Hi, I just see so many article sites out there..Even I want to have one.. What I want to know, that is there any money left in the so called article directories or site. I am really interested in starting one. However, I have a few doubts in mind. Firstly, how to market such sites?? Secondly, if my site becomes, one of those thousands of article sites, why will any visitor come to my site, instead of going to the more popular ones. Please help me, I am really interested in starting a article directory. Thanks a lot.
I'm guessing the competition for a general article directory is going to be tough. There are the select few well known names that everyone knows about and then there are the thousand and one others. The only way you could compete in a general article directory is to attempt to create a better service or more unique. Personally I think what you should do is go for a sub category - there's lot's of room for a well done niche article directory. For example Political Articles or Cooking Articles.. etc..
Thanks for the lovely advice bigmack but, how can a general article directory be unique. ok, it can have a specific niche..but it wont be unique..any ideas? Thanks.
That's the hard part.. finding your unique spin on things... Off hand I can think of a few.. maybe contests and awards, added benefits such as media attention if you have the right contacts.. etc.. It'll take some time, but there's a ton of ideas that you could come up with, just take a look at some of the top sites and how they work, then try and put your own spin on things. Like I said though, I'm sure the competition is fierce in this area
There are two drawbacks of article sites: 1. Approving articles is time consuming. Once the site starts growing , you will receive a lot of spam. 2. It is almost impossible to get unique content for an article site. Most people who submit to 3-5 sites will go for the popular sites like ezinearticles.com If you think you can overcome these two drawbacks , then you should surely try it out.
I suggest you do the following: 1) Find a list of high PPC keywords/topics. Here's a good free source. 2) Pick a niche that is not too saturated but has a decent payout 3) Build an article site that deals with that niche. Use Overture's keyword selector tool to find related topics and make those the categories for your niche. 4) Find the best articles for this niche. Contact the authors and ask for follow up or subniche articles. 5) Partner up with niche-specific blogs and get their permission to publish their feeds.