Article Writing & Syndication Explained?

You will entice more traffic to your blog/website if, in your resource box you provide them with a "too good to refuse" reason to click through. Offer them a free report / ebook / video ...something enticing.

Then, as part of them downloading / viewing, capture their email addresses, and set up a sequence of informative, incredibly useful emails which expand upon the niche, and weave in links to buy whatever it is you are selling.

Your article and your website need to be pre-selling, not selling. I love Paul Hancox' ebook, Presell Mastery, (not an affiliate link) which explains this exceptionally well.

You're 100% WRONG. All of my websites get 90% of the traffic from google from various countries. And SEO is probably the ultimate method to make money. Google ranking IS vital.

Fits the niche, yes; not "fits the product" (is my advice).

EMD isn't a big deal (for me). But I want a major keyword at the start of the domain-name. "This-niche-xyz.com" is much better (with or without hyphens) than "Bestthisniche.com", which is a schmeckel domain-name. In my opinion. (And in Gene Pimentel's, but he says it more politely than I do ).

You can get big rankings out of it as well, actually. Compared with the "spin your articles and mass submit them to article directories" approach, you can get enormous rankings because of your sydnication to relevant sites. Not immediately, but in the long run ... so it is worth identifying some long-tail keywords for which the currently top-ranked sites have poor quality SEO (sometimes quite easily done, too: some people still think SEO is about "page ranks" and "numbers of backlinks" :rolleyes: ).

I don't use Wordpress, so no comment from me.

Sup chew ... I usually don't, but plenty of people do ... (no harm in it, anyway, as long as you don't make your landing page look like a sales page - so, don't overdo it, is my advice).


Definitely. Whether you call it a "free report" or some other name.

The primary purpose of your website is for your visitors to opt in.

Noooo ... it's a "leak" (from your perspective) if it puts your customer, generated by your skills, time, attention, effort and energy, in direct contact with the vendor before you've been paid. This opt-in puts your potential customers in touch only with you. It turns them from visitors into "your potential customers". This is a good thing.

Noooooooo ... nobody will ever syndicate an article with a link to a ClickBank product. (Well, almost nobody). You don't mention the product in your articles at all.

Yes, but don't rely solely on passive syndication from EZA.

Try pro-actively to syndicate them yourself, too. As explained here.

And here.

Correct.

And if you're allowed two links, you can use one of them to link to an internal page for which you want to do some SEO, too, if you like, sometimes. So that some of your site's other pages get a little bit of offpage SEO too. But predominantly to your home page (landing page).

It's not essential. I often do this, actually. I have a product review (usually, not always) on the home page and a masked hoplink, and I do occasionally make a sale to someone who really, really doesn't want to opt in to my list. But this is a bit of an afterthought. The primary purpose of my landing page (home page) is for people to opt in.

Agree with all this bit.

Ooh, it's not bad, at all, as blueprints go ... as long as you write for syndication.

Hi Danielle!

I certainly can agree with you that the process of picking the correct Clickbak product as I embark on this journey is causing a slight anxiety attack on my part.

If I pick one that does not quite work, all of my hard work in the coming weeks is going to be moot. There are not enough tubs of ice cream in the world to ease the depression that would put me in. LOL.

As far as I can tell, I'm going to stay away from the MMO niche. Not only is is uber-competitive, but the refunds rates are scary.

Also, I'm planning on staying away from any ClickBank products that have 'leaks' on their sales pages (as Alexa as mentioned numerous times in other posts).

Aside from those two factors, the field is wide open for me. Going to start wadding through various products this afternoon and see if I can find a good fit for both my interest and knowledge level (in terms of writing quality content for it).

Put together a short 5-10 page report that discusses some aspect of the problem addressed in the CB product. For example, if the product offers "10 Tips for Curing Acne", you could discuss one tip with a solution. This will give them confidence in the main product - namely, it promises some real answers that will help them. Some CB product vendors provide such free giveaway reports, so you might want to contact them to see what they have. If they have nothing, sometimes they will agree to put something together for you to use.

