Article Marketing Sucks And Is A Waste Of Time.

Some IM methods seem so complicated, especially to someone new to it. And while some people will be very gung-ho about it, and embrace the challenge, others will be so overwhelmed they give up before they really begin.

The appeal of article marketing and bum marketing is they are easy. They might be a little intimidating but not too overwhelming. So someone new to IM will be comfortable enough with those methods to actually try them.

Now it's true that article marketing won't work for everyone. But I think that just starting to do something in IM, even if it didn't work out, will make a person more likely to actually try something else.

I started 3 months ago and was getting 9 - 10% CTR. I am now over 15% and rising.
Just some stats for you. so about 10000 views and 1500 clicks. I was rubbish for the first 5 articles but now I know how to get the clicks and the interest.

I learnt all this from many warriors here including Timg, peter drew, Xfactor etc. So this forum can actually teach you how to get it right.

This post is a bad example of my writing

Is article marketing right for someone new to IM - Truthfully probably not, but when I say that I think it's important to define what is meant by new to IM.

For example, someone that doesn't know how to purchase a domain name, upload a website or any of the other tasks we now take for granted should not be focused on article marketing because they have yet to master the basic skills needed to initially survive online prior to building a business and making a profit.

However, that same person may be a great writer so although they may not be able to effectively conduct article marketing operations they could still make money from effective article writing. Personally, I think that is where the big difference in success and failure occurs (article writing vs article marketing).

Lets not forget that article marketing is simply a form of traffic generation where article writing is nothing more then writing an article on a specific niche topic. The two are vastly different.

The best article writer will make far less then the worst article writer if the best article writer only submits his article to the least performing article directory that is rarely visited by anyone and ranks nowehere in the search engines and the worst article writer submits his poorly written article to the top 10 article directories - The secret is in the marketing aspect of the article campaign.

Much like Dean mentioned in his posting, my first article submissions were horrible in nature but they got the job done in terms of generating traffic, ranking in the search engines and producing income because the field of article marketing was so new. Today those same articles wouldn't perform nearly as well in their current incarnation but with a little polish they could easily do better and that is another key to success with articles - knowing what type of polish to use and how to use it.

An article is an article but article marketing involves at a minimum the following:

1 - The correct title

2 - The correct resource box with a call to action

3 - Submitting to the correct directories

4 - The right niche or topic (although this isn't necessarily a show stopper as I believe you can make money in nearly any niche. Its just that some are better then others).

5 - Persistance to succeed - 3 years ago 10 articles on a particular niche could make you money. 2 years ago the number of required articles hovered around 30. Last year I would say you needed at least 50 articles to start making a dent and now in order to truly dominate a niche and make a good monthly amount in a niche you might need upwards of 150 articles per niche. However, please don;t get frustrated by that statement, because you can still start making money in a niche within 224-36 hours with as little as one article but only if you follow proper article marketing techniques.

Remember, it's not article writing that generates the big dollars, it's article marketing combined with good article writing.

Respectfully,
Tim

Jon, quick question: How can you automate it without being seen as a spammer or using an article spinner and turning out junk?

You need to have a bigger picture than just focusing on you and your article.

For example - BEFORE you write your article it's important that you do some research to see what people are actually looking for.

If you find the main elements of what they want and include the keywords they're using to search - that's a good start.

However, there's another perspective that most people leave out - PURPOSE!

What is the purpose of your article?

To raise awareness of your site/product(s)/service(s)?

To get traffic to your website/squeeze page/blog/ezine/affiliate links/hubpages/lenses/membership site etc.. etc.



Until you have a clear purpose for your article - even the best research won't be enough to bridge the gap you create in your business.

So - make sure that you're addressing what people want, including relevant keywords/phrases and that your article has a purpose.

If you do this - you will get targeted traffic that converts into your desired action.

Andy

p.s. - of course then there's the issue of increasing distribution and which sources are best for the desired outcome you have in mind, and how else you might reuse the content as part of a bigger strategy.

I think one of the most valuable skills, in terms of making money with article writing isn't necessarily writing, it's COPYWRITING.

If you take the long tailed keywords and create a good HEADLINE with them...

If your article is written in a way that compels people to take ACTION...

Then article writing can be a good way for a newbie to make some money and more importantly learn IM basics...

But if you don't know how to do this (it's not that hard) it will definitely suck and be a waste of time.