Does Article Marketing Work?

Article marketing has been around for ages. Many have been using it to drive traffic to their websites and gain quality links back. Any SEO book that you read is going to tell you there is some value to writing articles for EzineArticles or some other article directories. But not many people know how to use article directories to build links properly. It’s one thing to write magnetic content and go for the traffic. It’s another thing to get some juice for relevant keywords to your business. I personally prefer to go for both. It’s not enough to just get traffic from article directories. You want to get highly optimized anchor texts in the process. And it would help if you could write content that others would want to use on their websites.

In order to succeed with article marketing, you need to focus on three things:

• Value: you want to provide some value to your readers and make them want to comeback to your website for more. It’s one thing to submit junk to article directories. It’s another thing to make people appreciate the time you have put to write articles for them.
• Keywords: you want to target the right keywords to not only drive targeted traffic to your website, but also get ranked high for your core keywords. Keep in mind that when people decide to publish your articles, they are obliged to use your anchor text. So don’t go for something general.
• ROI: writing articles takes time. Your goal is to justify the time you spend on articles by getting the most out of your traffic. One way to save time is by using an article submission software. Some article directories (e.g. Isnare) charge a small fee to do this job. Either way, these services help you submit your articles to hundreds of article directories. Another way to increase your ROI is by avoiding the duplicate content penalty. You can do that by writing multiple version of your articles and submit them to top article directories.

Article marketing does work. But you need to do it right to get the best value out of it. You need:

• The Right Keywords: keywords in your article title can determine how you are ranked by search engines. Don’t drop the ball here.
• The Right Content: you need magnetic content to have any chance of getting anything back from article directories. Put your best foot forward.
• The Right Resource Box: this is the most important part of your article. Make sure you link to your website and provide your whole link in your resource box. And don’t forget to have multiple versions handy to get the most value out of your articles.

Article marketing can be tough. It takes time, and sometimes it takes patience to see any real results. But if you keep plugging away, you are going to build up your traffic and ranking slowly. If you don’t mind working super hard, Article Marketing can be a very lucrative tactic.

Your take: do you use a submission software to submit your articles to directories?