Does article marketing work anymore?

I've been researching article marketing the past few days. After reading glowing reports of SERPs dominance and links galore, I did some of my own research and I've got to say my original suspicions have so far proven out.

For years I've resisted the concept of providing an article directory and it's users my work for free with the hope that they will leave the signature box intact. If people are stealing an article from a site that has notices posted all over it that it may not be copied, how likely are folks to play by the rules with article directories?

I looked at the EZine Articles accounts of several of the article marketing gurus over on Warrior Forum. They continue to proclaim the merits of article marketing and yet, their accounts have had no new articles since 2008 or 2009. I looked at accounts linked to their "real names" and realize they could be more actively using alternate ids now.

According to Yahoo!, the articles I checked did not have a single backlink outside of EZA - something the gurus said was part of the secret sauce. Many of the articles weren't even in the Yahoo! index.

Exact searches in Google for the article title often claimed there were several thousand results. However, most were limited to 1-4 pages of actual results with the invitation to see the omitted results. Many of those results were from other article directories.

I then looked at the top producers on EZA and their articles across several different niches.

From the little bit of research I've done, it looks to be 50% or less (mostly less) of the folks who use the articles they find on article directories are actually playing by the rules. I found articles where the bio box was simply removed, several poorly spun revisions and others that used a paragraph or two without reference to the original author. One article on dollhouses was used on several sites highly monetized with ads for sex toys and obviously adult related domain names. Ironically, the one sex site I did look at actually kept the bio box intact. Another site using one of the articles launched my virus program.

It looked like a number of the articles had been simply used as quick and dirty keyword research. The idea being that if someone took the time to write an article on a particular keyword, it must be a keyword worth chasing. I saw several articles using the same exact title of the original article with totally different content - usually junk.

I know there are several here who recommend article marketing as a way to build rankings and reputation. I checked several very different niches and got pretty much the same dismal results.

Am I somehow missing the point somewhere or is article marketing simply a strategy that is not as effective as it once was?

 

I use articles for one thing, backlinks from high PR sites. If you only expect that from it then you won't be disappointed, I completely agree with you about all the "guru's" who say article marketing is super cool because other sites will pick up your article, most of the time that doesn't happen.
Here's my method - write a crappy article as fast as you can and use your keyword a couple times, get it submitted and approved, don't spend more than 10 minutes on it, it's a pretty easy way to get a high PR backlink that is sort of in your niche.

 

I take it you are referring to getting links from the article directory itself rather than other sites that repost the article?

 

Depending on the niche and topic I have seen some direct traffic from the small amount of articles I have posted for my site, but in truth yes it is all about the almighty back link when it comes to article marketing

 

Yep, because like you said, that probably won't happen, and a couple ezine links are always nice to have.

 

That's what I do. The kind of sites that will repost your articles are 99% of the time worthless garbage sites with no SEO juice so the backlink means nothing from them.

I just crank out a few fast articles and submit them to the top 3-4 article places and that is 3-4 backlinks, the rest of the links that come out of it are just leaves in the wind(worthless).

 

While I know that where a backlink comes from can't hurt a site, the idea that my name and links to my site might end up literally next to the ads I saw on the sex toys site makes me cringe.

My other concern was it seems like it would also bring a site to the attention of the bottom feeders along the lines of, if I can post this article I found on EZA, why not also post the articles from the site the EZA article links to?

There was one idea that someone posed that I though might be interesting. He suggested posting an article to EZA with the appropriate bio box and links to a site. After the article was posted, he suggested also posting the same article to 10 other article directories with a different bio box that linked to both the original site and the EZA article. The idea was to give some backlinks to the EZA article which in turn would hopefully give a stronger link to the original. None of the articles I checked, including the some from person who offered that suggestion, showed EZA articles with non-EZA backlinks. Of course, the fellow who made that suggestion hadn't posted anything on EZA since 2008 or 2009 and his bio box linked to a parked domain.

 

Yeah reminds me of a while back I put my name in google and it came up next to a Colon Cleansing site,,WTF? so I go to the site and it is a ghetto scrapper site that was trying to sell colon cleansing herbs and they copied/pasted a health article of mine :-/ . At least these sites come and go and was gone in a couple of months.

 

article marketing warrior forum frank kern john reese

I REALLY hate that crap.

Yes, there is a chance that an article can rank high, but it is very, very, very slim!

But after reading so many posters going on and on about it, you'd think it's a real rainbow.

All one has to do is search on such products, and you'll see, maybe, a few articles on page 1 and 2, if that many.

Article marketing for the sole purpose of getting backlinks is definitely not the way to go.

It can't hurt, but it can't help much either.

That does not work. The articles themselves are the same.


Message boards are like a double-edged sword. You can learn some good stuff, but at the same time you can get burned, and you can literally have your time wasted reading such BS, like the above, and posters saying how great article marketing is.

(It's bad enough when they give glowing praises to, supposedly, money-making gurus, like, Frank Kern and John Reese, and others like him.)

