Posts Tagged ‘article syndication’
There are plenty of places where we can learn about an affiliate marketing business, but there aren’t many places where you can find someone to do some of the hardest work for you. Well, I may not have found that elusive source of free labor, but I know that I have unearthed what is probably nearly as good.
I do affiliate marketing, although I also sell my own information products and physical products. My online business is made up of a number of traditional sites and blogs. I rely quite heavily on search engine optimization (SEO) to secure traffic, but that is a long term strategy. In some cases, I have used PPC for affiliate products with success, but more often I am lucky to break even.
So, for me, as for all Internet marketers, traffic is a very challenging part of my business. Especially difficult are those times when I have to pass on a new affiliate opportunity because none of my websites are optimized to bring in targeted traffic for the product, so I face the age old question: How do I send my traffic to the vendor’s site?
My approach to directing traffic to the vendor’s site is just like many other affiliate marketers, I take them first to my own site, where I ply my skills of subtle persuasion. Then I just hope that I have been sufficiently convincing to get them to click the link that directs them to the vendor’s site so that I have some small chance of earning my commission. I would like to make that process a bit less involved and take the prospects to the vendors a little more efficiently.
I use content syndication for all of my sites. While I get some traffic directly from the articles, my primary reason for article marketing is its SEO value, which is considerable. There are two major problems with the traditional approach to article marketing, especially for the affiliate marketer. The first of those problems is that the top tier directories that publish and distribute articles do not allow links within the body of the article, contextual linking. Instead the links stand alone in a section that they call the author’s resource box, but which screams, “Commercial!” to our readers. Second, the major article directories do not allow affiliate links or even links to redirected pages or domains.
Finally, there is an article distribution service that solves those two problems and allows direct linking using our affiliate links which can be placed contextually within the article. It’s called My Article Network–and, yes, once you are a member, you can join its affiliate program.
My Article Network is something of a cooperative that brings site owners (publishers) together with article marketers. (That link will let you know what I have to say about it on one of my sites.)
Since I am writing for affiliate marketers, I’ll cut short the presell message and let sales page of My Article Network speak for itself. I’ve been using it for less than two months, and I am a complete convert to the system. In fact, I even set up four new niche blogs to make use of the free content that my colleagues provide. {(Go ahead. Click the link, you know you want to.)(Do it! You know you want to click the link. Come on…don’t you think I deserve it?}
The amount of time, energy and talent that goes into creating content for an online marketer’s article marketing and distribution convinces some to contract with a professional article writing and spinning service. However, if you prefer to do this job yourself, here are some tips that I can offer to increase the efficiency of your writing, always keeping in mind the ultimateobjectives of increased traffic to your site and improved search engine optimization (SEO).
* Dedicate a regular time at least once a week to write articles. Currently, my weekly goal is four articles. With other writing commitments including my website, this sometimes is quite a stretch for me.
* Make a list of the special submission guideline of each of the article directories to which you normally submit. Include specific elements such as minimum article length, number of keywords permitted, whether or not an abstract or summary is required, and so forth. Make sure that your article meets all of the criteria of all of the directories to which you plan to submit your article.
* To the extent possible, write from your own experience. People look to the Internet to find answers to their questions from people who have actual experiences. Use the personal touch to begin to build a relationship and not to “sell” your product or service. Feel free to incorporate a bit of humor, if the subject matter allows it. Again, remember you want them to want more and click through to your website.
* When you choose a topic, rely on your keyword research to direct you. I try to keep my articles between 400 and 800 words depending upon the topic or subject.
* After writing your article, review the content and begin to actively search for words or phrases that will increase the “hits” to your articles. Many times I believe I have an incredibly great title. By using a key word search, I can truly learn if the title is extraordinary or just plain ordinary. For example, in a recent article I had planned to use the phrase “bulls eye” in the title. As I am a very visual individual, this word conjured up an arrow hitting a target. Inventory overture revealed 3,190 searches for “bulls eye” while the word “target” had 1,814,599. My next action was to quickly change the title to maximize this key word
In MS Word, under the Edit Button, you can scroll down to Find and enter each key word to determine if that word or phrase is included within your article. With Search Engine Optimization (SEO), using the right amount of key words is also important. An overload of key words is just as harmful as not enough key words. My strategy is to identify 20 top key words for every article and incorporate them at least one time and not more than three times into the article..
I hope that these tips will proved useful to you and that your article syndication efforts become a bit easier. Never lose sight, though, of the central purposes: traffic, traffic and traffic.
I have some hard data to share, but before I do let me provide a little context. Seven weeks ago I became a member of an content distribution service. While I don’t actually know the guy that designed this remarkable tool for online marketers, I honestly feel as if I do, because I have heard his voice on so many training videos about how to use the many products and services I have purchased from him. I’m sure I must be sending a kid of his to college, but he’s too young to have kids that age..
Due to my many prior experiences with this boy genius (well, he’s not really that young), I was confident that the service would accomplish for me what it promised: An innovative way of distributing my articles. Like any Internet marketer, I could always use more traffic, and is there anyone who isn’t on the look-out for a way to add external links pointed toward our virtual real estate? My primary approach for achieving both of these goals is distributing content to article directories.
In the past, most of my subtly promotional articles have gone to article directories, but this new network offers some important advantages over article directory submissions. For example, I can now put my links directly into the body of the article rather than assigning them to a resource box. That’s something that most article directories don’t allow, but I know that it is more effective for both traffic generation and for search engine optimization. Second, the articles go directly to websites for publication, sites that are in my niche or a closely related niche. As with the previous benefit, that helps with regard to both traffic and SEO. Third, since some of my business involves affiliate marketing, with this service I can put an affiliate link directly in the article, if I want–another thing that the article directories don’t allow. Fourth, the distribution system has a built in article spinner, so that the version of the article that each website publishes can be unique.
Let me tell you what my membership has helped me achieve in the less than seven weeks that I have been a member. Here are just a few of the highlights of my experience with My Article Network.
Now the articles trickle out to the sites, so those I’ve put into the system so far are all at different points in their publication schedule. I have submitted 58 well spun article. Over 1900 web pages now consist of my unique versions of those articles. I am allowed to insert up to three links in each article, but I vary the number of links, so my conservative best guess is that my sites singled out for promotion through this system have received somewhere in excess of four thousand links. Obviously, it will require additional time for some of those links to be noticed by the various search engine. Some of my links are actually pointed at other of my articles published on article directories and some of the sites in the system to give them a little more “link juice.”
I started a new site in a very competitive niche about three months ago, and I have directed the links from more than half of my articles toward that site’s promotion. Alexa couldn’t even find that site when I first joined this system, and now it has climbed in the Alexa rankings more than two million positions. In fact, it gets more traffic than some of my sites that have been around for quite a while. Indeed on the oldest site that I ever built (that I still own), has received no attention from me in months, but I entered nine articles into this system and that site’s Alexa ranking has improved by more than 120,000 positions. As far as I can tell, that additional traffic can be attributed only to this network and my measly efforts in writing content for distribution that is related to this niche in the past seven weeks.
I’m quite pleased with the results so far, but I have been lax in my tracking. Only six days ago, I decided I should just keep records of the results, so I set up a spread sheet. In that one week (little less) the eight sites that I have directly promoted through the service have increased a cumulative total of over 5 million positions in Alexa. Not bad for six days.
I actually became so excited by the whole process that I have subsequently created four new blogs to join the over 10,000 websites that are eager publishers for the content that we writer-marketers provide.
I urge you to check out My Article Network. Oh, and for you affiliate marketers, yes you can become an affiliate after you join as a subscriber.