Article marketing has been around nearly as long as print media. It has become a big deal with the arrival of the internet. There are many content aggregators that make it simple for marketers to submit content. As a result, marketers meet a number of internet marketing benchmarks. Unfortunately, there are some disadvantages to article marketing. This article will examine the three article marketing disadvantages and provide some guidance on implementing an ethical article marketing campaign.
What is Article Marketing?
Article marketing is an advertising method that generally benefits both the publisher and the content provider. Article marketing is as old as print media. In print media, publications accepted article marketing advertisements as these publications were on a limited budget. As a result, a business interested in providing an article covered empty space in the publication while receiving a mention in the publication –for free.
When print media was the only venue for article marketing, the quality of the articles was less of an issue. There were editors extremely familiar with the level of quality and writing guidelines of their publications. As communications strategies evolve with the culture they communicate with, it was inevitable the internet would get in on this strategy.
Article Marketing Sites: Content Aggregators
Article marketing has its benefits and disadvantages. Since publishing is as simple as clicking a button, the quality of article marketing has deteriorated. There are hundreds of directories for submitting articles. These directories are called content aggregators.
Content aggregators are companies or individuals that collect information for their sites. They fall under two categories.
- Companies or individuals who gather information for their sites
- Companies or individuals who gather information for sale or republishing to make a profit
Generally, article marketing strategies target content aggregators that sell or republish articles for profit. The idea is that by having your articles republished, you expand your reach and advertise to more potential customers. There is also the expert factor. The more articles you submit, the more knowledgeable you appear about your niche. But what are the disadvantages to article marketing?
Article Marketing Disadvantage #1: Duplicate Content
Ideally, the internet would be a good place where people could find valuable information on the fly. Unfortunately, that’s just not always the case. There are many companies dedicated to managing the wealth of information on the internet. For instance, Google’s mission is “to organize the world’s information and make it universally accessible and useful.”
The very nature of online article marketing causes duplicate content to become an issue. Since article marketing is a form of advertising most internet marketers submit the same articles to multiple sites. There is a “myth” that Google penalizes for this type of duplicate content.
“Duplicate content on a site is not grounds for action on that site unless it appears that the intent of the duplicate content is to be deceptive and manipulate search engine results.”
Since the myth is not necessarily a myth, let’s examine how you can avoid duplicate content concerns.
How to Avoid Duplicate Content
Let’s say you have an article on your site titled “The Top 10 Tips for Gardening Grapes” (I know you don’t garden grapes). You decide to submit the article to EzineArticles. In order to avoid your worries over duplicate content, don’t submit the same version to the directories.
Start by changing your title to “The Top Five Tips for Gardening Grapes”. Don’t include the first five from your site’s copy. Try tips 1, 7, 3, 9 and 4. Additionally, it would be even more helpful to edit the tips you have selected.
If you follow this plan you will substantially limit the opportunity for duplicate content. You will also do us all a favor by helping avoid multiple search results for the same information. Try this search and see what I mean. The same article appears on the first and second pages from different domains as of the time of this writing.
Article Marketing Disadvantage #2: Poor Link Quality
Article marketing is a definite method for increasing search engine rankings – if you obtain quality linking. The chances of getting quality links is based on a number of factors beyond your control. Following are some of the factors link quality is based on:
- Link Keyword Text
- Quantity of Links
- External Link Popularity
- Diversity of Link Sources
- Global Link Popularity
- Relevancy of External Links
For more information, see the seomoz.org site.
Link popularity affects your search engine rankings and link popularity is a big factor at 71%. (seomoz.org, 2010). While you can receive a large number of links depending on your strategy, the quality of those links can affect your bottom line.
How to Limit the Affects of Poor Link Quality
Define an article marketing strategy that targets highly ranked article directories. Only write high quality articles. Don’t write garbage. You will increase the chances your articles will be linked to or republished by higher ranking sites – if you don’t write garbage. Unfortunately, there is not much more you can do. If you have additional tips or tricks, feel free to comment.
Article Marketing Disadvantage #3: Time Invested
If you’re going to market articles to increase your positioning, it’s going to take time to create valuable content users will enjoy. Remember, don’t write garbage. The very nature of good article writing takes time, research and editing. If you’re going to churn out good articles your time will be a major factor.
How to Cut Back on Time Invested
If you have money to burn you have several options. You can hire freelance writers to develop your articles by going to Elance.com. Or hey, I could write your articles for you! Either way, you can pay for the service and indicate the conditions of the project. Make sure you retain all rights to the material that has been produced. Many website owners and companies use this method. The beauty of this method is it employs freelance writers, people who are trying to make a living just like you.
Another time saving article marketing method is to utilize software like Mass Article Control. This program creates articles for you based on your niche market pulled from an internal database. In addition, you don’t have to worry with submitting your articles because the system does it for you. For $77.00, it’s not a bad investment.
If you have more tips on article marketing don’t forget to leave a comment. Get the newsletter for more information.
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Great comments guys! I have seen people become disturbed when exposed to the technical knowledge it requires to effectively market on the Internet. I think people underestimate the artistic nature of writing for the web. Not everyone can do it effectively. Creating engaging powerful content combined with proper keyword placement that do not appear to be properly placed keywords is an exercise in art, psychology, SEO and marketing. Whew!
No Articles marketing!? What’s with you man!
Hi Malcolm! Of course, we should all market with articles. I think my main issue is how it is done. I’ve seen some pretty crappy articles and some pretty INSANE quotes for writers. Let me see, 1200 words for $10. That’s just not ethical! Additionally, balancing the benefits against the not-so-beneficial issues that arise is paramount to success. Thanks for your comment!
Thanks for taking the time to discuss this, I feel strongly about it and love learning more on this topic. If possible, as you gain expertise, would you mind updating your blog with more information? It is extremely helpful for me.
I’m glad you enjoyed reading and I will definitely update this week. Come back soon for more info. Thanks for commenting.
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No problem Tom, check back often, I will post more content soon! Thanks for your comment.
This will reduce the number of website visitors who will be willing to click through.
Hello Bryon, thank you for your comment. Would you mind elaborating for everyone’s benefit?
Good thread. Cheers!!
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Great comments! Thank you for the additional information Margarita. To everyone else, you are quite welcome. I’m glad you found the information useful.
Enjoyed the posts..
Good post, I can’t say that I agree with everything that was said, but very good information overall. Thanks…
I have a difficult times sometimes articles and have that if I hunt article directories which are that when I find the articles written by others with alot of downloads and print a copy of it that with a few articles to read, if I read them and then wait for about a day, my subconscious will then come up with ideas for a different approach to the topic but somewhat along the guidelines of the articles I have read.
Great thread. Enjoyed the posts..
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You are quite welcome. I’m glad you found the information useful. Looking forward to having you back soon!
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Thank Tes! I look forward to getting busy writing again. I’ve got so many projects going on! Whew. Check back soon for more info.
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Any website owner who desires to get more traffic to their business and grow their sales must start an article marketing strategy into their efforts. It has been proven to work over and over again by thousands of business owners all over the world. However, if not done correctly, you are not going to get the results you want. Therefore, it is very important to learn what not to do, as well. The greatest method to leverage your article marketing efforts is to use an article spinning and submitter tool so you can post more articles rapidly. If you submit to more article directories, you will gain more traffic, and unquestionably will help you to get high quality links quickly.
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I just send my articles to the five top article directories as it is to much work to writte a good article for every directory.
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I will definately praise The Artists Mark » Blog Archive » Article Marketing: Avoiding The Cons to all people that I already know. Important Project. -Stuart Pehowic – SEO Enthusiast
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