Everything You Need To Know About Article Marketing
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By :
A.J James
Submitted
2009-08-17 11:41:14 |
There are a lot of people using article marketing right now and the majority of them are missing out on some fundamental gains, simply because they don't know exactly where to turn to find out the right information.
In this article I'll endeavor to tell you everything you need to know about article marketing in one foul swoop and leave you needing nothing at all to succeed other than your own commitment.
It's the best method of building high quality back links and traffic to your website or blog and for this reason I believe you need to learn the 9 fundamentals of Article marketing
The Nine Fundamentals Of Article Marketing
1. Pen Names
If you want to appear knowledgeable in a niche, it's hard to do that when you write on a hundred different topics, so the key is to use a pen name for each specific niche you are targeting, that way you can build credibility in one area and maintain it in another.
It's hard to look exceptionally well versed in more than a handful of related subjects as it intimates that you are just writing to produce articles rather than to relay the depths of information contained within your years of experiences.
If, however you are looking to build your name as a big brand then you may want to take the opportunity to put your name in as many places as you can and adding your moniker to a ton of articles can help.
2. Page Rank
It matters, but so does you ability to recognize directories that are up and coming, because they may have future value and that's something that would be good for you to put your name to. Imagine being the number one author at a top 5 directory?
So, whilst page rank is important and you are going to benefit more from adding good content there, remember to look at the professionalism and nature of other up and coming directories, because you might be able to make their top ten list a lot easier.
Also, just because a directory has a PR 7, it doesn't mean your article will. Page rank is "page" rank, ergo it is the value of a particular page only, although if you look to boost the value of your best articles (which I recommend), you may get to Pr 1 or Pr 2, faster and your articles should definitely get indexed.
So look for high PR directories, but also cast your eyes wider, looking for others with potential.
3. Give Real Information
I can find a page fast, but I can click off it faster. For this reason I leave so many directory pages so often, that I never knew the directory's name, let alone the author.
There is a lot of garbage information out there from article marketers looking to build links from quickly constructed articles, but these do get some links, yet they will yield NO TRAFFIC!
When did people lose site of this?
Traffic is more important than links isn't it?
If you have 100,000 links but no traffic, that is pointless, but if you have 500 links with a ton of traffic then you are onto something. The fact is we all want links for posterity's sake, but by writing good, well thought out articles (like this one), we will get the best of both worlds.
Real, useful information builds followings, short pointless blurbs build links - Only one of those build an income.
4. Link Value - Understand It
If I know nothing, I know this - The search engines have certain must do qualities that mean any other alternatives would be insane. For this reason I can estimate certain things about links and how to value them.
A link is valued by a few different measures; The page rank of the given page, the total amount of links on said page and the total amount of words per link.
This is the one most people miss - Words Per Link
How this works is the search engines must value a page for it's content and as it can not genuinely value the content, because it is a computer program, it knows certain inalienable things, such as more content is more value, less content is less value.
So.....All things being equal an article with 200 words is not as valuable as an article with 800 words. For this reason we can make some fantastic assumptions.
*It's just as valuable to write a brilliant 900 word article that is a real valuable piece than to write 3 x 300 word articles with little value.
*The link from one 900 word article will be worth more than 3 links from 3 x 300 word articles, because there will be less out going links on one page than three. (I hope you understand that one as it is fundamentally important).
Let me be clearer:
One page will have less outgoing links (on average) than 3 pages. Outgoing links dilute the value of every other link on a given page. Because of this and the whole words per link value, we could assume that :
If the average page has 20 outbound links, and you have one link from 3 x 300 word articles, then the formula would be something like this....
{300(words) x 3(3 pages)} divided by {20(links) x 3(3 pages)} = 15
That means the collective value of 3 pages with 20 links each (one of which is yours), and 300 words each, has a collective value of 15 points.
Now - With a 900 word article:
900(words) divided by 20 = 45, so the collective value of the single link is 45. That's a lot more than 15.
The conclusion - A 900 word article is better than three 300 word articles. 45 is better than 15 right?
