Article marketing is a very popular way to market a new business. The idea behind article marketing is to put an informative article with your name and a link to your website in front of as many people as you can. The more people view the article; the more likely they are to click on your link, visit your site and become a loyal customer.

The concept of article marketing is simple:

1. Write an article that closely relates to your niche topic.

2. Make sure you have a killer title that will attract publishers and potential customers.

3. Carefully place keywords in your title and throughout the article.

4. Submit the article to a distribution service.

5. Put your name, some background information about yourself and a link to your website in the author box.

Surprisingly, most people stop there. These steps will get the job done, but how well? Many people don't bother to see how well their article marketing efforts are doing. They submit them and forget them. They don't track their articles to see who is publishing them and where. Don't make the same mistake.

The only way to know if your article marketing efforts are effective is to track your progress. Determine which sites are sending you the most business and which sites are wasting your time. Gear the articles you write to the sites that are picking them up for publication. Only then will you maximize your time spent writing. This will provide more time for quality customer care and maintaining your website and less time marketing.

How to Track Your Article Marketing Efforts

There are a few ways to track where your articles are being published and how much traffic they are driving to your site.

* Most article distribution sites have a feature that allows you to monitor your article submissions. Once you register on the site and login, you'll be able to view the stats on your articles. While each article distribution site varies, a majority of the sites provide information by the article.

* You can see the number of times each article has been viewed or downloaded. This information gives you some idea of how popular each article is. It is helpful for future submissions on the same topic because you can tailor your articles to revolve around certain keywords.

* Your own website also gives stats and shows picked links. Studying the incoming links from other websites will give you a better idea of which articles are getting the most attention.

* Using a Google search on your name or the title of your article is another way to see where your articles are being published on the Internet. If you search Google again a few months after your article has been submitted to a directory service, you should start to see growth in the amount of websites that have picked up your article and published it.

Spending a little time reviewing your article marketing efforts will save you time submitting to sites that aren't working for you. Continue to submit articles to distribution sites that drive traffic to your business website. Regularly submit an article for distribution and you will see steady growth for your new business.