marketing. I'm sure that guru says not to di but probably has done it in the past to get his list to begin wih
  
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  cbean 16 years ago
  
  Obviously this guru is into another sphere of marketing...I have watched articles climbed to the front of Google, MSN, Yahoo and offered great rewards to the owners....
  
  I do agree that it's really laborious and if you are not a writer it takes the joy and zeal out of IM, especially if you don't have the money to outsource....
  
  Cheers....
  
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- vitalgirl 16 years ago
  
  I've found you need quite a few articles (at least 20 in a niche, more is better), to get a decent flow of traffic. And submit them using a service like isnare or something.
  
  Like any form of marketing, article marketing has its pros and cons. Fundamentally, it is a low risk option for a beginner, though I'm not saying it's good only for beginners. I do a lot less of it now than I used to, but I still find it a valuable addition to the marketing mix.
  
  But it takes less skills to do than other forms of marketing, and doesn't need much start up capital (just time - not getting into any time=$$ thing) - if youy're someone with a lower IM skill set, who has more time than $$, or just doesn't want to risk their $$, I think it's great.
  
  my 12 cents :-)
  Rebecca
  
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LB

16 years ago

Originally Posted by cashcow

I think it all depends on where you are at, how much money you have and if you like to write.

With over 3,000,000 views at ezinearticles, I think it might be an understatement to say I am an avid article marketer but I can kind of see what that Guru was thinking.

Sometimes you will write an article that brings in a lot of dough right away, but for me article marketing is a lot of time spend for not that much money - UP FRONT - but the thing about it is that those articles bring you money virtually forever.

In fact, I have one website that got de-indexed by all the search engines over 2 years ago (I have no idea why as it was a white hat, unique content site). To this day, the site still makes me about $60 a month. I haven't even looked at the site in 2 years nor have I done any promotion. That money is all from articles written years ago! I know $60 a month isn't earth shattering but what if I'd made 100 of those sites back then?

So, I think maybe article marketing is a slower, steadier way of making money. More of a long term thing I guess. And, like everyone else has said, it should be just one piece of your overall marketing strategy.

Lee

Well...COULD you have made 100 of those sites? For most article marketers, the answer is "no". (not picking on you here, just speaking generally)

Most of them are busting out as many articles as they can within their time constraints and trying to generate some affiliate sales.

For the established marketer with a developed sales funnel, I can see article marketing bringing in valuable new leads. However, the average marketer is working on generating affiliate sales with their articles and if they quit writing, they quit earning.

If a person is churning out 100 articles per month and making anything less than a couple grand from it then they should seriously consider hiring themselves out to others instead of scraping at affiliate sales.

When I was buying large volumes of articles for content for my sites I was paying $10-$20 per article for well-written stuff. If you're an article marketer and your work isn't generating at least that then it may be worth hiring out your work.

It's also interesting to see sites like Wiki and now Google Knols knocking out some long-standing article directories. When you look at how Google is running the show it is frightening to think about how many article marketers are depending on their articles' positions in the SEs to generate traffic and sales.

There is a pretty well known "Google effect" whereas new pages shoot to the top of the rankings for a short time and then "settle" pages deep. Many article marketers are (sometimes unknowingly) benefiting from this and the only way to keep earning is to keep creating articles so they enjoy their 15 minutes of Google fame.

I see a lot of article marketing promoters talking about numbers of views and clicks but I see very few earnings stated...it's entirely possible to generate 1000 clicks and earn nothing.

So...in many ways I would agree that article marketing is very much like a job for most that do it. Many writers are simply pumping out articles and generating the occasional sale with no end in site.

The exceptions are those that are using it to build customer lists and not just single affiliate sales when they are lucky.

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howudoin

16 years ago

It's also interesting to see sites like Wiki and now Google Knols knocking out some long-standing article directories. When you look at how Google is running the show it is frightening to think about how many article marketers are depending on their articles' positions in the SEs to generate traffic and sales.

Emergence of Knol is indeed frightening. Now Google may start putting their own "In-house" results to the top of the search pages. Although many people might not agree with this, the argument is still way wide and open.

