1. Treating article marketing the same as backlinking.
All article marketing is a form of backlinking, but not all backlinking is article marketing. Here’s the difference: Article marketing provides value to the reader and may result in massive backlinking, backlinking provides backlinks in great quantity, but offers little in the way of value to readers.
- Backlinkers write 200 words and call it an article. Article marketers give a thorough explanation of the topic, even if it takes 1,000 words or more.
- Backlinkers write one article and spin it into 1,000 versions that they post on thousands of here-today-gone-tomorrow autoblogs, where they quickly sink out of sight. Article marketers write one solid, informative, readable article and get it syndicated on high-quality, long-lived sites across the Internet.
- Backlinkers believe quantity trumps quality. Article marketers know quality begets quantity.
2. Not knowing your subject better than your readers.
The reason to publish articles on directories is two-fold: first, to get other website owners to republish your content, and second, to get readers to click the links in your resource box. If you’re publishing fluff articles with little meaning and no substance, neither one of those things is likely to happen. Website owners can easily write their own fluff pieces, and publish them without linking out to anyone. And if the reader has heard your advice dozens of times (as they will have when you publish fluff) then what would compel them to visit your site.
Write a strong article that informs your reader, and she’ll follow you back to your site just to see what else you have to say on the subject.
3. Failing to craft a compelling call to action.
When a reader reaches the end of your article, what should she do next? In the Internet, there are dozens of choices. She can click the back button and return to her search results. She can browse some of the other articles. Or she can click the links in your resource box, but unless you give her a good reason to, she’ll likely make a different choice. Ask for the click, and give her a good reason to comply.
4. Failing to follow up with your readers.
What happens when a new reader arrives on your site? If you’re not making an attempt to stay in touch with her through a mailing list, you’re losing money. Even if your site is simply a pre-sell page for a hot new eBook, your first job is to get your reader’s email address. Then send her on to the sales page. Otherwise, once she clicks off your site, she’s likely gone forever. Since shoppers typically need several exposures to an offer before buying, you’ll lose the majority of sales simply by not following up with your readers.
5. Failing to test and tweak your campaigns
Which anchor text converts better? What resource box gets the highest number of click throughs? Which color headline results in more sign-ups? Everything – right down to the font you choose – has an effect on your conversions, and the only way to improve your sales and make more money is to be constantly testing and tweaking.
I’ve made all five of these article marketing mistakes (and many more). What’s the worst mistake you’ve ever made in an article marketing campaign? Let us know in the comments.
Cindy:
Awesome post! I never looked at article marketing and backlinking as two seperate entities. I can see where the differences come into play if one is using articles simply to build backlinks. No real value offered.
And, CONSEQUENTLY, you presented this very well!
Lisa
LOL! Consequently!
Sorry, this one got dumped into my spam filter for some reason. I’m terribly outspoken about the whole massive backlinking thing. I LOVE article marketing as a way of gaining backlinks, but it has so many other benefits that it makes me sad when it gets lumped in with the less-than-ethical practice of backlinking for backlinking’s sake. If that makes sense!
Thanks for commenting. I hope you’ll come by again.
Cindy
Right on Cindy! Nice post.
I started writing articles and submitting them to EZA before I really knew what I was doing. Sheesh, I was giving away the farm and writing articles with TONS of information. And because of that, I’m still getting traffic from those articles, and they were written in 2007.
I’m guilty of mistake #5. I have never tested the anchor link, I always just used my best keyword. But I do see that I should test it!
Thanks,
Peggy
Hey Peggy,
I know what you mean – some of my best-performing articles were written before I even really understood what article marketing was. They’re long, took me hours to research, and all have crappy resource boxes. LOL!
I try to get my best keyword in the anchor text, too, but sometimes I mix it up with a simple “click here.” Right now I’m testing whether the keyword intent makes a difference in click-throughs. For example, does “buy diamond jewelry” get more clicks than “diamond jewelry”? I suspect it might be lower, but better converting. We’ll see!
Thanks for stopping by, and for leaving a comment!
Cindy
Hi Cindy,
Your article is very informative. I don’t know much about article marketing, so this post helped me understand how things work.
I haven’t make any mistakes, because I haven’t gotten into article marketing, but I will.
