Article syndicators (esp - myob).

by fin

Posted: 11 years ago 15 replies

INTERNET MARKETING

Sorry to pick on you, myob, but I think you might have a good idea of whether this might work. I get the idea you are the marketing man with employed content writers.

I was just wondering about whether it would ever be feasible to train someone to syndicate your content.

For us regular article marketers (apparently), we write our content and try to get it syndicated. Now obviously we can't put 40 hrs per week into marketing, esp if it takes us a long time to write articles.

I don't know about anyone else, but my website is kinda personal to me, suffice to say, I wouldn't want want anyone else writing my content.

I was wondering for the future, if I can make a full-time living from the site, whether it would be possible to train someone to do my syndication efforts for me (we all love scaling), so I can just concentrate on writing my 3/4 articles per week.

Obviously, someone skilled enough, doing this 40 hrs per week might bring about great results. Hell, maybe if it's working I could even hire 2 people (80 hrs).

What do you think?

#article #esp #myob #syndicators

MattCatania 11 years ago

I'd suggest you reverse your plan.

You should source high-quality writers and ultimately leave the syndication for you, alone. The reason for this is the fact that you know who your target audience is, you know where you want your content syndicated and it's much easier to get it right if you're doing it.

Ultimately it's up to you - but in my opinion, I'd use my former article writing time to seek out highly relevant sources for my articles to appear on and craft a query letter accordingly.
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- fin 11 years ago
  
  I think that's a silly idea.
  
  I wouldn't trust someone to write my content.
  
  If I had dozens of websites without my personal presence, then maybe...
  
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  Alexa Smith Banned 11 years ago
  
  Originally Posted by fin
  
  I wouldn't trust someone to write my content.
  
  So far, I don't trust anyone else to write my content, either.
  
  But I'll do that before I trust someone to arrange my syndication!
  
  Unless, possibly, eventually, I recruit and train the person myself, and they're contracted to work for me full-time. But I haven't got to that point, yet.
  
  Outsourcing high-quality writing would clearly be far easier and more worthwhile than that, though. No comparison at all ...
  
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Ord Allenbea 11 years ago

It is very possible but you must be careful and train the person properly. Most think syndicating articles is opening their mass submit software and spamming article directories left and right. These type of people think the more links the better.

This is actually the wrong way to syndicate (although I know some will disagree) your content and articles. If you spend the time training someone make sure they are going to do your syndication exactly how you want it done.

I know people that outsource their syndication but these people trust the syndicators as they have personally worked with them.
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MattCatania 11 years ago

I just believe that you'll have a higher employee turnover with syndicators than article writers.
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- Ord Allenbea 11 years ago
  
  Not if you train them properly. I agree with Alexa and the OP about my own content. There are very few people I trust to write my content. I write most of my own but sometimes I get a few "really close great friends" to write some stuff up for me.
  
  Syndication is not that hard and is easier to learn vs writing high quality content. Articles must contain proper format, spelling, grammar, semantically related words and phrases, proper keyword placement, proper link placement, and a proper grade level.
  
  Many think writing articles is just slapping a few words on notepad or word just for the purpose of backlinks. This is not correct article writing, it takes skill to write proper articles that are going to be noticed as high quality and thus valuable credit from the search engines.
  
  On the other hand syndication can be taught very easily and does not require all the things high quality written content does.
  
  Originally Posted by MattCatania
  
  I just believe that you'll have a higher employee turnover with syndicators than article writers.
  
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MikeTucker 11 years ago

Keep in mind that, as myob has taught us, that the key is not only getting the articles syndicated... It is developing a network of people who syndicate your work on a regular basis.

Quite frankly, no employee is ever going to care as much about your business as you do, and nobody is ever going to know your writing as well as you do, and (I suspect) no syndication outlet is going to be thrilled about dealing with your employees rather than you.

In fact, I have found myob's suggestion to just work to add 5 outlets per day to be a very realistic and productive (read: profitable) method.

...I know there is a lot of hype right now about only working a few hours per week, and getting other people to do your work for you. If you buy into all that, well that's just fine... But I very strongly recommend that you never outsource your connections and relationships!!!
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MattCatania

11 years ago

With regards to the OP - which ever way you decide to outsource will ultimately end in profit if you find and/or train the right people.

I was merely viewing it as more cost effective (in terms of both time and money) to source experts within your industry for content creation.

Your views may differ.

I just can't understand how somebody (who is going to be doing an excellent job) would syndicate YOUR articles if they, in fact, knew that it would be more worthwhile (read: profitable) for them to do it exclusively for themselves.

The correct people for the job (who know how and where to properly syndicate) are those that understand the power of syndication itself, and I don't think they would be willing to work for a fraction of what they'd potentially get. (I don't think it's impossible to find those people, I just believe you'll be spending A LOT more time in trying to do so.)

