Article marketing is a great way to grow your business and get back links without having to shell out big bucks on advertising. Instead of spending money on ad campaigns, you are focusing your efforts on quality and time, or you can simply outsource the whole process. Just like Google makes money off advertisers on search results, there are some huge article directories that make a ton of money off Google Adsense and other advertising in exchange for publishing articles and providing back links to their author’s web sites.
It’s a tough business to get extremely large in, but once you break through the barrier, you can make some serious money. Sites like EzineArticles.com and ArticleBase.com are both ranked in the TOP 500 on Alexa. This is a “build it and they will come” type of business. The article directory serves Google Adsense on their site, while the authors/publishers build up the site with content. It’s a win-win opportunity for both the article site and author publishing.

Here is a list of some of the top article directories around the web and their respective Alexa / Pagerank numbers.
ArticleBase.com – Alexa #340 – PR 6
EzineArticles.com – Alexa #121 – PR 6
GoArticles.com – Alexa #1,634 – PR4
Saching.com – Alexa $56,492 -PR4
Submit original article to these directories, while linking back to your web site or blog and you could see some nice boost in search engine listings and traffic. Feel free to list any other article directories you use or I may have missed.
Interesting that you wrote this article. I actually had this down on my to do list with my blog. I'm also writing a book which I plan to have ready in the next few days. Back links are awesome! Already just from posting to ZacJohnson.com blogs I've received many hits to my site. Great article, everyone should do this.
Cool, glad to hear. Be sure to add your site info so your latest blog posts are shown along with your comments. You can see the comment below mine has his latest blog post listed. Then it automatically updates.
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Hmm…thought I did. LOL ok we'll try it again. Thanks Zac!
Great info! I didn't know that there was so many directories. I'm going to look into using them more often.
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Great to know. I'll definately check out the Ezine Articles and Article Base websites. Man I'm siked!
indeed, you can rank for some competitive terms via articles you post to these sites, that would be though with your own websites. Generating links to these articles via social/video/etc would be step 2 .
I suggest submitting your article to EzineArticles, first. Once your article is approved there, then submit it to the other directories.
Ray
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Yes article marketing has been a strong link building tactic for quite a while. The beauty of article marketing is that once you submit articles to article directories, other sites gradually republish those articles resulting in more backlinks. So over time it can have an exponential effect. Just be sure to write quality articles for best results.
hey zac i have never commented on here before but i read your blog everyday and i have done for the past year and a half. You give great value and examples to the community i too am looking to make some money online all the best i look forward to reading some more valuable information!!!!
Awesome, thanks! Glad to see you commenting, and I hope to see more!
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I checked out isnare.com and it's pretty cool. I'll have to look over it again later when I have all my wits about me again. Just finished ripping up and putting down a new living room floor. Whew! The part I can't get my head around right now is what benefit would it be to have the articles on my site. (they give code to imbed in my website) Like I said I'm foggy at the moment, but seems like it would take away from my site content. But using it for article submission …yep I see that happening. Thanks for the insight on the site Shauny. Got it bookmarked.
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definately agree with Ray, EnzineArticles tops the list first for me.
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for me ezinearticles is the best..
Nice one. I've heard article submission can be quite beneficial so will definitely check out a few of them. Cheers!
So far, I have only submitted to ezine article.
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I have also found that isnare.com works well. You have to purchase credits which are cheap, but it distributes to newsgroups which increases the chances of other sites using the content on their site.
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Cool, I'll check it out. Thanks.
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I've used isnare in the past, but the last time I used it, I think it took over a month for the article to get approved and submitted. So I think there are better automated article submitting options.
Well just realized I replied to wrong person about isnare.com Hey Zac can you help a tire fellow out and move my comment down here please? Ok I'm going to bed.
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Extremely great post!, I have started a flash games site and also started a blog to promote it. I definitely will use this strategy for building back links to my site. I have plans to allow "site reviews" (a kind of article marketing) on my site, so, if you guys want to trade articles (and links) with me, please let me know. Thanks!
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Zac, do the other services using which your articles get published on countless blogs work? I don't want to name the services but most of them charge $47- $67 per month
I haven't tried these yet. Been looking at them though, and will write a post on them if I give them a run.
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Seems like a pretty good way to get links today. I joined the Keyword Academy and their whole system is about article marketing using 4-5 different article directories and their blog directory.
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How about hubpages? I think it is a good one to build backlinks too!
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I'm also playing around with Squidoo and Hubpages. Too soon for results.
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Article Marketing continues to be my number 1 choice for traffic.
Eza are my favourite. My articles on there get me literally hundreds of hits a day.
Great article
JohnV
The quick six pack Guy
Nice. A very solid source of free traffic!
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Article marketing has been, and still is, a great way to build links long term. Like others have stated one article in one of these directories can turn in to multiple backlinks over time as other sites re-publish your articles.
Great article Zac. When you look at sites like EzineArticles and see how many articles some of the more prolific authors have posted, you can see what a great traffic source it can be.
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I use article marketing a lot. It's a great way to build backlinks and increase traffic to your site but probably more so for building backlinks. Of those you mentioned above, I use goarticles and articlesbase. I find that they're the best when it comes to syndicating articles.
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i'm just started to be an internet marketer, well this is definitely a great source to build a backlinks for my site. Thanks for sharing.
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Definitely a great way to get started for new affiliates / marketers that doesn't want to spend too much money in the beginning.
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This is really very nice post. I agree with you. If you really want to grow your business then use the advertising way, give the article etc. Article Marketing is very intelligent way to grow of business. This is very informative post and helpful for those people who are working on the marketing. Thanks so much for sharing.
