Article Marketing + Submission for SEO | Whiteboard Friday

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divinewrite

2010-06-03T23:47:21-07:00

Rand, you’ve missed the entire point of article marketing! It’s not about the link you get from the directory itself, it’s about the attribution links you get each time the article is grabbed from the article directory and RE-PUBLISHED on OTHER sites. So, yes, the link from the article directory is just one, relatively low-value link, but when the article is republished, you can get thousands of potentially higher value links.

So EzineArticles and co. ARE valuable for the above reasons.

Having said that, the rest of your comments still apply. Especially the one about it being a lot of work. The real work of the article marketing model is in the distribution to the article directories themselves. There are hundreds of them, so a single article can take days to distribute. I believe the law of diminishing returns begins to apply after you’ve submitted to, say, the top 10-20.

And, of course, our comment about it being a lot of work to produce the content is also true. But that’s true of any content-based link-building approach. But you only get out what you put in…

divinewrite edited 2010-06-03T23:54:41-07:00
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Rand, you’ve missed the entire point of article marketing! It’s not about the link you get from the directory itself, it’s about the attribution links you get each time the article is grabbed from the article directory and RE-PUBLISHED on OTHER sites. So, yes, the link from the article directory is just one, relatively low-value link, but when the article is republished, you can get thousands of potentially higher value links. So EzineArticles and co. ARE valuable for the above reasons. Having said that, the rest of your comments still apply. Especially the one about it being a lot of work. The real work of the article marketing model is in the distribution to the article directories themselves. There are hundreds of them, so a single article can take days to distribute. I believe the law of diminishing returns begins to apply after you’ve submitted to, say, the top 10-20. And, of course, our comment about it being a lot of work to produce the content is also true. But that’s true of any content-based link-building approach. But you only get out what you put in…
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- Rand Fishkin
 
 2010-06-04T00:17:50-07:00
 
 Have you seen great value from those republications? My general sense has been that unless you're writing on a really powerful site (not a generic content warehouse), the syndication sources tend to be pretty low in value and authority (and many even seem like complete spam).
 
 To be honest, I haven't done much of the old-school SEO article directories stuff in several years (though I still love doing guest writing and articles for other sources). Thus, your experience may be more relevant than mine on that front.
 
 randfish edited 2010-06-04T00:18:36-07:00
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 Have you seen great value from those republications? My general sense has been that unless you're writing on a really powerful site (not a generic content warehouse), the syndication sources tend to be pretty low in value and authority (and many even seem like complete spam). To be honest, I haven't done much of the old-school SEO article directories stuff in several years (though I still love doing guest writing and articles for other sources). Thus, your experience may be more relevant than mine on that front. 
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 - divinewrite
 
 2010-06-04T00:52:09-07:00
 
 Hmmm. Firstly let me qualify everything I’m about to say. Like you, I haven't engaged in article marketing for about 3 years. So I can't say for sure what its value is these days.
 
 But when I did engage in it heavily, yes, I saw MASSIVE return. I don’t have any data indicating whether that return was attributable to the article directories themselves or to the republished articles, but my understanding and my gut feel suggest that the directories themselves never provided much link juice. They were, after all, just directories, and even though I had dozens of articles on each, they were still just site-wide links. (And even back then, directories and site-wide links weren’t that valuable.)
 
 So in my eyes, it was always the republished articles that delivered the most value.
 
 Another important qualification is that I always wrote and distributed very high quality articles — stuff that reputable sites would republish because it was helpful to their visitors. (Some of the reputable sites would even keep an eye out for my stuff, maybe even subscribe to my feed from the article directory.) Sites like that will always pass good link juice. If you distribute trashy articles, on the other hand, only trashy sites will republish them, and those sites will pass very little — if any — juice. They may in fact reflect badly on you. (E.g. if they’re a spam site, you may be perceived to be in a bad neighbourhood.)
 
 This, I think is the really important question in this discussion. Because even quality articles are picked up by spammy sites. Is Google smart enough to ignore that?
 
 The other kinda relevant question is whether the anchor text of links in republished articles can cause problems. With article marketing, you do end up with a lot of links saying the same thing ('cos when your article is republished 500 times, so is the link in the byline, and the anchor text is the same every time). The fear, obviously, is that those links will be mistaken for paid links and you'll be penalised. I'm sure Goog's smart enough to tell the difference, though. I've never been penalised, in any case.
 
 divinewrite edited 2010-06-04T00:53:15-07:00
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 Hmmm. Firstly let me qualify everything I’m about to say. Like you, I haven't engaged in article marketing for about 3 years. So I can't say for sure what its value is these days. But when I did engage in it heavily, yes, I saw MASSIVE return. I don’t have any data indicating whether that return was attributable to the article directories themselves or to the republished articles, but my understanding and my gut feel suggest that the directories themselves never provided much link juice. They were, after all, just directories, and even though I had dozens of articles on each, they were still just site-wide links. (And even back then, directories and site-wide links weren’t that valuable.) So in my eyes, it was always the republished articles that delivered the most value. Another important qualification is that I always wrote and distributed very high quality articles — stuff that reputable sites would republish because it was helpful to their visitors. (Some of the reputable sites would even keep an eye out for my stuff, maybe even subscribe to my feed from the article directory.) Sites like that will always pass good link juice. If you distribute trashy articles, on the other hand, only trashy sites will republish them, and those sites will pass very little — if any — juice. They may in fact reflect badly on you. (E.g. if they’re a spam site, you may be perceived to be in a bad neighbourhood.) This, I think is the really important question in this discussion. Because even quality articles are picked up by spammy sites. Is Google smart enough to ignore that? The other kinda relevant question is whether the anchor text of links in republished articles can cause problems. With article marketing, you do end up with a lot of links saying the same thing ('cos when your article is republished 500 times, so is the link in the byline, and the anchor text is the same every time). The fear, obviously, is that those links will be mistaken for paid links and you'll be penalised. I'm sure Goog's smart enough to tell the difference, though. I've never been penalised, in any case.
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 - James Shaw
 
 2010-06-04T05:20:20-07:00
 
 so you're both arguing from the perspective of neither having done this for 3 years?
 
 er.. that seems a little out of the loop to be drawing such conclusions.
 
 To be read as an authority on the subject, surely you need to be trying to get brand new sites into SERPs using article marketing as a stretegy - today.
 
 I would suggest that three year old knowledge is almost worthless in this field.
 
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 so you're both arguing from the perspective of neither having done this for 3 years? er.. that seems a little out of the loop to be drawing such conclusions. To be read as an authority on the subject, surely you need to be trying to get brand new sites into SERPs using article marketing as a stretegy - today. I would suggest that three year old knowledge is almost worthless in this field. 
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 - divinewrite
 
 2010-06-04T05:33:14-07:00
 
 Wel, yes and no. It's not quite that clear-cut. Even though I no longer engage in article marketing, I still have many, many links out there from when I was doing it. Far more than I have from any other form of link building. I'm confident my ranking wouldn't be as high as it is from my other link building activities alone, which leads me to believe that those syndicated articles are still delivering quite a bit of value.
 
 Granted, domain authority would be playing a part in my current ranking, but again, I'm fairly confident it's not the only player.
 
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 Wel, yes and no. It's not quite that clear-cut. Even though I no longer engage in article marketing, I still have many, many links out there from when I was doing it. Far more than I have from any other form of link building. I'm confident my ranking wouldn't be as high as it is from my other link building activities alone, which leads me to believe that those syndicated articles are still delivering quite a bit of value. Granted, domain authority would be playing a part in my current ranking, but again, I'm fairly confident it's not the only player. 
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 - jamibroom
 
 2010-06-04T12:36:32-07:00
 
 uh, yeah, HelyYourSite is right on -- if neither of you have recent experience with it, why post or comment on the topic?
 
 also, does anyone out there actually HAVE recent experience or is article submission such an out-dated practice that no one has done it in the last three years (except for the spammy types)?
 
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 uh, yeah, HelyYourSite is right on -- if neither of you have recent experience with it, why post or comment on the topic? also, does anyone out there actually HAVE recent experience or is article submission such an out-dated practice that no one has done it in the last three years (except for the spammy types)? 
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 divinewrite
 
 2010-06-04T21:49:44-07:00
 
 Of course there's a point to us posting and commenting. Article marketing isn’t now -- and never was -- rocket science. You have 3 core elements:
 
 Articles. If they're quality, helpful articles, they'll be more likely to be republished on quality, helpful sites. This hasn't changed.
 Article directories. Even 2-3 years ago, they were still just directories. Without any editorial discretion behind article acceptance. Does anyone really think Google has placed any MORE weight on links from them in the last couple of years? If anything, these links now carry LESS weight.
 Republishing sites. Of these, many, many are spammy, a small handful are high quality, and a lot are in between. A single article can be picked up by hundreds, even thousands, of republishing sites. Article syndication, as a model, isn't frowned on by Google. The big publishers do it all the time. So there's no reason why there'd be some blanket devaluation. Logically, links would be valued using the same old rules. The good sites would pass good juice, the ordinary sites ordinary juice, and the crap sites next to no juice. Now even if we assume that only ordinary and crap sites republish your articles, you'd still get a few hundred/thousand low value links, and that's better than the handful of low value links you'd get from the directories themselves. Especially as you most likely have links from those directories already! All of that's as true now as it ever was.
 
 My point in my comments above was that the links from the article directories themselves weren't the core value in article marketing even back when I was doing it. And I think my logic above bears this out, and that, as a consequence, there's definitely some value in my opinions.
 
 Now... Moving onwards and upwards... The only thing that's really changed in the article marketing world, I believe, is the proportion of trashy sites to quality sites picking up your articles. I think there'd be proportionally more trashy sites picking up articles because:
 
 there are simply more trashy sites out there that will take any old crap content; and
 with more and more spam articles flooding the directories (I assume this is the case? There's more spam everywhere, so why not there too...), it must be getting harder for webmasters to find the good stuff.
 
 As to whether it's outdated, I wouldn't say that exactly. What I would say is that it's very labour-intensive, if done right. I found I couldn't sustain the time it required (I couldn't keep up with the work it generated AND keep writing and submitting articles). And I found the auto-submission services lacking. So I stopped article marketing altogether. Eventually, when I needed to focus on my SEO again, I turned to blogging + social media optimisation, and I find that is far more sustainable and offers far more extra value.
 
