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Linkbuilding with AMA - is it enough?

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cfiskey
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Linkbuilding with AMA - is it enough?

Hi folks,

I subscribed to AMAutomation last month, and have spun about 10 articles so far. The link building is terrific (if the numbers are accurate).

The question I have is this; should I also be submitting to the 5 or 6 ezine directories Mark mentions, or will the article spinning of AMA be sufficient to generate the desired number of links to my website (whatever that is :-) )?

Thanks
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Last edited by michellerana on 08 Dec 09 11:06 pm, edited 1 time in total.
Reason: improve title to describe the post better
 

devin678
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Hey C,

Short answer: submit to lots of article directories too

Long answer:

AMA is great, but you have to take it with a grain of salt.

You know people are stealing your articles and taking your links out, so you have to account for that. That's against the rules, but there's nothing to stop people from doing that.

If AMA says the article has been published 30 times, you cannot expect 30 articles out there linking back to you.

Also, some of the sites publishing your articles won't be indexed by Goog, so you may not get the backlink showing up there.

Despite all that, I still use AMA as PART of my link building arsenal. Even though you're getting low PR links, you're getting varying anchor text, and links from lots of different IPs. That's good enough to keep me onboard.
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PremiumMember
cfiskey
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Hi Devin,

Thanks for the response.

I find that goes a bit against what Mark says in his Affiloblueprint Course. In week 6-2 he states this:

... It’s called AMAutomation, short for “article marketing automation”. In a nutshell, it’s a membership that entitles you to post articles onto a number of high-quality blogs (not article directories).

The blogs will be on topics related to your niche, which immediately makes backlinks you get from them better than backlinks from article directories.

You’re also allowed to embed links into the body of your article rather than just in a bio box at the end, so they’re more natural-looking and more effective. You can include up to three links throughout your article....

When I look at that, it makes it sound like every article that gets published will have my links in it - otherwise I seriously question the value of it as a content provider.

But if you say that people can edit my articles and remove the links - I'm not sure if I want to spend the $47 per month.

Mark, if you happen to stumble upon this thread, I'd love your insight on this.

Quite frankly, I don't care how many times it's been published - I'd rather know how many backlinks have been created for me.

Thanks again folks!
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wollowra
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Hi Cf,
AMA should only be a PART of your overall link building strategy in my opinion.
You need to provide a link back to your niche site and yes the blogs that pick up your articles are suppose to leave the attribution link in. However maybe 10% do not, in my opinion.
You can always check this with copyscape or by entering a part of the spun articles with a few variations/spins into Google search.

Regards
Troy
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Enjoy the little things, for one day you may look back and realize
they were the big things.

-- Robert Brault
 
devin678
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Hi Cf,

Yeah, I had the same dilemma, and even cancelled my AMA membership at one point.

Here's why I came back to it: automation.

I know that in a year I'll have tons of these links, and I won't have had to do anything to keep getting them.

I made the mistake early on of thinking that AMA was going to be all I needed for links, but it's good to get some variety and high PR links too.

Also, I quickly found spinning articles the most mind-numbing part of my business and now I outsource it (along with pretty much everything else).

THAT has been really nice and I recommend outsourcing the spinning.
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PremiumMember
cfiskey
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Hey Devin - how do you outsource that? It can be mind-numbing I agree.

Do you get an author to spin them to you in a word document, and then copy and paste them into AMA? Or what is your method?

Thanks for your insight everyone.
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thenewb
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Hey Cfiskey, I got a great girl from odesk from the Phillipines. You can get some really good providers from Fils for very low money. The cost of living there is very low, and the people have really good work ethic in my experience. I have not had the same experience with providers from India.

Hope this helps,
Noob
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jpastorizo
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Cf,

It is good to have AMA in your link building structure, but you should never depend on it as the only thing you need to get your site ranking in the SEs. Yes, there are a lot of webmasters wanting free content which you provide by posting your spinnable articles in AMA and there is no one to stop these webmasters from removing your links in the article or just simply replacing them with their own links. However, I do believe that the main reason why backlinks are not counted towards your site is because google did not index or has not indexed the article/post.

