If you happen to be completely new to running an internet business, then you should already have heard the term article marketing. Article marketing is a way that the regular Joes like you and I can get a foothold in niche markets. You are through this form of marketing able to target interested visitors and then turn them into motivated buyers.

Article marketing is without a doubt one of the most powerful ways to promote your website. If done properly it is a highly effective way to gain targeted traffic and build backlinks. Using short, informative articles to promote a site may seem a like a lot of effort, but the return on investment can be phenomenal. So how does article marketing work?

Initially, it is going to cost you little or nothing, you if you want write your own articles and then submit them to different article directories and other websites. When submitted these sites in turn will then publish them on theirs for you. The benefit is that your site's search engine rankings will begin to rise because of the backlinks which you have gained because other sites are now using what you have written.

Article marketing is extremely viral since a single article, if well-written and targeting good keywords, can generate dozens and dozens of links back to the author's site or other designated landing page.

Another benefit that article marketing provides you with is that it allows you as a new website owner or author to build a reputation for being an authority in the niche you have selected. When someone comes across one of yours through an article directly and finds them self keen to click on your link and visit your site, then this offers you the opportunity to now develop a relationship with them. Now it is up to you to start cultivating that relationship further by offering them more content that they find relevant and address any questions, wants or needs that they may have.

At various times, you'll hear that article marketing is no longer effective or that submitting an article to hundreds of article directories does nothing more than create duplicate content and puts a site at risk of being de-indexed by the top search engines.

Putting aside any arguments for or against duplicate content for the moment, article marketing is every bit as effective as any traffic or promotional tactic touted these days. Various promotional strategies will come and go, but the strength of article marketing lies in the fact that the World Wide Web is built upon and needs fresh, relevant content continuously.

By creating content in the form of articles you will start to attract a steady stream of visitors to your site. Everyday millions of people go online looking for answers. With your articles you can place yourself in a strong position to provide the answers to their questions and convert the traffic into sales.

Article marketing today remains the one free or almost free way of being able to promote your website or product. It is the best way of being able to bring targeted traffic to you, as long as you are willing to work at it and produce consistent good quality articles over the long term.

By writing informative articles using well-researched keywords in whatever niche you select, you can gain more exposure and higher search engine rankings. But, just submitting the same article over and over to hundreds of article repositories and niche websites can dilute the effectiveness of your article marketing efforts.

In order to succeed with your article marketing you need to submit only unique versions of the articles you produce to a various websites and directories. Although this may seem somewhat daunting the results are amazing and it will be worth all the effort in the end. The risks of duplicate content are gone along with the risks of your site or product slipping in the search engine rankings. But whilst what constitutes being duplicate content is still one of the hot subjects of debate online, many of the more experienced webmasters are happy if each article they produce is different by not more than 30%.

However, the more different there is between each version of an article you submit then the better. It is important that you keep in mind that all the top search engines spiders will take numerous elements of each page into consideration as well as the whole webpage when reviewing it. So just by making 30% of small changes to your articles will be more than enough to prevent it from being completely skipped over.

Submitting unique versions of any articles you write is the best way when it comes to article marketing. Not only will you be getting more targeted traffic to your website, but the boost in your sites search engine rankings also tends to last for longer because of the backlinks built through you marketing articles which are unique.