Hey guys, I don't know if this goes here or in the copywriting section, but I guess it's better to place it here. I've been wondering this a lot of times (I've never put any considerable effort on article marketing), and I decided to ask to the most knowledgeable community around: I know that there are some major article sites, wich are good to submit articles, but I have a few doubts: 1 - If I recall correctly, some of those sites allow anyone to use that content at their will, as long as they include the content AND the resource box. Is this true or my memory is playing me a bad joke? 2 - Every article must be unique? so, if I pick 6 article sites and I want to submit an article to each of those for a specific niche, it has to be 6 different articles, right? 3 - Is there any place where I could submit the articles on my site? google won't weigh them much because they would still be duplicates? 4 - what about, let's say, I submit an article on EZA, and put the link of my site on the resource box, and once it is published, I publish the article on my site? what would happen with that? Basically, I want to promote a site, wich has articles, and I want to save time instead of writing some content for the site and other for article sites. I hope you get the idea and give me some thoughts/help, on this matter, or at least tell me "no, write different content for the site and article sites or you're screwed" Thanks a lot in advance!
Question 1 - That is the purpose of article directories, they are there for other webmasters to reuse your content. AS much as this may sound like a bad joke to you, with your author credit box in tact, think of all the backlinks that you earn from that. Its an extremely good tactic, one of the most time and cost friendly ones that there are today! Question 2 - Yes, every article must be unique. They must be written by you, and you can also opt to have them written for you by services like 'Need an Article', etc etc Question 3 - If you publish your article on your site later on, this would see your own site as providing duplicate content, which Google does not like in the slightest. Along with no rankings for that page, you would probably be banned from Ezine as well. If you are wanting to promote a site through article marketing, you are going to need to either write articles, or have them written. As far as the time involved, mate... time needs to be invested in things like this. Things dont happen easy when you are trying to rank. It takes an hour to write a great article, I personally start every day writing an article, it gets my brain going, and is the best thing that I do for myself every day. Article marketing is simply the best time invested in your project, and I mean, if you cant afford the time to write your own content, articles from Need an Article are 5$ each, you could always go and check them out.
You can spin the articles. I won't say that it is purely white-hat to do that (article spinning) but if you want google to give more link-juice to your site for articles then its better to spin them. I would call this technique lightgrey-hat (hope you get it) and it works fine for me.
This isn't the case. You can mass submit a single article to any directory that doesn't have as a requirement that the article be original. I routinely submit a single article for backlinks to multiple directories. Duplicate content is a myth. If duplicate content was a problem no site with any EZA content on them would be making money. I make plenty of sites that have NO original content on them. And why would you be banned from putting your own article on your own site after submitting to EZA. This doesn't make any sense. It's ok to put other peoples content on your site (EZA love you to do this) but not your own????? In answer to your questions bluefox... 1 that's correct 2 Depends on the TOS of the article directory. EZA says it must be unique. For many sites it doesn't matter. 3 Duplicate content is a myth. The only duplicate content issue you need to worry about is putting the same article on multiple pages of your site Personally I like original content on most of my "money sites" not because I have to but because it's a preference I have when I'm trying to brand myself as an expert. 4 Nothing. (well hopefully more traffic) If you have any doubts about what you can and can't do read the TOS of the article directories before you submit.
Referring to the above, please do not use this kind of advice. Google picks up on duplicate content, and although there may be certain arguments about whether or not Google penalizes you or not, you will suffer in the rankings. This is well known, duplicate content is seen as spam by the sezrch engines. This is why the search engines like websites that have original and high quality content. Duplicate content is not a myth.
I have to agree with Glenny but don't take my word for it. If you go to videos.sitepronews.com and search for "Google, Duplicate Content & Multiple Site Issues" or Greg Grothaus to find out the real deal.
Quote from Google Webmaster Central Blog "Let's put this to bed once and for all, folks: There's no such thing as a "duplicate content penalty." At least, not in the way most people mean when they say that." Source: http://googlewebmastercentral.blogspot.com/2008/09/demystifying-duplicate-content-penalty.html You only suffer in the rankings if your site is shite and you are obviously spamming. Look at press releases for example. A press release is content. That can be displayed by many sites when it is released. Do those sites suffer or get penalized? Nope. As far as general content is concerned, many times you will find the very same content showing up on the first page of google coming from different sites. (eg content from Wiki showing up on Yahoo Answers and both of them on page 1) If duplicate content got penalized, which it doesn't according to google, but if it did than how could this happen?
Your memory is absolutely correct. Article marketing is a symbiotic relationship between content provider (you) and content user (newsletter publishers). You provide unique, original content, and they give you a backlink and put your article in front of your perfect target market. Each article must be unique on a given site. You may submit the same article to multiple sites. This is known as "syndication". The Associated Press has been making money syndicating content since 1846. Think of DistributeYourArticles.com as the online version of the Associated Press, speeding your articles to the outlets that need them. As already noted, you are free to use your content any way you see fit. Even Google doesn't think content syndication is bad (thanks to Glenny for posting that link to the Google Webmaster Blog) Also as already noted, your site visitors would enjoy getting this information from you, and hopefully take whatever action you are promoting... subscribing to your newsletter, joining your mailing list, buying your product. Now here's an advanced article marketing concept When you post your article at EZA and other directories, provide a link that goes NOT to your home page, but to a specific landing page within your site that is highly relevant to the topic and has completely different information. On that page, include a link to your EZA article. Google will recognize the symbiotic relevance and give that page a nice kick in the PR Chris
Sorry for the delay, but I want to thank everyone. I was wrong and some concepts, so thanks for enlighten me. Now I start to understand why it really worths to do article marketing. Thank you everyone!
1. That's the purpose of article directory. Your resource box will be duplicated and you will have so many permanent backlinks. It seems like passive income. LOL 2. Make them yourself or outsource them. 3. Any article directories, but I think original article is the best. 4. Nothing happen, you can publish your article on your website a month after your article is published in EZA.