Updated 2026: This post launched a multi-part video tutorial series about Automatic Article Submitter, article marketing software that automated the process of submitting content to article directories. Both the software and the article directory model are completely defunct. But the underlying strategies I discussed, particularly article marketing as a traffic source and the concept of bum marketing, contain lessons that are still worth examining.
Why I Was Excited About Article Marketing Software
In 2009, article marketing was one of the most accessible ways to drive traffic to a website. You wrote articles about topics in your niche, submitted them to directories, and included a link back to your site in the author bio. The directories got free content to publish, you got backlinks and traffic. Simple, effective, and free.
The problem was that manual submission was incredibly time-consuming. Registering for dozens of directories, formatting articles to meet each one's requirements, and managing the submission process could eat up an entire evening. That is where tools like Automatic Article Submitter came in. The software automated the tedious parts, letting you focus on creating the content itself.
I was a genuine believer in this tool and the article marketing strategy it supported. I had seen real results using article marketing to drive traffic, including a memorable experiment where I drove hundreds of visitors to a sales page about chicken coops just to prove it could be done in any niche.
The Bum Marketing Concept
The tutorial series was built around a bum marketing experiment. Bum marketing was the idea that you could make money online with absolutely no investment. You did not need a website, a product, or even an email list. You just needed to write articles that ranked in search engines and included affiliate links.
I was inspired by Jennifer from PotPieGirl.com, who laid out exactly this approach when asked what she would do if she had to start from scratch with nothing but a computer. Her answer was to create content aggressively and use article marketing to generate seed money.
The bum marketing approach worked in 2009, but it had a fatal flaw: you were building on rented land. When article directories collapsed after Google's Panda update in 2011, everything built on that foundation disappeared.
What Replaced Article Marketing
The core principle of article marketing, creating content to attract traffic, is the foundation of modern content marketing. The execution has changed completely:
- Publish on your own platform first. Your blog, your YouTube channel, your podcast. Build assets you own and control.
- Optimize for search intent, not just keywords. Modern SEO rewards content that genuinely answers questions and solves problems, not content that is engineered to game algorithms.
- Quality over quantity. One deeply researched, well-written article is worth more than fifty thin directory submissions. Google rewards depth, originality, and genuine expertise.
- Build an email list. The biggest lesson from the article directory era is that you need to own your relationship with your audience. An email list gives you a direct line of communication that no algorithm change can take away.
The Bottom Line
I do not regret the time I spent on article marketing. It taught me how to write for a specific audience, how to think about keywords and search intent, and how to drive traffic to offers. Those skills translated directly to modern content marketing. The tools died, but the lessons survived.
For more on content strategy and building online businesses, subscribe to the Late Night Internet Marketing podcast on Apple Podcasts.
Hi Mark, nice introductory video. What would you say is the primary feature/benefit for this product in comparison to e.g. UAW?
/Mikael
I can try to answer some of that for you Mikael. First off, AAS is a one time payment so that is probably the best benefit of all. Second, AAS submits to less sites than UAW, however the sites that AAS submits to seem to be a lot more professional and many of them have better page rank. That’s all I can think of right now…lol – The one time payment is probably the best. I’m sure Mark has tons of additional points to add. I would go and read the sales pages of both products and make a comparison that way too.
Thanks Rhanedell — I missed this comment completely.
Clearly the major advantage of AAS over UAW is price.
I have not looked at UAW lately, so hard for me to comment fairly on features.
Regards,
Mark
Mark, I bought Milan’s product when it first came out and I did not give it much time and requested my money back. He was very gracious and refunded right away. I think I pulled the trigger on that refund too quick. I’m going to watch your videos to learn more how to use product and probably will repurchase through you. Keep videos coming. thanks
Good to know John — thanks!
Hi Mark, I love your video style, keep them coming. 🙂
I purchased AAS and am in the midst of really cranking it up, I know it’s going to be awesome hitting those ‘auto’ features. 🙂 Your video series is very timely and I’m looking forward to the next segment.
Michelle.
Like Michelle – bought it a little while ago, used it a bit and liked it. But I’ll be watching your videos in the hope of learning all of its features more quickly. I will be interested too in your comments about article spinning – I read that its not really necessary…
Hi Mark.