The warrior forum is a VERY good example! It is mostly filled with BS'ers who are, what seems to be for the most part, of them trying to be somebody: "Hey, look at me, look what I did...."

I don't know why so many do that. Maybe they have an empty life...I don't know...

But one can still make money from article marketing. It's done every day. But not like the way so many think.

This guy, like so many like him, makes money from readers going to his site:

http://www.askmen.com/dating/doclove_600/666_doc-love-deal-with-a-breakup.html

He's been writing for Askmen for about 10 years now.

He is lame, his articles suck, but I do know for a fact that he makes money. How much, I don't know, but, nevertheless.

Being a syndicated writer on such big sites and making money from readers going to your site is also a great way.

That is, for the most part, on how article marketing is actually done.

Writing crappy, short articles for the purpose of getting backlinks is ridiculous, at best (sorry guys).

Another way article marketing is still good, as you already know, is to sell a line of high gravity, high commish products, and then write a slew of, GOOD, INFORMATIVE, articles for article dumpsters, like Ezine.

Have one site for each high-commish product (10 products, 10 sites).

Write an article for each product, wait about a week, or so, or when the traffic goes down, then write another article.

The affiliate may not get that many readers on any one particular article, but he will still make money due to the "volume effect."

Have X amount of such articles out there on high-commish products, and, well, it adds up.

Just curious, did ya post over at WF on what you have noticed???

 

Interesting comments Perry. I wander over the WF now and again. Might have an account but I've long forgotten what it is. While it seems like there are gems to pick up here and there over there, it seems for the most part it's a giant snare for newbies and the uninformed. Warrior Special Offers...buy my ebook...and then the hordes proclaim it is great. Bought one several years ago, thankfully I think it was only around $10. What a waste of time and money.

Seems like most over there are making money, or at least claiming to be, through affiliate marketing and squeeze pages. The real money making as far as I can see over there is the selling of "my way to strike _____ gold" guides, ebooks and courses.

Their BST area is like a wasteland of get rich quick articles written 50 different ways and limited release PLR packs. Michel Fortin's old forum seemed better but I never really spent too much time there either.

Like I said originally in this thread, I've never been a fan of the whole article directory concept. I didn't post my findings over there. Figured there's no point really. With such a strong guru and sheep mentality over there I figured it would be a bigger headache than it was worth. Ironically, for once I thought DP would offer a better chance for a real conversation rather than getting strung up for going against the "gods". Glad to see it's turning out that way.

Did get a few ideas from last night's reading that I might try SEO-wise but the article marketing one is one that I keep resisting. I wondered if my personal dislike for the concept was allowing me to miss out on a way to increase traffic. Will be interesting to see if your biggest fan adds something to the conversation in the morning. I would honestly like to hear his views on the subject, assuming he can remain civil.

 

Professional article marketers ("super affiliates") agree on one thing: article marketing doesn't increase traffic (in the sense of getting thousands of hits), it increases revenue; the purpose, the main goal of article marketing is to make money.


This has nothing to do with article marketing, but I noticed on your site that you copywrite. Is that right?

If so, I think you just might love this site:

http://www.makepeacetotalpackage.com/

It's a site started by an A-List copywriter with articles from equal A-List copywriters.

When I first stumbled upon that site, it took me, literally, 4 full days of reading and discovering links to other great stuff.

The interviews are especially good!

You can learn a lot, and get excited just from reading those alone.

The link is titled "interview," and it is under the section, "View Posts By Subject."

My favorite copywriter is Carline Anglade-Cole.

She has got to be one of the best writers out there.

Look to the right of the site and under the section, "View Posts By Author."



Her site is http://www.carlinecole.com/default.htm

Some of her her writing, along with her Controls are insanely good.

Another good copywriter to follow is Gary Bencivenga. Read his articles, and the interview on him also.

Here's his site that has more of his free advice. http://www.marketingbullets.com/archive.htm

All combined, we are talking almost a week's worth of reading and studying.

All of this is a copywriter's course in itself.

 

"Article Marketing" has turned into a huge industry of BS and people trying to make money from clueless noobs. It can work if you do it right but running around and putting articles on Ezine and other directories is a waste for anything but backlinks..
So you put an article on Ezine; for a week 300-100 people a day read it that would probably equal about 3-20UVs a day from article directory readers=fairly worthless. And this is going to be average realistic hits on your average article directory. Then after a week you article falls off the pages and is lost in Ezine maybe once in a while a SE will pick it up but odds are 97-99in100 that no one will click on your link. So you wasted an hour of your life writing an article for 30-100UVs? If it is your first article you get a backlink after that multiple backlinks are not worth anything.

Yes, I know all these people will say "you just need to know the secret bla bla" What Ever.. it is the same game put an article on a directory and you will basically get the same results no one cares about your creative heading, special key word, etc. So I read crap like this then I put the peoples url in google and it is just full or Ezine and other article directory articles. I call BS. They have a worthless site, a few low-grade backlinks, an e-book worth less then a roll of toilet paper and they think they are a "Guru"?

