Well, now that I've got your attention, it's time to report. First a product summary:
I am back to using Article Post Robot again (for article submissions). I found Article Marketer submitted my articles to too many sites who were "cheating". In other words, blogs who take in a certain type of article, then just post it. No backlinks, no acknowledgement. Most of these blogs also have no way to contact the web master (big surprise).
I am also using SubmitEaze for my directory submissions. Seems to work fairly well and since it has a way to keep track of submissions I have already done then I can do 5 or 10 a day on each of my sites and pick right up where I left off.
Article Marketing works
I know I've been back and forth about Article Marketing since starting this blog, but I finally have real examples of it working. As an example, go to google and type in the phrase: "mma is scary" without the quotes. The first site that comes up is Halloween Village. That's one of mine. The actual article was about martial arts, but in the author resource box I put something to the effect of "If you think MMA is Scary, try Halloween Village". I wrote that article in March, 2007, so it might take a while to see the rewards, but it does work.
Article Chimp is making money
I'm finally getting some traffic to my Article Chimp article directory and it's starting to make money. Not a ton, maybe $20-$30 a month, but it's a start. I'm trying a novel approach with my article directory of not loading it down with a million ads and keeping the response times good. Maybe it'll pay off in the long run.
Halloween and Christmas is picking up
My Halloween and Christmas themed sites are starting to pick up steam as the holiday season approaches. Still under 100 impressions a day, but a lot more than the 5 or 10 I've had since they've opened. I credit a bit of SEO (link building) and a bit of the season.
ultimate-fighter.net is back on Google
I've spent quite a while undoing the damage I think I did by creating a myspace page and linking to ultimate-fighter.net. Note that I also bought a paid link, but had that undone. I was de-listed for months, but I seem to be back now ... whew!
mma.gocurious.com is going great
I really wish I'd purchased a domain when I started building my UFC Results fan site. This is by far my most popular site with around 40,000 or so visitors a month and is also my main money maker (not a ton, probably will do $100 this month). Some directories won't even look at listing sub-domains.
DMOZ
I still have no listings in DMOZ, despite signing up in January.
Well, now you're up to date...keep trying, keep your expectations realistic and be patient.
