There are two keys, and two keys only, to a successful website...content and traffic (visitors). And, while traffic can come from many sources, the best traffic comes from organic listings in Google, Yahoo, and MSN.
That is, in part, because it is free. But, even more important is the fact that people who arrive at a website after conducting a search are more apt to take action than those who are brought in via an advertisement.
It makes perfect sense. The person who visits your site after clicking on a banner or receiving an email blast may have some curiousity about what is on your site. The person who actually used a search engine to seek out pages like yours is a far more likely customer...at least 3 times as likely to become a buyer.
That is why smart website owners spend significant time and money trying to earn high search engine ranking. And, since obtaining links is critical to achieving such rankings, they are all engaged in a link building campaign of one kind or another. Generally, article marketing is a part of their campaigns because few other activities can be counted on to generate as many links as quickly. In fact, a popular article can produce dozens of links almost immediately and hundreds of links within a few weeks.
Generally, website owners write about the subjects of their websites...the subjects they know best and the areas in which they are seeking potential customers.
But, the biggest mistake website owners make, and they do it all the time, is to limit themselves to writing and distributing articles only about subjects closely related to their website content.
By writing on a limited range of topics, they limit the article directories and websites which will be interested in using their articles. And, by doing that, they limit the number of links their writing efforts will get them. As an example, I have several education sites, so my articles are most often about college admission, scholarships, online education, and similar topics. I've gotten thousands of links with these articles, but there are lots of article directories and websites that have no interest in those subjects. Thus, by writing an occasional article (like this one) on another topic, I can can a whole new audience, and a much greater number of links.
In fact, articles I have written on affiliate marketing, wagering, and great hamburger recipes have produced far more links than some of my education articles. The lesson? Don't limit yourself to a narrow range of articles. Instead, write at least 2-3 articles a month on mass appeal subjects...the extra exposure and extra links you'll get are well worth the effort.
