foldersI had an interesting discussion with one of my Mastermind Groups this week about Article Marketing and how it works.  The discussion was prompted somewhat by my earlier post Article Marketing, Backlinks and Duplicate Content oh My! – and centered around posting articles and what to do to avoid ‘duplicate content penalties’.

In fact, the discussion was “I’m just exhausted by the number of different articles I have to write”.  There still appears to be a lot of conjecture and misunderstanding about when and where to use articles, so here are “Charlys 3 Top Tips For Article Marketing”.

Tip 1:  Be Clear About Why You Are Article Marketing

Sometimes, in the excitement of building our businesses, we lose focus on why we are article marketing and the article marketing becomes the focus of our activity.  This is a sure fire way to not succeed.

When helping a business get started online, I recommend article marketing as a way to improve the off page Search Engine Optimization of your website.  Let’s take a look why:

  1. Get Indexed – that is, listed in the Search Engines
    In times not so long ago, getting listed in the Search Engines was fairly difficult.  I still remember reading that it could take at least 6 months for a site to be listed in the Search Engines ‘organically’.  Often, you weren’t indexed until another site linked to you.That’s because Search Engine ‘spiders’ (the little software robots that search engines send out to ‘review’ webpages) would follow the link and literally ‘finds’ your site.With Article Marketing, you are putting a link back to your site in your article – most likely your Author Resource box – and allowing search engines ‘to find your site’.  If you follow my tried and true method, it wouldn’t be unusual for your articles to rank more highly in the Search Engines than your website for a while.
  2. Generate Backlinks. Back Links are important to the ranking of your site – and for some sites back links from an authority site are the way that they actually get placed into the Search Engines.In terms of Search Engine Optimization, part of the search algorithm (the formula that search engines use to rank your site) takes into consideration the number of links that your site has back (back links) from other sites.  So having links from other sites is good – but having links from ‘authority sites’ is even better.

    Article Marketing creates a back link from a (generally) ‘high authority’ web site.  Links from sites that already rank well in the search engines carry more weight (are a higher vote) when ranking your site.  Article directories are generally well ranked and well loved by the search engines, so a link from these types of sites are worth a lot.

  3. Credential Yourself As An Expert.
    By writing articles for your niche, you are demonstrating your expertise around your chosen subject.  By demonstrating your expertise on a regular basis you are developing your credibility and trustworthiness.

By keeping these three objectives clear in your mind – you will be far more successful in your Article Marketing.

Tip 2: Identify The First Place To Publish

Where you publish your post for the first time is of paramount importance, generally, as it will become the site that gets the credit for the article.  Therefore, it is really important to decide where to publish the article first.

As I said in my earlier post:

What really happens is that the first site indexed with that content, becomes the authority, the one that gets the ‘priority listing’.  The other sites get some benefit from the article, but are not ranked as highly.

Whilst Duplicate Content may not be an issue, you do want to make sure that the right site becomes the authority site….

I would suggest that you want your blog to be the authority for an article.  This means that you should post the article to your blog first and then post it to the Article Directories later.

Depending on how quickly your blog is indexed by the Search Engines, this could become painful as you may have to wait days (or longer) for the indexing to occur.

This is where my Plan B kicks in.  While your blog still takes more than a few hours to index, you write Part 1 of the article, it might be a summization of the main article, or it might be an intro article that then points back to the main article.  This 2nd article is then submitted to the Article Directories to assist in the indexing process.

If your blog is indexing fairly quickly, then rewrite the intro and conclusion of article and submit it to the article directories.  The first benefit is the backlink to your article and the second benefit is that if your article is good enough, other sites will syndicate your content and provide you more back links….

Hopefully by now, you are seeing why duplicate content shouldn’t be a concern and how you can ‘multipurpose’ content to your benefit.

Tip 3: Use Two Part Articles To Drive More Traffic

If you really want to have unique content on your blog and on the article directories, then split your articles in two.  Publish the 2nd part, with all the ‘meat’, on your blog and publish the first part, which should be informative, on the Article Directories and point to the Part 2 for more information.

Two part articles work really well.  The first part generates interest, whilst still answering questions, and directs traffic back to your site.  Each part should be approximately 300 to 400 words long.  400 words is better as many article directories have a 400 word minimum.

As long as you stay clear on what you are trying to achieve – you’re article marketing will be successful.  If you find yourself becoming overwhelmed with the number of articles you think you have to write – STOP, relax and refocus – you’ll be surprised at what you can achieve.

About the Author Charly Dwyer

Charly has more than 30 years experience in the IT industry ranging from hands-on technical, to high-level business management, Charly has installed and configured computing equipment and has managed business contracts in excess of $25 million dollars.

As a result, Charly identifies the best way to integrate solutions and technologies for the most cost effective way to achieve a businesses outcome.

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  1. wonderful article. I’m a real newbie. Haven’t started my blog yet but working on writing so I’ll not get caught short of no content. I’ve struggled to understand the duplicate content rules. To write so many articles – one for blog, for article directory, newsletter has been overwhelming. I had thought of the 2 part idea so great to see you saying it’s a great method. Thanks I’ll keep looking at your site for help.

  2. Great read. Article marketing has been such a confusing area since people are so paranoid about duplicate content and Google slapping them with penalties. I think Article marketing is a cornerstone of any effective internet marketing plan, and done properly has many benefits of increased traffic and site visibility. Great post, thank you again.
    .-= SEO Tips Forum´s last blog ..Creating Backlinks and its importance in Search Engine Optimization =-.

  3. Great article. Having the right authority site is very important. You would always want ezinearticles to be your authority site, but make sure you wait til the article is accepted and indexed prior to posting in other places.

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