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Article Marketing Open Secret

by MrFume
20 replies
It might be surprising to newcomers to IM that publishing articles on major article directories, mainly Ezinearticles.com, is actually a long term traffic strategy-it is not sexy, or techie so most people do not bother with it, but in reality the habit of writing good quality articles, NOT spun rubbish, is one of the best habits to cultivate. How does it work? The ranking of a site such as Ezinearticlesw.com is very high-it is a 'trusted source' with a very long history so a good quality article will rank quickly, and the cumulative effect over time is to drive targeted traffic to whatever links you have placed into the article. Articles are used by lots of webmasters for web content also.

The main problem is getting your article accepted (on Ezinearticles.com anyway), it is proof read by machine, and is intolerant of creative writing styles, it only accepts a very basic form of English, it is highly 'pedantic' and actually irritates the shit out of me, but it is worth persisting with for the ranking and traffic it can produce. 95% of people do not bother with this, 95% of people also fail to create any income at all online. Interesting figures.
#article #marketing #open #secret
  • Profile picture of the author Rod Cortez
    "Ranking" on EZA stopped working a long time ago. It's such a dinosaur now I no longer even use it. There are much better platforms out there.

    RoD
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    "Your personal philosophy is the greatest determining factor in how your life works out."
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    • Profile picture of the author writeaway
      Originally Posted by Rod Cortez View Post

      "Ranking" on EZA stopped working a long time ago. It's such a dinosaur now I no longer even use it. There are much better platforms out there.

      RoD
      Plus, it has a huge inventory of low-quality spun (?) materials from the past that it is very susceptible to future Google mood swings. I recently did a project for a client where he needed stuff rewritten. I entered the stuff handed to me into Copyscape and CS returned tons of EZA listings. I clicked on the listings and it was the typical 'block by block' spin used by many 'SEO content' hack shops. I rewrote the whole piece based on new research but kept the same kw targets. Crazy stuff. I am surprised EZA isn't actively policing its archives. There were tons of this badly-written and spun garbage. And that's just with a small set of keywords. Who knows what else lurks in the depths of EZA's bowels?
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    • Profile picture of the author tpw
      Originally Posted by Rod Cortez View Post

      "Ranking" on EZA stopped working a long time ago. It's such a dinosaur now I no longer even use it. There are much better platforms out there.

      RoD

      RoD is right on.

      With Google's Farmer Update a few years ago, EzineArticles lost 90% of their search rankings in Google.

      The only value to uploading your articles to EZA is potentially finding publishers who might want to reprint your articles on their website or in their newsletter.

      But, I also agree with RoD that there are probably better ways to get your articles to publishers than EZA.
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      • Profile picture of the author writeaway
        Originally Posted by tpw View Post

        RoD is right on.

        With Google's Farmer Update a few years ago, EzineArticles lost 90% of their search rankings in Google.

        The only value to uploading your articles to EZA is potentially finding publishers who might want to reprint your articles on their website or in their newsletter.

        But, I also agree with RoD that there are probably better ways to get your articles to publishers than EZA.
        Plus, word on the street is that Google is using its Disavow data and this might impact linkwheels which can implicate article sites as well. Many wholesale/bulk linkbuilders often layered Web 2.0 shallow sites with article link inventories. Depending on how deep Google hunts for links to its massive disavow list, you might be seeing many of the article sites taking it on the chin trafficwise. As for syndication, the only ones that don't get dinged for duplicate content are news sites and high authority sites. It would be quite a dice roll for a small or up and coming niche site to 'syndicate' content off an article dump when it's been published elsewhere.
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  • Profile picture of the author David Black 68
    I wrote loads of articles for Ezine - they did ok for me a few years ago - not sure I'd bother now, I don't think they have the same pulling power..
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  • Profile picture of the author dewayneboyd
    OP. Why would you bother posting your articles on a different website when you can post them on your own site? If I followed your advice, I'd still be making almost nothing. I am busy building MY website, not sending free search engine traffic to EZA.
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    1,574,810 unique visitors and counting. And that's just one of my websites.

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  • Profile picture of the author Joel Gray
    All of your original content should be put on YOUR websites or blogs!

    Joel
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    "Punish The Deed, Not The Breed"

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    • Profile picture of the author Lena Williams
      Originally Posted by Joel Gray View Post

      All of your original content should be put on YOUR websites or blogs!

