Internet marketing is all about getting the best results for the least possible investment of your time and money. By writing good articles and submitting them to article directories you can drive significant traffic to your website. It is not the only way to do this, but few of the alternatives have so many benefits.
Search engine optimization
There is no better way to drive traffic to your website than by appearing at the top of the search engine rankings. While many internet users will ignore advertisements they will happily click through to search engine results. Advertising campaigns can of course be very effective, but they can be prohibitively expensive.
When you submit articles to article directories you will create backlinks to your website. The search engines will award you for these and you will will get a higher page ranking. Be careful though. Search engines can now recognize duplicate content so a unique version of each article article must be submitted to each directory for your campaign to be effective. Article submission alone may not help you to get to the very top of the search pages, but it will certainly increase your ranking.
Create direct traffic
By submitting articles to article directories you are giving websites free license to publish your articles. If you can produce quality articles that people want to publish and read you could find them appearing on hundreds, if not thousands, of websites. Each time a reader reads one of your articles there is a chance they will click through to your website through the resource box link, thus increasing traffic and sales.
You can make a name for yourself
The most successful internet marketers are well known in their field, or across the web in general. As an internet and article marketer you want to do the same. Try to become an authority on your niche subject and get your name known. If you are successful with this you will find that website owners will actively seek out your articles and be more than happy to publish them, rather than stumbling upon them by chance.
By submitting articles to directories you are already getting your name out there. However, you should back this up with other methods. Become involved in the online community relating to your field. Post helpful replies on forums, or comment on articles in blogs. You may find an opportunity to include a link to your site while doing this, but only do so if it is helpful, relevant and acceptable for that website. On the subject of blogs, you should set up your own. You are already writing articles so these can go in your blog, and you can also add posts including your thoughts, comments or smaller snippets of news when you want. If you engage with the online community in this way you will increase traffic to your website.
Long term gains
Once you have submitted an article to a directory it stays there, and if it is not time-specific it will be published again and again in the future. Bear this in mind when writing articles. Sometimes a newsy, topical article can be a good idea but often it is best to write articles that will have a long shelf life so they remain relevant in the future.
Your article can set up the sale
If a web user happens upon your website through a search engine link or an external link they may not be ready to make a purchase. With article marketing you can use your article to set up the sale. For example, if your article is giving advice on something you can give basic advice in the article while subtly giving the reader the impression that your product or service will provide the ultimate solution to their problem.
Article marketing is cheap
When compared to advertising or even to other marketing strategies, article marketing is very cost effective. It can be done for free if you make all of the submissions yourself by hand. However, even using a service or software to make articles unique and submit them to directories need not cost a lot.
So, if you are not already using article marketing to drive traffic to your website you should start now.
