Most Internet Marketers understand the importance of article marketing as a means of creating valuable backlinks to their sites. And most of them also do a pretty good job of either writing those articles or having someone else write them. But today I'd like to talk to you about where you're submitting your articles because that's one of the most important steps in article marketing.
How Much Are Those Backlinks Worth?
A lot of marketers believe that the more directories they submit to the more backlinks they'll get and that's true to a certain degree. It only makes sense that, if you have 2 links back to your site in your resource box and you submit your article to one directory, then you're only going to get 2 backlinks. So if you want 200 backlinks then all you need to do is submit you article to 100 different directories.
But once you start submitting to more than the first 5 or 6 high ranking directories, like Ezine and GoArticles, etc, those backlinks that you're creating start to lose value. When you use an article submission program or service, and they tell you they'll get you thousands of backlinks from just one article, that sounds pretty good, until you start considering where those backlinks are coming from.
First of all, most of those submissions services only submit to 2 or 3 or the high PR directories. The other 1994 backlinks are going to come from places like joesarticles.com and mylistofrubbish.net. Your article may very well be posted on one of those sites but who's going to see it? Most people, when they're searching for articles go to the high PR sites first to find what they're looking for. And if they're doing a Google search for an article, the higher PR sites are going to be the ones they get back in their search results, not those little directories that no one has ever heard of.
Now I'm not saying that you shouldn't go after as many backlinks as possible, but if you're spending extra time spinning an article a few hundred times so you can continue to submit to these unknown directories then you need to look at what kind of return your getting for your investment of time.
It's nice to have 2 or 3 thousand backlinks coming into your site but Google and the other search engines also look at where those backlinks are coming from and when they see them coming from those unkown directories they don't really give them that much weight meaning, after you reach a certain number of backlinks they no longer have any effect on your rankings.
If you're spending a lot of time or money on article marketing then you really should be looking at your stats to see where the bulk of your traffic is coming from and see if the extra money you're paying for a submission service and the extra time you're spending spinning is really worth it.
What's The Alternative?
Start consistently submitting articles to EzineArticles or eHow or GoArticles. If you use a submission service or a program, check to see what directories they're submitting to. Chances are, they're either submitting to thousands of unknown directories or they're submitting to the top 5 or 6. But they very seldom do both. Which means if you switch submission services regularly you're not consistently submitting to the higher PR sites.
You need to establish a presence on these higher ranking sites because any backlinks you develop at those unknown directories can be easily beat by your competition. All they have to do is publish their article at Ezine or GoAriticles and yours is instantly bumped down the page. And if they publish enough, yours will disappear completely. You might have 2,000 backlinks pointing at your sales page but if they're all on the second page of Google and back no one is going to see them.
Become The Authority On Your Niche
Those who are most successful with article marketing consistently publish to the same directories over and over again until they've built up a backlog of articles in their niche. If you're using a service that just sends your article out willy nilly, you have no idea where it's going to end up or if it's even going to be accepted. But if you focus your efforts on just a few quality directories then you'll be able to edit your articles and improve your content until you know they'll be accepted every time. And once that starts happening people will see the quantity of articles and the quality of your content and you'll become the authority on that topic.
Another Benefit Of Article Marketing
We all look at article marketing as a way to develop backlinks but you can also use it as a source of additional income. For example, eHow is one of the higer ranking article directories and it's very easy to write and article and have it accepted there. And eHow, like most directories, makes it's money off of the advertising they have on site. But they also share that income with the people who write the articles. And some people make a very good living off of doing nothing but submitting How-To articles all day. You can get more information about eHow's Writer's Compensation Program here.
But think about it, what if you were to have a whole series of How-To articles, relating to your niche, published on one directory, like eHow. Most directories have an index somewhere on the page that lists the author's other articles. If someone liked the article they were reading and then saw that you had a few dozen more, they'd think you must really be the authority in your niche. And of course, you'll have links back to your site in your resource box.
And when you're articles are on a site like eHow, who pays you a share of their earnings, if the reader doesn't click on the link in your resource box, chances are they're going to click on that Adsense link when they leave the page. So now you not only have 2 backlinks to your site in that article, but you're also earning additional income with it. Imagine if you have a couple of hundred articles out there.
Another site that pays you to submit your articles is Xomba.com. The great thing about Xomba is that it's like blogging. Your posts only have to be 150 words long. Of course, you can make them longer if you choose, or you can just post more often. Xomba is another site that pays you a portion of their ad revenue and you can also include affiliate links in your articles.
When you publish to sites like eHow.com and Xomba.com, and several others, you're getting all the benefits of article marketing – you're getting the backlinks to your site that will help with your traffic and rankings and you're setting yourself up as an authority in your niche. But you have the added benefit of earning money with your articles. Money that you could use to pay for that article submission service you've been using every month!
