ARGH! I give up on article marketing!!

Discussion in 'General Marketing' started by UrbanMonk, Mar 22, 2007.

  1. #1
    After checking over my stats and so on, all the duplicate content issues have really pissed me off. My own article doesn't show up in Google, instead an article directory ranks first for my work...even in the similar results list my own site doesn't show up. Plus only 15% of my traffic came from article marketing anyway...the rest came from forum sigs?

    But my blog has only been up for a month, and I've only experimented with article marketing.

    What would you guys suggest i focus on? My blog has all original content written by me - I have nothing to sell, I am monetizing it via Adsense and Affiliates so all I need is a lot of traffic and a good reputation in my field (Personal Development?)

    I'm thinking of focusing on social bookmarketing? Blogrolls? Any advice would be much appreciated...I just wasted an entire month experimenting with article marketing.
     
    UrbanMonk, Mar 22, 2007 IP
  2. ez-online-money.com

    ez-online-money.com Peon

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    #2
    Sorry to hear your bad experience with article marketing.

    If you truly do not want to have anything to do with articles, then I suppose all you can focus on is your blog. Update it on a regular basis, use 'tag and ping', and perhaps comment on other related blogs.

    Of course take what I say with a grain of salt, because article marketing is my main form of advertising.
     
    ez-online-money.com, Mar 22, 2007 IP
  3. Stealer

    Stealer Peon

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    #3
    Well I suggest stop getting content that is the same. ( even when I ad-lib someones words from another forum/article I have the goodness not just copy and paste that is not what posters get paid for. I re-write the whole thing so it's completely new content. I would make sure to post this. That you want fresh content no copy and pasting and if people do do that not to pay them21
     
    Stealer, Mar 22, 2007 IP
  4. adamjthompson

    adamjthompson Well-Known Member

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    #4
    Well, i would suggest that you not give up yet on article marketing - try this:

    Don't post your distributed article on your site...write one article for your site. Then write a second article on the same topic to distribute, and include a link to your homepage, and the article on your site.

    ~Adam
     
    adamjthompson, Mar 22, 2007 IP
  5. pc_user

    pc_user Notable Member

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    #5
    Did you say a month? Anyone with any experience online would tell you that's not nearly enough time to judge any article campaign. Fact is, articles should be part of a much larger campaign which should include PPC, CPA, Affiliate Marketing and SEO work. Too often people assume that any one thing is that silver bullet.

    Don't assume you will get sales from articles, that just doesn't work and don't trust automated submissions or other service providers. Fact is, you get what you pay for. Don't expect to invest $10 in articles and get $500 in sales.

    My advice, create many more articles, test content types, test response rates and give it time, don't give up and keep pushing forward, yeah, corny but true.
     
    pc_user, Mar 22, 2007 IP
  6. zorde

    zorde Peon

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    #6
    Writing articles is a slow and steady way to build credibility which leads to traffic.

    It is time consuming.. like blogging.
     
    zorde, Mar 22, 2007 IP
  7. UrbanMonk

    UrbanMonk Peon

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    #7
    Well my blog is just free personal development material and all my posts are like 2000 words long, they take days to write so I guess you can understand why I don't want to write 2 versions of 1 article!

    So far I don't get much traffic from my articles...but my blog has only been up for a month..I think I will focus on SEO work and bookmarking, and then go back to submissions...

    How abou tthis, since I write 2000 word posts, I shall only submit the first 500? I've been speaking to Sean Mize who writes a lot of article marketing material and he says that's not good enough to avoid duplicate content penalty.

