How Article Marketing is Significantly Increasing My Income (Part 3 of 5)

The never-ending question: article marketing – does it work, or not? Wanting to create more passive income, I decided to give article marketing a REAL try. The following are results so far (this is Part 3 of a 5-part series).

Following are more of the sites I’m consistently submitting articles to. I chose them because they had good PR and Alexa rankings.

What are PR and Alexa rankings? For explanations of these, as well as details on the beginning of the experiment, see the 10/26/06 post on InkwellEditorial.blogspot.com.

11. SubmitYourNewArticle.com: This directory has a PR rank of 4 and an Alexa rank of 62,309.

You must create an author account to submit. They approve your account pretty much immediately.

The submission process is a breeze and the site offers article stats, primarily, how many times the article has been downloaded, how many times it has been sent to friends, and how many articles you’ve submitted (a tracking feature).

POST CONTINUED BELOW
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12. Amazines.com: This directory has a PR rank of 4 and an Alexa rank of 16,710.

I love the ease of this site. Once you create an author account, you can start submitting. They also have a bulk submission feature, which allows you to submit more than one article at a time. This site also has a tracking feature, so you know what you submitted, and when.

One of the coolest features of this site is that it shows you how many articles are in each category. For example, as of this writing, the WRITING category had 1,090 articles, while EZINES has only 25.

If it’s a toss-up as to what category to submit to, this can be a handy guideline.

13. GoArticles.com: This directory has a PR rank of 6 and an Alexa rank of 2,407.

You must create an author account to submit here. A really progressive feature of this site is the feed they set up for authors (many directory sites now offer this). This makes it easy for readers to get your content.

This site also has a tracking feature so you can keep track of what you’ve submitted. And, it provides individual article stats (how many words the article is and how many times it’s been downloaded), but you have to click on the author’s name to get this information.

In my opinion, this is a bit odd because it took me a few minutes to figure out how to find the article stats.

But hey, with its Alexa and PR ranking and the sheer number of articles (almost 300,000!), it’s a site you can’t afford to overlook.

14. Isnare.com: This directory has a PR rank of 5 and an Alexa rank of 5,323.

I love the ease of submission of this site – once you create an author account. BUT, it takes a while for them to approve your article for publishing – unless you use their paid submission feature (Platinum account).

Eg, I submitted an article on 10/19, and as of today (11/1), I’m still waiting for that article, and subsequent ones, to be published.

What does their Platinum account include? Among other things, article distribution to over 40,000+ publishers and hundreds of article directory sites for a fixed amount per month ($59.95). I have to say, it seems like a good deal – especially when I consider the amount of time I'm spending each day just submitting to 25 sites manually (about two hours).

If you're busy, this is a huuugggeee chunk of time (see what I do for you guys?!). Once I finish my little case study (on 11/18), I will be looking into paid submission software/services, and this is one I’m seriously considering.

Besides the absolute horror of manual submission, I'm considering using this site's submission service because it has a testimonial from a name I recognize and trust, Jenna Glatzer, Editor-in-Chief of Absolutewrite.com.

15. NetpreneurNow.com: This directory has a PR rank of 4 and an Alexa rank of 49,423.

This site can be a bit confusing when you log on, eg, where is the “Submit Article” button? You have to click on Article Directory (left hand side of home page) and then you see a link that reads “Post a new article.”

You don’t have to create an author account to use this site – tres cool! BUT, it also doesn’t offer any tracking features or article stats. So, you’re on your own here (eg, get out your article tracking pad and resign yourself to submitting and forgetting).

You’ll have to check your server logs to see if any incoming traffic was generated from articles posted here.

What are server logs? Basically, they are reports you can get from your web host that tells you where visitors from your site came from, eg, a click from an ad on Google, a link from an article on IdeaMarketers.com, etc.

Again though, as this site has good rankings, it’s worth it to submit.

COMMON PROBLEMS WITH ONLINE ARTICLE MARKETING

Delayed Publishing: Many article directories take days, even weeks, to publish your content. This is a double-edged sword. On the positive side, ostensibly, it means that articles are being reviewed and there is more quality content out there; eg, less garbage on the web as a whole.

The negative is that it takes longer to get the word out about your product/service. So, figure this into your marketing timetable if you are rolling out a new product/service.

Tracking the Effectiveness of a Directory: It is highly unlikely that you will have time to do this with any degree of detail, unless you have major chunks of time on your hands. As noted throughout this series, some directories have tracking features and provide article stats, some do not.

In my opinion, time would be better spent targeting highly trafficked directories, submitting to them, and judging the “overall progress” of your article marketing campaign “over a period of time – eg, a month, a quarter, half-year, etc.”

BE IN IT FOR THE LONG HAUL

I once read an article that said, especially with Internet marketing, it’s not the immediate results you’re after (although I have been pleased with this aspect of my little campaign so far), but the long-term benefits of establishing yourself as an expert.

Once you establish your abilities and your trustworthiness –- and this comes from prospects seeing you in many different places across a period of time – it will be that much easier to make the sale.

As with any business venture, article marketing can garner profound results, but it takes time and effort, effort and time, to get the long-term rewards.

WHAT’S GOING ON WITH THE MONEY?

Holding steady at about 2.5 times what I was making (per day) before I started this experiment.

READER QUESTIONS
As I've been getting quite a few inquiries from readers, I will devote Monday's (11/06) issue to answering all of them. So, send in yours.

In the meantime, be sure to catch the rest of the case study. I've been an online marketer for a while and am learning a lot! As a matter of fact, I will be conducting a similar study with online groups/forums/message boards next (details coming after 11/18).

Stay tuned for Part IV tomorrow.

P.S.: Send in your questions. So we all benefit, I'm trying to wring every bit of useable data out of this experiment that I can. As with any study, it's input from many sources that yield the best results.
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