Chris Meistre

I’ve been using articles for a while now to generated more free traffic to my websites.  Initially I subscribed to an article submission service, where your article is quickly distributed to hundreds of article directories.  The theory being that the more places feature the article, the more people will read it and click through to your website.  This worked great for the first couple of weeks and then traffic just came to an abrupt halt.  I think it basically came down to duplicated content, as one article was distributed to hundreds of sites.

I canceled my subscription, and decided that in the future I’ll do manual submissions.  And I’ll only submit 1 article to at most 2 article directories.  But which article directories?

A quick search on Google, gave me about 4 directories that I’d like to try.  One of them, EzineArticles, I have been using for quite some time already and have had great success.  With one article having had +/- 82,000 reads in 4 months with a click through rate of 43%.

My plan to test these article directories were simple.  First I’ll upload a few articles onto each directory under the same category.  It’s pointless trying to test how good articles work in the different directories if you load articles about English Bull Terriers in one directory and articles about Karma Sutra Positions in another.  The reason for this is that the amount of people search for English Bull Terriers will differ from the amount of people searching for Karma Sutra Positions.  I will then note how much time it takes for an article to get approved, if the article directory uses an approval system, and what the submission process was like.  The main thing I’m looking for is something that goes quickly and effortlessly.  Then I’ll wait 1 week and see how many times each article was viewed and how much traffic each article generated for my website.  A week is perhaps not a long enough time, but it will give you a fairly good indication.

Based on those 3 steps, I think I’ll have a pretty accurate idea of which article directories I should spend more time on.

So, using a freelancer from RentACoder, I had 10 articles written for my website about  Karma Sutra Positions.

Ezinearticles – http://www.ezinearticles.com/

This is probably one of the old article directories out there.  They started in 1999 according to their About Us page.  I have been using EzineArticles for quite a while, so my expectations are that this will outperform the rest.

Articles Uploaded:

http://ezinearticles.com/?Kama-Sutra-Postions—The-Cowgirl-Position&id=4291843

http://ezinearticles.com/?5-of-the-Easiest-Karma-Sutra-Positions&id=4291334

http://ezinearticles.com/?Kama-Sutra-Positions—Doggy-Style&id=4284151

http://ezinearticles.com/?Extreme-Karma-Sutra-Positions-(Caution)&id=4297378

http://ezinearticles.com/?Karma-Sutra-Positions-For-Lesbians&id=4292086

Uploading Process:

• Easy to use interface with help being provided for everything that needs to be entered
• It automatically suggests keywords to use based on your article content
• Limited HTML allowed in content and author’s bio

Approval:

• Approval time happened from between 2-3 working days, even though they’re quoted as saying 7 days
• 1 article was asked to be reviewed because due to a pasting error there were too many HTML tags

Traffic:

• Total of 1467 articles views (about 293 per article)
• Total of 191 visitors to my website from the articles (about 38 per article)
• CTR of 7.6%

Average:

• About 5 visitors a day from each article

GoArticles – http://www.goarticles.com/

I have heard about GoArticles before, but have never used it.  It’s ranked quite high in Google’s search index, so I thought I’d give this one a try.

Articles Uploaded:

http://www.goarticles.com/cgi-bin/showa.cgi?C=2890747

Uploading Process:

• Easy to use interface
• Automatic keyword suggestions based on your content

Approval:

• Article is approved and published immediately

Traffic:

• Total of 30 article views
• Traffic to website is 0

ArticlesBase – http://www.articlebase.com/

I think I’ve seen ArticlesBase twice in my life.  It was when I was searching for specific information and I found 2 articles.  I like the colors and the layout of the site.  From what I gather, they have been around since 2005.

Articles Uploaded:

http://www.articlesbase.com/sexuality-articles/karma-sutra-positions-missionary-position-2386215.html

Uploading Process:

• Easy to use interface
• No automatic keyword suggestions

Approval:

• Article time for approval is quoted as 7 working days
• It took less than a day for my article to get approved

Traffic:

• The article was read 27 times
• Traffic to my website was 0

FreeArticles – http://www.freearticles.co.za/

Norio de Sousa used to own this site.  Actually, he was the brainchild behind it, and it was a great success.  It’s the only South African article directory I’ll ever turn to.  1 year ago it was sold to the new owner.  I check back every now and then, but only to find what looks like a site that isn’t kept updated.  The front page, which used to host featured articles, has just been blank every time I take a look.  Even though there are problems, I decided to stay proudly SA, and at least use one South African site in this test.

