Article Keyword Videos to Watch
Writing
Click on the image to start the video.
|
Related Topics
Images - Links - Articles
Montreal
Related Images
|
How Article Marketing is Significantly Increasing My Income (Part 1 of 5)
Last Thursday, I reported on an article marketing experiment I am in the midst of conducting. Specifically, I wanted to create more passive income, so I decided to give article marketing a real try and see how it went.
All this week I will be detailing the sites I'm submitting to and how it’s going. For details on the beginning of the experiment, see the 10/26/06 post on InkwellEditorial.blogspot.com.
Following are the sites I’m consistently submitting articles to. I chose them because they had good PR and Alexa rankings. If you don’t know what a PR or Alexa rank is, it is explained briefly below, with links to other sources for in-depth information.
1. EzineArticles.com: This directory has a PR rank of 6 and an Alexa rank of 552. This is perhaps the number one article directory on the net. You can submit across a number of categories and the submission process is very easy.
You must create an author account to submit. The thing I like the most about this site is that you can track your articles and it gives you a wealth of information like how many ezines picked up the article, how many hits it’s gotten, when you submitted, etc.
To me, the best part of this directory is that they post your article within 4-6 hours, once you’ve achieved platinum status, which is not hard to do.
2. ArticleDashboard.com: This directory has a PR rank of 6 and an Alexa rank of 3,461.
Again, you must create an author account to submit. It’s easy to submit once you do this. This directory also gives some article stats (eg, how many times the article has been downloaded, emailed to others, etc.).
3. IdeaMarketers.com: This directory has a PR rank of 4 and an Alexa rank of 8,897. You must create an author account and article stats are provided.
4. EasyArticles.com: This directory has a PR rank of 6 and an Alexa rank of 52,143.
You must create an author account to submit. Beyond providing a list of articles you’ve submitted, this directory doesn’t provide article stats. Submission process is very easy one you’ve set up an account.
5. PowerHomeBiz.com: This site has a PR rank of 6 and an Alexa rank of 25,152.
NOTE: This is not an article submission site, but a small business portal of sorts. I submitted to this site because they don’t publish “fluff” articles. There is a certain level of professionalism that you must have to get published on this site. They don’t just publish anything and it gives you a certain level of prestige if you’re lucky enough to be published here.
I got good e-zine subscription feedback from an article that I had published on their site a couple of years ago. The article was entitled, Why You DON'T Need National Media Attention to Grow Your Biz, and can be found at the following link: http://www.powerhomebiz.com/vol147/marketing.htm.
What is a PR Ranking? What is an Alexa Rank?
PR Rank: First, PR stands for page rank. Impact-Direct.com defines page rank as “A method developed and patented by Stanford University and Larry Page (cofounder of Google) to rank search engine results. Page Rank gives a unique ranking to every page on the internet. The ranking number is based on the number of quality inbound links pointing at a page and is represented on a scale from 1-10 with 10 being the optimal rank.”
In the article, “What Is Page Rank?” by Kimberly Bodane, she describes why page rank is important, as well as what you can do to improve yours.
You’ll also find a detailed article on problogger.net (“Google Page Rank Explained”) with helpful feedback from other readers.
Alexa Rank: An article on e3Server.com, What is Alexa Ranking, describes Alexa rankings as “ a very powerful tool of viewing and comparing web site traffic for one site to the rest of the web.”
The lower the ranking, the better. Sites that rank 100,000 or lower are considered extremely popular.
To learn more, type “alexa ranking” in the search engine of your choice and do some reading. You’ll be able to get a full understanding by reading a few articles of detailed information.
Why I Used PR and Alexa Rankings as Markers for My Article Marketing Campaign
To be honest, I’m an SEO (search engine optimization) neophyte. I don’t like learning about technology – I’m a writer; all things technical bore the bejeezus out of me.
BUT, I have read enough about these two tools to know that they are important and that if I was going to use article marketing to create passive income, I needed to rely on getting the word out to as many as possible. This only happens via sites that are extremely popular.
How do you measure the popularity of a site? Via its PR and/or Alexa ranking are two viable ways.
Disclaimer: I had written in another post that my site, InkwellEditorial.com, had a PR of 6. When I checked it months ago, it did. I checked it today (10/30/06) and it’s a 5. We won’t even discuss my Alexa ranking, which used to hover in the 800,000s; now it’s at over 6,000,000.
It seems to me that when I didn’t update the site as regularly, it’s ranking was fine, but as soon as I started to fiddle with it, the rankings went in the crapper. I’m sure some expert can tell me why.
From what I understand, Google sometimes changes its algorithms, and that can cause site rankings to shift significantly, eg, my blog's PR has skyrocketed since the last time I checked; it went from a 0 to a 5. Go figure!
To find out your site's PR, go Go here: http://www.prchecker.info/check_page_rank.php
To find out your site's Alexa's ranking: Go here: http://www.Alexa.com.
Show Me the Money!
Okay, all of that is fine you may be saying, but what about the money? During the first few days of my experiment, my Google Adsense earnings quintupled. That’s what got me so excited.
Well, my earnings have cooled off, but I am still, on average, doubling what I was making before I started this experiment. Rules of the Adsense program prohibit giving specific figures, but before I was making decent pocket change, which meant, eg, monthly car payment, barhopping with friends, etc.
Stay tuned for Part II in another article.
About the Author: May be reprinted with the following, in full: Yuwanda Black is the publisher of InkwellEditorial.com: THE business portal for and about the editorial and creative industries. First-hand freelance success stories, e-courses, job postings, resume tips, advice on the business of freelancing, and more! Launch a Profitable Freelance Writing Career in 30 Days or Less -- Guaranteed! Log on to InkwellEditorial.com to learn how.
|
