However, before you run off and start writing and submitting articles, there are a few things you should understand. In fact, there are roughly six things that make up any high-quality article.

The first thing you must select when writing an article is the topic. You must find something that is not only relevant to your site, but something that provides you with sufficient material to write a compelling, current article. If you can't think of anything, try to surf forums to look for clues.

The second thing every effective article must have is a sprinkling of relevant keywords. In general, you aren't likely to receive a lot of unique visitors from the article marketing directories themselves. Over the lifespan of your article, you may only receive a few dozen. However, by leveraging the high PR of the article directory sites, you may be able to pull readers directly from the search engines to your article.

The third thing you will need in order to have a successful article is an intriguing title. If no one gets past your bad title, then no one will ever read your content no matter how good it is and no matter how long you spent writing it.

The fourth thing you will need is a call to action. You will want to work this in near the end of the article. Rather than allowing the reader to finish and then drift away, you will want to captive his attention and direct him to your resource box in the hopes that he will click thorugh.

The fifth thing you will need is a clear system of organization. You may want to consider using sub-headers or something similar to hold the attention of your readers and to keep them focused. If people lose their place in a rambling article, you can bet they'll never get to the end and click through to your site.

The sixth thing you will want to include in your article is a compelling resource box item. Generally, this consists of about 60 words that try to convince the reader to visit your site. View this as a pitch attempt. Tell the reader why he or she should visit your site, but do so without overtly trying to sell him or her something.

After observing each of these different elements, you will have a powerful article. The only thing left to do is to come up with some way in which you can submit your articles to as many directories as is possible. Generally, this consists of adopting one of two strategies. The first strategy consists of hand-submitting to all directories (or at least the higher PR ones). The second strategy consists of paying for a service to do the work for you.

If you've never done article marketing before, this article may have contained more information than you expected. If that's the case, don't worry. You don't have to memorize them all. Instead, refer back to this article and use it as a checklist whenever you work on your article marketing campaign.