Great post. I happened to somehow stumble upon your website yesterday, and I downloaded your Ebook. I printed it out and I'm about to read it. I started two blogs, one for health/fitness and the other more of my trial and error of marketing websites, getting traffic, and eventually trying to make a good income with blogging. It's good to see some successful people out there like yourself that was able to do that.
Great, thanks! Let me know what you think of it.
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Hi Zac – Great post and I have used this strategy in the past BUT i never thought to include the alexa rankings as a guide on which directory to choose!! Thanks again for the info and stay blessed. Dr N
Alexa is never that reliable, but it's always good for comparisons within the same niche.
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Article marketing is a very hard process for me. I am sure that only a few of the sites actually bring traffic, like ezine articles.
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It's a matter adding a ton of articles and see which stick. You can outsource the process easily enough as their are a ton of writers on elance.com for only a few bucks an hour.
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It's not about the traffic, its all about the backlinks!
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Hi,
I go along with Ray (4 days ago at time of writing) and agree that you need to submit to Ezine Articles first, leave a day or so then submit to the rest.
Ezine Articles can be very strict about this as I found out to my cost!
Regards,
Dave
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Ezine articles even has a plug in that helps you syndicate your posts as an article. This is really great if you are not overly concerned with copyrights.
For a blogger starting out, article marketing is great because it's usually easier to rank in searches for the articles you write as opposed to your blog posts by themselves
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Great, this is exactly what I was looking for. Article Marketing continues to be my number 1 choice for traffic.
Free methods with useful ideas and helping tips will definitely result into effective results.
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Hey thanks there was one you listed I didn't know about thanks Zac 🙂
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I like SEOLINKVINE but the $67 a month is a bit steep. I was thinking creating a joint account to split the monthly fee but how do you find someone you can trust?
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I haven't tried them, but if they prove to work, they will be a lesser cost for you each month as you generate more long term revenue month after month.
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I have gotten a lot of hits to my blog because of an article that I wrote. Also, sometimes when you give advice people are more acceptable if you put a link to an article you have written instead of your blog or website url.
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EZA, Amazines and Articlebase have been very good for me.
Short and sweet, although there were a couple of Article Directories on your list that I hadn't seen before.
Thanks,
Keith
Very useful post..i like it so much.. thank you…
I always believe in article marketing. I will like to add one point though, that always look for a Do-follow article directory to submit your articles to. Also dont distribute one article to multiple directories.
Nice tip! Do not forget to try TheFreeLibrary.com PR7 site with Alexa 3,100.
I agree with Belize Vacations, I am finding it hard to do article marketing. My biggest problem is finding long string keywords that will get read, but without to much competition. Does anyone have any ideas?
Thanks Zac
We submit to ezinearticles on a regular basis with reasonable success. My question though is how important are keywords and just where should they be placed. Ezine themselves say the in the first 4 words of the heading which makes sense but what about the body/content of the article? Should this be in the first line or sporadically throughout the blog?
Allan
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No doubt article marketing works. Its how I do my business daily!
i'm just started to be an internet marketer, well this is definitely a great source to build a backlinks for my site. Thanks for sharing.
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I like PRlog it is pretty good for ranking and a good backlink.
I have had a lot of success with Ezine in the past. You have to become a platinum author to really feel the benefit IMHO.
I've just submitted a few articles and after this article i'm looking forward to track what i get back in terms of backlinks etc
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Thanks for the info on Article writing and submitting them to the correct directories. The list of the best Article directories will save most newbies a ton of time if they follow your correct advise.
the article is nice, backlinks are very important when it comes to blogging because it helps a lot in improving the popularity of the blog by getting more traffic and building trust with the visitors or readers. Thanks for the wonderful article am looking forward to learn more.
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Article marketing is a great way to get some backlinks. I tested a couple of sites with 0 page rank. After submitting to 10 article directories, my page rank increased to 1. However, I had a 0 page rank site that got 3 edu blog links and jumped to pr3!
Without a doubt, edu and gov backlinks are the best way to go…
I don't know if it's been mentioned before, but it's a good idea to submit different copies (spinned) of your articles to each directory. Right now, the Top 3 seem to be Ezine, ArticleBase and GoArticles.
Great News love to hear more on boosting sales through articles.
I have been studying back link building and this seems to be a legit method. As a new online business we are willing to try different methods and keep our costs low at the same time…. Now I just have to come up with a good article.
I don't know about you but I find it a lot more fun to write one informative post and submit it to my 15 favorite social bookmark sites along with Facebook and Twitter and watch the visitors that come in from there. They pass on the link as well if they like it and more people can find it from them. Blog commenting is another popular way to get links. If you are making a routine of going around to related blogs for researching new topics, it is not hard to make a comment when you have something to add or enjoyed something they wrote. You can gain a back link for your relevant keyword by inserting some html coding into your comment with your keywords when it will look proper and not spammy. If the webmaster does not allow that, you merely get a back link without anchor text by including your website url in the submission part. Many webmasters are now using the CommentLuv plugin so when you enter in your blog url, the last post title you made pops up for others to see and they can click on it to visit your site if they like the topic.
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i'm just started to be an internet marketer, well this is definitely a great source to build a backlinks for my site. Thanks for sharing.
If you will submit unique article at each article submission directory then it will bring more traffic. Just you need to describe same thing in different words. that's it. One another main benefit of good back link from your submitted article.
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Thanks for the tips! I'm going to try to wade into this new aspect of running my blog. I've got to admit though, as a newer blogger, it's really overwhelming to wrap your mind around all the different facets of a successful site. It's so much more than just writing!