Take care,
Evelyn
Hi Evelyn,
Thanks for stopping by! I think you’d love article marketing. It’s blogging, but with a bigger audience. I do think it’s more effective in some niches than in others, and some (like health) have so much competition that it’s hard to get your foot in the door.
But for me, that’s part of the appeal. I get a thrill every time something I wrote is republished somewhere (I once got a mention on PBS.org!) so I’m always on a quest to write better, more compelling and informative articles.
Thanks again for stopping to chat with me. I hope to see you here again!
Cindy
Thanks for a nice article Cindy.
An original article always wins! By original article i don’t mean it should just pass from copyscape but it should also original & fresh in ideas. Famous bloggers today got fame using same way. The have created linkworthy content. Spent entire day to write an article and such articles itself get them tons on pingbacks and linkbacks. That’s how article marketing strategy should be.
Hi Kim,
You’re absolutely right about originality. In the writing business we call that voice, and it’s one of the most difficult concepts for new writers to grasp. Not only do you need to provide useful, well written content, but it needs to have a personality.
Thanks for taking the time to read and comment. I hope I’ll see you hear again soon!
Cindy
Great tips Cindy!
I’ve seen many people advocating the use of article spinners, although I’m personally much against them.
I’ve only written 3 articles so far, and all 3 have been featured on websites that I had never heard of before, only because my articles had some unique, quality content.
So without me doing any extra work of spinning the articles, I already had many backlinks out of each article! It’s a win-win situation
Hi Amr,
Good job at getting your articles syndicated. Unlike spun content that’s posted in a million places, those few links will likely be around for a long time, and will bring traffic to your site for years. Now if you really want to go above and beyond, you can contact the site owners and ask if they’d be interested in unique articles from you. That can often get you even better links – not to mention starting a potentially profitable relationship with a high-quality publisher.
Thanks for reading and taking the time to comment. I really appreciate your input!
Cindy
Hi Cindy,
I thought I had my article marketing down to a “T” , my articles convert nicely, but I really have been missing out by sending the user to a squeezepage, more often than not without an optin. Where I have used optins, my conversions are very good…but I really have negelected to dedicate as much time to my list building as I should. Thanks for making me think about this.
Best regards
Rob
Hi Rob, and thanks for your comment.
So where have you been sending your readers? Just back to the home page of your blog?
I read a really interesting comment over at the Warrior Forum just the other day about tactics for getting your articles syndicated more widely, and one way was to not use the resource box for selling. So rather than saying “Hey, subscribe to my list to get even more information” like you normally would, say “Rob writes about backlinking at backlinker professional.” The theory is that webmasters really don’t want their visitors sold to in the content on their sites.
I think that idea has merit, so I’m going to be testing it out by sending readers to the home-page of a blog, BUT, I’m going to install a pop-up to see if I can still capture some of that traffic.
I’ll let you know how it works. Thanks again for commenting!
Cindy
Hey Cindy,
I think my resource boxes are fine, I usually write something along the lines of, “Rob is a software Developer and Internet Marketer based..” so it’s more of a bio than a sales pitch. This tactic works pretty well for me and makes me a recurring income in several niches…but If I concentrated more on list building, then I would certainly do a lot better. Don’t get me wrong, i do pretty well from online sales and freelance work, but there’s always room for improvement.
I also frequent the Warrior Forum by the way and it is great to make your acquaintance.
Cheers
Rob
Hey Cindy
Great summary of article marketing mistakes; I’ve been digging into it a lot more lately because I’m trying to bump one of my sites from #2 to #1 in Google for a keyword – I’m taking a bit longer time working on articles than just to push out pure crap. Should be interesting to see how they add to the ranking and click through – in fact, I need to check it out and see what ways I can optimize the resource box (something people definitely overlook!)
Hi Murray, thanks for taking the time to comment. I really appreciate it!
I’m a firm believer in quality over quantity, especially when it comes to article marketing. It takes longer to write good, solid articles, but there’s a long-term benefit that you just can’t get from short, poorly written fluff pieces. It’s like the difference between a Mercedes and a Chevette (remember those?) – they’re both cars, and they’ll both get you to the mall and back, but one will take you a lot further and make a much better impression than the other.
Thanks again for stopping by. I hope to see you here again.
Cindy