New rules of articles, too
In January, I commented on the New Rules of PR in which author David Meerman Scott suggests that we direct our press releases to web-based distribution channels for immediate consumption, bypassing the media.
Yesterday, I discovered the work of Glenn Murray, an Australian writer and founder of ArticlePR who makes a similar argument regarding articles themselves. Instead of pitching them to traditional media, post them to sites such as Ezinearticles or Goarticles where webmasters may freely copy and paste your article into their own sites. In return, they promise to maintain a hyperlink in the author's signature line that directs visitors to the author's website, increasing visits and, more importantly, lifting search engine rankings.
Does this work? And is there a downside to making your work so promiscuously available to all comers? I don't know. But I'm about to find out. I posted my first three articles on Ezinearticles yesterday (they're "pending review" before going live); I'll blog about the results in the weeks ahead.
In the meantime, you can request Murray's article here.
Yesterday, I discovered the work of Glenn Murray, an Australian writer and founder of ArticlePR who makes a similar argument regarding articles themselves. Instead of pitching them to traditional media, post them to sites such as Ezinearticles or Goarticles where webmasters may freely copy and paste your article into their own sites. In return, they promise to maintain a hyperlink in the author's signature line that directs visitors to the author's website, increasing visits and, more importantly, lifting search engine rankings.
Does this work? And is there a downside to making your work so promiscuously available to all comers? I don't know. But I'm about to find out. I posted my first three articles on Ezinearticles yesterday (they're "pending review" before going live); I'll blog about the results in the weeks ahead.
In the meantime, you can request Murray's article here.
posted by Jonathan Kranz at 8:50 AM
18 Comments:
I'm looking forward to hearning about your expereince. I've used GoArticles.com for over a year. In that time, I've had articles downloaded well over 1000 times. Of the 1000+ downloads, I've been contacted for notice of attribution twice. I likely will continue to leave articles there, but I can't tell it making a difference in my site traffic or business. It has been somewhat helpful in determining subjects of greater interest. Good luck!
Jim:
Great anecdote, thanks! Other than people directly contacting you for attribution, is there any other way to know whether webmasters have republished your article on their sites? Have you Googled the article title, for instance, to detect pick-ups you may not have known about?
FYI: Glenn notes that Goarticles is automated, while Ezinearticles hand-reviews each article before posting. This may not have any effect on the reach of publication, per se, but may influence the respective reputations for quality the sites have. Have you tried any sites beyond Goarticles?
Yes, I've Googled and found a few instances of articles of mine posted on the web that I was previously unaware of. I haven’t found anyone stealing my articles, giving them the byline. Nor have I found or am aware of people using my articles in print newsletter or ezines, that's where I hoped to receive a notice of use/attribution.
I haven't fond a downside of leaving articles on GoArticles. I just haven't found the upside I hoped for, yet :-)
Since I read your post, I've opened an account at Ezinearticles. I too will let you know what I find.
Other than just now submitting an article to Ezinearticles, I haven't used any other services similar to GoArticles. I routinely send articles to websites, ezines, and print newsletter publishers. WebProNews is the best experience I've had to date, in terms of driving website traffic.
Hi Jim, Hi Jonathan
Thought I'd add my 2-cents' worth! I've been using the article PR method for about 2 years now. When I started, my site had been live for about 2 years, and it was ranked nowhere. Now I'm ranked no.1 in the world for "copywriter" and also for all sorts of other copy related phrases. 99.99% of my links come from my articles. My site traffic has increased from approx 5-10 visitors per day to approx 350 visitors per day. In my experience, the majority of people who use my articles DO ensure that the link is active. There are a few who don't, but I learn about most of them by setting up Google Alerts to tell me when Google finds my URL on someone else's page. It's a little harder to know when people are stealing your article as the 'thief' is likely to change the article slightly, so you have to set up Google Alerts for unique phrases within the article. All in all, I have far more good to say about the method than bad. Generally I'm not too worried about the kind of sites publishing my articles. If a bodgy site publishes it, they probably don't get much traffic anyway, so not many people will see it, and most who do will understand that I'm not affiliated with the site.
If anyone else has any questions, I'm happy for you to email me at glenn@divinewrite.com.
