Online Article Marketing Strategies

Article marketing is still the best way to get your site found, and drive traffic to your website. However, I have found that most people fail to use it properly. Failing at article marketing is honestly one of the biggest marketing blunders that you can make.

As you read this hub, I hope you begin to realize the truth about article marketing, and how you can use it to build your online reputation. I will try to show you a whole new way to look at article marketing, and give you the opportunity to jump start your success with less work than many of the gurus tell you that you need.

One thing that I have found is that many people teach that article marketing is about spamming hundreds of poorly written articles to thousands of article directories. This strategy is a total waste of time, and it is not really article marketing.

True article marketing is about posting quality content on high traffic sites, and funnelling that traffic into your site. You cannot do this with crap content.

I am going to go into many aspects of article marketing including spinning, guest blogging, leveraging social sites, and placing your articles where people who want your information can be found.

I just recently jumped into guest posting on blogs to submit article content and to drive more people to my website. However, I find that there are so many great blogs out there, it would be impossible to write enough great content to have a presence on all of them. So, this has left me asking how many blogs should I submit articles to?

For me, it comes down to having the time to write great content to show up on all of the sites. Right now, I have five different guest posts going out, just today. I have spent all morning researching, and writing, editing, rewriting, and slaving away to make these posts as good as I can.

I do wonder if perhaps I bit off more than I can chew. After all, I love writing, but I sometimes doubt my own writing ability. I consider myself a decent writer, and my clients are happy with what I write for them. But, as I read through other people's posts, I wonder if my writing style will be accepted. I guess the self esteem is still needing a little more work.

The next question that I find myself coming upon is how much time can I commit to building traffic to those guest posts. After all, the community on those blogs will be helpful, but, I need to spend some time building up some links to those posts.

As I travel around the blogoshere, trying to learn how to dive into the blogging properly, I have found that most bloggers are againstarticle marketing in the traditional sense. Ok, I understand that, and I agree to a point. However, if not for article marketing, where do I get the traffic and the links?

We will talk about that a little later on..

As I struggle with all these questions, I started researching and trying to find the answers. You see, this is one of my little secrets that most people don't know. Most of my content was written to help myself with a problem. As I figure it out for myself, I write about it to share with others what I have done.

What I realize is that I need to focus on writing my posts in a way that all works together. Now, I can cross link those guest posts, and share traffic between them.

As I looked for a way to write all 5 guest posts, I started with a simple list. I needed 5 posts, so I wrote out a list of 5 marketing blunders, and wrote a post for my own blog.

Then, I took each of these blunders and wrote an article on each one. I wrote them in a way to tie them all together, and build up links to each other. Of course, the problem here is going to be that they would all have to go live at the same time. That will probably never happen. So I at least use it to link to the main article on my site. Then, I go to all th social sites that I hang out on to share it with all my friends.

Then, I take the articles, make a summary video for each one, about one to two minutes long, and post it on YouTube with a link to the full post. Besides Youtube, there are loads of other video sharing sites, where you can post your videos, and get massive exposure. You can re-purpose your content this way, and people will see your site more often.

Anyway, I still am not sure this will all work, but I am going to give it my best shot. As I submit article content to all these blogs, I am still wondering am I taking on too many guest posts? Should I have more?

So, this brings me to the discussion of the day. How many blogs do you try to guest post on? How regularly do you post? And finally, how much time do you spend on promoting those guest posts? I really would love your insight.

I have been recently fielding questions about whether hubpages is a waste of time. After all, you have to do a lot of work to keep up your hubs, and you are only allowed two links to your domain.

The fact is, Hubpages is a great way to build up your reputation and your content. Notice I say content, not your site.

When I use Hubs, I use them to cross link my other articles around the web, point people to interesting blogs, and direct people to great content found around the web. Now, you need to update your hubs regularly, but it doesn't have to be a huge deal. you can post a short post about 200-300 words, just mentioning what you have done with your business.

Personally, I spend about 2 hours per week building and promoting my various hubs. Some of them get me more traffic than Google to all of my content, not just my website. Stop thinking only of your own site, and focus on promoting your content.

Of course, most people only syndicate crap, and don't want to promote that. If this sounds like you, quit wasting your time. Post quality content, or go get a real job.

You can spend a little time promoting your Hubs with comment luv blogs, and get some good traffic, or you can build links to your hubs. Personally, I like to use some bookmarking, commenting, and cross link my other sites with my hubs to build up their reputation.