You want to make sure the links in your articles will always be relevant, even years down the road. You can never be sure that the product you're promoting today will still be valid in 2+ years. For this reason, you want to put a link in your resource box that redirects readers to the CB product.

This does 2 things:

1) your link is sure to be accepted, since some article directories will not allow affiliate links in the resource box, and

2) you have full control of the link. You send people to your 'redirect page' which is simply a text file with a snippet of code pointing at the affiliate page that you upload into your site folder through your (host account) Control Panel. If the link ever changes or the product disappears, you can replace it with a better product.

Recently, Ezine-Articles notified me that a link in about 10 of my articles was no longer relevant. I had to go into each article to change the link. The redirect option means you only have to change one link - in your redirect page which sits on your own site.

Another alternative is to write a brief review of the affiliate product and post it on your own site. From there, add the link to the affiliate product. In the article, direct people to that review page. As in #2 above, if the product ever goes defunct, you can make the change on your review page. This will prevent you from losing those potential customers.

Sylvia

Finding a Clickbank product:

1. Low gravity (gravity is essentially number of competitors)
2. AT LEAST $20 per sale to you, the more the better (sorry for the all caps, but your time is valuable!)
3. No optin form unless you want to check their AR (I dont, Alexa doesnt)
4. No other links on sales page
5. Not in Lose weight, MMO, or golf (go after the low hanging fruit first)
6. Buy the product! Make sure that it's good
7. Read through the sales page and turn each bulletpoint into an awesome email in your autoresponder that delivers a ton of info, promote the CB product every 4th email

Thanks very much. Yes, it was more or less applying those rules of product selection that took me from earning nothing to earning a real living from it.

LOL, I know what you mean, I think.

But I also suspect that it's one of those "ars est celare artem" things: I sometimes make the mistake of making product selection sound easier than it really is. I actually put a lot of time and effort into it, because it's one of things that everything else depends on: if you get it wrong, then however well you do everything else, you're still not going to earn real money. I try to spend 20/25 minutes per day on "potential product selection" (admittedly I sometimes look through ClickBank's marketplace late at night, because not too much concentration's needed for it, once you "know the rules") ... and over 3 years, 20/25 minutes per day really does add up!

If you're just beginning, you *might* want to wait a bit longer until
you can get your hands on Paul Myers' new ebook, CONTENT CASH.

I believe it's in 'sneak preview' launch, though I could be wrong - and
I got my copy yesterday, finished reading it around 1 a.m. and got
many ideas to incorporate into my article syndication.

Other than that, the outline you propose and the excellent advice you've
received on this thread should set you firmly on the road to success

All success
Dr.Mani

Something worth mentioning if you want to go the syndication route: EZA is not the beginning and end of the world. The Driectory of Ezines will get you a ton of good contacts, and if your writing is very good you can use writer's market to get published offline. One article in a big magazine will not only get you quick $500, you'll find yourself with a few hundred (or thousand) new subs while that issue is on the shelves. Just don't focus exclusively on EZA :-)

Randomly remembered this. Easy way to find high traffic or high PR blogs that might syndicate your content: Download and install SEOquake for your browser, then use Google blogsearch. Sort by PR or Alexa (depending on what you're going for), then read 3-5 of their posts to get a feel for them.

Comment on a few posts if you can, then email them and ask if they ever publish content. If they say no, ask if you can write a guest post for them. Even if you can only post it there, it's often worth the extra time :-). Even if you only find 1 a week that will publish your articles, that's 50 at the end of a year

Here is another question I just thought of:

How many articles do you get indexed on your blog and placed on EZA before you move onto the next niche?

If you find that you are in a profitable niche and are making money, do you continue to add to that blog? Make a new one in the same niche? Or just be happy with the money you are making and move onto the next niche/CB product?

First, I wish to thank everybody again for dropping into this thread and giving some awesome advice. Who needs the WSO section when you can get this kind of thread going, right?!

Second, one last question before I officially embark on putting together my first campaign:

For those that use WordPress (feel free to comment too, Alexa), is there any particular theme you find yourself using more often than others? Additionally, do you take time to make your site look 'pretty' or do you just do enough to make the site functional?

