Article Marketing Review - Part 1: Unbiased Commentary Or Promotional Propaganda
Using article marketing as the core of your online marketing strategy can produce a return on investment an order of magnitude greater than SEO, search engine marketing or pay per click investments. Reviews of article marketing products, methodologies and strategies are a common way for article marketers to engage with their readers and potential customers.
The potential issue with article marketing so far as its reputation and its longevity in the industry as a genuine, honest and trustworthy source of both useful information and effective promotion is complex. Many marketers may choose to write articles of only a few hundred words, just enough to meet the minimum content requirements, and are able to achieve ratings from article sites as prolific contributors or experts when in fact they are only doing the bare minimum with this exact goal in mind.
This method will achieve many back links for these 300-400 word articles and it is recognized by all that back links are a key benefit of article marketing. But what, beyond a link to their site and a bunch of keywords, do these authors really provide for readers? Are they concisely exploring or sharing new ideas or are they just re-working the same content with the intent to rank as a high contributing author and produce a web of links to their website?
Alternatively article marketers may choose to write an objective review of a new product they are promoting as an affiliate and provide the pros and cons of the product. This is an interesting approach as it provides somewhat more validity to the article and hence the author and when done honestly provides the article site, the author and their web properties and the community a useful evaluation tool.
Typically however these review articles transform from good intent into promotional propaganda campaigns to rival those of The Party in George Orwells totalitarian 1984! For those of you who have not read the book we join the main character Winston as he sets about his daily work to alter history by changing old newspaper records to match with the new truth as decided by the Party!
We as a community need to ask ourselves - if article marketers are engaging in these 2 minimalist endeavours purposely, is there actually anything wrong with that strategy? Do we, as the article marketing/internet marketing community accept them, their articles and their approach? Do we accept that the article sites will continue to publish their brief or possibly biased material and rate them highly for their quantity of contributions?
-== Mapping Their Success Strategy ==-
I have summarised how this quick article marketing strategy may be drawn on a whiteboard during a marketing strategy planning meeting.
* Write an article to reach bare minimum word requirements
* Stick a link to the latest website offer at the end regardless of link relevancy.
* a) Write about the same old tired benefits of article marketing available in just about every other article written on article marketing strategies
* b) Write about how great the latest article submission software is, how great the latest seminar will be or how easy article marketing is - but only when you do it my way.
* Repeat, using the same ideas and words for another 300 word ?!cough?!.. article.
-== Strengths Of This Strategy ==-
i) Produces a large number of articles
ii) Produces a large number of back links
iii) High rankings are achievable with article sites
iv) Positive, yet potentially biased reviews are created for the product being promoted
-== Weakness Of This Strategy ==-
i) Over time the authors potential for niche authority is diminished significantly
ii) The product being reviewed becomes tired and stale quickly as a result of overselling
iii) The relevance of the back links to search engines is reduced ( high bounce rates can reduce relevance)
v) No fresh, useful or innovative content or ideas enter the larger article marketing community
vi) Short term marketing strategy
vii)Consumer confusion and distrust
Have All Article Marketers Taken This Approach At Some Time?
There are so many people trying to sell and promote so many different products with a plethora of different online marketing strategies. We as marketers must find a way to outperform and stand above the heaving masses if we are going to achieve the massive success we are aiming for.
The issue with utilising article marketing reviews as a quick article marketing strategy to shine in this overwhelming horde, does not lay in its intent to act as a tireless self promotion tool for the authors. After all, if we dont tell the masses about us nobody else will.
Rather the issue is in the eventual inability of readers to determine either the true intent of the author or the actual performance of the product or service being reviewed. A continued misuse and mistrust of any strategy creates a perception of non-genuine business practices, scams and grifts - precisely what the Internet Marketing community does not need.
Alternate Article Marketing Success Strategy
* Brainstorm Article Ideas, Research & Review Product Honestly, Learn New ways to Stimulate Creativity
* Write without any word limit in mind to express the ideas created form step 1
* Consider the article length, if more than about 800-100 words, determine if more than 1 article is required or possible.
* Craft an Invitational resource box at the end of the article to encourage your engaged and bonded readers to your quality offer
* Repeat the process and create another fresh, useful innovative article for the community.
-== Strengths of this strategy ==-
i) Quality content and subjective, useful article marketing reviews are published
ii) Produces a good quantity of articles
iii) Produces a good quantity of back links
iv) Provides significant Niche Market Authority and page rank/relevance
v) Authority = Respect, Interest and Belief
vi) Long term online marketing strategy
-== Weakness of this strategy ==-
i) Time required can be significant
ii) Author may not be rated as a top 10 article writer and must depend on the quality content to encourage reader and clicks.
iii) Creation of new ideas and content is difficult for some authors and may inhibit the effectiveness of the article marketing strategy.
