I enjoy writing and am probably among a few that really enjoy writing articles. I know, I know, I’m weird!!! I’ve been posting them online for around three years now and some of my articles have gotten thousands of views while others not many at all. But I still would receive a lot of visitors to my site from my articles which is why I’ve always implemented it into my traffic methods.
But after Google made their most recent change, it seems they have really gone after some of the big sites which I was a little surprised to see.
Robert Dempsey of the Itinerant Entrepreneur reported some of the same findings and he found some very interesting statistics proving this over at Dan Kennedy’s site, Kennedy-Glazer Inner Circle. Here is what Dan shared (you can review the entire list at Sistrix.com):
Ouch! Now that really hurts! Dang, all that hard work gone by the way side.
This just goes to show you that you can’t put all your eggs in one basket or you are screwed (pardon the pun)!!!
I guess the thing that upsets me the most from all of this is that ALL of my articles were unique quality content. But because some of the practices obviously let some really poor quality content slip through their fingers, these sites listed above are now being penalized.
So what do you do? Continue to ONLY write quality content and don’t worry so much about quantity. I remember some of my blogging friends telling me that I should put my articles on my site so guess I’ll definitely be taking their advice now.
Besides our blogs, I think we should all concentrate creating more content on sites like YouTube, Flickr, iTunes (podcasts), Squidoo and even writing more press releases. Something I have YET to implement darn it!
Google is still showing the love when it comes to these types of sites. And let’s not forget social networking. Building relationships and getting people to your blog and your site is what it’s all about.
So now it’s your turn. What are some of your favorite sites? Has any of these changes hurt your traffic at all? Sure hope that’s not the case but the show must go on. Things are always changing so as long as we go with the flow, I believe everything will work itself out in the end.
Looking forward to hearing your take on this recent change.
{ 65 comments… read them below or add one }
Hi Adrienne, I saw these stats too over at seobook.com and couldn’t BELIEVE they hit these sites so hard! Especially EZA… WOW!
Now, I’m just like, ugh. What should I do now? Haha. And it makes me think about the future of search. I don’t want to spend so much time creating tons of articles for content farms, only to know that Google will find some way in the future to further decrease their relevance in ranking.
YouTube rankings actually increased, which is awesome. I’m using it a lot and try to pack the tags with as many relevant keywords as I can find. And yes, the focus for me now is about social networking. I was never all the great with SEO (and not excited to do it either) but now since all these Google changes have happened, I’m really beginning to rethink my strategy.
Good stuff Adrienne!
Elise recently posted..What People Share Online- How They Do It- And Why
Hey Elise… I was so bummed because I KNOW I put out good content so it’s frustrating to know that ALL that hard work is now practically wasted. Darn it!
I’m glad that article marketing was not my only method of traffic generation but I was getting a good bit of traffic to my site because of it. Now I’ll have to ramp up other methods as well. Like you, I’ve never been that great at SEO but am really starting to pay more attention to just how beneficial it is so that’s another reason I enjoy blog commenting. I learn so much for other bloggers who are much better at this that I am.
Guess I’ll have to start using more tags on my videos as well. Thanks for you input on this. I feel so much better knowing that I’m not the only one confused by these changes. But, change is inevitable so we all have to just go with the flow.
Thanks for stopping by!
Hi Adrienne!
Why not try guest blogging? I heard they’re much more effective than article marketing.
I agree about blog commenting, I enjoy that too, learning new stuff, and all.
Thanks for the post! I haven’t seen that stat before, I just heard about it. It’s shocking! Anyway, it’s already 2012 I wonder what google will come up to this time.
- Addie
Addie recently posted..Article Writing: 4 Things Your Readers Want To Tell You
Twitter: adriennesmith40
February 2, 2012 at 11:28 AM
Hi Addie,
Article marketing for the longest time has been a fabulous way to get high quality backlinks to your site. I’m sure I don’t have to tell you that when you have a PR6 site pointing to your blog, the search engines are going to look at you as an authority and move your blog up in the page ranks. That’s what we as bloggers want.
I’ve done a few guest posts but they are extremely time consuming for me personally. Others really enjoy doing them but I really just prefer writing for my own blog mostly.
Blog commenting is a great way to start getting attention to your blog and keep the conversation going. It’s fabulous to help show you yet again as an authority in your niche when there are a lot of comments on your posts.
