How to Boost Blog and Website Traffic with Article Marketing
I know a lot of you have been asking me about Article Marketing and what exactly it can be used for. Well, since I only do minimal amounts of Article Marketing, I’ve found someone who has much more experience to write about it for you today. Feel free to ask any questions in the comments below if you still have questions unanswered. Enjoy!
This is a guest post by Henri Junttila from Wake Up Cloud.
Do you want to generate more traffic to your blog or website? Do you want to increase your subscribers, sales and fans?
It can be done, but only if you’re prepared to work hard. You’ve probably heard people say that article marketing is dead. I’m here to tell you it’s not, because I’m currently using it successfully.
There will always be people that proclaim that everything’s dead. Google Adsense is dead, blogging is dead and whatever else.
These are the people that have failed and want something to blame. Increasing traffic to your blog and website is extremely simple with article marketing, so let’s get started, shall we?
What is Article Marketing?
For me, article marketing simply means writing short 300-400 word article and submitting them to EzineArticles. Why EzineArticles you might ask? Because they are the biggest article directory on the internet.
I think I’ve heard Chris Knight, the CEO of EzineArticles say that they receive over one million unique visitors per day, which means lots of exposure for your articles.
You can probably find as many article marketing strategies as you find people. Okay, maybe not that many, but it can be used in so many different ways. The main benefit of doing article marketing is getting targeted traffic to your website.
My Background
I’ve been involved in trying to make money online since 2007, but it took me until 2009 until I really figured it out and got my first profitable niche website off the ground. In July of 2009 I fell in love with article marketing.
I like article marketing to so much because of the simplicity. All you have to do is write articles and submit them and you will get traffic. There are of course other factors, such as using the right keywords and converting your visitors, but I think you get my point.
Finding the right keywords is fairly easy though and I only use Wordtracker and the Google Adwords Keyword Tool for that. I have primarily used article marketing to drive traffic to my affiliate websites, which has allowed me to build an income large enough for my girlfriend and me to live on.
I even taught article marketing to my girlfriend. She’s not making a lot, she just crossed $300/month in passive income, but she is slowly building up. Making anything happen online takes time and hard work.
My Traffic Stats
Here you can see my traffic stats for one of my presell sites. I don’t want to reveal what it is for obvious reasons, but you can check out my girlfriend’s site further down below in this post.
This website has only one page and it educates visitors, which is what you want a pre-sell to do. Leave the selling for the vendor.
Now, just to make things clear, I’ve submitted articles to EzineArticles for almost 9 months now pointing to this website. I have practically left this website alone now, and it is continually earning me money.
As you can see, the traffic goes in cycles. Sometimes it is up, and sometimes it is down. This is hard work, but once you get things rolling, it gets a lot easier. I think Pat would agree with that.
Why Should You Use Article Marketing?
I personally think it’s an extremely effective way of driving traffic to any part of your website that you want. Specifically your own products, services or affiliate reviews.
Imagine if you had a review on your blog or website about, let’s say, Hostgator and you know you convert 1 in 100 visitors. That means that if you can write and submit enough articles, you can start making one daily sale.
Then you have other companies who offer recurring commissions, which simply means that you will get a commission for the rest of that customer’s life.
It’s not always easy to guest post or build traffic to your website when you’re new to all of this, which is why I think article marketing is the perfect fit.
It allows you to practice your writing, while at the same time drive traffic to your website and make some extra cash, if you are able to convert your visitors, but that is a whole other topic.
My 4-Step Process to Making It All Work
The way I use article marketing is extremely simple. I’ve noticed that the simpler I can keep things, the more I get done and the more money I make.
Now, I want to throw out this disclaimer: this is not an overnight process. I have worked extremely hard for almost a year until my income started to grow to four figures and beyond.
I have no doubt that this process works, if you’re ready to work hard. I have taught it to a handful of people. Those that follow the instructions and work hard, succeed. Those that don’t, well, I think you know the answer.
