The Skinny On Article Directory Submissions

I could have formatted this thread to match last week’s daily mailbag Q&A style, but that is so very last week. On the other hand, I’ve been asked a few times lately about using article directories as a means of touting one’s writing capabilities and/or obtaining some free back links (think SEO, SEM). A number of people know that I have submitted hundreds upon hundreds of articles to these directories in 2005 and 2006, but I never fully explained why I stopped this practice, although not completely. Let’s take a look at the reasons why you may or may not want to consider submitting articles in 2007 and beyond.

The Ups And Downs Of Article Marketing

Ups: You write fantastic content that will get the most reads on a site other than your own. Pick a reputable article directory and people may find your article, read it, take some sort of action (e.g., click through to your site or buy your product) and give you a way to reach the masses with free advertising.

Downs: You write fantastic content and it gets ripped off. Yes, your article gives you exposure via the article directory but it also gets picked up and posted to other sites without including author attribution and activated links to your site. Someone may not have intended to rip you off, but leaving out important information brings about the same result.

Ups: Your article directory contributions help establish you as an authority. Little known outside of your corner of the world, if you are an expert in the area of “bee management” then an article directory can connect you with a much wider audience.

Downs: You are already well known as an authority but you think that contributing articles to a directory will enhance your position. Unfortunately, you didn’t do your homework — you submitted your articles to a directory that doesn’t exactly have a reputation for timely acceptance of new articles. Later, you learn that your article was never approved and they didn’t even bother to tell you.

Ups: Your articles submitted to an article directory do really well in the search engine results pages [SERPs].

Downs: Your articles submitted to an article directory do really well in the search engine results pages [SERPs]. Didn’t I just say that? Yes, your submitted article does well, but the copy you have on your website Google considers to be a duplicate. In addition, it shows up in a lower position in the SERPs while the article directory version gets the PageRank while yours gets a grey bar [no ranking]. Next time, post the article to your site first and wait a week or two until the search engines index the article before submitting elsewhere. Even then if the article directory is considered a much more reliable and established authority than your new site, you could still find your article being ignored.

Consider Writing A Fresh Article

One way around the duplicate penalty problem is simply to write unique articles for the article directories. That way, you won’t be competing with your own site and you’ll still have an article that says what you want it to say and do. Specifically you could:

• Write a unique article similar in tone to a previously written article.
• Your new article could be of similar style, for example “bee management for honeybees” but it’ll take a different look at this subject. Make certain that you do not copy content from one article to the other. You can say the same thing, but use different words.
• Submit the article to only one article directory, preferably one with a very high reputation. At the very least this article will create links back to pages on your site and it will achieve PageRank which will also help your site. One way links to your site rock!

As for me, I no longer have the time to submit articles nor do I have the need to use article directories for marketing my business. For new sites [I launched this site in May 2005] article marketing can be a smart decision as well as for people desiring to drum up additional business, to expand their network, or to build or establish their authority.

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