You are starting a brand new site……and want instant traffic.
Who doesn’t?
But you want QUALITY traffic….and not some bloated, swollen silly number that is meaningless to your bottom line, and your bank account. (sure getting 10,000 people from StumbleUpon….or Digg, or Redditt might LOOK good in your analytics, but it’s rarely going to translate into any real money)
You have no list.….you have no high powered partners to drive your traffic and build your brand.
You have no budget for PPC….and no patience for some esoteric SEO strategy that just about no one understands.…and rarely, if ever…..REALLY works.
The truth is…..traffic can often be a tricky thing…and numbers can OFTEN be very deceiving.
My advice is this:
Blogs are better.
Publish your BEST content on your blogs first.
Wait a day. THEN start the process of re-purposing your content around the web.
Here is why………
Go take a look at some of the weight loss articles on Ezine Articles right now.
The ones that have the "most views" in the past 60 days. You are going to see articles that have 10,000 views.
25,000 views –
Even 50,000 views or more.
Some have only been published for less than 2 short months.
Single articles that are driving tons and tons of traffic to the directory itself….and then a portion of that traffic, BACK to the site, service or offer the author is promoting.
But numbers can be VERY deceiving…….
And I’ve yet to meet a "bum marketer" who is as easily impressed with those sorts of statistics after being in this business for a while.
Why?
Because blogs are better.
The reason Ezine Articles is such a BIG business these days?
Because the REAL winner when that article you wrote gets picked up and viewed on the search engines is EZA.
Yes, you win too….don’t get me wrong, but I guarantee there are very few people who rely exclusively on article marketing who are living the sort of lifestyle that the CEO of EzineArticles is…:-) (a guy who has worked very hard and shouldn’t be begrudged a thing)
Why?
Because your work…..most often, is being discovered on THEIR site first.
And the moment you have that epiphany…..and you realize that you CAN control a portion of that equation by prioritizing your OWN sites first.…..you reclaim control over your content…..period.
Here is a very abbreviated, yet pretty simple emulation of what I do:
- I publish my content on MY blogs first. (not this one obviously…..but in markets I’m active as an affiliate – here I don’t use ANY of my articles as they wouldn’t fit the "tone" of this blog)
- I *ping* the RSS and Blog directories.
- I wait a day…..or at least 6 hours and send all of my articles to a small service that re-publishes them around the web. They change my titles too.…arbitrarily, using a basic "template" and formula that I’ve covered here ad nauseam. (I knew I had arrived when the woman who re-purposes my stuff started recognizing "plagiarized" titles that followed our template and told me she knew they were copies of ours)
- So my titles are changed once by me….and then by them - which adds a random layer of uniqueness to each...and makes me a superstitious nut as well.
- Every time that article is re-purposed - it gets a new title, and a new first sentence. (again….in a very cut and paste formulaic sort of way)
- If it’s a HIGH volume niche – I’ll use the article directory traffic to build a list. Period.
- It it’s a LOW volume niche – I’ll use the article directory traffic to sell affiliate products...USUALLY using a review style site.
- But my MAIN priority…..ALWAYS...is to have MY blog or site "discovered" first. (not the EZA article)
Here is why:
An article get’s 10,000 views on EZA. They make lots of money on the content ads in YOUR article. (a fair trade for sure….as they provide a valuable service and a win/win scenario for all. However….I’m going to guess C. Knight is enjoying far more leisure time than you are..:-)
You get a 15% CTR. (I think the average is like 5 or 6%….but lets be generous and say you are doing 300% better)
You are getting 1500 visitors to your site. (a pretty nice number…..but it NOT the 10 ten thousand that stopped, read and hopefully liked your article..:-) EZA is getting that.
If you are using a re-direct to a Clickbank affiliate product with your 1500 visitors…….you may be converting at 1 in 300 or 400 hundred on some of the more salacious, high volume/profile articles. If you are making 40 bucks per sale – all of this fun exercise in math means you ain’t gonna be quitting your day job anytime soon…..even though your stats look pretty good.
EZA though…..is making out fine. Because they’ve got the whole 10,000 views to monetize.
You only get the 1500 that click through.
If your BLOG or sites only gets 25% of the same success as EZA does with that very same article…..you are already 1000 views BETTER (2500) than you are by piggybacking off of their authority and "trust". And the simple truth is……it WILL. Maybe not as fast….and maybe not overnight – but if you apply the same ethos to BLOG building that you do to article marketing, it will be the best investment you’ve made this year. (even better than StomperNet 6)
Here is what I know:
You can use EZA to build a huge list.
You can use EZA to make a lot of affiliate sales.
But you can do the above BEST….if your site, service or offer is found first.
- Submitting your BEST content to your blog first.
- Re-purpose it next.
What you’ll find is that you’ll start to "own" MULTIPLE spots in the search results for each well written, well optimized piece of content you produce….but STARTING, most importantly with the ONE asset that you own.
