Hi Dorian,
Having done both (ezine advertising and article marketing), I'll throw my two cents in.
Ezine Marketing
Generally, ezine adverts are
much shorter than an actual article. This is because ezine publishers limit their adspace so their readers aren't overwhelmed by them.
If you can get your article picked by an ezine, then it's a great opportunity to reach a large and targeted audience at no cost. Many ezine publishers do accept free submissions but don't guarantee your article will be run, otherwise, they spend some time searching free article directories and other resources for their content.
In most cases, the ezine publisher usually writes her own content/articles.
The success of an ezine advert will depend greatly on the list you're sending it to. How was it gathered? Are the readers active? Do they trust the ezine publisher? How are the ads displayed in the ezine? All of this, and more will determine whether you'll be wasting money or not.
Personally, I'd rather save my money and do article marketing. My two attempts at ezine advertising didn't pan out, however, I didn't spend that much to begin with so I'm not bitter about it.
My recommendation, if you're going to advertise in an ezine, is to subscribe to the ezine and read a few issues to get a feel for it. You can learn a lot about the publisher this way.
Article marketing
The idea behind article marketing is to write quality articles that will be submitted to various free article directories. You have nothing to worry about regarding duplicate content penalties
as long as you don't republish it on your own website in the exact form you submitted it.
You can still publish an article on your website, simply make sure that you rewrite/reword it so it's not picked up for duplicate content. Other marketers would suggest publishing the article on your own site first, then submitting it to the directories after 30-60 days.
Your earnings will come from affiliate recommendations that you place in your bio box. (Some article directories don't allow straight affiliate links, therefore, you must first set up a landing page on your own site.)
If you're brand new to article marketing, I would highly recommend signing up for the
Bum Marketing course. It's helpful, gives you some good tips, and get you off in the right direction.
Press releases
Press releases are another subject altogether. If not done properly, you could end up losing money, your release could end up buried before anyone has a chance to read it, or it may simply be rejected before it's released.
While press releases are great for exposure and (if done properly) SEO, they do require a different style of writing.
I'd recommend reading Alice Seba's
Press Release Profits and also downloading the
New Rules of PR ebook.
Hope I've helped,
~ Teli