I personally believe that article marketing is a great way to start generating traffic to your website, in case you lack deep pockets. There are several other traffic streams which complement article marketing such as Free ebook directories, social bookmarking, social media/networking, Ebook download (For optins) etc .

As you can see, being an online marketer, you have to come up with content one way or the other. Now you can either buy it or generate it BUT always make sure its worth the time and effort.

Regards
Bhupinder

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sylviad

16 years ago

Originally Posted by LB

However, the average marketer is working on generating affiliate sales with their articles and if they quit writing, they quit earning.

If a person is churning out 100 articles per month and making anything less than a couple grand from it then they should seriously consider hiring themselves out to others instead of scraping at affiliate sales.

---------------------

When you look at how Google is running the show it is frightening to think about how many article marketers are depending on their articles' positions in the SEs to generate traffic and sales.

There is a pretty well known "Google effect" whereas new pages shoot to the top of the rankings for a short time and then "settle" pages deep. Many article marketers are (sometimes unknowingly) benefiting from this and the only way to keep earning is to keep creating articles so they enjoy their 15 minutes of Google fame.

----------------------

So...in many ways I would agree that article marketing is very much like a job for most that do it. Many writers are simply pumping out articles and generating the occasional sale with no end in site.

The exceptions are those that are using it to build customer lists and not just single affiliate sales when they are lucky.

You've made some excellent points that I can relate to as this has been my experience... exactly. Sending people to my own site from the articles is far better than having them go right to the affiliate sales page. But consistent work IS necessary if you want your articles to continue to bring visitors and sales.

The best approach for article marketing is to get their information the moment they land on your page, as you say. That way, it doesn't matter that your article has slipped into the caverns of article directories. Once you have their names, you can repeatedly write to the people who actually matter to your business.

Until you have a huge sum of articles on the internet, you will find that it's a tough climb to see consistent results. I did a bit of research into some writers over at Ezine Articles. Some writers' articles received few views - perhaps a few hundred in 5-6 months, while other writers consistently received 1000+ readers to their articles. This is the difference between article writing success and failure.

One specific writer had thousands of articles in the database, and they were all getting 1000s of views over 1/2 a year.

It depends on the popularity of the topic. In her case, it was related to dating and relationships. Clearly, this topic is extremely popular.

This kind of success means that she always has an article on page 1 of the site or is soon 'found' by viewers who search keywords. I'm sure with that kind of readership she is probably raking in a bundle every month from article marketing alone.

Sylvia

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spudzz 16 years ago

Yes, article marketing is great because it's FREE, but it's also real hard work (outsourcing means it's no longer FREE - a point that so often seems lost when outsourcing is run out as the cure for all the ills of it-takes-effort-people).

But... have you actually looked at your stats to see where your real free traffic is coming from. I mean really looked?

Now don't get me wrong - I'm a real article marketing believer, so no way am I going to diss it, but when I looked at click thru stats for a whole range of my sites I was surprised to see that the greatest sources of free traffic were as follows (largest at the top):-

1) Google search (shock!!)
2) RSS referrals (that's people using my blog snippets on their own sites)
3) Blog comments

I'll say that again - comments I'd placed on other blogs were my third largest source of traffic. And Oh, sorry:-

4) Article directories

Yes, article directories came a poor fourth by comparison, and that was pretty universal across all niches.

And before there's the inevitable, "Well, you're just not doing it right then", I tend to spend as much time on articles as everything else put together. A poor return on effort then - RSS involves zero time expenditure and I only do comment runs when I've got the odd spare half hour. By comparison, article writing is continuous hard work.

Doubtless your results will be different but mine certainly opened my eyes.
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Steven Wagenheim

16 years ago

Okay, here is the plain unvarnished truth about article marketing.

There are stages in this process, something that I have just discovered
which is part of the reason that I am now cutting back on my article writing.

I'm going to walk you through the whole thing so you understand.

1. For starters, article marketing is going to have drastically different results
depending on the niche you're in. This is something I didn't learn until I
started branching out into other niches. When I first began, I wrote articles
only for the IM (make money) niche. Big mistake as it's probably the lowest
return for your effort. I get more views per day in the health niche with
one tenth as many articles. Think about it, one tenth. And I get more views
per day in another niche that I won't reveal with just 47 articles. That as
compared to over 1,000 in the IM niche. It's mind boggling when you
think about it. Plus, those 47 articles are getting me more sales per article
and per day than the IM niche, per article. It's only because I have so
many IM articles out there that I earn what I do from them.

