The concept of article marketing is to take authored content that you create and distribute it to websites in need of content. When you distribute your article, you include links back to your website (usually in the About the Author section). These links help to improve your website's link popularity and therefore search engine results.

Article marketing is most effective when you can create articles that are of value to a wide audience or targeted niche market. Keep these guidelines in mind when article marketing:

1. Use original article content. There are a variety of ways to write articles. I find the best way to generate articles that improve search engine results is to make sure its an original. There are many websites that offer PLR articles (private label rights), article wizards, and so on. Regardless of how you produce your article, make sure it is one-of-a-kind.

2. Make your articles available on your own website. As a starting point, each time you create original content, post it on you website. Google looks for and diminishes the search results of duplicate content. Therefore, it's important that you stake a claim for your content by promoting it on your website before any distribution effort.

3. Embed your keywords and keyword phrases. When writing your articles, be sure to include your keywords and keyword phrases throughout your document. Using the proper keywords is essential for website indexing and search engine optimization.

4. Write articles with a minimum of 600 words. A number of websites that accept and distribute articles will only do so if you meet article requirements such as minimum length. Many of these websites process a large number of articles and attempt to reduce spam with a minimum word count requirement of 600 words or more.

5. Use article distribution sites. By submitting your article to the largest article distribution sites you improve the likelihood of your article being repurposed by third party websites. Sites like eZineArticles.com and GoArticles.com are popular resources for webmasters seeking quality content. If webmasters find the information in your article valuable, they'll repurpose it on their own website. This viral effect can provide significant traffic to your article(s).

6. Include an About the Author section. At the conclusion of your article, be sure to include an About the Author section. This is one of the most important things you can do to build back links to your site. When other websites publish your content they are required to include this section. Make sure that multiple links to your site are present in order to build link popularity and improve your search engine result placements.

7. Be persistent. The benefits of article marketing are seen over time. As a rule of thumb, you should begin any article marketing campaign with a commitment to produce and disseminate a minimum of 10 articles. This gives you a good footprint in your area of expertise and builds a number of backlinks to your website.

Whether you're new to article marketing or are an experienced article marketer, each article you produce and distribute provides value to your website when executed correctly. Write valuable content, include an about the author section, and use article distribution websites. You'll quickly discover that article marketing is a great way to promote a product, website or service!