Written by Does article marketing work? I get this question over and over again. I would like to take a moment and set the record straight. The short answer is yes and no. Here’s the long answer:
First, let me define article marketing. Article marketing, sometimes called Bum marketing because of Travis Sago, is the method of writing articles and submitting them to article directories for exposure and backlinks. Let’s look at this a little closer. By exposure, I mean that article directories such as EzineArticles.com with a very high readership will get people to read your articles and click on your links in the biography section. The idea is to write an article about a topic with the incentive for the reader to click on your link to find a solution to their problem or for more information. By backlinks, I mean that the links from article directories add to your sites’ value in the eyes of search engines such as Google, Yahoo, and MSN.
Many people think article marketing does not work. Many people think article marketing works great. Who should we believe? Since there are many people who succeed and fail at this effort, I will try to examine why this is so.
One of the possible reasons people fail is not writing enough articles to succeed. If you are in a competitive niche, your article will be competing with tons of articles on the same topic. Because of this, you must take time to narrow your focus to be successful. If you write an article on weight loss and your keywords are weight loss, chances are that article will not be enough to propel your site onto the first page of Google for weight loss.
Another possible reason for people to fail at article marketing is a bad title. One of the first things your reader sees is your article’s title. Having a bad title is the kiss of death. Bad titles make the reader click on something else rather than read your article.
Yet another reaon for failure is having a weak resource box. You should be creative here. You want your reader to go to the site you are promoting, otherwise why write the article in the first place? If your article is complete, and the reader has all their answers, do you think they will go to your site? Me neither.
OK, OK, with all the negativity here, you might think that article marketing is just too hard. No, that is not the case. How do article marketers succeed? Well, they look for problems people are commonly afflicted with such as being overweight, suffering from acne, etc. and write articles with solutions to those issues. A properly crafted article gets the reader to your site where the solution is right there for purchase. That’s how it is done.
Article marketing can be lucrative if you are good at it. No matter who you are, however, article marketing takes time and effort. One article alone is not going to make enough money so you can retire. Authors who are getting big results have hundreds or thousands of articles out there. If you can write one article a day to promote your website, in a year’s time you’ll have hundreds of links and traffic too.
