Article distribution is currently booming on the internet.
Authors do it for a number of reasons:
- It is a good way to be picked up by the search engines.
- The backlinks from your resource box can help your search
engine position.
- You have the possibility of secondary traffic if your
article is picked up by a popular website or ezine.
Various products and services have become available that
help you distribute your articles to the 100s of article
directories and mailing lists.
a) Software that speeds up maunal submission, or can in some
cases do this automatically.
b) Services that distribute articles in your name
c) Services that distribute articles on your behalf, but in
their own name.
The Double Edged Sword
Many people pay a premium rate for article distribution on
their behalf, without the worry of having to join various
article directory sites as a member, giving their own email
address, and receiving lots of emails from various Yahoo
groups.
Unfortunately what they don't realise is that often this
devalues their work.
1) In the author section on many sites, the name of the
distribution service will be shown, not that of the original
author.
2) Author sections of many article directories are a unique
marketing venue. Many visitors will visit the author profile
before reading an article all the way to the bottom. Most
profiles could have one or more websites listed.
3) Within RSS feeds from the article directories, the
distribution service might be shown in the byline, not the
original author.
4) Many article directories allow an author to change or
modify their resource box. If an article was submitted using
an account owned by a 3rd party distribution service, that
avenue will be closed.
Complete Control
For authors who want complete control of their branding,
either submit manually, or use article submission software.
You will receive more emails, but can always have a special
email address for this purpose. Googles Gmail service I find
is an excellent choice.
Article Announcer and Article Submitter Pro are two examples
of such software.
Limited Control
Use an automated submission service that ensures you are the
author. There are services that signup for members to
directories on your behalf, using a username and password of
your choice.
One such service is Article Marketer.
The Inconvenience
You will have to confirm your membership to many
distribution points, and some will continue to send emails
containing articles from other people. Yahoo groups normally
allow you to select a digest mode, or to not receive emailed
articles at all.
Most of this is a one time effort, although you will have to
be on the lookout for important messages on the email
account you use.
The Massive Gain
They are your articles, and you should gain maximum benefit
from them.
Using article distribution is much like a varient of
Pareto's 80/20 rule. You potentially gain 80% effective
results compared to manual distribution, for 20% of the
work.
However if your method of article distribution doesn't give
you all the possible credit for your articles, rather than
80% effectiveness, you might only be getting 60% or less.
Managing your own article distribution with tools
such as Article Announcer or Article Submitter Pro gives you
complete control to achieve your 80/20 goals.
A service such as Article Marketer which gives you full
credit, and reasonable control, might be 70% effective, for
10% of the work.
Refining your processes, and only using the most effective
method where it benefits you the most, you can maximise your
return for the work invested.
I use a combination of service and software for my own
distribution.
Andy Beard has worked in Sales, Marketing and Localization for the last 15 years, primarily in the computer games industry.
On his blog Exploring Niche Websites you can read his review of 3 killer article submission products
