Article marketing: friend or foe?

Internet and social media marketing specialist Nikki Pilkington takes a look at the pros and cons of article marketing.

Article marketing – the practice of submitting written editorial to article publishing websites that then redistribute them to other sites throughout the internet – has slipped in and out of fashion in recent years, with commentators tending to fall into two camps: love it or hate it.

In one camp there are those who argue that spreading your carefully written advice across the internet sends traffic in the wrong direction; while other advocate it as an effective way to raise ones profile online. So who’s right? Is article marketing a boon or a boob?

Like any marketing activity, there are advantages and disadvantages, but it’s my feeling that the pros outweigh the cons, and here’s why:

Article marketing - the negatives

The main criticisms of article marketing are typically as follows:

• Article marketing draws visitors to third party sites outside of your control, rather than your own website or blog.
• Writing can be time-consuming, especially if you aim for perfection when you are not an experienced writer.
• It takes time to submit articles, especially as it’s best to adapt them to match the submission policies for each website.
• To get article marketing to work to its full potential, you need to commit to a steady stream of articles.
• You need to be able to put your knowledge on paper to a reasonable standard (or have the budget to hire a writer).

Article marketing - the positives

While there is some truth in the above, the problems are easily addressed, and the benefits numerous:

• Article marketing allows you to showcase your knowledge to a wider audience, who wouldn’t otherwise see your work.

• The best article websites publish a huge amount of new content everyday, they often appear high in the search engine results. Ultimately, this can mean that your article reaches a wider audience.

• If you submit the articles yourself to each article website, it’s free. Alternatively, if time is an issue, you can get someone else to do it for very little cost.

• It allows you to appear in several places for keywords that relate to your business.

• If people see your articles on a string of websites (it’s best if your articles vary rather than the same single one appearing everywhere), they will have a better overall picture of your expertise and reputation. This helps to establish your expert status as well as widening your ‘circle of credibility’.

• Many article marketing websites allow you to use key phrase-laden links back to your site, which, if used properly, can help with your own search engine optimisation.

• Good article websites will include a clear link to your website, which can drive traffic to your site.

• Article marketing websites usually allow self-promotion in the ‘resource box’ after articles – a great opportunity to promote what you do, especially if you use key phrased anchor text in the ‘resource box’.

• If your article gets used by a blog or news website it gives you an inroad to place a comment or even discuss placing future articles direct. Furthermore, articles also tend to get syndicated in e-zines, newsletters, and on other websites, which is great for reaching people who would not have heard of you otherwise.

• If you use proper article marketing websites, these copies of your articles will remain present indefinitely, so your online presence can just keep building.

• You don’t need to be a great writer to benefit from article marketing. As long as you have a good grasp of grammar and punctuation, your articles can still be useful to others, even if they aren’t up to a journalistic standard.

Of course, despite the numerous benefits, article marketing isn’t for everyone. Some companies might prefer to keep advice housed solely on their own website, perhaps because of the requirements of their other marketing efforts, while others might prefer not to give any advice at all away for free. However, if you’re keen to increase your web presence, particularly if you operate in a competitive field such as web design or loan brokering, article marketing can offer an effective opportunity to raise your credibility and improve search engine visibility at a relatively low cost.

About the Author

Nikki Pilkington is the founder and owner of NikkiPilkington.com, an internet marketing company based in the UK and France. She is a consummate internet marketer with over 15 years experience in the industry.

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