Why Article Marketing?

The demand for quality content online never ceases. Smart webmasters realize that by providing this quality content and giving permission for other webmasters to republish their articles results in an excellent opportunity to expose their website to their target audience.

Each article that you write and distribute gives you the chance to plug your site or newsletter in the about the author section. You can typically link directly to your site, and sometimes even can use HTML and link your primary keywords in the anchor text. This gives you some nice, relevant backlinks. It's not uncommon to receive thousands of unique backlinks for each article submitted, as over time your article will continue to be picked up for redistribution by other webmasters.

That's why article marketing is so popular; it's a winning situation all around. Other webmasters can add your quality articles to their sites for free, and you get exposure and links. Everybody is happy.

But I can't write!

Writing a good article is actually surprisingly easy, especially if you are already an expert on your topic. Articles only need to be about 300 - 500 words, and be well written and without spelling and grammatical errors. Even if you are trying to write about a topic that you are not as familiar with, you have options.

Many webmasters outsource the creation of articles. If you visit any web freelance site, such as elance.com, you can usually find someone to write articles for you on any topic for between ?$10 to $40? per article. As with anything, buyer bewares. It's best to give a prospective writer a small assignment first of only a few article to get a feel for the quality of their writing. Remember, the articles that you submit are representing you and your website. Quality matters.

How and Where to Submit Articles?

So, you have written your article, checked it for spelling and grammar and its ready to go...now what? You need to distribute your article to Article Directories, Article Announcement Lists and you can even submit your article directly to industry specific sites.

Many article marketers find that using article submission software can speed up the time it takes to submit your articles. Article submission software also can help with the "where do I submit to?" question as well. The article submission sites and announcement lists are pre loaded with directories and other sites that accept submissions. You can also add your own sites to the list.

I highly recommend using an article submission software package to submit your articles. The time savings alone is substantial. Personally, I use the article submission software to submit to the "basic" directories & portals. Then, I go to Google and type in my topic and "submit article". Usually, I will have tens or even hundreds more sites that cater specifically to the niche I am promoting. I then submit to those niche sites as well. This technique is not something I see being widely done, however, so there's a good tip for you!

The traffic from articles submitted to niche sites as well as the directories is substantially higher than the traffic from articles submitted to directories alone.

There you have it. Marketing your website with articles is a great way to get traffic, links and expose your website to new visitors. It's easier than it sounds, even for those that think they can't write. Just try it! Chances are you will be adding Article marketing to your standard internet marketing box of tricks.