A few years ago, a guy named Travis introduced the world to bum marketing, more commonly known as article marketing. The concept is extremely simple. Write articles! Submit them to article directories! Earn Money!

Sounds simple enough right? Hundreds of thousands of people thought the same thing. Some people made a killing. Others gave up extremely fast when they realized how hard it is to actually make this technique work well.

In today’s environment, article marketing has to compete with blogs, social networks and newbies. With the increased competition, many people wonder if it is even possible to make money still.

As I am progressing with my article marketing experiment my preliminary results look rather promising. Although I only have about one month of article marketing experience, I feel that by the end of the year I could be making really decent income. If I could somehow multiply the number of articles I produce daily, my results would explode exponentially.

This is the key to article marketing - QUANTITY! So what are you waiting for? Get writing!

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Are you trying your hand at article marketing? If you are then there is one rule you must follow everyday.

Write. Write one article, then another, then another. When you are done writing that article, write a few more.

If you want to succeed, you need to write as much can. Unfortunatey, quantity is much more important than quality. Don’t believe me, just check out some of the articles published on ezinearticles. Some of these articles are complete trash. The only reason that they were written at all was for the one-way link. Almost every keyword imaginable has been oversaturated with worthless crap promoting some eBook that is basically 27 pages of fluff promoting some other worthless product.

Sorry about that minor rant, but seriously, if you are going to try article marketing, try promoting products that you have actually used. Then write about a hundred articles promoting it!

Last week, I purchased a 99 cent dot info domain name as an experiment. I set the domain name to forward to my affiliate link and masked it to show only my URL. I then submitted one article to one article directory to see if I could get any results.

Today, I logged in to the article directory and checked my stats from that one article. 100 page views and 13 URL clicks. Well, since there is only one URL to click (my affiliate link), I should have 13 hops for this product on Clickbank. I have not promoted this product or URL in any other way. There should be a direct correlation of URL clicks to hops.

So how many hops actually show up in Clickbank. ZERO! Yep. That’s right. ZERO!

How is this even possible? Either the article directory has inaccurate stats, or clickbank is not recording my hops. If Clickbank is not recording my hops correctly, then how can I be sure that I get credit when I actually make a sale. While this experiment is by no means the definative answer, I am starting to wonder if I am wasting my time promoting Clickbank products.

What do you think? I am reading too much into this experiment? Have you had similar experiences in the past?

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In an attempt to expand upon my article marketing success, today I started promoting another product, in a completely different niche than my previous articles. This new niche, however, is a bit of a mystery.

The sales pages, I admit, are pretty slick. The gravity and popularity are high, which means someone is making money with them. So I thought, why not?

After I started writing a few articles, I realized that it is really important to understand your product. At the very least, you should have a working knowledge of it. Unfortunately, in order to feel comfortable with this, I had to spend about 4 hours researching the industry. I was hoping to knock out about 5 articles. Instead, I actually only finished one. I could have finished about 10 articles in a niche that I was comfortable.

My advise….when it comes to article marketing, stick to what you know. It will show up in your writing. I guarantee it.

How do you get traffic to your website or blog? If you are like me, you want to see the number of unique visitors increase from month to month. In order to do so, bloggers will use any number of techniques.

Lately, I have been using entrecard to try and generate some traffic. Unfortunately, most people just drop their card off and hop to the next blog. If you get one person out of a hundred to read what you have written, I would say you are doing well. Another problem with this type of traffic is that once you stop dropping your card, this traffic tends to dry up pretty quickly.

So how do to attract and keep readers on your blog? Here are my favorite ways to get targeted traffic to your blog.

1. Create interesting content - There are many blogs that I read on a daily basis that will never be considered the “leader” of any niche. What they provide, however, is their unique perspectives on their chosen niche. The same topic approached from a different point of view can be extremely well received.

2. Post comments - In any given niche, there are literally thousands of blogs in which people are passionate about that subject. Posting comments on these blogs is a great way to get targeted traffic to your site. Whenever I receive a comment that is relevant to my post, I follow the link over to the commenter’s blog and check out what they are writing about. If I like what I have read, I tend to subscribe to their RSS feed and follow what they are working on. Remember to post comments that are useful and actually add to the discussion. “Nice post” or “Great article” comments will not help you at all.

3. Submit Articles to Article Directories - There are some amazing article directories that accept article submissions. These sites literally get hundreds of thousands of unique visitors each and every month. Posting articles on these sites can completely eliminate your need for adwords advertising. Type in “ezinearticles experiment” into any web browser and read some of the amazing results.

So what methods are you using to get targeted traffic to you blog? Have you used any of these methods with success?

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I had a reader ask me why I write for so many different sites. His contention was that I should pick one, or two at most, and maximize my potential before moving on to another site or method.

Typically, I would agree without exception. This time, however, I disagree!