*This is all great incentive to produce quality content.
5. Unique Content - Yes or No?
If you're wondering about mass submitting the same article, think again. Not because of duplicate content, but because of the fact it would ostensibly be a waste of your time. Google takes duplicate content and only counts the link from the strongest page, all the others eventually get de-indexed, so it really is a waste of time.
It can also make readers a little angry when they keep searching the internet for a subject an the same article turns up on ten directories, Google knows this and has taken measures to stop it.
Unique content can make sure each article you use in your article marketing campaign is indexed and counted, that's exactly what your really want right? As for mass submission, there is one way in which they can get you a bevy of back links, but it involves a practice that I don't really like....
.......Spinning!
6. Spinning - to Spin Or Not To Spin?
That is the question. Of course if you've ever read spun content, you'll know at absolute best you'll get "just" readable content and at worst you'll have incomprehensible garbage, so why can it actually help you?
Well, there are ways of mass submitting one article which is spun and delivered to over a hundred directories, each receiving a unique copy which passes the whole duplicate content issue and means one article could net you a hundred backlinks. This is very tempting.
As a way to build a ton of links it's great, but you'd better hope that you don't get too be a huge article marketing star as you wont want to put you name to most of the articles you would be submitting.
If you're really careful, you can take extra time a produce a worthy article that even when spun, gives some genuine value to the reader, I think if you do this it's not really unethical as the only thing you're changing is the wording, the basic information stays the same.
It's up to you?
7. Respect The Rules
If your name is Mr S.P AM then don't bother because most of the good directories wont let you past the front gate, unfortunately some of them are using the automatic approval system, this means that anything gets through and it only gets vetoed if other user report it.
Remember in order for you to get the most out of a directory you want it to have great standards, the higher the better, because the better your links will be valued in the eyes of the search engines, so if you find a "spamtastic" article then report it and by all means get it removed, I've noticed many people having trouble getting their articles indexed in Goarticles, because they have become a little too relaxed about getting rid of bad articles and the search engines have given it a wide berth, which sucks for me who has hundreds of articles there.
Play fair and play by the rules
8 Get Indexed - Boost Them Links
It's not enough to just submit your articles, you need them to be indexed or it's a fruitless, pointless, loveless, hopeless exercise and we don't want that do we?
It's important to social bookmark your articles from the best directories and get some links heading the way of those articles. This will have a 2 prong effect:
*1 It will mean the search engines will find your article via the links
*2 It will mean your article will be more valuable because it has backlinks pointing it's way (yay!)
The best way as I aforementioned is to use social bookmarking where you can get good dofollow links (The Best Kind) and definitely get all your articles indexed.
9. Don't Just Get PR Links....Make Them
I've just explained how you increase the value of an article by getting some backlinks to it, but you can continue to do this and build the PR of those articles until your site has some pr 2-3-4 articles pointing at it and that is super valuable.
The key is to pick your 20 best, highest quality articles and NEVER stop building links to them, even 1 measly link per day from a new social bookmarking site to your articles would mean 365 per year. you could have some really great PR links and that's something to consider?
Another little useful tip is to bookmark your profile page on these directories, because if the search engines come to the page, they'll see all the links on them (your other articles) and follow them.
It's really easy to find new social bookmarking sites and it only takes a few seconds to submit an article, especially with toolbar submissions like Spurl, Searcles and Reddit.
My Conclusion
Don't leave it to chance because your competitors likely wont. Make sure you follow these 9 fundamentals of article marketing to the bone and you will definitely gain backlinks, traffic and interested, loyal readers and that's the real goal here isn't it?
Hopefully you stick at it and put the hard yards in now, because on the other side (as in the future, I just realized that the other side seemed morbid) you could be reaping the rewards of intelligent, well researched and thoroughly ethical hard work and I wish you best of luck, hoping that I have given you something of value in this article.
Everything You Need To Know About Article Marketing by AJ James
More on article marketing:
Secrets Of Article Marketing
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everything you need to know about article marketing
fundamentals of article marketing
article marketing secrets
internet marketing
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