Back in 2008, I wrote a post about a desktop software tool called Article Post Robot that automated the process of submitting articles to hundreds of article directories. At the time, article directory submission was a legitimate traffic and SEO strategy. You would write an article, spin it into variations, and blast it across 460 directories and 54 mailing lists.
That entire approach is dead. Article directories are gone. Article spinning is a penalty risk. And the specific software I recommended no longer exists. But the underlying desire, using automation to scale your content distribution, is more relevant than ever.
Why the Old Approach Stopped Working
Google's Panda and Penguin algorithm updates in 2011 and 2012 demolished the article directory model. These updates targeted thin, duplicate, and low-quality content across the web. Sites that had relied on mass article submission for backlinks saw their rankings collapse overnight.
The lesson was clear: automation that creates low-quality signals is a liability, not an asset. Google got very good at identifying manipulative link-building tactics, and the penalties were severe.
Content Automation That Works in 2026
The good news is that legitimate content automation has never been more powerful. The difference is that modern automation focuses on distribution and repurposing of quality content rather than manufacturing low-quality volume.
Here is what actually works:
- AI-assisted content creation. Tools like ChatGPT and Claude can help you outline, draft, and edit content faster. The key word is “assisted.” You still need to add your expertise, experience, and voice. AI-generated content without human oversight is the 2026 version of article spinning.
- Social media scheduling. Platforms like Buffer, Hootsuite, and Later let you schedule content across multiple social channels. Write once, distribute many times in different formats.
- Content repurposing. Turn a blog post into a podcast segment, a newsletter section, a series of social posts, and a YouTube script. Tools like Descript, Opus Clip, and Repurpose.io make this workflow efficient.
- Email automation. Platforms like ConvertKit and ActiveCampaign let you build automated email sequences that deliver the right content to the right subscriber at the right time.
- RSS and syndication. Automatically distribute your podcast to Apple Podcasts, Spotify, and dozens of other platforms from a single feed.
The Principle Has Not Changed
The core idea from 2008 was sound: as a part-time entrepreneur, your time is your scarcest resource. Automation should multiply the reach of your best work. What has changed is that the automation must serve your audience, not game an algorithm.
Create something genuinely useful. Then use automation to put it in front of as many people as possible through legitimate channels. That approach worked in 2008, works in 2026, and will work for years to come.
Hi Mark,
Im use APR to submit my articles and I agree that it is not perfect but it does indeed saves a lot of time doing manual submissions.
As an aside I tried Artemis Pro and even though it said that my article had been submitted to many directories I checked a few weeks later and found that I had “zero” submissions. Not so with APR.
cheers
Tony
Mark – what are thoughts on duplicate content in terms of submitting the same exact article to numerous directories – vs. spinning an article? Thanks – and I will check the product out.
Well, I do not think that there is a “duplicate content penalty” — but I do recommend that you spin articles — including the title. You need to take care with title spinning as the title has the most to do with how popular your article is. Still, I do not see any advantage in putting 40 copies of the same thing out there when you can have 40 unique articles.
Note — you need to use a spinning approach that results in quality. I love the spinner in APR. It is totally under user control, so you can get really good quality from it.
Regards,
Mark
Mark,
Does the spinner in APR function like jetspinner does where you put alternate text in brackets for the program to choose from? I am interested in APR and never knew it had a spinning feature, this may make me buy it now!!
@IAW review — yes, there is an article spinning feature like this:
I {{love|like|really like|adore}} Article Post Robot.
That can produce any of the following four sentences:
I love Article Post Robot.
I like Article Post Robot.
I really like Article Post Robot.
I adore Article Post Robot.
Regards,
Mark
Awesome,
Have you been using it long and have you noticed a benefit from it?
I currently manually submit to ezinearticles, articledashboard, goarticles and articlecube. I was hoping to get a little more traffic from a few more directories, i referenced your directory list and saw a few good ones.
Also if you added the minimum word requirements the article directories require to your top article directory list that would be a nice bit of info to have at a glance!
Yes — I use the spinner and it works great. It is hard to measure how much it helps, but I expect that it does. This may be especially true in the case of title spinning where you can hit some of the very long tail keywords and get some clicks into your site.