    So
     
    UrbanMonk, Mar 22, 2007 IP
  8. adamjthompson

    adamjthompson Well-Known Member

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    #8
    That won't really help much. Just write a 300 word version of each article to submit.
     
    adamjthompson, Mar 22, 2007 IP
  9. zinruss

    zinruss Notable Member

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    #9
    Well said. Visitors read articles because they are searching for info. Information is the key here. I believe they will visit your site if you can offer them something unique.
     
    zinruss, Mar 22, 2007 IP
  10. jbladeus

    jbladeus Peon

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    #10
    15% of total traffic from articles aint that bad really.
    Articles shouldnt be your only marketing ploy, but should definitely be part of the larger mix.
     
    jbladeus, Mar 23, 2007 IP
  11. trafficnotice

    trafficnotice Peon

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    #11
    I think people who read blogs don't like 2000 word posts. You might want to setup a site that has some onger articles (the 2,000 word ones) and some sorter ones (200-350 words) as blog posts.

    BTW, article marketing hasn't worked for me either and I gave up a long time ago. I do better focusing all my energy on developing content for my sites and waiting for Google to send traffic.
     
    trafficnotice, Mar 23, 2007 IP
  12. webmasterlabor.com

    webmasterlabor.com Peon

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    #12
    If forum direct and link marketing works best for you, stick to that. Also, it would help if you put in around an hour daily for link exchanges.
     
    webmasterlabor.com, Mar 23, 2007 IP
  13. bluegill_catcher

    bluegill_catcher Active Member

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    #13
    I strongly agree with those that say, you have to give it more time, at least a year to really see results. I have been submitting articles by hand to roughly 30 different sites including ISnares own submission service almost every morning since last August.

    Since last August I have submitted roughly 83 different articles by hand. I sit back drink my morning coffee and enjoy it. Some of the articles were written by me on subjects I enjoy, which are also related to my website(s) content, while the majority of the articles were written by article writers for me.

    Over this 8 month period of heavy work, I am slowly seeing my backlinks increase, my search engine rankings looking better, and a nice but slow increase of traffic, nothing spectacular..... but from what I am seeing now, I can't wait to see my overall stats a year from now. :)
     
    bluegill_catcher, Mar 23, 2007 IP
  14. UrbanMonk

    UrbanMonk Peon

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    #14
    thanks for all the support everyone...

    webmasterlabor.com, what do you mean link marketing? Doesn't link marketing simply mean link exchanges?
     
    UrbanMonk, Mar 23, 2007 IP
  15. webmasterlabor.com

    webmasterlabor.com Peon

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    #15
    Link marketing = using your anchor text in forum posts.
     
    webmasterlabor.com, Mar 24, 2007 IP
  16. Binko

    Binko Peon

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    #16
    I think you should give article marketing more time.

    Perhaps you suffer from duplicate content issues?

    Google already thinks it's enough content on the internet so it's now removing duplicate content from it's index.

    Duplicate content should not be a problem if you write your own articles but if you use PLR articles you should re-write the articles (about 30% of the articles is recommended).

    Make a few versions of your articles and alternate between them when you submit them to article sites.

    You can find software that calculates the difference between articles.
     
    Binko, Mar 24, 2007 IP
  17. UrbanMonk

    UrbanMonk Peon

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    #17
    hi Binko,
    sorry for the delay in reply...
    how is dup content not going to be a problem if i write my own stuff? I think it is causing troubles for me exactly because I distribute it!
     
    UrbanMonk, Mar 26, 2007 IP
  18. adamjthompson

    adamjthompson Well-Known Member

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    #18
    I think you are correct. You just have to be sure that you distribute different content than what you publish on your site.
     
    adamjthompson, Mar 26, 2007 IP
  19. sparkling

    sparkling Peon

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    #19
    hi ... I am a reader on your site. Infact i have had you bookmarked for a few weeks now. Do you know why? Because i love your writing.
    Infact, i didnt know it was you all stressed out about article submit. I was almost half way through reading this post, when i noticed it was you.
    Personally, I think you just need to keep writing your articles, ..... if you keep updating your site constantly and growing gradually, I can bet you will succeed. Its just a matter of time.
     
    sparkling, Mar 26, 2007 IP
  20. UrbanMonk

    UrbanMonk Peon

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    #20
    sparkling, thanks for that...it really encourages me! really!
     
    UrbanMonk, Mar 26, 2007 IP