Almost every time the topic of article marketing comes up in SEO circles, there are people who roll their eyes and scoff at the technique. They say it’s outdated, time-consuming, and ineffective. I say they don’t know what they’re doing.

I can tell you from firsthand experience that article marketing absolutely gets results. Within just a few months of doing some article marketing for my own website (www.ericbrantner.com), I’ve seen my site jump significantly in the search rankings. For example, I’m now ranking in the top 3 for the term “freelance copywriter.” Before I started with my article marketing efforts, I was somewhere in the 100s, like on page 10 of the search results. The same thing goes for several other keywords I’m targeting.

Thanks to these article marketing efforts, my vastly improved rankings are now getting me several quality leads every week from search engine traffic. In short, business is better than ever before, and it’s due in large part to article distribution.

And I’m not the only one. I have several colleagues who I’ve witnessed use article marketing to propel their rankings.

Simply put, I know article marketing still works. I’m experiencing its benefits every day. So why are there people out there who claim otherwise? Why haven’t they been as successful as I have with article marketing?

1. No plan—Before you even start writing and distributing articles online, you need to have a plan. What exactly do you want to accomplish with article marketing? How often are you going to publish articles? Which directories are you going to target? Which keywords are you focusing on? You don’t have to get super specific in your plan, but you should have a basic outline to keep your article marketing efforts focused.
2. Scattershot keyword targeting—The approach I’ve taken with article marketing is to monitor my rankings for a select group of keywords and tackle a few at a time with intense focus. Too many other article marketers seem to take the scattershot approach to targeting keywords. They spread their efforts too thin by targeting too many different phrases, and they get poor results. I suggest targeting a few keywords, building up their rankings, and moving onto the next set.
3. No diversity in your article submissions—Link building is all about getting a diverse group of quality links. If you’re submitting to the same handful of article directories, you’re shooting yourself in the foot. Yes, some directories are higher quality than others, but you need to diversify your efforts to get better results.
4. You aren’t maximizing your link building—Depending on the directory, you’ll be allowed anywhere from 1 to 3 links in the body of your article. Take full advantage of these by including keyword-rich backlinks to targeted pages on your website. This is where the true benefit of article marketing lies, in the backlinks.
5. Quantity does count for something—In most cases, quality trumps quantity, and while you certainly need to make sure your articles are well-written, you also need to submit a decent volume of them if you want to get results. There are ways you can spin articles to get more from each piece you write, helping you work smarter not harder.

Do you use article marketing for SEO link building purposes? Has it worked for you?

I’m a believer in getting as much from your old content as possible. I routinely read through old blog posts I’ve written to see if they warrant a follow up post or to find ideas in the comments for a completely new post. This helps me get more mileage from every piece of content I write.

Another way to get more from your old blog posts is to spin them into new articles for article marketing purposes. I still believe article marketing is a great way to increase your search engine presence, build more backlinks, and to position yourself as an expert in your industry. But, of course, you need content to be an effective article marketer. That’s where your old blog posts come in handy.

Here are 4 simple steps to take when spinning an old blog post into a new article.

1. Find an older post that performed well—Since your articles will be targeting the same basic audience as your blog, you should try to find older posts that were popular with your readers. Look for posts that attracted a lot of comments and got a decent amount of ReTweets. This ensures you’ll write an article that readers will be interested in.
2. Create an outline based on the post—The biggest mistake you can make when spinning an old blog post is to rewrite it a line at a time. Sure, this will help you avoid duplicate content, but it will likely turn into a second-rate version of the original post. Instead of taking this approach, I recommend making an outline based on the old post. Write down the main points of the old post, add any new points you can think of, and create an outline for a new article. Try switching up the format to make sure it’s completely different from the original (for example, turn a list post into a how to article).
3. Write according to the outline, not the old post—Once you’ve created an outline, stick to it. Just go ahead and close out the old blog post altogether so you don’t feel compelled to make your new version so similar to the old post. This way, your new article will have a life of its own, even though it’s based on an old piece of content.
4. Double check to ensure there’s no duplicate copy—If you’ve followed these steps precisely, you shouldn’t have any issues with duplicate content. However, it’s better to be safe than sorry, so feel free to double check your new content with Copyscape or another duplicate content tool.

Have you ever spun an old blog post into an article for marketing? How did you do it? Share your best tips by leaving a comment.

Because it’s one of the older search marketing strategies, article marketing tends to get overlooked sometimes. However, I still believe effective article marketing is useful for increasing your search engine presence, building authority, growing your email list, and driving targeted traffic to your website. But you’ll never enjoy the benefits of article marketing if you make these common mistakes.

Mistake #1: Publishing high quantities of low-quality content

When you think of article marketing, you probably think about submitting hundreds of articles to different directories throughout the web. And while quantity is certainly an important part of article marketing, so too is quality. All you have to do is check out any article directory, and you’ll see just how many people are overlooking the importance of submitting quality content.

See, it’s not enough just to clog up space in the search engines; you need to take advantage of these rankings by driving traffic from your articles to specific landing pages on your website. That will never happen if your article is poorly written. Worse yet, a slew of low-quality articles can cause others to view you as a spammer, and that’s a difficult reputation to shake.

