I’ve been engaged in article marketing (under my name, pen names and for my clients) for quite some time – and frankly, I’ve become a bit disenchanted with it lately.

I am wondering if anyone else is feeling this way, too?

The biggest challenge I find is that the sheer volume of articles you need to submit to article directories to gain any traffic moment is steadily rising. I first wrote about this last September: (see the full blog post here)

Don’t just take my word on this. According to an email update from EzineArticles.com publisher Christopher Knight:

Each year, it takes more high quality articles to attract the same traffic level that fewer articles attracted just a few years ago. Most likely this has to do with an increasing content supply in the marketplace while the growth rate for the number of humans going online is slowing. The only way for any of us to stay ahead of this trend is to constantly increase your article inventory.

Definitely something to think about, isn’t it?

This certainly benefits the owners of the article directories – after all, larger article inventories means more organic search engine traffic – and more potential for ad revenue. I can also see where it isn’t as much of a concern for writers and online publishers who have already amassed a large body of work.

However, this trend definitely hurts small business owners and online publishers who are already struggling to find enough time to keep up with their content creation demands. They have to create more and more content to achieve the same level of results.

Where is the “win” in that?

Fact is, when you submit to article directories – your work is up against hundreds or even thousands of other articles on your topic. Unless your articles are picked up by other publishers (thus building valuable backlinks) – the value you derive from each article is limited to the actual click-thrus from your resource box to your site.

Of course, if you do your keyword research and the article happens to rank well in Google – you may do okay with it. If not? Well, then… better luck next time.

Which amounts to a lot of wasted effort

Another major challenge with article marketing is that not all publishers give proper credit for your work in the form of bylines – and more importantly, backlinks. It’s really frustrating when this happens – and sadly, I’ve personally encountered this too often.

What’s worse is when someone puts your work through an article “spinner” and it comes out looking like JUNK – with your name still attached to it!

Yuck!

(What makes it even “better” is when they leave my full author’s resource box and it says “I am a professional writer…”) And yes, cleaning this stuff up is your responsibility – so you’ll need to decide if it is worth your time and energy to pursue it.

What I Plan to Do Going Forward

I’m all about getting maximum value from the time I invest in something. Therefore, here is how I plan to promote my content going forward:

• Focus much more heavily on guest blog opportunities than article marketing. I track my site stats very closely and can say with 100% certainty – traffic numbers from individual sites linking directly to my site FAR exceeds what I’ve gotten from the content I’ve submitted only to directories. (In fact, I recently joined a cool community called MyBlogGuest.com which helps bloggers find – and post their own – guest blogging opportunities).

• Use SubmitYourArticle.com to submit my content. The reason is that they submit each article directly to hundreds of individual web site owners and ezine publishers – rather than just to the article directories. There is a monthly fee for this service, but it saves me a ton of time over trying to submit articles by hand and it greatly extends my reach.

I’ll keep you posted on how these efforts go. In the meantime, I would love to hear how article marketing is working for you – so please, leave a comment below!

Til Next Time,

PS I accept guest blog posts here on Web Copy Results – email me directly at trish [at] webcopyresults DOT com if you are interested. (I am also available to post on your site, as well).

The way I see it – I need to step up my game in three main areas if I want to maximize the results of the 90-Day Content Marketing Challenge (and beyond, of course).

These opportunities for improvement are:

1. Increase Social Networking efforts
2. Achieve more wide-spread content distribution
3. Identify additional forums/blogs and get involved

In other words – I need to do a better job at content promotion.

Because I write for others, it is probably not all that surprising that creating the content itself isn’t my biggest challenge (although finding the time to write as much as I’d like is an ongoing concern). Instead, carving out the time and making a concerted effort to find an audience for that content is where I sometimes lag behind.

My goal with this site is to build something real and long-term – and hope to find an audience/build relationships through the work I do here. I strongly believe this process needs to be a two way street – you need to give back as well as hope to benefit. Therefore, I struggle the most with #1 and # 3 – because with my current workload, I am unable to spend as much time on those activities as I feel I need to. (Plus, I am the first to admit I am a bit of a Twitter dork – I think it is fascinating (and I know it helps my business and this site) and one of these days I really do mean to master it… will probably be after all the really cool kids have already moved on to something else, though.. ).

The forums are a challenge, as well.  I really enjoy the main one I belong to – and have found a certain comfort zone there. Plus, there is more valuable information available there than I could ever possibly absorb. However, I need to identify at least one or two more in order to reach a wider, more diverse audience.