 I think if you're prepared to put in the work to create quality, then you're better of in the blogging & social media world. I could be wrong on that; the article marketing game may deliver more ROI now than it used to. But I'm pretty sure I'm right. Confident enough that I'm certainly not going to put it to the test.
 
 If you want to churn out sausage-factory content, then the article marketing realm could be just as valuable to you as the oDesk model. But here, I must say, I'm definitely talking out of school. I have no time for sausage-factory content myself, and wouldn't know the best way to leverage it.
 
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 Of course there's a point to us posting and commenting. Article marketing isn’t now -- and never was -- rocket science. You have 3 core elements: <ol><li>Articles. If they're quality, helpful articles, they'll be more likely to be republished on quality, helpful sites. This hasn't changed.</li><li>Article directories. Even 2-3 years ago, they were still just directories. Without any editorial discretion behind article acceptance. Does anyone really think Google has placed any MORE weight on links from them in the last couple of years? If anything, these links now carry LESS weight.</li><li>Republishing sites. Of these, many, many are spammy, a small handful are high quality, and a lot are in between. A single article can be picked up by hundreds, even thousands, of republishing sites. Article syndication, as a model, isn't frowned on by Google. The big publishers do it all the time. So there's no reason why there'd be some blanket devaluation. Logically, links would be valued using the same old rules. The good sites would pass good juice, the ordinary sites ordinary juice, and the crap sites next to no juice. Now even if we assume that only ordinary and crap sites republish your articles, you'd still get a few hundred/thousand low value links, and that's better than the handful of low value links you'd get from the directories themselves. Especially as you most likely have links from those directories already! All of that's as true now as it ever was.</li></ol> My point in my comments above was that the links from the article directories themselves weren't the core value in article marketing even back when I was doing it. And I think my logic above bears this out, and that, as a consequence, there's definitely some value in my opinions. Now... Moving onwards and upwards... The only thing that's really changed in the article marketing world, I believe, is the proportion of trashy sites to quality sites picking up your articles. I think there'd be proportionally more trashy sites picking up articles because: <ol><li>there are simply more trashy sites out there that will take any old crap content; and</li><li>with more and more spam articles flooding the directories (I assume this is the case? There's more spam everywhere, so why not there too...), it must be getting harder for webmasters to find the good stuff. </li></ol> As to whether it's outdated, I wouldn't say that exactly. What I would say is that it's very labour-intensive, if done right. I found I couldn't sustain the time it required (I couldn't keep up with the work it generated AND keep writing and submitting articles). And I found the auto-submission services lacking. So I stopped article marketing altogether. Eventually, when I needed to focus on my SEO again, I turned to blogging + social media optimisation, and I find that is far more sustainable and offers far more extra value. I think if you're prepared to put in the work to create quality, then you're better of in the blogging & social media world. I could be wrong on that; the article marketing game may deliver more ROI now than it used to. But I'm pretty sure I'm right. Confident enough that I'm certainly not going to put it to the test. If you want to churn out sausage-factory content, then the article marketing realm could be just as valuable to you as the oDesk model. But here, I must say, I'm definitely talking out of school. I have no time for sausage-factory content myself, and wouldn't know the best way to leverage it.
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 Clay Butler
 
 2010-06-04T21:55:42-07:00
 
 I'm going to defend Divinewrite here. Three years is not that long ago. That's 2007 for goodness sakes. About one year before our global economic meltdown and one year before Obama was elected. If you think that anything learned a whole three years ago is irelevant then you should take a break from all the hype. I get tired of this whole "everything is soooo different now" nonesense. I think someone who seriously persued article submissions three years ago has something relevant to contribute.
 
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 I'm going to defend Divinewrite here. Three years is not that long ago. That's 2007 for goodness sakes. About one year before our global economic meltdown and one year before Obama was elected. If you think that anything learned a whole three years ago is irelevant then you should take a break from all the hype. I get tired of this whole "everything is soooo different now" nonesense. I think someone who seriously persued article submissions three years ago has something relevant to contribute.
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 divinewrite
 
 2010-06-05T04:50:58-07:00
 
 Thanks claytowne. You're a gentleman! (That's what I call anyone who agrees with me ;-) Seriously, though, I appreciate your support. But I also appreciate the opinions above. It's entirely possible that I AM wrong, despite my sound reasoning. In fact, it's entirely possible my reasoning isn't even that sound! (I have 3 kids under 6, so sleep deprivation is a fact of life these days!!!)
 
 Nonetheless, it's nice to know I'm not alone out here. :-)
 
 Cheers, Glenn.
 
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 Thanks claytowne. You're a gentleman! (That's what I call anyone who agrees with me ;-) Seriously, though, I appreciate your support. But I also appreciate the opinions above. It's entirely possible that I AM wrong, despite my sound reasoning. In fact, it's entirely possible my reasoning isn't even that sound! (I have 3 kids under 6, so sleep deprivation is a fact of life these days!!!) Nonetheless, it's nice to know I'm not alone out here. :-) Cheers, Glenn. 
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 Gianluca Fiorelli
 
 2010-06-05T08:24:33-07:00
 
 I so understand you about the kids under 6 and sleep deprivation correlation... Beware recent and going to be soon Seodads ;-)
 
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 I so understand you about the kids under 6 and sleep deprivation correlation... Beware recent and going to be soon Seodads ;-)
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- Daryl Clark
 
 2010-06-04T06:51:07-07:00
 
 Honestly you missed the point yourself. What juice does a website have that re-publkishes your articles? ... surely they have significantly less than the article source you posted in... a PR percentage of zero is still zero no matter how much wishful thinking you do.
 
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 Honestly you missed the point yourself. What juice does a website have that re-publkishes your articles? ... surely they have significantly less than the article source you posted in... a PR percentage of zero is still zero no matter how much wishful thinking you do.
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 - rapidnewsnetwork
 
 2010-06-04T09:36:11-07:00
 
 not quite zero. If you knock out a bunch of articles over time and some of them get re-published, it incrementally adds.
 
 Like all link building, you get dozens of garbage per 1 or two good ones.
 
 If you get only good links, it is a good red flag for google.
 
 A normal profile is 100 pr0 or pr 1 and progressively lower as it gets higher.
 
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 not quite zero. If you knock out a bunch of articles over time and some of them get re-published, it incrementally adds. Like all link building, you get dozens of garbage per 1 or two good ones. If you get only good links, it is a good red flag for google. A normal profile is 100 pr0 or pr 1 and progressively lower as it gets higher. 
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 - divinewrite
 
 2010-06-05T04:47:43-07:00
 
 Hi Daryl. The amount of juice you get from republishing sites depends on the quality of your articles. My articles were published on countless sites that I believe passed much more juice than the article directories themselves. Below is a selection of links to my articles on republishing sites. I found these examples by looking no further than the first 4 pages of OpenSiteExplorer's results, then also performing a few searches for some specific headlines. I think you'll agree there are some worthwhile links there.
 
 Search Engine Journal
 Search Engine Journal again
 ClickFire
 Site Reference
 Site Reference again
 Reality SEO
 AddMe
 FraserIsland.com.au (for an article about Fraser Island)
 Web Pro News
 Trinet Design (Not a lot of link juice... yet. I include it because of its recency. It was picked up just a few days ago! So it's still working for me, even though I wrote it probably 4-5 years ago.)
 SelfSEO
 Klariti
 FreelanceWriting.com
 AdvancingWomen.com (for an article on freelance writing)
 WriteOn (again, not a lot of juice, but very relevant to copywriting)
 
 Thanks.
 
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 Hi Daryl. The amount of juice you get from republishing sites depends on the quality of your articles. My articles were published on countless sites that I believe passed much more juice than the article directories themselves. Below is a selection of links to my articles on republishing sites. I found these examples by looking no further than the first 4 pages of OpenSiteExplorer's results, then also performing a few searches for some specific headlines. I think you'll agree there are some worthwhile links there. <ul><li><a href="https://www.searchenginejournal.com/writing-search-engine-optimization-copy/524/" rel="nofollow">Search Engine Journal</a></li><li><a href="https://www.searchenginejournal.com/com-not-listed-in-regional-yahoo-dont-despair/650/" rel="nofollow">Search Engine Journal again</a></li><li><a href="https://www.clickfire.com/writing-newsletters/" rel="nofollow">ClickFire</a></li><li><a href="https://www.site-reference.com/articles/Search-Engines/SEO-to-Become-a-Dinner-Party-Topic.html" rel="nofollow">Site Reference</a></li><li><a href="https://www.site-reference.com/articles/Search-Engines/Jagger-Google-Analytics-and-the-Future-of-Search-SEO.html" rel="nofollow">Site Reference again</a></li><li><a href="https://realityseo.com/2005/12/jagger-update-google-analytics-future.html" rel="nofollow">Reality SEO</a></li><li><a href="https://www.addme.com/newsletters/issue324.htm" rel="nofollow">AddMe</a></li><li><a href="https://www.fraserisland.au.com/information/experience-fraser-island.htm" rel="nofollow">FraserIsland.com.au</a> (for an article about Fraser Island)</li><li><a href="https://www.webpronews.com/topnews/2005/04/20/things-to-expect-from-your-seo-copywriter" rel="nofollow">Web Pro News</a></li><li><a href="https://www.trinetdesign.com/2010/05/27/10-things-to-expect-from-your-seo-copywriter/" rel="nofollow">Trinet Design</a> (Not a lot of link juice... yet. I include it because of its recency. It was picked up just a few days ago! So it's still working for me, even though I wrote it probably 4-5 years ago.)</li><li><a href="https://www.selfseo.com/story-730.php" rel="nofollow">SelfSEO</a></li><li><a href="https://www.klariti.com/technical-writing/Successful-Documentation-Projects--1.shtml" rel="nofollow">Klariti</a></li><li><a href="https://www.freelancewriting.com/articles/article-life-of-a-freelance-copywriter.php" rel="nofollow">FreelanceWriting.com</a></li><li><a href="https://www.advancingwomen.com/careers/20921.php" rel="nofollow">AdvancingWomen.com</a> (for an article on freelance writing)</li><li><a href="https://writeon.co.nz/417631-Engage-Your-Customer-Write-About-Benefits.html" rel="nofollow">WriteOn</a> (again, not a lot of juice, but very relevant to copywriting) </li></ul> Thanks. 
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- Ed Fry
 
 2010-06-04T08:42:54-07:00
 
 I think article directories, over time, have become less "warehouse-styly" sources of articles but more trusted sources themselves. Arguably Wikipedia and Ezine Articles are in the same boat, just one allows commercial content.
 