1. Write. I start by writing a short article around 300-400 words. I have submitted a lot of articles during the year I’ve been serious about this, so I’ve learned to write very fast. When teaching others, I’ve noticed that the main thing keeping them from writing more articles are their mental blocks. When you’re writing, avoid being a perfectionist and just get the article out there. As long as it gets approved and is of good quality, you’re doing fine!
2. Submit. After I’ve written my article, I submit it to EzineArticles. I’ve tested submitting to many article directories, but my results have showed that the most effective way for me is to just use EzineArticles. I get the most amount of traffic by doing this. I could waste time submitting to other directories, but I choose not to. The very small increase in traffic is not worth it to me.
3. Traffic. All of the articles are approved by human editors on EzineArticles and they are constantly increasing their standards, so Google loves them. Once your article goes live, you will start receiving traffic to your website or blog. It isn’t a huge amount of traffic, which is why I recommend you keep writing each and every single day. As you keep writing, you will get better and faster, which will lead to more traffic.
4. Convert. Last, but definitely not least comes the part where you have to convert your traffic. This could be anything, such as converting them to buying an affiliate product, your product, becoming a subscriber or even buying consulting from you. This process is all trial and error, because you have to figure out what your visitors like and don’t like. You can see an example of a landing page that my girlfriend uses on her natural flawless skin site.
The best thing you can do is look at how the site is set-up. It starts by identifying a problem, then goes on to educate the visitor on what works and what doesn’t, and finally makes a recommendation.
If you decide to go down the affiliate route, I highly recommend that you only promote products that you have personally used and really like. For example, my girlfriend uses the products that she promotes every single day, and would recommend them to any of her friends and family.
I have tried promoting products that give a big commission that I’ve never tried, but in the end it just doesn’t feel right. I want to improve people’s lives with the recommendations I make, and that is where I’ve found the most success. Pick a product you really like and be honest.
How to Get Started Right Now!
Once you know what you want to do with your traffic, it’s easy to get started. All you have to do is sign-up to EzineArticles and start writing articles.
Remember, this isn’t an overnight process. Shoot for being consistent and having a routine. If you can write 3-5 short articles a day consistently, you will see excellent results within a year.
Yes, I said a year. Of course it depends on how hard you work. You could write more articles and get the momentum going faster. You could then start outsourcing your articles and leverage the income you’re making. This is what I did and still do.
So many people fail online because they expect rapid results, but the results only come when you put in the work and the only way you’re going to work hard is if you love what you do. I recommend you find your passion, or at least something you’re semi-passionate about before you start!
With all that said, here are 4 steps you can take right now to get going:
1. Review. I’m going to take an affiliate review as an example. Before you start submitting articles, put up a blog post where you review something you really like and include an affiliate link or two in the text. Make it an honest review. Add video if possible!
2. Sign-Up. Go ahead and sign-up for EzineArticles. It’s completely free and your account will available almost immediately. You get 10 article submissions when you first start out then your account gets reviewed and they usually give you 15 more and if you’re really awesome, you get to platinum status, which means that you get unlimited article submissions and they review your articles within 24-48 hours.
3. Keywords. I know you’re probably anxious to get started, but remember to do some keyword research so you can see what people are searching for. If you’re reviewing a hosting service, you should write articles that are closely related to hosting, such as “how to find the best web host”, “where to host my website?” and so on.
4. Write & Submit. When you’ve got a list of keywords, you can start writing and submitting. This is the part where most people fail. You have to keep submitting and being consistent with your article marketing if you want to see results.
5. Test. When you’ve got everything rolling, I recommend you keep testing your review page to make it convert better. You may even want to try different affiliate promotions and products and see what people resonate with. It’s all trial and error, so just get started!
About the Author: Henri Junttila is a lifestyle superhero, who writes about financial freedom and self improvement for conscious people over at his blog: the Wake Up Cloud. Make sure you check out his free e-course on how to find your passion.
Posted on : March 12th, 2010
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67 Comments (Click Here to Leave a Comment Below)
Hey Henri and Pat,
Great write up! I’m just starting to experiment with article marketing myself. Some things I’ve found to be really key is picking good topics and having a solid article title, since so much of the traffic to my titles comes via Google.