Finally! Some VDO’s on AAS. Like others here I have already purchased it, and really haven’t gotten around to using it. I think your offering a fantastic deal. The Bonus you offer is a real nice kicker. To be honest with you. If I didn’t own AAS now I would buy it today from your link.
Just for anyone reading these comments. I use AAS on a iMac running Parallels with Windows XP. I have a lot of RAM so the Windows runs almost as fast as my native Mac OS.
Moving on.
Mark, the sound and the VDO quality on full-screen mode is really good-I have a 24″ desktop. I’ve seen some uTube vdo’s where the resolutions are too poor for full-screen mode. I hope you don’t change it.
Today (9 Jun 2009 Japan time), I got your email about this VDO. When I went to the order page I noticed that people had to order by 31 May. When I clicked on the order the price was still at the special deal you were offering. So I’m thinking maybe you mean 30 Jun. Anyhow, it may cause some confusion.
Also, I have always had problems ordering through Plimus, your sales cart. With another product from another person I was unable to change the ‘default’ Japanese to English as well as the “default’ Yen to USD. I don’t know if this is just my IP, but if I had to order today, I couldn’t because I need the English and I use a US Credit Card. Problem is my computer and I live under a Japanese Maple tree here in Japan and many cyber sites recognize only a Computer’s IP address, not the nationality of the operator.
One of the minor draw backs of living your dreams overseas in a foreign country 🙂
Hope this helps.
PS: That other person, by the way, had to email me a special link that would go to the PLimus “English” – “USD” site.
Would like to know why you would choose this ove UAW??
Thanks.
Hi Mark, Thanks for the info on this system. I’m currently writing an ebook on goal setting and plan to use article marketing as a primary marketing tool, so this is great info. I look forward to seeing more. Just a note on Wealthy Affiliate. I’m pretty new to the world of internet marketing and their 8-week self-study program has been very helpful. I recommend it to anyone who’s new and especially anyone who plans to focus on affiliate marketing.
Great intro to AAS, you have a good voice and style of presentation Mark, keep it up…Great stuff!
Great Video Mark Thanks! The only thing that make AAS better is some great tutorial videos for AAS. I can’t wait to see future videos.
Take care
Joe
@Mikeal — Thanks for the comments. I am not a UAW subscriber. One obvious difference is the $67/Month for UAW versus $87 (current pricing) for AAS. My understanding is that you can get a ton of low authority links with UAW — AAS is focused on stronger article directories only. Milan has intentionally filtered his list. So, the are somewhat different in that regard. As far as spinning, you can emulate the UAW spinning method in AAS.
@John — the product has been improving almost on a daily basis. So, you may be pleasantly surprised if you give it another try. In any case, the refund guarantee is rock solid as you mention.
@Michelle. Thanks for the nice comments. Next segment tonight unless something weird happens.
@Charles — I don’t think spinning in necessary for backlink generation at the moment. But if you want to rank the same content for the same keywords multiple times on the same page, you will have to spin. Also, if I were google, I would be trying to figure out how to suppress duplicate content. So, while they probably cannot do it very well at the moment, I think they wish they could. So, spinning now seems like insurance to me.
@Renata — I am not a UAW user, but my first reaction is cost. I am not sure I could get $67/month forever more value out of UAW compared to AAS. Again, I am not a UAW user.
@Ken — thanks for the comments. The videos are recorded at 640 x 480, FYI. Glad you are OK with the quality. As for Pilmus, that is the developers (Milan’s) choice, not mine. Having said that, it has been working pretty well here. Thanks for the tip about language — I will pass that on to Milan. As the affiliate, I am happy to help you get a copy of the product through a special link or whatever you need. Just let me know how I can help.
@Valerie — Thanks for your comments about WA — I have not really had a chance to dig in over there, but I was very impressed on first glance.
@Anthony — thanks so much. Stay tuned!
Some of you have noted that the special pricing on my sales page expired May 31 — but the price is still valid if you click through to the order form. Milan is in the process of reworking pricing for the product, and I have asked him to extend the $87 deal. No details yet on how long, or what the plan will be — but I will let you know.
