How much time should i spend building links to my articles? The truth about authority and article marketing for fun, prestige and profit.

Let’s tackle another common question I get as a pretty big fan of article marketing and content creation strategies…and a pretty common misconception I think is fairly pervasive, especially amongst people who are JUST getting started. (or have unfortunately been given some pretty bad information)

1. How much time should you spend PROMOTING the articles you’ve written?
2. Should you, like some people in the "bum marketing" circles recommend, be spending lots of time BUILDING incoming links to your articles for the purposes of bumping up their rankings in the search engines?
3. And to what end?
4. What would be the end game or strategic outline that would make that idea a good one?
5. And….. what is "authority" anyway, from an aggressive article marketing standpoint?  If it can be manufactured, where should authority be directed? And does being an "expert author" on Ezine Articles.com or any other directory give you the sort of genuine "authority" and perceived expertise that’s actually going to put MONEY in your pocket? (because for the most part, I’m going to assume that’s the reason that most of you are writing the content in the first place, right?)

Okay – now, why is this a good topic for a blog post?

• Well…not ONLY does this question sort of rear it’s inquisitive head pretty often in my inbox, and in the blog comments below….I also happened to have been loitering around the EZA blog a week or two ago as they’ve been rolling out some changes in terms of what kind of content is "ideal" (i.e. resource box length, derivative content, etc) and while I rarely really read the commentary of other people…..it sort of blew me away how much BAD information is out there regarding what people are doing (wasting) their time with, from an article marketing standpoint.

And I’m going to be honest with you……so many people are out there "drinking the koolaid" and parroting the mindless mental midgetry that they read on some forum, or blog, or where-ever, that it’s scary.

We all know that to be true…because, quite simply, that’s the nature of learning the online money making experience.

But what really sort of troubled me, wasn’t that as much…..but the more "mainstream" endorsement of the idea, on the EZA blog, by other more prolific article marketers, of spending time, resources, effort, energy (and by association, income) on building INCOMING links to your articles in an aggressive and time intensive sort of way.

As a PRIMARY focus…..this is flat out a specious and self serving suggestion, and quite honestly, if you are trying to make a living online, a silly and outright nonsensical waste of time.

If you’ve seen someone who has recommended this as smart, if I were king of the world, it would actually be legal in 42 states to bitch slap or head butt said offender until they said they were sorry and admitted they were just making it up.

Please note – if you do live within striking distance of someone giving bad article marketing advice, please do not commit felonious assault without consulting with a qualified legal professional first or unless you are prepared to face the consequences.  

(which is most likely going to be house arrest for a few months, which surprisingly, if you’ve ever done it -  is not really that bad – especially if you have satellite TV, an active imagination, a small cannabis garden, and a WII fit like me)

Anyway, if you’re doing this right now, just stop.

And as I’ve said on many occasions….I do NOT have all the answers. (or really even many of the right questions) I can tell you without any equivocation this is NOT the right approach.

(and honestly…..I saw one elderly gentleman who struck me as bright, ambitious and earnest lay out this whole strategy about how he was building links to his EZA articles in this elaborate way to build "authority"……to the thunderous clapping and encouragement of other folks on a online marketing blog I was reading yesterday, and truthfully, it really made me super sad.

Why?  Because even if it works EXACTLY as conceived, it doesn’t work.

It’s a waste of time that could be spent building the sort of authority that matters. Let’s take a closer look.

Does EZA "authority" mean anything? (to me)

• No – and it shouldn’t to you, either. People who "matter" to your online income, or those that will help you build your brand, don’t "get" the notion of what an expert author is on ezine articles.com.
• They’re reading your articles with the proverbial "eye" on what’s in it for them. If you’ve given them a significant enough reason, they will click through to your site, service or offer to learn more. THAT is where you earn authority.
• Not on an article directory. If there are 10 people who are reading this who are doing so because of the fact that I’m an "expert" author at EZA……I’ll chew on my keyboard for dinner.
• You may have INITIALLY read an article on EZA, or another directory, which has brought you here…….and you’ve downloaded an ebook, or read a whole hodge podge of posts which has served to "sell" my expertise…and that’s the point. Your articles should point you to the places where you can REALLY build trust, communities and brand build yourself.
• NOT the other way around. (i.e. – creating properties to POINT to your EZA articles for the same) Ezine Articles and similar directories are GREAT for page rank piggyback strategies. They are great, valuable services that offer much to anyone who wants to dip their toe into the warm and welcoming waters of online marketing, and offer a cacophony of creative benefits to all of us. I’m a fan. But – as Ayn Rand said so eloquently so many years ago…..you need to be selfish to survive.

As much as EZA would love for you ONLY to create content just to submit and optimize for THEIR site, (because they win) you need to think of creative ways to contribute, be a good "citizen", and yet still be selfish enough that YOU win.

