I've just discovered article submission sites. On the face of it, it seems like a really good play. I've been writing stuff on the web for years and could probably submit 200 quality articles without writing a single word, though editing and submitting is time-consuming. I put two up on ezinearticles.com and got about thirty hits in a week, but that only got me a single hit to my website. Before I make a major investment of my time, I'd appreciate feedback from anybody who is doing this. Obviously the content of the article is important: I'm just looking for a ballpark figure in terms of articles written-traffic generated for your website. Btw If someone can provide me quality data on this issue which checks out, I'd be happy to use your affiliate link or links as payment. Don't try it on, I'm not naive about these things.
with ezinearticles the hits received on your article will be mostly from publishers looking to publish your content. A while after some publishers have published your article you will start getting valuable relevant backlinks to your site which in turn increases your chance of climbing the search engines..
This is just my own personal opinion on automatic article submission. Now I haven't written anywhere near as long as you have, but my experience with 2 different automatic bulk article submissions is that I haven't really received anything worth my time for them in the end. One thing that's always stuck in my head is that every article director is different. Some will not allow you to have anchor text in your resource box. Some submissions forms don't have a specific box for your resource box. The list goes on. Not only that, I have my doubts if any of the articles I submitted through these sites actually were published on the directories it submitted. I've heard that article directories have been starting to reject automated submissions. That and further examination of one particular article submission site I used had low quality article directories, some not even existing anymore, etc. This is just my experience mind you, I'm sure there are better article submission sites that will really help you get your articles out there, but personally I'll stick to manual submission to article directories I know are active and well.
I still think it's valuable to research sites that you want to host the content and contact them personally. I have had tremendous success with that, where I end up chasing publishers that use my content from ezinearticles and won't maintain the backlinks (find them thru Google Alerts).
These responses suggest I might well be wasting my time? Is any one doing well with this currently? I already do the manual submissions thing, but its tough getting people to host content in my niche, and they are very protective about other links. Ho-hum.Thanks for responding anyway.
I played with article submission for a bit but I got next to nothing in return other than a couple of clicks so I gave up. With duplicate content filters these sites are only good for a bit so if you want to continue receiving links you have to keep writing and submitting articles all the time; it is not a one time thing. If you already have 200 articles, then I suggest that you focus on making them keyword rich (maybe target some long tail keywords) and then post on your own site. 200 pages are plenty and with the proper SEO, Google will be happy to send you some quality traffic. That is just my opinion though and your mileage may vary.
I think the most valuable aspect of submitting articles is the anchor text. I ran several tests and was able to rank web pages for keywords that only appeared in the anchor text of articles (and not on the page itself).
Let me chime in to the common rhyme here: I have not gotten anything out of it. There is certainly some benefit, but the time it takes to write a good article can be spent better. Hey Tyler: Whats up with the avatar? I have seen it many times around.
It's a new link building service from Aviva and V7N: http://www.avivadirectory.com/downloadblog/?p=240
Advanta - you will only do good if your articles are highly valuable information to mass. I have written quite a few articles - most of them only bring BLs - but couple of them brings steady traffic. Because the information is interesting plus the articles are interactive - not just read - click and done. It is read, type click - enjoy. One thing I have learned from this experience - your article on your own directory - have interactive stuff on the article and you will have people flocking to your site again and again. Click the first link in my sig and you will see what I mean by "interactive article"