‘Article directories’ are good for several reasons but they have disadvantages that are most often beyond the control of the authors that post with them. I have always believed in ‘Finding Out’ for a solution to problems on my own. It makes things easy in case I have to explain to an expert; it could be a doctor, a designer, a marketer, a teacher, etc. In my normal quest to improve my website ranking with search engines, I found out that posting articles with Article Directories is one good method of ‘attracting targeted traffic’ to your website and thus improving the rank. Most directories allow publishers or authors to post their articles for free. You will of course get some where you have to pay for being listed as well as posting articles.

 

With the understanding I have, article directories have more to gain than the authors that use the service. It therefore should be non-negotiable for a directory to fail to deliver. The directory management put ads on the content and reap all the benefits. It however is true that some directories share some benefits from hosting author posts. I know that those that are willing to share the benefits are most likely those that are either starting up or failing to gain momentum. I have tried one that share cash benefits from AdSense but it feel along the way with all my effort articles.

 

A Wake up Call to Authors

 

Participating in article directories is very good only if the directory delivers as promised. As stated earlier on, most would allow you to link back to your website and since they (Directories) rank high on search engines, your post on their servers is tastier to the search engines and stands more chances of being viewed by your target audience. I will later relate my story on one article directory that is disappointing me.

 

Isn’t it better calling a spade by its name? I think it is the best thing to do and I will do just that. I’m talking from experience, so you are allowed to dismiss this if you think it’s false. Below are my points on this call to article directory authors:

 

  1. Do you know that you don’t have any control on your content after you hit the ‘Submit’ button? I mean, you could be given an option to edit your post but not to remove the links and ads attached to the text that you don’t want to see next to your post.
  2. You have no guards to request compensation or some form of compliment for your ‘viral articles’. You only benefit if you have a website to refer the people to, otherwise you are just empowering the directory for no benefit to you.
  3. When their website is down for any reason and you are lucky to realize, you cannot demand an explanation, thus your interests suffer. No matter the number of articles you have posted, you just have to await for a lucky day when your audience will again access those posts hidden in the directory’s servers.

 

Are these points good enough to convince one to give up article marketing? No, I don’t think so yet I do know that it’s by choice to post with a directory of your choice and thus one should also be willing to suffer the consequences. In fact, the intension for this article is to make you aware that you are better of with several other website marketing tools than relying on one, particularly article marketing (using article directories).

 

Our Aritcelsbase.com Seems to be Falling Apart

 

I hope I’m not biting the hand that feeds me at this declaration. I’m currently an author at Articlesbase.com directory, and have posted an article on ‘No Publicity if Bad Publicity’‘ as all publicity makes publicity. I must say that I’m very happy with Articlesbase.com as most of my traffic comes through them. I therefore believe Articlesbase.com won’t panelize me for this article. Kindly note that this is with respect to a few days back from the date of posting this article.

 

I prefer asking this question to express my concern. Can you imagine how much time you spend writing articles for posting to a directory, try to access the home page but get a ‘service temporary down’ notice. Imagine lost hope on targeted traffic failing to view those pages that Google, MSN, Yahoo and other search engines have brought up to their screens. It is a given that dead links chases traffic away and that traffic may go away for good. It is devastating and surely discouraging.

 

However, this is not unique to Articlesbase.com, or any other article directory. This may happen to affiliate programmes, referral services, web-hosting companies, domain registrars, etc. Unless you are doing everything on your own, you surely must spread your net big enough such that you have something to take home at the end of the day.

 

Hard Facts

 

I’m aware of the difficulty faced when trying for other website marketing options and the cost involved. You may find yourself left with no option but article directories. You can only hope for a better future where you’ll have made enough sales, promotions, and ads/adverts on your website to relieve you from article directories. That is only when you can decide to break free or stay with the sabotaging article directories.

 

However, the hard fact does not deter me from presenting you with some website promotion options. I will start with the most challenging and end with one of the simplest but effective methods.

 

  1. Email Marketing Campaigns – As you benefit from article directories and graduate to another level, email marketing campaign is a great superior level to explore. This is a method that may be kick started with offline collected emails. It’s a proven online method that optimizes the chances of getting hold of the people that visit your website. This will however gain momentum over time and you must be patient to wait long enough before your success comes. A company known as AWeber is good at guiding and offering this service. This company helps you automate email follow ups and newsletter delivery for your website visitors. Their experience is vast and they claim to be serving 49, 000 happy customers on a daily basis. 
  2. Exchanging Links – This actually approaching a website that is currently serving your target market and request for a link exchange. Attracting traffic from such sources increase conversion rates of the visitors because this is undoubtedly quality traffic. The more the number of such quality links, the more likely the search engine rank will be higher. Search engines will reward you more if the links are related.

 

I’m taking my ‘LIKE ME’ position by posting this article and would you take your own to make the world better. I’m working on an article to explain ‘Like YOU’ concept and shall post it latter in this blog. Please keep visiting this blog for more interesting posts.

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