How Does Article Marketing Work?

Article marketing has been around as long as there have been printed publications. It is definitely not new to the internet, though many people associate it with internet marketing. If you were to ask you local newspaper editor what percentage of their content was actually researched and written by staff, you might be surprised to learn that nearly 70% of the content in most papers is actually submitted to the paper by business owners, or by other people that are looking for publicity.

So how does article marketing work? Well on the internet of course, things look a little bit different than the standard process that happens with newspapers. In fact, on the internet, it is even easier.

You, as a marketer, need merely write an article that is in some way related to the product or service you are providing. It does NOT have to be about your product, but merely something interesting or useful in the same niche, or in some way related.

Once you have your article, you can submit it to online article directories, for free. Ideally, you want to have optimized your article for a particular keyword. The article should be kept short, so that people haven’t lost interest by the time they reach the end.

Now, the final part is what really makes article marketing work on the internet. Along with every article, the writer is given the opportunity to submit a resource box, sometimes called a signature box. This resource box should be used to present an offer to the reader, or at bare minimum, send them back to your website.

The value therefore flows both directions. The article directory gets a good deal, because people like yourself are constantly providing them with free and unique content, and the marketer gets a good deal because they are able to get their information in front of a much larger audience.

Depending on the directory that you submit to, there will be a short term burst of traffic from the article you write. However, the real power of article marketing comes from the long term value. Over time, your article (if the article directory is properly optimized) will gain rankings in the search engines. At that point you should start getting traffic from people that have searched your term directly in Google. Long term you can receive thousands of views from this, and if you have properly written your resource box you can expect to receive a percentage of those in clickthroughs to your site as well.

So, the next time you hear the question “How does article marketing work?” You’ll know the answer and you can educate the questioner!

By: Jonathan Boettcher

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