Curious, do you find any SEO benefit from article marketing as well, or do you mainly do it for the targeted traffic coming clicked through via your articles?
Personally I haven’t had too much success with it yet – clearly it works, I’m still learning and experimenting, and appreciate the pointers! $300 a month in passive and hopefully consistent income isn’t a bad place to start for your girlfriend either, congrats to her!
Hey Sid!
The main benefit is the direct traffic, but once you start getting more articles out there you will start getting search engine traffic as well.
The better articles you write, the more they get syndicated on other sites, which in turn include a link to your website. So you’re not only building links from EzineArticles, but also from the other websites that use your articles.
It definitely works, so keep on experimenting. Eventually you’ll find out a way that fits with your way of doing things and it’ll rock!
Hey Henri and Pat,
I agreed that Article Marketing is a powerful method to drive traffic. But as for EzineArticles, I find it is very difficult to have your written articles stay in top 30 as there are always new articles publishes and your articles may get ‘push’ down. May I ask how many articles do you write per week? Do you just submit to EzineArticles or many other article sites (although I know Ezine is the main article directory)
cheers
Staying in the top 30 is not something I am concerned with. The main place you get traffic from to your articles is through search engines.
As to how much I write . . . that differs from week to week. I have also started outsourcing more now that my income has grown. But in the beginning I wrote anything from 5-15 articles a day (I was doing it full-time).
I have found that submitting to just EzineArticles is the most effective use of my time. Instead of submitting the same article to other directories, I can instead write another article for EzineArticles, which has been proven to work best for me.
Excellent post. One of the reasons I keep coming back to this blog is because the information is actionable. Your post is gave me the motivation I needed and the tools to get it done.
THANK YOU Henri and Pat.
I couldn’t agree with you more, Stephen. Pat delivers amazing content and is one of my favorite blogs as well. It’s all about delivering content that propels people into action, because that’s where the magic happens.
Thanks for sharing your thoughts!
lol….this post is the perfect seque for THIS, Pat:
(EDIT: Looks like the spam filter kicked in….it was a WF blog post called “Info Barrel Experiment– Goodbye EzineArticles?”—You can find it by Googling “productcreator ezinearticles”)
This was a WF blog post that a gentleman had written once I told him about Info Barrel.
With their 3 allowed Do-follow links (that aren’t conditional, like websites like HubPages–even though I DO like HubPages)….rapidly increasing searching engine authority….it’ll become an internet marketer’s dream, WITH substantial revenue share benefits (75-90%)…..
ps. great guest post again!
thanks to the contributing writer….
Thanks for your comment, Howie! I hadn’t even heard about InfoBarrel. It will be interesting to see how the site progresses. I’m going to go there myself and start trying things out and see how it goes.
While I don’t think it’ll take over EzineArticles in a very long time, it certainly has potential from what I see. Thanks for the tip!
oh…lol…i totally agree, Henri….I don’t think it’ll be surpassing Ezinearticles any time soon (they are VERY established)….I do think websites like Info Barrel will start grabbing bits and pieces of market share because of how they have brilliantly addressed deficiencies of other platforms….
one of the guys who runs it commands well over $10,000/month/client just to utilize social media to make things go “viral”. I’d keep on the look out for them
If you get a free second, go HERE:
Quantcast.com > InfoBarrel > (and, click the “ALL” button)
Do you ever stop by Warrior Forum (WF), Henri?
….you could probably throw this guest post up in your signature line and get a fair share of traffic to it (well, on top of your own blog, as well)
No I do not hang around in forums at all. I spend most of my days working and then relaxing. I’m at the stage now where I just have to take action, so I avoid forums altogether
Not to knit-pick, but forums could ‘arguably’ be a great and viable strategy in an overall “taking action” plan…..if they work for you, and your business, of course….