Thanks everyone for this great thread. I am in the process of getting my first "made for syndication" site up and running. I have my product selected (low gravity, no leaks) and a couple articles on my site.

Now I need to get my landing page, signup form, free report, and product review page up to get it ready for traffic. Once those basic steps are taken care of I can start writing more articles and distribute the ones I already have to EZA for syndication.

I also have a FB fan page set up which automatically adds a link to my articles when I hit publish (on my site). I'm looking to get twitter set up the same way too.

My problem is that my time is severely limited because I work full time, go to school full time, and have a family that is jealous of my time when I am home, so making them a priority and also finding time to do all of these things is a real hassle.

I suppose if I get my site ready as mentioned above and then write one article per week it's better than not taking action at all, but I have doubts as to whether such a long time in between publication of articles will bring any kind of significant results.

At that rate, how long might it take to produce enough traffic to convert to sales?

I suppose the best answer is to just try it and see what happens.

Alexa,

Could you please clarify on what the difference is between a "squeeze page" and a "landing pages with a prominently incentivised opt-in"?

I understand that a squeeze page will have no leaks, i.e. no links to other pages (just the opt-in).

Does that mean your landing pages do have links to other content on your site or social sharing buttons, etc.?

Now this is a thread worth bookmarking and studying. I was just about to post about this subject.

Thanks for the insight.

1.) Good point. Not sure if I am too worried about keeping any secrets, as far as hiding from other marketers, though I am not aiming to be in any spotlight mind you.

Yes, I was hopeful that there would be some SEO benefits to structuring the sites this way, but definitely not being fully dependent on it for traffic/revenues. As such, I gave little thought to remaining incognito.

2.) Hmmmm... definitely appreciate your views here. I've only just started getting the pieces laid out, and it's true the 'siblings' would likely show less valuable, until I can reach a plateau, and devote proper time to expanding each, to be 'stand alone' sites. With time and effort, I was processing the thought; should I one day decide to sell the authority site at some point... it would almost need to be sold with the entire family as a unit, in order for a buyer to see any real value.

The irony being the projected value in the authority site would be mainly traffic and content, and perhaps some future advertising revenue. (i.e. AdSense, banner ads, or ad space.) Preferably, the latter!

The sibling sites could (with work) stand alone, but the only real value would be based on the revenue generated from each site, and mainly supported by the parent site. Again, I can see this being problematic if I decided to sell the business, or if I fail to reach a large enough audience.

3.) Here's where the loss of sleep comes into play. Aside from the fact I would have a HUGE reliance on the function of the main site, I have several niche-specific templates for the siblings, whereby, they also will 'appear' as independent authority sites, in time. *Obviously, my undertaking is TOO much for a one man operation, hence, it will take time to generate revenue, reinvest and hire out some of these details.

Then the 'branding' aspect comes into play, when I start creating eBooks, mini-courses, and publishing them on affiliate networks like CB, or using (RAP) whereby, the plethora of products can slowly be replaced with my own, and be highly sought after by independent publishers/affiliates.

If, this process took a 3-5 year investment, the 'idea' was reliant also upon publishers (affiliates) who would be 'financially' encouraged to promote those products, each licensed for resale (or even offering 100% commissions), with permanent links back to both the main site and the specific 'sibling' sites, to which; the products expand upon the readers interests, solve their problem, or in the least suggest some viable options to locate the visitors remedy... ethically.

The term; franchise was perhaps a bit bold, yet the concept was to not rely on "G", article syndication, or affiliates alone, but all 3, whereas, if "it" comes to fruition, the mechanics of it would become diverse enough to sustain, as it would supply quality information and feed mainly off the projection of syndicated expansion, both online and off. Add into the recipe some quality branded products beneficial to both visitors and affiliates, and lastly build equity in traffic, revenue, and maybe accrue some page rank value along the way... "The Buffet"

How the hell it is my mind sees "all" businesses at this level is beyond me?:confused:

The irony is, if more businesses concerned themselves with providing (or SHARING) the benefits to both the end user, and it's employees (partners, affiliates, etc...) instead of just focusing on the dollar amounts and greed factors... the economy (at least here in the US) wouldn't be in the toilet!

