Article Marketing Primer

Article marketing has been proven to work to drive traffic to websites. Article marketing has been used by website and online business owners since the Internet's early days and it is still being used today because it's an Internet marketing tool that works.  Article marketing, when done right, can bring targeted visitors to your site for years as well as create valuable backlinks to your website that the search engines love.

So how exactly does article marketing work? In a nutshell, you create articles and make them available for other sites to publish in exchange for a link back to your site.  Ideally, you want to offer articles that are different from the articles that you already have on your site. The more high quality and unique articles you make available for others to use, the better your chances of getting backlinks and traffic to your site.  n addition, you'll be able to establish yourself as an expert in your field. If done right, your article marketing efforts may lead to website owners seeking you out for your views or interviewing you for your expertise.

To begin an article marketing campaign, the first thing you need to do is create a few articles. An ideal length is between 300 and 600 words. If you don't have the time to write the articles yourself or you don't think you can write, you can still use article marketing by hiring a writer to ghostwrite your articles. When writing your articles, make sure that you are offering useful information and advice, not ads in disguise. Put yourself in the shoes of the people who may want to use your articles in their own website or online publication. You wouldn't use an advertisement disguised as an article, nor would you publish an article on your site that contains zero useful information.  If you are looking to increase your site's ranking in the search engines, carefully target your keywords and make sure they are incorporated well in the articles you write. Make sure that your articles are still readable and flow well. You want to create keyword articles that are still reader friendly.

Your articles aren't done until you do a final proof on it. Spend some time re-reading your articles and proofreading it for typographical and grammatical errors. Make sure your articles are ready-to-publish. If you are trying to build a reputation as an expert, your articles should be professional and have no glaring errors. When you have your article written and proofread, it's time to find sites to submit your articles. You can try finding specific websites and contacting their owners about possibly publishing your articles, but this can be rather time-consuming. There is an easier, quicker option: article directories.

Article directories let you submit and post your articles for free. Other website owners and e-zine publishers can pick up your articles from article directories for publication.

There are literally hundreds of article directories out there, but the most popular article directories are:

- ArticleAlley.com
- ArticleDashboard.com
- Buzzle.com
- EzineArticles.com
- GoArticles.com
- SearchWarp.com

Or for a small fee, you can use iSnare to distribute your articles for you to the different article directories and lists.

There is one very important thing you must remember when you are submitting your articles to article directories: Don't forget to add your resource box at the end of each article. You can create different resource boxes for your articles, but keep them short and direct to the point.  The resource box carries your name, short bio and a link to the website or any other URL where you want readers to go after reading your article.

Back to: Toronto Marketing Company