Before I begin writing for any site or client, I do my research. I find out as much as possible before I spend even one minute creating an article or post. During my research, I have discovered that in some cases individuals have lost their entire passive income streams when a site closes or changes it payout policies. If you have all of your creations tied to something you do not own, you can lose it all in a matter of seconds.

I prefer to build each of my passive income streams slowly. I am taking my time and adding a few articles each day to my chosen streams.  I am creating a few new articles each week to support my article marketing efforts and I am even learning a little about website creation. The point is that I do not want to put all of my eggs in one basket. If I could create 100 streams of income that made $1 a day, I would be happy (happy but not satisfied). If I can create these streams one time and then never have to touch them again, all the better.

This is one of the main reason I am spending so much time writing for eHow and Today dot com. Once I create these articles and posts, I continue to earn passive income even if I decide to never post another article (not that this is going to happen anytime soon). Granted the income levels are not large enough to let me quit my day job, but one day they could be.

Have you created another stream today? What are you waiting for?

Article marketing requires that you write a lot of articles. How many? I am not sure if there is a right or wrong answer but I will say that it will take more than one or two to make any money from them at all. As I am beginning my article marketing career, I spend a tremendous amount of time in front of my computer. I have heard that some article marketers have written over a thousand articles.

I spend hours doing research. I spend hours writing rough drafts for my articles. I spend hours refining my articles before publication.  Do you?

Lately, I have been thinking about using an Instant Article Wizard. If you can create high quality articles, you can create numerous niche sites and continually add new content to them. Additionally, you can submit more articles to article directories which create valuable back links to your sites.

If you are thinking about trying out one of these article generators, try Instant Article Wizard. It is only $7 and comes with a money back guarantee. Try it out for a month and determine whether or not you can make enough money to justify its cost.

Let me know what you think!

Last night I wrote a few articles for my article marketing experiment. Nothing too deep, just a quick background on the product I am promoting. Additionally, I added a few banners and links to the product in case someone accidentally found my site overnight. Finally, I posted a couple of comments on a few blogs to get a couple of back links. Not too much, but it is a start.

Imagine my surprise when I woke up this morning and found out that I had made a sale. What? How the heck did that happen? Not that I am complaining or anything, but I wish I knew how to re-create that. Most likely I will spend the next month trying to get another sale.

Energized by my rapid success, I wrote a few more articles and submitted them to ezinearticles this afternoon. I anticipate them being approved sometime next year (EZA is pretty slow at approving new authors).  I also re-published an article that was approved on EZA on GoArticles. In the resource box for the article on GoArticles I added a link to my EZA article. Hopefully this will add some Google juice to my first article (which was approved a few days ago).

Tonight, I am going to write a few articles for eHow. It completely amazes me that I actually make money writing articles on eHow. It almost seems to good to be true.

What did you do today to generate passive income tomorrow?

What is the motivating factor in your decision to try and make money on the internet? Do you simply want the ability to quit a job that you hate? Are you motivated by the thought of spending more time with your family? Or are you trying to create a passive income stream that will continue to work while you are spending QUALITY time with your friends and family?

This is a huge distinction that truly depends upon what your overall objectives are.  Personally, I am working on creating an online business. One that works hard for me long after I have shut down for the night. I have seen many writers offer to write an article for you for $4.50 an article. Why would you help create consistent passive income for someone else? Create your own and enjoy the benefits long after your original work has been completed!

As you begin your online empire, take the time to learn from those who have gone before you. When I started writing from eHow, I made about as many mistakes as you possibly can. I would write and write and write, then wonder why I was not making the money that I wanted. I decided to take the plunge and buy Janet’s eBook , and have never regreted my decision. I have more than made my money back by implementing the ideas found within this book.

Develop a business plan and stick to it. Commission Blueprint is another product that I highly recommend. If you have ever wanted to find out how to find a truly profitable product to promote, than Commission Blueprint is worth its weight in gold. Check it out if you really want to make money online. Why spend years learning the hard way what works and what does not, when you can learn from those who are making a living doing so?

Do not trade a corporate job for a job from home.  Build an online business that yields consistent passive income!

I wanted to take a few minutes and send a special Merry Christmas shout-out to some of my new friends, and their really good sites. I have been spending a tremendous amount of time reading, and learning, from these brilliant writers. If you are looking for quality articles on generating passive income streams, saving money, or learning to invest you really should check out these sites.

Passive Family Income - This site is the direction I want for my family of blogs. When you read PFI, you feel as though you are part of their world. The articles are of extremely high quality and relevant to my interests. If you are looking at some alternative methods of generating passive income, check out passive family income.

Smart Passive Income - This guy is brilliant. Smart, funny, thought provoking… Additionally, this dude lives the dream. He has figured out a way to do what most of us just talk about. If you are looking for inspiration and quality advise, check out SPI.

Experimental Blogging - Of course, I had to plug one of my own blogs. Here you can find some of the numerous methods I am using to generate passive income. My overall goal is to make $1,000 per month from the internet. Go check it out and watch my progress as I make money writing articles. You can find some of the secrets I use HERE .