If you are selling a product or a service online, article marketing can be one of the easiest and most cost effective ways to send traffic to your website. As well as driving people directly to your site, you will also use article marketing to boost your link popularity...a critical factor in search engine rankings.

The first step in mastering article marketing is writing good content. Even if you don't have experience writing articles, this is a skill you can develop over time. At the start, keep it as simple as possible and use short sentences. Try to be helpful and give advice in your article without overloading it with keywords.

Also, make sure you write an excellent headline. The more attention you can grab with your headline, the more times the article will be published. I've read that top copywriters spend more time developing a headline or title than actually writing the article itself.

Secondly, spend some time writing a good resource box that will encourage readers to click on the link to your website. Once readers navigate to your page, you can offer them your products or you can offer them something for free so long as they submit their email address.

Either way, you are onto a winner. You will either sell products or begin to develop a list of potential buyers who you can contact with news, helpful tips, and special offers.

Once you have written your article and resource box, you need to think about distributing your articles.

Article directories are probably the easiest way to get your work out in the public domain. There are hundreds of article directories out there, some general and some that publish articles on niche areas. Find the ones that you think will get your articles the most exposure. I like to make sure I submit to article directories with at least a PageRank of 3.

Submitting to article directories can be a time-consuming exercise. There are software packages that can make automatic submissions, but many directories have measures in place to block automatic submissions. Alternatively you could use an article submission service, but these can be expensive. It is probably best to choose a few directories that suit you and make the submissions yourself. Do a search for "article submission software" to find the lastest article submission software products.

You can also try contacting editors of e-zines in your field and ask them to consider accepting some of your work. Send a sample of your work.

As you submit more and more articles you should become more well known and you will build up trust among website publishers. Be patient, and your article marketing efforts will pay off...I guarantee it!