I’m going to go out on a limb and say that this may be the most shocking article anybody ever read coming from me, a die hard article marketer. Well, one thing I’m not is a dreamer. I look at things quite realistically and call them for what they are. So that’s what I’m doing here. If you want to know the real truth about article marketing in 2010, read this. But don’t say I didn’t warn you.

Let me start off by saying no, article marketing isn’t dead. But it is certainly on life support. Shocked to hear me say that? Well, it gets worse. But in order to understand why, you need to get a little history on article marketing.

Up until about 2007 or so, very few marketers knew about article marketing. It wasn’t considered a really big way to get traffic. But the smart folks knew that content was, and always will be king on the Internet. So they wrote articles, put them on their sites and also started submitting to directories, like the one you’re at right now reading this.

Then Travis Sago came out with Bum Marketing, which is essentially a simple method for writing articles and making money from affiliate marketing…and the sky fell down…literally. Every marketer and their grandmother started doing Bum Marketing. Suddenly, article directory traffic started to skyrocket, which was great for the directories. Not so great for the other marketers.

See, one problem with Bum Marketing, no offense to Travis who is a great guy, is that it leaves a lot of room for abuse. What kind of abuse? Well, crappy articles to say the least. You should see some of the dreck that so called article marketers put out. It got to the point where the article directories with any standards at all had to change minimum word counts, ban certain categories and even get rid of many writers.

But the damage had been done. Look up just about any topic at all these days and you’ll find more articles on that topic than you can shake a stick at. The competition has gone through the roof. The days of writing an article, submitting it, and getting 300 quick views are gone. That same article, today, gets maybe 30 views before it dies a quick death.

Therefore, in order to get more traffic from their articles, ironically, article marketers have to generate traffic TO their articles. So all kinds of shady things go on that I won’t mention in this article because I don’t want to give anybody any ideas. Point is, the “by the book” article marketer is behind the 8 ball. He’s competing with countless of marketers doing whatever they can to increase those views.

If I had to start all over today, and didn’t want to stoop down to the level of some of these people, I’d probably be a total failure as an article marketer. Fortunately for me, many of my old articles still bring in a good number of views each month and account for my 10 to 20 opt ins each day.

I told you this article was going to shock the hell out of you. But that is the state of article marketing today.

Having said that, if you pick good niches, do your keyword research, write quality articles, construct killer resource boxes and have an offer that is close to impossible to pass up, you can still make some money as an article marketer.

As much as 4 years ago?

In my opinion, no.

The golden age of article marketing is gone.

But it was fun while it lasted.

To YOUR Success,

Steven Wagenheim

Sick of not getting your articles read? Fed up with resource boxes that don’t get the job done? Want to write articles that will turn you into a killer article marketer? Get my book on article writing and marketing located at http://www.honestincomeprogram.com/tcawamg.html - This is my own book written from over 30 years of writing experience.