I’ll be writing about article marketing often as it as safe and proven method for acquiring backlinks and building Page Rank (PR). Submitting articles to the major article directories is an excellent way to build traffic to your site. First it does not get any more “White Hat”, which Google just loves. Second, you can get others to market your content for free simply because they are too lazy to create their own. Third, it builds credibility for you as an authority for your product or service.

Writer\'s Block

This all sounds great right? Yes, right up to point of sitting down to write your first article. Then it comes back, the flashback to your Freshmen year in high school during finals when you had to write that Essay on post modern industrialization in the 19th century. You freeze, your finger wont’ work and your mind, normally filled with ideas, is frozen solid. What do you do?  Hire a writer.

I’ve built several sites that hosted content solely produced by freelance authors. I’ve found it a wonderful way to ensure quality content, well written material that is relatively typo free, and thoughtfully written on the topic at hand. My main concern was finding writers that understand the subject matter well enough to write articles of value. After the using this method for project ranging from skin care, to entertainment to personal finance. I have to say that it’s pretty easy to get informed writers on a wide range of subjects.

The most important aspect from a designer and SEO standpoint is that by hiring several writers for a project I get a variety of writing styles that add flavor to a site, and the delivery of finished content is lightning fast. I recently built a financial site for SEO arbitrage that included almost 90 articles. I hired 5 writers and assigned them as many topics as they could handle. I then set the due date and fired the starting pistol. Within a week I had a finished site, ready to deliver to the client.

The beauty was that I was able to focus on design and coding while they took care of the content. This made the entire project fast and fun. Getting their feedback and take on what is normally boring subject matter added to the enjoyment of the project, which ultimately made for a better product.

I’ve had great success getting writers from CraigsList.com. I vet them through their responses, with great success so for. If someone sends a resume I immediately delete it. I always pick writers that create short and entertaining intro email, along with links to their writing samples. I figure it they work then they are too busy to tell me their life story.

The rate I pay can vary. Normally between $15 and $20 per each 500-750 article. this includes typo corrections. for really big project I’ll hire and editor to double check and correct their work. I’m a big believer in a second set of eyes on all aspects of my web design projects.

Here’s the SEO part. often I’ll  duplicate the topics list to two writers. Once list will be used for the site while other will be used for marketing articles. This way my keyword structure stays focused, all while keeping the content original.

At this point I’ve built a good stable of writers who I can rely on to get assignment done in a timely and correct manner. I can not recommend this technique enough. Find a great writer or two and see what I mean.