Article marketing is a long-term income and traffic generation tactic. In order to benefit the most from your article marketing efforts, you must understand both the underlying concepts of article marketing, as well as how to write an article.

Don’t be fooled by people who tell you it takes too long to do proper article marketing. Yes, it takes time, but writing a feature article for your web site and promoting it is is a sure-fire way to build traffic for long-term growth and income.

Here’s one quick tip about marketing articles.

People often focus on providing educational articles, believing that if they provide tons of free information, prospective customers will be sold easier. The problem is, prospects often leave before you ask them for a sale. Some people even feel the information you’ve provided is so comprehensive that they no longer need your product.

The idea that articles are primarily for education and teaching will cost you money and profits.

You do want educational articles and quality content, but ultimately, you want to drive people into your sales funnel — normally an autoresponder — so that you can convert them into buyers.

Article Marketing Basics

Below is a basic flowchart showing the article marketing process.

In this example, I’ve stipulated three published articles to Ezine. The three articles are targeting moneyword keywords within your niche, and can be submitted to other article directories, not just Ezine.

We use Ezine Articles for our efforts because Google spiders them constantly. Google will find the articles you publish and follow the bio box links back to your site. Then, bingo! Google has found your site.

Let’s look at what the diagram is really showing us.

1. First, you publish articles on your site. This content is what we ultimately want ranked at the top of Google’s organic search results. (Black line in diagram)
2. Then we publish different articles on highly searched, low-competition keywords on Ezine Articles. (Green lines)
3. Google spiders Ezine and finds your articles. (Red lines)
4. Google notices you have highly searched keywords, and that not many sites are competing for those keywords. (Can you see the importance of using moneyword keywords in your article? If not, I’ll explain it a bit later.) Google indexes your Ezine articles. (Red lines)
5. Google follows the bio box links back to your site. You’ve been found! (Blue lines)
6. Google send bots to your site to see what it contains. Google finds relevant, on-topic, highly searched, low-competition, keyword-rich articles for your niche. (Gold/orange lines)
7. Google needs content for those highly searched, low-competition keywords, so they index your web site’s page articles. (Gold/orange lines)
8. Because your keywords are properly researched, you get the rankings for your articles and Google sends you traffic as your reward. This is targeted traffic that you can convert to buyers. (Pink/purple lines)

Keywords, or I should say the right keywords, are essential. Without them, you won’t get the organic rank you need to pull traffic — or even be found in the organic results.

If your keyword research is done well, getting first-page rankings for your article pages is possible and likely.

One caveat: Getting ranked for your directory article submissions isn’t the real goal – you want high organic rankings for your on-site articles! The article directory articles are just a means to get your site and on-site articles indexed and ranked.

Putting Your Article Together — Writing Your Article.

When it comes to writing articles, it’s important to give your readers useful information. Ultimately, however, your goal is to get listed in the search engines and drive traffic.

You want Google to pick up the article from the article directory, then follow the bio box links to your site. Google will crawl your site and rank your on-site articles and pages for specific moneyword keywords. It’s your on-site targeted keyword articles that you want Google’s organic search results to rank highly.

Each article should contain one keyword that you want to target, but there are some important guidelines for how to use that keyword.

Number of Words:
Each article you write needs to be between 450 and 700 words long. The more relevant the content is to your targeted keyword, the better.

Keyword Density:
We suggest your target keyword phrase should be at a 1-2% density in your article. This means that out of 100 words, you will have the keyword phrase will appear two times.

Do not stuff more keywords into your article thinking more is better. It’s not. Like anything, moderation is key.

Keyword Phrase Placement:

Put the targeted moneyword keyword in the title, preferably at the beginning. If your article is on Dog Training, a title that reads, “Dog Training is Critical For Obedience” is better than “Obedient dogs come from good dog training.” Notice the keyword you’re targeting is at the beginning of the title. This is better SEO in the eyes of the search engines.

Make sure the first and last paragraphs always contain the keyword phrase.

Besides driving traffic from the search engines, your articles will be a conduit between people looking for niche information and your web site. Your article needs to be relevant and interesting enough to make them want to click on the links in your article bio box.

While you want to communicate what your niche is about and make it relevant to your keyword, don’t give away everything you know in one article. Be sure you intrigue and pique interest, but hold something back. The prospect needs a reason to buy, and what you hold back is that reason.

You want people to benefit from your article and then take some type of action. This brings up another point:

IMPORTANT!
You need a call to action, whether it’s to read more reviews or articles on your site, opt-in to your newsletter so your auto-responder messages can direct them to your product offer, or something else. You always want the reader to take another step toward your sales funnel.

Some directories won’t allow blatant direct links. In that case, make a stronger call to action in the bio box so people will take the next step.

I want to stress that there is nothing deceiving about selling people an honest product that honestly helps them solve an issue.

Some people have a feeling that “sales” is a dirty secret or under-handed process. And yes, some sales people are dirty or underhanded. But be honest, truthful, direct, sincere, and respectful, and your readers will notice and reward you by clicking on your links if they feel their needs can be met by your recommended program. Be proud of what you do!

So where do you direct them to in your bio box?

The simple answer is to your web site, on-site article, and then ultimately, to your autoresonder or sales page. We recommend that you capture their email immediately. If they don’t visit your sales page while on your site, you’ve lost them — possibly forever. Getting a name and email is critical to long-term success and profits.

Once you get prospects to your site, the sales funnel needs to do its job.

Before we wrap things up for today, here’s a list of directories you can submit your articles to:

EzineArticles.com ( http://www.ezinearticles.com/ )
Page rank: 6 – NO AFFILIATE LINKS ALLOWED
ArticlesBase.com ( http://www.articlesbase.com )
Page rank: 5 – NO AFFILIATE LINKS ALLOWED

Goarticles.com ( http://www.goarticles.com/ )
Page rank: 6 – AFFILIATE LINKS ALLOWED

Hubpages.com ( http://www.hubpages.com/ )
Page rank: 5 – AFFILIATE LINKS ALLOWED

Google Knol ( http://knol.google.com/ )
Page rank: 10 – NO AFFILIATE LINKS ALLOWED

UsFreeads.com ( http://www.usfreeads.com/ )
Page rank: 5 – AFFILIATE LINKS ALLOWED

Squidoo.com ( http://www.squidoo.com )
Page rank: 7 – AFFILIATE LINKS ALLOWED

Article marketing is a powerful tool in your arsenal — especially over time.

People often fail because they don’t do enough article marketing. It takes more than just one article to create long-term results. The more articles you have out there that are picked up by Google, the easier it is to establish yourself as an authority in your niche. Ideally, you want to have 20 to 50 articles published. Yes, it will take time to create and distribute that many articles, but the sweat equity you put in now will produce great results later.

Work hard on your article marketing process for a month, and you’ll reap the rewards for years.

Talk to you soon,

Adam Short

About the Author

Adam Short - My desire to work for myself, rather than someone else, began in early childhood. My father was an entrepreneur and he encouraged me to "work for myself" as well. Creator of Niche Profit Classroom