Do you remember that I announced a while ago that I was going to take a closer look at content-related (but very different) topics such as article marketing, syndicated content, content marketing and much more? Well, I’m still busy doing it.
The effort has resulted in a lot of work and testing but also in a few interviews with people such as Christopher Knight (Ezinearticles.com) and Joe Pulizzi (Junta42).
When interviewing Bryan Eisenberg, there was quite some content-related stuff going on too. On top of that, thanks to our contributor Ambal Balakrisnahan, we can bring you more posts regarding content marketing. In this post, however, I am going to talk about article marketing again.
It’s been a while, since I uploaded new content to the sites of the two biggest players, and I have to say, it takes more time to get results than I first thought. So the jury is still out.
Meanwhile, in this post you find an interview with the people of ArticlesBase.com, a major player. Furthermore, the article marketing platform just launched a completely new site, filled with new features. Didn’t have the time to check that out yet.
ArticlesBase.com is based in Israel and has a different approach then Ezinearticles.com. You’ll read more about it in the interview but also when I tested the new platform.
Just like Ezinearticles.com, still the number one from a traffic viewpoint, ArticlesBase.com (the number two) offers a good support with regularly sent tips and tricks. I have to admit I haven’t read them all but that’s because I’m testing article marketing, not really using it for marketing purposes. The tips I have read looked good.
International versions and new features
ArticlesBase.com was founded by Eyal Halimi (CEO) and Simon Gelfand (CTO). Since the world of article marketing is entirely new to me (at least, it was until a few weeks ago), my first question obviously was if the company could briefly describe its activities and also compare itself to other players like Chris Knights’ Ezinearticles.com.
This is what Eyal and Simon answered: “ArticlesBase, established in 2005, is an article syndication website that allows authors to publish articles for free and share knowledge with potential customers. The article database is organized into an article directory that covers a wide variety of subjects, allowing the site to provide readers with content, and providing publishers with free content for their websites, newsletters, or blogs. Over the past several years, ArticlesBase has rolled out international versions of the site for Spanish, Portuguese, Chinese, Russian, French, and Hebrew readers. We are continuously extending our services by adding more topics of interest, along with new features to further expand our market”.
OK, I guess you knew most of this already except maybe for the international versions part (and the fact that ArticlesBase was founded much later then Ezinearticles.com) but how does ArticlesBase.com positions itself, in comparison to all the other players (and there are plenty of them).
“ArticlesBase competes for consumers with a number of similar websites that offer content information that interests them. We distinguish ourselves in the broad range of subjects we embrace, our intuitive social networking features, our commitment to high-quality content, our top positioning in search engines and our excellent customer service. We are truly a one-stop source for any information a consumer might want or need”.
I can add that ArticlesBase also works with in-text ads and allows contributors to add a bit more “self-servicing links” too.
Why would you want to syndicate content?
Just like I asked Chris Knight, I also asked the people at ArticlesBase why the heck marketers would buy (well, that’s obvious) but most of all, syndicate, content from third parties?
The answer to that question was quite similar: “Marketers usually can’t produce enough content in order to have high volume success in both critical aspects: traffic of users to their site and short time frame for doing so. The common writer can write 10 articles per day while syndication content from third parties can produce hundreds of articles per day (or even more)”.
I also asked the people at ArticlesBase what they think about all these “article marketing is a miracle solution” stories some folks out there want us to believe and what makes it work.
Eyal and Simon answer that “article marketing success relies on several factors”.
They continue: “It is not enough to publish innumerous articles filled with links to your site, if the content is poor or irrelevant, the category is wrong, the tone is over promotional, etc. Article marketing is a very powerful tool, but it must be combined with other efforts, such as quality content, patience, perseverance and an ability to observe, learn and improve”.
Seems like marketing in general, if you ask me.
Tips to monetize your blog
For all the bloggers out there, trying to make a buck with their blogs via affiliate marketing, etc., I wanted to know what advices the folks at ArticlesBase have for bloggers to monetize their blogs.
“Nowadays bloggers can use several methods to monetize their blogs, such as contextual advertising, banners, affiliate links, in-text ads, etc. Different methods will work differently depending on the niche, so the best advice is to research and try. Regardless of the method chosen, the success is directly linked to the incoming traffic. And not just any traffic. Bloggers must attract relevant readers to their blog, ones that will remain on the site, read the content and hopefully proceed to the monetization option”.
And this is where article marketing comes in, Eyal and Simon say: “when a blogger publishes his material on article directories, niche readers will be introduced to the author and his blog thanks to single articles. It is the best invitation to visit your blog”.
But there is more and I guess you know it: SEO.
“ArticlesBase articles are highly ranked on search engines. While an article published on the blog will struggle to make its way up to top search engine results, the same article published on ArticlesBase will rapidly appear on top search results bringing readers to ArticlesBase and from there to the blog. The blogger can simply use ArticlesBase top positioning instead of struggling with SEO”.
True. However, of course this is not that important for the top blogs out there.
Next, I asked Eyal and Simon’s take on what is good content. Of course from a general viewpoint but in this case obviously also from the article marketing viewpoint.
Tips to create good content
The answer: “From a general viewpoint, good content is first and foremost informative. Readers are swamped with reading options, and they expect to be rewarded with valid professional information. Article marketing content must be based on the same principle, adding several parameters that are necessary to attract both readers and search engines”.
What are these parameters? Well, they’re listed below.
1. Content must be concise, easy to read and preferably with references to sources so to convey reliability.
2. Article’s title and summary are crucial to the readers’ decision on whether the information ahead is worth reading. It should always contain relevant keywords for SEO purposes.
3. Good content will show the author’s expertise on the subject, yet self promotion or blatant advertisement will ruin attempts to build a professional reputation.
The final question I asked is why marketers should syndicate content from ArticlesBase (instead of, of for instance, hiring a copywriter) and why bloggers and copywriters should put their content on the site.
Eyal and Simon: “It is a known fact that site visitors and search engines appreciate high quality content. Article syndication is a perfect solution for site owners to provide the necessary content, without the high-cost and time-consuming task of writing the content by themselves or hiring writers for that purpose. Article syndication is free, and in a matter of a few clicks site owners can display an infinite amount of high quality articles on the subject of their niche. At the same time, the practice of syndication is hugely beneficial to the articles’ authors, since their content, credits and links are exposed to an ever higher audience than Articlesbase provides. Their articles find new readers on niche sites, increasing substantially their exposure and reputation online”.
That’s it folks. Please comment and share your insights and experiences. I’m particularly interested in getting feedback from marketers that syndicate content for their sites, blogs, newsletters or whatever.
Don’t forget to read the other interviews in this series if you haven’t done so yet.
You can visit ArticleBase here and follow the company on Twitter here.
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Hi,
Thanks for the tips,
I did google search with keyword “social bookmarking service” and fount your link.
It was great article, thanks, can you send me the list of url where i can submit articles.
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