What is Article Marketing
What is article marketing and why is it used? This question is frequently asked of me by people who have not been involved in internet marketing for very long, and do not understand the use of the word ‘marketing’ in this context. In fact article marketing is the use of articles to market your website and the products on it. Articles in themselves cannot achieve much: it is the distribution of them to a large number of article directories that can be effective. The reasons for this will be explained later, but first let us look at the procedures involved in an effective article marketing campaign. You first have to decide on a topic for the article, and a keyword to promote that topic. It is important that the keyword and the topic also relate to a specific page on your website. If the subject of your site is jewellery and you do not have a page on that site that is specifically devoted to sapphires, do not write an article about sapphires. This also will shortly become clear. What is a keyword? It is not a word that refers to the content of your website. A keyword has nothing to do with your website. It is, in fact, a search term used by a customer of a search engine. Take Google for example. Google’s customers are not those that use Google for advertising, they are the people who use Google to make an internet search. They make that search using words and phrases that they think describe their problem.If they want to learn about article marketing, for example, they might type in ‘what is article marketing’, and will be provided with a list of web pages that Google calculate to best answer the question. The purpose of article marketing is to get among the web pages displayed on the first page, of which there are only ten. When you choose a keyword for an article or a web site you should try to judge what keywords Google’s customers will use to get to your web page. Google list web pages, not complete websites, and one site can have several listings in Google. Once you have chosen a suitable keyword for the content of a particular page in your website, write an article around it. The next stage is your ‘author’s resource box’, sometimes called ‘bio’, ‘sig’ or ‘signature’. This is where article directories allow you to add some personal information and a link to your website. Some directories allow you to include html and some do not. You are not allowed to use this as a direct advertisement, but you can direct the reader to click on your link to find more information.If html is not allowed you can only provide your URL. If it is, however, you can use anchor text to direct the customer to a page within your site. This lets Google associate the text with your website, and improves your web page listing. Having completed your resource box, the article can work to get you traffic in two or three different ways.Firstly, if you have written a good article, your reader may click to your website for more information. This is the direct way to get visitors. Once you have submitted your article to a number of directories, you will get a back-link to your website from each directory. This is where a link to an individual page in your site is valuable – search engines look upon back-links as being an indication of how popular your site is, and how relevant it is to the visitor. If that link is to a page deep within your website, you can get improved listings for each individual page, rather than just the one for your home page.Hence, as previously mentioned, if you write about sapphires you must have a page on your site about sapphires or your visitor will just click away from your site. Don’t write about sapphires then send then to pearls! Or even your home page. They have clicked for more information on sapphires. In addition to these links, if your article is really good, a reader might decide to copy it as content for their own site. When this is done they must keep your resource box intact, so you also get back-links from every person who copies your article. This can really rocket your website up the rankings, including individual pages. I have webpages at number one in Google purely due to these links.Not only that, but also you get traffic through direct clicks to your site from those of others who have your articles on their site. You both benefit from this. Your article must be well written though, and you might find it more profitable in the long run to have your articles professionally written. Your name is still quoted as author, and it is your resource box that goes with the article. Many people find this route very cost effective, since one link, and even one single click, can recoup the cost of one article. There are lots of adverts on the internet offering this type of article ghost-writing service, though you have to be sure that you get the quality of writer you need. So, my answer to anyone who asks me ‘What is article marketing’ is that it is a means of generating traffic through submitting articles to article directories. Keywords, topics and individual webpages have to be optimized, but that, in a nutshell, is what it is.
About the Author
Peter is a professional freelance writer, currently writing website articles from his website http://www.article-services.com He can write on any topic and the articles are specifically for you: you own the copyright. He can write up to three versions on request, and more information on article marketing is available on his Article Marketing webpage
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