10 Steps to Article Domination
10 Steps to Article Marketing Domination
Submitting articles to third party sites in order to promote your website or build back links is one of the oldest methods of interest marketing. It has fallen from favour in most internet marketing circles in favour of press releases. This is largely due to the abuse of this method of internet marketing by internet spammers
However, done properly it can still deliver highly effective results. Here is how and how not to do it:
1. Write Useful Content
Submitting your article to an article directory will get you 1 link from that directory but the aim is to write something sufficiently interesting that bloggers will pick up on and want to republish extracts from on their site. If they do this in a gentlemanly manner they will acknowledge the source thereby both helping you build your brand and gain you a further back link.
2. Duplicate Content Favours No One
Much article spam involves writing 1 article and then using an article distribution service to submit the same article to many separate article directories. Yes, this will get you a whole load of back links as most of the low quality directories will publish your duplicate article but the search engines can detect that the links originate from mass distributed articles and from our experience this can actually hinder your search engine progress. One article to one article directory. A simple rule to follow.
3. Place your Back Link Appropriately
Since the aim is usually to build back links as well as promote your brand make sure that you include a link back to your site in the Author profile of the article. Some article directories permit a limited number of links in the body of the content. Where this is allowed always do it as unfortunately half the people publishing extracts from your article won’t bother to quote its source.
4. Choose Your Directories Carefully
When engaging in article marketing you should choose a select number of article directories to submit to. In terms of seo you want to make sure that you maintain a balanced link profile and so do not want a disproportionate amount of article directory links in the mix. We favour submitting articles for an individual site to no more than 20 article directories. Our favourite 5 are:
ezinearticles.com
www.goarticles.com
www.articledashboard.com
www.articlealley.com
www.buzzle.com
www.articlegold.com
5. Set up A Google Alert
To make the most of your efforts you need to track who is republishing your article. If they don’t credit it to you then don’t be afraid to contact them and point out that as they have republished your article they should credit you as the original source. You will find most people will then add a link back to your site. There are two ways to track your article. Either set up a Google Alert or purchase credits at CopyScape . Either service will enable you to input your original text and track who has reproduced it.
6. Don’t Use Spinning Software
A common shortcut is to use spinning software to rewrite an article multiple times. Don’t do it. Your article will in all likelihood still get accepted into the article directory but no one is going to feel the desire to quote from or republish what is clearly spam as it won’t add any value to their site.
7. Don’t Put Your Article on Your Own Site
This may sound odd at first. After all if you have gone to the effort of writing good quality material to submit to an article directory then why wouldn’t you want to put it on your own site? By doing so you run a serious duplicate content issue. Many of the article directories are indexed by the search engines multiple times each day. Your own site may only be getting indexed once a week. If they pick the content up first on the article directory then chances are they will see your site as a republished version of other people’s content. That won’t count in your site’s favour.
8. Good Grammar Does Count
Before you submit your article take time to check your spelling and your grammar. It may surprise you but good grammar and spelling does still count. Remember the aim is to maximise the chances of third parties picking the article up and republishing it. If the website is of the sort of quality you want picking up your article bear in mind that they probably do care about grammar and spelling.
9. Become a Guest Writer
Many websites will encourage people to submit guest articles for publication on their site. These sites will often be of good quality and the perfect place to have an article. You can find such sites by using a search engine and the appropriate search queries. Try searching using search queries like the ones below (replace the keyword with whatever is relevant to your site’s niche):
• Golf clothing “looking for writers”
• Golf clothing “submit an article”
• Golf clothing “contribute content”
• Golf clothing “contribute to our website”
• Golf clothing “contribute an article”
10. Boost the Link Juice
Once you have submitted articles to the main article directories a good tactic is to then build some links in to the page where you article is. The article directories are themselves very strong websites but the link back to your site is only of minimal value because it is unlikely to have any links pointing in to it (hence why you need third parties to pick up and publish the article too). So boost the strength of the link by building some readily available links to the article page. A good way to do this without spending money is to set up pages of social bookmark sites such as Wet Pain or Squidoo and then link from those pages to your articles.
Following the above do’s and don’ts will take what may seem a “has been” way of internet marketing and super charge it!
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Posted in alivewalls, blog, search engine optimisation, seo