Hi, I've been reading various posts on digitalpoint and have gained some additional insight into marketing my reviews website (http://www.ebreviews.com). However, I need some help seeing the big picture. What's the point of directory submission? From my understanding, most directory submission doesn't generate raw traffic, but rather increases your PR ranking? What benefit do you get from high PR ranking? I read a post where someone said it doens't help with ranking high in search engines What's the point of writing articles? Are articles for generating direct traffic? What do you write about? just general things related to your website, and with a link to your website at the bottom? Are press releases similar to articles? Leaving SEO and PPC aside for the moment, how do i generate raw traffic? If the above two techniques, directories and articles, have the main purpose of increasing PR, then what method can I use to generate direct traffic? Your help would be greatly appreciated.
Directory and article submission will get you backlinks. The only difference between them is that you will get more traffic from your articles than the website directories (unless Yahoo! directory). Raw traffic can be achieved by social bookmarking sites like del.icio.us. Digg.com also directs a high amount of traffic to the news sources.
I always thought that directory submission is just for the link, nobody should honestly expect any traffic from link directories. A one-way link from a high PR directory helps for SEO. Writing articles is the pinnacle of free advertising, for me at least. I write about topics related to the niche I am in usually. A link to your site in the resource box generates raw traffic as well as a link for SEO. Aside from building links, people who own websites or ezines may like your article and reprint it, and they are obligated to include your resource box with your link intact. Also writing articles gives you the appearance of an authority in your field. A good deal of raw traffic for me comes from forum postings. I've yet to try social bookmarking or anything related.