Does Article Directory Traffic Still Work? Using ‘Other’ Websites To Generate Traffic and Cash

Way back in the day (…a few months ago), an online marketer could make hordes of money simply by writing and posting average articles on article directories.

You heard that right, oodles and oodles of cash were ripe for the pickings if you could simply do a little keyword research, form simple sentences and upload very ordinary, very average articles; you didn’t need a website, you didn’t need to know any SEO, you didn’t need to know graphic design or HTML, or even how to collect e-mails.

Those were the salad days, my friends. Back in yesteryear, if you typed enough and uploaded enough, eventually you’d be making good money. That was the age of the article directory, an era shrouded in mystery, obscured by the mists of time long gone by.

Article directories are kind of like dinosaurs these days (legends that swim only in the deepest lakes of Google’s search engine results pages). The fact is, Google pretty much wiped them out with a few changes to their mighty algorithm. A few massive meteor impacts to the online ecosystem and poof – mass extinction.

OK, that’s a little bit of an exaggeration. But, it’s not too far of a stretch. Many article directories were mangled by Google, and for good reason. All those average articles that folks were posting – most weren’t very good, in fact many of them were complete garbage. They certainly weren’t the best for Google’s most valuable asset – it precious users, so Big G slapped ‘em silly. Thwack. They’ve been doing that a lot lately, haven’t they?



Not only were these article directories filled with poor content, these websites were pretty much AdSense farms for the directory owners. There was no pride of ownership, and very little shall we say… editorial grace.

So, here’s the big question we’re posing today, in our modern day (A.D. Panda) does article directory traffic still work? Can you get folks to your websites and sell them stuff, make money off of ads, or gain subscribers, and so on and so forth?

Well, it’s kind of a mixed bag. Here’s the deal: even though the directories got slapped, some of them quickly made some changes, like getting rid of ridiculous amounts of AdSense ad blocks and requiring much higher standards for publishing. A few of the directories have bounced back a bit and are now getting decent traffic again. Are they ranking really well? Answer: not really.
Some of the big directories, Ezine Articles, Article Dashboard and a few others do get some decent traffic. The other smaller directories (thousands of them) are now cyber fodder, they’re gone, wiped out and they’re now floating at the bottom of Lochness.

Of course, article directories aren’t the only players here, quasi article directories (free blogging platforms) sometimes called Web 2.0 sites also allow anyone to post content onto their authority sites. How are they faring these days? Well, to be honest some of them are doing quite well in the search engines. Surprise, surprise.

Tumblr seems to be leading the pack at this point (if you check Google’s SERPs you’ll notice them atop many search queries); Squidoo and a few others get good traffic and rank well in the search engines as well – and they are also a great platform for backlinks to your own websites (but that’s a whole other ball of wax we’re not going to get into here.)

Web 2.0 sites or public blogging platforms seem to be doing better in the search engines than article directories right now. OK, so why might that be?

Well, many of them do a great job of purging their websites of garbage content. In the days of yore – way back, a few months ago – tools like SENuke were throwing up badly spun content onto Web 2.0 sites all day, all night. Rain or shine, the floods just kept coming.

However, these sites have gotten wise and have deleted and still do delete hundreds, perhaps even thousands, of these spam pages a day. These measures are in place and getting tougher every day, thus making unintelligent spin and spam posting pretty much a thing of the past. Which, of course, is good for the search engines.

If your content is good and you don’t spam, Web 2.0 sites are good for traffic. Remember though, to really make it work, you’ve got to keep adding content to your blog pages and continue interacting with your visitors. Yes, you have to actually work for it. Imagine that.

All right, let’s now turn to the king of the hill in today’s satellite web property game. It will be of no surprise to those who regularly do SEO and monitor Google’s SERPs that the current king of the hill is YouTube. In fact, it’s kind of ridiculous right now.

It’s easier to rank a YouTube video in Google than it is to walk and chew gum at the same time. It’s easier than selling a glass of water to a man whose hair is on fire. And smart marketers jumping on this new Google algo wrinkle … they’re banking hard.

So, let’s re-frame our article directory/Web 2.0 discussion a tad and throw a wrench into this topic and declare the wave of the future (or foreseeable future) to be grabbing traffic from YouTube.

Here’s the bottom line: you need to learn how to work YouTube, like yesterday. YouTube is here to stay and Google’s darling isn’t going anywhere in the SERPs. If anything, it will get stronger and stronger in Google’s results pages.
Isn’t it interesting how Google loves to keep web traffic on it’s own properties? Weird, right?
So, learn how to work with PowerPoint, with Camtasia, learn video editing, and how to optimize YouTube for Google rankings and you are in business. No need to mess with article directories or Web 2.0 properties any more.
We might say that YouTube is sort of like the modern day article directory. If you don’t believe it, simply start doing some random searches and you’ll find YouTube right at the top. You’ll see the light and you’ll be on your way to generating some fast cash just like in the good old days of … a few months ago.

