Calling EZineArticles.com Pros?

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   Earl Noah Bernsbyposted 11 years ago

   Hey gang! *'Leave it to Beaver' music playing in background*
   
   As per melbel's advice on this Hub:
   
   http://melbel.hubpages.com/hub/Backlinks-Hubs
   
   I decided to implement some of my new-fangled SEO learnin' by writing for EzineArticles.com.  I just wondered if any ringers had some tips or words-to-the-wise to share for an EzineArticles (as well as SEO in general) Noob.  Right now, I am still knee-deep in the introductory guides on the site, and haven't published anything yet.
   
   So, I figured I'd ask you fine folks for any golden tidbits you've learned along the way regarding the site.  One thing in particular has me confused so far: Are you allowed to link back to specific articles on HP from an article on EZ, or just your profile page?  The Learning Center guides over on EzineArticles seem unclear as to this point.
   
   Regards,

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      lobobrandonposted 11 years agoin reply to this

      You can link to any article you write, however I wouldn't waste time on Ezine anymore. It would be better if you write guest posts instead and increase the diversity of your links? A few from ezine wouldnt do harm though, so try it out.

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         Earl Noah Bernsbyposted 11 years agoin reply to this

         Thanks lobobrandon!

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      Marisa Wrightposted 11 years agoin reply to this

      I wouldn't waste your time.  Melbel badly needs to update her Hub!   There is absolutely no point getting multiple backlinks from one domain to another, because Google only counts the first one or two.  So writing multiple articles on one site is pointless, if your goal is to increase your backlink count.
      
      It's true I have multiple backlinks FROM  my Hubs TO my blogs, but that's not for Google's sake.  My older Hubs still get good traffic, so those links are to invite real readers to visit my blog on the same topic. 
      
      The purpose of EzineArticles is to write articles which website owners can use on their own sites.  The idea is that your article, complete with your links, will be copied far and wide, giving you backlinks all over the internet.  However that's not much use if those sites aren't good quality sites - and how many quality sites would use copied content these days?   Besides, EA does NOT police what publishers do with the articles - and many of them simply delete the links.  So you've provided an article for free, and you get no benefit.

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         Earl Noah Bernsbyposted 11 years agoin reply to this

         I see ...  Well, that's disconcerting!  (Good thing I haven't written anything for EZ as of yet, though.)
         
         Other posters in this thread have mentioned "guest blogging" as a viable alternative.  Is that a more efficient use of (SEO) time, in your opinion?  I haven't attempted anything like that to this point,

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            Marisa Wrightposted 11 years agoin reply to this

            Yes, I think so.   It's hard work, because you have to find bloggers who write on the same subject as you, then ask them nicely if you can write a post for them.  Then you have to give them a good article for free - the kind you could post to earn money elsewhere! 
            
            However, the result is that you get one or two backlinks from each of those blogs.  Each blog is a separate domain, so every backlink counts.  Plus you get exposure to their readers. 
            
            Personally, I don't think it's worthwhile to guest blog to promote my Hubs.  It's too much work for the benefit received. I use them to promote my blogs.   Let me explain why.
            
            When someone follows a link to my blog, there's a good chance they will stay and browse around some more, and that they'll bookmark it or sign up to my feed etc.  So for the price of one blog post, I've gained several page views and possibly, a loyal reader. 
            
            When someone follows a link to one of my Hubs, there's much less chance they will visit any of my other Hubs.   Take a look at one of your Hubs - notice how many links to other Hubbers there are, all tempting your reader away to browse around the rest of the site.  Most readers won't even notice who you are, the author link is so tiny.  It's highly unlikely they will visit your profile (only Hubbers do that, generally).  So although your link on that blog will benefit HubPages, it may not give your own Hubs that much of a boost in readership. 
            
            If you read Melbel's Hub carefully, you'll notice she's writing about backlinking to your website, not to your HubPages account, so it's possible she thinks the same.

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               Earl Noah Bernsbyposted 11 years agoin reply to this

               That's an intriguing strategy: Let it be known that you are looking for guest bloggers --> Writers generate content for your blog for free in exchange for a backlink --> Net return visitors who have already contributed to your site, and who have now been assimilated into your fan-base --> Wash. Rinse. Repeat.
               
               It's like compounded passive earning!

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                  Marisa Wrightposted 11 years agoin reply to this

                  I'm not sure if I follow what you're saying there. 
                  
                  Say I let it be known that I'm looking for guest bloggers on my blog.  What that means is that I get a free article for my blog, which I'd otherwise have to write myself or pay for.  That's all the benefit I get. 
                  
                  The person who gets visitors (who will, hopefully, turn into fans) is the person who writes the post - not the person who accepts the guest post. 
                  
                  There are people whose entire blog is composed of contributions from other bloggers, which saves them the effort of writing for themselves. 
                  
