One of the easiest ways to market your writing is by using article marketing. Article marketing is essentially writing articles and posting them to online directories to promote your business.

Yes, you're writing free articles! However you are writing them as a form of advertising -- advertising which promotes your business and gets you writing jobs.

Here are five tips which will help you to get started with article marketing.

1. Your name is your most valuable asset as a writer

Name recognition leads to sales. This is why companies spend millions of dollars on advertising just to brand their name.

You must promote your name. One of the easiest ways is via article marketing. People who see your name on articles and realize that the quality of your articles is high, will hire you to write articles and other material for them.

2. Articles let you promote your name and your services

Advertising is very expensive, and when you stop advertising you stop receiving the benefits. Articles are a form of free advertising which will keep on promoting you forever online.

With each article you write your name will become better known. All marketing is cumulative, so the more articles you write the more writing jobs you will get.

3. Write articles for your customers, not for other writers

One of the biggest mistakes you can make in article marketing is writing for other writers, rather than for clients. Other writers can't hire you, but business people and editors can.

Here's an example. Let's say you want to be hired by a computer magazine. How could you draw editors' attention? Just write a series of free articles about computers -- or whatever aspect of computers you want to write about -- and your name will soon become known to computer magazine editors without you having to do anything else at all.

The big benefit of article marketing is that it brands you as an expert. All editors and other buyers of your writing want to hire experts to write for them, so article marketing is a great strategy, no matter who you want to write for.

4. Article marketing is free, and more effective than job hunting

Many freelance writers spend hours every week hunting to writing jobs.

How much is your time worth? If you're making $100 an hour, that's what it's worth. So if you spend five hours a week hunting for writing jobs, you've just lost $500.

If you write five articles a week, those articles will keep on working for you for years, and you will have people contacting you to write for them.

5. Post your articles on your own Web site

Here's a final tip. Post your articles on your own website, as well as posting them to article directories. The more content you have on your website, the more often your site will be found in the search engines.