This post was written earlier last year when the news was released about the Google Panda updates but I still believe article marketing will never truly die. It’s just being watched more carefully as it should have been in the beginning.
Thank you for your comment, I appreciate that.
~Adrienne
Adrienne; In a way, I am glad Google made this recent change in algorithms. This is a great step towards eliminating the bum marketing techniques all these so called gurus are using to rip people online.
On the other hand, this has really hurt people like me and you. Ya know, I already see a difference in the niche sites on which I used article marketing techniques. But like you said, it is another valuable lesson learned – Do not put all the eggs in one basket (O:
Talk to you later!
Adam Paudyal recently posted..7 Awe-inspiring Tips For Managing Information Overload
I do agree Adam, I think this change is for the better because it will eliminate all those sneaky tactics some of these people are using but then it hurts people like us who have been doing it the right way. But all good things must come to an end…
I hope the difference you speak of is for the best and not the other way around. Will wait until the end of the month to see about my stats from articles. I’m sure I’ll see a huge decline…
Thanks for your comment and for stopping by. Always nice to hear from you.
Adrienne
Hey Adrienne,
OK – I’m a total newbie at all of this – but EVERYTHING I read talks about providing quality content – articles, blogs, video, etc. as a way to get consistent high rankings. And I really LIKE the idea of providing quality content – i.e. writing my own articles even though it takes a ton of time. – - Now you are saying I shouldn’t bother?
Kelly
kelly recently posted..Who Uses the Yellow pages
Hi Kelly,
Our main goal when helping others learn and grow is to provide quality content. There are plenty of us out there that do just that. But then you have those sneaky people who take the original content, spin it to death and place it on their sites to fill it up and get ranked for their keywords. It hurts the rest of us and Google is finally catching up with them. So continue with writing quality content, but put it on your blog or perhaps Squidoo and share it. I would stay away from the articles sites for now. I’m bummed about this because I write a lot of articles, but am backing off.
Hang in there, this is a learning experience!!! Everything has to change, eventually. It will all be for the best though.
Adrienne
Adrienne,
Wow! I had heard the buzz but now here is the proof. I have some article marketing data in my auto responder. I will be fixing that today and letting my list know.
It is too bad for those people like you who have taken the time to really write articles of value. Good thing you have some other things going….your YouTube channel is fab.
Sheila Atwood recently posted..I Said Blog Disclaimer and You Yawned
Hey Sheila,
I did an entire 10 video series on how to make money writing articles and will now have to go back and put a disclaimer in those now. Darn it!!! Yep, it’s hurt some of us who have put some time into this but will stick with my videos and blog writing for now. And, we do love our social networking too!
Thanks for stopping by and glad you like my YouTube channel. I do love to share helpful stuff.
Adrienne
Hey Adrienne,
This is one of the biggest topics on web 2.0. The changes Google has made has effected us all, we have to do whatever it takes to keep our heads above water. If we have to go to plan, A,B and C, it is okay.
My jaw dropped when I saw Ezine Articles stats. wow!
~Tisha
Tisha recently posted..3 part series-Emotional Guidance System
Hey Tisha,
Yep, it’s the buzz now as it should. People are having to take some drastic measures to change things up now. I was really shocked myself at the Ezine stats. Wow is right. I hope Chris isn’t regretting building out that new office space now.
Thanks Tisha…
Adrienne
I agree Trisha,
That Ezine Article stat sure was jaw-dropping…
I still submit my articles regardless, because they still republished, I still get traffic, and using there one click auto-submit plug-in… I figure why not.
Just my two cents…
Another fantastic post Adrienne…
Keep cranking out the awesome link-worthy content
Jesse Huber recently posted..How To Get 2077 Retweets From One Guest Blogging Gig
Twitter: adriennesmith40
May 27, 2011 at 8:21 AM
Thank you Jesse, I appreciate your comment. Glad you are still having success with article marketing. I need to get back to that now.
Adrienne, aloha. Like you, I had many original content, quality articles with Ezine and the like. So, yes, I saw the effects of the change before I started seeing the official charts.
Fortunately for me, I had started building my youtube channel as well as putting videos on my blog. Adding brief videos to my blog made an immediate difference. No doubt about, Google likes videos.