Articles Uploaded:

Uploading Process:

• Easy to use interface
• No automatic keyword suggestions

Approval:

• There is no indication of how long it will take to get article approved
• After submitting, I was just presented with a blank page
• I logged into my account, to see that the article did indeed load

Update:

• Article still not approved
• No feedback from contact page on website

Outcome:

• I wasted about 2 hours of my life that I’ll never get back trying to get 1 article on this website

General Notes

This is by no means a scientific way of testing article directories, and I simply wrote about my experience with them.  If you know of directories that have yielded better results for you, I’d like to hear about them!

It seems like there has always been an issue with South Africans trying to stay ahead in the Internet Business game.  This issue is the one of having a way to accept online payments from clients.  In most other countries in the world you have always had a multitude of options, but we always struggled along trying to find one option.  Recently though a lot more companies have come to light.

Although I don’t personally use most of them, in one way or form I’ve had to work with every one of the following.  I do a lot of web development work, and 80% of the time a payment solution is also required.  Due to this I’ve had to implement most, if not all, of the payment gateways that are available for South Africans.  Every one of them has their upsides and their downsides.

VCS

This is one of the first payment gateways I had to integrate with a website for a client.  What I liked about this was that it provides a simple and secure interface for the client to fill in their credit card details, and then they get directed back to your site for your software to process the order.  You are also able to customize the interface using your own logo, so that it feels to the client that they never leave your site.

VCS also offer recurring credit card payments, which makes it ideal for membership sites.  The last time I checked, you still needed to have a special Standard Bank account to be able to use VCS.

Setcom / Monsterpay

Setcom was one of the first Paypal-type payment gateways in South Africa that I knew of.  When I say Paypal-type, I mean that the purchaser had to also create an account with Setcom, before being able to purchase something from you.

We used this exclusively on our ITC Check website for quite some time.  My biggest gripe was that we were losing clients due to people being too lazy to register for an account to be able to pay for their service.  The other problem was that Setcom is always on the buyer’s side.  This means that if a client has a problem with the product or service they received, Setcom would just refund their money.  Sometimes without even consulting us.

If you’re looking for a quick and easy way to accept payments, I can recommend this service.  If you’re just starting out, it also helps that there is no monthly fee associated with this account.

NetCash

The reason we started using Netcash, was to have a debit order facility for our business, CM Computer Services.  This is a great facility to have if you have monthly clients, as it helps with cash flow.  There is a secure interface where you load up your client’s banking details, and then every month you enter the debit order details that needs to go off their account and into yours.

One client requested that we integrate their accounting system with Netcash’s debit order system.  This was done and works seamlessly with their accounting software.  Each month the accounting package would just “tell” Netcash how much to withdraw from each client’s bank account.

They then released their Credit Card Payment Gateway service as well.  It was similar to VCS, with the distinct difference that you didn’t need a separate banking account.   I think the same afternoon I learned about this new service, I signed up and integrated it into our Credit Report site.  The integration was done easily, and we haven’t had problems with them since day 1.

This is the one payment gateway I recommend to people whenever they ask me what to use on their site.

I’ve done a lot of integration with Netcash’s Credit Card Payment service.  From small 1 product sites, to large multi product shopping carts.

Paypal

Until recently, South Africans could only use Paypal’s service to purchase things from other countries.  I must say, with the support that you get from Paypal, your mind is put at ease when you purchase something from a person you’ve never met.  There have been a few instances where I’ve requested a refund, and Paypal has helped me.  There has just been once where they have not been able to help me, and that certainly has left a bad taste for me.

Anyways, skipping to the present, FNB has now been able to secure a deal where we can use Paypal’s service to also accept payments in South Africa.  This is definitely something to explore, because after doing a few integrations for clients on their websites, it’s quite clear that Paypal offers an awesome service.  One downside, and quite a big one, is that if you are South African trying to sell to South Africans, you might have a problem.  You’re not able to sell your products in Rands.  And although other countries might not see this as a problem, a lot of South Africans will still be concerned when they see a site trying to sell something in $.  After all, we’ve been taught that $ is evil

On the international sites, I haven’t had any problems.  In fact, since introducing Paypal as an option on my Karma Sutra Positions website, the sales have definitely improved.  The reason Paypal works so good as a payment gateway is because EVERYONE knows about it and trusts it.

