Confused blogging & article writing

[AmyTK9]

I have a couple questions I'm just a little confused on. I'd really like to start Article writing and submitting articles to help get more traffic to my blog & website (when it's done).

I'm reading Mad Marketing Method's lessons and she says to write your articles, then put your affiliate links in your blog.

This brings the question, should I be writing content in my blog? I would think so.. From the content I've been writing in my blog, can I turn those into articles? Would I need to re-write them? Or should I come up with Articles that differ from the content I've wrote in my blog for that day. I'd think to link back it'd have to be relevant.

When I get my website up, is the landing page like the homepage? Then you link to other pages with more products? Or do you just use one page for all of your products?

I guess my biggest confusion is what differences you should do and have in all 3, website, blog, and articles.

EDIT- Oh! And one more question, where do you write your articles? Do you do it on your website? On your blog? On a program on your computer? I see you submit it, but what type of file or url do you submit?

Thanks for anyone who can help!

-Amy

 

[AmyTK9]

I found another post on here that answered most of my questions... I need to practice Search first, then ask lol.

Still in question are:

Where / what do you use to write your articles?

Can you submit the same exact article to more than one directory and is it a good idea to do so?

Thanks again! Looking very forward to start writing my articles!

 

[AmyTK9]

Nevermind to the above, I figured out what to use.

Anyone else have this problem?

I wrote my first article today and tried submitting it to Streetarticle. I wrote it all myself, I didn't copy it from anywhere, but it was on Crate training ... and there's really only so many ways to write an article on Crate training.

When I went to submit it, it said it was copied from somewhere and needs to be more unique. So I tried revising it like 10 times and it still says it's not unique enough

I really don't know any other way to revise it and still get my information across. I really wanted to submit this article and create a backlink to my blog on my topic of today; Crate Training. I made sure to make them both different so I don't think the copy is from my own blog.

Any ideas? Should I try submitting it somewhere else or just try a different article topic? I'm afraid most of my articles are going to be rejected simply because so many people follow the same training methods. Please help, I Really want to submit my first article. I was hoping today was the day but then this happened, I feel like I just wasted a bunch of time I could have been using to do something else. Thanks Help is Greatly Appreciated!

EDIT- Okay I wrote a WHOLE NEW Article based on a product about Crate Games and Got the same message Not unique enough. Ideas needed please!

 

[AmyTK9]

Well, I got my first 3 articles submitted finally! The first 2 I finally figured out something they'd accept, and I wrote my 3rd article today! They are all still Pending though so hopefully they go through. I did get approved for my first 2 articles at Free Articles Directory too.

Not sure if it's a good idea to submit the same article to more than one place or not though.

 

[seoptimize]

Generally, it's a good idea to have different content for your site and for your off-site article promotion. You want your top-notch content to appear on your site/blog. You want your secondary content to be on article directories, blogs, web 2.0 sites, etc. that link back to your main site. It's a good idea to not use the same articles directly, but you can base one off the other.

For example, if you wrote an article on crate training, you could write one on "what to avoid with crate training." That way you can still use some of the same info, but put a different spin on it and include bits and pieces that are unique. You never want to submit the same article to more than one directory.

Also, make sure the article directories you are sending them to allow you to have links back to your site in the article itself or in the resource/author box. Check the pagerank, as well - there are so many directories that it's only worth submitting to the top ones. This will strengthen your link portfolio.

Besides article directories, also consider opening pages on Squidoo, Hubpages, etc., these are strong web 2.0 sites that make a good starting ground for your content strategy. Good luck!

 

[AmyTK9]

Thank you! That helps a lot, I greatly appreciate your reply! I will be setting up pages on Squidoo shortly!

 

[StackCash]

Try using Google to search for article directories. Because of Google's ranking system, the results that come up on the first page will most likely be the most popular article directories. You will want to submit your articles to these directories because they get the most traffic. This is essential because the more traffic you get to your article, the more traffic you will get to your blog, and the more money you will make. Hope this helps.

 

[AmyTK9]

That is an excellent tip! Thank you so much!

 

[StackCash]

No problem, Amy. I'm doing the same thing as you right now. Let me know how it works out.

 

[AmyTK9]

I am still rather confused on Article Submissions. I've read several people say you should NOT submit your article to more than one site. Does this mean site or just 1 directory that sends it to several article sites? I've also read several people say submitting your article to several directories is okay. I would like to submit my article to more than one place for more people to see, but if this will go against me then I don't want to do that.

I've seen people say this does not count as duplicate content, and it's better to submit the same article instead of changing it. I've read duplicate content is just when a whole website is copied and they try to put it on the web.

Opinions and answers greatly appreciated. I need as much traffic as I can get with quality content!

 

[joseph1]

This is a subject that has been debated for quite some time, there are those who say that the unique content theory is a myth but I like to play it safe and not submit the same article to more then one directory.

