Article Syndication - Quick Questions

by 35 replies
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Hello all (in particular Myob and Alexa)!

So, following all of your advice on article marketing through syndication, I'm giving it a crack, starting today.

My plan is to write an article in MS Word format, then send it out as an attachement to the various sites I'm targeting, with an invitation e-mail.

Is this a good idea? Is MS Word the best format? Should I first contact the websites / blogs, to see if they're interested, before sending them my article?

I will, of course, post the article on my site and have it indexed!

Thanks (hope this makes sense)
#main internet marketing discussion forum #article #questions #quick #syndication
  • p.s should read, "I will of course post the article on my website and have it indexed first".
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    • Banned
      Psh, I forgot more about article syndication during breakfast than they will ever know :rolleyes::p.

      Congratulations, you aren't going to regret it.

      Solid plan, although personally I wouldn't send it along as an attachment. That can stop the email from getting through certain filters, and will worry a few others. Putting it into the body of the email has worked well for me so far.

      Good idea? Yes. Is MS word the best to type in? Matter of personal opinion; but I personally say yes. Should you contact before sending the article? I've seen people I respect that syndicate articles go both ways with this one. I contact them personally first, I prefer not to come on too strong. It's another thing you are going to have to test for yourself, really.

      Smart marketer.


      The edit button is your friend .

      I'm never going to be able to go two days without seeing this one, am I? :rolleyes:
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  • Some may prefer a .txt like notepad rather than ms word but it shouldn't really be much of an issue, you can easily send both formats.

    If you publish the article on your own site first you would not be offering original content to the other person's site if it was for guest posting, so unless it was just an article directory it may not get accepted.
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    • [1] reply
    • Did the OP mention guest posting at all? In fact, the title of this thread makes it clear that syndication is what is being discussed. It might be a good idea to learn the difference before you make comments like this.
  • Thanks for all the tips guys. I have used syndicated content for some parts of my website, and I'm ranking on page 1 of Google for a couple of search terms. So I think it's ok. From what I gather, the latest Google update has punished people who have used their keywords over-zealously, even for legit businesses. I have a pal who runs an online 'learn english' school, was ranking in position 1 - 3 on fairly competitive keywords, but got a slap and is having to build again.
  • Banned
    I've told you about those 35-course breakfasts before ... it's just "not good for you".

    No, indeed ... certainly not. Thankfully, from my perspective. I only ever use one or two anyway, and would hate to be getting potential customer traffic coming to my site via an article directory, for all these reasons.

    I know exactly what you mean.

    Ironically, though (or, at least, I used to think it was "ironic" when I first started doing this), I end up with far, far better off-page SEO out of syndicating identical content than I ever used to from doing differently. Not directly because they're identical copies, but because it's so much quicker and easier, that way, to send them out to people on a syndication-list, some of whom have relevant sites, and the resulting beneficial value of their backlinks, as explained in the last paragraph of this post: http://www.warriorforum.com/main-int...ml#post5035794

    You can test that, certainly. Personally, I always send one article with my "initial approach" (chatty email telling them what I really like about their site and why, chatting about the niche, from their perspective, talking about and asking about their readers/visitors/subscribers, and so on, and explaining why I think the article that follows my signature at the end of the email might be of particular interest to them).

    I never send it as an attachment. I think you wouldn't hit their in-boxes nearly as often, that way, and some might not even open it.

    So, for me - no attachments, just plain text pasted on the end of what becomes a long email. And no "links to a site where they can see it", either. I want it all to be "self-contained" in one email. (And with a "resource-box"/"last paragraph", especially the first time, which I think they won't mind having on their site, i.e. nothing salesy; no "heavy-duty call to action"!).

    Good luck!

    Edited to add: John posted while I was typing this. I agree with him completely, of course.
    • [ 6 ] Thanks
    • [2] replies
    • What I always do is include 2-3 articles within the email text of my query to publishers, and a link to my niche profile/portfolio on EZA. Some of the other issues in this thread (ie "duplication", "slap", etc) are covered rather comprehensively here.

      Using the article syndication model as outlined (it's not about article directories) effectively negates the problems of Google's alogorithm changes, including "slap", as well as maximizing off-page SEO as a secondary benefit. These advantages are cumulative; syndication is an asset-building process that eventually overtakes virtually any marketing method, including Google itself.
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    • Alexa, I have a few questions regarding this point.

      1. Do you edit the original "resource-box"/"last paragraph" of the article that is already posted on your site or do purposely have an article on your site that doesn't have an "aggressive call to action"?

      2. What kind of a resource-box do you use? Is it a pithy bio with a link to your site?

      3. Would it be okay to add a link to a squeeze page offering a free report (lead magnet)? If not, would it be feasible after building a rapport with the site owner?

      I am new to article syndication. I would really appreciate your thoughts.

      Thanks a lot.
      • [2] replies
  • Noted - thanks to all!

