Starting A Blog Versus EzineArticles

Which is better, starting a blog or submitting articles to sites like EzineArticles.com, ArticlesBase.com, GoArticles.com, EzineMark.com, etc?

I have submitted a ton of articles in my time online. I have also blogged. So which method has worked best for me, starting a blog or submitting articles? I’ll explain my experiences with both.

Starting a Blog vs Article Marketing

When I first began building an online business, I was taught that Article Marketing was one of the most effective ways to begin driving traffic back to my landing pages for products and services that I was offering. At the time, this was correct. But times change and at the time, the idea of blogging had not occurred to me.

I was taught to submit my articles to EzineArticles first, (since they are the largest article directory), and then submit another version of that same article to ArticlesBase. I did just that for the entire first year that I was online building my business. Needless to say, I was a busy writer and submitted hundreds of articles in that first year. I might also mention that I have not submitted another article since. Why? When I finally started a blog, I never looked back.

My experiences of Blogging & Article Marketing

I began marketing online in May of 2010. I submitted my very last article to EzineArticles.com and ArticlesBase.com in February of 2011. In that nine month period, I submitted the following:

• I submitted a total of 275 articles to EzineArticles.com
• I submitted a total of 107 articles to ArticlesBase.com
• I submitted a total of about 6 articles to GoArticles.com
• I submitted a total of about 15 articles to EzineMark.com

Doing the math, that is approximately 403 articles combined. I will admit that traffic was good for a period of time. At their best, this combination of articles was receiving 300-400 views per day on average.

However, the updates that Google placed in their algorithms changed everything. Since these article directories were accepting pretty much anything from their authors, including just downright crap, Google penalized them, and penalized them hard. Today, my articles only receive about 20 views per day. That is 403 articles receiving 20 views each and every day. Not a very good return on my investment of time and effort if you ask me!

Now, I will give you my lifetime article stats from the period of May 2010, through today, Feb. 8th 2012:

EzineArticles.com:

In a period of nearly two years, my 275 articles in my EzineArticles account have received 49,948 article views. Out of those views, I have had 1,614 visitors that actually clicked my article resource box links.

Every article in this account has a link that points back to this blog of MarketingMethodsOnline.com.

Today, my articles in my EzineArticles account currently drive an average of 25 visitors per month to this blog.

ArticlesBase.com:

In a period of nearly two years, my 107 articles in my ArticlesBase account have received 19,795 article views.

Again, every article in this account has a link that points back to this blog.

Today, my articles in my ArticlesBase account refer relatively no traffic back to this blog.

I will not even cover my accounts in GoArticles.com and EzineMark.com. They are not worth mentioning, and have done nothing for me for driving traffic back to this blog.

Now, I might add that submitting these articles have provided me with a ton of backlinks, which is a huge plus for SEO or Search Engine Optimization purposes. But other than backlinks, my enormous amount of hours spent in writing and submitting articles was a waste of time.  My time would have been better served by starting a blog.

Blogging or Article Marketing…No comparison!

Now, lets compare my Article Marketing efforts with my blogging efforts.

I started this blog in February of 2011, so MarketingMethodsOnline.com has been up and running for a year now. In that time, I have submitted 285 posts. That’s compared to 403 articles that I submitted to the article directories.

This blog currently generates more than 40,000 page views per month according to my Google Analytics account. And these numbers are growing fast.

So if I look at my 403 articles that have received approximately 70,000 page views in a period of almost 2 years, my blog will match that in less than 2 months. Now keep in mind, my blog only has 285 posts as of today, compared to 403 articles that I have submitted to the online directories.

So lets do the match:

403 articles receiving 70,000 page views in 2 years.

or…

285 posts receiving more than 40,000 page views per month.

It is not hard to figure out that blogging has paid off much more than my enormous amount of time and effort involved in writing and submitting articles to EzineArticles.com and ArticlesBase.com

Other benefits of blogging versus EzineArticles and other Article Directories

By starting a blog, you are not limited on the type of content that you can submit, nor will you be forced to abide by the strict Publisher Terms of Service that article directories impose.  Your blog is your very own.  You can write and submit anything that you like with no restrictions!

One more benefit…

By starting a blog, you can monetize your blog through the use of Google Adsense and other ad networks.  Sites like EzineArticles and ArticlesBase make a killing from ads that they place on YOUR article pages.  As you know, they do not share this revenue with you.  By submitting your very own content to your very own blog, you and you alone will benefit from the revenue that your blog can provide.

Now, I am not saying that Article Marketing should be avoided. Like I mentioned, your articles do provide backlinks, which are extremely important for SEO. But do not make the mistake that I did, and spend hundreds of hours submitting articles. Instead, spend that time on starting a blog of your own. It will pay off much faster.

Category: Article Marketing Tips, Blogging Tips