Next on my “to do” list is podcasts. Though I am not quite sure why it is not closer to the top, I do see it happening within the next two weeks. Right now I am absorbed in laying out a new blog for the non profit/social community. After that’s launched–podcasts.
My blog is available at the Kindle store and I am going to start making ebooks available on Amazon as well.
Adrienne, I agree with you that diversity is so important. Each piece adds to the whole and, quite frankly, creates a terrific synergistic effect.
Thx for inspiring to push forward with the podcasts. Aloha. Janet
Janet recently posted..Attitude—It Makes the Difference by Janet Callaway
Hey Janet,
Sounds like you are on top of all of this. I have been doing videos for a few years now and I definitely know that the tutorial “How To’s” are extremely popular. So glad I enjoy doing those as well.
Wow, your blog is available at the Kindle store. I’m going through something right now about how to make eBooks available on Kindle so that post will be coming soon.
Maybe you will also have to share that little tip with your readers as well. That’s a new thing I see everyone leaning towards as well.
Good luck with those podcasts, like you will need it! You are a go getter Janet.
Adrienne
With the change in scanerio many of them concentrate more on social media to promote their stuff and try to generate maximum lead from there
Vivek Parmar recently posted..Catalyst WordPress Theme Discount Coupon
You are so right, if people are using social media they may end up dying a slow death. It’s a great overall source for any business.
Appreciate the comment and thanks for stopping by.
Adrienne
Hi Adrienne,
It does seem like many people who were writing quality articles were penalized because of the people who were not. That is the way of the world, I guess.
Of course, if you take a look through the articles on EZA, it is not too hard to find some really horrible writing that was clearly only intended as a way to get bio backlinks.
I do still use EZA, Squidoo, and Hubpages for some article writing. My thought is that doing a little bit of everything it likely better in the long run. Having said that, I do more of whatever is working at the time.
There are still a few things I have yet to really get into. Video and Podcasting being the big ones. Perhaps later this year…
Have a great day!
mark recently posted..Three Rules for Awesome Blog Commenting To Increase Blog Traffic
Oh you are SO right Mark. Some of those articles I shake my head over and wonder how they got approved. Here I am spending ALL that time writing my heart out and now we are getting penalized for this. But you are right, it’s a great way to get backlinks which is why the majority of people do article writing. I won’t stop completely, but I won’t spend as much time on it as I have in the past.
Videos are great for “How To’s” and such because people definitely love to learn how to do things. You can just stay doing screen cast videos showing people how to do certain things that you are writing about on your blog. I’m sure I don’t have to tell you which programs you can use but you know there are free ones as well you can try first before investing in something.
Thank you Mark for stopping by and for everything else you have done for me the last few days. I really do appreciate it.
I’ll be sure to have a great day and you do the same.
Adrienne
Hey Adrienne,
It’s sad when people that are doing their best to submit only quality content are getting punished at the same time. One of my clients was floored when he saw this same study and the finding on EZA’s drop. Luckily his traffic sources were diversified.
As Elise and you said, it’s time to make sure you’re podcasting or at least uploading some highly-relevant (and well described and tagged) to the video sharing sites.
Are you leaning more toward video production or podcasts, Adrienne?
Jon
Jon recently posted..The Dark Side of Community- Will You Help Cast Some Light
Hi Jon,
It does hurt with the article writing but thank goodness that’s not all I do.
I’ve been doing videos for a number of years now so I’ll just have to step up on those more instead of writing as much as I did. I’ll still write, but cut back on the number of articles I was submitting. I’m not that big on podcasts so probably continue to concentrate on videos. What about you? Are you stepping into something new?
Wow, no wonder my Adsense and affiliate earnings have been off since the Panda update.
I have done a significant amount of article marketing over the past year.
I don’t consider it all a waste because there are a lot of backlinks pointing to my blog pages.
Jordy recently posted..How To Succeed When Building A Website For A Customer Or Friend
I’m with you Jordy, it has benefited me and I know people are still searching for good quality content. It’s helped me get a lot of traffic, it will just be slacking off now. Sorry to hear that you have had a significant drop. Guess it’s time to try something new!
Thanks for the comment and I appreciate you stopping by.