      Joel
      It is nothing harmful if you share your original content in some high quality article directories like ezinearticles, articlebase etc. Forget about backlinks, good quality article directories still have a lot of traffic which can provide referral traffic to your site.
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  • Profile picture of the author nicholasb
    this was great advice in 2007
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    • Profile picture of the author DubDubDubDot
      Originally Posted by nicholasb View Post

      this was great advice in 2007
      Maybe the OP just woke up from a coma.
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  • Profile picture of the author wrcato2
    I love article marketing and currently testing EZA out again. You can place your content you post to EZA on your blog and they won't hold it against you. However, I would suggest to wait until your EZA article is published before posting to other article directories.

    The best way to market your articles is to have your own directory and create a publishers list.
    Use some of your content for social traffic and always create high quality content. Any thing less than your best will cost you traffic and sales.

    Does the WF still have an article directory section on the form?
    This would be your best bet for quick traffic if your in the Make money niche(s). Also one more tip, send your traffic to your list, a squeeze page that is relevant to the article they just read. Don't just send them to your blog or an affiliate program. Build your list and you will build your business.
    Hope this helps
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  • Profile picture of the author JRJWrites
    Originally Posted by MrFume View Post

    It might be surprising to newcomers to IM
    Actually, EZA is probably the first thing that IM newbies here in terms of article marketing traffic.

    Originally Posted by MrFume View Post

    that publishing articles on major article directories, mainly Ezinearticles.com, is actually a long term traffic strategy-it is not sexy
    Define sexy.

    Originally Posted by MrFume View Post

    or techie
    Define techie.

    Originally Posted by MrFume View Post

    so most people do not bother with it, but in reality the habit of writing good quality articles, NOT spun rubbish, is one of the best habits to cultivate.
    I agree - but you can't rely on JUST high quality content to create a full-time passive income.

    Originally Posted by MrFume View Post

    How does it work?
    This is how it works:

    1. You write an INCREDIBLE article and post it to your blog.
    2. Wait for your blog post to get indexed.
    3. Post the same article on EZA, with a resource box with an attention-grabbing CTA.
    4. Set a Google Alert for your article.
    5. Wait for it to get syndicated (passive syndication method).
    6. Follow up with the syndicator and ask him if you would like to syndicate more of your articles and publish it to his network.
    7. Repeat steps 1-6.

    Originally Posted by MrFume View Post

    The ranking of a site such as Ezinearticlesw.com is very high
    Somebody doesn't know what's going on in 2013... :p

    Originally Posted by MrFume View Post

    it is a 'trusted source' with a very long history
    So what? Google doesn't rank according to trust. It ranks according to quality content, keywords, and quality backlinks.

    With recent updates, the big G has penalized article directories.

    Originally Posted by MrFume View Post

    so a good quality article will rank quickly
    Who told you? Show me the proof, bud. I haven't seen an ezine article on page 1 of Google for a LONG time.

    Originally Posted by MrFume View Post

    and the cumulative effect over time is to drive targeted traffic to whatever links you have placed into the article.
    Nope. But what you're gonna say next works.

    Originally Posted by MrFume View Post

    Articles are used by lots of webmasters for web content also.
    That's what works! Eureka! You got it!

    Originally Posted by MrFume View Post

    The main problem is getting your article accepted (on Ezinearticles.com anyway)
    Actually, I got upgraded from Basic to Diamond in less than 100 hours. It's not hard if you have any sort of writing ability.

    Originally Posted by MrFume View Post

    it is proof read by machine
    Um.....NO. Who told you? (and the word is "proofread", if we wanna get technical)

    Originally Posted by MrFume View Post

    and is intolerant of creative writing styles, it only accepts a very basic form of English
    Sigh. So much B.S. on this forum (ooh! Excuse my language!)

    Originally Posted by MrFume View Post

    it is highly 'pedantic' and actually irritates the shit out of me
    Ooh! Excuse your language!

    Originally Posted by MrFume View Post

    but it is worth persisting with for the ranking
    Nope. Not worth it.

    Originally Posted by MrFume View Post

    and traffic it can produce.
    Yes, but that traffic comes from syndication, not from the actual Ezine article. Got it?

    Originally Posted by MrFume View Post

    95% of people do not bother with this
    Is that the third or fourth statistic that you've blindly mentioned without any proof whatsoever?