Which means, making sure the articles you write POINT to properties YOU own ,control and benefit from the most.

Remember, 10 articles that get a total of 10,000 views on an article directory is a straight up, 1 for 1 proposition for THEIR monetization model.

Every time a new set of eyeballs gets in front of your article, on THEIR side of the street……the directories contextual ads are seen.

Their monetization model is always on auto pilot, once the content is live and available for the world to see.

But yours is not.

Because those 10,000 views, for you….with a less than stellar resource box, might mean that only 1000 people ever see what YOU have to offer.

Your ads may only be seen by 500 people if you’ve got a CTR of 5%.

Your work…actually, is ONLY beginning when the article goes live.

And that is why I spend so much of my time, and my advice, thinking of creative, cajoling, compelling and creative, collar dragging, reasons to get people to "click through".

And so too should you.

And ultimately…and this is VERY, VERY important……your job is to be the one that has the site that has accumulated ENOUGH AUTHORITY in your niche, that when you post your next article it goes on YOUR site, and not theirs.

Because then YOU own the 1 for 1 exchange….and 10,000 views, really IS 10,000 opportunities for your readers to avail themselves of YOUR offers.

That’s the goal here….so keep that in mind at all times.

An Easy Win/Win Technique for Adding Content to your blogs AND building links to your articles

okay…with all of the above being said, there are still lots of you who are trying to come up with creative ways to re-purpose your article content on your blogs, social sites and so forth….and STILL push your syndicated article content up the Google totem pole at the same time. (as in…help your submissions rank better in the search results)

So I’m going to give you a very easy technique for not only re-purposing your articles with elegant ease on your OWN properties (a great way to add content to "feeder" sites) but simultaneously BUILD incoming links to the articles themselves.

I’ve covered using the free browser "flock" as a "poster" here….and I encourage you to read this post, or simply re-read it if you’ve forgotten the technique.

Here is what you are going to do to "borrow" content from your own articles for your blog posts….as well as build "authority" links to those very same articles, at the very same time.

1. Set up a few "feeder" style blogs. These are blogs that you are setting up to manufacture links to your primary blog properties.
2. .info’s are fine if you want to save money (you can register these for a buck) I recommend setting these blogs up with automated content, some RSS or data feeds, article aggregation plugins, etc.
3. I recommend using my friend Ed’s very powerful suite of automation tools (Article Stalker, Slick, etc) as he’s made them available to JUST (I think just me, anyway..:-) this blog alone for over half off the normal price.
4. If you can’t afford to spend money – don’t. You can use free solutions like FeedWordpress…and similar style RSS plugin’s, just be careful when "scraping" content, and you’ll need to do a bit more work, but can still be very effective.
5. Write a few LONGER articles for your niche. (yes, I know I often recommend shorter articles, but for this strategy, you will want a few longer ones…..750 words or so is optimal, and makes this well worth it) Once your articles are live….follow the directions to "clip" content in my Flock post. (just set up the blogs to accept remote posting, right click, "blog this", et al) But…… For each blog that you use, pick a DIFFERENT piece of the article to clip. (and why you want longer articles for this strategy)
6. So if you have a 750 word article and 3 feeder sites set up, you’ll clip a different 250 word paragraph for each one. Add a wee bit of introductory text ABOVE the clipped content (I add an equal amount to the clipped content – but I drink a ton of coffee and type faster than an Andre Agassi backhand after a 3 day crystal meth bald headed binge and it’s not necessary) and POST. Do this for each of your 3 blogs.
7. What do you have when it’s done, in less than 10 minutes for all of them?
8. You have 3 blogs that have new, unique content.
9. 3 blogs that have different pieces of your article content "clipped".
10. And your ARTICLE has 3 new incoming links from different blogs, with keyword rich anchor text of your choosing.

Now – can you use these 3 blogs to BUMP every one of your own articles the very same way?

Yes, you can…and I do all of the time.

BUT, be smart about it. Obviously "clip" lots of other content as well, as the search engines aren’t stupid, and if you are simply doing nothing other than "pinging" your own EZA articles from the same 3 blogs, after a while it’s not going to look natural.

But if you mix it up, and use a myriad of other clipped content as well, this is a great way to multitask AND re-purpose your content in an interesting, creative and very simple step.

It actually works MUCH better if you use blogs hosted on separate IP’s……..and I have a system for this (and a great, inexpensive service I pay for that provides a block of unique IP’s for SEO purposes, if you’d like the name of it - let me know on twitter, and I’ll hook you up) That’s really it. Build authority to your primary site, service or offer.

Build authority on (and to) your feeder sites. And finally, building REAL authority to your articles that you submit to great directories like EZA, Articlesbase and the rest. Enjoy!