Article Marketing : different levels
I think we can define different levels of article marketing.
The first few levels are for when you try to write articles to see what kind of feedback you can get.
The middle levels are when you try to get some leverage, build your reputation, your business.
The upper levels are for serious article marketing. It will help you get more traffic to your site, and brand yourself as a serious marketer.
First, here are the "basic" levels. These are for articles appearing on on Social Marketing websites, written by members, without any kind of approval. You write, submit, members can read it. It can take between 1 minute and 30 minutes to write, sometimes more if you do it seriously and look for serious recognition and feedback.
The basic levels
- The ad : you will have a link, sometimes anchor text, sometimes simply a banner, nothing more. That's ultimate laziness
- The short paragraph : a notch better, I find it sad when people comment saying "great info", "very interesting", I guess many write these useless comments to claim the credits if the article was in a campaign
- the blatant ad : can be one paragraph or more. No personal experience, no pros and cons, only hype about programs that will make you money easily
- The "People love links" article, with not much text, instead there are truckloads of links not even hidden behind anchor text. In a way, I prefer the first level to this one, cause here, our intelligence as marketers is not much respected.
The informative articles
These are written with the intention of giving good information on all kinds of subjects. In my opinion, this is the real entry level of article marketing. A link is ok, maybe even a couple, as long as they are relevant.
That type of article can promote things. Some prefer to write articles than create RevPages. It takes less work, and you can get results. A RevPage has one obvious advantage, though. You can use it on Traffic Exchanges. An article would not be taken seriously on TEs, in my opinion. Just like we don't see blogs very often as splash pages.
Most ( all ? ) Social Marketing sites allow members to write articles. Sometimes, they are called blogs.
Articles that make money
There are sites where you will make money writing articles. Some examples are Triond, Bukisa and WikiNut.
These sites have advertisers. Many also have Google AdSense ads on their pages. In some cases, you put your Google AdSense account in your profile. That makes 2 ways to make money. The more views your articles get, the more money you get paid. You also get paid for the clicks on the AdSense ads on the pages where your articles appear.
Unfortunately, many people join these sites for the money. You will see one-paragraph articles, without much research, if any.
In some cases, the approval system is a script which checks for links only.
So your articles get approved fast. It also means low-quality articles sir alongside yours.
To make more than a few cents per month, some sites have a referral system. The more articles the people in your downline write, the more money you make.
Honestly, I can't see the point of these sites if you are a serious marketer.
Serious article directories
Now we're talking about trying to get recognition for your expertise and knowledge.
The best article directories are what you should aim at, if you want to be recognized as a good article writer.
Let's take EzineArticles. It is recognized as the best article directory. Here are some reasons why :
- Real approval system : your article submission is reviewed by real people. It can take up to 7 days to know if your article will be accepted, i.e. published. Ii learned that a good trick is to write many articles, that way, you will be taken more seriously. Also, the article must impeccable, i.e. no grammatical mistakes, syntax must be ok.
- Professional writers submit at EzineArticles, so when you're recognized as an expert there, it has more value.
- No blatant advertisements or over the top hype. The articles must be informative or entertaining.
- The only link allowed is in the signature
These reasons make EzineArticles a good site for search engines.
Because of its popularity, many people submit articles there. That's one more reason to explain the delay before approval.
There are other directories just about as good as EzineArticles.
A word about article spinning
I guess you've heard of the concept. You write an article. Then, since serious directories accept only original material, i.e. that appears first on their directory, there is a big market for software called article spinners.
These spinners take your article and and create new versions by changing a few words, placing sentences in a dfferent order, and other techniques. Since the job is not done by a human, it's highly recommended you edit the spinned versions. Else, you can be sure the directories will recognize it was not written by a human and reject your submission.
Some creators of this type software say it does such a good job that editing is minimal.
I can't say if it's true or not. I have never used one.
Some people might say I would have more traffic if I submitted to more directories. I guess they're right.
Major Leagues article marketing
I don't have much knowledge about that. All I can give here is my opinions for the moment.
I consider two types of high level article marketing:
- For magazines, newspapers, in short, places known by the general public who don't care about anything I've written so far in this article
- Forums for serious business people
I won't give examples for the first type. Everybody knows what I mean.
The 2nd type, I know one site, it's the Evan Carmichael forum. There, you will have an audience of hundreds of entrepreneurs.
To be seen as a serious article writer in such a place, you better flex your article writing muscles, i.e. make absolutely sure your information is accurate. Also, the entertaining factor is essential, else, you won't get attention.
I believe that once you get recognition at such a site, it will help tremendously for branding your name.
Your sites will also get higher ranking in search engines.
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