When I wrote a post about how I was going to increase traffic to my blog a couple of weeks ago I did not consider one powerful method which could not only increase visitors, but also improve my search engine rankings as well. The method I failed to spot but am now just beginning to get into in a big way is article marketing. Better still, I am taking a “hands-off” approach to this aspect of my business and intend to outsource it completely!
I have dabbled with article marketing in the past but like most things I have done online, I have never really done it properly. There is a case for using articles to promote your blog because quite simply – articles generate traffic.
At the bottom of every article you can add a link or two back to one of your own websites which will not only provide you with traffic but also a back link which will be recognised by the search engines and help to improve your rankings!
Undoubtedly the biggest player in the world of article marketing is Ezine Articles, an authority directory with almost 200,000 authors registered to the website. The directory celebrates it’s 10-year anniversary later this year and has an Alexa Rating of 183, meaning it is one of the most popular websites on the internet!
Suffice to say, ignoring Ezine Articles or article marketing in general means I could miss out on potentially hundreds, if not thousands of visitors arriving at my blog every month!
However, writing articles takes time and I want to concentrate my own efforts on producing quality content for my blog and also adding value to other people’s. Even though I am a full time internet marketer, there are just not enough hours in the day to get everything done myself.
This is why I am happy to completely outsource my entire Ezine Articles operation!
I believe I have found an excellent writer who can take on an almost unlimited number of article requests every month within reason and will charge less than $3 per 400 word article.
Better still, he is a native English speaker so the content is going to be top quality in terms of research, grammar and spelling.
This is very important to me because even though I have not written the article myself, when it is published on the directory it is still going to have my name on it and my photograph.
My reputation is on the line with every article submitted and they need to be just as good as if I had written them myself.
My writer has produced a few sample articles for me and I am delighted with them. I am now in the process of submitting them to Ezine Articles and awaiting their approval.
All being well I could outsource around 100 articles per month to my writer or even greater numbers when I start making more money online and could build a really powerful article account.
Why outsource my article writing?
It’s primarily to do with time. I could probably churn out an article in 15 minutes if I was really focused, but to write 100 a month would take me at least 25 hours to do!
I’d rather pay someone else to do it and spend those 25 hours on growing my business elsewhere, e.g. writing blog posts for DavidWalker.tv, recording videos or networking with other marketers to see if we can do some business together!
Remember, outsourcing allows you to work ON your business rather than IN your business!
It’s still early days for my fledgling internet marketing business but outsourcing the time consuming, yet important task of article marketing should see me enjoy some success that much faster.
Is anyone else having positive experiences with outsourcing or article marketing? Please leave your comments below!
Goop points, David. I just submitted an article for my blog, waiting for it to be approved. I am also looking to outsource was well Hopefully I can find someone as reasonable as your source.
Gene
Hi Gene,
Outsourcing is definitely the way to go if you can find someone who is both cost effective and very good at writing. Let me know how you get on!
David
Hi David,
Very good article, yes there isn’t enough hours in the day to get everything done.
If I wanted to hire your article writer, is that possible from you ?.
keep up the really good work, you are doing,
talk soon,
to your success,
Rich Cardarelli
Hi Rich,
At the moment I am just testing the water with my writer but if he is able to cope with the level of volume I want to hand over to him and he can still take on more work then I will let you know!
David
Hi David,
Just got a cool update from your aweber account with a list of your latest Blog updates
I have produced short articles and submitted to goarticles, ezinearticles and articlecity which do produce traffic, but I probabaly only write 1 a month, if that………so I would be Intersted to learn about having someone else write it for you but at Volume as this does make sense to me..
Seems like excellent value to me David, $3 for a 400 word article, be interested to know the details.
At first though, I read it to be $3 per word!
Be intersted to know more David.
Cheers
Sean
Hi Sean,
$3 per word! LOL! If that was the going rate I’d be writing articles for other people without any hesitation!
Articles are useful for both traffic and backlinks but the majority of your visitors will come from Ezine Articles.
I don’t know if you will be able to determine how useful article marketing is with just one submission per month. With almost 200k registered authors on EZA, one article could quickly become lost among the crowd so it is important to get quality articles in volume submitted.
I will blog about how I get on with this so stay tuned!
David
Hey David,
That’s awesome, finding a good writer can be hard, and if you’ve found a good one for that price then you’ve struck gold!
I would be interested to find out where you found them, and the process you went through. I am very interested in outsourcing, but like you say, the content and quality have to be top notch.