There tons of people that waste time on forums, but, they can definitely be a great tool to use to gain respect, and authority, amongst a global community of users
(if you contribute value to them)
Henri,
Excellent post and what great timing. I’m in the process of putting together a niche site and will be using article marketing/promotion as a means to drive traffic to it. I’m curious as to how many articles should be written to see any kind of results. I’m sure writing one article isn’t going to do much at all
From my results I have found that 100 articles will usually get you anywhere from 300-600 monthly unique visitors. If you choose good keywords and build links, this number will go up.
Thanks for this info. I found it helpful but feel like I’m missing one of the steps. Do you maybe have a sample of one of your (or your girlfriend’s) articles that we could look at to get an idea of what kind of information they contain relative to the site you are trying to drive traffic to?
Here is my girlfriend’s bio on EzineArticles: http://ezinearticles.com/?expert_bio=Ingela_M._Johansson
You can see all of her articles there and see how they relate to her presell. Hope this helps!
Do you have to give Ezine exclusive rights to articles you submit? It can’t simply be a re-purposed blog post, can it? Do you risk the “duplicate content SEO penalty” for posting to Ezine as well? Is there a point where a really well-written post is worth more to post on your own site than to submit to Ezine for some backlinks? Be interested in Pat’s take on these questions to…if he’s listening in.
Steve, you can repurpose your blog posts or whatever you want. They only require that you own that content. As long as it is 100% yours, you can submit it.
Something I would do if you have a blog post of 1,000 words is to split it up into 3 sections, that way you can submit 3 x 300 word articles to EzineArticles.
I wouldn’t worry about a duplicate content penalty, but I’d say, don’t submit all of your blog posts to EzineArticles, do maybe 40-50%, then you can always rewrite some, break them up and so on.
I signed up with Ezine and get emails all the time but I didn’t follow up because I didn’t seem to be getting anywhere. I will have to give it another try using your strategy. I won’t be able to do more than 5 a week, does that make this strategy unworkable?
With 5 a week you will make progress, it will just be slower than if you wrote more. In my opinion it is better to get started than not do anything just because you do not have time. Take action and see where it leads you!
Thanks Henri, I really do need to write faster. Did you say you did 15 in a day? Wow!
[...] How to Boost Blog and Website Traffic with Article Marketing | The … [...]
Great timing, Henri. I read the articles you wrote about article marketing at your blog, but haven’t taken any action. Just this morning, I sent myself a reminder to look into it further and then bam! here you wrote another excellent post on how to get started and what to do. I have no excuses now and am going to *take action* this weekend to start writing and submitting them. No only is it a great marketing move, but having some passive income come in would be great, too.
Thanks for such an informative and useful post.
Karen
Funny coincidence, huh?
Article marketing can definitely be an excellent tool to drive traffic to your website, so get started and start experimenting!
Regarding the 3-5 articles per day: is that for just one site? Or are you counting all your micro niche sites that you are promoting. I’m just curious. Since I work 1.5 jobs, 3 articles per day could be a bit overwhelming!
Yeah the 3-5 articles per day is for one site only. This will take hard work if you want to succeed, as with anything else. If you can only write a few articles a day then do that. It is understandable that you may not write as much as me since you’re working 1.5 jobs.
I’d say to just do your best and start writing, because the more articles you write, the faster you become. My girlfriend started off writing 1-2 articles a day but she can now write 5-10 a day in the same amount of time, because she has had a lot of practice.
Thanks for this great post Henri. I’ve just started an article campaign for my niche site, after reading some success stories from folks who’ve made it work. Ezine have been the best and most professional article directory to deal with out of all that I’ve tried.
Some really valuable info here to give me food for thought though, especially about making my articles keyword rich using Google keyword search, which I haven’t so far. I’ve just been concentrating on trying to write good content.
I don’t think there’s anything wrong with not researching keywords in the beginning, because if you know the topic you will automatically be using the right keywords. I do however suggest you use it as a brainstorming tool because you never know what keywords your audience is using.
Basic question: The traffic you get is from a small bio sentence, like on this post, about you that links back to your site, right? Then when anyone uses your article that bio (along with the link) comes with it, right?
