that resulted in some pretty substantial increase in traffic and sales. Direct article marketing is when you write articles that don't really link to a website. They are linked to domain names that you have forwarded an affiliate link to. While direct article marketing can be effective, it does take lots and lots of articles to get income. The reason for this I think is because a person has to click on a link something like 7 times usually before they make a purchase.
The good thing about it is that sometimes if they click on your domain which is actually straight to a sales page, often there is some sort of opt in form. If they do opt in, if the vendor has a good email strategy, they will get reminded of this product more than once. The cookie is stored and eventually you do get credit for the sale. That being said, I have to mention it's a good idea to make sure the product you are promoting has a good campaign and a way to keep it fresh in your readers eyes.
Now back to this change I made. I have written hundreds of articles that are considered direct marketing. They are linked to domains that I forwarded affiliate links to. These domains by the way are not very expensive. Anywhere from 4 bucks to maybe 13 bucks. This weekend I took all affiliate links out of my domains that I have accumulated over the last few years and reforwarded them to my Squidoo Lens on the same topics.
The result? It was a landslide. All those articles that were once connecting to sales page link directly to my little mini site. My lens soared in visits, not to mention they are moving up in the search engines as well. My rss feeds from my blogs are also linked to my lens. My blogs as a result also got a lot more visits.
The reader also gets to be exposed to more of my work. This will only result in more followers for me and increased credibility and help build my reputation as an expert.
Direct article marketing worked for me in the beginning to generate immediate income. It is a great bum marketing method. Long term though, I have found that it's more beneficial to have the traffic go to my sites instead.
The income part, which most are curious about, well lets just say I earned enough over one weekend with that one little change to pay my electric bill, rent and groceries for a month. This journey into affiliate marketing for me started here, almost 3 years ago. I love Squidoo and it is an excellent tool in affiliate marketing.
