Client: David O'Connell
Copyright 2008 David O'Connell
Advantages of Article Marketing
Starting an online business is a very large undertaking. The key to making it work for you is getting your name out there and educating your target audience about your product or service. There are hundreds of new businesses popping up every day on the internet. Your goal is to get yours noticed above everyone else's. So, how do you do that?
Article marketing offers many advantages for the online business owner. Some of these include:
� The ability to attract search engines and increase your site's marketability. Search engines determine the value of your site by the number of useful links pointing to it. This is how your site climbs positions in the search engine rankings.
� Promotion through article directories will dramatically increase traffic to your web site. Your articles are used by other web sites, printed in E-zines and featured in newsletters.
� A free method of reaching thousands of buyers interested in the type of product or service you are offering. Once you promote your marketing article on the relevant directories, you are finished with that part of your marketing. The traffic developed through the article directories will continue to grow and you won't have to do anything else with that particular article.
� The ability to get a lot of links posted on other sites. Every time a link to your marketing article is posted on another site, you gain the opportunity to reach all of that site's visitors as prospective customers.
Promote and publish informational articles about your product or service and gain the trust of potential buyers. Through article marketing you have the ability to become an authority on your topic of interest.
How does it work?
Online article marketing provides the directory publishers with free content. It also provides web-based businesses with free advertising. Promotional articles are written to target certain niche markets. They are then distributed to directories that focus on those markets. This provides web business owners with a ready-made audience that already has an interest in the topic.
Readers are allowed to reprint articles from the directories provided they include the original author's information box. The result is that your article is now posted on another web site and you gain that site's traffic.
What makes a good marketing article?
Every marketing article must contain a few key elements. These are:
� Original content
� Quality content
� Relevant keywords
� Marketability to high traffic directories
� Author information leading the visitor to your site
It costs you nothing to submit your articles to these article directories. This means free advertising for your web site. It also means increased traffic to your web site.
You may also choose to have someone else write your articles for you. For a minimal fee, you can hire a company or individual to create the content for your marketing articles. Using this method you have invested little financially and have reduced the time you must dedicate to your marketing.
Your author's information box:
There are a few essential items that must be included in the author information box of your marketing article. These items attract the reader to your site.
� Your name
� A valid link to your web site
� USP (Unique Selling Proposition) What makes you and your product or service different from all of the others?
� A call to action in which you prompt the reader to go to your web address
Some optional items you may choose to include as well:
� Your contact information
� A free report � Just as you like free advertising, your customers like to get something free for visiting your site.
� An address to your free E-zine subscription � Offering a free E-zine is another method of attracting potential buyers and gaining credibility in your area of expertise.
One of the most effective tools for promotion and advertising available to you as an internet business owner is the use of article marketing. With this internet tool, you can attract your target audience to your web site and convince them to purchase your product or service.