2. Which brings me to point number 2. When you first start doing this, the
results are going to be slow. Articles have a compounding effect. Old
articles continue to get sales and new articles also get sales. For example,
in July, when I first started article marketing for this one niche, I had only
3 sales that month, even though I had written 31 articles. But, midway
through August, with just 16 additional articles, I have 11 sales this month
already. So as I keep writing, I will have more sales per month. Eventually,
when I reach a point of having hundreds of articles out there, I'll be
getting many more sales, and that's still just writing one article a day.
That's the power of the niche in article marketing. That will never happen
in the IM niche, which is why I am moving away from that model there and
working on doing something else.

So article marketing is a constant process. Yes, it is kind of like a job
because you can't really stop until you've reached a point where you have
enough articles out there to continue making sales for you, and that
number is going to be different for each niche.

If you're flat broke and can't afford PPC or any other forms of paid
promotion, then article marketing is the way to go. It's free. It is also
very time consuming.

If you have the money, do something else in addition. Maybe write an
article a day to build something over time. But don't slave away at it
because there are more efficient methods. And that's coming from
somebody who makes 67% of his income from writing articles. But if took
me a couple of years to build up that kind of momentum.

That's the real deal. Don't expect to write 5 articles and see the money
start coming in. It doesn't work that way.

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Nick Brighton 16 years ago

Originally Posted by Steven Wagenheim

That's the real deal. Don't expect to write 5 articles and see the money
start coming in. It doesn't work that way.

Well, I'm not being arrogant or trying to pass off your advice here,
but that's exactly how it works for me.

I wrote 1 article in a certain niche that generated a few sales in
a two week period. So, I decided to write 3 more similar articles.

Low and behold my sales tripled. Perhaps I've struck an under the
radar niche, but the affiliate product is a best seller on CB, so I am
not so sure about that.

I actually think it's more about the material, the wording, the
pre-sell style of your writing.

I don't personally choose to write articles all day, I personally choose
to build my own assets. But that's my business (literally ;-))

But I know for sure, if article marketing WAS my business, I would be
testing new affiliate offers, new resource boxes all the time. Particularly
if I planned to roll it out on a large scale.

I mean, what's the point in writing 100's (or even 1000's) of articles
unless you have a good idea of what actually brings in the sales.

It's just like PPC. You don't throw up thousands of campaigns with
thousands of ad groups, with millions of keywords, without testing
the copy, the offer and all the other variables to see what makes
sales.

There's so much science to article marketing, it's crazy not to
test it like it's a lab rat.

For example...here's a question:

How many times have you written 20 articles in the same niche,
and not bothered to alter your bio box, tailoring it to one or two
individual articles?

I've found that the more targeted your bio box is to each article,
the better CTR I get.

Worth knowing.

P.S

In reference to the OP, it's funny how anyone who speaks at an event or
"teaches" other people about internet marketing is automatically labeled as
a guru.

Lol, when did THAT become the rules? It's like having an independent
building contractor come round to your house and tell you that bricks
are useless, and you should be using straw...and then calling him an
architect.

Crazy world we're livin in.
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- calvin69 16 years ago
  
  I can take the same article, post it at a message board, and usually get a ton more instant, short-term, and long-term traffic than I can at an article directory.
  
  In addition, posting to message boards is MUCH less of a hassle... it's much more targeted than a general article directory.
  
  And every time someone replies to your article, you get another instant rush of new traffic to your site (via your sig file) because the post is featured at the top of the main index page. And when you encourage board visitors to copy and paste your content in their blog, you get additional blasts of new traffic to your site.
  
  Plus, I find search engines have a preference to message boards... there's one board I post to that literally indexes my post in minutes... no joke -- minutes.
  
  I suggest rereading Steven's post. It's gold.
  
