The basic monetization model of an article directory, if it is not paid, is to use Google Adsense ads on it. Most of the ones with paid membership options serve ads as well. I  did a simple research and noticed that there are hundreds of article directories around and most, if not all, might be making some good money with Adsense.

This idea lured me and I started thinking about creating a simple article directory site, where I could post the PLR articles I have collected up to now. Besides, I would be posting my own articles for backlink purposes and other article marketers might be interested in posting their articles on my article directory as well. For that reason, I brainstormed some domain names suitable for an article directory and checked if they were available or not. Luckily, found some good ones ready to register. But before registering the domain name, I checked the available article directory scripts.

Next step was to find a good article directory script. I didn’t want to pay a big amount for a custom created one so that I searched for free scripts in search engines and in forums. I’ve found a number of free article directory scripts and some of them had paid versions too.

What I realized after a few hours of search was that running an article directory as a business model might not be as lucrative as it first seemed to me. In most of the discussions, people told that article directories are not well performing as they were before because of the competition. Many article directory sites are opening and closing every year due to poor strategies. To be successful and make a name as an article directory, and in return make money, unique features should be offered to article writers to post articles on the directory. This idea discouraged me a bit and I realized that I will need to go with a custom build article directory script if I go on with this project.

Anyway, I made a list of article directory scripts and will talk about them briefly below for those of you who want to start an article directory business.

Article Dashboard

Article Dashboard is an article directory itself and it offers the script it uses for free as well. What I learned about this script is that it is no longer reliable and not preferred by serious people as it is open to hacks and attacks. It is really simple in design and although I will not recommend using it, for a first try, you may check how it looks and performs. The download link is here.

Article MS

Article MS is another free article management system, it seems to have a better design than article dashboard. It has different templates you can choose from and a WYSIWYG editor for article submissions. This script can also be tried, you can download it here.

Article Friendly

Article Friendly is a newer and more preferred script amongst others. It has two versions, standard for $25 and pro for $50. Most of the article directories I came across are using this script. I guess it is a good choice for someone who has a little money to invest in it. However, to distinguish from others, this is not exactly what you need.

AJ Articles

Another paid article directory script is AJ Articles, I haven’t seen much directories using this script, since it looks more like a news blog or portal rather than an article directory site. Nevertheless you may check it yourself and decide if you want to go with it.

Those were the article directory scripts that I came across during my search and I hope it helps on your decision. Just not forget that simply creating an article directory and loading it with tons of PLR content is not a wise business model anymore unless you have the time to waste.

As I came across more than one thread in forums, asking about ‘how to find high paying Adsense keywords’, I decided to create an informative post on the subject.

Before starting my post, let me tell you that you can find lots of high paying keyword lists around the internet if you search a bit. Lists of keywords with a CPC more than $50. Note that, targeting those keywords might not be a good plan to follow.

First of all, you should know that going after high paying keywords is not the best strategy most of the times, especially if you are a beginner to making money with Adsense. Those niches with high paying keywords are constantly being targeted by a great number of internet marketers, rendering the competition much tougher. Monetizing such a niche would require great effort on your side if you are not comfortable on what you are doing. Even sometimes, you may not see any return for some of the niches.

My suggestion in this case is to find your own high paying keywords for your Adsense sites. Using Google’s keyword tool, you can find high paying Adsense keywords easily. Below I will explain how I do this.

• Go to Google’s Keyword Tool

Think about a niche that you want to target or just use some seed keywords like “software”. Make a search within the keyword tool using the term “software”. And sort the results according to the “Estimated Avg. CPC” values. Check the most paying 10 or so keywords and see which ones have higher search volumes.

Choose the one with a high number of searches and that you want to target. In this case, I chose “marketing software”. Run another search using the term “marketing software”. Again, sort the result by Avg. CPC.

Did you notice the dramatic increase in the Avg. CPCs? Also, a decrease in the search volumes is observed. This is because as you go deeper, the more the search term is related to the product that is being advertised and the higher chance of monetizing the keyword for the advertiser. Same for you, as an Adsense publisher. You can now choose a keyword with high CPC value or continue digging to find better keywords. Don’t forget to check the competition before targeting any niches. Checking competition is a must after deciding about the niche. I am not going to explain how to check the competition here, maybe on another post.

You can apply this same concept to other niches as well. Now you know how to find high paying Adsense keywords easily, you can start putting up some Adsense niche sites. Good luck on that.

I have been promoting CPA offers for about one and a half month now. I am happy that I have seen some success so far. Currently I am a member of Maxbounty and I promote offers related to video games. Check my last post about My First CPA Money.

Recently I started to work on a new website which will be mostly like a freebie and offers site and I am currently working on getting more traffic to it. I decided to try other networks as having more offers will give me more flexibility and in case if something goes wrong with one network then I can continue with the other.

That’s why I applied to Adscend Media CPA network. I don’t know much about that network yet, though they approved me in one day without a phone call. I strongly advise it to the ones who are uncomfortable with the phone calls.

They require a W8 form submission before you can get paid. There are about 600 campaigns in 14 categories in this network. Payments are made via Paypal, check, direct deposit in US, and wire transfer internationally. A good feature of the network is that they have content gateway and file gateway offers. This can be really powerful if you have some websites related to content like videos, software and other files.

I think Adscend Media is a good place to start for the newbies. If you consider joining, here is my referral link to Adscend Media.

Now I am on my way to check what type of offers they have and try them on one of my websites. I’ll update you about how it goes.

I want to announce that I put on sale 5 PLR articles related to Twitter Marketing on the Digital Point Forum. You can see the details here:

5 Unique PLR Articles About Twitter Marketing

Please leave a review on the thread if you happen to buy a copy for yourself. There is a link to my Ezine Articles account on the thread so that you can see my article samples. In fact if you have been following this blog, you know about my writing. I am not an expert article writer; however, I am working on it and reading and writing a lot. You may remember my last post about My First Article on Ezine Articles, now I have 13 live articles and 596 views with a 2.6% CTR. 3 of them are published and 1 emailed.

Again, if you are going to target Twitter marketing niche, this articles will really help you.