Article Directories and Incoming Links: Crash Crash Creation Questions Re-Loaded

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Got questions? Good! I’ve got answers. Or at least answers that work well for me……(they may not do the same for you, so you are encouraged to put them to the TEST, and not take my word for it)

The good news? I am revisiting my Crash Cash Creation Question series of posts and problem solving strategies, and if you enjoyed the ones I wrote a year ago or more…I think you’ll enjoy these too.

What are they and WHO are they written for?

Basically, they are the recurring questions, conundrums, confusions and content creation crisis’s that seem to afflict and affect those of you who read my blog and ASK questions, or more commonly, clients who I’m working with NOW one on one….and the hurdles we need to high step to get them BACK on the right track and make it happen in a hurry

And for some of you reading this, what I can do for you from a marketing mentorship standpoint will change your life with blinding speed, and YOUR needs are my primary focus.

BUT…I also understand that for most of you, that’s not likely to happen, or you aren’t ready yet, or are just browsing and trying to find your way. So being a man of impeccably high character, intention, and integrity, along with a nuerotic need for constant attention and approval from strangers I’ll never meet, I’d like to share these with you with the hope that it serves you well in one way or another, as you fight your way up the totem pole of progress and success in your own business.

Let’s get started with a common question about article marketing and link building, and my approach below

Q: What is the best way to build links to my articles? HOW important is it to do in the first place? Will my article rank without any link building at all?

A: OVERALL, it really depends on the niche.

In most niches, on a desirable 3 word keyword phrase, if you are just getting started and writing articles, you really DON’T have to do any active link building to get first page rankings on that article straight out of the gate.

WHY?

Because the whole idea of using the ‘PAGERANK PIGGBACK’ strategy is to borrow the existing trust that these directories get, and leverage that in your favor very quickly.

If you have to build a whole bunch of links to the article to make that happen, if you think about it, it sort of diminishes the appeal of the approach overall!

The beauty of article marketing is that it levels the playing field for newbies, new sites and smart and savvy marketers who DONT’ want to spend a ton of time effort and energy on SEO, and link building is certainly SEO from another mother.

Q: So are you saying that link building is NOT recommended for getting my articles to perform better in the search engines?

A: Sort of….yes….but ONLY of course when submitting to the article directories. (link building to your BLOG articles is obviously critical…and a completely different ethos entirely) So to be honest, contrary to many other article marketing ‘GURUS’ who recommend building links to your articles, I don’t recommend that you do.

Why?

Because time is money and life is short. And let’s face it, I’ve MET some of the people who are reading this blog, and trust me, you aren’t getting any younger.

And because for the most part, i think your time is better suited writing a second article, or even MORE importantly, optimizing and testing resource box conversions in that niche.

Said more succinctly (and seriously) than the above?

Link building to article directories is an excessive exercise in effort that may actually have diminishing returns on the energy, input and INCOME that you spend to bump that article up a position or two in the search engines, and I’m not a huge fan of the process – or the people – that recommend you do it. (although to be honest with you, i’m not a huge fan of people in general, so that may not be surprsing here either)

Remember, your ULTIMATE goal has to be to streamline the process by which you OWN those ‘EYEBALLS’ and not the article directory. OPTIMZING your resource box accomplishes that much more powerfully than optimizing the article’s search engine positioning itself – and especially when you are just beginning, or not yet succeeding at this stuff in a way that allows you to invest in automating, our outsourcing your business. (and that’s where I’d rather see you focus)

Does this make sense to you?

LET’s look at a pretty simple example that I’ve used before and think illustrates this point:

If your article has 1000 article views in the 3RDth or 4th position for your targeted 3 word phrase , and are getting a 7% click through rate you are getting 70 visitors to your landing page. If you work DILLEGENTLY at link building to that article – and bump it up to the first position and it gets another 500 views you are getting 105 visitors.