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  threeg5 16 years ago
  
  Article Marketing is by far the best way to go for certain aspects of your overall plan. you just have to have a plan that is working and then insert where needed. If you want more links to a site then write more articles, keeping in mind that it is pretty fair to say that once you get one back link from a site then that is it for pointing to that site from another. You can write about fitness and point to fitness blog 150- times and it counts pretty much as 1 unless you submit that article to several different places.
  Anyways article marketing is very effective it just depends on how you use it and how much time you spend learning how to do it RIGHT!!
  
  Thanks for Reading Hope it helps some.
  
  Thanks
  
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alphykool

16 years ago

Hello,
What I really feel about articles is that...it's part of internet marketing and not an end. In other words, you may have to continue to market your website with articles while as a newbie, you can progress to other viable form of internet marketing. I personelly use article to market my website but yet to see result from it. Though, that wouldn't and should not discourage me.
Hey, you may ride on with article while you progress to other form of internet marketing ex...google adword.
Alphonsus

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Ken Leatherman

16 years ago

Originally Posted by GuruLady

Hey everyone,

I'm pretty new here but I have been reading a lot and it seems like the best way to get started with no money is article marketing. So I wrote some articles (no sales yet) and I was working hard following the tips here. But I was actually at an internet marketing seminar recently and one of the Gurus said that article marketing was one of the worst strategies. I couldn't believe it! He said article marketing is just like an online job and it's really difficult to make a lot of money with article marketing. Should I believe this? I'm really confused now!

Hi GuruLady,

You asked a good question and you have received some really good thoughts about article marketing. I'm sure you have a better understanding of how your articles can work for you.

Yes, it's hard work, especially depending on your writing ability, but I have found that it becomes easier the more you write. There is a great deal of personal satisfaction to be realized when you see the finished product. The money you make is icing on the cake.

As I have looked at your question, I detect a bit of impatience because you haven't made a sale. Give your articles time to work for you. 10, 15, 20 articles may need to be doubled or even tripled to see that 1st sale. You also need the time to judge if writing articles is your forte.

If I may suggest you should take a look at Allen Graves "The Article Marketing Handbook". It is an outstanding read and directly addresses the question you asked here. He has it on sale here in the WSO section. Just click here http://www.warriorforum.com/warrior-...fer-price.html

You may garner additional insight into the art of article writing.

Best wishes to you. By the way thank you for posting a good question and being gracious enough to explain your problem in full.

Ken Leatherman
The Old Geezer

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braver55b

16 years ago

Lots of people are making full time incomes and beyond, it should not be the only promotional

vehicle to use; but it should definitely be a part of your promotional mix, even if you don't have the talent or patience to write you can always outsource it. Even with video marketing or Web 2.0, article marketing will still have its place.

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cashcow 16 years ago

Well...COULD you have made 100 of those sites? For most article marketers, the answer is "no". (not picking on you here, just speaking generally)

That is an interesting point you bring up - I probably could have made 100 sites and written the articles (actually for this site it is a surprisingly low number of articles - like 20) BUT it probably would have taken a couple of YEARS unless I outsourced. And I write fast and I like to do it. Most people would just go work at McDonalds and probably make more at first!

The other thing is that I might not have had the same results with the other sites. Maybe they wouldn't have made as much or the "staying" power of the articles wouldn't have been as good. Who knows?

I guess the thing the really enthralls me about article marketing is that you write the article once and it can bring you money for a long time. Not a lot per article (at least in my case), but it builds up.

Lee
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TimG

16 years ago

Originally Posted by GuruLady

Hey everyone,

I'm pretty new here but I have been reading a lot and it seems like the best way to get started with no money is article marketing. So I wrote some articles (no sales yet) and I was working hard following the tips here. But I was actually at an internet marketing seminar recently and one of the Gurus said that article marketing was one of the worst strategies. I couldn't believe it! He said article marketing is just like an online job and it's really difficult to make a lot of money with article marketing. Should I believe this? I'm really confused now!

Wow - I actually just saw this thread. One thing is true, article marketing is hard work and yes can be just like a job but considering my online business pays more then my current day job but with significantly less hours and no boss I'll gladly continue to article market!!!

