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The word on the street is that article marketing is the way to gain organic listings in the search engines thereby increasing traffic numbers to your websites.
That’s the good news. But, what are the disadvantages to embarking on an article marketing campaign?
Well, first and most obviously, the articles need to be written. Either you or someone else will need writing skills in order to produce the materials. Most people are more than capable of writing an article, they simply lack confidence or time.
For those who wish to outsource this fundamental skill, hiring a ghostwriter is a possibility but this involves a cost and you may want to weight up the pros and cons of spending your funds on a Pay Per Click advertising campaign instead.
It is important that you choose the right ghost writer for the job. Don’t be tempted to base your decision on cost alone as that can prove to be false economy.
Once you have your articles written you will need to do something with them and this is the second drawback to article marketing campaigns.
Your articles will need to be posted to your own sites in addition to article directories. For the best results each article needs to be individual meaning that each article needs to be revised multiple times to produce multiple unique pieces of work.
There are pieces of software available that can automate this task for you but many of the best article directories ban automated aubmissions.
Of course, article submission is another task that can be outsourced, although there is an associated cost, as you might expect.
I believe article marketing is a viable way of building an organic traffic stream to your web site. Of course, whether that traffic then enters into a commercial transaction with you will depend on the copy on your site and your offer.
However, unless you have the time and skills to write and submit your own articles, article marketing as a process has a cost and only you can weigh up whether it is better to use your budget for this purpose or whether to go down the pay-per-click advertising route.
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Rebecca Laffar-Smith 02.17.08 at 9:22 pm
Great article although I have to say, I think article marketing is far more productive than pay-per-click advertising. By creating articles that interest and inform potential customers and clients you’re creating that first impression that is vital to a successful business relationship.
Your articles, if well written by professional PR writers, can capture your target audience pulling a high percentage of PRE SOLD clients. This means, the clicks from your ad copy is already MORE likely to lead to a sale then any pay-per-click ad.
With pay-per-click advertising you’re dependant on your banner or button advert to capture the attention of advertising blind readers. You banner or button by design contains very little information. So potential customers might click out of interest only to discover they aren’t at all interested. That click, still paid for, is valueless. That potential client will quite probably NEVER click an ad banner or button from your company again.
With article marketing each article can target a new product, audience, and market. Each article is unique and appeals to a wide range of consumers. Your ad copy provides value even before you make a sale and you have the opportunity to pre sell your product and offer incentives. Well written articles can also be promoted from multiple streams such as blogs, forums, other websites, online stores, and article directories.
Weight up the value? I think you’ll find well written copy always wins in the long term.
Sincerely,
Rebecca Laffar-Smith
Jasko 04.07.08 at 8:50 pm
Wow, first of all this is not really my top field of interest but I find your language a very informative and useful -the way you are using it. Thanks a lot for sharing. Your advices could be applied also on some other forms of writing. A great blog.
Matt Ellsworth 04.14.08 at 3:25 pm
I run 2 article directories. I can say that article marketing does work - however - it doesn’t work usually if you take one article and submit it to a few places and forget about it. Most of our successful authors are submitting several articles and they submit to one of two things - everywhere or just a few directories.
I’ve talked to a lot of authors - and there is a great divide, some believe in having it just be submitted to 5 places and others believe in far and wide. I say whatever you want to do is good - but remember that a lot of the benefits of it are more on the long term end of things - not necessarily the short term.
Most article directories allow others to use your articles on their site - that in turn increases the exposure of your article and the links inside.
I could probably go on and on for a mile about this. But the fact remains - it works - when you work it.
David Rayner 09.14.08 at 5:05 pm
I found the 250 words minimum requirement a bit of a problem as I like to write quick punchy articles, but I guess it’s to discourage timewasters
Dave