Is article writing really dead?

[aussie11]

Hi to all,
I am quite new to SEO and web design so I have a million questions and some of them may be amusing to some..?
I was recently told that submitting articles to article directories is an outdated method of obtaining backlinks, and is not a good idea in this day and time. Is this true?
He also went on to say it was a dangerous practice, because he has a site with 6500 backlinks, and if I am just starting out, I wouldn't have very many, so using my fresh new article for content on his site would push him further up the rankings and further away from me.

Could someone shed some light on this as I am not sure if he really knows what he is talking about or whether his advice is spot on.
Thank you
Crys

[Shaddows]

submitting articles to article directories is an outdated method of obtaining backlinks

Many people still do this. It might get you some benefit, in that the incremental change to you will be much higher than the incremenatal change to the artical directory. Personally, I think your strategy starting out should be different that your long-term strategy. Same way as starting a new business, you will take on jobs to pay bills that you would not touch when you are established. This might be one example where what is not normally good practice might make sense.

That said, you want your content on your site. Content is king. Content is what you get ranked on. You want all the unique content you can get- I wouldn't give it away.

Check the link development forum [webmasterworld.com] for some tips in building links that do not require you to foresake your own content.

[Quadrille]

From Quadrille's Oft-Quoted 18th Law
Article Farming Helps the Farmer More Than the Turkey

Advice to post articles on article farming sites works on the shakey premise that the farm has a good standing with the search engines. That is very rarely the case. Indeed, some have no standing at all, and some are deep into a bad neighborhood, so reciprocal linking could be a risky.

In fact, very few article farms figure in the search engine results, and even if yours does okay, it's unlikely to help your article much, and even less likely to help the link to your site.

Additionally, few article directories get many human visitors, so the number of direct referrals will be small.

Your article will help the article farmer of course.

[canadafred]

The intriguing part of your question is this:

"... using my fresh new article for content on his site would push him further up the rankings and further away from me."

His domain's performance should be unaffected by yours.

Keep your own stuff on your own web site.

You are starting new and expect the first year to be a growing one. You must be patient with the search engine but just keep offering it your own well-crafted web content.

Go on and write. Create interesting and indisputably unique web content and post it all up on your own web site.

[anallawalla]

Quadrille is correct. Article based links are just waiting for the Google algo team to get a round tuit. The theory of propagating articles for the sake of link value is weak. Search Google for any topic that has a lot of regurgitated articles - health, diseases, finance, SEO and see how many article sites rank high.

You would get better value to build your own content sites for various niches and make them popular in their own right. Then you can link to anyone from there and have some chance of giving a valuable link.