Respectfully,
Tim

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freudianslip27 16 years ago

I think that if you are going to be spending hours and hours doing article marketing, you should keep some sort of "backend" in mind. In other words, if you are just doing bum marketing and not promoting a website, you are not taking advantage of the SEO possibilities of article marketing. In my opinion, article marketing is cool because its free, its nice for beginners, and is best done by promoting both a product as well as your website in the bio box.

Matt
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Fabian Tan 16 years ago

The problem with article marketing is that people think small.

It can be part of a larger strategy (and it definitely should be) or it can even be one of your main traffic generation strategies. It can be anything you want it to be.

People think nothing of buying banner ads or coregistration leads and spending thousands there, but most people don't think of spending thousands on buying articles written by professionals.

Think about it. If you know your article marketing process works, you know it converts, you know it is making money for you, instead of spending $5,000 on a coregistration campaign, you can take that $5,000 and buy 1000 articles or at whatever price you think it is worth it and have traffic for years or even for life. The traffic you get and the leads you get will be much more targeted.

You'd want to use article marketing, as has been said, as part of your marketing plan at the very least. But, why not scale everything? Article marketing is scalable like everything else. There are hundreds or even thousands of potential topics you can write about in niches like golf, weight loss or gardening. And in each topic, you can write dozens of articles. The potential is limitless. It is all about expanding the mind with the goal of getting more targeted traffic.

But as I said, scale everything that works.

Scale article marketing.

Scale coregistration.

Scale banner ads.

Scale search engine optimization.

The goal is to basically get limitless traffic to increase your income every step of the way.

Fabian
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- Luiggi 15 years ago
  
  [Think about it. If you know your article marketing process works, you know it converts, you know it is making money for you, instead of spending $5,000 on a coregistration campaign, you can take that $5,000 and buy 1000 articles or at whatever price you think it is worth it and have traffic for years or even for life. The traffic you get and the leads you get will be much more targeted.]
  
  Thanks for that, Fabian. Which service do you recommend to outsource articles? And how much do you pay for each one?
  
  Thanks,
  Luiggi
  
  Thanks
  
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kkgem

16 years ago

Hmm... I bet to defer what that "Guru" says. Article Marketing is still one of the best ways to generate free traffic on-line. It takes a little time but it is effective. You still get traffic from an article you published years ago.... However, it is not a quick way to draw traffic.

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Allen Graves 16 years ago

But for some of us, it IS a quick way to draw traffic.
Why are so many people saying it is not, while others say that it is.

I can submit an article to choice websites and get hundreds of targeted hits almost immediately after the article is published. Rinse and repeat.

I think that the traffic depends on where the article ends up.

Respectfully,
AL
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- jedz Banned 16 years ago
  
  What a nice responds guys. Great ideas and thanks for all who posted.
  This is just my 2 cents guru lady.
  
  Hard work and dedication are needed especially of a newbie like you. There's always a money if you do your job well but doing a good job involves money and time. You will never know if you won't try.
  
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  trafficwave 16 years ago
  
  If you're going to step in the world of Internet Marketing, be prepared to have people QUICKLY tell you that whatever you're doing will not work. Then be prepared for them to tell you that they do have a solution and it will only cost you $ __________.
  
  Making money online requires a bit of a "Maverick" approach. You'll need to develop the toughness to just move forward despite what some of the "guru's" will tell you. Read what they have to say. Take the input. Use what you can and toss the rest. But at the end of the day, you have to make your own decisions and sometimes that means just trying things on for size.
  
  That's the only way you will REALLY know what works for you.
  
  I've been told that Article Marketing is dead. Yet my articles consistently generate visitors that convert at a very nice rate.
  
  I've been told that FFA Pages are dead. Yet I generate new leads consistently from a small FFA Page campaign that I'm running. (Average 1 to 4 new leads per day). Changing the world? No. But over the course of the year, just 1 new lead a day is 365 new leads from a tool I hardly EVER spend any time on. I check it about once every 3 or 4 months.
  
  I've been told that SEO is dead. Yet I enjoy consistently high conversion rates from some of my organic SERP's.
  
  I've been told that PPC is dead. Yet I consistently generate visitors that convert very well from my PPC ads.
  
  I've been told that banner advertising is dead. But every single day, someone somewhere clicks on one of my banner ads and visits my sites.
  