 I've used article marketing extensively -- it was one of the first things that got me interested in SEO (and SEOmoz ;-)) but I've only ever tracked ONE person who's taken my post and added it to their blog with a big of original content introducing my article at the beginning.
 
 On the other hand, I've had hundreds of my articles scraped and posted all over the net without attribution (frustratingly ranking above my originals!) -- with a targeted blog post, the essence isn't so much on further distribution:
 * You're delivering to a 'final' audience, not more distributors
 * Further distribution tends not to occur by copying-and-pasting the article (too much like hard work right?) but a simply tweet
 
 I think the original purpose of article directories for providing fodder for ezines is slightly dated -- perhaps there is some use today, but with people using article distribution to "game" the engines and with websites like EzineArticles.com becoming recognized generalized sources in their own right (like Wikipedia), its become a different game.
 
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 I think article directories, over time, have become less "warehouse-styly" sources of articles but more trusted sources themselves. Arguably Wikipedia and Ezine Articles are in the same boat, just one allows commercial content. I've used article marketing extensively -- it was one of the first things that got me interested in SEO (and SEOmoz ;-)) but I've only ever tracked ONE person who's taken my post and added it to their blog with a big of original content introducing my article at the beginning. On the other hand, I've had hundreds of my articles scraped and posted all over the net without attribution (frustratingly ranking above my originals!) -- with a targeted blog post, the essence isn't so much on further distribution: * You're delivering to a 'final' audience, not more distributors * Further distribution tends not to occur by copying-and-pasting the article (too much like hard work right?) but a simply tweet I think the original purpose of article directories for providing fodder for ezines is slightly dated -- perhaps there is some use today, but with people using article distribution to "game" the engines and with websites like EzineArticles.com becoming recognized generalized sources in their own right (like Wikipedia), its become a different game.
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Tom Rowley

2010-06-04T03:18:28-07:00

I think much like many areas of SEO you get out what you put in. You can spam the article directories with cheap low quality articles, which may get you some good results. Or you can aim for the bigger fish and put a bit more time into your articles, which should return better results, especially long-term.

Build your house with straw or bricks and all that...

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I think much like many areas of SEO you get out what you put in. You can spam the article directories with cheap low quality articles, which may get you some good results. Or you can aim for the bigger fish and put a bit more time into your articles, which should return better results, especially long-term. Build your house with straw or bricks and all that...
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- goodnewscowboy
 
 2010-06-04T07:08:51-07:00
 
 So...would that make Google the big bad wolf?
 
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 So...would that make Google the big bad wolf?
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Tola

2010-06-04T04:05:27-07:00

Frankly, I'm more for guest blogging as opposed to Article Marketing. Someone dropped a link for Ann Smarty's Guest blogging website so I won't do it again, but it really is useful.

I think Article Marketing has been overused and overdone so it's lost most of its creditibility. You actually have to work a lot harder to get the job done right. And if you're working so much harder to get a good article written, why post it to an Article directory where your article just might not see the light of day? I'll rather guest post it on a website related to my article, if I feel the article is that relevant, useful and not just another link count for my website.

Just like YOUMoz, which I think Rand was actually advertising, in not so many words, lol...

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Frankly, I'm more for guest blogging as opposed to Article Marketing. Someone dropped a link for Ann Smarty's Guest blogging website so I won't do it again, but it really is useful. I think Article Marketing has been overused and overdone so it's lost most of its creditibility. You actually have to work a lot harder to get the job done right. And if you're working so much harder to get a good article written, why post it to an Article directory where your article just might not see the light of day? I'll rather guest post it on a website related to my article, if I feel the article is that relevant, useful and not just another link count for my website. Just like YOUMoz, which I think Rand was actually advertising, in not so many words, lol... 
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- Ann Smarty
 
 2010-06-04T07:02:52-07:00
 
 No really, why not drop the link again?
 
 LOL just kidding :)
 
 AnnSmarty edited 2010-06-04T07:26:07-07:00
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 No really, why not drop the link again? LOL just kidding :) 
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- Jeffrey Russo
 
 2010-06-06T20:42:31-07:00
 
 I'll also vouch for Ann Smarty's guest blogging site. I've made a few great connections on there with relevant writers for one of my sites; it's a great resource that she works hard on!
 
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 I'll also vouch for Ann Smarty's guest blogging site. I've made a few great connections on there with relevant writers for one of my sites; it's a great resource that she works hard on! 
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 - Ann Smarty
 
 2010-06-07T04:06:24-07:00
 
 Cheers to you too, Jeffrey!
 
 I haven't had much time to network at SEOmoz for a year or two. I am amazed to see people to be still so supportive and friendly here! Love ya all and I wish I had more time to spend it here!
 
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 Cheers to you too, Jeffrey! I haven't had much time to network at SEOmoz for a year or two. I am amazed to see people to be still so supportive and friendly here! Love ya all and I wish I had more time to spend it here!
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wmw71190

2010-06-04T06:23:51-07:00

I think a solution to solving the paradox (which wasn't really stated) is to produce content that makes the reader feel that they need to know more about the subject matter. It is a really careful line to cross, because you want to have content that makes the reader want to read the entire article, provide enough that they feel good about reading it, but most importantly make them feel like they must know more. Then (as was stated by someone above), you should be providing an oppurtunity for the reader to learn more. The landing page should be treated just as importantly as you may treat the landing page of an Ad, for example.

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I think a solution to solving the paradox (which wasn't really stated) is to produce content that makes the reader feel that they need to know more about the subject matter. It is a really careful line to cross, because you want to have content that makes the reader want to read the entire article, provide enough that they feel good about reading it, but most importantly make them feel like they must know more. Then (as was stated by someone above), you should be providing an oppurtunity for the reader to learn more. The landing page should be treated just as importantly as you may treat the landing page of an Ad, for example.
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- Rand Fishkin
 
 2010-06-04T17:36:31-07:00
 
 Totally agree - but you also need to make sure that you're submitting/contributing to a place with quality readership, not just a junky content repository.
 
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 Totally agree - but you also need to make sure that you're submitting/contributing to a place with quality readership, not just a junky content repository.
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 - wmw71190
 
 2010-06-07T07:41:19-07:00
 
 Definitely. You can't go wrong with good content and good submissions.
 
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 Definitely. You can't go wrong with good content and good submissions.
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 - Francisco Moreno
 
 2015-07-16T01:15:59-07:00
 
 But not all good content is quality, and not all sites with QC is a quality site.
 
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 But not all good content is quality, and not all sites with QC is a quality site. 
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MarcoVittigni

2010-06-03T23:28:33-07:00

Rand, are you basically suggesting guest posting on relevant blogs instead of article marketing?

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Rand, are you basically suggesting guest posting on relevant blogs instead of article marketing?
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- Gianluca Fiorelli
 
 2010-06-04T00:54:03-07:00
 
 I don't know if Rand is silently suggesting it.
 
 But guest blogging can present some advantages that article marketing doesn't:
 1. if you publish a post in a relevant blog, the same fact it has been published is endorsing you. YOUmoz could be a good example (and if the post is moved to the this main blog... the advantages in term of brand, personal brand relevance are easy to note)
 2. guest blogging makes it easy to reach the right audience. If I want to reach Neo-Moms I would rather prefer to have a post of mine guested in a relevant blog about Babies and Pregnancy than in a Article Marketing Directory, even if this one is a great valuable one
 To understand better how guest blogging can help your marketing efforts, I strongly suggest to check out what @seosmarty says about it and her project.
 
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 I don't know if Rand is silently suggesting it. But guest blogging can present some advantages that article marketing doesn't: <ol><li>if you publish a post in a relevant blog, the same fact it has been published is endorsing you. YOUmoz could be a good example (and if the post is moved to the this main blog... the advantages in term of brand, personal brand relevance are easy to note)</li><li>guest blogging makes it easy to reach the right audience. If I want to reach Neo-Moms I would rather prefer to have a post of mine guested in a relevant blog about Babies and Pregnancy than in a Article Marketing Directory, even if this one is a great valuable one </li></ol>To understand better how guest blogging can help your marketing efforts, I strongly suggest to check out what <a href="https://www.seosmarty.com/" rel="nofollow">@seosmarty</a> says about it and <a href="https://myblogguest.com/" rel="nofollow">her project</a>.
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 - MarcoVittigni
 
 2010-06-04T02:27:32-07:00
 
 Good points but in some niche markets it could be difficult to obtain this kind of links from relevant blogs. Maybe they perceive you as a competitor so they not allow you to make a guest post or maybe they don't know what guest posting is (yes we tend to think that everyone in the world knows what we know) and you have to invest your time to explain the benefits of guest posting.
 
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 Good points but in some niche markets it could be difficult to obtain this kind of links from relevant blogs. Maybe they perceive you as a competitor so they not allow you to make a guest post or maybe they don't know what guest posting is (yes we tend to think that everyone in the world knows what we know) and you have to invest your time to explain the benefits of guest posting.
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 - Gianluca Fiorelli
 
 2010-06-04T02:45:18-07:00
 
 You are right... but I think that this is more about networking and hability to get confident with the blogs administrator (the old Linkerati theory).
 
 On the other hand I agree with you that exist niche markets that apply a protectionist content politic. But, in those niche, maybe the best bet is working reversely: being you creating the blog and reach the right funnels in order to gain readers and linkers.
 
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 You are right... but I think that this is more about networking and hability to get confident with the blogs administrator (the old Linkerati theory). On the other hand I agree with you that exist niche markets that apply a protectionist content politic. But, in those niche, maybe the best bet is working reversely: being you creating the blog and reach the right funnels in order to gain readers and linkers. 
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 - Pulkit ILoveFashionRetail.com
 
 2010-06-04T05:42:39-07:00
 
 Guest post is the modern name to article submission and it simply makes more sense as you get more credits and more freedom for you to pass on the link and branding benefit. And guest posting process also helps you build new relationships and networks. If you're good, you can make some good bucks too ;)
 
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 Guest post is the modern name to article submission and it simply makes more sense as you get more credits and more freedom for you to pass on the link and branding benefit. And guest posting process also helps you build new relationships and networks. If you're good, you can make some good bucks too ;)
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 - Ann Smarty
 
 2010-06-04T07:04:58-07:00
 
 So many thanks for mentining MyBlogGuest.
 
 And yes, guest blogging is new article marketing and I do hope it is not going to die out (unlike the latter does).
 