Once you have an account, you can quickly add a Pay by Paypal button on their website that is linked to a unique product code and price that you can easily track within Paypal.

Mygate

This is another payment gateway where I only have experience in implementing the credit card gateway for a client’s online shopping cart.  Documentation and implementation guides are very adequate, and it was easy to get this working.  It’s also a very similar interface to Netcash and VCS.

An added bonus of this service is that they also offer a debit order service, and from what I understand you don’t need to have a seperate Internet merchant bank account to make use of their service.

PayGate

I have not used this on any of my own sites, but I’ve had to do work for 1 client.  It was to integrate it into their online shopping cart.  The developers documentation and integration procedure was much like that of Netcash and VCS, so it went fairly quickly.

With PayGate you also need to have a special Internet Merchant banking account.  And although it’s probably not such a big thing, it does make the whole process of getting the account a lot longer.

2CheckOut

Having had this account for ages, I recently decided to test it out.  I’ve done multiple integrations for other people using 2CheckOut, so I knew the process fairly well.  Once you’re logged into your account, you can easily add and edit products you want to sell.  Then it’s just a case of adding your links to your website to easily track your sales.

The client is presented with a simple screen where they enter their details, and you select what must happen once the transaction goes through.  Either a simple email to them, or you can integrate it into your website management software.

I’ve notice they do random fraud checks on transactions as well, so this helps to make sure you don’t get screwed at the end of the month.

2CheckOut is the preferred payment gateway used in the Global Warriors Community.

As with Clickbank, you can also list your products on their Affiliates pages, which allows other people to sell your product for a certain commission.

ClickBank

The only time I’ve made use of Clickbank, was as a promoter of their affiliate products.  Recently having had an Illustrated Karma Sutra Positions Ebook developed, I looked at all the different ways of selling it.  Clickbank is one of them, and the advantage is that thousands of other people can promote your product as well.  You need to have a payment system in place already, but this is a nice additional feature to have someone sort out your affiliate payments.

There is however the option to have Clickbank act as your payment gateway.  They process credit cards for single and recurring billing, and then split the fee between the affiliate and the publisher.

Notes

You’ll see I don’t mention the pricing structures for these different services here.  The reason for that is simple, they are all pretty much the same, or very close to being the same.

Each Payment Gateway Service has their own Terms and Conditions.  This will include a list of products and services you are allowed to sell through their service.  Always make sure to check that out first, before signing up!

I know it can be difficult to choose a payment gateway supplier.  If you want, you can contact me for some feedback on which solution will work best for your needs.

Corrections

I initially wasn’t aware that ClickBank offered a payment gateway as well.  Peter Carruthers from Global Warriors helped me right though!  If you see anything wrong with what I’ve said above, or if you have any additions to make, please let me know!

I’m not saying this is a hard and fast rule, but this is what I have experienced over the last 3 days trying to sell a product.

I’ve had the Karma Sutra Positions website running for quite some time now building up a nice mailing list.  Occasionally selling a product or two from Clickbank and Amazon.  A couple of months ago I paid someone to put together an Ebook for me to sell.

I finally got around to it this week to integrate everything into the site to sell it.

When I started with the campaign, I used 2CheckOut as the payment gateway for the site.  I changed their link code a bit so that I could track the amount of times people would click on the Order link.

In the 2 days there were 308 clicks on the order link.  But no sales.  So I checked the code, did a test transaction again, and everything else I could do to make sure those 308 clicks weren’t being redirected to a black hole.  But everything works.

I considered stopping the campaign, because after about 4300 visits to the site in the last 2 days and no sale, I thought it was just pointless to try further.

Then while I was withdrawing money from my Paypal account, I had this thought that perhaps I must try to put a Paypal order link on the site to see if that will perform better.  Perhaps people recognize Paypal more than they do 2CheckOut.

So I changed a few things, and added in the Paypal Order link right next to the 2CheckOut links.  Might as well try both.

30 minutes after I changed it, the first of the orders started coming in.  Not through 2CheckOut, but through Paypal.  It can obviously be coincidence that even if it were just 2CheckOut links on the page that those people would still have ordered.

