Let's go Article Marketing!

Now that you have a basic understanding of article marketing we can discuss its value as an internet marketing tool.

As I said yesterday I posted an article at two different article directories. The first one I selected was Ezine@rticles.com.They are rated number one by Alexa.  

Alexa is a company that rates article directories among other web related items.

I figured if I was going to try to get an article published I might as well shoot for the top. They accepted my submission and today they sent me an email. The email stated I had some errors in the text and the content was too biased and my hyperlinks went nowhere. They claimed the article was a promotion for a product or service.

The email was worded very kindly and even offered solutions to help repair the article.

I am not quite sure how I stepped outside their guidelines. Since I was still not sure what they didn’t like, (I didn’t add any hyperlinks) I was not able to correct the issue. I then sent another article in its place. I am waiting for the acceptance or rejection of that article.

I submitted the same article to GoArticles.com. My article was approved the same day needing no corrections. This is something you may want to keep in mind. GoArticles.com is also ranked highly by Alexa, but they apparently have differing submission requirements.

With that being said let’s look at the article directory itself.

Article directories allow users to search their sight for articles of a specific topic or niche. You then search for a keyword and they give you a list of results like any search engine. If you notice my article came up in the first page of results. Here’s where I missed the boat.

In my arrogance, I enjoy giving my daily blogs cute names. It’s fun for me and hopefully you enjoy it as well. So, when I decided to compose an article on the merits of blogging (To blog or not to blog) I decided to be cute and title the article; “To be or not to be…” an obvious play on words.

Cute, yes. But it doesn’t help people searching for information on blogging find my article. Instead it ends up with literary results. Live and learn I guess. 

Note to self: Use a title that conveys the content of the article. 

When you post an article to an article directory, you are giving permission for anyone who visits the site to; view, copy and/or re-post the article at another web site. 

I have seen postings from my blog copied to other sites. I was performing a Google search to see where my web site was listed. Searching for Eric’s Work at Home Reviews I got these results. I then opened the first few links, to my surprise this was one of the results.

So, it is not uncommon for someone to “borrow” your content. In the case of article marketing, that is the purpose. You want people to post your work at their site thus creating a back -link to your site.

I have read the more back-linking you have from site to site, makes it easier to receive a higher search engine ranking.  Again this is what we are trying to achieve.

In my case, since I blog daily I am not sure I need or have time to drive traffic from article directories. 

As I had reported I am now working part-time from my home setting appointments for an Independent Life Insurance agent. This coupled with commitments at church, my family, yard work, and two other web sites (yes, two others more on that tomorrow) writing an extra quality article every day and posting it at multiply sites may not be in the “time budget” for me.

Now If I blogged at my site once week or once a month, I would then write a short article daily and post it at as many article directories as I could. I could even use an edited version of my blog, but people are not going to visit your website to read what they just read. Not more than once anyway.

And keep in mind; at a site like mine I want people visiting daily and hanging around to click the banners. Fresh content helps keep that a reality. Regardless of what the “experts” say, I get a lot of traffic to my affiliate marketing partners every day from my banner advertising.

In summation, I see the advantage of article marketing. I can see how this would drive traffic to a site. If my site was simply put in place to market a product or service, article marketing makes perfect sense. It gives you the blogging platform without the need for a blog taking up space at your site.

At this point time to get it done will be the issue. Even if I was paying a service to post the articles daily, I would still have to find time to write them. Your case may be different. If I had more time or things change I may pursue the article marketing further, it does make good business sense.

Like always, join and follow the blog, click the banners and text links to start making money. You can use the EWAHR forum to post questions or request a review of a site. You can also email me directly at ewahr2011@yahoo.com

 

Peace.