@Mark, that is a very valid point that UAW is a monthly subscription in comparison. It is also true that you’ll get a lot of low quality links but one of the great features is that you’ll have your articles posted on many individual blogs (with decent PR) because of their free plugin (which I can recommend BTW if anyone needs automated content).
I have a few more questions if you don’t mind:
1) Is there anywhere that I can find a video of this software in action (showing me the entire process)?
2) Do you know if anyone has created a case study using this product?
3) Do you know whether the software has some kind of update/upgrade for life or similar policy?
Sorry for all the questions but I’m sure I’m not the only one wondering. 🙂
/Mikael
Thanks for the video. I look forward to watching the rest of the videos and seeing what happens with the Bum Marketing Strategy.
Thanks, great video Mark. I always learn something new on your blog!
You are quite welcome Mike — Video 2a is now live, but the way.
http://www.masonworld.com/internet-marketing/automatic-article-submitter-tutorial-part-2a/
Ah….nice! AAS seems to be excellent and here’s a great tutorial. I think this thing is like the holy grail for everyone doing article marketing. Thanks!!
hi Mark, thanks for the great tutorials and I’m tempted to give it a try after reading your insights. However, it would be very much appreciated if you could answers a couples of questions:
1. Can I add more articles directories in it?
2. Can it generate any kind of reports (do let me see the acceptance rate..etc..)
3. Is there any other articles submission tools available in the market you would recommend over this?
Thanks and Regards,
Lee
Lee — thanks.
Yes, you can ad more directories. Yes, there is some reporting on submission success rate. No, this is currently my favorite tool (but I have not tried them all, LOL).
Well done Mark,
very nice video introduction and presentation
of the product. Will add this to my review site.
Kind Regards
Kazooli
How does this compare to Unique Article Wizard. This software submits a unique version of your article to 1000’s of article directories. This is 67.00 a month. I have been to a couple of review websites and came across your website. UAW lets you set up Pseudnames for different accounts.
Now Article Marketer does the same thing but just one name per profile.
Now how does this compare with your article submission.
Would love to hear your comments,
Mark
Take care,
Ray
ZOMG my hair fell out
Hi Mark. I’ve been looking online for help with the Automatic Article Submitter. I purchased the software almost two weeks ago now and it has been a total disaster. I couldn’t get the program to load, and when I did I ended up with two version: neither one works. I cannot add articles, spin, or submit. I’ve begged for help from Milan with multiple emails. No response. I’m sure the program is great – when it works!
However I cannot endorse it because of the poor support from the developer…..
Great video, looking forward to future ones!
That’s a good article about Automatic Article Submitter Tutorial | MasonWorld Late Night …. Thanks for the info.
AAS is very great software and this great video tutorial is very useful…thanks for great tutorial.
Glad you liked it — thanks!
TERRIBLE CUSTOMER SUPPORT FROM ARTICLE SUBMITTER
It would be nice if someone from the article submitter support desk there would respond to emails when their customers have problems with the tool.
I’ve submitted 5 emails asking for assistance – and have not had 1 response back. Not only that – but the “article ideas” tool that is included – had a trojan virus attached to it that my antivirus picked up – so it won’t work.
Tammy
Hey Tammy — sorry you are having trouble. Please put in a ticket at my help desk with the details, and I will try to assist.
Thanks,
Mark
http://www.masonworld.com/support
Thanks, Mark – for offering better customer service than the developer for this AAS.
I’ve actually grown very frustrated (when I had to reformat my computer, I lost all of my emails thanks to a corrupt USB drive – so lost your reply to my post) with Milan and Automatic Article Submitter and have finally put in a refund request.
When it works – it’s a great program – but when it doesn’t work – when things are supposed to back up and they don’t back up correctly (and I’m not a novice a backing up things – or working with software or programs) – when a person can’t get a response back from the ‘support desk’ – just do an google search on automatic article submitter reviews or support and you’ll be amazed at how many people have this same complaint.
Anyway – I’ve given up and am trying something new….
Article Submissions is a great way to promote products but it takes some time ;*-
Hi! I’ e noticed that you do not have AAS in your recommended resources page. Do you still use and recommend AAS or article marketing in general?
Ruth