The Difference Between Article Directories and Individual Submission Sites

Article marketing is a marketing technique used both on-line and off.  My first experiment with article marketing resulted in my employer and his co-writer being featured on the cover of Training Magazine.  Fast forward more than sixteen years and I still use article marketing on a daily basis for myself and my clients.

There is a great deal of confusion around article marketing and in particular about the difference between article directories and individual submission sites like websites, blogs, newsletters, etc. 

Article directories (also known as article archives or article banks) are searchable on-line databases of articles contributed by multiple authors.  The goal of an article directory is to collect articles on certain topics and offer them to publishers to place on their website, in their e-zine or in print.

Individual submission sites are websites, blogs, newsletters, e-zines and social media sites where a particular topic or a range of topics are being discussed.  The goal of these sites is to attract and retain an audience of targeted website visitors.

Both article directories and individual submission sites should be part of your article marketing strategy after you have posted the article on your site and allowed it to be found by search engines. 

The benefits of submitting articles to article directories include the ability to post articles on a variety of subjects that may get reprinted on other sites, the ability to create an author profile with information about your business, the ability to edit your article and byline at any time and the ability to remove your articles if needed.

The benefits of submitting articles to individual submission sites include access to targeted audience in your topic area, the ability to tailor your article and/or byline to the specific submission site, the possibility of receiving search engine credit for the link back to your site, the ability to create a relationship with each publisher, the possibility of editorial feedback and the increased control you have over what sites get to use your article.

With the changes in search engine algorithms many article directories have sustained some loss in ranking and credibility that didn't affect as many individual submission sites.  That alone is reason enough for you to submit to only the top highly ranked article directories while submitting to as many topic specific, reputable sites that you can find.

Remember that to get the best from your article marketing efforts publish the article on your site first and let it get indexed by the search engines and then submit it to article directories, topic specific sites and document sharing sites.  Many authors find it helpful to create a Squidoo Lens featuring each of their articles along with other information on the topic.

As always, read and respect the editorial guidelines for both article directories,  individual submission sites and document sharing sites before submitting articles.  If you understand what publishers want then you will receive a much better response for your article marketing efforts.

©2011, Davis Virtual Assistance.  Reprints welcomed so long as the article is reprinted intact with all links made live.