Is article marketing always effective?
Is FREE traffic always the best strategy? When do I personally find article marketing to be a waste of time, energy, effort and even income?
Let’s take a quick look at one of the more common questions I get about launching a traffic strategy for a new site, service or offer, and how I personally parse out whether or not article marketing is a good choice for the market as well.
(remember….as with everything i reveal, recommend or review, i encourage you to try all of this out for YOURSELF, get inspired, get imaginative, get your face muddy, make mistakes and get going. My experiences are my own…and while hopefully enlightening – these statements have not been reviewed by the FDA, FBI, KGB or NBA)
First Question: Is Focusing on FREE Traffic being PENNY Wise….but POUND Foolish? Or said differently……is PAYING for traffic actually an easier and more expeditious path to profit?
It can be…..YES.
How do you determine that?
KEYWORD Research.
Are your ‘MONEY KEYWORDS’ expensive, yes or no? How much competition is there on the ad spend side of the street? How much volume is there…and how many of those eyeballs could you INSTANTLY own with a well managed, well thought out PAID advertising campaign.
Because while article marketing is "FREE" on it’s face, the time you’ve got to spend to create the content surely has real value.
LET ME GIVE YOU A REAL WORLD, RECENT EXAMPLE…….
I recently launched a project, within a new business, with a very skilled, world class PPC marketer who has forgotten more about pay per click than I’ll ever learn.
The gist of the project is a ‘MARRIAGE of marketing methodologies" – my side focusing on the "Free" traffic sort of stuff I discuss here and the relationships that emanate from that – and his managing the ppc promotions and ad spend – and some hardworking help who are holding the whole thing together behind the scenes.
The idea was….and remains a great one. Between the two of us and our divergent approaches to generating traffic, ultimately creating oodles and oodles of readers that feel a genuine rapport, relationship and connectivity to your content is a recipe for rich rewards.
However, one thing became pretty damn apparent, pretty early on.
The PPC research and optimization was done SO well……and the clicks SO cheap as a result, that the work I was doing to generate traffic in comparison, was a bit embarrassing.
And not quite neccessary.
And……NOT the best use of our time, energy and effort.
And ultimately not serving the best interests of the project overall.
Why?
Because, we were getting the traffic SO cheap…..and because our primary focus was simple list building, to spend 4 or 5 hours a day creating content for the purpose of augmenting the seemingly endless stream of available PAID clicks seemed silly.
Especially when there are so many OTHER areas that need to be tended to…..to truly launch a new project as planned.
And thankfully….early on, my business partner pointed out the very same thing.
Does that mean that writing, and distributing highly optimize articles will NOT still serve a great long term goal and overarching strategy? (like building links, building authority, building a brand and building a big ass business?)
Of course it will.
But is it the RIGHT strategy to heavy up on for this particular market?
No, it’s not.
In contrast?
There are a veritable unending amount of niches that are FAR too expensive for the average entrepreneur to spend money on PPC….EVEN if they are masterful at optimizing Adwords and ad spend overall. (and I’ve seen THIS happen up close and personal as well…..and more than once)
And unless you’ve got buckets of money……spending 5 or 6 or 10 dollars per CLICK, in a high volume competitive market, ain’t gonna lead to too many restful nights of sweet dreams and lullabies.
But if you’re attacking those markets with torrents of FREE traffic using the strategies I outline here, your REM sleep ain’t gonna be affected at all.
As an example, I personally SAVED well over $125,000.00 in ad SPEND in one market alone last year, just by targeting free traffic. (probably closer to $150,000)
HOW?
Because as an affiliate, I generated over 100,000 clicks to ONE affiliate offer that has an average cost per click of well over a dollar…and more likely closer to 2.
Every time one of the top advertisers felt that uncomfortable but all too familiar butt clench when someone clicked on their ad’s and didn’t hang around for long thereafter, I was most likely hard at work here at home, scouring the Internet for case law to argue against one of Judge Joe Brown’s many wrongheaded kangaroo court decisions on afternoon TV.
That same program STILL generates a few hundred clicks a day, almost everyday, even while the COST per click has risen to 2 bucks +…and I haven’t done a thing to promote it in a while. (see my wide awake post for why..:-)
(note: In total honesty, I would NOT have paid to run ads in those markets, and only entered them because I knew the potential they offered using my free traffic methods.
Therefore, the savings above are theoretical and not actual, much like parallel universes, Sylvia Brownes New Year’s predictions and whether I will ever become a mature responsible adult)
In many other markets……the very same thing. While it would give me night sweats to picture paying 4 or 5 dollars a click for the sort of volume I’m doing with article marketing in some very expensive niches today, the fact that the traffic is free leaves me sweat free and minty fresh and huggably happy.
So you’ve got to learn the landscape…and understand intuitively, how your effort and energy is best expended. For me to spend 4 hours a day writing articles to build a list in a market where the clicks are 10 cents or less….is a waste of MY time and talent, as it is yours as well.
But if you are fighting it out in the entrepreneurial trenches mano a mano against buttoned up bozo’s with big budgets to boot….a better friend you won’t find.
Your Homework Assignment?
Understand your marketplace…..and your competition.
Study the different ways authority and expertise are being created in YOUR market right now….today, as you read this.
And if content creation NOT your strong suit?
MAYBE your time is better served leveraging social networks for building rapport and relationships instead.
Maybe PPC is a better investment of your energy.
Maybe simply leveraging video…..and technology and turning your articles into powerhouses of perpetual promotion is a better play. (I happen to love this service….and it suprises me that more of you arent’ using it)
But the general RULE is:
The MORE expensive your niche, service, offer or industry?
The MORE powerful article marketing becomes.
The cheaper that traffic is?
The sloppier of a strategy it becomes. (especially if it’s the primary point of attack)
Get CRYSTAL clear on this before you begin….and you’ll have more time to focus on the marketing metrics that REALLY matter
(because traffic ain’t where it ends..:-)
Community Voice