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 So many thanks for mentining MyBlogGuest. And yes, guest blogging is new article marketing and I do hope it is not going to die out (unlike the latter does). 
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Gianluca Fiorelli

2010-06-04T00:41:28-07:00

Article Marketing as everything has two sides, the dark and the bright.

The bright one is that their purpose is really a good one (some how reminding the "reciprocation" principle of the Cialdini theories talked in your previous post this week about Influence and Persuasion), and if the AM site is a relevant one and your article is relevant as well, it can give your site great advantages. Especially for newer websites it can be a good option (but it doesn't have to be the only one) in order to start it's own links profile and spread its brand.

The dark side is irrilevance. The fact that there are tons of article marketing websites and that their editorial policies about evaluating the quality of the articles submitted are 'close to zero' makes them the ideal place where to append low value pieces of content for an easy link back. This cause somehow a "spamming" situation that which is probably the reason why - as you Rand say - Google and Bing are probably subtracting value to those kind of websites.

That doesn't mean that Article Marketing is bad. It's just painful, as it need:
1. to spend quite a lot of time to find the good one between the many trashy ones
2. to write content that is relevant and can attract visually first and with its arguments after third party publishers.
Finally... there's an issue not discussed in WBF... piracy and plagiarism. One of the reason why someone could try the article marketing tactic is that he hope his articles will be picked up and republished on the third sites with its credits travelling with them. But how many time we have checked and seen our articles republished without any attribution?

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Article Marketing as everything has two sides, the dark and the bright. The bright one is that their purpose is really a good one (some how reminding the "reciprocation" principle of the Cialdini theories talked in your previous post this week about <a href="an-illustrated-guide-to-the-science-of-persuasion-influence">Influence and Persuasion)</a>, and if the AM site is a relevant one and your article is relevant as well, it can give your site great advantages. Especially for newer websites it can be a good option (but it doesn't have to be the only one) in order to start it's own links profile and spread its brand. The dark side is irrilevance. The fact that there are tons of article marketing websites and that their editorial policies about evaluating the quality of the articles submitted are 'close to zero' makes them the ideal place where to append low value pieces of content for an easy link back. This cause somehow a "spamming" situation that which is probably the reason why - as you Rand say - Google and Bing are probably subtracting value to those kind of websites. That doesn't mean that Article Marketing is bad. It's just painful, as it need: <ol><li>to spend quite a lot of time to find the good one between the many trashy ones</li><li>to write content that is relevant and can attract visually first and with its arguments after third party publishers.</li></ol> Finally... there's an issue not discussed in WBF... piracy and plagiarism. One of the reason why someone could try the article marketing tactic is that he hope his articles will be picked up and republished on the third sites with its credits travelling with them. But how many time we have checked and seen our articles republished without any attribution?
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- Adam Smith
 
 2010-06-04T01:34:41-07:00
 
 That's why you should always put a URL link at the end of the article.
 
 For the latest info, check out this page: https://www.stuff.com/bliblob
 
 anchor text links are often stripped out by scrapers but bare urls often remain and get links automatically put on them :)
 
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 That's why you should always put a URL link at the end of the article. For the latest info, check out this page: https://www.stuff.com/bliblob anchor text links are often stripped out by scrapers but bare urls often remain and get links automatically put on them :) 
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Gareth Thomas

2010-07-30T07:55:42-07:00

What you've written is certainly true.

As someone new to this field I also find that when I submit a hard worked article to someone elses site, I can feel peeved that I've got to release my 'baby'. As you say the article may be better off on a larger site that gathers greater amounts of traffic and is therefore viewed more often. I find it a hard pill to swallow at times.

It makes me feel better thinking about it as a long term business relationship. My aim will be to continue to put good work to good quality sites and hopefully accrue 'reputation, traffic and business'.

Great reminder Scott

Thankyou

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What you've written is certainly true. As someone new to this field I also find that when I submit a hard worked article to someone elses site, I can feel peeved that I've got to release my 'baby'. As you say the article may be better off on a larger site that gathers greater amounts of traffic and is therefore viewed more often. I find it a hard pill to swallow at times. It makes me feel better thinking about it as a long term business relationship. My aim will be to continue to put good work to good quality sites and hopefully accrue 'reputation, traffic and business'. Great reminder Scott Thankyou
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JurgenEstanislao

2010-06-05T04:55:09-07:00

Just a funny story from last Tuesday.

An SEO agency's CEO went to our office, to share with us our sites' "untapped potential" online. He stressed that we're losing a lot to our competitors by not maximizing article re-writers and submission directories.

Sad thing is, he even boasted that he has a dedicated team to do this "grunt" work 24/7, and that's the key to true link building.

What's worse is that he claims that many people get cheated by SEOs because companies don't realize that SEO is actually just low value blue collar work that you need to outsource.

Well, I should have told him to cut costs by using mechanical turks.

Oh well, nice post Rand. It's just sad that many "SEOs" don't see the SE's business of satisfying searcher intent. Knowing this insight by heart can help any SEO avoid tons of guesswork when it comes doing so and so.

Cheers!

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Just a funny story from last Tuesday. An SEO agency's CEO went to our office, to share with us our sites' "untapped potential" online. He stressed that we're losing a lot to our competitors by not maximizing article re-writers and submission directories. Sad thing is, he even boasted that he has a dedicated team to do this "grunt" work 24/7, and that's the key to true link building. What's worse is that he claims that many people get cheated by SEOs because companies don't realize that SEO is actually just low value blue collar work that you need to outsource. Well, I should have told him to cut costs by using mechanical turks. Oh well, nice post Rand. It's just sad that many "SEOs" don't see the SE's business of satisfying searcher intent. Knowing this insight by heart can help any SEO avoid tons of guesswork when it comes doing so and so. Cheers! 
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- divinewrite
 
 2010-06-05T05:08:48-07:00
 
 Don't get me started! Very frustrating to hear crap like that. Here's another example of it. Bad SEO is blue collar grunt work. Good SEO is about creativity, one way or another.
 
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 Don't get me started! Very frustrating to hear crap like that. <a href="https://seobullshit.com/fucking-writers/" rel="nofollow">Here's another example of it</a>. Bad SEO is blue collar grunt work. Good SEO is about creativity, one way or another.
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 - JurgenEstanislao
 
 2010-06-05T10:28:28-07:00
 
 Yeah I feel you. Believe me, some top management even sent some nods to this dude.
 
 I'm here to stop the chaos.
 
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 Yeah I feel you. Believe me, some top management even sent some nods to this dude. I'm here to stop the chaos.
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- Dustin Thompson
 
 2010-06-05T08:54:01-07:00
 
 Wow hearing that makes me sick. I meet so many "experts" in my area that are such hacks. Yes I bet some re-spun article on page one will generate a ton of conversions. Every SEO consultant should take an ethics test.
 
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 Wow hearing that makes me sick. I meet so many "experts" in my area that are such hacks. Yes I bet some re-spun article on page one will generate a ton of conversions. Every SEO consultant should take an ethics test. 
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SparkplugDigital

2010-06-21T00:42:14-07:00

Interesting seeing the contrarian view that there is still value in article submission. It seems like a lot of the article submission sites have so much competition that your article will likely get buried, wheras you might be the center of attention on a decent blog.

Also if your site is new, then you may or may not get links if you create some great content. But if you guest post on a quality blog you are assured at least one link, some referral traffic, and you are getting your name out there.

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Interesting seeing the contrarian view that there is still value in article submission. It seems like a lot of the article submission sites have so much competition that your article will likely get buried, wheras you might be the center of attention on a decent blog. Also if your site is new, then you may or may not get links if you create some great content. But if you guest post on a quality blog you are assured at least one link, some referral traffic, and you are getting your name out there. 
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2kaday

2010-06-04T09:35:24-07:00

I always liked article marketing because it was white hat and free. The non attributing has always bugged me, but I hoped it was outweighed by the link juice from the article directories.

Now I ask though, after reading your article, how do you get free white hat backlinks? No guest posting in my niche as the few blogs are owned by competitors.

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I always liked article marketing because it was white hat and free. The non attributing has always bugged me, but I hoped it was outweighed by the link juice from the article directories. Now I ask though, after reading your article, how do you get free white hat backlinks? No guest posting in my niche as the few blogs are owned by competitors. 
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- divinewrite
 
 2010-06-05T04:59:19-07:00
 
 Build a community of your own (e.g. in Twitter), continue to write helpful articles (i.e. blog), contribute to your community, announce your blog posts. Eventually, if your posts are truly helpful and you're a genuine contributor to your social media community, people will start linking to your posts.
 
 Well, that's one way to do it. Assuming you wanted to use content.
 
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 Build a community of your own (e.g. in Twitter), continue to write helpful articles (i.e. blog), contribute to your community, announce your blog posts. Eventually, if your posts are truly helpful and you're a genuine contributor to your social media community, people will start linking to your posts. Well, that's one way to do it. Assuming you wanted to use content. 
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Chad Crandall

2010-06-04T11:42:55-07:00

Pros and Cons. I think it's been spelled out pretty well here that there are pros and cons to article marketing, and when talking about article submission vs. blogging vs. guest blogging, I don't think any one is "better" than the other.

Each have their place, each are valuable, and each should be used to some extent. Remember, Google loves original content, but it also loves variety.

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Pros and Cons. I think it's been spelled out pretty well here that there are pros and cons to article marketing, and when talking about article submission vs. blogging vs. guest blogging, I don't think any one is "better" than the other. Each have their place, each are valuable, and each should be used to some extent. Remember, Google loves original content, but it also loves variety.
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Nick Stuart

2010-06-06T06:42:12-07:00

Surely if you have good or great content you just need to open your mind to the possiblities and basically you have to market the content.

The one thing we die is created content that was useful t oexpat sites about living in Spain and approached them to use it on there site which some did and some didnt but basically you have your content on one page on someone elses site and by aiming at the bigger sites who dont have the content you can give them they are not worried about gviing your business some link help because it benefits there users and you are not competing with there site.

We have recently been doing some guest blogging and the power of those loinks has been very good indeed.

At the start of our websites career PR articles were a very good way to get noticed and sort of gave us a platform to srart from.

Having great content is only good if you can market your content.

