Have you heard of ‘bum marketing’ yet? No, this is not where you hire a bunch of street people to hold up signs for advertising your site on the streetcorner … it’s a “new” twist on the article marketing method put out by Travis Slago. It’s a no-brainer really, and you should consider becoming a bum. So what’s the difference between article marketing and bum marketing? There are a few subtle nuances, so let’s take a quick look ..
In article marketing, the objective is to drive traffic and links to your specific website on a certain subject. By writing a dozen articles and distributing them to 50 or 100 article directories, they can provide excellent back-links to your site to boost your Google Page Rank, as well as provide traffic - especially if someone else picks up a copy for their newsletter or ezine. A few people considered using this to promote affiliate programs as well, but the basis was to generate the traffic from mass quantity, rather than the quality of the sites the articles were on.
In bum marketing, however, the objective is to drive affiliate sales, plain and simple. Most article directories won’t allow affiliate links, so you’ll have to drive the traffic to your own landing page and then take them on in to the sales page. Another BIG difference is that we’re not looking for a hudred article directories to submit to. We’re looking for the top 3 - 5 that will get your article indexed by Google and the other major search engines quickly. By targeting long-tail keywords with decent monthly traffic and little specific competition, your site can end up in the top positions of these search engines pretty easily. Then, the traffic comes from actual people doing very specific searches for your product or service, rather than dozens of article sites and ezines. Don’t get me wrong, it’s ok to get traffic from anywhere you want to. However, using this method, you can get your articles indexed anywhere from 24 hours to 2 weeks, depending on the site(s) you submit it to. Then, it’s just a matter of sitting back and waiting for the traffic and sales conversions.
Don’t get me wrong, it’s still not going to be a “get rich quick” program. However, Travis says he averages (after it’s all said and done) about $20 per month per article. So, using 1/2 his average (since my “luck” is never as good as those online ‘guru’ folks), we can develop a simple formula that says if I want $1000 a month, I need 100 articles out there working for me. If I want $3000 a month, then I need 300 articles out there working for me. Will it take time? Yes, it will. However, consider this: by targeting the long-tail keywords within any niche, you will actually have less competition for those terms. Your article could potentially stay at the top of the search engine listings for a long time. So, once you get this system in place at the level you want, it’s only a matter of maintenance.
Just think of it like a sales organization. The regional leader can only be successful if he has hundreds of salesmen out there working for him. In fact, typically he’ll get an override on their sales of a certain percentage. Each salesman working under him may only generate $10 a month income for the regional director. However, by leveraging the power of duplication (sound like an MLM pitch, don’t I … LOL) he can develop a long-term residual income that is semi-stable. You’re always going to have turn-over, but once you get a base of performers established, it’s all maintenance from there on out.
Article marketing is exactly the same way. Bum marketing just takes it to the next level, and makes it even easier, if that’s possible. The biggest deterrent to success with this method will be the same thing it always is: procrastination and paralysis of analysis. Think long, think wrong. Put up or go home.
