Article Marketing Sucks And Is A Waste Of Time.

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Hi Warriors,

I've had a few people tell me lately that article marketing is a waste of time and that they don't think people should tell newbies to do it.

I don't usually give generic advice like 'start out with article marketing' to people just starting out since I often find that they have valuable skills or experience which mean they can get a much more profitable business setup from the beginning, but I know that a lot of people do tell others to do article marketing and it seems popular in this forum.

I've always supplemented what I do with article marketing since it has seo and traffic benefits, but I thought it would interesting to see what warriors thought about it as advice for newbies.

Like I say, I usually don't advise people to start out with article marketing unless I've spoken to them and they have almost no other value to bring to a new business and they just want to get started doing something - but I'm guessing other warriors feel differently based on the amount of talk about it here so I've added a poll for you to vote on and see what others think too.

Andy
#main internet marketing discussion forum #article #article marketing sucks #marketing #sucks #time #waste
  • Article marketing should just be one peg in the spoke. Period. Although some build their net income off of AM, people shouldn' lay all of their eggs in one basket. I can't tell you how many articles we've written over the years for IM'ers so that they can have articles created for distribution. It' s alot. That being said, i had an IM'er come back to me after 2 years of not using me and requested another batch of 20 articles from the same writer because "my article is STILL number 2 of google for x,y,z terms".

    And you know what? That article is a GREAT presell which led to his affiliate page from which he made good money.

    Use Article Marketing if you want to presell, gather backlinks, or develop an online personna. But don't lay all of your eggs in that one basket. It's easy to do, cheap, and depending on your skillset, shouldn't take a lot of time.
    • [1] reply
    • To tell you the truth, I think there are better ways to make money than article marketing for newbies.

      Even if they absolutely didn't have any money at all to invest... that may be the worst option to go with. There are special techniques and skill to being a successful article marketing, which doesn't happen overnight. I think newbies get the impression that by just writing a few articles, they are going to generate tons of income. This is true for a few, but not for the masses.

      I would tell a newbie to think about their strengths and passions then build on that to make a successful IM business. That entails many other options besides article marketing.
      • [1] reply
  • Article writing and marketing is only a part of the package that is needed to start out.
    Some people may not be cut out for it. At the very least, I think they need to pick up
    an ebook on how to do article marketing before starting with it. It would cut back on the learning curve immensly.

    In addition, if they had the finances, ppc is a much quicker way of getting visitors and judging whether it is a good niche to get into or not. This option may save them months
    of work that turns out not to be a good investment.

    Personally, I have have a good number of articles on the net, but there have been times I have been too burnt out, to continue writing articles. I get click throughs from articles written years ago, so it does work.

    One needs to weigh everything out and just see it as a part of the whole picture.

    Jeannie
  • I think anyone that totally disregards article marketing is a fool HOWEVER it really depends on the product you are selling. If your product is information based then article marketing is important for the simple fact that people are craving information on the subject.

    Also many folks that failed with article marketing simply didn't do it correctly. They had a crap title or their sig didn't get the reader to click through.

    At the same time those marketers that use eBay don't need article marketing. What is the point? Also if you have a website selling women's shoes - what the hell will you write about?

    Anyway that's what I think.

    Andres
    • [2] replies
    • Andres,

      I've been an article reviewer for several years now.

      You'd actually be surprised at the wide variety of websites that people promote with article marketing.

      I actually have seen several article marketers promoting women's AND men's shoes. In their case, they never ran out of ideas. I don't know how they did it, but they kept submitting original, non-regurgitated stuff.

      There's really no limit to the type of product you can promote with article marketing, sometimes it's even a bit humorous.

