Article Directory Submission and Guest Blogging – What is the Difference?

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Article directory submission and guest blogging are some of the most effective ways to promote yourself outside your blog. But of course, you cannot do either of the two if you cannot make quality posts. For the record, I submit most of my articles to some of the top article directories which you can find in my sidebar, and I also posted three guest posts at bloggingtips.com. I can say that I am quite lucky; all of them have been approved with minimum hassle.

But after I posted a comment on a post about guest blogging at Article Specialist’s Blognetwork, he asked me how the two differ from each other. This is quite a tough question so I decided to make this post to somehow provide more profound answers. Based on my experience, here is what I have observed.

1.0 Although it is not advisable to do so, you can readily submit your posted articles to article directories. Unlike in guest posting, the blog owner always require original posts. This is probably due to the fact that blog owners do not want their blogs to look like social bookmarking sites. However, the problem with submitting the same article for various article directories is when the article is being crawled by search engines. No matter how many times you submit it, it will only be crawled once.

2.0 Article directory submission has a wider scope than guest posting. This is because your article may be submitted by these directories to their customers just like Article Marketer is doing, and some are also being downloaded. Although some guest posts are being immediately being scattered to social bookmarking sites like Digg, the ones that are being more popular are news rather than ageless articles. There are also times when the news is very popular, some bloggers get annoyed and they kill it.

3.0 Article directories submission looks slower in terms of traffic to your blog than guest posting, but once your articles are liked by publishers, the effect is long lasting. This is because your articles are more seen in article directories, unlike in blogs where the older ones are hidden in archives. Moreover, you can submit unlimited number of articles to these directories almost simultaneously which is opposite to guest posting where you have a limitation since the blog owner will have to post his own too.

4.0 Speaking of traffic, the problem with article directory submission is that you have to submit multiple articles as you can before you get noticed. This is because you have a lot of competitors and the article content that you will submit has been most likely submitted already. Unlike in guest posting, the blog content and style are somehow different from each other. So when your guest post looks attractive, your visitors will suddenly increase. Moreover, guest posts are more sociable especially when the blog is really popular.

I hope this answers the question of Article Specialist who incidentally has an Article Directory himself where I also submitted most of my articles, and other bloggers who would ask the same question. But if you will ask me what is more effective, my answer is both. This is because both require submission of a link to your blog and if you will be noticed, you will enjoy the effect.

However, it will always depend on the quality of your submitted articles or posts, finding the perfect timing and choosing the right blogs or directories where you decided to submit them. That is why you should be as strict as the blog owners and article directories. In addition, you have to know your capability.

No matter how well you promote yourself, The best way will always be the overused phrase – content is king!

Related posts:
How to Convince Blog Owners that you are a Good Guest Blogger
Useful Tips in Effective Article Directory Submission

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Article Source: Humane Blogging Tips