Adrienne
Hi Adrienne,
In a way I am happy about the recent change made by Google. Even though there are some genuine articles there, most of it are just spanned and poor quality ones. The worst case is that those articles used to top Google searches pushing back all the genuine and quality content that were written with much research and talent.
So while some genuine people have been affected, I think this has done some good Karma for quality content.
Cheers,
Jane.
Jane recently posted..Why Is A Blog Not Updated Regularly
I also agree with you Jane. Although I’m upset because I do write a bunch of articles, I can understand why Google had to implement this change. There are always those who do the black hat methods and get a lot of page ranking from it. I hate when I search on Google for good information and only come across junk. If they want to stay on top, they had to do something. But if we continue to only put out good quality content, it will be found and used. I have to continue to believe hat.
Appreciate your comment and thanks for stopping by. Nice to see you again.
Adrienne
Hi Adrienne,
thanks for sharing your insights. Sometimes it’s a good thing to be late. I haven’t done anything in article marketing yet so I can now figure out what strategy I want to implement.
Take care
Oliver
Oliver Tausend recently posted..Think And Grow Rich – Oliver Tausend Reads His Lessons – The Brain
Hey Oliver,
Well it worked for quite some time so if you haven’t implemented it yet, I sure wouldn’t be looking into it now!
Thanks Oliver and have a great day!
Adrienne
Hi Adrienne,
I’m also big into article writing and marketing, and have quite a few articles on EzineArticles.com. I can’t say I’m at all surprised by Google’s big move, though.
The quality of the average article on EzineArticles is very poor. It appears that many of the authors have a not-so-solid grasp on the English language, not to mention others that have no idea about the rules of grammar.
I’ve tried using them for research a time or two, but found myself cringing from the poor quality. I think this move by Google will turn out to be a positive one, in the long run.
Great information. Thanks for sharing!
Gregory
Gregory McGuire recently posted..3 Ways to Reprogram Your Subconscious Mind
I totally agree with you Gregory… Like I mentioned previously in another comment, I have run across a lot of junk on their site and was shocked it actually was approved in the first place. They have always been so strict with accepting content. But I do believe this change is for the good for all those other ones who haven’t been following the rules. Things will always continue to change and we just have to suck it up and go with the flow.
Always appreciate you stopping by! Thanks for your comment Gregory.
Adrienne
Hi Adrienne!
I saw that list over at Sistrix as well, and I was pretty shocked – if only because of how unevenly sites seem to be hit. Hubpages, but not Squidoo? AssociatedContent, but not eHow?
The weird thing, though, is that although I have a lot of articles on some of the sites that were “hardest hit”, I haven’t seen a loss in traffic from them. Have you checked to see if your particular articles are suffering, or are you just going off the general trends?
Thanks for sharing!
Sarah Russell recently posted..I Can Haz Traffic 3 Reasons Why the Kittens of LOLCats Get More Traffic Than Your Site
Hey Sarah,
I was surprised as well at some of the sites that were hit yet others weren’t. To answer your question, article marketing is the #4 source of traffic and still ranking up there rather high. But I have written some quality content so I would hope that is the reason my articles are still doing well. Will really have to wait and see after about a full month or so after these changes have been made. I just don’t encourage those just now getting into article marketing to go full steam ahead with it.
Appreciate your input and thanks for the comment.
Adrienne
Hey Adrienne,
Once again you wrote a great post about something we are all concerned these days.I’ve noticed myself the traffic I used to receive from article sites has dropped drastically. I’m still using article marketing though. It might be down but I think it’s not dead.
Alexis recently posted..Who Makes Money From Launches
Hi Alexis,
Ah, thank you for that. Well, I haven’t seen a decrease from my article traffic, at least not yet. But I figured once this has been implemented for about a month or so, I might have a better feeling about this. I still believe that if you write quality content than you should be okay.
I agree with you, it might be down but it’s not dead. People just really need to only write good quality stuff, not get in a hurry and only write just to get backlinks. I’m sticking with it girl!
Hi Adrienne,
I would still submit to the same sites to create backlinks. I have heard that Ezine Articles is very strict now, rejecting a few.
Most Web 2.0 sites have been demoted as far as Page Rank goes anyway. Your own site is now the most powerful marketing site you have access to. Blogs rule!