  I've been told that newspaper advertising is dead. I have to agree that it's a little bit "under the weather" but still not dead! I get consistent responses and generate leads from all of my newspaper ads.
  
  This list could go on and on ... but you get the point.
  
  For me, this is the key: I test everything I do. Every ad ... Every article ... Every banner ... Every email ... they are all tracked. I can tell you EXACTLY what any given campaign, ezine ad, article, search engine term, banner, etc... is producing for me.
  
  Someone can say to me, "_______________ is dead" and I can look through my stats and see hard irrefutable evidence that it's working just fine for me.
  
  There is a caveat to all of this. I have experienced absolute utter failure from each of these methods, too. Because I track all of my ads, I know when a campaign falls flat. That doesn't mean the medium didn't work. It may mean that my ad was wrong, the article wasn't right for the market, the banner didn't appeal properly, whatever ...
  
  My job is to then test variations until I either:
  
  a) get it right and the ad starts converting.
  
  or
  
  b) realize that I may be in the wrong place for this campaign so I pull it.
  
  This is just my take on it, but ... NEVER base your marketing decisions on someone telling you "that won't work". (Especially when that someone has a solution they can sell you.).
  
  Instead... try just about anything you can think of and test the results. If it works for you, keep doing it! If it doesn't work, make changes and try again.
  
  At the end of the day, your bank balance will be the thing to tell you if something works or not.
  
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athena08

15 years ago

Like many of the others have said, article marketing should be only one of your traffic generating strategies. It is a good one and you should expect long-term rather than short-term or immediate results, although these are also possible, but not necessarily likely.

The beauty of articles, other than that they can bring you traffic and therefore sales for years and years, is that your brand i.e you can go viral as your articles are published on other websites which they will be if you submit them to the article directories who allow other website owners looking for content to publish your article just as long as they keep the author's information intact.

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Chri5123 15 years ago

Article Marketing is one of the best ways to get started making money online without a doubt.

As long as you write good content for "buying" keywords you will get sales.

Build a list and then the articles that do well research and create your own product.

Sen out your new product to the list you have built, recruit some affiliates and you are away!

So yes article marketing is without a doubt a solid BASE to get started online with little or no financial risk.

Chris
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Clark

15 years ago

Invest your time and money in building your own VRE for the long term.

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Spike SpiegelIM

15 years ago

Different strokes for different folks. For me Article Marketing is one of the best strategy to employ, but as others have said it is only one of the many methods you can use. But for me it's absolutely vital..

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trippmarxx

15 years ago

I agree with most of you that say that article marketing is a great way to make money online. The reason I say this is because it is the top method that has brought made me a decent income on the internet.

Just like Steven said, the results from article marketing take time. You can't expect to pump out a few articles and expect sales to come flying through.

Here's something to think about:

- Paid marketing methods bring in money faster, but they also take money out of your wallet faster.

- Free marketing (aka bum marketing) takes longer to bring you money, but it also doesn't take any money out of your wallet. It only costs you your time.

So, with that said, it honestly depends on what is more important to you. If you have the money to invest and not the time, you should look at paid advertising, but if you are broke and have some time on your hands, article marketing is a good way to go.

Once you get into article marketing, you will learn very fast of other free methods of ways to generate traffic from your articles. It's really wild how many ways you can earn money online for not investing in anything more than hosting and a domain name.

See, when I started out with article marketing, I had zero dollars to invest. With a family to support, I turned to the internet to see what I could do to earn money. I studied article marketing guides and methods over and over, and took any time I had and wrote my articles any chance I got.

I continued to write, write, and write again. I almost felt like giving up until I made my first sale, which gave me the motivation to keep on going and get me to where I'm at today, making a steady $100-$200 daily, just from article marketing alone.

If you want the benefits and rewards, you have to put in the work. As old as this saying is, it's true - You only get out of something what you put into it. Little effort = little success.

My theory: When you find something that works, duplicate that formula over and over. Keep grinding away and never give up.

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tommygadget

15 years ago

Article marketing is a traffic generation method. The real issue is what you want to do with that traffic. I flip blogs. I use article marketing to turn an unknown blog into a cash generating website. If I really like it, I keep it. If I need money, I flip it. Hope this helps.

TomG.