Wanting to create more passive income, I decided to try article marketing because I'd always gotten good results with it getting the word out about my businesses in the past.



Following are more of the sites I'm consistently submitting articles to. I chose them because they have good PR and Alexa rankings. For explanations of these, as well as details on the beginning of the experiment, see the 10/26/06 post on InkwellEditorial.blogspot.com.

21. AuthorConnection.com: This directory has a PR rank of 6 and an Alexa rank of 278,391.

You must create an author account to submit. They assign you an author ID, which is a little annoying because I can never remember mine and have to stop what I'm doing, locate it and then log in.

It's a minor inconvenience, but as I've said before, when you are manually submitting, anything that takes more time is just a pain. Another thing that is a little bothersome with this directory is their subcategory listing.

What I mean is, once you choose your main category, they ask you to select up to five subcategories to put your article in. While this may seem like a good thing, I find it too time-consuming.

I'd rather have the main and sub-categories listed together and be able to select right from the get-go where I wanted my article to go.

No article stats are provided here, but a tracking feature is available.

22. ArticleBeach.com: This directory has a PR rank of 5 and an Alexa rank of 47,816.

You must create an author account to submit. They assign you a password, which again is annoying. See review above as to why. Article tracking and stats area available.

One cool feature of this directory is that it shows you which category you submitted to (I sometimes forget and want to go back and see). FYI, you have to click on the author profile to see this; it won't show up if you just click on the article.

23. BeezyMouse.com: This directory has a PR rank of 1 and an Alexa rank of 93,766.

You need to create an author account to submit here. Article stats and a tracking feature are available. The site doesn't tell you how long they take to approve articles -- not all pieces I've submitted have been posted yet.

I was impressed by this site because it has only been online since July of this year, yet already has an incredible Alexa ranking.

24. ArticleCube.com: This directory has a PR rank of 4 and an Alexa rank of 20,937.

You need to create an author account to submit. I love this site ? it has all the bells and whistles (stats, tracking features) and it also has a link to two popular social networking sites (Digg and Del.icio.us) where you can add your content.

In my opinion, this shows the progressive thinking of the site owners, as social networking sites (eg, FaceBook, MySpace, etc.) are all the rage right now. This could account for its high rankings, as it's only been around since October 2005.

25. ArticleOnRamp.com: This directory has a PR rank of 0 and an Alexa rank of 72,050.

I love this site because of its responsive webmaster, Jason. I suggested new categories and he added them and got back to me within a couple of days. Even if he had not heeded my suggestions, I just appreciated the ?human touch? behind this directory.

You need to create an author account. Author stats and a tracking feature area available. Articles are approved pretty rapidly too.

Way to go Jason!

26. Article-Buzz.com: This directory has a PR rank of 3 and an Alexa rank of 80,757.

Easy to use: simply create an account and submit. Article tracking and stats are available. The approval process is pretty quick; tons of categories to submit to. Site's cool feature: a blog that lists ?feature articles.?

There are no specifications listed as to how to get your article on the blog, but it's cool because it makes your article stand out if it does get published here.

27. AllFreelanceWork.com: This directory has a PR rank of 6 and an Alexa rank of 50,575.

This is not a directory, but a freelance job listing site that has a ton of useful tools for freelancers ? job listings, article submission, freelance software, posting of freelancer profiles, etc.

This site can be overwhelming because it offers so much. To make effective use of it, figure out which features fit into your freelance plan. I've been a user of this site off and on for the past 5 years or so and for my money, it is one of the best sites on the web for freelancers.

28. AssociatedContent.com (AC): This directory has a PR rank of 6 and an Alexa rank of 5,082.

This site describes itself as a ?media community.? If you are a freelance writer -- or a business owner seeking a low-cost, effective media outlet -- this site is a must.

You must create an author account to publish and they take up to 8 days to approve an article. They almost always adhere this guideline. A few times they've taken as long as 10 days to approve one of my articles, but this is rare. On the flip side, they will rarely approve an article BEFORE this timeframe.

The best part of AC, they PAY for articles. So, if you've written it and are distributing it for free, why not pick up a little cash on the side. The minimum you can receive if they accept your article for publishing is $3 (payment can go as high as $40). They pay via PayPal and payment is prompt (within a few days).

I've made hundreds of dollars over the course of a few months submitting my articles here. AND, I've gotten tons of publicity, subscribers and e-book sales. As a matter of fact, this is what prompted me to finally decide to put my ebooks on ClickBank (the increase in sales once I started using AC).

Site I wished I'd discovered a couple of weeks ago: ArticleWheel.com: With a PR Rank of 4 and an Alexa rank of 34,372, I will be giving this site a try.

One of the things that caught my eye about this directory is that they have a pretty low-priced article submission feature. Meaning, they will submit your article up to 300 directories for just $6. Again, as I've learned first-hand the horror of manual submission, I'm taking note of paid submission plans, in all forms.

When Choosing Article Directories, Which is More Important: Page Rank or Alexa Rank?

In my non-tech-savvy opinion, page rank. Why? Alexa rank derives its results from those who have the Alexa toolbar installed. So, how do you know how many visitors peruse your site who don't have the toolbar installed? You don't.

Also, who is more likely to know about, keep abreast of, and use, technology like this? Techies. One of the criticisms of the Alexa ranking system is that it is skewed toward tech-oriented sites ? although plenty of non-tech savvy sites rank in the top 100,000 (the holy grail of positioning).

Conversely, page rank is somewhat of a community-driven response to a site. Eg, when users across the web find your site useful, they link to it, forward it to friends, etc. When enough people/sites do this ? especially those sites with high PR rankings ? then your site is considered important/relevant (hence, a rise in the rankings).

In my mind, this is more of a grass roots (ie, pure) response to a site. You don't have to ?do? anything (eg, install a tool bar), except produce good content that users will find useful enough to link to/tell others about.

So, that's why I don't give too much importance to the Alexa rank.

As you'll notice from the sites listed in this series, not many rate above 5. When I started reading about page rank a few years ago, any site with a 4 or above was considered a good site to link to. Now, it seems to be a 5 or above. Again, in my humble opinion, if you're a 4 or above, you're doing good.

Dead Presidents Rising!

My earnings are starting to cool off ? but I'm still averaging about twice per day what I was making before I started this experiment.

NOTE: After this experiment ends (11/18), I will be doing a final, in-depth case study analysis. Findings will be presented in an e-book. Stay tuned for ?Questions from Readers? about this case study on 11/06.