Article Marketing 101, Part 1

I’ve written about article marketing before, but recently realized I didn’t have a good series of How To posts about it. Since the prize for this month’s comment contest is an original Ezine Article article, this is a good time to fit in an Article Marketing 101 series.

There are two basic reasons to use article marketing: search engine optimization, and search engine results.

Search Engine Optimization

Since you are writing the article, you have control over the anchor text of links in the article (subject to the article directory’s editorial rules). So if you want your site to rank higher for the phrase make money online, then make that your anchor text in the article. As long as the article really is about making money online, you’ll get a relevancy boost by having that one-way link from the article to your site.

Search Engine Results

Let’s say that your site is ranking #10 for your chosen keyword in Google. You’ve tried everything, and can’t quite manage to get higher than that. The next best thing to ranking highly in Google for a keyword is to have a highly ranked site link to you. Ezine Articles articles generally rank highly in Google search results. By writing an article for that keyword, you’ll now have two search results working for you.

The importance of this cannot be overstated. Having multiple search results on the front page of Google that, effectively, point to your site will greatly increase your chances of making a sale or getting a reader.

It isn’t just the increase in traffic from having multiple results show up, but the increase in confidence a visitor will have in your site. If they’ve read a couple of articles that link to your site before they finally get to your site itself, then they’ll already be thinking of your site as an authority on the subject.

This same concept works with Squidoo lenses, too. In fact, combining article marketing with Squidoo lenses is very powerful. On the right keywords you could end up having three or four of the top 10 search results in Google.

But I’m Not A Writer!

If you write a blog, you’re a writer. Articles do not need to be much more refined than your blog posts. I’m a bit of a perfectionist with my articles, which actually limits my effectiveness with article marketing. It would be far better if I put the articles together more quickly, and in greater quantity.

In future installments of this series, we’ll look at the various stages of article marketing, including researching and writing the article and knowing what the subject of the article should be. We’ll also talk more about quality versus quantity.