The whole reason webmasters and business owners use article marketing is to plug their website and get a higher click through rate. What some people don't realize at first is that you can't outright talk about your business or products within the body of an article that you are submitting to an article directory. The body of the article needs to remain strictly informational.

An article must provide information that is useful to a reader; information beyond introducing a company, website, product or service. Article marketing is about educating readers, rather than making a sale. For example, if you sell lawn care products on your website, write an article about the seven steps to a healthy lawn, instead of writing about the lawn care products you carry.

Publishers Don't Want Promotional Articles

Publishers are often overwhelmed with articles that contain promotional plugs and ads, and will reject articles that point to an external source unless it's in the resource (About the Author) box. They don't have the time to sort through every article and remove embedded links and lengthy sales pitches.

Remember, publishers are looking for informative content for their readers. They do not want articles that promote a particular business or website. This type of thing greatly limits the number of times it is published anywhere else.

Try to answer questions about your area of interest and develop a reputation as a subject matter expert. Show readers that you really know your stuff and they will come to you when they need something. Save the promotional stuff for your About the Author box.

The Purpose of Content for Article Directories

You might wonder where your articles go once they are submitted to an article directory. The truth is that the better the article, the more places it will end up. You have to follow a few simple rules in order to get your article picked up by a wide variety of publishers though. First you need to remember the purpose of the content article. Keep your focus on providing quality information to your target audience about your niche topic. Never stray from your topic or give in to the temptation to plug your own business within the article.

Even though you can put links within the article, all self-promoting information can be plugged into the about the author box when you're submitting to a directory. The good news is that that information is also carried with your article where ever it is posted on the Internet.

The whole idea behind writing articles and submitting them to directories is to sell with the information and really knocked our socks off. If you do a good job and you really catch their interests, they will click on your website link and that's where you can give them a hard sell on your products or services.