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Surely if you have good or great content you just need to open your mind to the possiblities and basically you have to market the content. The one thing we die is created content that was useful t oexpat sites about living in Spain and approached them to use it on there site which some did and some didnt but basically you have your content on one page on someone elses site and by aiming at the bigger sites who dont have the content you can give them they are not worried about gviing your business some link help because it benefits there users and you are not competing with there site. We have recently been doing some guest blogging and the power of those loinks has been very good indeed. At the start of our websites career PR articles were a very good way to get noticed and sort of gave us a platform to srart from. Having great content is only good if you can market your content.
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Dustin Thompson

2010-06-04T09:00:36-07:00

I see article marketing like old school paper mailings now, not many people look at them and when they do it isn't enough to make a sale. I would much prefer to drive the traffic to my site and have the proper call to actions, content, etc to show the visitor that I can be the solution to their problem.

Any article that is worth reading should take a lot longer than 10-15 minutes and if I am putting the proper level of research and writing into a article/post I want it on my site or another blog where I know the audience and stats.

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I see article marketing like old school paper mailings now, not many people look at them and when they do it isn't enough to make a sale. I would much prefer to drive the traffic to my site and have the proper call to actions, content, etc to show the visitor that I can be the solution to their problem. Any article that is worth reading should take a lot longer than 10-15 minutes and if I am putting the proper level of research and writing into a article/post I want it on my site or another blog where I know the audience and stats.
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- divinewrite
 
 2010-06-05T05:02:21-07:00
 
 Good to hear someone say any article worth reading takes time to write. I'm with ya brother!
 
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 Good to hear someone say any article worth reading takes time to write. I'm with ya brother!
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ruddie22

2010-06-04T05:18:59-07:00

Rand, what is your expert opinion of programs such as myarticlenetwork and seolinkvine?

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Rand, what is your expert opinion of programs such as myarticlenetwork and seolinkvine? 
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- Matt Brooks
 
 2010-06-04T11:21:47-07:00
 
 Not to speak for Rand, but I assumed that this would be another network of low quality splogs syphoning content from the network. I am running a one month test on seolinkvine (since they don't publish the list of blogs in their network) and for the most part it is as you would guess. I have about 10 articles/posts submitted (decent articles, 800 words or more and some with images included) and the blogs that published them so far have been less than desireable - several with the default wordpress theme with other irrelevant content and no page rank. I am also testing their "On-Demand" articles which will be posted to one blog that asks for a specific article, but the jury is still out on what sites use this service as well. My gut is that it wil be more of the same.
 
 I have had 10 articles published about 140 times across a lot of lower quality blogs through the network. I don't really see a whole lot of value there yet, so I am pretty sure the one month test will be just that - one month and done. I have not seen any boost in rankings of the selected test keywords with the recent link aquisitions, which is probably the best measure of the value of the network despite their claims.
 
 I do love to write, so article marketing (guest blogging/articles/content syndication) is my favorite link building tactic. I spread the love to other link building strategies too, but I was intrigued to give seolinkvine a try since articles had to be approved by site owners, giving it a little bit of editorial review, but it looks like there are not many decent websites in the network. If someone has a different experience please share.
 
 I have a site top 5 for "car accessories" and a lot of other auto realted keywords built on strategies related to article marketing, so if done correctly (keeping things relevant) it is still a good strategy.
 
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 Not to speak for Rand, but I assumed that this would be another network of low quality splogs syphoning content from the network. I am running a one month test on seolinkvine (since they don't publish the list of blogs in their network) and for the most part it is as you would guess. I have about 10 articles/posts submitted (decent articles, 800 words or more and some with images included) and the blogs that published them so far have been less than desireable - several with the default wordpress theme with other irrelevant content and no page rank. I am also testing their "On-Demand" articles which will be posted to one blog that asks for a specific article, but the jury is still out on what sites use this service as well. My gut is that it wil be more of the same. I have had 10 articles published about 140 times across a lot of lower quality blogs through the network. I don't really see a whole lot of value there yet, so I am pretty sure the one month test will be just that - one month and done. I have not seen any boost in rankings of the selected test keywords with the recent link aquisitions, which is probably the best measure of the value of the network despite their claims. I do love to write, so article marketing (guest blogging/articles/content syndication) is my favorite link building tactic. I spread the love to other link building strategies too, but I was intrigued to give seolinkvine a try since articles had to be approved by site owners, giving it a little bit of editorial review, but it looks like there are not many decent websites in the network. If someone has a different experience please share. I have a site top 5 for "car accessories" and a lot of other auto realted keywords built on strategies related to article marketing, so if done correctly (keeping things relevant) it is still a good strategy.
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Jim Rudnick

2010-06-04T06:19:03-07:00

Spot-On Rand!

I especially like your comment near the end of what you should do, your point #4 highlights the word "relevant" -- and that we've found over years of testing is very important to the link back juice levels!

I'll post a link to this blog piece over on seochat too...there's too too many newbie SEO practitioners there who expect eZine et al to be the answer to their quick serp rise....

:-)

Jim

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Spot-On Rand! I especially like your comment near the end of what you should do, your point #4 highlights the word "relevant" -- and that we've found over years of testing is very important to the link back juice levels! I'll post a link to this blog piece over on seochat too...there's too too many newbie SEO practitioners there who expect eZine et al to be the answer to their quick serp rise.... :-) Jim
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- Federico Caramella
 
 2010-06-05T07:58:24-07:00
 
 That's true Jim, and since they start to understand the real value to "relevance" they make some spammy stuffs all over the web. I think it's a matter of time to have a more "clean" web because SEO is something new in a lot of parts of the world. I've experienced that in many cases..
 
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 That's true Jim, and since they start to understand the real value to "relevance" they make some spammy stuffs all over the web. I think it's a matter of time to have a more "clean" web because SEO is something new in a lot of parts of the world. I've experienced that in many cases..
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paydayloan

2010-06-07T04:20:58-07:00

Article marketing is really working for me.i am getting good source of back links and traffic.i dont its not working now a days.if its not effective then why thousands of masters still practice article marketing.

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Article marketing is really working for me.i am getting good source of back links and traffic.i dont its not working now a days.if its not effective then why thousands of masters still practice article marketing.
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Raptors

2010-08-16T16:17:54-07:00

I heard him mention not using automatic article submission sites. What do other people think about using automatic article submission software like Magic Article Submitter, FreeTrafficSystem, and Unique Article Wizard. I'm also wondering about rewriting articles and having a software automaticly rewrite articles.

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I heard him mention not using automatic article submission sites. What do other people think about using automatic article submission software like Magic Article Submitter, FreeTrafficSystem, and Unique Article Wizard. I'm also wondering about rewriting articles and having a software automaticly rewrite articles.
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glen quinn

2011-05-17T14:46:59-07:00

Hi, I found this video really informative. I have a question if that's ok? In the 3/4 part of the video you mentioned writing on other sites thats allow profile bio with article's are very good. Recently with my personal site GlenQuinn.me I have been also putting my blogs on Hubpages - as this is content from my personal blog going onto Hubpages as well is this considered duplicate content? Tks :)

KeriMorgret edited 2011-05-17T15:48:43-07:00
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Hi, I found this video really informative. I have a question if that's ok? In the 3/4 part of the video you mentioned writing on other sites thats allow profile bio with article's are very good. Recently with my personal site GlenQuinn.me I have been also putting my blogs on Hubpages - as this is content from my personal blog going onto Hubpages as well is this considered duplicate content? Tks :)
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paul doffman

2010-06-07T02:26:06-07:00

Great WBF. I really like the point about doing 20x as much for you own site or blog. Something i need to take note on.

I might also add that its a great idea to follow up on your submissions by commenting and replying to any comments. This will increase your chances of being asked back!

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Great WBF. I really like the point about doing 20x as much for you own site or blog. Something i need to take note on. I might also add that its a great idea to follow up on your submissions by commenting and replying to any comments. This will increase your chances of being asked back! 
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michael_housebook

2010-06-06T17:55:55-07:00

We just started writing articles for one of the major blogs in our industry (real estate). I think it definitely brought some value to our website. We have a little bit more traffic, few links and are seen as the local authority.

I would totally agree with the point of being on a relevant website with lot of readership.

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We just started writing articles for one of the major blogs in our industry (real estate). I think it definitely brought some value to our website. We have a little bit more traffic, few links and are seen as the local authority. I would totally agree with the point of being on a relevant website with lot of readership.
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Deepti Garg

2012-07-10T02:38:06-07:00

Nice post ! After Google Algorithm Penguine update content is the very important part of the any type of submission and behalf of content we can get ranking eaisly in SERP( Search Engine Result Page).

Deepti-Garg edited 2012-07-10T02:39:14-07:00
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Nice post ! After Google Algorithm Penguine update content is the very important part of the any type of submission and behalf of content we can get ranking eaisly in SERP( Search Engine Result Page). 
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Mark Rushworth

2010-06-07T05:58:46-07:00

My killer tip for this is work.com which is aggregated on sites like business.com... NICE!

As with all 3rd party link dveelopment tactics dont forget to prop up your submissions with some link building.

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My killer tip for this is work.com which is aggregated on sites like business.com... NICE! As with all 3rd party link dveelopment tactics dont forget to prop up your submissions with some link building. 
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Ian Mercer

2010-06-07T03:29:32-07:00

Hi Rand,

Would you recommend putting the original article on your site before distributing the articles?

I wonder if a cannonical tag here may have any effect? Even though Google state it is an internal content duplication management function.

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Hi Rand, Would you recommend putting the original article on your site before distributing the articles? I wonder if a cannonical tag here may have any effect? Even though Google state it is an internal content duplication management function. 
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- divinewrite
 
 2010-06-07T03:50:44-07:00
 
 I generally posted it first on my site, then distributed. Sometimes my version made the SERPs, sometimes not. Things may have changed in that department, in the last couple of years but, personally, I wouldn't be too concerned. My main focus was always the links from republication.
 
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 I generally posted it first on my site, then distributed. Sometimes my version made the SERPs, sometimes not. Things may have changed in that department, in the last couple of years but, personally, I wouldn't be too concerned. My main focus was always the links from republication.
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R Labrie

2010-06-08T06:42:07-07:00

Interesting topic, but I'm wondering if there's a spot where one can see the video script? I work off a slow and very limited satellite internet, and loading the video's for Whiteboard Friday's isn't working for me :( Can I see the content in some other format?

On the topic, how do you suggest one in a relatively narrow market go about finding appropriate guest blogging spots? I work for a horse stable that's growing in its national presence, but since we work specifically with one breed, I've been finding it a challenge to find good spots to expand past our current network. Is this where submitting to more general equine blogs and trying to narrow from there would work? Or should I focus on the general horse public instead of worrying about the more specific topics?

