Article Marketing 101-What You Need To Know Before You Write A Word

Successful article marketing 101 students know that article marketing really begins with keyword research. If your goal is to use articles to generate traffic for your site, you need to be aware of the specific techniques that will allow you to achieve success.

If you'll notice I said "keyword", not keywords. Ideally, you want to develop a lengthy list of specific, (read 'long-tail') keywords regarding your topic and write at least on article per keyword. If you have a list of 50 keywords, write at least 50 articles, if not 150. If you are selling physical goods, like cameras, you will want to include the model names and other unique identifiers. The more specific the list of keywords you uncover is, the more highly targeted the article will be. If you decide to skip this step, you will have great difficulty

Once you have your list of keywords, you will write articles around each keyword, at least one article per keyword. Within each article, you will want to use the keyword in the title, once in the opening sentence, once in the opening sentence of the closing paragraph and perhaps once or twice in the article body. Do not exceed keyword density of 2%; however, most article directories will flag you for this anyway.

Make sure each article is unique and providing information that is relevant to the keyword topic chosen. Provide useful information, written concisely, but not so stuffy that it bores the reader to tears. You will then want to submit your article to any of the top article directories that has page rank. Don't bother submitting to those article directories that don't, as the amount of benefit it will give you will be negligible at best.

You submit to article directories for two reasons only. The primary reason is to obtain the back link for SEO purposes. The more back links your site has from a higher page rank site for your relevant topic, the better it will do with search engine results. The second reason is for actual readership of the article, who may click through to your site. Very few article directory sites have a sizable following, but a few do such as Ezine, GoArticles, SearchWarp, Articlesbase and others. These sites are places your keyword optimized article will get read, and clicked through.

Place your bets. Writing articles is really about building a Tsunami, one drop of water at a time. As such, be prepared for a long campaign, not a short burst of activity. Commit to writing articles in the same manner on a consistent schedule over a period of months or years. It is this steady "pile on" effect that will build momentum over time with traffic and search results. If you are only planning on writing a couple of articles, my response would be either outsource it, or don't bother.

If article writing was the lottery, each article would be a ticket. The more tickets you buy, the better your chances of winning. Also, you will have the ability to see that some articles will do better than others as you compare them to one another. This information alone will help your continuing efforts. Whatever you do, don't get caught up in writing the perfect article. Worry about writing the most perfect article you can within 45 minutes.

In conclusion I hope you found that article marketing 101 primer and instructive piece in your internet marketing efforts. If you want know more about building traffic through article marketing and many other promotional strategies, click the link below.

Neal Coxworth is an entrepreneur, internet publisher and affiliate marketing enthusiast. His blog on Affiliate Marketing is a no-nonsense overview of how to achieve success online.

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