Article Marketing

[EGOL]

Noj... I think that the points that you list above as 1, 2, 3, 4 are correct and a good analysis - a website with those assets has an enormous advantage using the "not syndicating your content. strategy".

Also, I agree that article syndication can be a fast and reliable way to get the first links into a new website (Case A). Or, to get any reasonable number of links into a website that does not have an knowledgeable and accomplished writer on its staff (Case B) .

CASE A: The problem that the new website will encounter is that some of the websites that republish the articles will be stronger than the new site and outrank it for important terms in the SERPs where it hopes to compete. Although this creates links it also invites strong competition.

CASE B: The website without an accomplished writer that relies on article syndication soon runs into a duplicate content problem if they are publishing the same articles that they syndicate. If they syndicate unique content, that requires two articles for each keyword that they desire SERPs for (one for their own site and one for syndication). So, I believe that it would be better to spend double the work on one high quality article for your own site than half the work on each of two low-quality articles that will not perform well.

Quality content is the key to success. If you are running a website about widgets then you need to know a lot about them to make the website a success. Your knowledge about that subject should be far above that of the visitors and reasonably above other owners of widget sites if you hope to compete against them.

That knowledge is what you can use to produce the content that will earn first-page-of-google rankings. If you can't earn those then you need a different subject for your website or an awareness that you will not be a serious competitor.

There are only ten positions on the first page of Google. If you can't earn one of them then your opportunity to earn a profit is low.

SOCIAL MEDIA: Most of the articles that I submit to social media don't work well... but a few get nice traction and attract links. I often save articles until something related to them has appeared in the news - then pubic awareness for the topic is high and the chance of success is increased. Also, I often do not submit an article because I think that it will not gain much interest. Then a visitor to my site will submit it and it will take off.

The bottom line is ... success there is hard to predict and thus risky. You can increase your chances of success by producing content that is better than anything else on the web in that niche. Sometimes it will win and sometimes it will be ignored - but if you have a site full of these and a little traffic then you will slowly accumulate links over time.

For examples: just visit slashdot or digg and see what's on the front page.

One more strategy... keep an eye on the news and on Google trends for topics related to your site. These are often emerging public interest areas where you can jump in early with great content and get a foothold before the established sites can respond. Or, you can use the recent "balloon boy" story as example of how to "manufacture news"... but don't get caught!

[Noj]

Noj... I think that the points that you list above as 1, 2, 3, 4 are correct and a good analysis.

lol your not going to argue anyway because they are complementary.

CASE A: The problem that the new website will encounter is that some of the websites that republish the articles will be stronger than the new site and outrank it for important terms in the SERPs where it hopes to compete. Although this creates links it also invites strong competition.

Only if the articles directly compete in the target serps, so using the real world illustration, the sharpe site in my footer I released no artciles targetting the term 'sharpe books', but they all related to the field,were relevant and contained a link that said 'sharpe books' or variants of.

Thus incoming links with no competition for any of my target terms.

Interestingly I re-used many of the articles in the news section just because it was useful content and im now ranking better for the reused content than most of the original linking sites.

CASE B: The website without an accomplished writer that relies on article syndication soon runs into a duplicate content problem if they are publishing the same articles that they syndicate. If they syndicate unique content, that requires two articles for each keyword that they desire SERPs for (one for their own site and one for syndication).

I use one quality of content for my site and another quality of content for syndication. I think going forward content first the way to go, but sacrificing time and content at the start for those extra klinks at the start really helped the site kick in.

So, I believe that it would be better to spend double the work on one high quality article for your own site than half the work on each of two low-quality articles that will not perform well.

If you have the links yes, but if you dont ?

Content without links is dead ! - another post for that

I think this is a case 'horses for courses'

Cheers for the other pointers.

[lewisdb]

I've been investigating this as well. I have 5 articles all around 1000 words written specifically for this purpose posted on ezine. The articles are well written and very informative (written by a Dr.). I have links in the footers back to the website with the target phrase I was hoping to enhance.

After about 10 weeks, the result so far is no change in my ranking, however an increase in traffic due to the popularity of the articles.

You have content writen by a Dr and you posted it on an article site?

Are you mad?

[mich12]

except from article writing, social bookmarking and link building. what is the other techniques? can you help me? thanks..

[Noj]

You have content writen by a Dr and you posted it on an article site?

Are you mad?

Obviously! Article sites get 300 words rewritten and repurposed relevant news articles from me nothing more

[seo-sparky]

You have content writen by a Dr and you posted it on an article site?

Are you mad?

I have a site with 50+ articles written by the same Dr.

We wanted to see if or how well this would work. It does drive traffic...

[lewisdb]

I have a site with 50+ articles written by the same Dr.

We wanted to see if or how well this would work. It does drive traffic...

It sounds as though your site has some great content. That doesn't mean however that you should now waste quality work by giving it to a site like ezines.

Add the good content to your own site and if you want to run a test to work out whether article distribution is good for traffic then post something distinctly below average

[seo-sparky]

It sounds as though your site has some great content. That doesn't mean however that you should now waste quality work by giving it to a site like ezines.

Add the good content to your own site and if you want to run a test to work out whether article distribution is good for traffic then post something distinctly below average

We never produce anything below average!

[lewisdb]

We never produce anything below average!

Well then you should never host it on any other site than your own.

[seo-sparky]

Well then you should never host it on any other site than your own.

Sometimes you have to make sacrifices in the name of science.

(no animals were harmed during this experiment)

[lewisdb]

Sometimes you have to make sacrifices in the name of science.

(no animals were harmed during this experiment)

And that's fine but don't give away quality.

[seo-sparky]

And that's fine but don't give away quality.

Alas, but when that's all one has to give... what's a guy to do?

[seoworks]

good, well written targeted articles do well for page rank, back links and traffic... write a creditable article about your service, this will make it better and you can write about it...

submit to all Free Article and whatever paid article site you can.. prweb.com works well...

[gazzahk]

We never produce anything below average!

Interesting claim. I s'pose it depends on what you are including in your count of average.

If you are just talking about your own articles by definition some must be below average.

If you talking about the entire web of articles then being better then average probably just requires the article to be written competently and with correct grammar.

Being better then average is not much of a claim really. It certainly does not imply something people will want to read or link to….

The problem with discussing the concept of “article marketing” is that this is like discussing eating out. The range and variety is so vast that some people think Maccas is a quality restaurant whereas others could not be forced to eat there food and would probably rather classify there place as an insult to the name restaurant.

We now on a regular basis post articles on other sites. These sites are not article sites. These articles bring us quality links and direct traffic. We are now approached for content by some pretty big portals in our market. Mostly now I get my staff to write articles on their field of expertise. We now also approach sites and ask if they would like us to offer articles for them on specific helpful areas. We are now about to allow other relevant sites from within our community to post articles on our blog that are linked to our latest link bait. We hope that this will encourage them to link to and visit the actual bait.

Bottom line: Article marketing can be an effective tool but Maccas sells cr.ap….

[seo-sparky]

We do not post- any articles out to syndication. None, never.

Write a great article - best on the web in its niche - then toss a link and clever description of it out to three or four good social media sites - it will often be like tossing gasoline on a fire (if your articles are really best on the web in their niche).

Can you elaborate on the link tossing?