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Interesting topic, but I'm wondering if there's a spot where one can see the video script? I work off a slow and very limited satellite internet, and loading the video's for Whiteboard Friday's isn't working for me :( Can I see the content in some other format? On the topic, how do you suggest one in a relatively narrow market go about finding appropriate guest blogging spots? I work for a horse stable that's growing in its national presence, but since we work specifically with one breed, I've been finding it a challenge to find good spots to expand past our current network. Is this where submitting to more general equine blogs and trying to narrow from there would work? Or should I focus on the general horse public instead of worrying about the more specific topics? 
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Curtis Stevens

2010-06-10T10:37:26-07:00

Would you not recommend ezinearticles.com then?

Is it not a good idea to get other sites to host your aticles like you said with a DA of 75 for example? Yes, their page will be attracting all the links, but that page that hosts your article will have a good PA and should pass good anchor text link juice to you right?

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Would you not recommend ezinearticles.com then? Is it not a good idea to get other sites to host your aticles like you said with a DA of 75 for example? Yes, their page will be attracting all the links, but that page that hosts your article will have a good PA and should pass good anchor text link juice to you right? 
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Geoff Andrews

2010-06-06T15:38:46-07:00

Great post,

I especially agree with Guest Blogging in related industries to bring traffic to your site i.e. Email marketing etc. being relevant to SEOmoz.

As Internet marketeers most of us have knowledge that may be too advanced for our target audience on our personal/business blogs - Guest Blogging allows us to share this knowledge, build our reputation and gain the odd link.

When you guest blog with the intention of gaining a new audience, try to release a topical, killer post on your own blog the same day...

SEM-Freak edited 2010-06-06T15:40:16-07:00
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Great post, I especially agree with Guest Blogging in related industries to bring traffic to your site i.e. Email marketing etc. being relevant to SEOmoz. As Internet marketeers most of us have knowledge that may be too advanced for our target audience on our personal/business blogs - Guest Blogging allows us to share this knowledge, build our reputation and gain the odd link. When you <a href="https://myblogguest.com/" rel="nofollow">guest blog</a> with the intention of gaining a new audience, try to release a topical, killer post on your own blog the same day...
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- Ann Smarty
 
 2010-06-07T03:57:33-07:00
 
 Cheers ;)
 
 2 0
 
 Cheers ;)
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Sameh-46762

2010-07-22T18:24:05-07:00

Everytime I try to find new less-time consuming Link Building methods I always come back to the same conclusion:

- Automation/Bulk/Massive Link Building methods are never good.

- Quality content is Quality and Crappy content is Crappy no matter how you try to convince yourself otherwise.

- Working the whole day for one quality link is way better than a bunch of easy low links.

- Include and think through your Link Building strategy in your website plan before you even start building it.

- Infographic/Widgets is a hidden gem.

Regarding Article Marketing, for me it's another Link Building method that you shouldn't relay on alone just like any other method. Do it right by writing unique articles answering what people looking for and it will pay you back.

Sameh-46762 edited 2010-07-22T18:26:24-07:00
1 0

Everytime I try to find new less-time consuming Link Building methods I always come back to the same conclusion: - Automation/Bulk/Massive Link Building methods are never good. - Quality content is Quality and Crappy content is Crappy no matter how you try to convince yourself otherwise. - Working the whole day for one quality link is way better than a bunch of easy low links. - Include and think through your Link Building strategy in your website plan before you even start building it. - Infographic/Widgets is a hidden gem. Regarding Article Marketing, for me it's another Link Building method that you shouldn't relay on alone just like any other method. Do it right by writing unique articles answering what people looking for and it will pay you back. 
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- divinewrite
 
 2010-07-22T18:33:32-07:00
 
 Couldn't agree more!
 
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 Couldn't agree more!
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al sefati

2010-06-09T15:51:49-07:00

only problem i have with press releases and article submission is that their links disappear and carry almost no juice but they are very relevant which is good.

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only problem i have with press releases and article submission is that their links disappear and carry almost no juice but they are very relevant which is good.
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Warner Carter

2010-07-01T21:05:08-07:00

There are some interesting replies here and they make me wonder what you think of dropping articles into sites like Squidoo.com, Hubpages.com, and Wetpaint.com? The links I see in Yahoo list Squidoo as PR6.

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There are some interesting replies here and they make me wonder what you think of dropping articles into sites like Squidoo.com, Hubpages.com, and Wetpaint.com? The links I see in Yahoo list Squidoo as PR6. 
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BeachDude

2010-06-09T11:53:18-07:00

Some great points here. I recently have been using an article directory site called Rysite.com that automatically TWEETS articles that get submitted. They tweet the articles to a following based off your keywords.

In the articles that I submitted, i have been seeing double the traffic. Some traffic from the article iteself, and some traffic from twitter as well.

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Some great points here. I recently have been using an article directory site called <a href="https://www.rysite.com" rel="nofollow">Rysite.com</a> that automatically TWEETS articles that get submitted. They tweet the articles to a following based off your keywords. In the articles that I submitted, i have been seeing double the traffic. Some traffic from the article iteself, and some traffic from twitter as well. 
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Alan Bleiweiss

2010-06-07T08:41:35-07:00

Article marketing is dead. Anyone still doing it is expending too much time to get any real quality value, or they're pushing garbage out and getting garbage back.

It's already been said here, but guest blogging and fresh content for your own site are so much more valuable. As is working on a dozen or more other current algorithm factors. Like getting mentions in high quality places. Improving existing SEO in on-site ways that are more important now than they were 5 years ago when article marketing was all the rage.

No, spammers and people paying 20 cents an article killed article marketing. It really is time to move on people.

Seriously.

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Article marketing is dead. Anyone still doing it is expending too much time to get any real quality value, or they're pushing garbage out and getting garbage back. It's already been said here, but guest blogging and fresh content for your own site are so much more valuable. As is working on a dozen or more other current algorithm factors. Like getting mentions in high quality places. Improving existing SEO in on-site ways that are more important now than they were 5 years ago when article marketing was all the rage. No, spammers and people paying 20 cents an article killed article marketing. It really is time to move on people. Seriously. 
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- Derek Shores
 
 2010-06-07T10:17:05-07:00
 
 So you are saying that on page tactics are now more important than off page techniques? I just don't know if I can buy all the way in to that.
 
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 So you are saying that on page tactics are now more important than off page techniques? I just don't know if I can buy all the way in to that.
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Adam Humphreys

2010-06-04T18:54:53-07:00

If it's Reddit or a place where people actually read the articles then awesome. It's just getting really old seeing all these spammy top 10 ways to get SEO links all over the web. Most of them are pretty redundant. We should just post links to SEOmoz and be done with it lol

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If it's Reddit or a place where people actually read the articles then awesome. It's just getting really old seeing all these spammy top 10 ways to get SEO links all over the web. Most of them are pretty redundant. We should just post links to SEOmoz and be done with it lol
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- divinewrite
 
 2010-06-05T04:56:00-07:00
 
 I agree that you do end up with a lot of spammy articles all over the place. But you also do end up with a handful of decent ones. I commented above with a list of links to articles of mine that have been republished on sites that pass decent (or half-decent) link juice. It's all about the quality of your articles.
 
 1 0
 
 I agree that you do end up with a lot of spammy articles all over the place. But you also do end up with a handful of decent ones. I commented above with a list of links to articles of mine that have been republished on sites that pass decent (or half-decent) link juice. It's all about the quality of your articles.
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Kien Lai

2010-06-04T08:34:33-07:00

that's actually a good tip were using the number of followers / fans on twitter / facebook as part of the mix used to evaluate importance. great WBF rand.

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that's actually a good tip were using the number of followers / fans on twitter / facebook as part of the mix used to evaluate importance. great WBF rand.
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Jim Rudnick

2010-06-04T09:09:59-07:00

Just thought I'd add a link here to a piece a couple of days old by

Gabriel Goldenberg...spot on evidence that Google agrees in part...

link is here

:-)

Jim

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Just thought I'd add a link here to a piece a couple of days old by Gabriel Goldenberg...spot on evidence that Google agrees in part... <a href="https://seoroi.com/seo-roi-quality/google-fine-guest-posts/" rel="nofollow">link is here</a> :-) Jim
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Andras Kovach

2010-06-04T07:06:05-07:00

This couldn't have come at a better time, Rand! I've been working on an article for a couple of weeks now, and am just about to do the final edits and get it out there.

I've read a lot of articles about guest posting and how to do it properly, but there's still a part of me that's a little nervous I'm going to to do the wrong thing with a great article and screw it up, ruining it forever. I guess I'm trying not to take the wrong step with this because I've put a lot of time into it. Also, no matter what the content, what we write has at least some personal attachment to it. Writing is just as much of an art as painting or sculpting or photography, etc. No one wants to be rejected, even if the project is for your employer who markets products that you really don't have anything to do with in your personal life.

There seems to be a lot of conflicting viewpoints about guest posting v. article submission. If you're a small company who's large on a national scale retail-wise, where's your best starting point? A lot of the comments here (and in the video itself) seem to frown upon article submission websites. But if your company has never really offered article content before, could it at least help you get your foot in the door? Like I mentioned above, I really don't want to start off on the wrong foot.

Oh yeah--it's National Donut Day, by the way. Go out and get some donuts for people at the office to enjoy! :)

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This couldn't have come at a better time, Rand! I've been working on an article for a couple of weeks now, and am just about to do the final edits and get it out there. I've read a lot of articles about guest posting and how to do it properly, but there's still a part of me that's a little nervous I'm going to to do the wrong thing with a great article and screw it up, ruining it forever. I guess I'm trying not to take the wrong step with this because I've put a lot of time into it. Also, no matter what the content, what we write has at least some personal attachment to it. Writing is just as much of an art as painting or sculpting or photography, etc. No one wants to be rejected, even if the project is for your employer who markets products that you really don't have anything to do with in your personal life. There seems to be a lot of conflicting viewpoints about guest posting v. article submission. If you're a small company who's large on a national scale retail-wise, where's your best starting point? A lot of the comments here (and in the video itself) seem to frown upon article submission websites. But if your company has never really offered article content before, could it at least help you get your foot in the door? Like I mentioned above, I really don't want to start off on the wrong foot. Oh yeah--it's National Donut Day, by the way. Go out and get some donuts for people at the office to enjoy! :) 
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- Rand Fishkin
 
 2010-06-04T17:35:37-07:00
 
 Yeah, I'm not saying you have to completely close yourself off from it, but I'd just be wary of doing a search like - https://www.google.com/search?q=submit+articles - and thinking that the best use of your time is to write an article for all 50 of the first results.
 
