3 Article Marketing Strategies
3 Ways To Use Article Marketing
After posting my article marketing strategy the other day here at PotPieGirl.com I realized that perhaps we need to talk about article marketing in general. There are 3 “types” of article marketing strategies – each accomplish something different and are done differently. When trying to make money online it is important to understand each type of article marketing, what each does to help your online business, and be clear about why you are writing articles in the first place. Let’s talk about the three unique styles of article marketing so you can choose which strategy will be best for you.
Understanding How Article Marketing Works
The term “article marketing” can mean many things and each can have a different result when done properly. The problem is, that term “article marketing” is all bunched together into one lump concept and it causes a LOT of confusion.
The 3 main types of article marketing are Direct Article Marketing, Article Marketing for Traffic, and Article Marketing for Backlinks.
Let’s look at each one.
1. Direct Article Marketing
Direct article marketing is the process of putting your articles online and having each article link directly to the page that makes you money. In other words – the link goes straight to the sales page via your affiliate link.
In that graph, A= your article and $= the page that makes you money (the sales page).
In short, you are writing articles with the sole intention of getting people to read your articles and click straight through via your affiliate link to the page that makes you money. In most cases, this is the sales page – but in all cases it is the page you want the reader on because that is the last step before they buy something.
Pros of Direct Article Marketing
1. Easy.
First off, direct article marketing is easy… not just easy to do, but it’s easy to understand and perfect for those that are new to this whole “make money online” thing.
2. Free.
You can do direct article marketing for no cost what-so-ever.
3. Uncomplicated.
This is one of those great techniques to make money online that is very basic. No need for a website, no need for a long, drawn out, and complicated learning curve. Just write, submit and go (and then repeat, repeat, repeat).
4. “Noise-Free”.
What I like about this technique is that it is not nearly as “noisy” as all the other things we can do to make money online. You don’t need other tools and learning programs… you don’t have to keep up with the “latest and greatest” – you just write on your own time and as often as you can. The more you write, the more you can earn.
Cons of Direct Article Marketing
1. A Lot Of Writing.
You need to write often and submit articles as often as you can. This is not a “write one article and get rich” thing by any means.
2. Affiliate Links.
Many good article directories will not allow the use of affiliate links in the articles they publish. There is a totally ok way to get around this, but it can cost a little bit (less than $10 a YEAR).
I have a completely free online course that teaches all about Direct Article Marketing and it teaches how to get around the “no affiliate link” rule that many article directories have.
If you are brand new to all this, or are just wanting a “no fuss, no muss – and no NOISE” way to work a few hours a day and make money online, this would be perfect for you.
The name of my free course is The DAM Way and you can find it at theDAMway.com
(and no, I’m not saying bad words… DAM stands for Direct Article Marketing 😉 )
2. Article Marketing for Traffic
Article marketing for traffic is a bit different. There is another web page involved that DOES allow affiliate links. This “other” page is called a “Landing Page”.
This Landing Page can be a page on your own website or a page on a free-to-use site (like Squidoo or Blogspot, etc). In short, you make a landing page and then write articles to push traffic to your landing page in hopes that those people will take whatever action your want them to take (ie, sign up for something, buy something, join your mailing list, etc). For this example, we will be writing articles to push traffic to a landing page that has our affiliate links.
In this graph – A= Your Article LP = Your Landing Page and $= The Sales Page
The immediate goal of this type of article marketing is to bring traffic to our landing pages. We put our articles on high-authority sites that are free to use because those sites rank well in Google. When someone searches in Google for the things we write about, they find out articles, click through the link and end up on our landing page. At this point (we hope) the reader clicks one of our affiliate links and buys something (earning us a nice juicy commission).
While we tend to write things in our article to encourage people to WANT to click and see our page, these articles are not promotional. They are general interest/informative articles that would appeal to someone who would be interested in the product we are promoting (same as Direct Article Marketing).
These articles CAN be used to help our landing pages rank better in Google if we make the links to our landing pages clickable words that we want our landing page to rank in Google for, but that is not the primary goal for writing these articles.
Pros Of Article Marketing For Traffic
1. Can be totally FREE.
You can do this entire system using all free sites.
2. Repeat Readers.
Enables you to build a readership for your blog.