Whichever path we all choose to take, make no mistake that article marketings currency as a valid, productive and effective online marketing strategy lays in our hands today and the articles we write will change history forever for better or for worse.
The potential issue with article marketing so far as its reputation and its longevity in the industry as a genuine, honest and trustworthy source of both useful information and effective promotion is complex. Many marketers may choose to write articles of only a few hundred words, just enough to meet the minimum content requirements, and are able to achieve ratings from article sites as prolific contributors or experts when in fact they are only doing the bare minimum with this exact goal in mind.
This method will achieve many back links for these 300-400 word articles and it is recognized by all that back links are a key benefit of article marketing. But what, beyond a link to their site and a bunch of keywords, do these authors really provide for readers? Are they concisely exploring or sharing new ideas or are they just re-working the same content with the intent to rank as a high contributing author and produce a web of links to their website?
Alternatively article marketers may choose to write an objective review of a new product they are promoting as an affiliate and provide the pros and cons of the product. This is an interesting approach as it provides somewhat more validity to the article and hence the author and when done honestly provides the article site, the author and their web properties and the community a useful evaluation tool.
Typically however these review articles transform from good intent into promotional propaganda campaigns to rival those of The Party in George Orwells totalitarian 1984! For those of you who have not read the book we join the main character Winston as he sets about his daily work to alter history by changing old newspaper records to match with the new truth as decided by the Party!
We as a community need to ask ourselves - if article marketers are engaging in these 2 minimalist endeavours purposely, is there actually anything wrong with that strategy? Do we, as the article marketing/internet marketing community accept them, their articles and their approach? Do we accept that the article sites will continue to publish their brief or possibly biased material and rate them highly for their quantity of contributions?
-== Mapping Their Success Strategy ==-
I have summarised how this quick article marketing strategy may be drawn on a whiteboard during a marketing strategy planning meeting.
* Write an article to reach bare minimum word requirements
* Stick a link to the latest website offer at the end regardless of link relevancy.
* a) Write about the same old tired benefits of article marketing available in just about every other article written on article marketing strategies
* b) Write about how great the latest article submission software is, how great the latest seminar will be or how easy article marketing is - but only when you do it my way.
* Repeat, using the same ideas and words for another 300 word ?!cough?!.. article.
-== Strengths Of This Strategy ==-
i) Produces a large number of articles
ii) Produces a large number of back links
iii) High rankings are achievable with article sites
iv) Positive, yet potentially biased reviews are created for the product being promoted
-== Weakness Of This Strategy ==-
i) Over time the authors potential for niche authority is diminished significantly
ii) The product being reviewed becomes tired and stale quickly as a result of overselling
iii) The relevance of the back links to search engines is reduced ( high bounce rates can reduce relevance)
v) No fresh, useful or innovative content or ideas enter the larger article marketing community
vi) Short term marketing strategy
vii)Consumer confusion and distrust
Have All Article Marketers Taken This Approach At Some Time?
There are so many people trying to sell and promote so many different products with a plethora of different online marketing strategies. We as marketers must find a way to outperform and stand above the heaving masses if we are going to achieve the massive success we are aiming for.
The issue with utilising article marketing reviews as a quick article marketing strategy to shine in this overwhelming horde, does not lay in its intent to act as a tireless self promotion tool for the authors. After all, if we dont tell the masses about us nobody else will.
Rather the issue is in the eventual inability of readers to determine either the true intent of the author or the actual performance of the product or service being reviewed. A continued misuse and mistrust of any strategy creates a perception of non-genuine business practices, scams and grifts - precisely what the Internet Marketing community does not need.
Alternate Article Marketing Success Strategy
* Brainstorm Article Ideas, Research & Review Product Honestly, Learn New ways to Stimulate Creativity
* Write without any word limit in mind to express the ideas created form step 1
* Consider the article length, if more than about 800-100 words, determine if more than 1 article is required or possible.
* Craft an Invitational resource box at the end of the article to encourage your engaged and bonded readers to your quality offer
* Repeat the process and create another fresh, useful innovative article for the community.
-== Strengths of this strategy ==-
i) Quality content and subjective, useful article marketing reviews are published
ii) Produces a good quantity of articles
iii) Produces a good quantity of back links
iv) Provides significant Niche Market Authority and page rank/relevance
v) Authority = Respect, Interest and Belief
vi) Long term online marketing strategy
-== Weakness of this strategy ==-
i) Time required can be significant
ii) Author may not be rated as a top 10 article writer and must depend on the quality content to encourage reader and clicks.
iii) Creation of new ideas and content is difficult for some authors and may inhibit the effectiveness of the article marketing strategy.
Whichever path we all choose to take, make no mistake that article marketings currency as a valid, productive and effective online marketing strategy lays in our hands today and the articles we write will change history forever for better or for worse.
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