Yesterday I posted an article about the results I got from writing and publishing 100 articles at EzineArticles.com and got a really interesting comment from Carol Tice.
(read the post first by clicking here: 100 articles)
Instead of replying in the comments I thought the questions she asked deserved a brand new post. Some of the questions were quite challenging and caused me to stop, think and DIG DEEPER into what I really got from those 100 articles (thanks Carol!).
So what I’ll do here is just break up the comment and answer all the questions Carol posed because I think you’ll find benefit in the answers too.
Make sure you go back and read yesterdays post so you have this one in context and then come back to read this one.
Making Money Writing Articles?
Question 1
Carol: Is it all free? Did none of the people who decided to publish your articles pay for them?
Fair question.
First let me briefly explain how article directories work. I submitted my 100 articles to an article directory called EzineArticles.com. It’s pretty much commonly accepted as the top article directory on the internet and their quality standards are fairly stringent (they don’t accept crap articles).
The whole idea of article directories is that you submit your articles and other publishers can take them entirely free with the requirement that they keep your author’s resource box and all active URL’s in that box.
So to answer your first question: No I did not get paid for any of those articles nor did I plan or want to.
Question 2
Carol: Did you get any paying clients from the exposure, and if so what were the projects worth, and did they pay at decent hourly rates?
Ok, in order to answer this I need to give you a little bit of back story.
I have been submitting to Ezine Articles since 2005 and over that time I have had more than one business. Each business had different goals. Not all those goals were for clients or projects. Here’s how it went:
2005 For Leads – I submitted articles related to and promoting a network marketing candle business I was a representative for. My goal was to get leads for new team members and yes those articles did bring me leads. Some of those leads did turn into reps but I really couldn’t tell you how many now or how much money that made me.
2006-2008 For Clients – My articles were promoting my virtual assistant business. For this business my goal was new clients and yes I did get clients. My hourly rate at the time may have been anywhere between $25-$45/hour.
A previous client tweeted this out after seeing yesterday’s post:
2008-2009 For Subscribers & Sales – Most of the articles submitted during this time were for MarketersMojo.com, the website you are currently visiting. The goal of this site isn’t services or product sales. It is affiliate sales. I promote other people’s products and earn a commission for doing so. So the important measurement to me here is subscribers and straight affiliate sales.
While I can’t give a specific monetary total due to lack of tracking all those situations, I can tell you that without a doubt the articles I have submitted have made me money.
The benefits go much further than that though.
You see, about 50 of those articles were submitted more than two years ago by my estimate. They are still getting clicks, still sending me traffic and still turning into profit and will continue to do so for years to come.
And let’s not forget about the benefits of inbound links!
The number of inbound links coming to my website have a major effect on how I get ranked in the search engines. 100 ++ quality inbound links to my website means ALL my pages get ranked higher in the search engines which in turn gets me more traffic and makes me more money. The inbound links have very likely also helped with my decent Alexa ranking of 201,373 and Pagerank of 3.
Question 3:
Carol: “You’re saying the ultimate upside for all that work is you got 94 people to get on your marketing list, from 100 articles? That’s an average of less than one person per article, who maybe might buy your services or products in the future…or maybe not. It seems hugely inefficient.”
No that’s not what I’m saying, I guess I wasn’t really that clear in the last post. The 94 people on my list were from ONE article, not one-hundred. That result is pretty awesome but it’s not typical. That article that converted 94 people to my list had over 400 people and the conversion rate of clicks to sign ups on that page was about 30% – which is pretty darn good! Of those 94 people, 4 of them did go ahead and sign up for hosting I recommended which alone made me $260. Now where they ended up from there I don’t know. They could have gotten onto my other lists or bought an affiliate recommendation from my website.
By the way, the list that article send 94 people to was my mini-course on How to Create a WordPress Website in 7 Days or Less.
My list is extremely valuable to me. They’re not just leads, they’re people who I spend a lot of time creating a relationship with. They trust my advice and recommendations. The value of that over the next ten plus years is something I think was very much worth the time spend writing all those 100 articles, let alone one.
Question 4:
Carol: “I’d love to see you state how many hours you spent writing those articles. I think I could get that many contacts at two or three in-person networking events, which would take perhaps 8 hours total including commuting time. If it took more than that to write 100 articles — and I’m betting it did — there are ways to get leads that would leave you more free time.“
Well I could estimate that. I certainly didn’t keep track but it typically takes me 15-20 minutes to write an article (though this one is taking a little longer!) so let’s say 20×100 = 2000 minutes /60 = 33 hours.
Yep that’s a lot of time and I could possibly make some really great connections at networking events in that same amount of time but it’s highly doubtful I’d get almost 10,000 people reading an article I wrote and 703 visiting my website for that time investment at a typical networking event.
Plus, you’re assuming I’m a GOOD in-person networker. I’m not. I’m shy, I get nervous, I freeze up when someone asks me what I do. So while you might be better suited to making great connections in person, it’s definitely something I need a lot more practice in to get efficient at.