3. Lists.
Also gives you the opportunity (if you want) to build a mailing list of your visitors so you can communicate with them long after they are gone from your page. Email marketing (list marketing) is a very powerful part of internet marketing.
4. Pre-Selling.
This article marketing strategy enables you to “pre-sell” readers on your product better than sending them straight to a sales page (like you do with Direct Article Marketing). You can review/compare more than one product, talk about your experience with a product or in a situation where someone might need that product… whatever, it just gives you more opportunity to connect with the reader.
Cons Of Article Marketing For Traffic
1. There aren’t any Cons.
Seriously, it’s a great technique that can be done for your own sites or with free-to-use sites. The more you write, the more traffic you can bring to your landing page. You don’t have to worry about getting around affiliate link usage either.
In fact, many people make a nice extra income (or more) from this simple strategy alone. Here is a video about a woman who makes over 100k a year doing this simple article marketing technique.
Article Marketing for Traffic using free sites is how I started making money online. The cost to start and do this technique is ZERO. Once you understand the basic concept of Direct Article Marketing taught in The DAM Way, you’ll be set to learn my way of using free sites to make money online.
I teach how to make money online using free websites and free techniques in One Week Marketing (OneWeekMarketing.com).
3. Article Marketing for Backlinks
The third type of article marketing is when you submit articles in order to receive backlinks to your web page and those backlinks help your web page rank better in Google and other search engines.
In this graph – A= Your Article, LP = Your Landing Page (lens, blog post, website, etc), SERPS = Search Engine Results Pages (ie, Google).
The primary purpose of this type of article marketing is to get backlinks to your web page from many different sources. We don’t particularly care if these articles rank well or if they bring us traffic. We want these articles to help OUR web pages rank well
The basic concept is that you write quality and useful articles on some topic that is related to the theme of your landing page. Within these articles (or in the author bio box) we are permitted to have links. We make those links clickable words that we want our landing page to rank in Google for.
The higher you rank in Google, the more organic (free) traffic your landing page will get. Theory is, more traffic means more sales.
Also, backlinks to your sites/landing pages help build authority and trust for your site/web page.
The “secret” is to get your articles syndicated to as many different sites as possible. We want as many links from as many different domains as we can get.
Now, this can be done with the exact same article all over tons of websites – but that is not the best idea in my opinion. I have done a LOT of article marketing for backlinks and have tried all kinds of ways to get my articles syndicated across the web.
Note: these articles are NOT monetized – meaning, there are no affiliate links or anything promotional about them. You are giving other sites free, quality articles to put on their site in exchange for a link (or links) to your site (or page).
I have narrowed down my own personal article marketing strategy that I use to gain back links and make my sites/web pages rank higher in Google. My system requires only ONE unique article…but gets you many, many quality backlinks from all over the web.
If you’d like to learn my article marketing for back links strategy, read this post here.
Summing It All Up
These are the 3 main types of article marketing and what each can achieve for you.
You can combine #2 and #3 so your articles both help bring you traffic AND help you rank better in Google. But #1 (Direct Article Marketing) is a system that is not used for any other purpose than to make money directly from your articles.
Many, many people ask me “Should I do…… {this, that or the other thing} when article marketing?” “Does article marketing work?” “What is the best way to {insert anything} with article marketing? etc etc etc.
My main answer is always – “WHAT do you want to achieve with your article marketing? What is your goal?”
Once you know your goal, deciding which article marketing strategy is best for you is easy.
Just pick one 😉
One Last thing… If you haven’t gotten any of the cool free stuff that’s listed at the top of this post (in the red box) you might want to hurry and get it. All these cool pre-launch freebies will be gone starting tomorrow.
Great post Jennifer!
This addresses exactly what I get asked a TON… and I think I just found where I will be directing people from now on for an extremely thorough answer! 😉
Great post, as usual, Jennifer. Every time I read your work it clears away a little fog. I used to find article writing excruciatingly painful, but now it’s only mildly irritating. Maybe one day I’ll even enjoy it. It’s definitely getting easier.