Your own stuff.
Don’t take my word for it though……I could be wrong.
TRY it for yourself.
I love articles. I love EZA.
I’d give them a big, fat sloppy kiss if I could.
But they are JUST one of many ways to drive traffic….and I’ve yet to find ONE person who has been exclusively reliant on "article marketing" for traffic who didn’t regret it later. (and wish they adopted the above far sooner…..including at one time, me..:-)
One final lesson is………
Listen to Your List!
If you emailed me with complaints about my coaching offer……..I’ve listened! (okay….the first 2 or 3 I sort of disregarded…..but after 7 or 8 people said the same thing, I decided to take another look..:-)
More time- more calls – and more months to make your marketing meaningful is available to those of you who want it……if appropriate for your needs….check it out right here!
Great article
But guzzling Nyquil is a lot more fun than Theraflu. (Trust me)
Glenn – The Theraflu does NOT seem to be helping. I’m open to guzzling Nyquil instead if it will work. At this point……I think I’ll guzzle anything for a good night sleep..:-)
Probably the BEST explanation on this topic I’ve read yet. I’ll be using this approach with my own content, and teaching my clients to do the same. I do not know how you did this sick with the flu…wow
Feel better soon.
Thanks, Carol!
Ian,
I appreciate the update concerning Blogs. I myself do not have a Blog and I feel I need to construct one, but it seems so time consuming.
On the other hand, I believe for traffic that is quick for links to your web sight, Blogs would do the trick. I also believe for long standing good reputation and credibility, article marketing in the long run probably has more juice.
However, I have articles on Ezine and other article directories and it is hard work to submit them, get the resource box correct, html, or plain text etc.
I do believe a person should explore and do what is comfortable and working for them.
I enjoy your e-mails and your cartoons with them. I also enjoy your information. Doing web business, one needs to be open to almost all sorts of ways to get traffic to their web. It is so competitive.
Thanks for all the updated scoop.
Bonita
Thanks, Bonita – I appreciate you reading!
(just remember though……from a long term standpoint, you probably would rather your OWN stuff have more “juice” on your OWN properties as you mention above, rather than the article directories…..simply because you “own” the juice..:-)
Another thing people tend to overlook when it comes to using article directories exclusively is that they reserve the right to recycle (or remove) older articles and replace them with newer ones as it serves their interests to do it. I can’t remember what the time frame is – but I think they only guarantee inclusion for 6 months or something…..it may be longer…..and usually is.
But as the search engines move to a more “real time” information stream…..with Tweets and social media being considered “most relevant” from a results standpoint……..there will be a premium, I would imagine – on “freshness” as it relates to what is considered most relevant for all publishers – and that may push older articles out at a faster pace.
Or not….I’m just guessing.
On your OWN blogs and properties though – the above is nothing you have to worry about – which is why I always prefer to have control.
(which my shrink tells me is very unhealthy)
i think ive been barking up the wrong tree. the more i study, the more i realize how much i dont know.
youre post isnt the first ive read that emphasizes the importance of blogs and how to use them. i dont even have a real blog yet, except for a few setup as backlinks, but not a REAL one.
i have to re-evaluate what the hell im doing because six months in and im all over the place with barely a bone to show for it!
thanks ian………great info
courtney
:end
Hi,
The advantage you get with ezinearticles is – better chances of your article making it to the 1st page of google. PR6 of Ezine surely helps. And if you make it to the most viewed in 60 days category then you get even more traffic.
With your own blog it may not be all that easy to make it to the first page of google for the chosen keyword. With some backlinks and some promotion your post can make it to the 1st page.
So, the key for getting consistent traffic is to make it to 1st page of google. This can happen only by promoting the article / blog post with good backlinks.
And remember that traffic is of no use unless your landing page / presell page can convert that traffic into a sale / lead….and then of course, tracking.
Simply put, you need several things optimized to make the whole chain work!
thx
I’ve gotten more from your monthly emails and blog posts than I have from problogger, copyblogger and even stompernet!
I like the fact that your strategies can be applied by anyone and they do work. I’m platinum with eza, too, but like you said they make all the money from adwords and premium memberships while the authors write content until their fingers bleed.
Thank you Robert, I appreciate you reading!
Hi Ian – wonderful post, full of great insights and information. I’ll have to try some Theraflu to get the creative juices flowing:)
Just curious – what article submission service do you use?
Thanks!
Cindy
Thank you, Cindy! (I use a private service that is run by a friend of mine…..very small – just herself and one or two other people – and she does more bookmarking/social media marketing than article syndication…..but because I have a lot of content, she’s nice enough to do that for me, too…..including the light re-writes – which is a huge plus and hard to find!) There are other services that do it though – if you look at some popular outsourcing sites – you’ll see people who are reputable, and will offer the same.