      Respectfully,
      Allen Graves
      • [2] replies
    • Well you could write about the following:

      1 - How to prevent vericose veins with (insert shoe name)
      2 - What to Wear with Wedge Heeled Shoes
      3 - Flats and Heels to Wear with Casual Clothes
      4 - Attractive footwear alternatives to sneakers
      5 - Shoes that can Help You Looking Thinner
      6 - The Best Shoes for Short and Mini Skirts
      7 - Turn Plain Shoes into Something Special With Shoe Clips
      8 - Cute and Comfortable Shoes For Pregnant Women
      9 - The Worst Shoes to Wear to an Interview
      10 - How to Wear Mules and Backless Shoes
      11 - The Flattering Ways To Wear Knee High Boots
      12 - Making the Move from Sneakers To High Heels
      13 - How To Walk In High Heels Without Embarrassing Yourself
      14 - Tips for Making Flats Look Fabulous
      15 - The Best Shoes To Wear So He Notices You
      16 - Essential Women's Shoes - Top Picks
      17 - The Best Shoes for Cropped Pants
      18 - Tips for Making Big Feet Appear Smaller With The Right Shoes
      19 - Combat Common Foot Problems With The Right Shoes
      20 - Ballerina Flats - What to Wear with Them
      21 - Shoe Styles for Your Body Shape
      22 - Favorite Shoe Inventions for 2008
      23 - Gladiator Sandals for Summer 2008
      24 - Fall Shoe Trends
      25 - Crocs Shoes - What Makes Them So Popular
      26 - Shopping for Discount Shoes
      27 - Are Flip-Flops Damaging Your Feet?
      28 - Finding Shoes for Larger Feet
      29 - Statement Shoes – Heel Art For 2008
      30 - Tips For Shoe Shopping Online

      It took about 2 minutes to find those titles. You could also go to ezinearticles.com and do a search for shoes on their website where you will be directed to a page that shows this - Web Results 1 - 10 of about 36,700 from ezinearticles.com for shoes - Now that's alot of articles on shoes which should give someone plenty of ideas to work with.

      If you wanted to get even more specific you could do a search on ezinearticles.com for "womens shoes" and see this - Web Results 1 - 10 of about 5,380 from ezinearticles.com for womens shoes - Again, lots of ideas on what to write about in terms of womens shoes.

      Just food for thought...

      Remember - article writing pays the bills but article marketing eliminates the bills!!!

      Respectfully,
      Tim
  • If you can write well enough and fast enough, it's an easy gig.
    Sure, it's slower than some methods of traffic generation, but it's possibly a better way to bring pre-screened traffic (targeted) to your site--after all, they did read about your topic!

    Being organized and methodical about it helps too. It's not a one-shot and run system. You should commit to dripping articles into the system at regular intervals.

    Just when I think AW's too slow, or too much work, I see an article bring 500 visitors to a page on my site, with conversions, and think, "that traffic would've cost me $400 on Google Adwords"--so, it can be a good method to use in your arsenal of traffic tools.
    • [1] reply
    • I hear you John,

      But my most effective methods of traffic generation have always been JVs, so if I'm suffering from lack of traffic that usually tells me I've got something else wrong, rather than I need to rely on article marketing to get some.

      I accept that AM can often help, but I'm just making the point that quite often people seem to think that AM and other link building strategies are the only (or primary) way to get traffic, when my experience is that those tend to be the 'backup' activities to build some extra traffic so that sales happen regardless of anything else, but I would never expect that AM would be my main source of traffic - or I'd think I've missed the boat massively in my focus.

      Andy
  • I've never tried article marketing (until joining this forum a couple weeks ago) because I've heard people saying for 2, 3, 4 and maybe more years ago that article marketing just wasn't working anymore. So, I never tried it because I wasn't about to spend my time on something that ultimately would prove to be ineffective, like FFA.

    But, obviously, it has been working for some people, otherwise you wouldn't see established marketers continue to do it.

    I think that's a good argument for giving things a try for yourself instead of just listening to what others are saying.
    • [1] reply
    • Hi, I feel it really depends.

      We cant force someone who dislikes writing to write articles even though we know it is the best for them.

      In addition, it really boils down to what they really want to do and who they want to market to.

      Sometimes, it is also position of the strategies.

      It may not be needed now but it does not mean we dont need it later.

      But it is good to get our hands dirty once in a while to experience it ourselves so we can know if it is the right fit for our business plan, rather than hear from others.