Real Article Marketing the article marketing before it become the latest fad/spam people will seek out valuable sites in their niche contact the webmasters and make arrangements to get an article published on it. This is worth something because you get targeted readers reading your article on a reputable website. But this takes time you have to make connections in your niche, contact webmasters, etc, you can't just dump off a spun article in massive text dump. People don't want to spend 3-10hours of time(maybe more) contacting people and work to get one article published and they don't want to spend the money finding a reputable well know writer with connections in a certain niche so they waste time running around playing on massive article directories. But that's good I like seeing people waste time on stupid stuff, It keeps them away from my stuff.

 

Thanks for the input. Yes, I've visited Clayton's site and there is ton's of great stuff over there.

My interest in this topic wasn't related to copywriting though. I was exploring this as a way to help build up several of my MFA type sites. I hate calling them that because unlike most MFA sites, they have unique and quality content but we do share the goal of drawing clicks. My sites are kinda in a strange place - not authoritative enough to get the notice of the big players in the niche and of higher quality than the hordes of other sites competing for clicks. The idea of blog commenting or exchanging links with much of the spun and stolen content sites in those niches goes so against my grain. I'm just trying to explore some alternatives to diversify my backlink profile and hopefully get more traffic for those sites. Article directories seemed a possible option for those sites but not something I would ever pursue for my writing business.

I didn't say it yesterday but I also wonder how many of these gurus are actually in cahoots with these article directories. What a great scam/strategy, to get people to fill the directory full of free content to monetize.

 

Naw, don't want to punch you in the mouth. Many of the large craft companies do accept project submissions and articles. Your idea isn't bad if the sites in question were in the arts and crafts niche like my directory but they're not.

 

Exchanging links for the purpose of ranking high is not my gig, so I can't offer much help other than the idea below. You're gonna want to punch me in the mouth for saying this, but I think it is all just overrated.

Are you sure those article directories actually helped the sites that are now ranked high?

I don't know, but I'm betting not.



Like I said, I don't know if you are already doing this, but, maybe write for high-ranking sites?

Maybe revamp your favorite site you want to make ad revenue from to make it more of an About Me site so other webmasters can look at it.

Or have an About Me page.

Put in about a dozen or so of your best tips for others to review you, along with a couple of profile pictures of yourself.

Maybe portray yourself as a consultant?

Having a title helps greatly.

Oh, she's a consultant. She must know all about this sort of thing.

Next, query sites that are ranked high to see if they would like to carry your articles (or...Crafty Quick Tips) on a regular basis, and, of course, showing your pitch page.

I see some good sources on this search page:

http://www.google.com/#hl=en&sugexp...arts+articles+tips+&pbx=1&fp=5fc6e4edb7c346ed

Even writing for http://www.michaels.com/, which is on page one of that search could be an option.

(Don't forget to do the same on MSN and Yahoo.)

I'm not sure if they have articles on that michaels site, but it doesn't hurt to suggest the idea to them.

Hence the idea of having an About Me (pitch) page.

After awhile of getting to know one another and submitting your content, make a suggestion of exchanging links. That way you can also include your other sites. That is, if they are on the same subject.

I think this is really the only true way to do it anyway.

You could try to find such sites that have a link exchange program. Like this, as an example http://www.davesdaily.com/coollinks.htm

But it's very hard to find them.

Don't forget to try to pitch to About.


Anyway, good luck with it.


EDITED: lol sorry about that, some bad links, and I also had to do some editing.

I'm a writer nerd. ~

 

Interesting how you editing your post plopped it below mine. Don't think I've seen that before.

Oh, Perry, c'mon, the expert wizard himself said the quality of what you write on forums doesn't matter.

 

I completely agree with most of what's being said in this thread. If you want backlinks solely to rise in the SERPs, it's much easier to say blast a site with forum profiles links. It could take hours to write decent content that will entice people to read it all, read the bio, and click the links. It's awesome when you set up a review site for the first time and write some articles on ezine or another article directories and get a sale after a while but it's not permanent or much traffic. In that case it's better to set it up on your websites that receive more traffic and are more targeted than article directories. Or like you said YMC, to look for websites that will allow you to publish an article if you send them an appealing e-mail.

 

Funny! how can a crappy article gets through ezine?

 

Many webmasters obtain articles and then rewrite them. They strip off the author links and then post into blogs or websites. This is a big factor for articles not scoring so well as it used to do earlier.

 

A good article written for the intent of offering something useful to others will create readers to seek you out. They will Google Your Name, Product or whatever to find you. Not having the links there do suck, but it takes the prospect through a mental game of "I want it, but I can't have it"

In my opinion, for whatever its worth, I think the quality of content you provide will determine the number of quality backlinks and so on. I use articles to market and I do okay.

Take a look