All Entries Tagged With: "authority"

Is Article Marketing Changing?

Change is inevitable. It will always happen. Even article marketing is affected by change. So, yes, article marketing is changing in some respects, but fundamentally it is still the same as it has always been and always will be.

How then is article marketing changing? One way that it is changing is that Google has stopped passing link juice from article directories. But that’s not so much a change as it is just common sense search engine management. Too many article marketers were using the article directories as spam repositories instead of going about it the right way. The links you really want are from the websites that will pick up your article and publish it on their website or in their e-zine.

Another way that article marketing is changing is that many webmasters have started writing and publishing articles that specifically target one website. That way, they can get their link in a high authority website within their niche and it’s a website of choice. Plus, they control where their article appears and they have more control over their reputation.

Those changes withstanding, however, article marketing is still basically the same as it has always been. The benefits are the same. The reasons webmasters do it are the same. You are building your credibility, driving traffic to your website, and building search engine benefits by acquiring link juice. Otherwise, article marketing, like everything else, is in a constant state of flux.

Is Google Penalizing Article Marketers?

Every now and then I get a question about Google’s policy of discounting links from article directories. Is Google penalizing article marketers?

The question stems from a fundamental misunderstanding about article marketing. Article marketing is not about getting links from search engines article directories. It never has been about that. Rather, article marketing is about building links from other websites, building your authority and credibility as an expert in your niche, and driving traffic to your website. If you do it correctly, that’s what will happen. You don’t really need that link from the article directory.

What you want to happen is for your articles in the article directories to get picked up by publishers in your niche. If you write good articles that deserve to be published, those articles will be published by other bloggers and webmasters. When publishers use your articles, you’ll get your coveted links from that, but you’ll also get the traffic from those publishers’ websites. In addition to those search marketing benefits, you’ll be building your reputation as an authoritative source within your niche. That’s what article marketing is about. Don’t get shortsighted about links from article directories.

Should You Buy That Article Marketing E-book?

In the past couple of years I’ve noticed that there are more and more e-books being published about article marketing. They range in price from $20 to $100. Some of them are good, but most of them just rehash what other books have said. If you’re new to article marketing and you’ve never done it then you might be tempted to buy the e-book. Even some veterans are tempted to buy them. But should you?

I can tell you everything you need to know about article marketing in about five minutes. That’s how really simple it is. The hard part is actually doing it. Nevertheless, here’s the gist:

• You need to write a lot of articles. Not just one.
• Keep your author resource box short and the links to a minimum (one or two)
• Make sure you optimize your article around a single keyword
• Don’t write more than 700 words
• Write at least 400 words in every article
• Self promotion within your articles will kill your credibility
• Distribute your articles widely
• Immediate results are almost non-existent
• But it shouldn’t take forever to see results either
• Ensure the highest quality of relevant content in every single article

That’s about it in a nutshell. You know the benefits: Traffic, links, SEO, authority. Now go out and start writing and distributing articles.

The Best Way To Market Through Articles

I was asked recently if I thought article marketing is dead. No, I don’t. But it has changed and will continue to change.

In the print world, if you want to get published then you write an article specifically for one publisher and send that articles to an editor. It is either rejected or used. That way, the publisher gets an original article by a professional writer and the writer can expand his influence. I believe article marketing online is moving in that direction.

What does that mean in terms of link building and traffic building for your website? I think it means a number of things:

• First, the link building aspect of article marketing will still be there, but it will mean fewer links that are more valuable.
• It is also more likely that you can reach more people and get more traffic through this means of article marketing. You can target websites in your niche that are highly trafficked and that have high authority. It will mean greater control over your content, but it will also mean you can build better relationships with people in your niche.
• Your own authority as a recognized expert in your niche will be more easily expanded as well. If you have an article published on a highly trafficked authority site then that will bode well for your reputation.
• The downside is if you are not a good writer or you have a bad reputation then article marketing will be more difficult for you.

None of this is to say that article marketing will die. But many of the article directories that are now online will fall by the wayside, either from disuse or because the owners grew bored and moved on to something else. A few popular directories like EzineArticles, GoArticles, and ArticlesBase will stick around to serve a specific need for e-zine publishers and webmasters who still want a quick way to find valuable articles. While traditional article marketing may diminish in importance over time, it will never die. Change is good; embrace it.

Need a premium article for your targeted article marketing campaign?

The One Thing Most Article Marketers Miss

The single most important thing to remember about article marketing, and the one thing most article marketers aren’t doing, is to provide valuable, unique actionable information in every article your write.

That bears repeating:

provide valuable, unique actionable information in every article your write

When you provide information in your articles that people can’t find anywhere else, where you drill down deep and give your readers explicit information that they can use right now, today, in their businesses and in their lives then you’ll be successful with article marketing.

Your information must contain these three characteristics:

• Relevance to your niche – If you write outside of your niche then don’t expect your articles to be read or published. The point is to get published so you can drive traffic to your website. Writing off topic won’t make you an authority in the niche market you are trying to reach.
• Authority – You must present yourself as an authority on your subject without looking as if you are patting yourself on the back. The way you do that is by writing about your topic intensely, with passion, and accurately on a level that your competitors are not able to reach.
• Search-engine optimized – The better you are at optimizing your articles the more likely you will be to get them published.

When you become a recognized authority in your niche because you are able to reach your market through articles then you’ll be well ahead of your competition.