There is no doubt that you are taking a chance when you sink a lot of time and effort into building web pages on sites that you don’t own. This post is not going to be so much a rant as a warning that you can lose your income in a second if you don’t take the time to diversify. And one of the smartest things you can do when it comes to spreading your real estate around is to try and get as much of your content on your own site first.

I just experienced a $400/month loss when Squidoo decided that my lens on “Cheating Husbands” went against their terms of service. It was 3 years old and was really creating some major traffic for the keywords “Cheating Husband” and “Cheating Husbands.”

I made money on this by using the affiliate product “Reverse Cell Phone” – and, wow, did it convert!

I never once considered the fact that I’d lose the lens that I spent countless hours backlinking and updating on a regular basis. It was by far, the crown jewel in my Squidoo portfolio.

When the lens was locked, I figured it had simply got caught up in the automatic algo that Squidoo uses to catch spam. Imagine my surprise when I sent them an email and was told that the lens was on a topic that they don’t allow. Well, the first thing I did was check their list of banned topics and found that it wasn’t listed. I then did a search and discovered that there were many other lenses on the same topic that were still ticking along. I brought this to their attention, but they basically ignored my emails.

So, that was it: All that time and effort to write original, quality content (and source backlinks) for nothing.

It taught me a lesson though – and now, I spend quite a bit more time trying to get my own sites up in the serps instead.

But why would you want to put your content on a site like that in the first place? Well, the answer is that you can use their authority and PR power to get onto page one for a relatively competitive keyword. There was no way I could get my own property to rank for something like that – It simply did not have the authority. Could I have eventually succeeded with my own site? Maybe, but it was going to take a lot of time and effort. Maybe after a year or so of consistent backlinking, I would stand a chance – but there was no guarantee.

And that is the quandary that many articles marketers face. Should I place my articles on my own sites or on web 2.0 sites and article sites I don’t control?

And the answer to that is that it depends. How competitive is the niche? What Web 2.0 sites are you using?

Keep in mind that, in most cases, putting your content on a Web 2.0/Article site means that you can enter a competitive niche with little more than one or two articles. Do your on-page seo properly and you can be in the game in no time. Try doing that with a site that you own. Not only are you going to have to create a multi-page entity complete with contact, privacy, and about pages (not to mention some good, original content), but you are going to have to get out there and rustle up a ton of backlinks.

Furthermore, if the site is new, you are going to have to keep it fresh by continually adding content or risk losing your SERP postion.

Don’t get me wrong: I think the best long-term plan is to concentrate on your own property, but I also like the power I get from Web 2.0 and article sites.

That’s why I do both.

Yeah, it sucks when they lower the hammer, but it is a risk I’m willing to take.

That said, I plan on increasing my chances from here on out and I won’t be submitting any content to sites that I don’t trust. Actually, I plan on ignoring sites like Squiddo and Hubages and concentrating on some of the top article sites instead. Why? Well, the fact that they have to approve your content means that once it is there, there is a very good chance that it will stay – not a certainty, but as good as you’re going to get these days.

It is no secret that I love to use Ezinearticles. As much as people complain about them, I find myself in the position where most of my residual income is created from articles on that site. They continue to rank well and allow me to be in the thick of some very competitive niches with nothing more than a single article.

However, I do see the writing on the wall and I spend a lot of time these days cultivating a great deal of my own properties so that they can rank for some of the same keywords someday.

In the meantime, I am planning on spreading my content around a little so that if the worst happens, I still have other articles in different directories to fall back on. Buzzle, Articlesbase, and Amazines are some I’ll be targeting.

Lesson? The sooner you diversify, the more independence you have. And I really hate having someone take away my income on a whim.

Tagged with: • •

Filed under: Article Marketing

Like this post? Subscribe to my RSS feed and get loads more!