All the best,
Mavis
Mavis Nong recently posted..Blog Traffic – Is Your Blog Sticky and Promoting Your Posts Effortlessly
You are SO right Mavis… My blog has slowly moved up in PR so I am getting some quality backlinks to my site. Will continue to submit to Ezine but probably not as many articles as I was doing. Am just getting myself out there more so I’m not going to let this little bump in the road slow me down.
Thanks for stopping by. You are such a tremendous inspiration.
Adrienne
Mavis,
I can attest to the fact that Ezine Articles are rejecting articles. The last article I submitted got rejected for too much copy and being to self-promotional.
The post was straight content without a pitch in the bio box except two backlinks to my blog…
The funny thing is they did except an article that was a complete product review without a issue.
Anyways…
Just thought I would add to the conversation about what I have experience with EzineArticles recently.
Jesse Huber recently posted..How To Get 2077 Retweets From One Guest Blogging Gig
I can’t believe that all the article sites got hit so hard, but they were really starting to clog up the search engine results (and they were usually low quality, IMO). Sorry to hear about your articles taking a hit. It is a shame that there are some good articles out there, but people abuse it. But anyways, I think it is always best to put my best articles on my sites, and not on another site.. and I will also be using more social sites because it all comes down to trust… and that is where you build it.
Russ recently posted..How much is P90X
You are right Russ, it all comes down to good quality. At the moment, my articles are still getting viewed so will just have to wait and see with time. Hopefully it’s because I did write some good quality stuff. But I was also writing some good quality content for my blogs as well. I got frustrated with doing searches on Google and locating only junk so this change is probably a good thing.
Thanks for your comment, it’s very much appreciated.
Adrienne
Adrienne,
I am still pretty new to article marketing but I have noticed that EZA has become more strict. I had to make some changes to my last submission which I hadn’t had to do before with any of my other submissions.
I am curious to see where this will go, but you are definitely right – we can’t put all of our eggs in one basket!
Thanks for sharing,
Stacy
Stacy recently posted..How to Become the Most Productive You
I’ve always thought they were strict which was why I was rather shocked they were hit so hard. Guess they let a few slip through their fingers, maybe someone was having a few bad days!
I do guess we’ll see with time though but I’m still going to submit some article. Keep my fingers crossed.
Thanks Stacy…
Adrienne
I had to come back and tell you how much I appreciate this article. I have emailed my subscribers and referred them here.
Thanks
Sheila Atwood recently posted..The Blog Challenge Rolls Out With Guidelines and Prizes
Thank you Sheila, I really appreciate that! That was so thoughtful of you to come back over and share this with me. It means a lot and I hope it helps others understand just what’s going on and how we can move forward from here. They can’t keep us down for long!!!
Thanks Sheila, for letting me know about this article.
Adrienne, those changes by Google is having dramatic effect on the big ones sites and those that rely on article marketing, but sites that only have orginal contents arn’t that much affected.
Just as I’m trying to get a grip on building backlinks for SEO, I see those changes arriving and wonder what works now. So, all will cause lazy marketers who would rely on low quality articles spun at infinitum out the most worry.
That said, we have to give Google what it’s looking… original articles and more quality articles and more videos. But put out original content than to put out re-hashed articles now.
Well, more work indeed for people who are doing an online business.
Ben Wan.
Hey Ben, nice to see you here. You are right, we all just need to continue creating quality content. I enjoyed article marketing and will still include it in my marketing methods but will concentrate more on other sites where Google sees them as highly relevant.
I’m with you on the SEO backlinks but I believe blog commenting still is one of the best ways to actually build quality backlinks. Am diving headfirst into this as well so hopefully will have more to share in a future post down the road.
Thanks for your comment and really appreciate Sheila spreading the word.
Adrienne
Hello Adrienne,
My good blogging buddy and friend, Sheila Atwood, directed me to your blog. Glad she did! It’s nice to meet you.
I may be the oddball here but I’ve been online for quite a while and I’ve never done any article marketing. My focus for sharing fresh (and hopefully valuable!) content with my target audience has always been via my blog and other social media platforms. I remember, years ago, listening to a teleseminar with Denise Wakeman (in my opinion, best biz blogging expert on the web) saying she doesn’t do article marketing, either.
