Article marketing is the process of using articles that you have written to gain exposure for your business and raise its profile.
• By submitting your articles to online article directories you can improve your search engine rankings and number of website visitors. This happens because with every article that you submit and get published, you have the opportunity to include your resource box or your author bio in which you will have some information about you, your business as well as your website link.
Every person who reads your article online will also be able to see and click through to your website. However, the best bit is that every article you have published will also have your website address, which is in effect a one-way link back to your site. Search engines LOVE these and the more you have the higher you will be ranked in their results pages. So make sure you always include your website address in every piece of online marketing you do.
• Writing articles is also a way of establishing your expertise about a particular subject. If you market yourself as an expert and can back it up, you are positioning yourself above your competitors thus raising your profile and status.
• Choose your subject area carefully, especially if you are not a ‘writer’. The key is to write what you know – a cliché perhaps but true. Start off with one broad subject area, categorise that down into manageable topics and then brainstorm within each topic your actual article (working) titles.
• Do your research. Now you have decided on your subject area you need to find the articles directories that would be best for you. Many of the best directories cover many subject areas but there are some specialist sites. Here are some of the directories that should be part of your article marketing campaign regardless of your topics:
o www.goarticles.com
o www.EzineArticles.com
o www.articledepot.co.uk
o www.greatarticles.co.uk
o www.articeldashboard.com
o www.articlebiz.com
• Submitting articles can be a lengthy and laborious process and you may want to consider hiring someone to do it for you. There are lots of companies that offer an article submission service but they tend to be over priced and more of a scattergun effect. There is also article submission software but this can lead to spyware infiltrating your computer or lots of unwanted spam. One submission service worth considering is www.articlemarketer.com.
(c) Alex Greer, 2007
