Article Marketing Guide

Article marketing is a type of advertising by writing short articles related to business' respective industry. Once written, the business makes these articles freely available for distribution and publication in the marketplace. Each article contains a 'bio box' and 'by-line' which include references and contact information for the author's business. Well written content articles released for free distribution have the potential of gaining the author business credibility within his or her market, as well as new clients. Contents

Article marketing has been used by professionals for nearly as long as mass print has been available. In paper-print form (as opposed to online forms) it is commonly utilized by business owners as a means of obtaining free press space. The local business provides useful content to the newspaper free of charge and in return the newspaper prints the business' contact information with the article. Since newspapers and other traditional media are expected to present content on limited budgets, this arrangement is generally advantageous for all parties involved.

With the rise of ecommerce and online marketing, article marketing has made a move to the online world as well. As in traditional forms of media, online article marketing has served the dual role of providing publishers with essentially free content and advertisers with essentially free advertising. However unlike the off-line version, there are additional dimensions to article marketing online. Most notable among the differences is the use of articles for search engine optimization.

Article Marketing and Search Engine Optimization

Search engine optimization (SEO) deals with the order in which web pages are ranked when key words or phrases are typed into search engines. The higher a page is ranked, the more likely it will draw a greater number of site visitors. For company websites, increased traffic often translates into increased sales and article marketing has proven most useful and effective for most of the leading internet marketing ventures around.

One method of Search Engine Optimization encompasses the idea that a website's rank in search engines will rise as it obtains more html links pointing back to it from other websites. Therefore writing and distributing articles that contain a link to a business owner's website within the 'bio box' should result in more links back to that website.

In theory, this will increase that website's rank within search engines. This has led to a trend in online marketing towards writing articles solely for SEO purposes, which are commonly referred to as reprint articles. This trend has been matched by a wide selection of article marketing directory sites which accept, vet, and provide redistribution of such articles to online publishers.

The following are some techniques that keep in mind when you publish content for use on your website.

1. Publish Original Content. Always publish original content on your website. Don't be caught using duplicate content unless you must. You control the content on your website so don't take this issue lightly. Use fresh, original content that appeals to your readers. If replicating content, change it up a bit or use an excerpt with a link to the full article.

2. When article marketing, include the article on your site first. If you're using article marketing to promote your website, publish the article on your site first. I suggest not distributing the article for at least 3 - 5 days. This gives the Google bot time to crawl the content and know its there (published by you).

3. Distribute your content to top article distribution sites first! When distributing your articles, target the largest article directories first (ezinearticles, goarticles, etc.). I would recommend changing the title, article description, intro paragraph, and last paragraph slightly from what you have posted on your site.

4. SUBMITT ARTICLE TO DIRECTORIES. Complete your distribution to second and third tier article directories. At this point, the value gained is less than the primary article distribution sites. The true value of these sites is the possibility of a webmaster using the content on their own site complete with author box. Again, I would modify the article once prior to distributing to all of these sites, but don't spend a lot of time on it.

5. Update content on your site regularly. If you want to optimize the value of your content, be sure to update information regularly. This is not say that your content has to change daily, but new content should be added to position your site as a valuable source of information.

6. Offer an RSS feed. After your article has been published to your website, be sure to encourage users to access this content via an RSS feed. A feed allows users to get access to your content through a feeder or back link to your site. As a result, they are less likely to copy and post your content. Rather, they can provide an excerpt and link to the original content that is present on your website.