Here is an excellent question that I get sometimes: "Is it okay to submit the same article to multiple article submission sites?"

Sometimes people are afraid to do this, and that fear is completely unfounded. Let’s start by looking at the purpose of an article directory.

Article submission sites (aka article directories) are like libraries. They specialize in having content (free reprint articles) on all sorts of topics that can be "checked-out" for free, like in a library.

The difference is that with a library you need to bring the book back eventually, whereas the articles on directories do not need to be "returned".

Publishers go to the article directories looking for content for their websites. They find an article that they like, and they may reprint that article for free, with the agreement that they will also republish the resource box with its link.

The purpose of an article submission site is to provide free reprint articles for publishers. Each article can be republished a limitless number of times–the more the better.

When you publish your article on a directory, you want it to be republished. That is how you build links, and building links impacts your search engine ranking, which in turn impacts the traffic you receive to your website.

So, article directories are never meant to be the end of the line–you do not publish there thinking that it will be the only place that your article will be published. That is not how article marketing works.

The power behind article marketing is in the republication of the articles.

You write one article, and it gets republished many times. You submit your article one time to a directory, and then let’s say 100 publishers find your article on that directory and put it on their site.

So, from one article submitted to one directory, you created 101 links–the first link came from the directory itself, when you submitted your article there. The other 100 links were the result of publishers finding your article on the directory and republishing it.

Let’s go back to the original question–is it alright to submit the same article to multiple article directories?

The answer is "yes", and you will benefit greatly if you take the initiative to do that.

If you submit your article to one submission site, then you are totally dependent on the results that that one directory can bring. You do that one submission and you wait, and wait, and wait. Kind of passive, isn’t it?

But, if you submit your article to several directories, then you have helped your cause in two ways:

1 – You are automatically building more links by submitting to more sites. Submit your article to one directory, and you know for sure that you have build one backlink. Submit your article to ten directories, and you know for sure you have build ten new links.

2 – You multiply the opportunities for your article to be picked up for publication, which also multiplies your opportunities for building backlinks.

For example, submit your article to one directory, and then 100 publishers republish your article. That makes a total of 101 backlinks for you as a result of publishing that one article on that one directory.

Not bad, but what if you submitted your article to ten directories with the same result–101 backlinks build as a result of publishing on each site. That’s a big increase, isn’t it?

Would you rather have 101 new backlinks or 1,010?

When you submit your articles to more directories, you drastically increase the number of links that you can create.

Article directories are not expecting that they will be the only website that contains your article–the very purpose of an article submission site is to propagate the republication of articles.

Each article that you write should only be submitted one time to each directory, but you can submit that same article to as many directories as you like.