Article Directories are great sources for link building and traffic that can support your SEO work for FREE. Many of the big article directories, such as Hubpages, are now using sharing revenue models for their publishers. You will loose nothing by submitting your articles to these directories, but in return, you will benefit a lot.
Is it that easy to submit your articles to these directories? Yes, if you know what you must do in order to maximize your benefits from this work. It will also protect your articles from being rejected by editorial staff of these directories. The editorial team of these directories are working very well in order to ensure the quality of every submission.
Article marketing is very important in terms of link building and traffic generation without cost and it seems very popular now among the blogging community. All of us know its benefits and how to do it. The only thing you need to have is your ideas and your writing skills with a little analysis.
With that said, there are several things you MUST consider before submitting your articles to these directories:
1. Don’t duplicate content that already exists there:
Many newbie bloggers think that these directories are great places to spam then they copy other articles to submit to directories with a link back to their sites. This is something you should avoid, as these directories have advanced technology in place or even editorial teams who can always double-check the quality of your articles, and your articles will then be rejected. Your account can be terminated too.
2. Limit links in your author box:
Links in your author box at the end of each article is how you will benefit from these directories. You can write your bio intro with 1-2 links back to your blogs. The limit of links are mandated by each directory. You should read their TOS so that you are informed on their guidelines. If your author box violates their TOS, your articles will never be approved, even they are high quality.
3. Don’t insert links in the body to your blog:
Each article has links to other related posts to make our blog sticky. This can be acceptable when you guest post for other site with limits of 1-2 links maximum. However, most of the big article directories do not accept links in the body of articles, no matter how related these links are. The only credit you will get is from the author box and revenue from your article traffic. So, please don’t not violate these rules.
4. Don’t submit paid reviews:
Most paid reviews are with affiliate links that help the author generate extra commission as a reward for their work. We all know this, and it is not wrong. However, article directories will NEVER accept these kinds of articles, as they consider them over-promotional materials that violate their rules. Therefore, you should not submit your reviews to article directories.
5. Don’t vote/rate your own articles:
Actually, you can do that if article directories are open for public rating/votes, but if they require logins for rate/vote, you should not vote/rate your own submitted articles if you are already logged in. This activity will possibly lead to violation of their TOS and your account is in danger of termination if you repeat it.
These are some mistakes that you MUST avoid when you submit your articles to article directories. Your comments and feedbacks are always welcome!