Should you submit the same article to different directories?
By Normal Joe | June 26, 2008
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This is a good question, and one I am still forming my opinion on.
When writing articles, and submitting them to the various article directories, it’s very tempting to submit the same article on different sites, but this is something you may not want to do.
Your main purpose for submitting articles is to get quality links pointing back to your page, and you only get this with unique links pointing back to your page. Now, when I say unique links, I don’t mean each link has to be different, but the content from which they point back to your page needs to be.
Most of the time you want your links to have the same “anchor text” or the words that are linked back to your site. This is how you build up association of your site with specific keywords or keyword phrases. ( more on that in another post)
It has been said that Google will penalize you for duplicate content, and in result, all of your articles that you submitted won’t get indexed in Google, and they will not count them as links back to your page, thus defeating your purpose. I don’t know how true this is….I’m just giving you my thoughts on the matter.
It is my understanding that the first place Google sees the content will get the link or the authority link, and the rest won’t. So, instead of going through the trouble of submitting the same article to hundreds of directories, just change up your articles or “spin” them.
Article spinning refers to the process of taking your article and creating many unique articles from the same one. Many options are available for this, most use software and there are some free ones out there, but be careful, they can produce garbled content. The basic idea is to change up your articles a bit.
I think with a little human effort you can come of with content unique enough to be beneficial to you and your site for a very long time, remember, building up links to your site is an ongoing process that takes time. All you have to do is reword it in various places. Sure, it takes time, but, you have unique content based off of one article. In the event that Google really doesn’t penalize you for submitting the same article to different directories, you now have more articles to submit 
Remember what I said, I’ve heard two different sides to this discussion. Some say duplicate articles don’t matter, some say it does. I for one, will tell you, my experience submitting articles to article directories is not extensive enough to give you a definite answer either way. What I will tell you is, to be on the safe side you may want to switch them up a little bit.
I’ve heard that you can submit the same article to 4 or 5 directories and be okay, and change it up and submit each one to a group of directories. I will be getting into more article marketing in the near future, and will share all my experiences or anything I learn along the way.
If anyone has any information about this process, please share. If you have any questions please ask.
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Topics: Article Marketing, Internet Marketing |
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14 Responses to “Should you submit the same article to different directories?”« Niche Site Case Study Update, new tool added | Home | Can you really make money with a blog? »
Hey joe.
I personally don’t submit to more than 2 article directories ezine articles and article city.
You might be interested in josh spauldings blog post
http://ez-onlinemoney.com/blog/article-marketing/my-unique-article-submission-strategy/
shane at make money bloggings last blog post..How to Find High Demand Low Competition Keywords for Your Blog
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Thanks Shane, I hear so many different strategies, I just stick to changing it up, but I know one guy that uses only one, ezine articles. And he kills it! I have more in the works concerning this guy….his name is Sean Mize….
I don’t remember where I heard all the different stuff from, but, I’m still learning and my article marketing is not that extensive yet. So thanks!
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This is an iteresting method. I have avoiding article submission but as of late I am exploring many new methods of promotion, marketing and sales. This seems well worth exploring even if only submitting to one and then spinning off many others from somewhat related material.
Definately looking forward to more information on this.
Big Ben Pattons last blog post..Effectively Building Your RSS Subscription Numbers
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Yeah Ben, I tell ya man….I know one guy…Sean Mize…that’s all he does to get traffic….write articles. He’s written some good resources, and, I am working on an ebook featuring him.
There are some good tips out there, I just checked out Josh Spaulding’s post that Shane recommended, and it’s awesome!
I think the key is, take what you learn from others, mix it up with a little Benjaness….. and you’ll have your own little system that works for you!
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I have wrote several articles for Ezine articles. The show up as back links to my site. I have listed several of those article on numerous directories, and they do not show up as back links. Now I now why. I am off to rewrite, “spin”, my articles.
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Cool John! Thanks for some “in the trenches” reports. I had heard this before, it’s good to hear it from someone that has experienced the effects of it.
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Have you looked at Josh Spauldings website, he does a lot with article marketing. He submits 50% to the top 5 articles sites and the other 50% to the top 50 site.
By alternating like this you get the best of both worlds.
Checkout Daves last blog post..Delicious BBQ ribs
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September 18th, 2008 at 7:46 am
Yeah, he has some good information on his site man, he’s an article wizard.
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Normal Joe, we think you should always submit to multiple directories, and article sites. We have found here at http://www.articlesender.com that it has the potential to rank even though “It is duplicate Content”. We receive thousands of hits each month on our reprinted articles.
Thanks Shane
Checkout Article Submissions last blog post..The Concept of Viral Marketing
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October 15th, 2008 at 8:40 am
Welcome to the site, yeah that’s what I hear man, thanks for the tips
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I stumbled upon your blog today while doing a considerable research on the topic. I did a limited amount of research by studying article posters, searching for their article titles in Google, and reviewing the other sites where their articles appear. In my opinion, it seems like exact duplication is pretty common and isn’t tossed out as duplicate content. Even the original posters’ articles appear in their own blogs and have achieved PR2 or higher. Based on this research, I’ve concluded that duplication is not a big concern. Just my $.02.
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November 11th, 2008 at 9:28 am
Yeah…it really isn’t, I think it’s one of those online myths about google! The duplicate content is more related to your own website pages all having the same content.
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Good point, Joe. That’s an important distinction - duplicate on-site vs. across multiple domains. I’ve often wondered whether duplication across domains isn’t scrutinized so much because the content is presented in a different context such as a different overall site theme. If my technology article is syndicated and appears on a site about real estate, maybe that site context dilutes the article somewhat and makes it appear less like duplicate.
Thoughts, anyone?
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November 11th, 2008 at 9:46 am
Yeah, I remember reading something from google, saying that duplicate content in that context isn’t penalized. Otherwise, article directories would not exist!
It’s funny the stuff we believe and run with, that is totally off base, and can be proven by just looking around. If duplicate content was that big of a deal, article directories would not be so popular, and wouldn’t get so much google love.
But building hundreds of pages on your site with the same content, that’s duplicate. And you’re not really penalized…it’s just that those extra sites won’t get spidered/indexed.
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