Why Article Marketing?
If there’s one thing bloggers want more of, it’s readers! Whether you’re blogging for pet lovers, kids’ dentists, or Boston Red Sox fans, driving more people to your posts is surely a prime objective. And one of the best ways to drive traffic to your blog or website is through article marketing.
Article marketing is the process of creating short articles for publication and distribution by other websites and off-line publishers in exchange for at least one quality link back to your website or blog. Articles are normally published to article directories, websites made up entirely of articles submitted by authors. Article directories are usually free to publish to.
Benefits of Article Marketing
While it may seem counter-intuitive to provide your content for free to other websites, there are several benefits of article marketing:
1. Link Love. When other sites publish your content, you receive a link back to your blog. When properly optimized, this link will assist in helping you rate more highly for search engine results. When you rank more highly in Google and other search engines, you’ll get more organic traffic to your blog. And more traffic means more readers!
2. Validation. When your articles are published by others, you receive an unofficial recommendation from the publisher. It’s as if you’re getting a stamp of approval from another blogger or website. This recommendation will further your reputation and drive more readers to your site.
3. Expert Status. When you can say, “I’ve published 25 articles on pediatric dentistry,” you increase your web presence and ability to claim expert status. That means your trust level increases and makes you more believable.
There are a number of low- or no-cost online article directories where you can share your articles for little or no cost. This makes article marketing is also a cost-effective way publicize your blog.
Also, article marketing is a great way to make a smooth transition from one website to another. By writing an article that is highly targeted to your market you can lead them from article through to a resource box and a well crafted link that takes them right to your blog where more information is waiting for them.
One of the keys to great article marketing is to have a clear goal. It’s not enough to throw a bunch of great articles at the directories and hope people will make their way back to your blog. You’ll want to know what you hope to achieve from your article marketing. Is it more blog readers? Is it more comments? Is it to get them to sign up for your RSS feed or email list? Writing articles that draw people to your exact goal is one way to excel in article marketing.
Conclusion to Article Marketing
However long you’ve been blogging, and whatever you’re topic, you’ll find that article marketing is an easy and inexpensive way to increase your blog reach and readership. Even if you’ve never written anything other than a blog post, you can leverage article marketing to make your blog readership skyrocket.
