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What is article marketing? It is one of the most popular methods of advertising websites online, yet many people have no idea how to start using it. Nor do they know how to submit articles to the various online entities that publish them, and so lose out on one of the most powerful marketing and advertising media on the planet. What Is Article Marketing Article marketing is the process of writing articles for online publication, and using these articles to market or advertise your websites and individual web pages online so as to attract traffic to these pages. Article marketing involves several stages, each requiring a specific skill such as your writing ability and your knowledge of how to submit articles to the more important forms of publication. It is extremely worthwhile learning how to do both of these properly because the benefits you can gain may be considerable in terms of targeted traffic, additions to your emailing list and sales. The various stages involved in online article marketing are outlined below. It is assumed that you are already using a niche website which might fall into any one or more of these categories: • A business you are using to sell your own products online. • An affiliate marketing online home business. • An internet network marketing (MLM) business. • A normal offline business that uses a website for promotional purposes. • A business that provides internet or online services: SEO, writing or web design services for example. These are five simple examples, but there are others: products can be either downloadable eBooks or software, or services such as hairdressing, dog grooming, or even online universities. 1. Keyword Research First you must research the keywords that are best suited to your article. Those you select should be used by as few others as possible on their own web pages, and should be used by as many people as possible carrying out a web search on Google. One of the best free keyword research tools you can use is Google's Keyword Tool External. You should use your choice of keyword once in the title, and also in the article itself, and each article should be written using a different main keyword. Your main keyword should be used once in each of the title, the introductory paragraph and the final paragraph and also once more for each 300 words in the main part of the article. 2. Choose a Title The title must contain your chosen keyword right at the start: You may also employ a second keyword later in the title, as you will see in my title for this article. It is the title that people see first, and that will either persuade them to click further and read the article or put them off so they leave forever. Search engines, particularly Google, regard the title as a very important aspect of an article - or any web page for that matter - and will have a significant impact on whether or not the article gets a high listing position. 3. Write the Article The article should be well written with no spelling errors or errors in grammar. At one time you could get away with either of these, but Google has tightened its listing criteria and very few article directories will accept badly written articles because they are unlikely to be listed by Google. The content of your article must be directly related to the title, and must persuade the reader that you know your subject well. If you fail to do that, don't be surprised if nobody reads all the way and clicks on your link. 4. The Resource The resource contains links to your Home Page or individual internal web pages. Most sites permit two text an HTML links, although some allow only one and a few three. Many directories offer an easy way to insert links without you needing to understand HTML, but be absolutely certain that your anchor text or links lead readers to a page that is directly connected to the topic of your article. The whole purpose of your article is get readers to read down to your resource: this is where you provide a link or links to your website , or selected web pages, and each article should have a specially designed resource. You will find the resources use here at the end of this article - you can use these as a template but they are specifically intended for my personal needs. 5. How to Submit Articles Knowing how to submit articles is the crux of article marketing. Not just 'how' they should be submitted, but also 'where' they are submitted. Some article directories are better than others, and there are directories you should stay clear of. It takes time, but you will eventually learn which are good to use and which are not. You could pay an article submission service to do it for you, or you could learn how to do it yourself. Many people pass this on to the experts to carry out, because article submission is the most profitable and critical aspect of article marketing, and also one of the more skillful tasks. The following are examples of the main forms of publication that should be employed by any good article submission service for your articles: a) Article Directories: Ezine Articles, Article Rich, iSnare, Go Articles and many more b) PDF Directories: Scribd, Crocodoc, Docstoc, Docshare plus others c) Social Bookmarking; Delicious, StumbleUpon, Reddit, Digg and more You can do all of this yourself, or have a professional writing and submission service do it for you: the choice is yours. The benefits are many, including multiple backlinks, visitors from readers, Google PageRank points and live links spread all over the web. Article marketing can only benefit you, and knowing how to submit articles is a skill that will serve you well throughout your online business career More information on the question 'What is Article Marketing' can be found on Pete's website Article Czar that offers a free gift and writing course. Also visit Pete's article services website for his writing and article submission prices.
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