Blog Lady's Internet Guide

Most bloggers and website owners would concede that active link-building is an important part of their SEO campaign.  While not absolutely necessary– and there are some who do no link-building at all– it does help to spread word about your site sooner than otherwise. Two link-building techniques that are similar yet different in their approach are guest blogging and article marketing. If you are looking for ways to promote your site, you want to be familiar with these.

Guest Blogging and How It Works

Guest blogging or guest posting is not simply commenting on other people’s blogs.  It’s writing articles for those blogs as a guest writer.  You write a unique article for the guest blogging site, and if the owner accepts it, it gets published on their site under your name.  In exchange, you receive a backlink to your site.

Guest blogging sites are just like regular blogs, except that they accept guest writer submissions.  Typically, the guest blogging site will have its own submission page with guidelines such as minimum word count, topic coverage, number of backlinks and/or affiliate links allowed, and acceptable HTML coding.  You either register as a contributor to that blog, or submit your article via a form or email.

Because each blog will have its own rules and procedures, guest blogging can take some time to do. However if you submit multiple articles to the same blog, of course it gets easier.

Guest blogging sites vary in their quality standards, authority and popularity.  Generally, the more widely read a blog is, and the higher its Google PageRank, the more difficult it is to get your guest posts accepted there.  (See check PageRank tools.) These blogs already get tons of guest post submissions, besides their own articles.   They wouldn’t want articles that discuss a topic that’s already covered by previous posts, so your proposal must be very original.  As a guest writer, you may also be expected to reply to comments to your article once it is published.

Article Marketing and How It Works

In article marketing, you write content for an article directory, where publishers can grab your article and republish it on their sites for free.  Every article you write for an article directory contains an author bio and a link to your site or affiliate product.  When a publisher uses your article, they are obligated to retain your info and links, so your links appear on their site as well.

One article you write can get published across different websites, so you get more backlinks per article.  However the quality of these publishers’ sites may be lower than a top-notch guest blogging site.  They all share the same duplicate content — copied from the source article directory — and Google doesn’t like duplicate content.

Generally, article directories have comparatively lower standards than guest blogging sites.  You can publish pretty much anything that has good grammar and doesn’t blatantly violate the law.  There’s also higher tolerance for anchored text linking, which many blogs frown on.  You still need to meet requirements such as min/max word count and formatting rules.

Your article can get published instantly or it may take a week (some may never get back with you even).  Quality contributors get faster approval in some sites.

The oldest and most established article directory is EzineArticles.com.

Pros and Cons of Guest Blogging

Now we’ve discussed the basics, what are the advantages and disadvantages of each?  First, blogging.

The pros:

• Has potential for better quality backlinks.
• Builds your reputation in the blogging community.
• Creates a diverse link profile.
• Gets links from niche sites (if you find blogs in your niche).

The cons:

• Takes time to research and compile a list of blogs to submit to.
• Must write a unique article and it can be published only once.
• May require you to use your real name and photo (depending on the blog).
• Has higher odds of rejection than article marketing.
• Have different rules and procedures for each blog.

Pros and Cons of Article Marketing

The pros:

• Has a streamlined process–just write and submit.
• Get same article published many times on numerous sites.
• Lower odds of article rejection.
• Often allows anchored text linking so you can target keywords.

The cons:

• Has lower quality publisher profile, due in part to their use of duplicate material.
• May have a negative reputation as a “content farm” (EzineArticles was hit badly by Google Panda in the past).
• Does not build reputation or help you connect socially with other bloggers.
• Too many links from the same article directory might not be helpful for your link profile.

How to Use Guest Blogging and Article Marketing in Link-Building

For the maximum link diversity, a blogger would probably want to use both methods, but with an emphasis on guest blogging.

Save your best work for guest posts and your own blog.  Review each blog you want to submit to, get a feel for the quality they seek, and propose an article if you feel you can meet the challenge.  Don’t worry too much about the Google PageRank of a site.  That can change, and blogs with a lower PageRank may seem more “friendly” to you than a high-profile PR6 or PR7 blog.  Don’t snub new blogs either.  They are often happy to hear from other budding writers who want to contribute to their sites.

Try to write for various blogs.  But don’t be afraid to write multiple times for the same one(s).  You might even want to become a regular writer, if they want you that much.  Some blogs have revenue-sharing plans so that could make you money.

Use article directories for minor articles, or articles based in your other works (but not a “spin” or duplicate).  Make sure all your articles are unique even if it’s for an obscure article site.  But don’t use your best works there.  Unfortunately, some publishers “scrape” article directories for content and take out the authors’ backlinks when they reuse them.  So spare yourself the heartbreak. Don’t use a masterpiece that you don’t want to get stolen.

As for when to write what:  Write guest posts when you have plenty of time to research and compose the article.  When you are short on time and just want to meet your quota for the day (or week), use an article directory.  This doesn’t mean write junk for the latter.  It’s just a way to use your resources more efficiently.

You may wonder, what’s the perfect ratio of guest posts to article marketing to on-site content?   Well, there’s no easy answer to this.  Of course, you want to publish the most content on your site, not someone else’s.  But you also want to write guest articles and get noticed.  I say meet your weekly or monthly quota for your site first, then do a little guest blogging and article marketing.  Whatever you do, be consistent with it.

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Filed under: Blogging | Tagged: article marketing, guest blogging