For absolute beginners, article marketing may be nothing more than writing articles and submitting them to article directories. But this really is just partially true. Writing and submitting articles to article directories do not guarantee anything. There's no guarantee that people are going to read your articles, or that they are going to click on the link found in the resource box. You could be writing 1,000 articles yet only get ten people to visit your site. This is the reason why the cardinal rules of article marketing are as follows:

1. Optimize your articles for keywords.

2. Write headlines that gain attention.

3. Evoke interest in the article body.

4. Call to action (CTA) in the resource box.

5. Have more people read your article.

There's a reason why optimization for keywords is the number one step in article marketing. People use keywords to find things on the Internet. And you are going to use keywords to deliver your article to your target audience.

However, delivering your articles to Internet searchers is only the first step. Keep in mind that so many other competing websites are also fighting for attention, which is why you need to write headlines that grab attention. Articles are made or broken on the basis of their headlines. If you want people to read your article, then attract them with a very good headline. In article marketing, there are certain types of headlines that grab more attention than others.

Headlines that begin with "The Top 5 Gifts To Give This Valentine" and headlines that ask questions easily grab more attention that others. Other types of headlines that attract attention are commands like, "Learn How To Groom A Dog Now!" and abstract headlines like "What You Should Know About Fluffed Tails and Trimmed Coats."

It takes a skilled writer to pull off a creative headline. And it also takes writing skills to write exciting content that whets your readers' appetite enough to make them click the link in the resource box.

You need to promote your article even after you have submitted it the article directories. Keyword optimization within your article will get it ranked in the search engines; however, you need to generate links to your article so that it ranks higher. Thankfully, you can easily do this through social bookmarking. Bookmark your article at sites like Delicious to generate links to it. You can also use resubmit your article to other article directories, but with the link in the resource box changed to the link of the original submission.