I think article marketing for backlinks and traffic is easier than the direct sell approach. For direct sell to work, you have to get enough traffic to your article. Ezines can rank okay without too many backlinks in the right niches, but if you have to do too much (subjective term, I know) to rank the article itself I figure it is better to use articles to help rank your own site, whether it is a blog you own or something at Hubpages or Squidoo. Ezine can be nice but is a bit limited since there is no video or pictures.
That is what I call simplifying what article marketing is. Real eye opener for me. Totally enjoyed “the dam way” marketing and the article about getting traffic from one article. Great stuff. I also own One Week Marketing. I love to read your info. Very Great. Thanks Loads.
Once again, you provide great information. You might want to check your damway links, though, as at least one of them links to dayway.com (with a y).
Thanks for the work you do, Jennifer. You and a very few others are the only ones I really trust for information like this. You have integrity, girl,
Brian (a.k.a. Professor Homunculus at MathMojo.com )
@ Matt – Hey you! Thanks for stopping by. Yep, same here… I get asked this quite often and sometimes that term “article marketing” gets all globbed together in one big confusing mess. Hopefully, this will clear some of that up =)
@ Les – You know when you really can ENJOY article marketing? When you can outsource it….lol! Article writing is just plain ol’ necessary online… We rarely do it because we love it.
@ Jody – agreed – but there are some people that just love, and do very well, with linking straight to the sales page. I also think it’s the easiest way to get started with all this mumbo-jumbo.
@ Plenty – THANK YOU! Glad I can help. I remember what it was like for all these things to confuse the heck out of me – it’s awful!
@ Brian – HEY BRIAN! Nice to “see” you! And THANK YOU very much for both the compliment AND telling me I had a broken link above (fixed now).
Note to self: always, always, always check your links!
Thanks for reading and for your feedback everyone!
Jennifer
~PotPieGirl
You’re writing for a particular market, so always write about something that matters to them. You’ll need to do research on your market so you know what is important to them. By giving them content they are not interested in, you’ll simply lose them and have to work harder to get them back. So it’s just a matter of focus and being organized in your writing. The key is really knowing what matters to your market, and be sure you only write to them.
It’s important to note that article writing isn’t simple, and skillful writing is still needed. The best quality about online writing, however, is that if you can speak, you can write. You don’t need to develop anything extra in order to write articles that get results. One of the best ways to write an article is to record your voice and then dictate those words as they flow. You will be able to transfer your sentences from your brain to the keyboard.
@ Clayne –
“if you can speak, you can write”
Yes!!! Absolutely! And great tips, too. Thank you for sharing.
thanks Jennifer – for people who are looking to outsource their articles, I’ve been using http://SEOGenerals.com – well written articles for under $3.00 – decent turn-a-round time also.
I think this is the most thorough look at article marketing that I’ve ever seen. I’m going to direct people here to save time when I’m trying to explain the many types of article marketing to people. People who want to write for Ezine in particular sometimes don’t understand how to deal with the no-affiliate-link rule. Great job on this!
Nice explanation. Very easy to understand. Although I knew the benefits of article marketing I had never really looked at each separately before.
Another way to use articles is to post to the web on your own sites and optimize so that the search engines find your website which is when you get your visitor to perform the desired action.
Phill
HI Jennifer,
Your posts are very educational and always informative.
Thank you once again.
Rock & Roll,
moneymakersuk
When I first started out in affiliate marketing I actually was doing direct article marketing. However, thanks to OWM I realized that article marketing for traffic worked out much better.
Lately I’ve gotten lazy and have just been submitting articles to UAW for backlinks but I think I might start writing some articles again for the purpose of getting some traffic to my sites seeing as you actually kill 2 birds with one stone this away anyway.
I had a small success doing article marketing the DAM way. Thanks for that, Jennifer. I’m also trying out the authority codes and will see if they’ll work.
Hi Jennifer,
Love your simple explanations and presentation.
As a recent journey into having an article site is teaching me, I spend a lot of time reviewing pending articles, which are seeking backlinks to reputable business sites. That said the text reads as not being produced by someone who has English as a first language and therefore it generally gets trashed. Other article site owners have reported a similar problem. I am wondering if this is a result of the hype about back-links and businesses contracting out the task? Please feel free to post to our early-days program. I am a committed follower of your commonsense.
Great post Jennifer. I used to use Article base to post my articles but I have just found out that they now apply the nofollow rule so I am just going to stick with Ezine.