The good news with all the changes Google has made is that there’s still TONS of ways to get new visitors to your site. So your advice is excellent — “Don’t put all your eggs in one basket.”
Hi Melanie,
Well, it’s nice to meet you and Sheila told me she was sharing my post with her readers. She is such a wonderful lady and I was so very touched by her kindness.
I love to write so article marketing was one of the first things I was introduced to when I came online. As a matter of fact, I started making money my very first week from the traffic I was getting from my articles. I had almost 400 articles up but have since gone back through there and weeded out what I no longer promote and cleaned up my accounts. I’m now down to about 250. But it’s always been a great source of free traffic, when it worked. I’m bummed that this has happened for those of us who are really doing it right. But I can understand the changes, they were needed.
Be thankful you aren’t heavily into this method and that you are doing well with what you’ve been doing. This is the perfect example of why you shouldn’t put all your eggs in one basket!
Thank you again for stopping by and for your comment. I truly appreciate it.
Adrienne
Hello from Montana,
Thanks so much for this great post. Thanks to Sheila for suggesting it.
I,too, love to write articles. Strange breed aren’t we? I would rather write an article than a headline any day!
Looking forward to sharing with you.
Judy H. Wright aka Auntie Artichoke
Judy H. Wright-Bounce Back recently posted..A new test post
Hey Judy from Montana… I appreciate you stopping in and here’s a big shout out from Texas.
Glad to meet another strange breed! I’m not alone out there… Headlines are hard so I agree with you on that one. Guess I’ll just have to continue writing on my blog. Oh well.
Nice to see you here and thank you for your comment. I enjoy seeing and hearing from new readers. So glad Sheila shared my post.
Adrienne
Looking at the table reminds me of the recent ezine issue in regard to its articles but that’s just another story. I don’t think article marketing has died down, it’s still very much in demand and as long as we have readers how can it die down? Whenever I come across writers like you I get drawn towards this trade, your life is inspiring and it reflects in your way you write. Keep it up!
Thank you so much for your comment Greg. I also believe that article marketing will never die. I truly believe that we needed this necessary change in order for some of these black hat marketers to change their tactics and abandon the methods they have been using. Maybe the article sites will clean up their act and be more aware of the content they are accepting. I’m just going to give it a rest for a short time but I’ll never stop writing articles.
Again, I appreciate your thoughtful reply and thank you so much for stopping by. Always nice to see a new face around here.
Adrienne
I don’t think that article marketing will every truly die, but I think unfortunately social media has taken a forefront to it. Why write a paragraph when you can just Tweet it? Or so, that’s how I feel the general public has taken a feeling to. Just because we’re now an e-book nation, doesn’t mean that books don’t still exist. So, just because social media and instant answers exist, doesn’t mean that articles will die. After all, what else is supposed to distract from work?
I agree Maggie, article marketing will never truly die. It’s just taken a hit right now and rightly so. Too many people were generating junk that wasn’t really benefiting any of us just so they could build more backlinks to their sites. But as a nation who is now truly internet savvy, we go to the internet for everything. We want to find answers to our questions and if we can locate them through articles, so be it.
I know this is the digital era now but I still love to read a good book and take it with me. I have yet to purchase a Kindle although I realize how convenient they are. I just can’t see hard books ever going away either. So some things I don’t think will ever die. They just may not be as popular at the moment.
Thanks again for your comment, it’s always appreciated.
Adrienne
I’ve published one article on EZA since it was Panda slapped, and while a single article may not be indicative of what a broader test would indicate, I am stunned that this article has only received two views to-date. Not very encouraging regarding the future of the site or of utilizing article marketing.
Randy recently posted..Bad SEO Advice Comes From Confusing Correlation With Causation
Wow Randy, I know that must be disappointing. I knew that it would be hit really hard and probably not many views for awhile, but I really do believe it will eventually pick up more steam. I like to think that it will. I’ll keep my fingers crossed and I guess we’ll just see what happens from here.
Thanks for your comment and for stopping by.
Adrienne
Adrienne – In doing some backlink checking this morning, I discovered that my recently published article on EZA does seem to be passing on some link authority from Google. Thus, EZA can still provide value. Also, in checking the stats for EZA on Alexa and Compete, their traffic and page views has only took a 20-25% hit. My gut tells me that the Alexa and Compete reports may be understating the decline. However, on the other hand, I need to be careful about jumping to a conclusion based upon the results from a single article (although just two views is pretty miserable). As you stated, we will have to see what happens.
