Article marketing is not a new concept. It has been around for almost as long as the printing press. In newspapers and magazines article marketing is a mutually beneficial model, providing the print media with free content in the form of short articles related to a company’s product or service.

In return the author receives free advertising. In addition to attracting new clients, well written articles on topics in their field of expertise potentially increases the authors’ credibility within their market niche. The same benefits apply when publishing articles on the internet.

The rise of ecommerce and, in particular, the emergence of the Web 2.0 internet era has led to an increased popularity of online article marketing.

Web 2.0 contrasts with the traditional way of using the internet in that, instead of the emphasis being on resourcing information, users have become participants, providing dynamic content via blogs and personal websites and using social networks as platforms for interaction with fellow users.

Getting your articles out there:

There are a number of factors to keep in mind when writing your articles. Top of the list, both literally and figuratively – is the importance of good headlines. Catchy titles, containing relevant keywords and phrases not only capture the attention of readers but also attract search engine spiders.

Another tip is to insert embedded hyperlinks into your articles which direct potential clients to websites of your choosing. It is easy to do this, especially in a Word document. Just highlight the applicable words, right click with your mouse, click on hyperlink and type in the website address as directed. This is particularly useful if you are not publishing your articles on your own website.

Publishing articles on your website or distributing them in the form of electronic newsletters to your customers is one way of using this method to market your brand. Alternatively, you can effectively attract traffic to your website by submitting your articles to article directories such as Ezine Articles or ArticleGold, or to specialized article submission sites.

As is the case with paper based articles the directory owners benefit from the free content as well as from revenue generated by advertisements placed on each article page and the author gains free exposure. Additionally, the more articles posted, the higher the directory site is ranked by search engines which increases the value of the site for both author and owner.

If you give permission for your articles to be republished on other blogs or websites, provided your ‘bio box’ or ‘resource box’ is included (see below), you can ensure even greater visibility and garner more links to your own website.

Not all article directories allow you to include hyperlinks in your articles but most include a ‘bio box’ at the end of the article which contains information such as the name and website address of the author, the USP (unique selling proposition), and an invitation or incentive, to visit the website. In this way you create backlinks to your website and so increase the ranking of both your article and your website in the search engines.

The keywords contained in your title and in the body of your article could also be repeated in the bio box as can a number of links, although, before doing this you need to check on the submission guidelines of the Article Directory to find out whether or how many links are allowed.

Quality versus Quantity:

An unfortunate consequence of the surge in popularity of article marketing has been the poor quality of many of the articles submitted as writers try to cash in on the trend as quickly as possible. One of the mistakes made is to keep reproducing the same basic content for a number of articles, with strategic changes in the wording of the articles.

Remember your reputation as well as the growth your business is on the line here. You might get some initial response if you churn out hundreds of half-baked texts in the hopes of acquiring the backlinks you want to improve your ranking in the search engines indexes. However this will soon fizzle out.

The aim should be to produce attention-grabbing articles which others will want to publish on their websites, blogs and newsletters as this is what generates the most traffic to your site.

How do you do this? A quality article should be a reasonable length, neither too short to be able to contain anything of value, nor so long that the reader’s attention starts fading half-way through.

You need a good and relevant topic which will both appeal to your readers and showcase your expertise or product. To achieve this, even if you are an authority on your topic, you will probably have to spend some time researching your subject matter. In short, to use article marketing efficiently you need to be prepared to invest time and effort into producing original, high-quality and interesting articles.

Conclusion:

Article Marketing is an excellent tool for reaching your target market and attracting traffic to your website. However, it should not be seen as a quick fix. By consistently turning out quality articles and submitting them to a number of good article directories you will, over time, establish yourself as an expert in your field and generate a substantial amount of free traffic to your websites.