Article marketing is now a time-tested way to promote websites and other online ventures. It undoubtedly works, and best of all, it doesn't cost a penny. The only cost is in terms of your time and mental energy. This fact leads enterprising online marketers to the conclusion that the more articles they write and submit, the better. Sky's the limit. Right?
Well, in some ways this is true. Every article you put out there with a link back to your site adds to the potential growth of your business. In that sense, more is better. But there is a poorly understood darker side to this "blast out as many as possible" strategy when marketing articles: the law of diminishing returns.
Princeton University's WordNet defines the law of diminishing returns as "a law affirming that to continue after a certain level of performance has been reached will result in a decline in effectiveness."
The Test
In terms of article writing and marketing, this amounts to doing too much at one time. Let's say you write one article and submit it to your favorite article directory. Then you sit back and track how many people read it and how many click the link to your site. After a set period of time - let's say one month - you note the numbers and decide it's worth your time to write more articles and market them in this way. So, you proceed to write ten articles and submit them all at the same time to that same directory you tested initially.
The Problem
Anticipating 10 times as many readers and click-throughs to your site, you anxiously await the results. And it doesn't happen. You only end up getting 5 times as many views and clicks, even though you did 10 times the amount of work.
'What happened?' is the first question you have. 'Did I do something wrong?' Well, actually you did. You forgot to factor in the law of diminishing returns. See, an article directory like EzineArticles will help jump-start your article's "life" by posting it prominently on the homepage and the top of the category page for a day or two. This fact alone is sufficient to drive a nice number of readers to your article.
So, if you think back to that first article you marketed, a good percentage of the total views and click-throughs in that one-month test period came in the first few days. Then there was probably a steep drop-off as the month progressed.
Now, knowing how that works, imagine the effect if you had ten articles all showing up on the same day. The net effect is that your articles are competing with each other in that prime positioning on the directory's homepage and category page. And that's why each article fails to achieve the same results that your first article did. They drown each other out.
The Solution
The solution to this article marketing dilemma is pretty simple, thankfully. Actually, there are a couple of them. First, set up a submission schedule for your articles. You'll need to test this a bit to see where the "sweet spot" is, so to speak, but the idea is to only submit a few articles on the same day.
If you have ten new articles ready to go, for instance, submit five per day over two days. Or maybe two per day over a 5-day stretch works better. The key is testing various strategies to light upon the best solution. The second possibility is to pick a couple more article directories and spread your articles around. This will achieve the same effect, as long as you choose wisely. The bottom line is to avoid getting discouraged by the law of diminishing returns. Don't scale back. Keep writing articles! Just be a little smarter about how you market them.
Are you looking for ways to bring in more free traffic to your website? Pick up a copy of John's article writing and marketing guide and get the blueprint for writing articles that become traffic magnets.
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