While the above philosophy isn’t exactly ‘wrong’, it isn’t entirely right either, and the truth is, there are several compelling reasons why you should definitely be starting some form of article marketing. Once you know these, you should even have a clearer understanding of what your goals with it should be too!

Here are the top reasons why you should use article marketing to your own advantage:

1. Simple and Quick Method of Building Numerous High Quality Backlinks

Today, backlinks form an important part of Search Engine Optimization (SEO), and so building them up is something that practically every website owner needs to be doing. Of course, there are other techniques such as social bookmarking, that can yield a high number of backlinks, but article marketing tends to be ‘longer lasting’, and have greater effects.

2. Potential for Getting Highly Targeted and Pre-Sold Traffic

If used properly, article marketing could get you a ton of highly targeted traffic that is already pre-sold on whatever it is you intend to use that traffic for. For instance, if you’re selling remote-control cars, you could be getting traffic that is very interested in making a purchase, and has already read an article on a certain type of car before clicking the backlink.

What this means is that those who do click the backlink are that much more likely to make a purchase.

As a marketer, this is the kind of traffic that is priceless to you, and you should definitely want as much of it as you can. Simply put: Article marketing is one of the best and most clear cut ways to get it.

3. Ability to Act as a ‘Shortcut’ for New Websites

One of the things that many new websites have problems with is tapping into the traffic from search engines. Sometimes, it can take months until search engines fully index and list every page on a new website.

In this, article marketing really comes up as an attractive option because it allows you to tap into search engine traffic by taking advantage of the already high attention that is given to article directories. Thus, a new website can get a lot more traffic than it otherwise would.

Based on these three reasons, you should be able to see just how powerful article marketing can be if you use it well. Whether you intend to use it primarily as a source of traffic or as a source of backlinks, the advantages that you stand to gain are still pretty clear cut.

Once you start off with article marketing, the sky is really the limit when it comes to the results that you’re going to be able to obtain.

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Creating the ideal article marketing resource box is something that doesn’t take long though, and if you do spend just a little time on it, you’ll find that you’re able to dramatically increase the amount of traffic that you gain from your article. Basically, you’ll be maximizing your results, which is always a good thing to do.

Now to start off on the right foot, you should realize that the ‘ideal’ resource box is one that:

1. Provides an intuitive ‘next step’ in the form of a backlink
2. Convinces the reader that this ‘next step’ is one that is worth taking

Should you be able to accomplish both these goals, then you have the ideal resource box already. More often than not though, most articles do not fulfill either of them, and that’s why you’re going to need to go about things using the correct approach.

Really, that approach starts right before the resource box, at the tail end of the body of the article. It is here that many writers make the mistake of concluding their article, which is a big ‘no no’ as far as article marketing is concerned.

Instead, your article should flow into the resource box, and it should be the resource box itself that acts as a ‘conclusion’, albeit not one of the conventional mould.

So once your article flows into the resource box, you should continue it seamlessly and draw things together. Start to conclude your article as you normally would, by summing it up, but then put a link there that leads to your own website.

Placing a link is only the beginning though. Sure, you’ve provided the intuitive ‘next step’ but now you’re going to need to explain to your readers why they would want to take that step. Most readers are going to be prone to thinking that they’re done when they finished the article, but you’re going to need to let them know that if they click on the link, they’ll find out more, and gain something useful to them.

To get this done, the best way is to provide an incentive. Honestly, this incentive is a reason why readers would want to click on the link, and it can either be something tangible, i.e. a free report or eBook, or even just a really strong reason, i.e. ‘discovering the full secret of article marketing’ or something of the like.

When you pull off both of the criteria that we just talked about, you’ll find that readers go through your article and read it all the way down to your resource box. There, they’ll find that they stand to gain more by just clicking one simple link… and, well, that’s where you have them ensnared!

Writing the ideal resource box is, as you now know, not difficult – but you stand to gain a lot by spending a minute or two on it!

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Assuming that you haven’t tried your own hand at article marketing before though, you probably only have a very, very basic view of what it entails. More often than not, all that people understand about article marketing to start off with is that it involves submitting articles to article directories.

Certainly, this isn’t wrong, but it is really just skimming the surface, because contrary to popular belief, there isn’t just one approach to article marketing: There are two!

1. Article Marketing for Backlinks

Over the years, this type of article marketing has emerged as being an immensely popular option. As more and more search engines start to incorporate backlinks into their ranking algorithms, the necessity to continuously be building new and high quality backlinks is increasing.

So it should come as no surprise that using article submissions to get backlinks is a very useful form of article marketing.

In each article that you submit, you’re allowed to have a backlink (or sometimes two) in the final part of the article. Commonly, this part is known as the resource box. Therefore, for every article that you submit, you’re actually going to be gaining a backlink.

Hence the more articles are submitted, the more backlinks you gain and the better you’ll do with search engines. Simple, isn’t it?

2. Article Marketing for Traffic

In contrast to article marketing for backlinks, article marketing for traffic is regarded by many advanced marketers as being the more ‘useful’ method. To put it in easy terms, this approach uses articles to create ‘streams’ of traffic.

If you remember how we just talked about the backlink in the resource box of the article, well, what if the readers of that article actually were to click it? Should that happen, then you’d be getting more and more traffic to wherever that backlink points.

Of course, for this to become a reality, you’ll need to convince the readers to click it, and you’ll also need to take care of a number of other intricacies.

On the whole, the main advantage of using article directories in this manner is the fact that you’ll be taking advantage of their existing value with search engines, and so you’ll probably rank better using them than you would if you used a fresh website.

Now that we’ve taken you through the two main approaches of article marketing, you should definitely be able to see that there is more to it than you might’ve thought at first glance. Truth be told, article marketing is a powerful technique, and either one of these approaches could be used to tremendous advantage.