Thank you Glenn and Jim for the insightful comments! I hope both of you will continue to monitor this discussion and leap in -- whenever you feel like it.
Here are the issues I hope to get a feel for as this moves ahead:
1) How many people will pick up on my articles?
2) Will I see a lift in web traffic?
3) Will I see a lift in search engine rankings? (Which isn't really a primary goal for me. I find that the traffic that comes directly via links is better qualified than the traffic that comes from search engine hits.) And that leads to my next question:
4) What kind of traffic will I get? Spurious click-throughs? Or qualified prospects that might actually convert to business? Obviously it'll be a mix -- but the ratio of that mix is everything...
All good questions! Only time will tell... Although, you'll definitely need to submit more than 1 or 2 articles to see any real results. I've submitted more than 50 articles. Re how many people pick them up - well that's just a question of the quality of the articles and the level of buzz surrounding the topic. Some of my articles have been published hundreds of times. Re traffic, you win both ways! You write articles that are relevant and engaging, so you drive qualified traffic to your site. And in increasing your search engine rank for strategic keywords, you drive semi-qualified traffic to your site (and, generally speaking, only those people who are really interested will contact you). That's been my experience anyway.
Anyway, looking forward to seeing how you go.
Glenn:
I agree: I need more than 3 articles to see real movement, but it's a start until I get enough free time to post more.
I'm also interested in comparing the performance of Ezinearticles vs. GoArticles vs. WebProNews vs. anything else anyone might suggest.
Have you also tracked your article's impact on the blogosphere (number of blog links/mentions) via a tool like Technorati? For some time I've followed the performance of my articles on MarketingProfs.com and RainToday and have learned a couple of interesting things:
1) Articles that perform well (opens/reads) on the originating site doesn't necessarily prove popular in the blogosphere, and vice versa. An article I wrote on blogging, "5 Surefire Content Ideas (When Your Mind is Drawing Blanks," http://www.marketingprofs.com/6/kranz9.asp, performed OK on MarketingProfs, but proved gangbuster among bloggers (who seem to love blogging about blogging).
2) Ezinearticles discourages authors from leading their titles with "waste words" such as "10 Ways to..." but on MarketingProfs.com, articles with similar numerical leads consistently perform very well. Different game, different rules I suppose.
This is an interesting discussion. Let’s expand it a bit to where the rubber meets the road.
I started my site 15 months ago with a new URL and no previous traffic to speak of, less than 10 visits a day on average. Fifteen months later, I have a few hundred subscribers and average 600 visits a day. My site is driven by a blog. I post once each business day, approximately 25 posts a month on average. Not bad, not great.
If norms apply (I’m not sure what norms are in the blogospere), this year should show a marked increase in traffic and subscribers.
Participating in blog carnivals and having posts picked up by other sites result in about 15-20 new links a month. This too increases over time along with other traffic. Search engines eat blogs and provide countless links to my site.
I’m not someone that thinks in terms of either or, but assume for a second you did one or the other, blog or write articles to drive traffic to your site and increase your exposure…which is better?
1. What if you took the time taken to post to a blog and gave the same time to writing articles and submitting them across the Internet?
2. Would you benefit more from writing the articles?
3. Would you have more web traffic than if you blogged?
4. And what about subscribers to your site? Would you have any? What would they subscribe to?
5. What if I didn’t write any articles and instead gave that time and energy to writing more blog posts? Would I benefit in terms of greater site traffic and subscribers?
Jim:
Excellent points and questions.
I don't have solid answers. . . but I have my suspicions.
For starters, I think the real answers are rooted in something deeper than web strategy -- that is, our overall business models.
In my situation, the web is but one possible source of leads and not necessarily the most important: direct mail, networking and speaking engagements are far more effective. After all, I don't have anything I can directly "sell" from the site itself; my website functions as a credibility builder, a communications-maintenance device for lukewarm prospects and a potential source of fresh inquiries.
That's the context in which I evaluate blogs versus articles. Frankly, getting published by a reputable, credible resource -- such as MarketingProfs or RainToday -- has been a terrific way to build cred, attract new links and pull a few new leads. Even without an article PR approach, articles have paid off.