BUT if you take that 1000 views and double the conversion rate to 14% (very reasonable) you are actually improving the amount of traffic that MATTERS to 140 visitors, and that sort of boost SCALES very powerfully, especially if you are making many submissions and are planning on being hyper active in the niche overall. 

(i.e. – it’s either where you "live" work wise….or you plan on scaling at a larger and more comprehensive affiliate marketing campaign)

Of course I would NEVER be happy with 14%….and neither should you. SO if you keep optimizing and can bump that to 20%, which is the baseline click through rate i recommend striving for, you are going to TRIPLE the traffic to your site, service or offer, without building one extra link to the article itself.

And the good news is, it’s actually MUCH easier to do than link building is, and it actually tells you FAR more about what moves people to action in your niche (what they click on) than boring link building to an article directory ever will)

Again – it’s about optimizing your time, energy, effort and income. PRIORITIZING the actions that yield the greatest return on that investment.

Q: Is this ALWAYS the rule? You NEVER build links to the articles themselves?

A: NO, it’s NOT the rule. In some niches I DO….and have a very simple, yet somewhat sophisticated strategy that I use for building backlinks to BLOGS – that I BORROW – for the purpose of not only link building to the articles themselves, but for simultaneously borrowing my article content to build natural rankings for blogs and properties i already own in the niche.

(note: if you understood that paragraph – you are FAR smarter than I am – because I wrote it and re-read it 3 times and I’m still not sure it makes sense)

When do I do this?

BIG markets with tons of volume that I know ezine articles won’t rank for on a 2 word phrase out of the gate, that may have MILLIONS of searches, AND simultaneously, where i want to re-purpose my OWN articles and content on my existing blogs in a white hat way that benefits BOTH sides of the street.

WHAT DO I DO?

• I will write a LONG article (800 words or more….and this is the ONLY time I’LL do this) that targets a highly desirable TWO WORD keyword phrase (weight loss for example…..or save money, or something that is going to be hyper competitive)
• I will submit that article to EzineArticles.Com
• I will then use a small network of automated sites I’ve created for this niche and CLIP the content from my article
• Each blog is on a different IP address
• Each blog clips a different piece of the article (which is why you want to make it long) and has a unique opening paragraph as well
• I use FLOCK (the free browser) to clip, remotely post and format the links back to the article on my network of blogs
• Depending on whether Judge Judy is running re-runs that week, or what’s in my netflix delivery for the day, if I have the time, I’ll then bookmark the blog posts that have the clipped content, AND link back to the actual article on the directory itself
• I will also of course, socialize the article itself, which drives UP the readership, amps UP the popularity and if I’m lucky…..ultimately makes the article sticky on the directory itself….. which sounds kind of obscene and unpleasant, but is actually quite nice when it happens.

  The net result? I’ll have a series of blogs that have unique content in a very desirable niche, AND I’VE got 5 blogs on different unique IP’S that link back to one long article, which often not ONLY leads the article itself, in a hyper competitive niche to the first page….surprisingly…at least for a little while, you’ll ALSO find one of the automated blogs will get a BIG buck boost to boot!

  Often I’ll get questions on here about how we’ve managed to get so many views in some of the niches I’ve used here as examples in the past, and to be honest with you, that’s really a critical piece of the puzzle.

  (ESPECIALLY in the niches with 1 million plus views – it’s not the ONLY reason, but it does play a part)

  Plus, MORE importantly in the long run, the BLOGS that I own invariably benefit in major league ways, and that’s the stuff that’s MOST important overall.

  (because you never want to predicate your business around something that’s COMPLETELY out of your control…and for better or for worse, the article directories are NOT something we can control)

  But mas o menos, your blogs are in fact ASSETS you can control…..AND use, leverage, build, borrow from, sell, or otherwise advantage in your favor)

  The End

  I’ve got a lot more of these coming, so if you find this kind of Q and A helpful, keep your eyes on your inbox over the coming days and weeks for more fantastic fun, frolic and frivolity from my heart to yours.