 I think you're much more likely to see ROI if you can write for sites in your sphere (maybe not your specific niche, but something relevant/related, even tangentially) and get some branding/click-through traffic, too.
 
 Heck, even something like YOUmoz (which thousands of sites offer, some explicitly, others only by request) could be useful. Maybe you don't write about your business, but how you've done SEO for it or how social media marketing has brought you some success. Perhaps you write a guest post for a travel website about how a recent trip brought you insight about your business - the topics are limitless so long as you apply creativity. :-)
 
 2 0
 
 Yeah, I'm not saying you have to completely close yourself off from it, but I'd just be wary of doing a search like - <a href="https://www.google.com/search?q=submit+articles" rel="nofollow">https://www.google.com/search?q=submit+articles</a> - and thinking that the best use of your time is to write an article for all 50 of the first results. I think you're much more likely to see ROI if you can write for sites in your sphere (maybe not your specific niche, but something relevant/related, even tangentially) and get some branding/click-through traffic, too. Heck, even something like YOUmoz (which thousands of sites offer, some explicitly, others only by request) could be useful. Maybe you don't write about your business, but how you've done SEO for it or how social media marketing has brought you some success. Perhaps you write a guest post for a travel website about how a recent trip brought you insight about your business - the topics are limitless so long as you apply creativity. :-) 
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trafficsoar

2010-06-04T05:41:51-07:00

I completely agree as content networking through guest blogging I did and it really pays as it is not easy at the same really needs good effort..also you broaden your knowledge base, come in contact with more people and link is really a authority link. Also, it is not inital phase but I find in last 1 year guest blogging is fast growing industry and will soon will become tough to compete. It is contextual linking...

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I completely agree as content networking through guest blogging I did and it really pays as it is not easy at the same really needs good effort..also you broaden your knowledge base, come in contact with more people and link is really a authority link. Also, it is not inital phase but I find in last 1 year guest blogging is fast growing industry and will soon will become tough to compete. It is contextual linking... 
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Tatiana_London

2010-06-04T01:19:22-07:00

I do agree that Article Marketing is dying out as form of link strategy at list.

I have used PR release redistribution PRWeb recently and although article has been picked up by a few other sites and republished, they do mainly make links un-clickable if they leave the url in. But by the statistic PRWeb provides the impression and readership was very high and I did see a few searches done based on campaign name.

Unfortunately cannot attribute particular leads or traffic to this as campaign was integrated with Social and banner and a few partners.

Tatiana_London edited 2010-06-04T01:19:48-07:00
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I do agree that Article Marketing is dying out as form of link strategy at list. I have used PR release redistribution PRWeb recently and although article has been picked up by a few other sites and republished, they do mainly make links un-clickable if they leave the url in. But by the statistic PRWeb provides the impression and readership was very high and I did see a few searches done based on campaign name. Unfortunately cannot attribute particular leads or traffic to this as campaign was integrated with Social and banner and a few partners. 
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- Adam Smith
 
 2010-06-04T01:35:54-07:00
 
 Unfortunately you can only use Press Release sites so much before google discounts the juice they pass.
 
 Use a site more than 10 times (over a couple of years) and the links from the PR site and even its scraper sites don't count for much :(
 
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 Unfortunately you can only use Press Release sites so much before google discounts the juice they pass. Use a site more than 10 times (over a couple of years) and the links from the PR site and even its scraper sites don't count for much :( 
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 - Emil Uzelac
 
 2010-06-04T01:53:03-07:00
 
 I know by the experience that Press Release links are providing very little amount of backlinks if any, the major reason for that is the location of your PR i.e. example.com/news/123/your-title-here/2344.html.
 
 There's no way that anything good can come out of that. And another thing, since we're talking about Google and links in PR's take a look at this post. According to them Google is contacting Newspapers to remove live links from Press Releases, if that is true having links in PR are already history.
 
 But however I do not think that this will "kill" the Press Release distribution at all.
 
 Thanks,
 
 Emil
 
 1 0
 
 I know by the experience that Press Release links are providing very little amount of backlinks if any, the major reason for that is the location of your PR i.e. example.com/news/123/your-title-here/2344.html. There's no way that anything good can come out of that. And another thing, since we're talking about Google and links in PR's take a look at <a href="https://www.davidnaylor.co.uk/did-newspapers-just-destroy-seo.html" rel="nofollow">this post</a>. According to them Google is contacting Newspapers to remove live links from Press Releases, if that is true having links in PR are already history. But however I do not think that this will "kill" the Press Release distribution at all. Thanks, Emil
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 - firstconversion
 
 2010-06-04T02:44:23-07:00
 
 I dont read that into the article at all (i did have to read it a few times to make head or tail).
 
 Spamtype links may go, natural links will stay. Not having natural useful links in the main content of a newspaper website would be stupidly unusable.
 
 Google is contacting Newspapers to remove live links from Press Releases - havent read something so unlikely in a while (willing to be proven wrong on that tho)
 
 1 0
 
 I dont read that into the article at all (i did have to read it a few times to make head or tail). Spamtype links may go, natural links will stay. Not having natural useful links in the main content of a newspaper website would be stupidly unusable. Google is contacting Newspapers to remove live links from Press Releases - havent read something so unlikely in a while (willing to be proven wrong on that tho) 
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 - Tola
 
 2010-06-04T03:58:50-07:00
 
 I was under the impression that when it came to using PR it was less to do with the actual link generation (and crawlers) but more to do with the company brand awareness??
 
 I thought that was what PR was really about?? After all, as long as the article has the company name it's already creating awareness and giving that company a buzz. This may or may not trigger people to actually perform a search for that company and in the long run generate more customers and all...
 
 That was my understanding of using Press Releases and not as a hardcore link building strategy...
 
 2 0
 
 I was under the impression that when it came to using PR it was less to do with the actual link generation (and crawlers) but more to do with the company brand awareness?? I thought that was what PR was really about?? After all, as long as the article has the company name it's already creating awareness and giving that company a buzz. This may or may not trigger people to actually perform a search for that company and in the long run generate more customers and all... That was my understanding of using Press Releases and not as a hardcore link building strategy... 
 Cancel
 - Gianluca Fiorelli
 
 2010-06-04T04:11:03-07:00
 
 Effectively Web PR should be more about that... but in that case, more than using plain Article Marketing, the good way IMHO should be to have a great About Us section in your Company sites which should have to include things like > News, Contacts (with a focus on PR Dpt.), downloadable infographics (Logos, Logs for Printed Press use... if available embeddable videos), Who's Who and so on.
 
 And Web PR should be also training the PR Dpt. about the basic of SEO Copywriting so that when they deliver press releases to the press, they are already optimized with links with a proper anchor text and things like that.
 
 And what about Article Marketing? It should be another diffusion channel, but not the main one.
 
 2 0
 
 Effectively Web PR should be more about that... but in that case, more than using plain Article Marketing, the good way IMHO should be to have a great About Us section in your Company sites which should have to include things like > News, Contacts (with a focus on PR Dpt.), downloadable infographics (Logos, Logs for Printed Press use... if available embeddable videos), Who's Who and so on. And Web PR should be also training the PR Dpt. about the basic of SEO Copywriting so that when they deliver press releases to the press, they are already optimized with links with a proper anchor text and things like that. And what about Article Marketing? It should be another diffusion channel, but not the main one. 
 Cancel
Craig Addyman

2010-06-04T04:08:18-07:00

I think you shouldn't give them everything just touch on their emotions and have a link back to your site with the remaining information at the end of the article.

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I think you shouldn't give them everything just touch on their emotions and have a link back to your site with the remaining information at the end of the article. 
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Emil Uzelac

2010-06-03T23:52:49-07:00

Hi Rand,

Great topic and fantastic coverage. I agree, it's much better that you spend time writing an articles for your very own site rather than going and doing the same for example.com.

If the article is good enough you will definitely get traffic one way or another. I personally always kind of start with the stuff that are not so competitive, but still something that people would search for it, instead of going after the subject that won't rank me high enough or better said a subject where example.com would be on page 5 where nobody would find it.

Basically applying the same strategy as I would with the lower competitive keywords that could produce more traffic than one article listed on page 2+.

Thank you for the video, as always it's very much appreciated.

Emil

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Hi Rand, Great topic and fantastic coverage. I agree, it's much better that you spend time writing an articles for your very own site rather than going and doing the same for example.com. If the article is good enough you will definitely get traffic one way or another. I personally always kind of start with the stuff that are not so competitive, but still something that people would search for it, instead of going after the subject that won't rank me high enough or better said a subject where example.com would be on page 5 where nobody would find it. Basically applying the same strategy as I would with the lower competitive keywords that could produce more traffic than one article listed on page 2+. Thank you for the video, as always it's very much appreciated. Emil
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OrganicVentures

2010-06-04T11:38:18-07:00

Whoa. Stirred a little controversy here, Rand!

I have similar question to 2kaday: what should I do, when my niche is overtaken by huge competitors ( in terms of guest blogging ) and all I have to play with are blog comments and some (and some of questionable value) article directories?

OrganicVentures edited 2010-06-04T11:44:46-07:00
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Whoa. Stirred a little controversy here, Rand! I have similar question to 2kaday: what should I do, when my niche is overtaken by huge competitors ( in terms of guest blogging ) and all I have to play with are blog comments and some (and some of questionable value) article directories? 
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- Rand Fishkin
 
 2010-06-04T17:30:00-07:00
 
 Honestly, I'd venture into niche markets and related fields that are tangentially related, but less competitive. For example, if you're in legal services, maybe go to the legal side of startups. If you're in auto repair, go the world of race car repair or street mod repair. Creativity pays off in my experience.
 
 3 0
 
 Honestly, I'd venture into niche markets and related fields that are tangentially related, but less competitive. For example, if you're in legal services, maybe go to the legal side of startups. If you're in auto repair, go the world of race car repair or street mod repair. Creativity pays off in my experience.
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 - MarcoVittigni
 
 2010-06-05T01:24:09-07:00
 
 Earl Nightingale decades ago said "If you enter a market and don’t know what to do, watch what everyone else does and then do the opposite and you have greater chance to be successful" I second that creativity pays off
 
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 Earl Nightingale decades ago said "If you enter a market and don’t know what to do, watch what everyone else does and then do the opposite and you have greater chance to be successful" I second that creativity pays off
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 - Federico Caramella
 
 2010-06-05T08:13:19-07:00
 
 Good point Marco! But you can't do that in "every" niche I think..
 