Regarding manual submission — you will love the semi-automatic mode of APR. That is the mode that I use.
Note that APR does not work with ALL directories (Buzzle is the best example), but it does work with hundreds of them. I have gotten to the point that I simply will not submit to directories that are not compatible with APR.
Regarding min word requirements — I agree. However, I am trying to keep the list completely automated, and I cannot figure out how to update info like that automatically. Thanks for the suggestion though. I will look at it.
Regards,
Mark
Sorry if this gets posted twice. I got an error message the first time.
But, I purchased the product and have loved it.
I do believe that Buzzle is an article directory that is worth publishing to manually. They are ranked right up there with Ezinearticles.
I’ll be downloading the update.
I have used Article Post Robot for a while now. I think it is a fantastic piece of software, especially since the update. It doesn’t take long to setup your project prior to selecting it to ‘Start Robot’! This really does save LOADS of time. I set it to submit one article every 3 minutes.
I used to use the spinning function in the software which I thought was great. I have since though developed my own online article creator which is called Article Writer Pro. I tend to use that now to create my unique articles as the uniqueness is very high compared to some other spinning software which I use. I’m still offering some free accounts if anyone is interested in beta testing this for me.
Anyway, getting back to APR as my intention isn’t to spam this blog! Another good piece of software which works brilliantly with APR is Brad Callens Article Spinner. You can use that to quickly produce hundreds of unique variations of one article and then load them into APR which literally takes seconds. APR will then randonly submit the articles one at a time relative to your settings.
All in all a great tool for article marketing!
Andy
Thanks for the great review. So how long on average would it take to submit to 100 article directories that are compatible with the software? I am just curious how semi-automatic this software is. I am trying to find an article submitter software that is pretty automatic, that won’t take tons of time to submit to 100 article directories. Any advice on this would be great.
Thanks again,
Paul
You are welcome. APR is not perfect, but it is the best I have found to date (and I have not tried every submitter out there).
I do like the semi-automatic mode. It takes about 10-20 seconds per site. There is a fully automatic mode, but I don’t use it. You could (it works) — but I like to verify things.
My recommendation would be to pick one that you think that you might like and try it. If you don’t like it, return it. I know APR is good about honoring refunds — so I think that is a pretty safe bet if you are just wanting to try it and see if it meets your needs.
OK, so which top 20 article directory sites does it NOT submit to.. I like to focus on the negative. LOL. Buzzle is one of them so is Amazines there too they look similar.
Also, can the spun/reworded efforts be zippe dos I can use elsewhere?
Thanks
Hey Eddie — you have hit on my major complaint with APR (missing top-20 directories). Once upon a time, there was a list on the APR web site. Let me know if you cannot find it and I will try.
I am currently evaluating some similar software that may replace APR as my article marketing tool of choice. As for your second question, I don’t think so (but I have never tried).
If you are interested to hear about the tool I am evaluating, please drop me an email (mark at masonworld dot com).
Thanks!
Mark
Hi,
I love this idea of this software but I have a mac and it is for pc only. What else do you reccomend I could use to submit my articles to sites that is automated for mac?
Please, does this program works with mac?
Thanks!
Hey Mark,
The discount still works as i just bought from your link. Only thing that sucks is I have to wait for them to activate my account..I was hoping to use it ASAP!
hello
i cant use APR to post on articleMS powered sites.
the support email never answers…
anybody knows about a forum where i can post questions about APR?
if the article post robot support reads this, please get in contact…
Is there a mac version of APR? I know I can use software like VMware, but I don’t have a windows install disc. Any help would be appreciated.
Sorry — no mac version. I can confirm that the software runs well under VMWare (that is how I use it). I know that does not solve your problem, but if you ever go in that direction, at least you know it will work.
How do you contact APR administrators? I Have been emailing them at help@articlepostrobot and have gotten no response. I cannot find a phone number or contact information. I have APR…Haven’t used it in a while…now when I login is says my account is invalid and I cannot reach anyone to help rectify this problem…any suggestions??