September 30th, 2008 by Dave
Article marketing is about more than mere links
Category Link Building |Foundational link building part II – Article Marketing
At least this is the mind set one needs when approaching it. You see, ultimately one must go beyond links. Think about the actual value of the placement as far as potential traffic, branding and reach. You will find that when you do so, that the links are of better quality and the benefits greater.
As we learned last week with our guide to directory submissions, quality supersedes quantity. When it comes to article marketing we seek to get as much value as possible. This means that we don’t simply toss off a bunch of copies of the article to repositories far and wide. You need to look at what makes the most sense strategically and plan from there.
Content is content
Now, the first thing we are going to need is a writer. If you have someone in-house that is already creating content, marketing materials or managing the blog, we’re in business. If you find yourself creatively challenged then looking at bringing in a professional writer as a sock puppet staffer is also an option. Much like content for the website, cutting corners will ultimately weaken the program.
You seek to create content that would be of a quality high enough that you would publish it on your own site. Not some knock off garbage piece that is 400 words long and devoid of value. That is not going to get us what we want… and at worst is negative branding.
You are seeking to build authority, become ubiquitous in the market and hopefully get some links that do more than please search engines.. we actually get some traffic ;0)
Finding the targets
Next we want to establish some targets for content placement. Remember, article marketing is more than mere repository overload. We can generally look at a few locales for potential promotion;
- Article repositories – the most common form of article marketing.
- Industry media outlets – most markets will have media/news portals
- Guest blogging – on first and second tier industry blogs
- Supplier websites – create how-to articles, FAQ etc…
- Vertical markets – websites of related non-competitors.
Basically you need to get inventive and look for those that might appreciate some free content. Some of these relationships may not happen over night; cultivation is often required. But an article is often nothing more than content…with accreditation to you. This is how the path should be travelled.
Article repositories should really only be used for posts that you feel are weaker than others and aren’t suited for higher level branding. But even these should be of at least an average quality as any distribution is still a representation of you and your enterprise.
Crafting the article
Now that we have some varied targets we can set about trying to establish some demographics for the audience. Whenever possible, don’t be shy and simply talk to the editors of your target site and ask about the people and topics that fly well. Most times they can give some great qualitative feedback which helps when crafting the tone and language of the article.
I won’t get into the nuts and bolts of targeting as that is more of the writing element and beyond the scope of this post (look at this later in the week). But what is important is that the article is set up to succeed.
Getting the links
The best links to have are what are known as editorial links; these are links within the actual content themselves. This is something that should be used sparingly and don’t fill up the article with a ton of them from one end to the other. Each post should have 1-2 nicely targeted, but relevant, links to your site.
This is also extra important with distribution via article repositories as it ensure that is someone reprints it without the author bio (no! say it ain’t so?!) that you still get a few back links from it.
If we’re targeting a specific location with our article, we’re sure to get a link in the author bio and latitude for a few editorial links within the post as well (to relevant content on your site).
Targeting Considerations
Just as we did with the directory submissions, we want to vary link text as much as possible. This means a unique author bio for each and every article repository and diversity in link texts for our other distribution channels.
What link texts should you be using? That all depends on the strength of the potential link location (re-print from repositories? Or one-off on an authority site?). Try and use your core target terms for the stronger sites and work your secondary terms with the larger distribution channels.
Also remember to incorporate targeted titles for the post and include words from your lists of semantically related support terms.
…. And those are the basics of a successful article marketing program. Next time we’ll get a list of top repositories and tips for finding target sites.
Cya then…
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October 1st, 2008 at 8:23 am
Great briefing! Article Marketing is powerful and under used by most myself included. Thanks for putting it back in my conscious.
October 2nd, 2008 at 1:39 am
Very good information.good article.
October 5th, 2008 at 2:34 am
Admin,
i agree with you but the sudden popularity of article marketing has caused an overall reduction in quality in many subjects, mainly due to individuals writing low-quality articles as a quick way of achieving exposure.Because of this only, Article Marketing has been the victim of junk content over the past few years.
October 6th, 2008 at 8:13 pm
I’ve used article marketing in the past with marginal results. I never gave a full effort and need to do more.
October 8th, 2008 at 9:39 pm
We do a lot of article marketing. ArticleMarketer.com will get you listed in a lot of places, but the best articles can always be submitted to industry journals. That seems to work best.
October 9th, 2008 at 12:53 am
Great article, and spot on. The unfortunate product of this tactic, as that many companies are now posting articles as far & as wide as possible, that are well below par on quality, and value to the reader. It’s a shame, as there are some fantastic website design companies & online marketing specialists out there with genuine, valuable content.
All the best.
October 29th, 2008 at 3:53 pm
Dave,
If the publisher is vile enough to cut your resource box, they will also cut the links you have placed in the article. Assuming otherwise is a naive.
Linking in the body of the article should only be done, if the links you provide point to other relevant information on your website that supports the context of the message you are presenting.
Think in terms of what great publishers want in your articles, rather than in terms of how someone might screw you and steal your work. If they are going to steal from you, there in nothing you can do to stop it.
However, if you catch them stealing after the fact, there are several steps you can take to protect your interests, up to and including contacting the webhosting company and processing a DMCA complaint, which can get bad content pulled on most any site, except those hosted in China.
October 29th, 2008 at 10:51 pm
As powerful as Article Marketing is, it still tends to be forgotten or ignored. Thank you for reminding us of its great value and importance. I do agree with Bill, as far as to thinking in terms of great article content instead of someone stealing your work; however one must do what they have to do, to protect their work. Keep up the great work all!
May 25th, 2009 at 8:19 pm
thanks for the info, i’m doing great with traffic to my blog 1800 visits in a month, but my squidoo websites don’t seem to draw much attention?