The recent update in mid-2006 by EzineArticles to help authors monitor their article marketing and article writing statistics has brought incredible opportunities to those who actively use these tools. Unfortunately, I believe many are not taking advantage of these statistics and therefore are failing to capitalize on the results of increasing web traffic. This failure further reinforces a working harder not smarter attitude.

Each morning using the View My Articles resource page, I track the total daily article reads from one day to the next. Also, I include the number of times Ezine Publisher has been used, along with emails and votes. This helps me to see any trends in overall article viewing traffic.

During a teleconference for Internet Marketing Articles sponsored by Ezine’s Chris Knight with Jeff Herring who had written over 700 articles at that time, Jeff shared his total reads for all articles submitted. I then took that information and calculated his average reads per article which were around 175. This figure of 175 became my minimum benchmark for the average reads for my articles. Currently, I am averaging 274 reads per article or 54,382 reads for 198 articles.

Next I track reads per article for every 30 days for an entire year. After a year, I then track annual reads. What I have learned from this is that even if an article is not popular in 30 days, it may pick up reading popularity at the 60 or even 90 day marker. This was demonstrated with the article 7 Tips to Real Estate Agents' Success submitted in May of 2006. During the first 30 days, this article had only 194 reads that placed in number 5 for all articles that I had submitted to Ezine. However, at 60 days the reads jumped to 319 and after 90 days another 200 reads happened. Now this article is at 1,146 reads and is third in all reads for the currently 198 submitted. Given its continued growth, by the end of this year, this article should be number one outpacing Work Ethics – A Paradigm Shift and Business Results – Four Critical Success Factors.

For new articles, I watch the daily reads during the first 30 days. Recently, I submitted an article. Economics: The Gap Between the Have & Have Nots Is Much More About Indidividual Choice in one on of my off-topic lists (meaning it was not in my overall article marketing plan) and noticed that the article had few reads. I intentionally did not submit any articles for a week to see if this would result in a trend and yes it did. My daily reads dropped about 25%. Visitors read an article and if it is good will click to read more articles by that author. However, if the topic is not a popular topic or one associated with the author's writing expertise, then less people read the article. This causes a reduction in the total number of reads on other articles by that author for that day and does affect long term overall views.

This monitoring habit takes approximately 10 minutes each morning. And, it is time not well spent, but time well invested.

The Results for My Article Marketing and Article Writing Efforts

Result #1 – Pair Off Topic Article with On-Topic Article

Now if I decide to submit an article in what I call my off topic list where I am in the bottom 50% of all authors (Ezine Articles Author Ranking Page), I will also immediately submit an article in one of my designed topic lists. This keeps my daily reads higher and helps to maintain my average reads per article.

Result #2 – Drive Traffic to Past Articles

Another result that I have monitored is using new articles to increase traffic to old articles. By writing about one topic such as Strategic Planning and referring the reader through an anchor text link does increase the reads to that past article. Again, this increases average reads per article.

Result #3 – All Articles Have Value

A recent book, The Long Tail: Why the Future of Business is Selling Less of More by Chris Anderson, discussed the theory of the long tail. Since I have been tracking my articles, I can attest that all my articles continue to get reads even if they are just a few reads a year. There is definitely a long tail for me in tracking my article submission results.

Result 4– Maintain and Adjust Author Rankings

Using the Author Rankings by Category page, I can measure the results of my efforts respective to overall article submission. Of the 42 topic areas where I have submitted articles, I am in the top 20 of all writers in 10 of those areas. Additionally, over 50% of the topic areas, I am in the top 25% of all writers. By monitoring this page, I can determine what topic I may wish to address especially to maintain my ranking of being in the top 20 authors of those topics. NOTE: These topics have already been delineated in my marketing plan.

Result 5 – Traffic Increase to Web Site

By checking the statistics from my website on a daily basis, I can see a dramatic increase in web traffic. My goal is to have 20% bookmarked unique visitors, 40% from Internet Web Searches and 40% from outside links such as EzineArticles. Unique visitor traffic continues to increase with a monthly increase from those who are coming directly from the Ezine Articles.

An old adage that I share with all of my clients is "If you can't measure it, you can't manage it." Ezine Articles has done a great job to provide you, the author or expert, with the information you need to measure and manage the results of your article writing and article marketing efforts. The challenge is for you to leverage those efforts by using your Author Tools. I can personally attest – the results are worth it.

Leanne Hoagland-Smith quickly doubles results for her clients from individuals (small businesses owners, entrepreneurs and young people) to large organizations by creating executable strategic action plans along with the necessary business skills to pull it off. By closing the gap between today's unsatisfactory performance to tomorrow's goals, limited resources are maximized with waste including time being reduced. Please feel free to contact Leanne at 219.759.5601 or visit http://www.processspecialist.com/ and explore how she can help you.

One quick question,if you could secure one new client or breakthrough that one roadbloack holding you back from success, what would that mean to you? Then, take a risk and give a call at 219.759.5601 to experience incredible results.

P.S. If you liked what you read and are unsatisfied with your article marketing results, give me a call.