 And I'm with you Rand when you say that it's most valuable to find some market that it's not exactly what you do but is related to. It's more easy to catch the interest of that kind of readers ;)
 
 1 0
 
 Good point Marco! But you can't do that in "every" niche I think.. And I'm with you Rand when you say that it's most valuable to find some market that it's not exactly what you do but is related to. It's more easy to catch the interest of that kind of readers ;) 
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pyqs

2010-06-05T17:50:24-07:00

What about the value between reposting articles vs. submitting unique ones?

We have an opportunity to have a syndication agreement with a well known site, and have the options of either submiting some of our existing articles (in which case they'd include a link to our original article), or submit unique ones. In both cases, we have control over the links and anchor text that will go into the articles.

So we're facing the trade-offs of having to invest in unique content vs. re-use existing content, but get less juice from pages that are duplicate to what we have in our sites.

Thoughts?

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What about the value between reposting articles vs. submitting unique ones? We have an opportunity to have a syndication agreement with a well known site, and have the options of either submiting some of our existing articles (in which case they'd include a link to our original article), or submit unique ones. In both cases, we have control over the links and anchor text that will go into the articles. So we're facing the trade-offs of having to invest in unique content vs. re-use existing content, but get less juice from pages that are duplicate to what we have in our sites. Thoughts? 
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Sean Gallagher

2010-06-05T02:48:48-07:00

Hey everyone... I'm curious as to what sites people are thinking of that would qualify as a good site for an article submission. Rand mentioned Ezine is not really a good site for this.

I've seen in the comments there are suggestions that guest posts on blogs in your niche or near niche would work as a type of site for this style of link building. But does anyone have any specific examples of websites and what do you come up with other than guest posts?

I guess what I'm looking for is that it would be neat to see an example niche and possiable sites that would be worth getting links from within that niche. The niche can be made up but the sites would be real so as to understand how and what to look for. I figure myself and others might learn a little more if we passed around some ideas

I've got some of my own but their mainly just guess post on blogs or finding lesser known niche specific article sites or sites that allow you to post some content or articles but are very niche specific. An example would be SEOmoz if your an SEO since you can submit content to YOUmoz.

Let me know what you come up with. :)

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Hey everyone... I'm curious as to what sites people are thinking of that would qualify as a good site for an article submission. Rand mentioned Ezine is not really a good site for this. I've seen in the comments there are suggestions that guest posts on blogs in your niche or near niche would work as a type of site for this style of link building. But does anyone have any specific examples of websites and what do you come up with other than guest posts? I guess what I'm looking for is that it would be neat to see an example niche and possiable sites that would be worth getting links from within that niche. The niche can be made up but the sites would be real so as to understand how and what to look for. I figure myself and others might learn a little more if we passed around some ideas I've got some of my own but their mainly just guess post on blogs or finding lesser known niche specific article sites or sites that allow you to post some content or articles but are very niche specific. An example would be SEOmoz if your an SEO since you can submit content to YOUmoz. Let me know what you come up with. :)
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- divinewrite
 
 2010-06-05T04:54:32-07:00
 
 Personally, I think EzineArticles is one of the best. They run quite a tight ship and, although they don't stop you posting poorly written, fluff articles (as far as I know), they do stop you from including excess links, etc., and that's something.
 
 The important thing about EzineArticles is not their own PageRank or the amount of link juice they'll pass. It's their popularity with webmasters who are looking for content to republish.
 
 If I had to choose just one article site to submit to (without doing any research), it'd be EzineArticles.
 
 2 0
 
 Personally, I think EzineArticles is one of the best. They run quite a tight ship and, although they don't stop you posting poorly written, fluff articles (as far as I know), they do stop you from including excess links, etc., and that's something. The important thing about EzineArticles is not their own PageRank or the amount of link juice they'll pass. It's their popularity with webmasters who are looking for content to republish. If I had to choose just one article site to submit to (without doing any research), it'd be EzineArticles. 
 Cancel
- Emil Uzelac
 
 2010-06-05T20:54:11-07:00
 
 This is my personal opinion. I would rather take good authority Blogger over Ezine or any other article site at any given time. Not just random Blog of course.
 
 Wil Reynolds talked about this on his YouTube videos while back as well. https://goo.gl/Jp5h take a look.
 
 For example. i.e. eHow will produce lots of traffic, but no backlinks and this is if the subject you are writing about is good, meaning that people will search for it.
 
 Thanks,
 
 Emil
 
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 This is my personal opinion. I would rather take good authority Blogger over Ezine or any other article site at any given time. Not just random Blog of course. Wil Reynolds talked about this on his YouTube videos while back as well. <a href="https://goo.gl/Jp5h" rel="nofollow">https://goo.gl/Jp5h</a> take a look. For example. i.e. eHow will produce lots of traffic, but no backlinks and this is if the subject you are writing about is good, meaning that people will search for it. Thanks, Emil
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MartinLieban

2010-06-04T13:55:22-07:00

Nice article, Martin Lieban

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Nice article, Martin Lieban
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Seljak78

2010-06-04T12:17:47-07:00

Content is king. I have experienced that good and unique content is key for success. My blog has been successful because of the content I created. Let me tell you it is hard work.

Good post.

Thanks

Michael

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Content is king. I have experienced that good and unique content is key for success. My blog has been successful because of the content I created. Let me tell you it is hard work. Good post. Thanks Michael
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BeachDude

2010-06-04T13:20:44-07:00

I recently have been submitting my content to an article directory called rysite.com that tweets my article automatically to a following based on the keywords. I have been getting traffic from both the article and also from twitter. Seems to be doing the trick so far.

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I recently have been submitting my content to an article directory called <a href="www.rysite.com">rysite.com</a> that tweets my article automatically to a following based on the keywords. I have been getting traffic from both the article and also from twitter. Seems to be doing the trick so far.
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Tahire Khan

2010-06-06T05:57:51-07:00

brilliant article taht was timely in my case, thanks for the post

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brilliant article taht was timely in my case, thanks for the post
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al sefati

2010-06-06T10:34:20-07:00

Thank you very much.

I have been using article submission as a menthod of link building for a while but while doing it, I have come to learn how it helps better with SEO. There are many tips you can provide and I hope you do it in your future posts. Things like how relevant you want your content to be,

how many links per article, what categories and even which sites to submit your articles to, how to choose an anchor text, and ...

But again, thanks again and keep it up

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Thank you very much. I have been using article submission as a menthod of link building for a while but while doing it, I have come to learn how it helps better with SEO. There are many tips you can provide and I hope you do it in your future posts. Things like how relevant you want your content to be, how many links per article, what categories and even which sites to submit your articles to, how to choose an anchor text, and ... But again, thanks again and keep it up 
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Orion Group

2010-06-04T10:59:22-07:00

Google is most interested in unique and relevant content.

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Google is most interested in unique and relevant content.
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Sebes

2010-06-04T00:21:56-07:00

Hey Rand,

I disagree with cost being a factor. A 300-350 words article goes for about 6 € or 10 $. Submitting and checking is outmost 10 minutes or so. Usually you get 2 links to 2 pages.

I do think though, that the value is pretty low compared to other guest-blogging or produceing quality content.

Sebastian

Sebes edited 2010-06-04T00:22:36-07:00
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Hey Rand, I disagree with cost being a factor. A 300-350 words article goes for about 6 € or 10 $. Submitting and checking is outmost 10 minutes or so. Usually you get 2 links to 2 pages. I do think though, that the value is pretty low compared to other guest-blogging or produceing quality content. Sebastian 
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- divinewrite
 
 2010-06-04T00:59:56-07:00
 
 Articles that cheap will rarely (if ever) be good enough to attract natural editorial links. So all you'll be left with are:
 1. the low value links from the article directory itself; and
 2. the low value links from the trashy sites that are prepared to republish low quality articles (reputable sites will tend not to republish low quality articles).
 I've ranted about this at great length here.
 
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 Articles that cheap will rarely (if ever) be good enough to attract natural editorial links. So all you'll be left with are: <ol><li>the low value links from the article directory itself; and</li><li>the low value links from the trashy sites that are prepared to republish low quality articles (reputable sites will tend not to republish low quality articles).</li></ol> I've ranted about this at great length <a href="https://www.divinewrite.com/blog/copywriting/clarify-misconceptions-thoughts-sausagefactory-content/" rel="nofollow">here</a>. 
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 - Sebes
 
 2010-06-04T01:17:38-07:00
 
 Well, yes....thats what I wrote.
 
 All you get is a cheap link, potentially dangerous, some Domain-Pop and thats it. I never argued that these articles will recieve editorial links. Thats what I meant with "compared to...produceing quality content" to attract editorial links.
 
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 Well, yes....thats what I wrote. All you get is a cheap link, potentially dangerous, some Domain-Pop and thats it. I never argued that these articles will recieve editorial links. Thats what I meant with "compared to...produceing quality content" to attract editorial links. 
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 - divinewrite
 
 2010-06-04T02:59:32-07:00
 
 So that's what you said, hey?! You don't think you can come back and me with something so petty as a fact, do you?! ;-)
 
 LOL. Yeah, I did jump on you a bit quick, there, didn't I? Sorry about that. Just a little riled up with the whole 'sausage-factory' debate that's reared its head again. Saw your mention of cheap articles, and drew kinda the wrong conclusion.
 
 I would say, however, that the value is *very* low, not just *pretty* low, compared with the value of guest-blogging or editorial links generated through quality content + outreach.
 
 I'd also content that their value is going to continue to decrease, as G gets better at filtering out the crap...
 
 Once again, sorry for jumping to conclusions.
 
 Glenn
 
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 So that's what you said, hey?! You don't think you can come back and me with something so petty as a fact, do you?! ;-) LOL. Yeah, I did jump on you a bit quick, there, didn't I? Sorry about that. Just a little riled up with the whole 'sausage-factory' debate that's reared its head again. Saw your mention of cheap articles, and drew kinda the wrong conclusion. I would say, however, that the value is *very* low, not just *pretty* low, compared with the value of guest-blogging or editorial links generated through quality content + outreach. I'd also content that their value is going to continue to decrease, as G gets better at filtering out the crap... Once again, sorry for jumping to conclusions. Glenn 
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