Let's start by defining what "article marketing" is. In essence, it's a form of online advertising. A Web site publishes short articles to online article directories. These articles include a "resource box", which is an advertisement for the site.

Since content is valuable, the article marketer syndicates content to sites in exchange for the opportunity to push his advertising message.

The benefit of article marketing is that unlike other forms of advertising, which stop working when you stop paying, the benefits of syndicating lots of articles increase over time. Not only do the articles push immediate traffic to a business's Web site, they also increase the site's search engine rankings.

Since article marketing provides an unmatched return on investment, business owners actively look for article writers. Therefore, if you can write short articles of 300 to 800 words, you can make a good income. The more articles you write and sell, the more income you make.

You don't need to be an experienced writer to write articles. Indeed most of the articles are written by beginning writers.

So how do you get started?

The easiest way to get start writing articles for article marketers is to win projects on the out-sourcing sites. However, since most of the bidders at these sites bid on price alone, this drives prices down.

If you want to become a professional Web article writer, you can get a couple of projects on the out-sourcing sites just to see how it all works, but you'll lose money if you persist at these venues.

You need to offer articles from your own site. Buyers will happily pay for competent, reliable writers. You'll quickly develop a stable of buyers who will buy from you each month.

Create Article Packages and Sell Them From Your Own Site

If you don't already have a Web site, create one, and offer your article marketing services on the site. You can also create packages of articles on popular topics, and sell them to buyers directly.

Your Web site forms the basis of your operation. Promote your site, and you'll get buyers for your services. How do you promote your site? With article marketing, of course.

Use Article Marketing Yourself, to Sell Your Writing Services

Just as you write articles for others, you can write them for yourself and post them to online directories. Your resource box will advertise your services, and will provide a link back to your site, where prospective buyers can contact you.

You're not restricted in the topics for your own promotional articles. In other words, don't write about "writing" or "article marketing." Write articles in the topics in which you have expertise, and want to write articles for buyers.

For example, you could write articles in areas like health and fitness, home and family, travel, parenting - any areas in which you want to write articles for others.

For writers, article marketing is a goldmine. If you can write fast and well, and on a range of topics, you'll find many buyers for your articles, and can make a great income.