Read this before you buy article submission software!

Ok, I've had some time to play with the new article submission software I just got, article post robot. I haven't been able to compare it with others, but from what I hear they're all pretty similar: they post your article onto hundreds of different directories as quickly as possible.

Although this sounds like a great benefit (hundreds of backlinks instantly for each article. Write one a day for a year and....) I've come to the conclusion that this is not the way of future successful search engine optimization.

First of all, before an article submission program can "instantly submit your article" to hundreds of directories, you'll probably have to sign up to those directories yourself. I was able to do about 3 before giving up. I could probably force myself to do 20 per hour, and in about 30 hours sign up for all of them (you need to check your mail, verify, etc.). After that, yes, article post robot is a great tool for article submissions.

Ask me why it doesn't matter. Go on, ask me.
95% of the directories you'll be submitting to are junk. Garbage, small-town, ugly graphic websites cashing in on the ads they put all around your article. Sure, you get a backlink - but the big Search Engines are smart. I'm willing to bet that one quality link from a really popular site, that people are actually visiting (about.com, yahoo.com, squidoo.com, myspace.com, facebook.com) are worth as much as hundreds of backlinks from ugly little sites that nobody would be caught dead in.

Article syndication may have been hot a year or two ago, but search engines wise up quickly. You need a new strategy.

So what should I do?!
Get links from popular sites. The sites you already have an account to - along with 500,000 million other people. Ask friends and contacts to link to you.

Also - the buzz word on the web right now is unique content. Everybody knows articles are spread around the web. That's good news if you want backlinks to your site. But if you want high search engine rankings, you need original content that can't be found anywhere else. And you need LOTS of it. It should be focused on your topics. If you can't write, pay someone to write articles. $200 bucks could buy you 50 or more great, unique content articles. Check out guru.com or another freelance worker network.