Hi, I wanted to know if any of your do article writing or press releases. Do they actually bring in sales and if so what's the best way to go about it?
I have written articles in the past and posted them on goarticles, ezinearticles, ect. If you are talking in terms of 'bum marketing' methods I guess it is somewhat effective. I probably got about 1 sale every 2 months for each article. This was with minimal effort in my landing page and articles. I am sure for many it could be a lot more effective. I am seeing a lot of it on squidoo now; so I say that's probably the way to go at the moment. I think if you enjoy writing about boring subjects it would be a hell of a lot easier.
I have had outstanding success with writing articles. last year I would have them written for me, but found I had better success writing them myself. The articles help me get ranked well on the search engines for both articles and blogs. Also when using ppc I could use it for my landing page. I haven't used ppc advertising in quite some time until just the past couple of weeks. I found that a good keyword driven article posted to a well set up blog would give me lower costs per click better page position and more sales I have gotten an extreme better return on my investment by getting organic rankings. My site is there 24/7, and I get more targeted traffic from the organic side rather than the sponsored side. To your success. Paul
Yeah article marketing still works. You can use blogs, article directories or even forums (not in many cases) to do sales.
It is important to make sure that the article is keyword driven, and not being over stuffed with keywords. That is why in the begining I had the articles written for. Also it helps to make sure that you have a unique article as well as a search engine friendly blog that is set up correctly for the keywords. There is an art in doing this To your Success, Paul
articles as well as news posts I normally target both large sites and smaller sites. example toprpgamesites.com is new and offer free news postings right on there front page with engine friendly links this helps greatly with back linking as well. Tj
I <3 article marketing always and forever. Haha. Really though, my mindset is providing people with the information that they've been looking for, and subtly edge them to my site (since my site will have more of what they're looking for), which leads to sales or at the very least they'll sign up for my mailing list, in which I provide them with free e-books and even more free information
I have had a bit of success so far with article marketing. While it depends on the site you submit the article to, an important thing is to write the article in a way that intrigues the user to want to learn more, and thus complete whatever action you're going for, whether it's signing up for your mailing list, clicking to your full review/landing page, or just buying the product outright. I definitely recommend looking up some good information on how to SEO your article to have the best chance to show up in organic SERPs as this could easily determine whether your well-written article shows up on page 1 or page 10. Otherwise, there's a lot of info out there - like someone else suggested, the "bum marketing" concept was originally explained by Travis over at http://www.bummarketingmethod.com and contains a lot of useful "launcher" information about how & why to use article marketing to drive sales from smaller niches. -T
I'm experimenting with article marketing with one niche at the moment. The idea is to write and submit a number of articles a month with the aim of get as much exposure as possible. I'm not doing any PPC for this niche and hopefully we can see some good results. Will keep you guys posted
I've been putting on my writing cap a lot lately with producing original articles and tutorials for my Squidoo lenses. I used to write a lot from 1995 to 1999, for pleasure AND profit. 2000 onwards I deviated more into honing my fledgling web design skills. Now I've come full circle. And finding now more than ever that Search Engines love original content.
Original content is the only way to go. You stand a much better chance at getting a good page ranking by the search engines I have done very well with this and have made up to $500 a day article marketing with my blogs and I love it cause its like generating sales on autopilot once you get a good article or blog ranked. Paul
I've had a lot of success with articles. I am really happy with them. Not only do they bring in loads of traffic when you target them for search engines, but they also bring in one way inbound links. I usually go for about 4%-6% keyword density.. I alternate between articles.
I've written articles for my own blogs, and hired freelancers when my workload was too heavy. I also have a good friend from my 'pre-blog' days that offers an article writing service..the details are in my sig. He has a group of pro journalists in NYC that write the articles and his rates are competitive, by NYC standards. (if you want 'cheap' you can certainly find it. His writers are certainly worth the cost.) And yes, articles and current content are critical parts of successful affiliate marketing. Whether you use a pro service or write them yourself, you should add content to your site frequently and keep the traffic flowing.
Without a doubt articles can lead to sales. They can help in getting your site ranked higher in the search engines and they will lead people directly to your site on their own. The only thing is it usually takes a while to generate the traffic. So you ohave to just keep at it. Don't write one article and wait for sales to come in. The key is getting original content out there. If you can count on one sale an article per month your set. Stavra
Article marketing works really well as long as you are willing to put in the effort to write quality articles. One of the biggest problems I've faced is trying to write quality content, when I'm not intrinsically a great writer. I've recently started outsourcing the writing to others, but clearly this is an expensive option. One thing I've learnt the hard way, is make sure you go for native English speakers or that you've got strong evidence that the work is of the right quality. I've had a number of articles written that are clearly by non-English speakers that have had to be heavily edited. I'm always on the look out for good writers, so PM me with your rates and examples if you'd like some article writing work!
Nyah (and others), You are exactly right about quality being the key to effective articles. If you are submitting articles or placing them on your site, your intent is for individuals to read the piece and then visit your website. Sloppy articles or "articles" that are really a mess of keywords rearranged by programs or unprofessional writers can possibly hurt your site as it may be the first sample a potential customer gets of your material. You must have high-quality material to bring in high-quality customers. Yes, it can be expensive, but if it begins generating ongoing sales with minimum maintenance, isn't it worth it in a long term cost analysis? Rebecca
If I write an article or press release that is published in several place, does Google consider all but one as duplicate content and credit me with just one link?
Ronredlich, There are mixed views on what Google counts as duplicate content. Of course nobody but google actually know the truth of the matter. From my own perspective I would say multiple copies of an identical article would be seen as duplicate content and only one copy is likely to be recognised and effectively ranked.
I believe have thrashed out this point clearly well. Imagine the Internet, the search engines and even this forums without articles!!! What would the results be? I leave the rest to your imagination.