Writing articles to make money is not rocket science but you will make more money faster if you do it right obviously. Here are 5 essential keys to effective article marketing. Article marketing or the distribution of articles by someone in an effort to promote themselves and their business is a great way to gain exposure for yourself, establish your expertise and drive traffic to your website.

Article marketing is simple. This is why it is something every online business owner should take advantage of. Why loose out on an opportunity to help yourself and your business? It is a great way to brand your company and a quick efficient online technique for search engine optimization.

If you are a business owner with knowledge of your field and target market and with good writing skills you can probably write your own articles to use in article marketing. However if you do not feel comfortable writing or you just feel that you do not have the time to put into doing so, and then there are other options as well.

Number 1: Like former University of Utah men's basketball Coach Rick Majerus says: "know who you are." One of the biggest questions I get is what do I write about? First, you need to know who you are. The most effective leaders know who they are. Don't try to be someone else. You can't teach what you don't know. The truth will get you real results faster.

Number 2: After you know who you are, then write what you know. Whatever you write about will make you an expert in the eyes of others. If you want to write about more topics you are not familiar with, and then simply read other articles from other experts to gain the knowledge you currently lack and then write about it yourself.

Number 3: Most people read at a 5th grade level. You do not have to compose a perfectly written article. Just write your article, get it out there and write some more.

Number 4: Share your value with the world. What does that mean? Basically, more than just writing about what you know, you must really offer solutions to other people's problems. Nothing will gain you more respect, more trust, and subsequently more customers and more money if you help other people by solving their problems by the valuable knowledge you share.

If you want to increase your value to the world, increase your knowledge. There are many article directories, newspapers and books that will give you all the knowledge you want for free.

Number 5: Lastly, the more valuable your article is, or in other words, the more problems you help solve, then the more your articles will spread. You can write one article and submit it one time to a few article directories and it will spread forever just like a virus. The more your article spreads, means the more links to your website, higher search engine rankings and more money in return.

There are a number of other strategies to implement in your articles, but following the 5 listed above is among the most important.