A programmer/marketer who’s really good at what he does sent out an email Thursday morning that I strongly disagree with. In fact, the word “strongly” doesn’t even come close to the way I feel.
EzineArticles.com is having a contest starting Jan 1 — if you write (and publish on their site) 100 articles in 100 days you’ll win a hat, mousepad, certificate, etc. Nothing huge, I’ll admit. But this marketer says to participate in that contest is a waste of time.
I understand his reasons, but I don’t think he’s looking at it with a long-term view. Following are his reasons (paraphrased) and my response.
Writing 100 articles in 100 days is too much work in too little time. With that schedule you can’t even take a day off — everybody needs a day or two when they’re not working.
There’s nothing that says you have to write only 1 a day. Sometimes you get on a roll and do several in a single sitting. What if you got on a roll once a week and did 10 articles? In 10 weeks you’d be done and you’d have had quite a few days off. Or do 2 a day every other day — that doesn’t seem so hard, does it?
Yes, 100 articles is a lot, there’s no getting around that. But we’re not talking about page after page — you have to write just 400 words per article to qualify for the contest.
But that’s not the biggest problem I have with his advice…
Why even write articles, all you’re doing is building EZA into a bigger site instead of working on your own stuff.
That’s like saying, “Why get your site spidered? All you’re doing is helping Google build a bigger search engine.”
If all you do is submit articles to the EZA site then sure, all you’re doing is help build their site — except you’re still going to benefit from the traffic.
Plus, who said that’s all you should do with the articles? You can publish the articles on YOUR site first and then submit to EzineArticles — they don’t have a problem with that at all. And now you’re building your own site PLUS getting free traffic from the people who read your articles on EZA and beyond.
But that’s still not the biggest problem I have with his advice…
If you don’t have a product sales letter, etc., you shouldn’t be taking time to write articles.
Ah-hah, here it is — the big problem I have with what this guy is saying — and why I say he’s not looking at the big picture.
Do you know what the main difference between an article and an ebook is? An ebook is longer, that’s all.
And do you know that a lot of ebooks consist of different chapters? And those chapters are typically about the size of an article or two?
See where I’m going with this? By writing articles on a specific subject you can cover many areas in depth — an article at a time. And by putting some of those articles together you can create a special report — and by putting even more together you can create an entire ebook.
Hold Your Horses Because I’m Just Getting Started!
Fire up Audacity and record each of those articles — now you have content for a podcast that can be used to promote that ebook for sale. Or, burn them to a CD and use as a bonus to get people on your list.
Now take that audio, add some slides via PowerPoint or Keynote, and you have a series of videos that can also be used to promote the ebook.
Or added to a membership site, or whatever you want to do.
Because now you have content — 100% original content that’s all yours to do with whatever you want.
To the guys at EzineArticles this contest may be all about building a bigger site, but to me it’s a way to crank out content that I’m going to use to make MY site bigger, to add new people to my list, and to turn into products that I can use for months to come.
Creating content is never a mistake.
And while you don’t need a “contest” to get it done, for some folks the structure of such a thing is helpful. If you’re that kind of person I recommend you join the 100 articles in 100 days contest and see how it can give YOUR business a big boost.
20 Comments on “Write 100 Articles – Waste of Time?”
I agree with you absolutely, Jay. And for those of us just starting out the more we write the quicker we’ll get to the point where it is possible to take more than a couple of days rest. Freedom it is!
Jay, you nailed it.
Unique, creative content development is never a mistake. It’s the heart of the web (here’s a great video showing how we’re ALL building the web, article by article, podcast by podcast, video by video, link by link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NLlGopyXT_g ).
In addition, repurposing your own internal thoughts and ideas as articles, blog posts… if you’re not doing this, what the &%$ are you doing with your (web) life?
Seth Godin’s books are simply blog posts and personal/professional dialog edited and organized.
And Article Architext is definitely the most elegant solution on the planet for the writing and research part of the plan.
Nice work, Jay.
Best to you in 2010,
ME
Hi Jay,
I agree with you. There is always one or other method to use your own content (e.g. 100 articles).
BTW, I actually participated in the last HAHD and got my 100 articles and the prices well!
Jay,
Yeah, I totally agree…this is a motivational and a best practices effort. One article a day is not tough…not at all. What IS tough is having the discipline to just DO IT (Sorry Nike…).
And the downside is…?
I submit: NONE.
And the upside is:
* You join a structured contest to help encourage you to create content that will hopefully be a long term habit.
* When you finish you have 100 unique articles you can use in many ways in many various media platforms.
* Your search engine ranking increases and your visibility and connection with other new friends increases. Who can’t use new friends?
* In 100 days you will look back and be proud and impressed with your accomplishment which will serve to show you what you can do with just a bit of discipline and effort in other endeavors.
I didn’t know about this contest until this post I am afraid but if EzineArticles made the exception to allow for late comers I would catch up and join the fun and still submit 100 articles.
I hope you report back Jay and show us what the contest DID succeed in doing…I will not be surprised to hear about some incredible success stories.
…and that is what it is all about. Right?
Sean
Jay Jay Jay, 100 Articles in 100 days WOW! To do that I would have to work 24/7 for 100 days Lol. What I would do is have 100 ready written article’s and then sort of mumble jumble them all up a bit. Something from this article and something from that article and just sort of tidy them all up if you get my drift. Good luck Jay if you can put 100 articles up on the site just think of all the traffic and sales you could make..yummy yummy.