Hello jennifer,
Thank you for all products and counsels than you give us.
I would like than “Article Instant Factory” be in french.
Cordiality.
Bernadette
many thanks to u jennifer..very informative article for me..
u r a great tutor for article marketing i ever found!
The Best Wrinkle Reducer
I absolutely loved this post. One of the best readings I have had in a long time, and it clearly explained the concept behind article marketing. I had kind of a basic understanding, but now thanks to Jennifer, I know a lot more. Thank You Maria Mekus maria@mekus.com
Thanks Jennifer for delivering this valuable and clear to understand information.
I will use this post as a resource along with One Week Marketing and The DAM Way as a blueprint to my internet marketing strategy.
Is there a hierarchy of article sites when publishing an article? Can I publish the article on my blog first?
James
Hi Jen,
Thanks for such an in depth response to my totally uneducated question. 😉
Obviously I’m still trudging through the basics. I really respect your ability to meet people where they are at…even me.
Your story is an inspiration and your advice, invaluable!
Thanks, again!
~G
Great review, thanks Jennifer!
The end game for me is to be found on Google. that is how I simplify it. I use YOUR techniques to do just that…move up in Google.
I do most article marketing for backlinks. I haven’t invested in a spinner yet, which I will be doing soon. I am hoping for a marked improvement once I do.
Hi PPG
I have been around the block a couple of times
trying to settle on some game plan for Internet Marketing.
Article marketing is such a central part of the system, and I do like writing but it has taken me a few years to accept the fact that nothing is going to replace “getting the writing done”.
In other words, no tool, no fancy easy plug and play website system
or any kind of “spend your way to the top” strategy is going to cut it.
In the end, having a plan to create a consistent stream of quality articles
and sticking to it, is the key that unlocks the door to a long term,
fun, money making home business on the internet.
Thank you for your extremely helpful information and free training.
Thank you for the link back to Travis’s video about the stay-at-home Mom making 100 K writing articles. Some great tips in there
that really emphasize the basics of Article Writing.
For those people who may have missed that, and maybe didn’t see Jennifer’s link to it
I’m paying it back to you PPG by using your link to that video
as my web page entry in this comment….
you can click on me to get to that great bit of training and inspiration
to buckle down to some Article writing.
Thanks again so much for your passion and your ongoing support to others
in this often challenging and sometimes downright frustrating business.
Here’s to a cool head and a renewed energized effort for all your newbie
and not so newbie students like myself…..
Take Care RP
you are always giving info that wakes me up to things I forgot about …in this crazy IM community you really have to pick the ripe fruits (newsletters) and throw away the rest (unsubscribe) because the info overload is so confusing and not only that but you even forget about the good tips you learned in the past…. it is absolute that we must un sub scribe from the masses that give you a freebie and maybe the best tip they have to then just hook you on launches.. we are all in this for the money and the lifestyle but to succeed in any of those niches out there we first must pick the right mentors from which we feel that give as much as they are willing to make ,… I will say it again for myself especially … un sub scribe!!!!!
Another great article…very informative. I liked the way you link various articles and products together.
Jennifer:
This is a very interesting post. I was reading some information the other day about the backlink strategy. The premise being to use an article spinner to create as many articles as possible, regardless of the quality, just to get the backlink.
What’s you thought on that?
– Rick
Hi, Jennifer
This is another really helpful post on the whole subject of article marketing. In particular, I was wondering if number two and three could/should be combined, and you’ve answered that for me.
I guess with regard to that the important thing is providing quality content to the sites that are giving me backlinks. So, if I do have promotional links in those articles they should be totally relevant to the article content and not “pushy.” Sometimes it’s easy to get stuck on “how to drive traffic” and forget that “traffic” is actual human beings who are looking for information or products/services. The best way to attract them, once you’ve got their eyes on your article, is to provide useful well-written information.
Keep the great teaching coming!
Teresa
Article marketing is an effective strategy especially in SEO campaign. However, I’ve found some difficulty on some concepts and principles of article marketing that until now I’m trying to figure out. But, thanks to you since you explained it clearly in your post and I was quite enlightened now. Again, thanks a lot for making things clear for me. I’ll be looking forward for your next post, Jen.
