Article Marketing

Generate Free Organic Traffic

Article Marketing. What kind of traffic is the best traffic to your site? The free kind.

Even better: free traffic that keeps on giving. One of the best ways to build a long-term stream of qualified, organic traffic to your site, while improving your search engine optimization, is through the marketing of articles.

What is Article Marketing?

You simply write an article pertaining to something on your website, and submit it to a directory.

For example, if you have a website on gestational surrogacy, you could write an article about your experience with pregnancy related heartburn.

At the end of your article is a special "About the Author" bio. It lists you as an expert in your field, and provides details about your website so that visitors can click through to it. This article is then distributed via the directory to any interested publishers for use in their newsletters, ezines, blogs, or websites.

Not only will you have targeted traffic clicking through your bio link, but you will gain back links to your site from all the blogs and websites your article is posted to! Over time, this will improve your ranking and generate long lasting results. It's all about the Buzz!

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Article Marketing Examples

Here are some samples of articles I have submitted to directories.

The Cost of Working, by Rayven Perkins

Is Your Child Suffering from "The Gimmes"? by Rayven Perkins

Save Money on Groceries by Rayven Perkins

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How to Write Articles

When writing articles, it is important that you write in a way that is informative, and not intended to sell.

Do not make your article sound like an advertisement.

Let’s say you are marketing all natural skin care products.

You could do an informative article on the hazards of toxins in our skin care and submit it to a directory.

In your bio line, you could mention that you are an expert in toxic free skin care, and a distributor of toxic free products.

You could also include a link back to your sales page.

But do not create an article based on a specific product.

Take a benefit from the product and do an article on that.

Also, make sure you do not try to directly promote your site.

My articles are not “Come see my Stay at Home Mom site!”

Instead, I address a specific topic from my site. When interested parties read my article, they naturally want more and come to the site to get it.

Your articles will do best when they are between 450-800 words. Grammar, spelling, and punctuation are extremely important. If you have trouble in this area, have a friend help.

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Submitting to Directories

After you have written your article, you need to submit it to as many article directories as possible.

This can be very time consuming.


Article Marketer
I personally use a service called Article Marketer to submit my articles to hundreds, and sometimes thousands of directories for me, which saves me untold amounts of time and gives my articles the most possible exposure.

Unlike other article directories, Article Marketer will have a real live person go in and check my articles before they are submitted to directories. They will make sure that I do not have overwhelming editing mistakes, and will give me important improvement tips if they feel my article is not good enough.

They also offer training on writing articles on their site.

Article Marketer will let me submit as many articles as I would like, in each of the hundreds of categories available. They hold onto my articles forever and will resubmit them to new directories as they join the Article Marketer distribution list.

Their list is the largest on the internet.

I can schedule my articles in advance. So, if I get on a roll and create 10 articles on mystery shopping in one day, I can schedule the articles to go out one at a time, once a week for the next 10 weeks.

This staggering allows sites to pick up my articles without being overwhelmed, and gives me maximum exposure. It also saves me the hassle of having to remember to go in once a week and submit an article.

The best feature of Article Marketer is the reports feature. I can see what articles I submitted, a list of directories each article was submitted to, and I can check my exposure to see what websites are publishing my content.

Article Marketer does come with a fee, but if you are just getting started and want to see how it works, there is a free account as well. Your article will only be submitted to about 20 directories instead of the thousands that paid members will have access to, but it will give you a good start. Then, once you see how easy and effective it is, you will want to purchase it.


Other Directories
If you decide not to go with Article Marketer, here is a list of some other article directories. Though, again, at least get the free account.

eZine Articles

Article City

Article Dashboard

Article Biz

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Ghost Writing

But what if you don’t like to write?

So you have a great product, and want to gain exposure to your site through article distribution but you just hate to write? Never fear! Hire a ghost writer.

For a fee, a ghost writer will write content or articles for you, which are credited to you. You would still have your bio line on the article, and would be able to submit it to directories to gain organic traffic and exposure.

Sites that offer ghost writing:

Article Marketer

eLance

Guru

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PLR Private Label Rights Articles

If you're not a writer, you may be tempted to pay a small fee for a PLR or Private Label Rights article.

Don't waste your money. PLR articles are very common on the internet.

Publishers do not want them. They will not pick up your PLR article for distribution, because they are looking for unique content. A PLR article is not unique, it is a carbon copy of dozens or hundreds of other articles. PLR articles are boring because of this, and totally overdone.

Either write unique content yourself or hire a ghostwriter.

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Article Marketing for Network Marketers

If you are involved in the MLM or Network Marketing industry, article marketing can be a very inexpensive and profitable way to advertise your business.

You can write articles on network marketing or you can write articles about a product you sell or a solution you provide.

You can then lead interested people to a MLM website you have created to give them further information.

The cost to you: $0.

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