I'm not saying this doesn't happen with article writers, but I think it would be more prevalent among freelance syndicators.

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myob

11 years ago

@fin

The main problems I see in outsourcing the syndication process is finding anyone skilled enough and willing to do this with much competent dedication. Certainly they would be more likely to be focused on syndicating their own articles.

Another consideration is that syndication is heavily oriented on relationship-building. This function is so critical that I could not imagine outsourcing it. Mike Tucker is spot on for my own opinion regarding this.

For article writing itself, this is perhaps the easiest function to outsource. I do have a staff of in-house writers of whom I spend a lot of time training in my style. Almost all of them are post-graduate students from the local universities, selected by their specialty of study. Good writing ability is a secondary but also a rather safe assumption at this level.

What may be surprising to hear is that most of the niches I market in are fields in which I initially had little knowledge or interest. Personal interest in a niche or passionate control of your own writing is not always a good business model. These tend to be limiting factors and may actually distort sound business judgement.

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fin

11 years ago

Originally Posted by myob

Another consideration is that syndication is heavily oriented on relationship-building. This function is so critical that I could not imagine outsourcing it. Mike Tucker is spot on for my own opinion regarding this.

Thanks, myob.

I actually considered this. I was thinking that by the time I was making enough to employ someone, I'd already have an endless list of syndication outlets.

In that respect, the relationship building would already have been done.

As an example, just say I have 1 niche but it's a pretty big one; it covers a wide range of sub-niches. I might have hundreds of syndication outlets.

If I could train someone, who after each article in indexed would then send an e-mail to each outlet offering them said article. Obviously this is after the relationship building where they'd just require an e-mail telling them a new article was available.

I thought this might be good because hundreds of e-mails takes time. I could then just concentrate on new articles and new syndication outlets.

Obviously I wouldn't outsource abroad. It would be someone I knew personally, had the chance to train for many months, and would trust completely

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Nicola Lane

11 years ago

I'm lost.

The bit that takes the time is finding suitable syndication outlets and building a relationship with them. This is the bit you are going to do yourself?

Sending out the emails with a new article takes seconds. Why do you think this "takes time" Surely your email program has a Blind Carbon Copy and send to list feature? Why is this the bit you need to outsource?

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fin

11 years ago

Well rather than sending out a blanket e-mail, I was thinking more along the lines of personal ones.

For example:

Hey John Smith,

I've got a cool new article I think might be a good match for your site, especially since you just published one in regards to trout fishing.

Thanks for publishing my last one on blue worms.

I've read your new book and it's really good.

Thanks again.
fin

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MikeTucker

11 years ago

Originally Posted by Nicola Lane

I'm lost.

The bit that takes the time is finding suitable syndication outlets and building a relationship with them. This is the bit you are going to do yourself?

Yes, these connections are the part that most people would agree should be done yourself. It is the key to the whole syndication strategy... Anybody that can do it well is going to be focused on doing it for themselves, and they are very unlikely dedicate themselves to your work, rather than their own.

Originally Posted by Nicola Lane

Sending out the emails with a new article takes seconds. Why do you think this "takes time" Surely your email program has a Blind Carbon Copy and send to list feature? Why is this the bit you need to outsource?

As for the technical aspects of sending them out, there is an interesting conversation that starts here:

Wordmerge

Originally Posted by fin

At this point, my syndication network is small enough that I am still sending out offers one-at-a-time like this. At some point, I may have to upgrade to a more technical solution, but for now it works just fine.

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myob 11 years ago

@fin

It appears you have missed an important understanding of just what is a "syndicated outlet". Once a publisher agrees to syndicate your articles you should not have to solicit subsequent article placements. This is part of what I meant by establishing relationships with your publishers, which IMO really cannot be outsourced. For example, whenever I have an article to be released, it is sent by autoresponder or RSS feed to each syndicated publisher within the niche. They expect to receive these articles on a regular basis, and this process is fully automated.

Keep in mind, it's really not required to outsource anything at all to make a very comfortable income by writing for syndication. I did this for several years myself before "scaling up". Learning all practical aspects of your business first hand will prepare you for setting levels of performance expectations when you are ready to hire employees or outsource. A helpful resource I often recommend and for you especially is "Turn Words Into Traffic", by Jim Edwards.
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- fin 11 years ago
  
  Thanks.
  
  Even though I got it wrong - which I now understand because of your example - it's good to know this as I know how it works in the future.
  
  Maybe I was jumping to far ahead of myself. I was just trying to work out a scalable plan for the future. Maybe I won't need to, in able to earn a decent income. Maybe I can even outsource some articles in the future, LOL.
  
  I already have 'turn words into traffic". I've not read it yet, it was more of an investment as was 'directory of ezines".
  
  It won't be long till I use both.
  
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Article syndicators (esp - myob).

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