Article Marketing, has it had its day?

I bloody well hope so, just had a copy of PR for Dummies delivered!

Will let you know shortly! Although the one Press Release I have written had a site on the front of Google for a couple of months, not that it matters now, as the site is there on its own accord now!

I think it has its place, and theres a member here, Alby who submits to them reguarly. I think the key is the quality of the article, and the quality of the submission service.

The trick is to writer informed interesting copy, that also includes the message you want to convey, via subtle key word placement. Then a final URL link, which will hopefully encourage a backlink.

I've seen plenty of spam infested articles which just reads as hard core sales rubbish. The internet is awash with rubbish, articles are no different from content in general, stand out from the crowd, right informed and intelligent copy.

I think it's a game of cat and mouse - seo companies see away to exploit rankings everyone joins in and then google and the like just say ok we will adjust our algorithm to discount articles and the seo have to look for the next angle.

articles are good way to get easy links

So would you no longer consider article marketing for your clients, or do you just think their importance has been reduced?

Article marketing is a great form of online PR.

I've been working with a copywriting/article marketing/web content company recently to place articles for one of their clients. This isn't a case of writing one article and trying to get it on hundreds of sites. It's been one article at a time, written specifically to the requirements of an online magazine/publication or a blog, then published there, with a backlink.

As time goes on, the client will have more articles written, perhaps just a few a month at first, but each one is exclusive and unique in its content.

The online publciation is happy, because it gets an exclusive article; the client is happy because they get credited with an intelligent article and get a backlink.

Claire
Marketing Consultant, Kerrmunications

Hiya Claire

Be interested on your viewpoint.

I've been told by marketing consultants (my wife included) that my own copy can leave a lot to be desired, and she's prob right so do professional copy writers take someones content and put it into a better format, or do they create it from scratch?

If it's created from scratch, how can it be informed and correct if the writer has no experience of that particular market or subject matter? Especially if its going to be regular articles? Imagine if I wanted articles for my advanced quantum physics website?

Or do articles get created from a clients brief who provides the nuts and bolts or any details? Would they specify a style, such as humour or serious?

There just seems to be so many poor mass produced article services floating around, its seems a minefield to the un-initated.

Be good to get some feedback from someone inside the industry

Hi Steve

This particular company I've been working with uses many different copywriters, each of which knows their industry. So, for the fashion client, for example, it will be a freelance fashion writer that's used.

I write a lot of copy, but mostly it's brochure-ware stuff, and that doesn't take particular industry knowledge, just a good brief from the client. But for the more specialised stuff, it needs someone who works in the industry, as these articles are advice-led and not promotional about the client company.

With this particular project, we're also having to write to the publication's style - so we get them to tell us their house style and an article is written that fits with that, and which also fits with the main client's overall objectives. In this case, they want to look knowledgable on all things "fashion" and just want a link back to their site.

Claire

Ahh, good feedback, never really thought about the difference, promotional copy versus advice led copy.

You've reached the magic 10 posts, so make sure you put your link in your signature, and your more than welcome to do a sales pitch in the Village Market Copy writing seems to be issue of the month at the moment