    Originally Posted by MrFume View Post

    95% of people also fail to create any income at all online.
    More like 99.9% (most have a normal day job)

    Originally Posted by MrFume View Post

    Interesting figures.
    Sure are. Too bad you made 'em up.

    LESSON TO REST OF Y'ALL: Listen to somebody who knows what he/she is talking about. Like Alexa Smith, MYOB, and John McCabe.
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    • Profile picture of the author JohnMcCabe
      Posting to EZA (the only one I mess with anymore) does two things for me and neither have anything to do with linking, ranking or direct traffic.

      1) Through the passive syndication process JRJWrites described, I reach publishers I would not have found any other way.

      2) Sometimes I find tangential markets I would not have considered relevant via such syndication. The trick here is ignoring the scraper sites and badly done autoblogs, and considering the site itself. If the connection between the publishing site's theme and yours makes sense to you, you may have found a whole new market niche to explore.
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  • Profile picture of the author Brady Partridge
    I'd like to post some of my articles in article directories, but after reading this and similar threads I'm still not sure whether it's really worth the time and effort. Is there any general consensus at all as to the value of posting articles in these directories?
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    • Profile picture of the author DubDubDubDot
      Originally Posted by Brady Partridge View Post

      I'd like to post some of my articles in article directories, but after reading this and similar threads I'm still not sure whether it's really worth the time and effort. Is there any general consensus at all as to the value of posting articles in these directories?
      Do a test and find out.

      Look at some submitted articles in your niche and put a few sentences in quotes in Google search. That will turn up sites publishing the article. What kind of sites are they? The types of sites you'd like to be on or is their Alexa rank about 3,000,000?
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      • Profile picture of the author JohnMcCabe
        Originally Posted by DubDubDubDot View Post

        Do a test and find out.

        Look at some submitted articles in your niche and put a few sentences in quotes in Google search. That will turn up sites publishing the article. What kind of sites are they? The types of sites you'd like to be on or is their Alexa rank about 3,000,000?
        Even better - are these the type of sites likely to appeal to your target audience?

        The focus on Alexa rank can be misleading, even if such rankings were accurate, which I question. Some small sites don't stay small, and some very large sites have so much content that your article could get lost in the mix.

        Even if a site got 10 million visitors per day scattered across 5 million pages, that's an average of 2 visitors per day - if every page got equal views. More likely, your single article will vanish into the vast abyss of the archives.

        Obviously, you don't want to show up on some ghost blog that hasn't been updated by anybody but the hackers in a year, but sheer size isn't everything.
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      • Profile picture of the author Brady Partridge
        Originally Posted by DubDubDubDot View Post

        Do a test and find out.

        Look at some submitted articles in your niche and put a few sentences in quotes in Google search. That will turn up sites publishing the article. What kind of sites are they? The types of sites you'd like to be on or is their Alexa rank about 3,000,000?
        Yep. That's the only sure way to find out. I'll Google a list some of the more reputable article directories and start submitting.

        Banned? That's a strange custom title to give yourself.
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  • Profile picture of the author Rod Cortez
    I realize that there are still plenty of authors who post on websites such as EZA and if that works for them, more power to them. As long as they post on their own virtual real esate first (many still don't) they should be in okay shape. Also they should be doing other forms of promotion as well.

    I have hundreds of original articles on EZA (over the years) under different pen names and in several niches and a very small % of people have told me they found me on EZA. My own syndication efforts have had a much better ROI, so much so that I don't use EZA anymore. I'm looking for the highest ROI and EZA simply doesn't deliver that to me. I also predict EZA won't be around for much longer, their model isn't sustainable in it's current form.

    I'm not going to share all the platforms or networks that I use because it took me YEARS of testing to find them and all and test them. However, one them, the Kindle platform, gets me more traffic than EZA ever did. It's not even close, even at EZA's peak.

    Yes, they are two totally different animals, but that's not my point here, I'm not making a direct comparison; the point I'm making is that there are much better platforms, much more efficient ways to get YOUR articles syndicated or noticed.

    RoD
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    "Your personal philosophy is the greatest determining factor in how your life works out."
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  • Profile picture of the author Stuart Walker
    I haven't seen EZine in any SERPS for a long time. There are other 3rd party sites that do still rank relatively well if you insist on doing this strategy.
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