Is submitting articles still worth the effort?

It depends on why you are doing it. I do article submissions primarily for link building purposes. At the same time, I do not submit junk content and very carefully spin out readable quality.

I would think that most people doing article submissions doing it for link building.

I think you are being realistic as far as the directories go. I really don't see much point in submitting to directories other than building back links and hoping for syndication from other sites.

As far as the directories themselves go, any traffic is good, but you certainly won't get much from the directories imo.

No ... but you're confusing "article marketing" with "article directory marketing".

You're quite right, though, that depending on article directories for their own traffic/backlinks is futile indeed.

The importance of publishing all your articles on your own site first, apart from the cumulative SEO benefits of doing so, is to make sure that when someone finds one of your articles by putting one of its keywords into a search engine, they find the copy on your site and NOT an article directory copy (we all lose most of that traffic!).

Article directory backlinks are non-context-relevant, PR-0 backlinks: the "lowest of the low", in backlink terms. Few people, these days, especially "post-Panda", are successfully using article directories primarily for their backlinks. Typically, you'd need something between 50,000 and 100,000 of those backlinks to give you the link-juice equivalent to one backlink from a relevant authority site.

Many of the very successful article marketers here who are submitting our articles to places like EZA are not doing so for EZA's traffic or backlinks, but because we're using it as a directory, i.e. a depository of content freely available for webmasters and ezine compilers to syndicate. That's actually why article directories exist, and the purpose they were designed to fulfil, you know?

I'm not putting all my articles in EZA because I want customers to find them there (I want customers coming to my site, naturally, not to EZA's site), but because I want webmasters, researchers and ezine-compilers to find them there. They're there for people to find them by searching inside EZA, not "inside Google". That's why so many article marketers are so pleased at the outcome of Google's recent algorithm change: it's benefitted our own sites at the expense of article directories. (Article directory marketers hate it, of course - but their business model hasn't been too viable for a couple of years or so, anyway).

Good amount of business comes through articles.

So yes, they're still extremely powerful and efficient.

I'm not sure that article marketing works anymore for spun articles or scraped content. I have over 300 articles with the main directories and I have to admit that most of them are re-jigged with UAW and virtually none of them do anything for me SEO wise. However, I do have 3 original articles (400 words+) with an article site that does generate a lot of traffic for me.
Original content always wins and it still works on article websites

I use it for building high quality links, plus I have about a 7.8% click rate, if you have tons of Ezine Articles, maybe just go crazy with articles one day, get your account upgraded, easier article submission, etc, you can build links quickly.

also highly deppends on the directories you post to and the quality of the article/if its country specific or a global product.

As far as traffic and quality backlink is concern I think article marketing still effective and worthy.

I been article marketing for years now, and yes its a numbers game but if you stay consistent on the top ten article directories then good traffic will come.

Just remember that most of us do article marketing just to rank our money sites versus just dong it to drive traffic to the article.

"Black Seo Guy "Signing Off"

Submitting articles will benefit you in the long run since you're not just generating traffic but you're also building backlinks. Remember, once you have ranked your site high in Google SERP after building tons of backlinks then that will definitely result to more traffic.

honestly, even after the google farmer, Im still getting very good results with article marketing and ezine. As long as you're writing quality stuff, I dont see any problem with it.

Thank you for all the wonderful replies!

Another question... Which articles directories are the best in raltion to providing triffic?

I have had articles up on GoArticles now for 24 hours with no hits, and the the same articles on EZA have given me 10+.

After Panda update there had been a lot good/bad reviews but I can still say that it's "working". Maybe not like the as it was but still working.

For the traffic, I got the best results from EZA.

Try this one List Of Top 50 Article Directories By Traffic, PageRank
Hope this helps.

Whats the 'EzinePublisher' bit in the stats section of EZA all about?

Big YES!

In that way you can advertise well your site.

from its conception, Article Marketing has evolved on it's primary purpose...now mainly to drive direct traffic to a website. As for me given the right and interesting content, Article Marketing is still worth the shot.

Yes, it's still worth the effort, as long as you're doing it correctly.

Submitting articles still works and will continue to work for DECADES to come. Most people get it wrong because they start writing articles and then submitting them to directories without having any solid content marketing training /education and no plan. I've learned a lot from the likes of Tim Gorman, Dean Shainin, Allen Graves, Steven Wagenheim, just to name a few. If there's one thing I've learned is that article marketing continues to evolve and change.

Article marketing is a sub set of content marketing, so think about ways you can distribute your content other than just submitting to directories. Here's an offline method that almost no one talks about. It's a lot of work, which is probably why most people don't do it, but it's been proven to work time and time again.

Grab a copy of the 2011 Writer's Market here: Amazon.com: 2011 Writer's Market (9781582979489):... (not an affiliate link) or at your local bookstore.

READ it. Understand what it takes to get published and how to build relationships with editors, reporters, etc. And start submitting your content to offline publications and periodicals as well. But I digress.

There are tens of thousands of webmasters / websites that NEED your content. Look for them, find them, contact them and work out some kind of deal where you provide them content on an on-going basis. When I first delved into the dating niche (for men), I must have contacted over 200 webmasters before I got my first couple of deals where they used my content AND got to keep 100% of the commission earned from my e-book.

Why did I give them 100%? Because they were sending traffic BACK to my website and helping me build my list. There are also services out there you can use that still work such as SubmitYourArticle.com. Use press releases in conjunction with your marketing efforts and you will be amazed what you can accomplish in one year (or less).

Read Hamida's post just above this, Burtie. And remember always that when a customer finds one of your articles by putting one of its keywords into a search engine, you need him to find the copy on your site, not the copy in an article directory (because you'll lose half or three-quarters of the traffic going to an article directory, as all of us do!). For many article marketers, understanding this is the difference between making a living and not making a living.

You took the words right out of my keyboard. This is EXACTLY why people should post their content on websites (or blogs) that they OWN and CONTROL. Something else to think about is building your own blog / site network. That is not going to stop working anytime soon.

RoD

I think it probably depends on which article directory you are submitting to, I find ezines to be really saturated now because of the endless guides etc of people making money with it.

However for link building purposes this will still work fine, just not so much with generating sales and traffic.

I use articles for my sites and at the start I thought it was just a waste of time, but now I get a steady stream of traffic from them.

I post one article most days to my blog and also use a company to submit them to all the article and directories sites. It can be a slow process to start with but if you keep posting you should start to see a steady flow of traffic. One thing I must say is I do not use spun articles as I think these are just rubbish. A good written article is so much better..

For me submitting articles to directories is just another form of linkbuilding. Add to that some forum profiles, social bookmarking, web2.0 profiles and you'll be soon #1 in serps. Now that is profit.

Article Marketing still works but you will have to take it to the
next level... Meaning

1)Submit Articles To Article Directories.
2)Submit Articles To Social Media Sites Using A Tool Like OnlyWire.
3)Make A Video About The Article Then Submit The Video To Video Maketing Websites.
4)Make A Podcast Then Submit The Podcast To Podcast Directories.
5)Use A Tool Like SubmitYourArticle This Will Allow You To Submit Your Article to Publishers.

Now thats Article Marketing on STERIODS!!!!

If you are looking for traffic you are MUCH better off with videos.

I use article directories primarily for back linking!