One of the good things about AMA is that your post is getting published continuously and this is the way you should do your SEO campaign maintenance. I think the blogs in its network have different C class IPs.

The way I use AMA is not really for my money site. Yes I do link to my money site in some of the articles I submit in AMA. However, what I use AMA mainly for is to build backlinks to my feeder sites/articles. Say I did the Mr K backlink strategy. I will get the URL of those articles and those URLs are the ones I will include in the articles I submit in AMA. This way, I am promoting my promotions. When those articles gain authority, the backlink to my main site will have more value.

Post as many unique articles as you can in different web2.0 properties and then promote those articles as well. Link as randomly as possible but never do reciprocal linking.



Regards,
Renato
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HOW WE DID 200K+ ON THE DEADEST MONTH OF ECOMMERCE
WATCH HERE => www.slingly.us/replay
 
PremiumMember
cfiskey
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Hi folks,

1. Noob, thanks for that. Does she go right into AMA to spin the articles for you? Or just email them "spun" in a word document?

2. JP - great insight. Thanks for that.

Craig
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devin678
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Hey Craig,

Your writer can either spin it in a Word doc: {sentence version 1~sentence version 2}

OR

You can create another user in AMA and just have them log in and take care of it within AMA.

The second is "more outsourced" so I like it better.

If you're training someone how to use AMA, you can have them learn it by studying the AMA site, or create a how-to video yourself. If you opt for the latter I recommend you use Jing (www.JingProject.com). It's free and awesome :-)

Something I try to keep in mind is that I'm the *owner* of the business, and I only have a few hours a day and a limited amount of patience. In my opinion, the more stuff I can outsource the better.

I personally run out of time very quickly, so outsourcing is a huge lever for me and lots of folks here.

Good luck!

-Devin
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thenewb
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Hello Craig,

Yes, I have her go into AMA and spin the articles for me. I also have been getting the wrting done at articlez.com and the quality seems good enough most of the time.

I communicate with her by YM every day. She is my linkbuilder. Every week we meet about the keywords and moneysites we are going to promote that week., I have her take one article and spin it 9 times (using spinprofit) and then submitting each unique article to the top 10 article directory sites based on PR.

Then she takes another fresh article and submits to submityourarticle.com and uses their article leverage to spin a bunch of different articles and submits those out to a bunch of article directories.

Then I have her go to AMA with another fresh article and have her re-write each sentence 3-times then publish that one. After she is done with that, she gets about 15 high pr blog links with seoquake. In the mean time, I try to spend a few hours per week using the trusted sites tool to get some trusted links.

This way I don't have to spend my precious time writing and submitting articles. I am always testing and tweaking my methods, so if anyone has any feedback on how I can improve the above, please let me know.

Thanks,
Sylvan
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thenewb
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P.S. I forgot to say I also have an account with textlinkbrokers and they do alot of linking for me every month. And, I buy links on ebay and get high PR links and linkwheels from linkwheel.net. I have also registered 6-domains on a certain niche and am in the process of cross linking those pages together, getting them indexed in google with high PR bloglinks, and pointing them all to my money site. I avoid PPC like the plauge.

So, I guess I do alot of linkbuilding.....
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PremiumMember
cfiskey
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Did you hire the person from the Philippines through Craigslist?

What criteria did you use?
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PremiumMember
cfiskey
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Hi guys,

Ok, I’ve been doing some thinking about this. I am fortunately in a position to outsource much of this. Some of it I want to “hang onto” because it is strategic – and quite frankly I enjoy it. Some of it however I want to outsource.

Here is a high level game plan I thought through. I think I have 1 to 4 taken care of pretty good. It’s the off-page stuff I want your advice on. Getting the content created is easy enough, but have you found resources that can both create good content – and are willing to use AMA (or a tool like it) and then post articles to eZine’s?