Randy Pickard recently posted..Bad SEO Advice Comes From Confusing Correlation With Causation
I totally agree Randy, I do think article marketing can still provide value but it will take some time to pick back up. Thanks for reporting this info. That’s pretty interesting and guess we will see what happens…
Hi Adrienne,
I’m glad I found out about this change Google has made concerning article marketing. I wouldn’t of had a clue if I had not read it on your blog. I’m disappointed to hear this, because I always enjoyed writing articles myself. It was a good way for people to get to know me. And, they could determine the things we had in common. And, it was the only way until social networking came along. Now, people can get to know us by reading our profile, and reading comments or watching videos that we post. I would like to add, that I think it is essential for someone to get to know you before they buy your product. I won’t buy anything from someone I don’t know anymore. Because, I like to help the people who market online the right way. And we met on Facebook, so that is proof that social networking works if done right.
Looking forward to reading more of your blog posts.
Roy internet marketing videos recently posted..How To Start Making Money With Adsense
Hey Roy…SO glad you stopped by and left me a comment. Great to see you here!
I was disappointed with this recent change as well, to an extent I might add. I mean it wasn’t exactly great news for the people who were doing article marketing the right way, but I’m glad Google will not be helping the sites that are content farms any longer. In the long run, I believe it will benefit us all in a good way. But, article marketing will never die that I know for sure!
You are right, now that I’ve been online long enough to know better I would prefer purchasing a product from someone I know. A lot of business owners are now realizing just how important it is to get socially active. It can only help them in the long run.
By the way, you need to turn your site into a blog so we can leave comments on your posts/articles. You’ve got a good looking site… Think about it!
Thanks again and stay tuned for more posts…
Adrienne
Hey Adrienne,
This must be responsible for the strictness of Ezinearticles. Change word count to 400, more reviews etc. I think it’s good.
It helps to sanitize the sites and ensures that the readers are not at the receiving end.
Sites like Squidoo and other sites not affected will get some massive attention now.
Thanks for shaing the stats with us, Adrienne. They are massive!
Tosin
Tosin recently posted..Automated Tools- Stop Hiding Behind Automation
Hey Tosin,
This is responsible for the strictness with a lot of the article sites. As this graph showed, some of the sites have not been affected as much because their guidelines had been a lot more strict to begin with. Only accepting quality articles from the beginning but now these other sites have learned the hard way. Better late than never right!
Glad you enjoyed this post and as we all know, article marketing will NEVER die!
I have always considered article marketing as the way to obtain incoming links to a website, but not the way of attracting additional targeted traffic. As to traffic, yes, the ammount of traffic coming from article directories has been decreased signifficantly after Panda update. In these regards, it is better to focus on attracting additional targeted traffic from popular social networks rather from article directories.
Terje Sannarnes recently posted..How an Entrepreneur Can Build a Website with Minimal Skills
Twitter: adriennesmith40
May 3, 2011 at 3:28 PM
So true Terje… It’s always been a great source for backlinks but it’s also brought nice traffic to my sites in the past. Not necessarily a significant amount but a good bit.
Social networking sites are great for building relationships and that makes a better fit for the targeted traffic to your site. Those can lead to sales which we all know and love.
Appreciate your input. Thanks for stopping by.
This is sad, Adrienne. I’ve used article marketing in the past and am glad I haven’t used it in a while. I recently started using YouTube and love it.
You’re right. Creating unique content is important. Your list really helps. I checked out your link to Dan Kennedy’s site to view it in its entirety. Wow! I too am trying not to put all my eggs in one basket.
Sorry you were affected by this. I’ve read your writings and they are top-notch!
Allyson Stewart recently posted..Changing the Font Color of Hyperlink Text in a PowerPoint 2010 Document
Twitter: adriennesmith40
May 25, 2011 at 9:24 AM
Thank you Allyson, I was pretty sad too. But you know it’s probably for the best. Article writing is a very time consuming process so it gave me time to reflect on other methods.
Glad you are enjoying YouTube so like the post says, don’t put all your eggs in one basket. You never know what Google will do next and I heard that there are many more changes still to come. Guess we’ll see…