Thanks once again for the informative post. You always come through with quality content that helps people sort through everything in a simple manner. If there is one thing that I have learned at an early stage is that you can not afford to put all of your eggs in one basket. Google ranked #1 today, Google slapped and deindexed tomorrow. Oh well what can you you do but roll with the punches.
Hey Jennifer – yet another great ‘clarifying’ post.
Also liked what Clayne had to say – it is so true. It’s how I write my ‘looked for’ letters to family and friends. It is a casual way to write but simple and straight forward.
You may be a gift horse, which can be tiring at times, but! You are a most beautiful and wonderous gift horse!!
Thanks for all you give us.
interesting things 😀
The only thing that I would have added to this particular post is that article writing works much better for non-money making niches.
I write for both my money making topics as well as some health related topics, and I find that my health -related topics seem to outperform the former by about 10-1
Yes, article marketing is the most cost effective method to build traffic, authority and relevant links, in the shortest possible time frame.
Thanks for defining these 3 approaches… I must confess that I had really only considered article marketing for backlinks… Know I have more to think about!!!
thank you for the article, I think that it will be useful for me, i’d like to try Article Marketing for Traffic, it’s popular in Russia from which I am.
I think article marketing for backlinks and traffic is easier than the direct sell approach. For direct sell to work, you have to get enough traffic to your article. Ezines can rank okay without too many backlinks in the right niches, but if you have to do too much.
It’s really a great article,I learn a lot from it. The words and sentences are so beautiful
Thanks for the awesome post! You have sucessfully categorised the various ways of internet marketing.
yes,
article marketing helps to improve backlinks. i have have tested, experienced and seen it work for me and many other internet marketers.
The backlinks you get are minimal. Make sure you are providing good content to your readers. This will get the most of your article marketing time.
Very nice strategy, powerful and full of determination. I think this is quite effective maybe one of these days I will use this kind of strategy for my content marketing.
I’ve used article marketing in the past, but obviously I haven’t been using it correctly, because it brings me little to no traffic. I sorta used it basically for backlinks instead of traffic. It is definitely time consuming! I was wondering if there are any sites that accept the same article. Meaning, that it doesn’t have to be unique content. I know I can simply read the TOS of each site, but I was wondering if there are any “lists” anywhere that would make my life easier and save me some time.
Great tips. Article marketing definitely works if you submit articles to the right directories. The point to note is that not all article directories offer good link value. And not all directories will offer you direct traffic. A good strategy to follow is to have a list of around 5 to 6 quality directories and submit unique articles to these directories on a monthly basis. Monitor which articles are giving you direct traffic and then try to push those articles up in the search engines by doing some link development. For instance, bookmarking. Duplicate submissions which involves submitting the same article to hundreds of directories does not work, so avoid that at all costs.
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I haven’t previously read anywhere such a clear explanation about the various article marketing strategies.
However, I’d like to ask you a question: the Bum Marketing method preached that results were obtained not by the quality but by the quantity of articles submitted. As a result, we’ve seen tons of crappy articles(some almost unreadable) published on various article directories.
Do you think this strategy still works today?
Pretty good definition and explanation. Well done, I really understand about article marketing.
I have truly tried to increase my visibility by writing articles, the only problem is that my industry which in this case is “Web Design & Development” happens to have a high level of competition and therefore in efforts have so far being in vane.
I do keep trying
As I teach my students, diversify! Hope for the best and plan for the worst. It sounds like article marketing is one more way to diversify ones efforts. Great post!
Thanks Jennifer! I’ve been following your insights since your early days at WA. You’re always a few steps ahead of me. I love the clarity you bring to SEO. Article marketing is the lifeblood of the internet.
Never stop teaching. Thanks, Jenny.
I have been doing article marketing but I was not aware of its usage(types) that you have explained clearly. I would say good work and thanks for sharing.
Thanks Jennifer for this very great and informative article.
Thanks Jennifer for such nice presesntation. It will help a lot to understand better. Keep posting…
Waoh!! this is all i can say. Yeah this topic is not totally strange but, looking at the fresh perspective it brings makes it refreshing to read with those presentations. Thank you.
Hi Jennifer,
Thanks for explaining three types of article marketing for me. Now I understand more about it.