Actually – here’s great example of how BAD I am at networking. I’ve been spending 1 hour almost every month for a year and a half attending a local networking meeting and I’ve earned exactly $150 from that.
Another point here is that so many of those hundred articles were re-purposed from other places. I didn’t sit down and write each article with just the intention of submitting them to Ezine Articles. Some were reformatted blog posts, checklists for my team, outdated information products, old website pages, etc, etc. Just because I use them at Ezine Articles doesn’t mean I don’t use them elsewhere.
Question 5
Carol: “I’m getting more than 300 site visitors a day and I’ve posted less than 40 short blogs on my own site. I didn’t have to deal with any being rejected since I’m also the editor here! So how is being on Ezines better exactly?“
First of all, wow! That’s quite a lot of visitors from just a few blog posts. I’d love to read an article on how you did that – great SEO? Social Media?
And to answer your question here I never said submitting articles is better than adding content to your own website. I have over 300 posts here on Marketers Mojo and I have a number of other websites so I have no aversion to posting content to my own websites. But in order to get great rankings in the search engines you need incoming links and in order for you to make sales on your websites you need traffic.
I’ve chosen article marketing as a method to do a number of things, including:
- Establishing expert status.
- Establishing quality incoming links.
- Generating traffic through direct article clicks and through reprinted article clicks.
- Generating more traffic through the search engines due to higher rankings.
Question 6
Carol: “It seems like keeping it on your own site is a better way to go in my view…not sure you’ve proved the case that using one of these content-aggregation sites is useful. Appreciate more info.”
I’m not sure what you mean by ‘content-aggregation site’ or ‘content mill’ but if it’s what I think then Ezine Articles is far from that type of site. It’s a high-quality article database with probably the most strict terms and conditions of all the article directories.
Yep I definitely agree that getting great content on your website is Step #1 but if it can be re-used to go even further then it just makes sense for me to do it.
Are there other things I could do to get me faster results? Absolutely!
There are so many ways you can get traffic to your website and they all work. For me it’s a matter of choosing something I enjoy and something that I can track – submitting articles to directories fills both those needs for me. What I plan to do now with the results I achieved from Ezine Articles is improve and maximize.
In fact, just the other week I did a guest blog post for a friend with a high traffic site and got 37 new subscribers to my email list in three days. The value? It’s long term.
p.s. Thanks Carol for such a well thought out comment with some challenging questions. Though we may not agree on all aspects of this type of article marketing I appreciate all opinions and ideas here at Marketers Mojo!
I didn’t realize until recently that for readers who clicked from my Ezine Ariticles to my science project site, Google Analytics tracked conversions. I was shocked – and quite pleased. EZA visitors converted better than my very targeted PPC campaign.
.-= Kayla Fay @ Science Projects´s last blog ..How to Keep a Science Log =-.
Twitter: AngelaWills
says:
Thanks for the comment Kayla. Actually that’s something I also meant to mention. EZA visits are highly targeted because they have already sampled our content and come for more – that’s better than a search engine visitor who doesn’t really know where they’ll end up – great point.
Very cool to see you have also tested it and have a comparison against PPC.
Thank You Angela for sharing the answers to those questions. The Questions were good, but the answers were better. Nice to get confirmation on the whole article/leveraging idea, not to mention the imortance of inbound links to a website’s traffic.
It may have taken you 33 hrs to write all those articles…but they are done, you have used many of them multiple times and they just keep on giving (not to mention lending ALOT of credibility to your reputation). Thanks again for the info!
Twitter: AngelaWills
says:
Thanks for your comment Kelly and I’m glad you found the information useful!
I get the feeling that Carol missed the point here. You (Angela) are not a writer. Or at least that is not your primary source of income. If you were, then it would make less sense for you to write for free. That time could be better spent writing for money. Good point, if you’re a writer.
But what you’re doing is marketing, which is a completely different thing, IMO. In fact, you could say you *were* making money by posting articles on Ezine yourself for free, rather than paying a writer to do it for you.
.-= Cindy Bidar´s last blog ..The Neverending List of Blog Post Ideas =-.
Twitter: AngelaWills
says:
That’s a really good point Cindy. You’re right, I’m not a writer and I never was working to get writing jobs through the articles. As you said those articles were for marketing and for that purpose I have found ezine articles to be a very good option.
Angela, I really enjoyed reading your answers to all Carols questions but what I liked more was the information you supplied. I am doing the 100 Articles in 100 Days at Ezinearticles and I am looking forward to the traffic I hope to get from them. After looking inside your Ezinearticles account I am now positive that the 100 Articles in 100 Days is worth the effort.
Twitter: AngelaWills
says:
Thanks Gail. Oh glad to hear you are doing the 100 articles in 100 days challenge, I’ve taken up on that too. I actually did a challenge they had just before Christmas to write 25 articles and I won myself a mug. It’s so silly but those mug, beach ball and cap type of gifts really motivate me. Of course the benefit of another 100 articles in just a few months is going to be worth even more than the prizes. Good luck and yes it’s definitely going to be worth the effort.