I just want to know what my expectations should be before I go “shopping”.

My Game Plan for Website Creation and Marketing:

1. Niche research - Me
2. Keyword Research - Me
3. Content Creation – Outsourced (Elance)
4. On Page SEO – Me

5. Off Page SEO
a. Article Marketing Automation Content – Outsourced (Elance)
b. Article Marketing Automation Tool – Outsourced (Elance? Philippines?)
c. eZine Submissions
i. Spin an AMA article and submit – Me? Outsource?

For those of you who outsource #5, I am curious as to how you “go to market’ for these services – and what your criteria is when you put together the job description.

Thanks again!

I am learning a tonne in here!
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thenewb
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Hello again Craig,

Basically, you can not trust anybody to do your SEO and linking building for you 100%. But, you can and should outsource the mundane repetative tasks that will bog you down and keep you from growing your business. Since your here, you have a good understanding of SEO so thats great. Also, I see from your post you are doing the strategic parts yourself, and that is exactly right.

I hired my girl from www.odesk.com.. This site is like elance but most of the providers are from other countries.You can post your job through the website and have multiple providers bid on it. Select someone with good feedback, and do not be tempted to hire the cheap ones. You will be sorry if you try to hire the person for $3/hour.

I am getting my content from www.articlez.com. They only charge $6 per article, and they seem to be good quality most of the time. If there is any sales copy or content on my homepage, I usually write that myself.

Hope this helps,
Sylvan
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PremiumMember
cfiskey
Posts: 39
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Hi guys,

OK, I am going to outsource components of a linking strategy. Take a look at the job description I have created. Please let me know if I am missing anything. Also, your feedback on where I should post it. So far, I was thinking:
Craigslist
Kijiji
eLance
GetaFreelancer

Here is the description cut and pasted. I apologize that it will lose all of it's formatting when I paste it. I will try to make it as legible as I can.....

JOB DESCRIPTION

I am looking for someone who can put together a strong, ongoing linking strategy for my website(s).

The strategy aims to leverage the following:

i. Spinning Articles with Article Marketing Automation (AMA)
ii. Submission to Article Directories
iii. Setting up a Web 2.0 chain of blogs, Squidoo Lenses, HubPages, etc. to take advantage of RSS Feeds.

This working relationship between you and I will be rolled out in 3 stages:
1. Set up
2. Initial Test Run
3. On-going Operations

A. Set Up

My Responsibilities – Set Up

1. Make sure the requirements are clearly communicated and well understood by you.
2. Provide you with 4 articles, associated links and tags to create the Web 2.0 chain explained in section 2 (Initial Test Run).

Your Responsibilities – Set Up

1. Using the 4 articles I will provide, set up a Web 2.0 chain using any four of the following websites which leverage RSS Feeds:
a. hubpages.com
b. squidoo.com
c. tumblr.com
d. blogger.com
e. xanga.com
f. yahoo360.com
g. zimbio.com
h. feedbite.com
i. bumpzee.com
j. any other Web 2.0 account you may be familiar with, that allows you to leverage RSS feeds for content

Each Web 2.0 page will be linked to the next, creating a chain reaction enabled by the RSS feeds. When the first page in the chain is updated, the RSS feed sends the content to the next, and the next and the next. (Example: Hubpages RSS feed points to Squidoo lens, Squidoo RSS feed points to tumblr page, tumblr RSS feed points to feedbite, and so on).

IMPORTANT: It is critical that the RSS feed displays the entire article, including all of the embedded links in the article, when it shows on the “next page” in the chain. Otherwise it renders the chain "useless".


2. Set up an account at the following Article Directories
a. eZineArticles
b. Article City
c. Article Dashboard
d. Article Alley
e. Articles Base

3. Log into the “guest author” AMA account I have created and get familiar with the workings of the application and how to create and spin articles within the AMA website (http://www.articlemarketingautomation.com/). I will provide the username and password to the successful candidate.

