If you look at article marketing only in terms of traffic then it might be a waste of time for you. It all depends on your niche.

There are several other benefits to article marketing, however.

It gives you an opportunity to listen to your market. Those Ezinearticle reports tell you how many views your article gets and how many people clicked on your link. That info alone is helpful and tells you what people in your niche like to read.

Without exception, the articles I write exclusively with readers in mind rather than SEO generate the most traffic. One article I wrote was so successful in terms of traffic and conversions that I'm going to turn it into an info product. The article probably doesn't show up anywhere prominent in Google yet people find the article (it has been republished on many websites). So that's another benefit to articles. You can compile them into an info product and also rework them and use them as blog posts.

Also, writing articles forces you to do research in your niche. The things you learn while doing that research can lead to product ideas and give you valuable insight into your market. This applies to blog posts too.

If you are a newbie copywriter, articles give you material for your writing portfolio too and give you a chance to practice copywriting skills. Yes, I know, articles aren't sales letters but you can still practice copywriting techniques when writing them. So that's a practical benefit.

It's true that Ezinearticles doesn't allow affiliate links, but you can create a free page on Blogger and post that link. It's an additional click for the reader but that's one way around the no-affiliate link rule.

I've had enough glimpses behind the scenes to notice that many "gurus" use article marketing so there's obviously some benefit to it, depending on the niche.

Also, I happen to like to write, even in my leisure time, but I'm usually too caught up in writing copy for clients to write articles consistently. If a marketer doesn't like writing and can't afford to outsource, then article marketing wouldn't work.

Just my two cents,

--Anita

I agree, my articles are presently under consideration by a traditional publisher for a book and I have two eBooks based on the content already.

Meanwhile which is the article you have with the high conversions, do you have a link?

Meanwhile I have a new blog just two days old which has already been viewed 84 times. These were referrals I drove to the site by means other than article writing! Though the blog has content for them to see when they arrive. Had I written an article it would not have brought me that many specific niche readers in that time!

I found click bank first time ever yesterday and have already had 103 hops. No sales yet.

What is a good ratio of hops v sales?

It's easily found on ebay at reasonable prices.