Article Marketing is one of the most effective methods to drive free targeted traffic to your website. Unlike pay per click advertising, which can be very expensive, writing an effective article can bring you traffic for years to come. The best way to receive your free targeted traffic is to sell your reader without really selling them.

So, you have just written a great article and submitted your article to all the leading article directories. Within a week or so you can't wait to start seeing the results of your hard work. As time goes by, not much happens and you might think that, "this article marketing doesn't work".

As an article directory owner, I often see some well-written articles that I am certain will do the writer absolutely no good. The article content could be very good but there is no call to action at the end. Many times in the article resource box I see just a link, or something like: John Doe is the author. What good did this do for John? You had the reader in the palm of your hand and you forgot the purpose of writing your article. You just gave the article directory free content, but you didn't get your free traffic. Thank You!

Ultimately after you have gained the interest of your reader, you should end with a strong conclusion. When you reader is finished they will want more information. This is where a well constructed resource box goes to work for you. Your marketing article gives your reader a teaser of the benefits and your resource box should be used to guide them where they can get more information.

Lets say you have just written an article on fishing. An example of a well constructed resource box might be something like this: If you enjoyed this article, you might also enjoy How To Catch Monster Northern Pike and more articles on How To Catch More Big Fish!

If your article is well written, you'll be guiding your highly targeted visitor towards clicking on a product offer or subscribing to your newsletter at the end of that article. Chose your hyperlinks in your resource box carefully. In the example above, your resource box is giving you two keyword rich links to your website from one article. First of all you want your reader to click on your hyperlink. The second benefit of using keyword rich links in your resource box is for the massive amount of back links that you web site will receive.

Your resource bio info can attract free website traffic by highlighting your expertise and anything you are particularly marketing with a link to relevant pages. People who wish to publish your article on their website or in their ezine must agree to keep your resource information intact.

The keys to successful article marketing are to write well and write often. You cannot simply write one or two articles and expect them to make a difference to your business. Articles are a great way to generate free website traffic but you have to submit articles on a regular basis. The result is exponential. A good rule of thumb is "an article a day will make articles pay." Having said this, make sure your resource box is contructed well and has links to relevant pages on your website or blog. A great article is one that's converts to traffic!