    I sent an e-mail to the publisher of the number 1 ezine publisher in my niche, and right away he said he'd be happy to send my article to his subscriber list, with a link to my squeeze page at the bottom. Happy days Hope it all goes to plan...
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    • How did you find this person?
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    • Banned
      Before you send him your content, make sure you append a tracking code to the squeeze page link, otherwise you'll never know whether this strategy was worth it.
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  • I would avoid the attachment and just include the article in text format at the bottom of the email. I also recommend you check out Turn Words into Traffic as it really goes into detail about how to do this properly. One of the best guides I have ever read for article syndication.

    Benjamin
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    • Just wondering: How is article syndication ala Alexa affecting your website rankings in google nowadays - with the recent algorithm update? I know google rankings are not the main goal of this strategy, nevertheless I'm curious to know how it affects your sites - are they ranking better? Worse? Same as before?
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  • One thing I would recommend is changing up the anchor text of the links in different articles. I remember seeing a thread in the SEO forum where someone lost rankings, which may have been due to the fact that he was getting a number of articles passively syndicated, all with the same anchor text.

    Normally, I don't pay much attention to that subforum, but the person who took a look at this guy's site is someone I respect.

    Here's the thread, if you are interested:

    http://www.warriorforum.com/adsense-...est-posts.html
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    • [2] replies
    • I've got friends who work in SEO, and they definitely told me that changing your anchor text will help you, but I wasn't aware that not changing it might harm your rankings.
    • Great info here, folks... I only want to
      emphasize what I feel are a few very
      important points:


      Because again, the crux of article syndication
      is building long term, win-win relationships
      with content publishers.




      I read this in another post, I can't find it now,
      and while I haven't tracked it, there was an
      obvious improvement in the responses I was
      getting. By improvement I mean more
      enthusiasm, not really the quantity of responses.



      Above all, this is the most attractive aspect
      of the strategy to me. Unlike most
      other marketing tricks and tactics,
      the work that you put in not only continues
      to work long after you're finished with it,
      but it continues to work betteras time
      goes by.



      I have had superb success with this.
      In part, I believe it was because my wife
      was a calligrapher, and she hand-wrote
      many of the introductions and even the
      envelope salutations in a beautiful gothic
      script that really seized attention.

      If you can get a hook like that, it will
      absolutely set you apart from everyone
      else. No gift cards or anything sleazy
      like that-- Just something special that
      shows a little about who you really are
      beyond the Internet.




      It has come to my attention that the Directory of Ezines, which probably the best resource for online article syndication, is beyond the budget of many people.

      The Writer's Market, however, is not only very affordable but you can often get it at public libraries, and they have many incarnations that may play to your strong points as a writer, such as poetry and science fiction/fantasy. In addition, they give you tips about who to contact first if you have never been published before, or if you have only been published a few times. Some of the publishers even pay you cash up front before publishing your article. (Never much, but you can save up for the DOE.)

      Finally, more than once I fee like my new-found online publishing friends were most impressed with the fact that I have been published in real (read: paper) outlets.




      +1.



      Now, one thing I'm not sure about:


      I don't really know, but there are only
      a certain amount of hours in the day.
      Personally, I just don't want to spend
      any of them thinking about SEO when
      it would be much more beneficial to
      polish my articles or my friendships.

      In my niche, at least, those people who
      find my sites through search engines
      tend to be very low quality leads, especially
      when compared to articles, forums, and
      even solo ads.

      Proper article syndication actually does
      seem to help SEO, but I'm not sure
      I see that as a benefit. I even had
      two of my forums blocked from the
      "spiders" so that they would quit
      attracting people I don't know.



      Out of order, I know:

      I didn't know that about malware, that is
      good to know. To me, receiving attachments
      just seems annoying. Why didn't they just
      put it in the email? So when I saw myob
      suggest that previously, it made perfect
      sense and again, I've had obvious improvement
      in the responses I am getting from my submissions.
      • [ 3 ] Thanks
      • [2] replies
  • The DOE does have a lot of dead links,
    especially in niches with high turnover rates.

    So does the Writer's Market and all other
    such resources. It is the nature of the beast.

    Think of it as a good thing, because you know
    that you aren't wasting your time with publishers
    that are not going to last, anyway.

    On the other hand, those that are still active
    have a strong readership and dedicated
    owners/admin.


    Yes, I do format my articles at 60.
    Not sure if it actually makes a difference or not.
    • [1] reply
    • Thanks.

      Yeah, it just seems strange that ezines with 50,000 readers can be here today, gone tomorrow.
  • There was an influx of people who thought they
    could make a lot of money from running an ezine.
    When they realized it was work, and the money
    didn't come as fast as they thought it would,
    they sold it or just let it fail.

    I agree with you 100% that the DOE needs a
    good "Spring Cleaning" but it's still a superb
    resource and it make your investment back
    for you many times over.
    • [ 1 ] Thanks
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