Hi Angela,
This post has really motivated and encouraged me to get more focused on article marketing. The benefits are tremendous for any web presence as you clearly demonstrated in this article.
All the best,
Eren
.-= Eren Mckay´s last blog ..Discover the Power of Allowing Yourself to Cry =-.
Twitter: AngelaWills
says:
Excellent Eren! So glad to hear the post helped to motivate and encourage you.
Great article, made me realize I really need to get more articles published on Ezine Ariticles. I did not realize some of the benefits, I had been posting articles on Ezine just for linkbacks but there are a lot of great reasons to post there.
Thanks for the information Angela.
Twitter: AngelaWills
says:
Thanks for the comment Kelley! You know writing this article really made me realize the benefits and consider a lot of the benefits I hadn’t thought of in a while.
[...] This is the same networking group I mentioned in a previous post. [...]
Excellent explanation, Angela!
I’m in the process of developing my own article marketing campaign, along with a press release campaign. I really appreciate the time and effort you have put into showing the value the EZA effort.
Thank you!
.-= Michelle Waters´s last blog ..Making Some Quick Changes Around Here =-.
Angela, I’ve really enjoyed following the conversation here, and I’ve learned a lot. Like @Michelle, I need to develop an article marketing strategy. I have a few articles already up at http://ezinearticles.com/?expert=Rich_Avery, and I have several more that are in process.
Twitter: AngelaWills
says:
Hey Rich! I totally missed your comment before, sorry about that! It’s been a month since you posted – got any new articles up?
[...] on this but it’s really working for me as you can tell by previous posts I’ve made here and [...]
Great Post, I just happened to stumble onto this site while looking up some info on Ezine Articles.
I have several articles on there and in the short time they have been “live” I have received about a 7% clickthrough.
Now I can not speak for Carol but I feel that spending some time creating good articles, articles that can be picked up by any number of publishers is a far more effective method of increasing sales than “traditional” in person networking meetings. Eventually you will have saturated your local market of potential customers or clients and the conversions will decrease.
Online though, It is virtually impossible to reach all of your potential clients because of the sheer number of users around the world. With millions plugging in for the first time every year it will be a long time before our online marketing efforts with sites like Ezine Articles is no longer effective.
Keep up the good work.
Tim.
.-= Tim´s last blog ..Niagara Falls Landmarks =-.
Twitter: AngelaWills
says:
Hi Tim,
Thanks so much for your comment and I’m glad to have you as a visitor here at Marketers Mojo! Yes I’m a big fan of article marketing and I’m actually really sorry that I didn’t take it more seriously YEARS ago when I first started. Oh well – live and learn
I like your website Tim. I need to plan a little mini-holiday to Niagara Falls this summer and I’ll be sure to bookmark and check out your site.
Hi Angela – I just hopped over from Lynn’s forum. This is a really thorough post packed full of useful information. I am in the middle of an article marketing campaign right now. It’s the first time I’ve really dedicated time to it and am submitting 10-15 articles each week to EZA and then making them unique and submitting to a further 5-10 directories. I’m already getting traffic and countless backlinks.
Sure it takes time and effort – I can write a 450-500 word article in 10-15 minutes and then it takes the same amount of time again to uniquify and submit to directories – but it is so worth it!
.-= Clare Swindlehurst´s last blog ..George Brown’s Traffic Ultimatum Review =-.
Angela, you make some excellent points here. You’ve articulated some of the benefits of publishing on EzineArticles. I’ve submitted 10 articles, had nine published (still waiting for approval on the last one). I am excited about getting the upgrade to either Basic Plus or Platinum. But even Basic Plus gives me 25 additional opportunities.
I had my first EzineArticles article published on July 23 (on the expression “Between you and I,” and it has gotten 77 views and 4 url clicks. I think that’s pretty good, but I want to improve. Since then I’ve has some duds, and only 1 of the 9 has been “Ezine Publisher” selected.
I HAVE gotten increased traffic and higher rankings on Google, Yahoo,, and Bing for the keywords “grammar worksheets.”
Thank you for your website, and if anyone needs a little brushup on grammar, feel free to visit my website.
All the best,
Jose
[...] About eight months ago I published an article about having hit my 100th article published on ezine articles. It actually got quite a bit of attention because a lot of people wanted to know what good that actually did me. Then I wrote a follow-up to that called ‘But Did You Make Money Writing Ezine Articles?’ [...]
[...] Ezine Articles: One of my favorite traffic generating startegies lately is article marketing. Every day I make a goal to submit as many new articles as I can and then I check the metrics to [...]
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Good luck and yes it’s definitely going to be worth the effort.
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I enjoy and something that I can track – submitting articles to directories fills both those needs for me. What I plan to do now with the results I achieved from Ezine Articles is improve and maximize. thanks!
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