You can spin your article, meaning use different variations of words that mean the same thing. Some people are lazy and use a article spinner software and I advise against doing that, I have tried it once and the article read like puke, it was awful.

To answer an earlier question that you had, do not put any affiliate links in your blog until after it has been indexed by google.

 

[djbaxter]

To answer an earlier question that you had, do not put any affiliate links in your blog until after it has been indexed by google.

And the rationale for this advice is what exactly?

 

[joseph1]

From what I have learned from Ed Dale "30 challenge", George Brown "google Sniper" and also Rozmanith "wordpress Direct", they all claim that google will see your site as just throwing affiliate links out there verses useful and user friendly content.

Can they all be giving out bogus information?

 

[djbaxter]

That strikes me as utter nonsense. If Google hasn't yet indexed your site, they won't know whether or not there are affiliate links. Once they have spidered and indexed your site, it's not like they aren't going to re-spider it at intervals.

So if that is indeed the information those sites are giving out, then yes - it's bogus.

 

[AmyTK9]

I have to disagree as well. If you search for me or my site I fill the whole first page of google. People are also starting to find me with google with keywords too which makes me quite happy! Thanks for the reply though!

 

[joseph1]

That strikes me as utter nonsense. If Google hasn't yet indexed your site, they won't know whether or not there are affiliate links. Once they have spidered and indexed your site, it's not like they aren't going to re-spider it at intervals.

So if that is indeed the information those sites are giving out, then yes - it's bogus.

I'm not trying to be combative, I just don't want you or members of the forum to think that I make this stuff up out of thin air.

I have been around long enough to know to be careful of what I say online because it's there till eternity and could ruin a persons reputation.

Now this stuff has been a matter of debate since early 2010, now it may very well be a myth but this is what I found.

I googled the phrase "should I put affiliate links in blog before it's indexed" and there are pages of this going around. The quotes below are just from the first page.

"A few of the pages I expect to have been indexed have affiliate links within the body text. The links point to products on Amazon and are not cloaked in any way. This could be a problem."
Google indexed pages – does Google know about your money pages? | Pro Website Traffic

1. Don?t Put Affiliate Links On It Until It?s Indexed
Of course you are going to have a way to make some money from your site, but hold off on putting those affiliate links on it until it gets indexed. Google prides itself on ?user experience? so the last thing they want to see from a new page is someone trying to push their ?user? towards a paid product. Give off the impression that your giving good content and you?ll get indexed faster.
2. Cloak Your Affiliate Links
I used to think that it didn?t matter if you cloaked your links or not. The only people who even know what an affiliate link is are other affiliate marketers. However, it seems like Google has decided to crack down on these links being shown blatantly in websites. You can do a simple redirect inside your hosting account or you can use something like tinyurl.com to cloak the link. Always cloak through your hosting if you can as it will look like an actual link rather than a cloaking service.
The Newbie University Blog Archive Getting Indexed Can Drive You Crazy

For instance, a niche site about ?dog training? would have all kinds of articles about training dogs, and links to videos, books, courses, accessories, and more. There has been a lot of furor in this area this year, since google has been attacking (removing from it?s index) niche sites they feel violate their ?quality guidelines? and are ?thin affiliate sites? (low on content, high in affiliate links). This is largely due to the popularity of BANS software, and lots of spammers setting up sites with no content and all eBay auctions.
Should I use a Blog or Niche Store? | JTPRATT Wordpress Consultant

Now you seem very intelligent and since you are admin you should know your stuff and if you say that it's not true then I respect your advice and chalk it up as being another myth, I just wanted to clarify that this has been circulating the internet for the better part of a year.

Joseph

 

[djbaxter]

There are numerous myths about Google and its algorithms that are propagated across blogs and forums despite clear evidence that they are false. The more times they are repeated, the more people assume they must be true.

Looking at the two sources you cite, I can tell you they are good examples of this mythology and misinformation. I need to get to my office now so I don't have time to go into detail but these are also good examples of "superstitious thinking", "spurious correlations", which lead to the false conclusion of causation.

 

[eddyjangle]

I've recently started writing articles and I've had similar problems, so I just started writing in a different way. Make things simple, if it's about crate training maybe write about where it originated or how many people do it. I've found that by writing different topics about the same subject you can submit more.

 

[kaymeis]

Your blog acts as your website..so yes you should affiliate links in your blog. But the articles you submit to your blog are meant to promote your blog so people can link back to your website, creating traffic foir your blog. The articles should act as spinoffs of your blog content. Make sure you do not copy your directory articles are not exact copies of your blog content. Google will penalize you for that!

cheers!

 

[sarahberra]

A landing page is just another word for homepage. Never use one page for all of your products. You want to make sure that the products featured are relevant to the content you are providing. Create relevant in text affiliage links within your content and post genral ads on the side bar of the site. Add wordpres robot to you site (if you have wordpress) and it will pick the ads for you based on the content you provide on the site.