                  If you're interested in playing around with it, you can try joining a site called MyBlogGuest.  However it can be more trouble than it's worth, because you get a lot of submissions from people who think they can write any old rubbish to get a backlink.  Or people who SEO their blog posts to excess, or people who go off topic in an attempt to make their irrelevant backlink relevant to your blog.  Although it takes time, it can be more effective to approach related blogs direct.
                  
                  However, as I say, I don't think the effort can be justified if you're trying to promote your Hubs - too much of your resultant traffic will go to other Hubs, not to yours.  Your HubPages account is not a blog - even though you have your own account, you're more like a staff writer on one huge magazine.

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   Astra Nomikposted 11 years ago

   Guest posts work for me. Just have a place to "funnel" the traffic to. Don't point too many links back at your hubs as I think it becomes over-promotion and might be flagged somewhere along the line. But certainly mention your hubs to the world. Make your content stand out, and it will get noticed. The you get noticed. And so it goes ....

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      Earl Noah Bernsbyposted 11 years agoin reply to this

      Thanks Astra Nomik.  How often do you link back to your work when posting as a guest on blogs?  (i.e.: One link per post, or every other post, etc.)

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   Will Apseposted 11 years ago

   Frankly, I reckon article directories have had their day. I am surprised melbel has kept a page recommending them.

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      lobobrandonposted 11 years agoin reply to this

      Yeah, true. That hub of hers does pretty well in search though. I wouldnt personally use article directories any more, but there are a few people who still find success. probably in the niches that aren't really popular

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      Earl Noah Bernsbyposted 11 years agoin reply to this

      That's interesting.  I actually noticed that EzineArticles had an Alexa ranking of 5, which is one less than HP's 6.  As I am still new to the world of SEO, I am unsure as to whether or not the difference entails a significant order of magnitude (re: Richter Scale), or what.  I keep reading about Google's exotic menagerie, too:
      
      Apparently, Google stole a Panda from China, and the Chinese Government retaliated by destroying the Click-Through-Rate of Amazon Affiliates worldwide!  It's like a whole new Cold War with sales revenue!!

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   Will Apseposted 11 years ago

   There will be plenty of people keen to tutor you in SEO in these forums. The only advice that I would give is to bear in mind that SEO is constantly changing and stuff that is out of date can do you a lot of harm.
   
   Manufactured backlinks are likely to be seen as webspam these days, for example. Avoid creating backlinks unless you are absolutely sure of what is involved.
   
   A few tweets, likes and shares to a sub is ok. Creating large numbers of fake backlinks is not.

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      lobobrandonposted 11 years agoin reply to this

      +1 to that

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      Earl Noah Bernsbyposted 11 years agoin reply to this

      Yes, I would not like to be perceived as overly-promotional.  The entire concept of self-marketing seems so foreign and unnatural to me in the first place.  I have read that it is more appropriate to leave a useful comment before just dropping a backlink on someone's site, and to only do so when the website you are leaving a backlink on is relevant to the proposed link.
      
      I have also focused on no-follow backlinks to one of my hubs, to this point, to serve as a test run.

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   Glenn Stokposted 11 years ago

   I write articles on EzineArticles about my various business products. Ezine does not pay for articles. The sole purpose is to get those backlinks.
   
   But in order for those articles to have a good ranking and draw traffic, they have to offer value by themselves. If they were just a come-on to get the reader to follow the link, I am pretty sure it would fail. Google is too smart for that now and would detect the effort to be solely for backlinking.
   
   So I write my articles for Ezine with a lot of useful information. I see that they get a lot of organic traffic. EzineArticles gives us the stats showing views as well as how many clicked the links. I noticed that very few people click on the links.
   
   I feel it's a catch-22. We have to make those articles worthwhile and give value to the reader. But at the same time, if the reader gets all they need to know from the article, then they no longer need to follow the link to learn more. I haven't yet found the happy medium for EzineArticles. I think I would have done better if I had put those articles on my own business site. Then I could have at least placed my own AdSense on the pages.

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      Will Apseposted 11 years agoin reply to this

      You do well if you get good traffic via ezinarticles. The site shows no sign of arresting its alarming decline.
      
      https://www.quantcast.com/ezinearticles.com

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         Glenn Stokposted 11 years agoin reply to this

         I use it only for my niche articles related to my business. That might be why I get the search traffic. But  as I said, they don't follow along to my site. So I was thinking that someday I might drop it too, as so many others are doing.

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   melbelposted 10 years ago

   Hey, just did a search on HubPages for my name and came across this. I wanted to just pop in and say three things.
   
   1.) That hub was NOT written for the HubPages audience.
   
   2.) It's <<really>> old and that stuff is far less important than it was at the time it was written.
   
   3.) It still does get a decent amount of traffic (but steadily declining) so I decided not to take it down. *gasp*

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      Marisa Wrightposted 10 years agoin reply to this

      I assume you've added that information to the Hub too?

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