Article marketing is probably one of the most flexible of marketing methods out there. You can use it to drive traffic to your website directly, or you can use it to get your website to rank highly in the search results. Your success in doing this will depend on a few things, which we’re going to discuss in this article. Let’s get going!

To understand how article marketing can be used to rank your website highly in the search results, you have to understand a little about search engine optimization, or SEO. There are basically two classes of SEO, on page and off page.

On page SEO has to do with things like the frequency you use your keyword phrase in your copy, how you structure your title tag, and in general how your site is structured. Off page SEO has to do with things that are…well, off page.

On page SEO goes a long way toward telling Google what your page is about. That doesn’t make your page more relevant to searchers’ needs than another website’s page. But at least it helps Google categorize your page as being about a given topic or topics.

Off page SEO is a lot like a high school election for class officers. It’s often not who’s qualified that matters. It’s who’s more popular. Just like high school students, Google is very interested in which websites are popular.

This actually makes a lot of sense. After all who is Google to decide which pages are better than others? Shouldn’t it be you and I, Google’s users, who have the most say so? (Not only that, but the software doesn’t really exists to do this. Computers, even Google’s supercomputers, just aren’t that smart…yet.)

Which takes us back to the popularity contest. Well, how would you decide which sites were more popular than others on the Internet? Although Google won’t release any information about their algorithm for ranking sites, it seems that links that point to a give site are very important in Google’s calculations.

These types of links are often called “backlinks”. And Google sees backlinks as a sort of vote in your site’s favor.

Well, obviously it’s a lot more complex than this. Although it didn’t used to be. Knowing that Google’s counting links, you would think internet marketers could just set up link farms to link to various sites…which is what we used to do. Then Google wised up, and the link-fest resulted in actually hurting your site’s rankings, rather than helping it.

What’s this all have to do with article marketing? Everything! Nowadays, one of the best ways to create a link that Google will love is to write an article full of great content and link it back to your site with the keywords you want your site to actually rank for in the link phrase. Although subject to manipulation, this is actually a much more legit way of creating backlinks. At least this gives your prospective visitors a chance to see if they like what you have to say. Also, it tells Google that people like your site, and through the use of the anchor text in the link, also helps reinforce to Google what your page is about. (And what to rank it for.)

You can create these articles easily. If you can write, then just start cranking out 400+ word articles about your niche topic. Using a little HTML, you can put a link in your article or sometimes in your bio box, which links back to your page. Then you get an article submitter like ArticleMarketer and submit your article to hundreds of article directories.

You can create backlinks like crazy this way. Do this and watch your site rise in the search results. It’s easy. Also, you can easily outsource the whole thing–article writing, even the article submissions.

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Article marketing is one of the surest ways to create traffic and start making money online. You don’t have a large cost as in pay per click. And you can create a steady stream of traffic to your website. What’s even better is you don’t even have to know how to write to be successful in article marketing. You can easily hire someone to do your writing for you. Let’s look at some tips about article marketing, which will help you be successful at article marketing.

Tip 1: How Long Should Your Article Be?

Articles need to be 400 to 500 words long. Although some article writers write articles, which are less than 400 words, you’ll get your article published in more article directories if they’re longer than 400 words. Also, your readers will have a better experience reading your articles and feel like they’re learning more, if your article is longer than 400 words.

Tip 2: What Topic Should You Write About?

Basically, you should write about what your readers want to read. “How to” articles work well. “Tips” articles. “Secrets” articles. That sort of thing. Also, since your article is going to be published on one or many article directories, you probably want to write your article around certain keyword combinations. These would be the keywords that you feel like your potential viewers would use to find your article. You can get plenty of keyword possibilities from Google’s External Keyword Tool.

Tip 3: How Should You Structure Your Article?

Generally, you should write your article kind of like a sales letter. You’re probably not writing articles just to write them. You probably want to use your articles to drive traffic to a website of some sort. So, you want your reader to perform some sort of action when they finish reading your article. In other words, you want to “sell” your reader on doing what you want them to do. (Click on your link.) Now, this is not a hard sell. You’re not saying CLICK HERE! It’s a soft sell—a gentle push toward taking the next step.

Tip 4: What Kinds of Websites Can You Promote Using Article Marketing?

You can promote all kinds of websites. You can use article marketing to drive traffic to a blog. You can use it to drive traffic to a squeeze page, or some sort of single-page, mini-site that’s selling an affiliate product. You can also use article marketing to drive traffic directly to a merchant’s site, which you happen to be an affiliate off. (This is called Bum Marketing.)

Tip 5: What If You Can’t Write?

You might think that article marketing sounds great, but you either can’t write that well, or don’t enjoy it. Well, guess what? You don’t need to be able to write. You can easily outsource all the writing you’ll ever need. Outsourcing is easy to do. You can find great freelancers on Craigslist or Elance.

All in all, article marketing is probably the easiest way for someone to drive a lot of traffic to a website. Unlike pay per click, you’re not going to lose a lot of money while you’re learning. All you’re going to lose is some time. The thing about article marketing is this: you can write (or have written) a few hundred articles that drive traffic to a certain website. Once you get these articles published, they’ll be sending you traffic for years to come.

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