Article marketing is a great, low-cost way to get the word out about your business and/or website. There are many different article directories to which you may submit your articles. And while they are all free to submit to, the cost is going to be your time. It will take time to craft your articles in such a way that they are easily readable and that they provide value to people looking for information in your niche. It will also take time to join the directories and submit your articles.

The best plan of action in this regard is to join several of the top-rated directories and submit multiple articles to them, as opposed to joining a lot of directories and submitting only a few articles to each. You will need to write quite a few articles in order for this to be truly beneficial for you. A good goal to shoot for is to write 30-50 articles per niche. The articles don't have to be extremely long, although, you don't want them to be too short, either. A nice-sized article for directories will be somewhere in the neighborhood of 400 words.

Each article you write should relate in some way to your business. For example, if you sell soap, you could write about the best way to make soap in your own kitchen. Or if you are a life coach, you could write an article about keeping yourself motivated. Each one of your articles will have a resource box, or bio box, at the bottom of it, telling a little bit about you and also linking to one or more of your sites. When people choose to publish your article on their sites, they must keep that resource box intact, and the links clickable. And therein lies the gold for you. It is really a win-win situation for you 'and' the publisher. They get great content from an expert to publish on their site, and you get links back to your site.

Another important thing that you get from article marketing, if I can back up a little bit, is the chance to 'establish' yourself as an expert in your field. The more that you can show people that you really know what you are talking about, and the more information that you are willing to share freely with them, the more people will truly see you as an expert.

Another benefit to article marketing is that your prospective customers can really get a feel for you. They start to feel as if they know you. This helps to build up trust, and the more that people trust you, the more likely they are to actually 'become' your customer. You just need to make sure that your articles are not sales letters. Write your articles with the intention of helping people solve problems, and you will be as good as gold in their eyes. Your resource box will lead them to your sites, if they so choose, and that is where you can do your selling.

Anyone with a presence online can use article marketing to drive traffic to their sites, not just online retailers. For instance, it is a great way for bloggers to gain attention on other areas of the web than they normally do. Non-profit groups, like animal rights websites, could even use it to get more eyeballs, and hopefully hearts, on their causes! Article marketing can help anyone to gain credibility, visibility, and build their online presence.

Please visit Great Articles for Moms to submit your articles and also to get great reprint material focusing on moms and the things they do. Our article directory is strictly moderated and includes articles on women's interests, working at home, parenting, product reviews and more. Great Articles for Moms is proud to be a part of the WAHM community and continues to look for ways to give back to the great folks that submit articles to our directory.