Article Marketing is the publication of written content on websites other than your own. Sometimes these websites may have similar content or products as your business. Sound like helping your competition? Here’s the catch. Your article includes a backlink – a link that leads to your own website. Simply put, you provide an article on other people’s websites that ends with a link back to your own website. The idea is that for those sites using your article, they must include the link back to your site.

The quality of your article’s content is a deciding factor in how many people will publish it on their sites. This is why it is very important that your articles be well written, purposeful, and relevant to the subject. If you don’t or can’t write the articles yourself, you might want to consider paying for someone to write for you. In the long run it will be worth it.

Is Article Marketing Effective

Article Marketing has become extremely popular because of the way search engines do their searching. There was a time when the number of visitors to a site was a critical factor in its listings with search engines such as Google or Yahoo. Today, however, the key determinant is the number of backlinks: pointers from other sites to yours. To understand how the backlinks work in relevancy to your page listing, you must first understand the search engine process.

Your page’s popularity, known as the page rank, is judged by two factors: how many backlinks there are to your site; and the popularity of the sites that those backlinks are on. For example, let’s say you have two backlinks to your site listed on two different websites. One of those sites, say Microsoft, has a very high page rank. The other, BobsDoItYourselfComputerRepair, has a pretty low page rank. Your site will receive more notice from the search engines because of the link on the more popular site. So, backlinks on high-profile sites will inevitably raise your page ranking.

Creating and Submitting Articles

When creating your articles, remember that quality is of utmost importance. People are looking for information, and a well-written, relevant article will position you as someone who knows what they are talking about in a reader’s mind. If you don’t think you can write your own articles, there are many online outlets for finding writers.

Once the article is written, add a link to your site along with your by-line. This is called a resource box and can include a little bit about you and your business as well as the link to your website.

Next, you will need to get your article submitted to other sites. You don’t have to do this yourself. There are literally thousands of article marketing source sites on the Internet that can do it for you. However, the more popular ones are those that produce the most effective traffic. Among these are EzineArticles, ArticleDashboard, and GoArticles. Each of these will provide excellent sources for backlinks, but be prepared to submit only well-written articles, as they tend to be quite thorough in their screening process.

Check Your Article Marketing Campaign

Once you have submitted your article, give it a few weeks to make its way out onto the World Wide Web. Then, use one of the many backlink-checking tools available on the net. Most are free and can be found by doing a simple web search. Domain-Pop and IWebTool provide some of the more popular tools. The larger search engines (i.e. Google) provide backlink-checking tools also. These programs are usually easy to use and require no download. Simply go to the site, put the web address of your site into the appropriate space, and hit enter. In a few seconds you will be able to see how many backlinks your site has and, in most cases, exactly what sites those backlinks are listed on.

Article Marketing is not only one of the most effective techniques for building your page rank and popularity, but is also one of the most simple and most inexpensive, particularly if you have good writing skills of your own. Remember to keep your article content similar to the content of your site. People surfing for the information in your articles will only click on the link in your resource box if it is relevant to their own personal interests. Also remember that article marketing takes time and effort. It doesn’t happen overnight. With every article you put out onto the web, you are putting out another way for potential visitors to find you. Over time, this will increase the traffic to your website and will eventually increase your sales.

The Basic Tools

Professionally Provided Lists – If you are unable to build your own list, professionally collected lists and leads can be purchased from agencies that collect quality contact information for marketing purposes. Yes, they can be expensive at times; but, they can also be effective.

A Well Crafter Website – This should go without saying, but sometimes people will overlook the basics. If you are sending out direct email material, the recipients will probably want to learn more. Directing them to a website would be the best way to deliver on that want.

Blogs – Publishing a blog related to your campaign can be very helpful in terms of establishing a personal touch to your business venture. A blog can allow you to let people know what you and your marketing venture is about. It can also act as a great platform for informational marketing.

Podcasts – While some individuals will respond positively to textual blogs, others require audio/video presentations to learn more about the direct marketing plan. As such, employing the use of online promotional podcasts could be a reliable way to reach these potential customers.

Article Spinning Software – Spinning software sometimes gets a bad name, but such negative sentiments usually derive from improper usage of spinning software. For those not familiar with spinning software, it is an automated process that can create alternate versions of written material. This allows for the ability to modify promotional items in very short periods of time which allows you to direct your time sensitive productivity elsewhere.

Bulk Email Software – When you are involved with direct email promotions, it will prove necessary to send out a significant volume of emails. In order to save time doing this, a bulk email software program should be utilized. Such software can dramatically cut down on the time it takes to process your email needs.

Online Newsletters – Sending out direct emails in a boring or stale manner does not always stimulate interest. However, crafting an email in the form of an online newsletter with proper illustrations will prove more inviting. This means the person receiving the newsletter may develop a more positive impression of the marketer.