End of the day, all you need to do is figure out which approach is going to serve you best.

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Basically, one of the main reasons why a plan is necessary is simple: Depending on where and how you publish your articles, your results are going to be different.

First though, you need to consider what you want to gain out of your article marketing efforts, and in that regard, you have two choices:

1. Traffic
2. Backlinks

If you’re looking to gain traffic, then you need to remember that the idea you’re operating on is to get traffic to your article first, and then channel it from there to your website (via the backlink). Of course, if you’re instead looking to just gain backlinks, then all you want is to make sure that you have that backlink pointing back to your website.

With this in mind, what happens when you want to publish the same article to multiple directories?

For one thing, some directories may not allow it. A perfect example of this is eZineArticles, which insists that the article be published first on their directory, before being published on any others.

However for the most part, if you were article marketing for backlinks, then publishing multiple copies of the same article onto various directories would mean – yes, more backlinks!

In that scenario, it is easy to see why publishing the same article more than once is definitely a good idea, but the question we have to ask ourselves now is: What about article marketing for traffic?

Sure, you could do the same, but if that were the case all that you’d have is a number of articles competing with each other for exactly the same market share. Instead of this, what some marketers do is alter the backlinks slightly so that there’s one ‘original’ article, with the backlink pointing to your website, and then many ‘copy’ articles that have a backlink which points to the original.

By doing this, you’ll be boosting the SEO value of that original each and every time you publish the ‘copy’ articles. Thus, you’ll be able to channel more traffic to it, and at the same time, gain more traffic from it.

Nifty little trick isn’t it? Truth be told, it could be amazingly powerful if used right.

Remember to take into account the rules and regulations of article directories though. If you like, publish first on eZineArticles, just to satisfy their requirement, and then after it is up there, go ahead and publish elsewhere.

Keep to the rules, and use this strategy wisely so that you’re able to get better and better results.

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And article marketing is the key to achieving that.

However the mistake that many people make when they start to build up backlinks through article marketing is the simple fact that they don’t think it through fully. Due to that, many end up wasting a lot of time on efforts that really aren’t going to produce the right type of results, i.e. the kind that will get you a lot of attention with search engines.

If you know the considerations and factors behind building backlinks through article marketing though, you should be able to streamline your efforts, and find that you’re accomplishing more, in less time.

In many ways, the main factor that underlines this entire instance is a simple one: Not all backlinks are equal.

By now, you should know that the manner in which you’re going to be building up backlinks is by submitting articles that contain a link leading back to your own website in the resource box. So, when article directories publish these articles, you’ll gain a backlink for each article published.

However the ‘value’ of that backlink ties into something else entirely. Search engines are prone to evaluating each and every backlink and deciding how much it is worth based on a variety of factors.

Some of these include:

1. The ‘rank’ of the page from which the backlink comes from
2. The ‘relevancy’ of the page to the content that the link leads to

Naturally, for you, as a marketer, evaluating both of these factors is not an exact science. Some search engines, such as Google, have readily accessible ranking systems (called Page Rank) that will act as a great starting point. Others however, most notably, Yahoo, hide their ranking systems from the public view.

All in all, this means that you’re going to have to rely on a combination of guesswork and what information you have available (i.e. Google’s Page Rank) to determine how valuable your backlink could be.

Seeing as the relevancy is going to be supplied by the content that you’re writing itself, that’s less of a worry, and so the main focus should be to concentrate on those article directories that have a high rank. That way, any and all backlinks you obtain will be far more valuable than otherwise.

End of the day, if you can get a lot of highly valued backlinks, you’ll find that the results you obtain in terms of your own search engine rankings, is going to be very much amplified. Even a few links from very highly valued websites are worth more than a score of lesser backlinks.

Be sure to keep these factors and considerations in mind, and you’ll find that your article marketing for backlinks is more successful than you probably imagined!

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But if you’re just starting out down this road, then you’re probably not yet taking advantage of the full potential of article marketing to build backlinks. Most marketers don’t, to be honest, until they’re very well advanced in their efforts already.

Needless to say, you’ll want to make every hour you put into your work count as much as possible though, so here’s the best ways for you to cash in on the full value of your backlinks:

1. Use keyword-rich anchor text

Heard of ‘anchor text’ before? Really, it’s just the blue underlined text that links back to your website, or in other words, the words that are used as the link itself.

However what many marketers don’t realize is that the anchor text that you use actually plays a role in the value of the backlink. It all ties in to a concept called ‘relevancy’, which is part and parcel of how search engines evaluate backlinks.

Ensuring that you have keyword-rich anchor text will mean that search engines associate your website with that keyword, giving you credit for it and providing you with a valuable edge over your competition.

2. Mass-submitting articles

Once you’ve written an article and submitted it to an article directory, what then? Sure, you have one backlink, but are you going to let the article you’ve written be used for just that?

One good way to make full use of your articles is to submit them to as many article directories as you can. Each one that is published will then give you a valuable backlink in turn, increasing your yield from a single article.

If you like, you could look into specialized pieces of software and even certain paid services that will help you do this quickly, easily, and almost entirely on autopilot. That way you’ll save time with your submissions.

3. Use as many backlinks as possible

Some article directories allow three backlinks, but most allow at least two. If you can, be sure to use as many as possible, because each one will help you with your efforts.

To go about it in a good way, use one link to link to your main website, and another to link to a related article or page of your choosing. That way, your main website will be boosted from each article, while you also get to choose a different additional page to boost too.

Together, these three tips should help you to get the most out of your articles. Cashing in on backlinks and maximizing what you get out of each and every article that you submit is part and parcel of streamlining your efforts, and will ensure that you make every second that you spend with your article marketing count!

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