5 Things You Always Wanted To Ask About Article Marketing

By Rocky Tapscott

Article marketing is most probably the most effective link building strategy in existence. Picture it this way. Article directories allow you to include a resource box for every article you will submit.

Inside this resource box, you could include a link to your website. 

If you will submit just one article to 100 article directories, you’d immediately receive 100 back links to your website. There are thousands of article directories in the World Wide Web!

Now, if you will submit, say, 5 articles to a hundred directories, you’ll get 500 back links easily! 

The best part about this strategy is that quite a number of article directories have high page ranks. We’re talking about PR4, PR5, and on occasion, PR7 websites! 

Having a link to your own website in a website which has a high page rank would give a significant boost to your own pages’ search engine standing!

All seems rosy with article marketing, but as with everything else, there are doubts as to its real nature.

Let’s have a no hold barred, truly in depth discussion about the matter, by asking the questions you always had in your mind but had no opportunity to set loose.

Question 1 - If I submit the same article to many article directories, won’t it violate a search engine’s policy against duplicate content?

It might, but it's not a problem. Since we’re dealing with high ranking websites, the search engines may assume that the submitted content is their original work, and even if they don't, it's the traffic and link back you are after. 

This is the reason why a lot of article directories are pretty confident about the articles they display. The problem that they encounter, really, is with regards to the credibility of their services. 

They don’t want to be known as a repository of junk content, that’s why they have outlawed the posting of PLR (Private Label Rights) articles as well as articles containing affiliate links.

Question 2 - Does this mean that I could submit articles which I have already posted in my own web pages?

No you shouldn't do this! 

Since the search engines could assume that the higher ranking websites are the originators of the content, your web pages would be distinguished as duplicates, and this could possibly lead to the de-indexing of your website. You wouldn’t want this to happen. 

Question 3 - Could I submit as many articles as I could to as many article directories as possible?

Yes, you could! In fact, this is the best strategy for article marketing, to build up your link popularity and secure for your website a great page rank. I use ArticleMarketer.com to handle my article submissions - I submit the article to them once and they send it out to thousands of publishers. 

While not all of them will publish my articles, I get the widest possible coverage for work I only did once. That's leveraging my time, which I can spend on other things

However, please bear in mind that search engines, and Google in particular, become quite wary about a website that suddenly experiences a great increase in the number of its back links. 

It is advised that before you submit another article to the article directories, you have to wait for at least 3 weeks after your last submission.

Question 4 - My page views are quite low. Does article marketing really work?

Yes, article marketing does work! If your article’s page views remain in low levels, ask yourself the following:

a. Is the subject of your article interesting enough? Does it cater to a wide audience?

b. Is your title enticing enough to merit a reading of your entire work?

c. Is your article informative enough to merit recommendation to others?

d. Is your article readable enough to give your audience an easy time in digesting the information you want to share?

These are the factors that contribute to low page views. Doing some necessary editing to correct these problems can dramatically increase the number of times your article would be viewed. 

Additionally, some article directories really only attract a few visitors. But the popular ones like www.ezinearticles.com, www.goarticles.com  and www.isnare.com should give you hundreds of readers in a month’s time if the topic you write about has broad appeal.

Question 5 - How sure am I that my article would be kept intact by people who would use it in their own websites or eZines?

You can never be sure. This is why you have to run your own check from time to time. 

Search for unique phrases in your article, and click on the results. Determine if the webmaster honored your resource box. 

If he did not, you could ask him to include it or remove the article, or you could file a complaint with the article directory so that they themselves could act on the matter. Most people are honest and you won't have a lot of problems, but of course, vigilance is the key.

Bottom Line: Don't worry about things that you can't control, worry about what you can control. Write great, informative articles, put a compelling resource box at the end that leads people to an optin-form for a Mini Course or newsletter, and you should find a growing number of people joining your lists and courses for a long time to come.

Here's a typical resource box from one of my articles - feel free to model it for your own niche market and Mini Course...

About The Author - Rocky Tapscott is the author a free 7 Part Mini Course How To Build The Perfect Home Based Business Around Your Favorite Hobby, Pastime, Sport Or Skill which uses 6 real life case studies to show how others have used a proven system to build profitable businesses around their favorite hobby.

Drop by http://www.hobbyandlifestyle.com/ecourse.html to grab your free copy.