I like that. I may do that once I get my site going.
Thanks for sharing.
Yes to both of your questions.
Thanks for reading!
Article marketing is actually the next thing that I have on my business plan to try next. I’m trying to dabble a little bit in several different areas and see which ones brings me the most passive income. From what I have read and from reading your post here I should hurry up and get to article marketing soon.
There are so many tools out there that work. In my experience it’s more about picking one and focusing on it until it works than trying to find the right one.
But yes, definitely try it. I really like it.
Great post. I’ve been using article marketing as a means to driving traffic to several of my websites and I can say without reservation that it works, and fast. Henri is also right when he says to “avoid being a perfectionist and just get the article out there.”
The only thing I would add to this post is to prepare yourself for the occasional plagiarist, it’s the downside to writing great content.
Good points, Will.
I agree that your articles will sometimes get stolen without attribution, but that will happen anywhere. When you write great content on your blog, it will get stolen. Don’t worry about it and keep writing!
Thanks for the article. I have had decent luck with ezinearticles. One thing you should mention is the temptation to submit to multiple article directories. This will only dilute you article. Stick to submitting to one article site and above all, make them good! People will read them.
Yes it will dilute your article, but I’ve only found this to be true if you submit to hundreds of directories. But then again, think of sites that deliver news, they use something that has been duplicated hundreds of times without a penalty. Some food for thought?
Hey Henri, thanks for your post. I am still trying hard to get some traffic to my site and started article marketing a few months ago. But not submitting that many yet.
What do you think about ehow as an alternative to ezine???
Hi Marc. I don’t have any experience with eHow so I cannot comment on them.
Hi henri,
I actually have just started submitting article to eHow.com. Not exactly article marketing, but I have been a few unique visitors coming to my blog from my eHow articles. The nice thing though is that you can earn ad revenue on your articles while they are on eHow. Does ezine articles provide any ad revenue sharing, or is it solely for driving traffic to a monetized site of your own?
Great post!
No revenue from EzineArticles. You only get the traffic that you then send to a monetized site.
DJ,
A friend of mine had inquired about ad revenue sharing on ezine and they responded along the lines of “No….why should we share ad revenue when we already give users enough?”
….ezine definitely IS huge, however, I think emerging platforms will prove to be incredibly competitive….ESPECIALLY when they offer search engine authority (an IM’ers dream) coupled with generous Ad revenue share….those sites that offer the most will rise to the top, with time….JMHO…
Great article Henri! I am very close to beginning to market my website heavily. I’ve written about 30 1000+ word quality articles and so I feel that I have enough content ready to go. ( I’ll be writing more each week of course )
I’ll definitely have to try out some article marketing in addition to guest posting that I plan to do.
Sounds like you’ve got a lot of material to start with. You could use those articles and submit them to EzineArticles for a nice boost. Break them up in 300 word pieces, maybe re-write them a bit etc.
Thanks for commenting dude!
Marketing online with articles is definitely one of the easiest and most targeted ways to reach customers who are already looking to buy something. The most efficient method to leverage your article marketing campaigns is to use an article spinning and submitter software so you’re able to post way more articles quickly. If you submit to more article directories, you will gain more traffic, and definitely will help you to generate high quality backlinks quickly.
This is exactly what I’m stepping into now. I have some sites that are large and get good traffic already, but I am going to venture into small 1-10 page sites that promote one product and ask for the sale. It’s a good way to keep your income distributed out and not relying on one source. Thanks for the tips and the example.
Can you say how many of these sites you own and about how much approximate income they bring in to give us a better idea? Thanks!
I agree on working with multiple income streams. The trick is doing one thing until it works and then moving on.
I personally have around a handful of sites that bring me a solid income. As for the income they make, it is hard to say because some of them are mixed with other traffic generation methods, so I do not want to name numbers that aren’t pure so to speak.
What I can tell you is that I mainly use article marketing to promote a recurring affiliate company (not MLM) and my income keeps growing around $50-100 per month without me doing anything.
