Articles


Article Marketing: How and Why it Works

by Tom Cromlento

"Article marketing" is a phrase used to describe publishing your own written articles on separate websites, including blogs and electronic magazines. There is most often no compensation, except that beneath your article, in a "resource box," brief information about yourself and links to your own website may be included.

Article marketing is useful for establishing a website as an authority, to generate leads and to increase the visitors to your side and to increase its search engine rank. The popularity can be proven by the fact that many softwares and websites are available to distribute articles to a large number of websites.

Usually for under ten dollars, some websites will redistribute an article to many other distribution lists. These lists may then distribute your article even further. Search engines can then more easily find your article when searches are performed. This becomes a very cost effective way to distribute your message and to increase your search rankings.

However, article marketing can be for anyone with an area of expertise who can write well, not just internet marketers. For nearly any topic, there's a website devoted to it, readers who are looking for new information, and webmasters who would love to publish exciting new content. Free articles are an easy way for a webmaster to spice up their sites.

Also important to article marketing is search engine optimization or SEO. A publisher needs to have a thorough understanding of how search algorithms work and be familiar with commonly used search terms. This will help the publisher determine which websites would be the best to place a particular article, helping to ensure the site visitors are actually looking for the information the article has to offer.

Remembering SEO does not necessarily point to publishing more searchable information, though. A webmaster might sometimes incorporate SEO into the structure, presentation, and coding of a site during its development phase, so that it may be more appropriately indexed by search engines. Unique content might also be considered for inclusion, as it is readily indexed by search engines, and simultaneously appeals to visitors.

Having your own article published online is a smooth path toward your expertise becoming recognized. A good piece remains on-topic, is clear and user-friendly, and assists the reader somehow. Many websites will not display your writing if it conspicuously promotes your product or service, so plugging should definitely not be the primary focus. The most profitable compositions best satisfy the unique needs of the webpage's visitors.

Published February 19th, 2007

Filed in Advertising, Business, Communication, Ecommerce