Hypothetical article question

[FirstTimePokerPlayer]

Hi,

Say, hypothetically speaking, I wrote an article with keywords or at least a title of something like ‘poker tips’, and that this article would differ from most of the other ‘poker tips’ pages in the number of those tips and that I kind of like the list (so quality too). What should a small beginning poker affiliate like me with a website the size of a sugar grain in, no wait, the size of the powder particle thingies at the bottom of a big jar full of sugar do with it (and why)?


Option 1) Post it on my puny little site and hope everyone and their mother suddenly starts linking to it from their quality poker sites and it generates a truckload of traffic (but most likely let it drown)?

Option 2) Put 2 or three links to my site in it and see if one of the really big and good poker portals would like to publish it? (yeah, right…)

Option 3) Throw it in the feeding-trough e-zine is and see what happens?

Option 4) Cut it into pieces with one link each (or leave it as is?) and hand those out to whoever is first?


Basically, I’m an SEO newb and I’m also clueless as to what the long term advantages/disadvantages of each of these options would be (I’m patient, or actually…, is a year or maybe two even long term in this industry?).

What would be your advice?

[MPC]

The benefit of writing an article and including a back link to your site is that you control the content of the article. You control keyword, keyword density, keyword placement, and other elements.

Getting that article to link to your existing page, which is related in topic/keywords, is the best thing you can do to get that page to rank for that term.

If you can get an established site to publish your article, that would be a good option. If you're a nobody, the article would have to be of high quality to be considered. Your site would also have to be of quality. People don't want to link to just any site. There's usually a screening process.

Large established sites will not publish your article for a backlink. They don't want a bunch of links in their content. They prefer to purchase content. So don't try to get pokerlistings to publish your article with a back link. Unless you have solid contacts, you would be wasting your time with the large sites.

That leaves the option of ezine and other similar sites. If the content of the article can be spinned as news story, there's the option of press release.

At some point, you can't just add content to your site only. Once your site has a lot of content, keep adding to it if you can, but also publish content outside your site. There's 100's of options, ezine is just one. You could also start a blog. Lots of options.

[GregW]

I'd publish it on your own site. It really wouldn't be as "wasted" as you think even though the site is small and new. A great website has got to be built up from somewhere right? A great piece of content today is a great piece of content tomorrow (mostly), so when your site does pick up traffic the article will still be there to potentially pick up links. If it doesn't then whatever, you've still got another great page on your website for visitors to read.

Giving it away for a link or two are perfectly viable options of course, although I'd prefer to send it to a decent poker website over ezines.

Basically, I don't think that sailing your article down the stream in search of a better home is the right approach. Don't feel compelled to give the article away because your site is new, adding a great article to your website is far from an ineffective plan.

[Strider1973]

I think it depends on what kind of content you have on your site. If your site just consists of an overview of poker rooms, you would waste your article by giving it away (users would klick on the link, visit your site and then find nothing of similar quality).

So if you don't have already 50+ quality articles on your site, I would publish it on your site and see what happens. You can always give it away later.

[Michael Martinez]

If you're going to invest in writing articles for a search engine strategy, the more efficient approach is to use the articles exclusively on your own site and not worry about building links with them.

While you do need some links, you can attract them with a good blog. Don't overwhelm the user experience with advertising and people will link to a blog.

There is no such thing as a single, killer, great article that miraculously improves your rankings and search referral traffic overnight. There is usually a lot of history associated with the one-shot wonders of Web marketing -- and most often the casual observers don't see the history.

What will make your site stand out from other affiliate sites is your passion for the topic. If you have no passion to invest in the site, you probably won't do very well regardless of what you do with the article.

You have to get up in the morning WANTING to make your site better than it was yesterday. That kind of passion shows through and pushes many sites to success.

[NickM]

Like others have said, put it on your site. A site is built brick by brick. If you refuse to use the strongest bricks for your foundation, then why even attempt to build anything? Everyone starts from nothing. Start building your foundation.

[Harry Zack]

What will make your site stand out from other affiliate sites is your passion for the topic. If you have no passion to invest in the site, you probably won't do very well regardless of what you do with the article.

You have to get up in the morning WANTING to make your site better than it was yesterday. That kind of passion shows through and pushes many sites to success.

Best quote I've read in a long time, and so true. My site was successful when I had this passion, and over the years as it faded so did the website.

[PokerDude]

I have found that the best way to do it, is to always create unique content for your site, first and foremost. If you want to make double-the-effort, I would consider totally rewriting the content (and I don't mean changing a few words), and submitting it to e-Zine. e-Zine is the biggest benefactor of submitted articles (not you), but you will get a few links back to you, and you will get some traffic to your site, on a short-term basis only.

Always take care of your own site first though.

[T]

I would first put content on my website and keep the premium article for my site.

Then after having a website of a reasonnable size i would put article of medium quality for the backlink.