      My 2 cents,
      John
      • [1] reply
  • I like article writing. That's just me. I like to write about the things that I care about... however, that being said, there are some people out there that do not like it. They think it is a waste of time. So, in my personal opinion, I think that everyone should do article writing at least once, and see where it gets them. If it doesn't get them where they want to be, then so be it...they don't have to do it forever, just the once. And if they love it, then so be it! I just think that everyone should try different things and see what works for them.
  • For me article marketing is best way to promote,especially for search engine.
    • [1] reply
    • For free traffic strategies, there is not much out there better than article marketing. At least free in monetary terms.

      Tim G made the best post here. He showed how you can come up with topics even for 'obscure' niches. It is all about expanding your mind and thinking of possibilities instead of limitations.

      And article marketing can be slow or fast; it's all about what you put into it. Pay per click marketing can be slow too if you set a daily budget of like $5 on some rarely searched for keywords and all you get is a few clicks per day.

      How do you reach the heights of massive traffic with pay per click? You spend more. You scope out more keywords to target. You get more of your ads out there. So if you spend $100 on pay per click and you're making profits, what's there to stop anyone from spending $100 a day on articles? There is no difference. The whole idea is to invest on traffic generation to make profits.

      What applies to pay per click marketing (how you scale it), it's the same with article marketing. You either spend more (outsource) or write more. You find more keywords and topics to write about and then go and do it. You get more of your articles out there.

      And then you think of ways to 'recycle' your traffic, like building a list.

      The idea is to 'own' more of the traffic generated by article directories and the search engines. Own more keywords and topics and you get larger pie or percentage of the traffic. It's that simple. You scale what works for any traffic generation strategy and you're laughing all the way to the bank.

      Fabian
  • I think a lot of people have missed the point of the question.

    It wasn't "is article marketing effective" or "can a newbie make money with article marketing" -- you only need to take a look around to see that, when done correctly, both of those are true.

    The question was:

    And to answer that you've got to look a little deeper than "can they write", just because someone can do something doesn't mean they should.

    For example:

    What are their goals?
    What skills do they have?
    What resources do they have?
    How do they want to live their life?

    Now, I don't like one size fits all solutions because they rarely work, but in general I would not advise a newbie to start with article (bum) marketing. Just like I wouldn't suggest they get started with PPC or CPA... these are all just tools and a small piece of the puzzle.

    Yeah you can make money with them, even scale them to a point, but they're rarely the fastest route to someones goals.

    For the amount of work you put in (or outsource) with article marketing you could have developed your own product (and built a real business) and have affiliates doing all the work for you. Then once you've got money coming in you can outsource all those other things like article marketing.
    • [1] reply
    • Hallelujah!!!!

      Kyle thanks for restoring my faith in warriors - that's exactly the point I was making and the point I think people need to consider.

      We all know that you can waste your time doing AM and that you can make money with it - that wasn't MY question.

      Your comments were all totally in-line with what was in my mind when I started this thread.

      Andy
      • [2] replies
  • But I suggest new ones to follow article submissions which has best results in internet marketing. As it gives you quality links that avoids us from Internet Marketing Scams .
    • [1] reply
    • What an interesting post...

      I agree to an extent, article marketing probably isn't for everyone, but I can't say anything bad about it as I've personally used solely AM to bring me consistent $8k - $10k months.

      It's hard for me to not like something that does that for me!

      It should definitely be a part of a larger whole though, which I guess is true with any form of marketing your offer/site etc.

      David
  • Article Marketing is definitely one of the best ways to generate targeted traffic when you don't have the option of paying for traffic. I just recently started a blog about IM (in my sig) and by using article marketing I've been able to generate around 40 uniques a day in a very short period of time. It's just a great way to get the ball rolling and build yourself a foundation.
  • Article marketing has really worked well for me, but I don't write normal articles. I structure it differently and include information that 99.999% of people do not and they are pulling very well.

    I just started this NEW process a few weeks ago and already they are generating buyers.

    Mike Hill
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