I also want to stress that this is not a get rich quick thing, because I’ve worked very hard for the last 6-7 months to get to this level.
Really informative article. I recently signed up for ezinearticles and submit only some of my articles. Do you recommend submitting everything, doesn’t matter what it is? That was something I was unsure of. Anyway, thanks for sharing learned a lot on this read.
Hi Alex. The folks at EzineArticles recommend you submit around 40-50% of your blog content. You don’t want to duplicate your whole site. You could also just submit small pieces of your articles and add introductions and endings to them. There are a lot of ways to do it. Let your imagination go wild!
Article Marketing used to be much more effective when Google still liked it, but not as much right now. However, it’s still a good way to put your stuffs out there and get some link love.
A good way to do it is to have a multi-part series of blog posts and put one part on Ezine. If people are interested in with your post, they’ll most likely click through the links to find out the rest of the series. And that’s where you mesmerize them with your great content! (Well that’s the plan =D)
Cool stuff Henri,thx!
Google still likes it, which is why you get a very good amount of direct traffic from the articles you write. Sure, it worked better a few years ago, but so did everything else.
A multi-part series is an excellent idea and works well. Thanks for sharing your thoughts!
Yeah Henri I agree that the idea that other things did better few things ago. It’s just important for people to understand the trend it’s going, which I believe has shifted from SEO purpose to content marketing and visibility (subtle differences).
I’ll visit this post again when I decide to spend more time on article marketing again. Thx!
I think both Pat and I would like that very much. Thanks!
This has been a great read,even in the comments..i had signed up with ezinearticles,did a few posts and abandoned it.now i realize i didnt work hard enough.
i will do better when i start again.this is what i got from the post and the comments..
1. 3-5 posts a day
2.300 words
3.part of blog post
4.for at least 6 months
i hope am right?
That sounds like a good plan to get started. If you do that for 6 months you will see very good results. Use Google Analytics to track your results, see what works and adjust to get even more results.
Good Luck!
An excellent piece of information. Frankly and solely speaking, I haven’t try this method yet after few months of ‘pouring’ my knowledge out. Hmm, it is time to implement this ‘wisdom’ of an expert. Thanks and be blessed…
Thanks, Terrence! Definitely try article marketing, you may just be pleasantly surprised if you do it for a while.
Article marketing through EZA is a fantastic way to earn money. It is amazing how much Google love that particular article directory has. I get more targeted traffic through an article at EZA than I get from the next 20 “high PR” article directories combined. Throwing a few quality backlinks at your article will keep it nice and high in the SERPs, assuring a longer period of earning potential.
Thanks Henri and Pat. This is a very useful article. I learn so much by reading this blog.
[...] How to Boost Blog and Website Traffic with Article Marketing [...]
I love this post thanks both of you henri and pat, and henri’s girlfriend too. I really like this because I been struggling to understand how to get more traffic to my blog. I believe this is going to work just fine. The other thing that would be awesome is if someone did an article on how to use the keywords to write the articles that would help a lot of people I think pat.
Pat and Henri,
Thanks for this article. Very well written, and best of all, clear and concise. I love SPI; it looks like I’ll need to add wakeupcloud to my rss reader as well.
Keep the good stuff coming!
Nicely done Henri. I had not really been interested in article marketing but following this in depth report I think I am going to head on over and give it a try.
[...] How to Boost Blog and Website Traffic with Article Marketing – Pat over at Smart Passive Income guides you through the process of using article marketing to boost traffic to your blog. [...]
Henri,
Excellent post. I’ve been trying to increase my amount of article marketing but I can’t seem to find the motivation to write that many articles per day. I’m thinking about outsourcing this. You mentioned you are now doing this. How has that worked out? I’m worried about the language barrier decreasing the quality of the articles, thus decreasing traffic.
Not entirely sure what you mean about the language barrier? Are you talking about outsourcing to non-native English speakers? I usually outsource to native English speakers. I pay a few dollars extra per article but it is well worth it.
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