The second opportunity for improvement (wider content distribution) is simply a matter of execution. The 90-Day Challenge was set up to include 3 articles/week to 25 different directories. It takes a lot of time to do that manually – and if it comes down to that activity or a paying project… guess which one wins? (For that matter, if it comes down to submitting articles manually and… just about any other activity… guess which one wins?? ) The content is created and is on a number of directories – but not all articles are on 25 different directories as yet.

(Speaking of article directories, I AM glad I structured the Challenge this way because 1.) it is giving me great material for the free report on Article Marketing/ top article directories I will be offering to my eNewsletter subscribers in a few weeks and 2.) I’m feeling a review of article submission services (not software) and/or virtual assistant options coming up, as well! ).

Of course, there is no way to create more time and because of this, there will always be limits to how much we can accomplish in any given day. However, I do believe there are things we can each do to become more efficient, more productive and get the most return on the time we invest into our online content creation and marketing efforts.

A good first step to achieving these objectives is to take stock of what is currently working for you and where your own opportunities for improvement might be. What can you do different or better than you are right now? Is there one area you can work on that would make an immediate positive impact on your business?  Grab a pen and paper and write those things down. I think you’ll find that identifying what specifically you need to work on is more than half the battle.

Once you know your target, at least you can aim in the right direction.

Til Next Time,

PS Be sure to sign up for the WebCopyResults.com Tuesday Tips (sign up box in the upper right hand corner of the screen) – subscribers will get my upcoming free report on article marketing and the best article directories!

Private Label Rights (PLR) articles are a popular choice among many time-starved Internet publishers. What could be easier than gaining access to dozens or even hundreds of articles at the click of a button? There are a lot of services out there offering PLR articles. Some offer monthly memberships where you get access to “X” amount of new articles each month, while others allow you to purchase articles in topic-specific bundles on a one-time basis. Many offer significant bonus packages as an incentive to try their service. (I personally prefer being able to buy PLR articles on an “as-needed” basis vs. via a subscription – if you are the same way, be sure to check out EasyPLR.com).

As with most things, there is a right way – and a wrong way – to incorporate Private Label Rights articles into your Content Marketing campaign.

By now, you probably already know the wrong way to use Private Label Rights articles. Simply adding them to your site (or worse, submitting them to article directories) “as is” is a really bad idea for a number of reasons.  If you try to resubmit one of these articles under your own name (or pen name)  “as is,” you will most likely run into plagiarism issues and risk getting your account terminated (and having all your other articles on that site pulled).

Beyond that, I can almost guarantee that the Private Label Rights articles you have received have already been indexed by the search engines – so even if they are accepted by article directories – you won’t get any SEO benefit from them. Same with posting PLR articles in their current state on your website. They won’t help draw search engine traffic for this reason. (Although they may add value to your readers by offering more relevant content while you are fleshing out your site).

Plus, there is the whole ethical thing about claiming work as yours when you don’t have exclusive rights to it.

However, as I’ve mentioned in previous posts, Private Label Rights articles are a great way to infuse your own writing with inspiration.  I often pull ideas from 2 or more articles on the same topic to come up with something completely unique and fresh. This can be tricky as it can still take a fair amount of time to accomplish.

I know of some publishers who simply “massage” the articles by rewriting the original paragraph and tweaking it a bit here or there. I personally would be careful with this approach – and wouldn’t rely on CopyScape alone to check my work. I heard Chris Knight (publisher of EzineArticles.com) say in an interview that they pull two complex sentences at random from the body of each article and run a Google search on them. So, if you only ‘moderately tweak’ an article and leave a number of sentences from the original version – there is a very good chance it will be caught.  If you do want to try this approach, I recommend you place the article on your own site where it might get indexed and offers value to your readers even if it doesn’t.

Other ways to tweak PLR articles into something fresh and new is to translate the content into entirely new formats.  For example, pull tidbits from a few articles to create a compelling FAQ page – or you could tweak each article and repurposing the content into either an audio or videocast. (This site is very 2005 in that it doesn’t YET incorporate either audio or video – but I promise I am very aware of the how much I need to spice things up! )If you are already using audio and/or video on your site – imagine how easy it would be to convert PLR articles into something even more compelling with the technology you are already using.

One final thought – when using PLR articles (or any information from an unknown source) – do yourself and your readers a favor.  Verify the accuracy the information presented. I recently opened a PLR article on real estate that started with “The real estate market is red hot right now…”  Further checking showed the article was written in 2005 – but was sent as part of a subscription in May 2009.  (Yes, I canceled that subscription on the spot).  So, consider how ‘evergreen’ your topic is and be aware of when the article was written and what might have changed in the world since then.  Also, a quick check of facts will help save your hard-earned credibility with your audience in the long run.

