You also cannot control economic factors, what's going on in the marketplace, recessions, stagflation, and the like. However, you can control your efforts, as pertains to your business. You can control your article writing efforts, those content pieces you get out to the public.

To ensure that your article marketing program remains effective you have to be consistent with your article output, consistent with the quality of your articles, and consistent as a trustworthy updater of information. Doing these three things will go a long way in making your article marketing program pay dividends for your business.

Consistency in article output means writing articles on a regular basis. It means writing them, to keep your name and links distributed on the web, even when you don't feel like writing them. The reason for this is you want to get as much exposure for yourself as possible. This also means seeing your articles get into hard-copy newsletters that are widely circulated.

You do not want to send out a few articles that promote links back to your website as a one-time deal. That will not build the traffic you need. You may get a few clicks back to your site with those few articles, but it will not be regular traffic.

Regular traffic you can count on happens when readers see your articles regularly on the web. They get used to seeing your name, your links, and your writing style. They look forward to the information you provide, when you do it well. They will even seek you out. When they see that you are a regular article contributor, they know they can reference you regularly for more information. That's why you need to be consistent in your article output.

Consistency in the quality of your articles is of paramount importance. Your readers want informative, relevant, timely content that answers their questions. They do not want sales talk, or basic information that they already know. They want detailed information that enlightens and teaches them. Readers know quality when they see it.

They also know when they're being given a raw deal so-to-speak. When they read fluff, they get cranky because they know they have just spent their time to no gain. They gained no new knowledge, and received no solutions to their problems. They will not seek your articles again, or link back to your website for more information.

Why is that? The reason is that you are not a credible information supplier to them. You have not connected to them with your content. When you do not provide quality information, consistently, you lose your readers to someone else who does. That's why your article content has to be of high quality. You want readers linking back to your website, where your affiliate products are, for even more information.

Consistency as a trustworthy updater of information means getting your readers the latest news, data, and views on your area of expertise. This is different from being a consistent provider of quality articles in the sense that you go beyond basic quality.

In other words, you can provide articles full of quality content that will always help your reader concerning a subject. This is quality information that is not time-sensitive. Some products and subject areas have detailed information that is always relevant. Readers new to a subject will always need this type of content. You should write great articles to meet their needs.

However, you need others to see you as someone they can trust to keep them "in the know" about new issues concerning your subject area and products that relate to it. When your readers can trust that you will always have fresh content that speaks to them of innovations, findings, and new directions concerning the subject they're interested in, then you have a reader for life. This is where you are a trustworthy updater on top of a quality content provider. You are always giving readers new information.

Consistency in the above three areas is something you can control in your article marketing program. You are responsible for regular output. You are responsible for quality content. You are responsible for updating that content as often as needed. You control all these things and need to continue to do it to grow your affiliate business.