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Glen Hooke, Post from: SiteProNews

Does Article Directory Traffic Still Work? Using ‘Other’ Websites To Generate Traffic and Cash

Driving School and Driving Website Traffic

Stats suggest that nearly 50 percent of new drivers will be convicted of a traffic violation during their first year of driving. Clearly, the need for a thorough driver’s education program is obvious. The Driver Training Group goes beyond traditional driving lessons by offering driver’s education through 911 Driving School, taught by current or retired police officers to improve the roads.

Because distracted driving has a whole new definition in our era of iPods, smartphones and GPS, driver’s education means teaching students to focus. The 911 Driving School adapts its courses to help encourage a collision-free life.
“We leverage police officers and their experience in our classrooms. The benefits of having a police officer are they understand the rules of the roads and they’ve seen it all,” said Joe Pruskowski, marketing coordinator for The Driver Training Group. “They share their knowledge in the classroom and things aren’t just rules of the road–they offer real consequences.”
While some high schools still offer driver’s education courses, others do not. Teenagers looking to complete the required courses and necessary hours to obtain their license are forced to find a decent program to appease their parents and prepare properly.

According to 911 Driving School, graduate drivers from the variety of programs offered receive fewer violations and collisions than the average for other driving schools located in Washington. The school is also offered in additional states including California, Colorado, Ohio and South Carolina.
“We have a strong brand and a great product with great instructors. The trick for us was figuring out how to get noticed,” Pruskowski said. “With search [marketing] there is a national component as well as a local component and we need both to get ranked so people can find our brand.”
911 Driving School required a good boost in the search engines in order to do their part to change the driving environment for everyone. After seeking the help of SEO.com, the driver’s education program has seen success.
With an aggressive campaign, 911 Driving School experienced an increase in organic search traffic and organic ecommerce revenue.
“Nothing works quickly, not even SEO, but we’ve been diligent and patient and we’ve been able to see results,” Pruskowski said.

In a mission to educate and inspire better driving, an in-depth look into the 911 Driving School makes a 16 year old teen driver behind the wheel seem a little less frightening. And when 911 Driving School sees results, the roads are seeing results as well.

Why only About Traffic

Everyone with a website loves traffic, and although attracting an audience is a big goal, it isn’t the main goal. Website traffic in and of itself does not keep you in business—it’s those who follow through with your call to action.
If you focus solely on increasing your number of visitors, you’re missing an opportunity. Improving your site can increase the percentage of visitors that make a purchase. Optimizing conversion is more than selecting the right color for a button or deciding on the best placement for a contact form. Conversion rate optimization is evolving. The new definition of conversion optimization encompasses emphasizing engagement, relationships, value, and your processes.
Here are three overarching principles that will help you with your conversions:

• The user’s experience matters most.
Problems with conversion can range from usability issues to delayed load times. In an era of convenience, the online tolerance of the average person is low. Streamline your site to make it as easy as possible for your visitors to access the information you are providing. The more information you request the greater the risk that they will exit your site. Only ask visitors for what you really need, and make your content clear and concise to help visitors navigate efficiently.
A little known way to cater to the customer is to let go of using a CAPTCHA. It’s nice to protect yourself from spam, but the three extra seconds it requires of your user could be a deal breaker. An interesting study showed that with a CAPTCHA turned off, only a few automated submissions were received, but no conversions were lost. Shockingly, using the CAPTCHA resulted in 160 failed conversions. Consider if it is really worth it.

• Provide adequate information.
Improving the user’s experience also relies on providing important information to simplify their product research process. One way top converting ecommerce sites do this is by inviting customers to leave feedback.
Unbiased reviews left by customers offers proof that your product or service is worth it. Allowing potential customers to see candid reviews increases the chance of conversion. Because users love to research online, providing reviews or testimonials on your site makes this stage of the process easier and gives them a favorable impression.

• Ongoing effort is essential.
Many businesses make one of two mistakes when it comes to online marketing data: they only track small pieces of information or they track everything but only utilize a small portion of the information. If you want to be certain your changes are working, look at more than the volume of sales. Be sure to identify how your visitors are engaging with your site, checkout abandonment and delve deeper into your purchasing process to gauge if things are underperforming.
If you do ongoing research into the barriers of conversion, you can address the root of the problem and find a solution.
Overall, conversion rates are personal. Don’t make the mistake of assuming that what worked for your competition will also work for you. Be sure to continually test your conversion tactics and their effectiveness in order to find best revenue-generating version of your website.