Til Next Time,

PS I rambled on too long about PLR articles to dig into hiring ghostwriters. Be sure to stop back Monday for more on that topic.  Or just sign up for the RSS feed and have it delivered to you automatically.  Have a great weekend!

PSS If you are looking for a great source of PLR content – be sure to check out EasyPLR.com. This site offers articles, eCourses, and special reports on a wide range of topics.  All packs are sold in limited quanitites without requiring any ongoing subscription.  You can get started immediately for as little as $5!  Check it out!

There is little doubt that “Content is King” when it comes to online marketing. This often-repeated mantra is used by old-timers and newbies alike because… well, it’s true.

A major key to long-term success in Internet Marketing is providing lots and lots of fresh, valuable keyword-rich content that provides benefit to your human readers and feeds those search engine spiders.

The challenge, of course, is to continually create and distribute quality content on an ongoing basis. Sounds great in theory, but not always so easy to translate into reality.

I talk all the time here about the need to develop and adhere to a content publishing schedule – even if your actual production doesn’t always meet the goals you’ve set for yourself. What’s important is that you continue to add content on an ongoing basis.

Starting now.

This is true because as more and more people recognize the need for content to drive their online business – more and more content is being created.

What does this mean to you?

As time goes by, you personally will need to create more and more content in order to make the same impact that you can today. Don’t just take my word on this.  According to an email update  from EzineArticles.com publisher Christopher Knight:

Each year, it takes more high quality articles to attract the same traffic level that fewer articles attracted just a few years ago. Most likely this has to do with an increasing content supply in the marketplace while the growth rate for the number of humans going online is slowing. The only way for any of us to stay ahead of this trend is to constantly increase your article inventory.

Definitely something to think about, isn’t it?

Yesterday, I talked about getting back on track if you’ve fallen behind schedule with your Content Marketing publishing schedule. The rest of this week, we’ll take a closer look at effective ways to get more content – and how to avoid some common pitfalls along the way.

Til Next Time,

As I go through the process of submitting articles to 25 different article directories (and reviewing the ins and outs of each of them) – I realized that one of the most valuable things I could share with my readers would be a single up-to-date report offering a synopsis of each article directory with all of the quirks and nuances spelled out in one place.

I can’t tell you how many hours I’ve spent so far gathering information, reviewing submission guidelines, opening new accounts (where necessary)* and submitting work to each directory – I figured my experiences with this could be used to save you some valuable time down the road.

*Note: I updated my list of article directories at the start of this project. I kept many of my tried-and-true, go-to resources, of course, but I did add a lot of new ones to the list. (I had deleted a number that used no follow rules, were challenging to work with or were too industry specific for this challenge).

As the 90-Day Content Marketing Challenge unfolds, I am keeping detailed notes on a number of factors I plan to include in this report, including submission guidelines, policy re: the use of affiliate links and/or anchor links (vs. exposed URLs), length of time til approval and being indexed by Google, reporting and statistics provided (how many page views, publisher requests, etc…), and other details that will save you time and effort with your Article Marketing campaign.

For Example:

• Would you be interested in which directories review your work within 72 hours vs. the ones who tell you it will take 15 – 30 days?  (The 72-hour article directory actually had my work published – and indexed by Google – in less than 24 hours. In addition, they have a high Page Rank, allow anchor text links and are very easy to use). In my book, that makes them a great resource!

• Or, how about which ones will ONLY accept your first run work – meaning you have to publish with them FIRST before you can submit your work to any other directories? Missing this detail in the submission guidelines could get your account terminated.

• Or, which directory is showing non-functional links for a set of articles I submitted to them in June? They are showing as active and viewable, but when you click on the links, you get an error message that the page no longer exists.  My emails asking for clarification have been bounced back as undeliverable. This is actually a pretty high-ranking site that normally gets kudos for being SEO-friendly (but not if they don’t show your work!)

• Or, which directories are challenging to navigate and submit work to?  You would think that every directory would have a clearly marked “Submit Articles” feature on their site – but they don’t. In fact, it took me nearly 45-minutes to figure out how one site expects you to submit articles.  Frustrating! But, it is a high-ranking site and might be worthwhile for your efforts for a couple of reasons.

At any rate, I will launch this report at the end of the 90-Day Content Marketing Challenge because I want to provide as much detailed information as possible in the report and this will allow me to compile data from a sizable submission list (nearly 40 articles) to 25 article directories. I should also be able to report on traffic and (some) back link results by then.

If you have additional suggestions for what you’d like to see covered in this report, just let me know!

Til Next Time,

P.S. I plan to offer this intiial report FREE to my email subscribers for a limited time.  Sign up today!