Talk soon,
Paul
Hi Paul,
I found my writer on the Warrior Forum, there are several on there offering article writing services.
However, as with all outsourcers, the quality varies massively. After trying out a different writer I had no option but to obtain a refund because the quality was dire, despite them getting good reviews.
It’s worth trying a few people out, just pay for a couple of “test” articles and see how you get on!
David
Hi David,
I just had my second article accepted by ezine and I can definitely see a bump in my blog visits. That’s great advice about outsourcing articles although I don’t think that I am at that stage yet.
thanks
Hi David,
If you are getting traffic already then you must be doing something right with the article you submitted.
Outsourcing will enable you to scale up your traffic and backlinks massively. Just imagine how many new visitors to your blog you could get if you submitted 100 or more articles every month!
David
Hi David,
Article Marketing is a VERY effective method of driving traffic. If you do your keyword research carefully and structure your article accordingly then it is quite easy to get your article on top of the first page of Google with the right backlinking campaign.
I agree, it should never be ignored as a traffic method and also it helps to build your Brand as long as you create quality articles. I have outsourced before, but I was never happy with the results so I stopped, and just continued writing my own.
If you have found a quality writer who charges $3 a 400 word article, I would be very happy if you could tell me more
Let me know how your article marketing goes, always one of my favorite topics.
Cheers,
Paul
Hi Paul,
I believe article marketing cna be effective but I have never really given it my best shot which is why I am really excited about handing over the entire operation to someone else!
I would never just submit junk articles, as it is my name and photo attached to them but if a quality writer can do just as well as me, or even better, in terms of producing the content then I will happily take the credit
Watch this space for more updates!
David
David,
Another great post… We can all certainly use more traffic.
Article writing has always seemed a bit labour intense and so it was a pleasant surprise to
see you talking about outsourcing.
Thanks for that.
Rob
Hi Rob,
Is there any such thing as “enough” traffic? Heck no, that’s why we always want MORE!
I just wouldn’t have the time to produce articles in the volume I want so they have to be outsourced. Hopefully I have found a writer who can do my name and brand proud!
David
Hey David
I was thinking of doing this for along time, article writing is very tedious but a must,
I submitted an article to ezine a few months back with in a couple days I got 300 views
and made a few sales, so I’m here to tell you that it does work , and I need more info
shoot me an email with details.
Great Post
Alexis
Hi Alexis,
Those are some great numbers you mentioned there!
Just think about what you could achieve if you scaled this right up?
Surely it would be worth outsourcing your article writing and free up more of your time?
David
The biggest problems with outsourcing articles is price and quality.
If you can get the mix right, it can pay off big.
Excellent article and thanks for the information
Regards
Gerry
Hey David,
Great post & I totally agree with you…writing QUALITY articles takes an awful lot of time. I have used need-an-article.com in the past & they have some good writers. Now, you can even choose your own writer if you have found one to be particularly good.. They do charge a bit more that what you are paying, though. Having a decent grasp on the English language is the biggest factor in my choice of writers. If they don’t have that…NEXT!!!
I wish you the best-keep providing these great posts, David-I’ll be back!
Take care,
Joann
Hi Joann,
Thank you for the comment. If my current writer does not work out then I will take a look at the website you mentioned there. Having a quality writer is of utmost importance to me if I am to make the article marketing side of my business work.
David
Hi David,
At $3 an article, its sounds like a no brainer to get articles outsourced for a period of time.
I’m not getting much traffic at the moment and the traffic I am getting is from fellow AJ students, (who obviously don’t want my List Building eBook), so I can see that articles would start to generate external visitors giving me a better chance to build my list.
When outsourcing an article …. having found a quality writer (I guess you’re keeping your man under wraps) …. what information are you giving to the free lancer?
Do you provide them with key words you want including in the article?
Nice Post, Thanks
John
Hi John,
During these very early stages I am not providing an keywords, I just want to get a feel for what the writer can produce on a related topic.
If I decide to work with the writer on an ongoing basis, then I will provide keywords for which to base content around.
David
Wow excellent idea! I’ve toyed with the idea of hiring a ghost writer before, but never along the lines of article marketing.
One thing that could help is adding some kind of review clause on the articles… So that there is atleast one level of quality control before the article gets posted with your brand on it.
This is the reason why you see a lot of free article and free press release websites pop up. They are already past this fact and leveraging other people to post their lengthy text content on their free site. Then they monetize it with adsense or other ad slot sales. It gets done on a smaller scale when you have a regular website to market, because your mission in this case is to get the inbound links rather than the fresh content on-site.
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