Article marketing is a form of advertising that utilizes articles written by the marketer himself or by a hired writer in order to promote a business. This type of marketing originated in the print world but has rapidly gained dominance online.
The marketing aspect enters into the articles through the use of what is known as the “bio” or “resource box.” For marketing purposes, this is usually not used to describe the author but rather to describe his or her website and what it has to offer the reader. Assuming the reader was impressed by the article, he or she will be likely to visit the website.
In the print world, article marketing has long been a way of gaining free print space. Articles with useful and informative content were submitted to publishers in exchange for running the marketers’ contact information at the end of the article. Newspapers were happy with this relationship because their budget in compensating writers was limited.
It works much the same way online. Writers can post their articles not only on various websites but on what are known as article directories. These are aggregators of the articles of various writers. Both parties gain from this arrangement; the marketers as well as the directories. The marketer gets a backlink and the directory gets free content around which they can place ads.
In theory, publishers of online newsletters and websites can also run the articles found on directories, provided they include the author’s resource box at the end of the article. This is often done, but don’t expect many backlinks from this process, aside from that provided by the directory itself.
Some unethical website operators remove the resource box. Others run the article through what is known as a “spinner” in an effort to make it look like a unique article, but which usually produces gibberish. Still others will strip off the resource box and instead include a link back to the article directory on which the original article was found. All of these actions are clear violations of the terms of service of the legitimate article directories.
A few websites, however, will include the author’s original resource box, and this can result in additional exposure for the author. But the main exposure will come from the directory itself.
Along with the rise in the popularity of article marketing has come a decline in the quality of the articles posted, including those generated by the aforementioned “spinners.” Fortunately, the top article directories (which also, incidentally, have the highest popularity with the search engines) will not accept articles that don’t meet a certain standard.
Article marketing can be a good, low-cost way to gain quick exposure for your website, especially if you lack money to market your site by other means. You can get the greatest exposure for your articles by paying a little attention to keyword research, which will allow you to target your articles around the subjects that people are looking for.
Of course, writing articles will require some, well, writing. If you hate to type, a voice dictation like Dragon Dictate for Mac can help. I find that it allows me to crank out content far faster than I could with my fingers alone.
If you are able to figure out what people are looking for (through keyword research) and give it to them on a steady and consistent basis (through the diligent writing of articles), then you can generate traffic that can, in turn, translate into steady sales.
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