B. Test Run

My Responsibilities – Test Run

1. Provide you with a 2 Keywords of which two 400 word articles are to be written in AMA.
2. Provide you with the links of which each of the articles will link to.
3. Proof-read articles and publish in AMA

Your Responsibilities – Test Run

1. Create one 400 word article for each keyword in AMA
a. Embed the provided links using HTML into the text of the article. Up to 3 per article.
2. Once the article has been published, go back into AMA and “spin” the article once.
a. Post that article into each of the article directories listed above with the appropriate links and additional keyword tags (if allowed)
i. eZineArticles
ii. Article City
iii. Article Dashboard
iv. Article Alley
v. Articles Base

3. Spin the article a second time and add it to the “first Web 2.0” page you created in your Web 2.0 Chain of RSS feeds. Include embedded HTML links and keyword tags.


C. Ongoing Operations

My Responsibilities – Ongoing Operations

1. Provide you with 2 keywords per week, the associated links and related keyword tags.
2. Proof read and publish the articles in AMA

Your Responsibilities – Ongoing Operations

1. Create one 400 word article for each keyword in AMA
a. Embed the provided links using HTML into the text of the article. Up to 3 per article.
2. Once the article has been published, go back into AMA and “spin” the article once.
a. Post that article into each of the article directories listed above with the appropriate links and additional keyword tags (if allowed)
i. eZineArticles
ii. Article City
iii. Article Dashboard
iv. Article Alley
v. Articles Base

3. Spin the article a second time and add it to the “first Web 2.0” page you created in your chain of RSS feeds. Include identified links and keyword tags.

I am open to a fixed bid or hourly price.

If you are bidding hourly, please estimate the number of hours required so I understand what my up-front costs would be. Also, identify how many hours per week you would need once into “operations”.

If you have any questions, please do not hesitate to ask.

Craig.....


There it is guys. As always, your feedback is appreciated.

Craig
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Moderator
superaff
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You should always diversify, whether it's building baclinks or driving traffic to your website.... Don't put all your eggs in the same basket.

Franck
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Did you see the amazing case studies on my blog http://mynetmarketingland.com/blog1/
Affiloblueprint Bonus: http://www.mynetmarketingland.com/mark-ling/affiloblueprint.html
 
PremiumMember
upperone
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Help with RSS feeds ...
I have done the loop with several blog pages pulling in the RSS feed from another blog. Even though I have clearly selected "show whole article"
it only shows the title and a couple of rows of text from the article.
Does that make this strategy useless or not worthwhile if the whole article does not show on the blog that pulls in the RSS feed?
Patrick
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PremiumMember
cfiskey
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Great question.

I'd love to hear the answer. I have to think it's less effective.
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wollowra
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Upperone,
Welcome to Affilorama.
Are you using Firefox? and have you tried IE?

Troy
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Enjoy the little things, for one day you may look back and realize
they were the big things.

-- Robert Brault
 
PremiumMember
upperone
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Well, what do you know...now they all work, showing whole article, except the one at Viviti.com..
I'll double check my settings on that one.
Curiously, I Pinged them yesterday for the first time...?
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wollowra
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So, what browser are you using?
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Enjoy the little things, for one day you may look back and realize
they were the big things.

-- Robert Brault
 
PremiumMember
upperone
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Windows Vista and Firefox...
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tangoshoes
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If you are going to outsource your squidoo lenses make sure you have the rights to them. I've had a few just take off and make me some extra cash with ad profit sharing.

Also if your using AMA don't forget to use your spun articles at Free Traffic System (link in sig). Extra back links for something your already doing never hurt.
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Free AMA alternative:
http://www.freetrafficsystem.com/a.php?p=15706
Outsourcing for $200/mo 40hr/week:
http://store.replacemyself.com/?aid=3884
 

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