If you have a web site or a web-based product that you want to promote, article marketing can benefit you on many fronts. Not only will it drive traffic directly to your website, it will also help your website get a high page rank among the search engines.

Basically, it works like this. You compose an article that is related to your website or your product and post it to a number of web sites known as article directories. Your article will be released here and will be free to use for anyone who wants to release it on the web.

So how do you benefit from this? At the bottom of any article you submit a paragraph, known as a resource box, that briefly describes you or your business, and contains a link to your website. This must appear on any website that chooses to publish your article, potentially attracting thousands of visitors to your site.

As you might expect, the better the article, the more likely it is to be published so it is worth taking the time to write an article that is genuinely interesting, informative or entertaining.

You should also spend some time working on the text in your resource box so that it encourages readers to click on the link to your website. Once they do, you can offer them your products and services, or even a freebie so that you can gather email addresses and build a mailing list.

Keep it simple

For many web entrepreneurs, writing articles will only be a small part of their business, while many will not have written before. It is, of course, possible to farm this work out to a professional writer. However, if this is beyond your budget you should be able to master the art of article writing with a little practice.

The first rule of marketing article writing is to play to your strengths. Write about something you know about and try to provide information that potential visitors to your website will want to read. If your website sells car parts, write about a related subject, preferably something that you are enthusiastic about. Also, 'how to' articles are particularly popular. If you can show a reader how to complete a task in 500 or so words you are on to a winner.

Headlines

The most important part of any article is the headline. If your headline fails to catch the interest of the reader all your efforts will have been in vain. It is a good idea to write a few headlines, not just one. Also, once you have written a few headlines put them aside and come back to them the next day with a fresh eye. This will help you choose which is the best one.

Any headline you write should be short and snappy, and encourage the reader to click through to the article. There are a few tricks you can use to grab the reader's attention. One is to play to people's desires and offer a solution. Examples of this could be:

How to find the perfect partner

How to make a million dollars

No one article would show a reader to achieve these things, but you get the idea. Headlines that offer to show a reader how to achieve something in easy steps also lead to a good click through rate. So, these could be something like:

10 top tips for finding your perfect match

5 easy steps to becoming a millionaire

As you submit more and more articles, you will get a better idea of what is working for you both in terms of headlines and content.

Submitting articles

There are thousands of article directories on the internet. Some of these accept articles on any subject, while others focus on niche areas. At the beginning, at least, it is probably best to stick to the bigger ones where you know there will be a good amount of traffic. A quick Google search will show you which ones to look for.

Article submission is a fairly simple process. You just need to register with the website and input your articles along with a summary. You will also need to enter keywords. Choose these carefully so that website owners looking for content can actually find your articles.

Article submission can be time consuming, so if you are submitting to a large number of directories you may want to consider an article submission service or software. However, be sure to choose a good one as many directories can reject automatic submissions.