Here’s just yet another thing to consider when you’re putting together a website, people are even branch conscious when it comes to the payment gateway they trust

A while ago I wrote this blog post about writing articles for your website.  While this method might work if you have one or two websites that you’re trying to promote, you can quickly get frustrated with this process if you repeat it a number of times.

I decided to employ some freelance writers to see if I can make this whole process work better.  If I could find an affordable way to get someone to write articles for me, I would consider this a win!

After having done a lot of work on RentACoder I thought of trying their service first.  Even though it’s a predominantly Software Development Freelance website, I have seen a number of requests being made for writing articles.

My approach would be to find 10 articles I wanted written, provide the person with the keyword phrases and in a day or two’s time get back 10 uniquely written articles, ready for me to publish under my name.  Sounds simple enough, I know.

Through a process of trail and error, I started to get the hang of what I need to do to get the person to write decent articles.

Some challenges I faced:

• I’m no English Grammar and Spelling expert, but I can now take comfort knowing that there are people that are worse at it than me.  Even though this could be overcome, it took too much time to read and reread articles to get them right.
• Timezone delays are a problem, especially if you need to provide feedback or if you need to keep “helping” the person write the articles
• You get what you pay for, so don’t take the cheapest or first bidder!

I overcome most of these challenges though, and am happy to say for a minimal amount I now have at least 2 people that can write articles for me.  Turn around time is about 2 days per 10 articles, and one of them even helps me find content for the articles.  Language errors are no longer a huge problem.  The last batch of 10 articles I received, I had to read through each of them and fix a few small errors.  A lot better than the previous 10 times rereading episodes.

I would say the whole exercise of getting to a point of getting decent articles written cost me about $100.  Worth the effort if you consider that I now have someone reliable to help me.

When I’ve look at ways to advertise a website, I normally consider how much traffic I’ll get from Google Adwords.  Let’s say I want to look at $100.  At $0.07 per click, that is about 1428 clicks to your website.  For the same $100 you could get about 30 articles written.    Depending on keyword choice and market, each article should (basing on my article stats) be able to generate 131 (4.3 clicks per article per day) clicks to your website a day.  If you look at it like that, your $100 pays for your first 11 days of 131 clicks per day, and then thereafter you get your 70 clicks per day for free.

The above is not to say that you must substitute Articles for your Google Adwords, but rather use it in conjunction with it.

If I had to spend $1000 a week on advertising, I would do this:

1.  $100 per day Google Adwords Budget ($700 for the week)

2.  50 Articles written at $200

3.  Get another freelancer at $100 for a day’s work to upload all 50 article to article directories

The result?

1.  9996 clicks to your website from Google Adwords

2.  1505 clicks to your website from the Articles, with an ongoing 1505 per week thereafter for FREE

That’s about 12,000 visits to your website for the week.  If you had a 1% success rate (i.e. 1% of the visitors buys from you) and on average you make $10 per sale, you made $200 profit ($1200 sales) for the week.  But remember, the gift of articles is a gift that keeps on giving.  The following week you don’t need to spend $200 again to write 50 more articles, and you’ll still get 1505 clicks.  So with the same traffic, and less spent on advertising, you can make $400 profit ($1200 in sales).

All the above is just speculation though, and your traffic and success will depend on a lot of extra factors.

Next step for me is to try and determine which of the Article Directory sites work the best.  In the past I’ve found that EzineArticles works the best in terms of traffic.  I’ve recently signed up to ArticleBase and GoArticles to see what the response is like.

I read something interesting today. For a long time now I’ve wondered what goal people achieve in order to call themselves millionaires, and more specifically internet millionaires. Normal millionaires I suppose is when you take your assets, deduct your liabilities and then if what you’re left with is more than a million, you’re considered a millionaire.

With Internet businesses, it’s not always as easy. Your website or web application is your asset, but putting a value to it is a bit more difficult.

So how can you measure it?

Consider for a moment how much money you need in the bank to be able to earn R1,000 interest off it per month. You’ll need to have about R150,000 invested to earn R1,000 interest per month. Using that calculation, you’d need to be earning about R7,000 per month to have the equivalent of R1,000,000 in a bank account. That means whenever you go over the R7,000 per month online earning you’re considered an Internet Millionaire.

This might not be the official definition of an Internet Millionaire, but it does put things into perspective!

I read this interesting take on being an Internet Millionaire on Business Warriors, written by Frank Muller.