Let’s consider article marketing. The idea is simple: you write an article; you submit it to an article directory; webmasters come and publish it on their sites; you get the links. Period.

Gurus on article marketing usually recommend to concentrate on the article directories with the top Alexa rank. By the way, here are the top 20 with Alexa rank, in case you are interested.

You see, there is more to say about an article directory than Alexa rank. For example, here, I picked up the proportion of the traffic coming from the United States as opposed to the traffic coming from India. So, if you want teh US traffic, gurus are right, the higher Alexa rank, the more traffic comes from the United States. Still, if you consider position 5, 6 and, 7, the seventh contender – Helium – would give you almost twice more US traffic than the 5th one – GoArticles.com. Interesting, isn’t it?

And if for some reason you want an Indian traffic, then you may want to consider a completely opposite approach, picking the bottom of this list. You may wonder, why would you want any Indian traffic in the first place?

First, there could be many reasons, especially, if Indian traffic comes much cheaper or with much less effort. I’ll discuss one idea later in a separate article, but consider two facts:

1. I published this article on ViralMarketingEtc.com, not on InternetMarketingPaterns.com. Why?
2. Check my article “What kind of viral network are you in?”
   Think, is the network of people, who’d buy your products, is the same as network of people, who would spread your viral report?

That’s just one idea how to use Indian Internet traffic. I’ll explain it in another article if you did not catch it. Anyway, there are more.

Why is it here, at ViralMarketingEtc.com? Because submitting free articles is one of the forms of viral marketing. You provide the content with your links and other people cheerfully spread it. If it’s good, of course. That’s viral marketing, all right.

Unfortunately, not all article directories are equal, and eZineArticles.com, although picky, still #1 and most important article directory around.

A short list of the reasons is (but check the videos anyway):

1. Combination of isses 2-10
2. Stolen or ripped content (includes PLR articles because they may be submitted by others; if you ghostwrite, request exclusive rights)
3. Blatant sales and promotion – that’s not what articles are for. Use resource box for that.
4. Keyword abuse – yes, we all want search engine ranking, but don’t make your article a gibberish, unnatural or spammy. About 1 keyword for 100 words and write for people, not for search engines.
5. Spelling and grammar (yes, that’s my sin, especially because of jumping between normal and notebook keyboard). Also, just one space after commas and periods, no more, no less. Ask somebody to proofread.
6. Affiliate links. Not even in the resource box! Not even redirecting link (unless you are ready to sacrifice the whole domain for that one link, see more in video).
7. Excessive links. Only two self-serving links are allowed in the resource box. Two more for other (not yours) sites. None of self-serving links in the artcile itself. Other two (non-self-serving links) after the third paragraph only.
8. URLs with no content or dead links. Your links should work and point to something sensible, not pure advertising, empty pages or sites under construction.
9. Localized niche articles. Not just generic, if writing an article about a particular locale (like city), give specific information, e.g. specfic coffee shops in Chicago if your article is about coffee shops or flavors in Chicago.
10. Formatting issues. No special MS Word symbols (quotes, ellipsis, dash…). Simple text format is the best. Empty line between paragraphs (hard line breaks). Limit HTML tags. Don’t use <ul>, <ol>, <li>, just include numbers and bullets into the artcile.