What is the Best Article Marketing Strategy? More Readers Affiliate Marketing Questions Answered

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I keep getting different derivations of this question via email, see it asked a lot in different serendipitous online spots, and got a note this morning "correcting" me on the proper use and purpose of article submissions.  "Bob" told me that my article marketing strategy was not only "wrong, it was misleading people on the right way to write articles for backlinks". 

Of course this is a totally specious and silly argument, as there are FAR better and easier ways today to get backlinks than writing articles,( link bait, social networking strategies, etc)  article "links" are somewhat discounted to begin with anymore, (and have been for a few years) and they are TRULY not part and parcel of why I recommend you write articles in the first place.  For me – and for the most part – article marketing is a MERCENARY business.

Here is the Deal…

You are either making ONE shot affiliate sales (using a redirect), building a LIST and then making affiliate sales ( far SMARTER but a bit more work and less immediate income gratification) or simply using the traffic for some ancillary, but otherwise valuable purpose (surveying the traffic for your OWN product that is forthcoming, etc).  I honestly use article marketing for ALL of those purposes, ( as many of you who read this blog originally have come from articles on "making money online" – which I promote NOTHING outside of my own services)

But – the point I try to make is to make MONEY – pure and simple – the mindless, mercenary machination of simply making moolah – if that is what you are reading blogs like this for…..this is the surest shot way I know of doing it overnight.

Interestingly, and while I have no real desire to get into a little strategy difference debate, "Bob" pointed me to a cacaphony of strategies being preached by a popular article marketing guru who teaches EXACTLY what "Bob" thought I should be doing as well.  Bob apparently thought MUCH better of this dude than myself, which I find suprising considering I’m a much better dresser and probably a far better human being to boot. 

Even if  you take my natural stylistic superiority out of the equation, the simple truth is this "guru" (who has just written some sort of article marketing manual of some type for sale) tells people to strive for a 5-10 visitors per article….to write lots of them, and to anticpate a clickthrough rate of about 5%, which is the industry average, and to have your readers arrive at YOUR blog where you presell them on an affiliate offer or a made for adsense style site. 

I say Not….

I beg to differ.  And rather than explain why – I’m going to show you. 

Now – this is ONE pen name – ( of which I have many) in ONE EZA account – and the articles in this particular pen name predominately promote ONE affiliate product….of which I use a STRAIGHT redirect off of the root.  Which means, mas o menos – of the 24,000 URL clicks you see there above, these are going DIRECTLY to an affiliate offer I have picked for these articles. 

Forget the fact that my CTR is 500% better than what this guy is telling his people to expect - forget the fact that the product I’m promoting here has a PPC price of about 2 bucks a click ( or about 50 grand for the same traffic if I were to pay for it) - just ask yourself THIS simple question….ASSUMING I’m not a total DOPE and am sending all of this traffic to a reasonably good converting affiliate program…which approach makes more sense to YOU if you want to start making some REAL money, this year, this week(end), this hour….or this minute?

We agree!

Of course – just to make sure I’m fair – I do have my share of misses too.  Take a look at this a completely DIFFERENT pen name in my EZA account:

Of course – when I say misses….I simply mean learning experiences.  Look at the bottom articles – all submitted the same day – totally DIFFERENT niche – great traffic, good CTR and then ONE small, eenie weenie change to the resource box a few days later?  Look at the INCREDIBLE drop in CTR – almost inconcievably LOW and if I was counting on this to eat…..I wouldn’t be eating much as you can tell.  

All’s Well that Ends Well…

What did I do?  Changed it BACK to where it was two weeks ago for a new round of articles JUST submitted within the last few days and it’s RIGHT back to where it was two weeks ago.  Unbelievable, right?  And THIS is what people talk about when they talk about "testing".  It’s trite, and cliche....but OH so true, especially when your income (and appetite) depends on it!

Any questions – fire them off or leave them below!