The blog? For me, not a source of leads. A way to "interact" with customers and prospects? I think that's been overstated -- or at least it's not functioning that way in my situation. Frankly, my targets are too damn busy to want to spend time interacting with me -- when they have a project, they just want to know that I can do it, and they want it done. Period.
What my blog IS good for is lifting traffic which has improved dramatically since I launched it last year. Would I get a greater lift if I blogged more frequently? I can't say for certain (how much does anyone really want to hear from me about copy?) and in any event, I'm not sure the resulting increase would be worth the loss of time sapped from my client work, other marketing efforts and just plain living a life.
I do need a way, however, to sustain communications with people who don't have a burning project at the moment, but could convert to business in the future. That's the role of the e-newsletter. Once a month, the curious (people who heard me speak, who like my articles, who dig the website) are reminded that I'm slill alive and kicking -- and willing to give them genuinely interesting/informative know-how to boot.
By the way Jim, I think your blog is definitely in the upper percentile of truly worthwhile blogs with something valuable to say. Unfortunately, that's just not true of most blogs.
Jonathan, Thanks for the kind words.
This topic is interesting because it strikes at why we do the things we do and what best gets us to where we want to be. I agree with everything you said.
It's good life doesn’t make you choose one thing or the other. If so, I'm not sure blogging would be my choice - likely it wouldn't. I blog as a means to stay in touch with clients and prospects, as well as a way to capture ideas and thoughts I use in client projects. I think it works for my clients and prospects because I continually drive them to my site. I use my posts as a free source of information they can have and use.
I'd like my site to be more meaningful, which is why I'm renewing the effort to boost site membership. If I didn’t do traditional consulting or coaching, I wouldn’t move in this direction. My copywriting and associated work doesn’t support it…I think:-)
You raise a great point and one I agree with - getting published in reputable resources is very valuable. I've long wondered if that were a better strategy to extend and build awareness...write articles instead of posting to a blog. Or at least weight activities towards article writing.
A related topic I've given thought to, but can't yet arrive at a position on is which is better...having RSS subscribers to a blog or email subscribers to a newsletter? But that’s a question for another day :-)
Jonathan,
I enjoy your blog and just posted a link on one of my blogs to this post: http://susanghostwriter.blogspot.com/2006/03/article-pr.html
Wow, this is an interesting discussion. Sorry I'm a bit late to the party. It’s been one of those four states in three days kinds of whirlwinds…
One of the great things about writing on Web of all types is that through great content (on blogs, in press releases, through e-books, on Web sites, and in articles) the author can demonstrate thought leadership. The media may vary, but compelling ideas command readership. And when you are smart about a topic, people notice.
I've posted articles in many places (but not GoArticles.com). Like Jonathan, my stuff has appeared on MarketingProfs as well as RainToday.com and CMOMagazine.com. All generate great exposure. I'm constantly amazed at how people find my writing and the old "one thing leads to another" happens. I've had literary agents call and (paid) speaking gigs materialize. Not to mention new clients who want to work with me.
And search engines crawl all sorts of sites, so just getting your work out there makes it valuable in the form of search fodder.
I'm in the early stages of this kind of activity. Just have one article on Gather.com.
I know one article isn't enough.
Susan:
Have you attracted any attention from that article? Are you considering writing others? We'd love to hear about your experience.
I've submitted my share to Goarticles and others, and have been amazed to see them picked up by a virtual plethora of other web-based article sites.
Googling the name of my article(s) will come up with some very interesting sites.
I like the model, and recently created my own article submission service in my niche.
As others noted, however- my stats rarely if ever reflect any traffic to speak of from my submitted articles....even though I'm seeing like "657 downloads".
I wonder if a rel=nofollow attribute is added in certain instances, and if that would prevent them from getting noticed in my stat engines?
Mike
http://www.heartlandoutdoorsman.com
Mike: Very interesting. I wonder if this disconnect between downloads and traffic flow is particular to GoArticles or characteristic of article syndication methods in general.
Another issue: I'd love to hear people comment on the QUALITY of the traffic they get from articles. How much of it fits their profiles of qualifed leads/prospects?
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