Mistake #2: Not using keyword-rich anchor text

One of the main reasons we use article marketing is to build back links to our website. To take full advantage of this, you should be using keyword-rich anchor text in all of your links in the article. This increases the targeted page’s relevance for the keyword in the anchor text, and it can be useful in driving quality traffic to the page. Always make sure you link properly according to the directory’s linking guidelines.

Mistake #3: Misuse of author resource box

The author resource box can be used to give readers a call to action as well as to build your credibility. I’ve already written a post on this subject, so be sure to read these tips on writing an author’s resource box for article marketing.

Mistake #4: Being overly self-promotional

Sure, the goal of any article marketing campaign is to increase your online presence and to generate more leads and sales. However, this doesn’t mean your articles should be poorly-disguised advertisements for your products and services. Articles should be written to educate readers by providing them with quality insight and your expertise. Focus on giving readers tips they can use rather than trying to push your products or services on them.

Mistake #5: Ignoring rules of the directory

Every article submission directory has its own rules for writing and submitting content. These rules include minimum word counts, maximum number of allowed links, and overall quality of content. Always be sure to read these guidelines before submitting an article. Failure to do so will get your article rejected, and it could lead to your account being suspended from the website.

Which article marketing mistakes would you add to this list? Share your thoughts in the replies.

When we talk about article marketing, we usually discuss how to write compelling articles, where to publish them, how to target the right keywords, and how to build more back links. One of the most often overlooked aspects of article marketing is the author’s resource box. This is the little box that appears at the end of each article you write. It includes some information about who you are and what you do. It also represents a huge opportunity for driving traffic to your website.
So, what should you do to capitalize on the author’s resource box? Here are the basics.
• Build credibility—Because just about anybody can publish content on article directories, many people don’t place a lot of trust in these articles. That’s why you need to do everything you can to show readers that you’re trustworthy. The first thing to do is to state your name. Including a picture is a good idea as well. You should also state your credentials (i.e. what it is that makes you qualified to write on the subject). Just be careful not to go overboard here, stroking you own ego. Keep it short and professional.

• Call to action—Of course, the ultimate goal of article marketing is to promote your products and services. So, you need to give people a reason to take the next step to learning more about you and eventually becoming a customer. Think of your author resource box as a P.S. in a sales letter. This is where you want to send out a solid call to action that entices readers to act. Tie your call to action into the theme of the article, and avoid gimmicks (e.g. Don’t say “Can you really make $5000 a day? Click here to find out). To make your call to action even more irresistible, you could offer a free eBook or whitepaper to those who click-through.

• Keep it short—Your author’s resource box shouldn’t read like a novel. Ideally, it should be about 2-3 sentences long. This gives you room to state your credentials and to include a strong call to action. Anything else will take away from the call to action and create too much clutter.

What do you include in your author’s resource box? Share your tips in the replies.

Article marketing is one of the oldest tools in the internet marketing toolbox. When done properly, it’s a highly effective way to build links to your website, to increase your online authority, to control the search rankings for top keywords, and to spread your online presence. Notice I said “when done properly.” See, a lot of people believe article marketing is just about churning out as much content as possible and submitting it to the popular article directories. But it takes more than that to run an effective article marketing campaign.

Below, you’ll find tips that will help you get the most out of your article marketing. I’m not going to discuss the basics of choosing the right keywords and creating keyword-rich links as I’m assuming you already know how and why to do this.

1. Create a click-worthy headline—I’ve noticed that many article marketers get so caught up in making sure to include keywords in their titles that they lose focus of whether the headline is compelling or not. See, when your article comes up in the search engines or gets Tweeted out, the main factor that determines whether or not someone will read it is the headline. Your headline needs to capture their interest and demand they read your article.
2. Focus on providing information, not selling yourself—Sure, one of the ultimate goals of article marketing is to drive traffic to your site so that you can ideally increase your leads or sales, but that doesn’t mean the articles you write should be nothing more than a thinly-veiled sales pitch. Remember, readers are interested in “what’s in it for me?” That’s why your articles need to provide information they can benefit from. Of course, make sure the information you provide in your articles is accurate and timely. After all, it is your brand’s reputation that’s at stake here, so you’d better know what you’re talking about.
3. Combine quality and quantity—We’ve all come across these article marketing services that promise to deliver thousands of articles to you for pennies on the dollar. These services operate under the assumption that quantity is all that matters when it comes to article writing…quality be damned. The way they deliver these articles so cheaply is by outsourcing them to “writers” in other countries. Unfortunately, these “writers” often have a very poor command of the English language. So, while the articles might end up grabbing you high search engine rankings, the content within the article is unreadable and only serves to hurt your credibility. Quality content should always be your first concern, and over time, by consistently writing articles, quantity will follow, giving you the best of both worlds.
4. Promote your articles—Writing and submitting your article is only half of the battle; you also need to spend some time promoting the articles you write. You can do this by sending out Tweets with links to your articles, occasionally linking out to your articles from your blog, and promoting your articles in your monthly newsletter.
5. Collect best articles for an eBook—If you’ve read my recent posts, you know that writing an eBook is an effective way to increase your authority in your niche. But writing an eBook can be time-consuming. Instead, why not create an eBook that contains your best articles? You can offer the eBook as a freebie on your website, collecting email addresses from those who download it (this builds up your email list for future marketing).

Do you still engage in article marketing? What tips would you add to this list?