Sadly, these approaches are often sandboxed, devoured, and outshined by greed, empowerment, and ego's as a result of those too blind to see beyond their own need, wants, and desires... for they want to chisel-down hours, payrolls, the number of employee's, and in essence, outsource any real security we once placed in standard employment, or conducting businesses beneficial to ALL thee involved!

The hardest part is selling the truth, as many prefer to 'buy into' the lies, and promises of an easy fix, easy riches, or a piped-up dream.

Challenging us all to endure the damages, and still maintain the simplicity of value, principle, and the interest we place in our personal and business affairs, alike.

Sadly, those three words have a duel meaning!!!

By placing the emphasis on posterity, as opposed to their monetary definition(s), I truly think one could achieve both; purpose and financial independence, in a manner befitting to our intelligence, and the next.

At the end of the day, I like the OP will be working one article, one site, one product at a time, I just felt it might be beneficial to interpret the success I have seen, and been privileged to witness since finding this forum. To wit, I am keeping my eye on the long-term rewards, not the quick buck, and trying to structure that vision into a reality.

Otherwise, I would be spending more time selling junk, and less time learning "How to" sell long term value. This is not to say, I haven't started building the foundation.

Thank You JuliannaW for starting this thread, it by far exceeds any WSO out there!

PS - I am leaning toward purchasing the DOE membership this week, as many seem to support it's value.

PSS- I really only came here to see Alexa's new pic...

All the Best,

Art

I skipped over this thread yesterday - I'm not doing article marketing and not terribly interested in learning about it. Then today, with it reaching well into the second page, I thought "something's happening here, better check it out."

Wow! I'm going to have to include this in my "standard operating procedures" from now on!

Thanks everyone! And especially JuliannaW for posting the original question and the follow ups!

In addition, I know that even if this product doesn't convert, the niche itself does convert. There are countless offline books on the subject, as well as many other different types of products, such as training DVDs, complete courses, etc.

I just want to provide a quick follow up to this thread, specifically for those people still on the fence about this method:

My first article was published in the article directory 24 hours ago. It has ALREADY been syndicated by another blog in the niche, which has resulted in 14 opt-ins on my squeeze page.

Now, time to start growing the relationship with my subscribers.

Good work. I hope to be able to add my own success story soon. Still need to get that opt-in and other stuff done before I start trying to drive traffic...

In the process of moving now so busy busy busy.

I think I'll test it by doing some FB advertising once I get my opt-in setup and a couple autoresponder messages written.

Article Marketing will never die(at least for awhile or when the internet collapses). I write about one article per day in a niche, sometimes two and syndicate it to the primary spots. Easy.

I just drop in to say thank you for this thread,as i learn many things to read the whole post on this thread

Thank you,
Ady

Julianna--

As the initiator of this thread, just wondering if you've been able to successfully leverage the concepts presented here?

POOOOO, I love a good before and after story!
Maybe Alexa's advice worked so well, she has already jumped to the
"Make Money, Retire" step.

EXCELLENT THREAD, great links that bounced me all over WF for MORE great info.

I just have a question for the article gurus here - If you don't include a link to your product in the articles to be syndicated, how will the customers get them? Is it purely due to mail outs on an opt in list?

I see. So you don't even include your website name on the article to be syndicated.. I mean, how will they know to come to your site?

(n00b question)

Also, how to you find people to syndicate your stuff. Do you just email blog owners in your niche?

Here is the great IM guru sales page. I just love that site make me laugh everytime I see it

Buy My Stupid Ebook, Overly SEO d Title, Keywords Crammed like Make Money Online Make Money Online Make Money Online

Looks like a great plan to me. I keep seeing how article syndication is still a viable way to get traffic even with all the Google updates. I'm hoping this is still true.

The last post on this thread was over a year ago. Is this information still valid or have things changed since then?