Jay, I agree. Writing 100 articles is a bit of work, but use the challenge of the contest for motivation. After that, converting them to an ebook, videos, etc. will be easy.
I’m feeling inspired now. Time to fire up Article Architect and get to work!
All the best in 2010,
Vinny
Jay, the other fella does not get it. But you, you get it. I know that’s somewhat cutting to the core in one sentence, but that’s how I see it. I applaud EA’s “stimulus package” efforts! If it takes a contest to spur people into doing this, then that is a good thing. I work with PLR… some of it is the worst stuff you’ve ever seen. However, at the center of even horribly written content is… a very good idea. The sow’s ear/silk purse effect. So, I come at this (producing what seems to be huge content) kind of from a reverse-engineering view. Since I know you work with PLR as well, I know you understand this concept. As for “100 articles,” or whatever seems to be a “huge” amount of content. Hey, for anyone who has gone the academic route, this is NOT a huge amount of content. Put together into one document, 100 articles comes up to about the average size of a well-written Master’s or PhD paper. They also come up to a very good “themed” Web site… which Google loves. So you are right again. Publish on your own VRE first, and then go play with EA.
Hi Jay
Never truer words!!
One omitted aspect is that you may actually help someone with your article(s)!
We shouldn’t just look at it from our own perspective.
People search the web mainly for content, in search of a solution to their problem, issue, or to enhance their knowledge.
I am a firm believer in sharing knowledge.
New Years Greetings to you & all your subscribers from Australia!
Nadine
PS – great video, Mark!
It’s hard to disagree with you. Writing unique content is never a bad thing, and writing 100 articles in 100 days doesn’t seem that hard.
It would be great to have a list of everything you could do with 100 articles. 100 articles could probably turn into content that would last you several years, if you split them up into blog posts, podcasts, emails, ebooks etc..
That’s a nice way to put it. I was one of those people who were kind of skeptical about submitting work to EZA just to build up their site, but you helped me figure the right way to think of it.
I’m afraid I agree with you 100%. Now, mind you, if you find writing 400 words difficult and laborious, maybe he has some level of a point, but even not much of that. You should still put it up on your site and another site that can help you build traffic. Eventually you may get to a point where you have content on your own site that’s exclusively on YOUR site, but you have to build enough of a readership to even make that a consideration–and even once you have enough readers that your own exclusive content is a draw, you should STILL be taking advantage of opportunities to promote your work on other sites, and yes that will include sometimes writing for those other sites!
Really, I just plain agree with you Jay.
I am participating in the HAHD event starting January 1, 2010. I have found that eZine Articles is very effective in getting me motivated to publish articles as well as boost my website ratings organically in Google, Yahoo and Bing.
I like the idea of re-purposing the articles into posts on my website blog and then using them as the narratives for audio and video posts.
Bottom line: Creating meaningful content is important to small business survival on the web.
Jay, there’s a few points that you’ve touched on here for me that I agree with –
1) “You can publish the articles on YOUR site first and then submit to EzineArticles” is a fundamental point that is missed by so many – it is a myth that your content has to be put on ezine first.
2) Creating your own original content is never a waste of time
3) By having a target of 100 articles, it actually forces people to FOCUS and ACT. This can only help in all other areas of your business.
All the best for 2010.
Dear Jay,
Right on the button, as usual.
I think the biggest plus for this promotion is the discipline it will impose on people like me, as I tend to chase too many projects at the same time.
As for EA, 100 articles could have a huge impact. I launched a new site recently and after 8 articles on EA and 8 on GoArticles, now in number 4 for the main keyword.
I am definitely going to enter.
What a simple plan, even if you don’t write a 100 articles and only manage 50 you’re still way in front of the person who still hasn’t written any articles in the 100 days.
I confess to being like Darrell and am guilty of writing a few articles and then looking for results rather than sticking it out and writing lots of articles, press releases etc.
Fragmented efforts result in fragmented results.
Exactly! Look at the “total failure” who only writes 30 articles — most people aren’t going to take the time to write ANY unless there’s some motivation. If the contest can be the motivator, that’s great!
You, me, and Darrell must have been separated at birth, because I did the same thing — I was so consumed by writing my article marketing software that I only did a tiny bit of it myself. Until recently, and what I’ve done has shown me that more is always better!
Jay
I think this is a very obtainable goal, and really should be a part of anyone’s marketing plan who is half serious. What I am really excited about is I have just started playing with Jay’s Article Architect, and I am floored at how it is really allowing me to organize my article marketing efforts. If you spend a few days just researching and coming up with the article titles/objectives, I dare say the Architect can enable one to complete this 100 articles in far less time.
Anyway, thank you for spending the time on the software! My personal goal will exceed the 100 for the contest, and I think it would be a lot harder without this tool. I’ll be happy just to get a mug. 😉
Update… it’s Jan 6 and I have published 10 articles and one in the hopper. Google searches are starting to heat up on my topics.
you will be able to write articles really fast if you use a template and semi-automate it so that you can can concentrate on adding value to the article.
Check out Article Boxer and you will see what I mean
cheers
Tony
This is a great “article” with valid points…Keep up the great work…