Reader Question: Can I Submit Blog Posts As Articles?
Article Marketing & Blogs
I love getting questions from people, and I figure if one person was asking the question, then there are probably several others who are wondering the same thing.
This question concerns how having and blog and doing article marketing can interrelate with each other, and if it’s alright to get double duty out of blog posts and submit them as articles.
Reader Question:
“Is it okay to write an article and use it as a blog post as well as submitting it to an article directory? I know they do a quick search when I submit an article to verify that the work is original, but that won’t find not-yet-published articles at other sites nor will it find an article just published to my blog but not yet indexed by search engine.”
Answer:
Yes–I do this, although there is an order to follow in re-purposing content like that:
First, write the blog post. Then, you can use the blog post as an outline for your article, making the article a unique piece of content that is based on the blog post. You really want to the blog post to remain unique, as it is on your own site.
You had also asked:
I know they do a quick search when I submit an article to verify that the work is original, but that won’t find not-yet-published articles at other sites nor will it find an article just published to my blog but not yet indexed by search engine.
Actually, when a directory searches for already published articles, they are trying to ensure that the content is written by you (that it is not “borrowed” from another author), rather than if the content hasn’t been published anywhere else previously.
So, as long as all the articles you have published on other sites clearly have your name associated with them, you should not run into any trouble. This is a big reason why I advise always including your name in the resource box.
When submitting blog posts as articles, it is for your own benefit that you will re-write the blog post to create a unique article. The reason for this is that Google and the other search engines value unique content on a website more highly than content that can be found in multiple places.
So, when it comes to your own website, you want to be sure that you have as much unique content as possible. It’s okay to write your articles on the same topics as your blog posts (this is what I do), but to make the article unique you would use different wording and such.
I have a post about bouncing articles off of blog content:
How To Use Your Blog To Generate Articles
What about the rest of you–do any of you re-purpose your blog content as articles?
Photo credit: What no one ever tells you about blogging
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Comments on Reader Question: Can I Submit Blog Posts As Articles?
I am a landscape architect, and I am using a blog to promote my business and market myself as an expert in my field.
Can’t I simply cut and paste my exact blog post to submit as an article? Blogging is a secondary part of my marketing plan, and re-writing each post to be different would be like having to keep up a second blog- and I don’t have time for that. The reason that I want to submit articles is to get more readers and ultimately visitors to my blog and website. I understand that re-writing the content is the ideal solution, but if I don’t have time, is it worth it to me to bother submitting the original blog posts as articles?
Thanks for your help!
Matt
Hi Matt,
It is really advisable to rework the blog post, but if you can’t then there is still benefit to submitting it as an article. But just a warning–many times blog posts do need tweaking to be in article format. So, putting aside the idea of reworking your content for SEO reasons, you would probably still need to do a little tweaking to each blog post to make it suitable as an article.
Here is some further info that may help with that:
How To Turn A Blog Post Into A Free Reprint Article
I hope that helps!
Many thanks for the information. I often wondered if you were doing more harm submitting the same article to more than one article directory site? I try not to repeat articles but its difficult when they are all my work. Thanks again for the info.
Hi Martin,
Thank you for your question. Quite the contrary–you are not doing any harm by submitting the same article to more than one directory. You are actually helping your cause immensely.
An article directory is a hub for publishers. People who need content for their websites go to article directories, and they can find free content there (your articles). This is a win-win situation–the website owner needs content for his site, and you want the exposure for your article, as well as the valuable one-way backlink that goes along with having your article republished.
The reason why you put your article on an article directory is to position it to be easily republished. This is the power behind article marketing–in order to work, your article must be republished. The idea is not to write an article and have it published on one site. The idea is to write one article and have it published on many sites. That is how you build links.
So, you could put your article on one directory, and then sit around waiting and hoping that someone finds your article and republishes it. That’s a rather passive way to market your site, and it requires that you put in a lot of work compared to the reward. For example, you need to take the time to write an article (that is the work), but you may have only a handful of people (if that) who republish it.
The smarter way to do article marketing is to submit your article to many directories and other types of publishers. That is what we do at SubmitYOURArticle.com, my article submitter. You submit your article one time to us, and then we distribute it to our large network of targeted publishers.
So, you have done your part by writing the article, and you have a big payoff because your article is being published on many sites. This is the most effective way to do article marketing and build links.
I hope that answers your question. Just let me know if you need anything else.
Nice post, thanks for sharing it!!!!!!!!!