Article marketing is a type of advertising by writing short articles related to business' respective industry. Once written, the business makes these articles freely available for distribution and publication in the marketplace. Each article contains a 'bio box' and 'by-line' which include references and contact information for the author's business. Well written content articles released for free distribution have the potential of gaining the author business credibility within his or her market, as well as new clients.
Background
Article marketing has been used by professionals for nearly as long as mass print has been available. In paper-print form (as opposed to online forms) it is commonly utilized by business owners as a means of obtaining free press space. The local business provides useful content to the newspaper free of charge and in return the newspaper prints the business' contact information with the article. Since newspapers and other traditional media are expected to present content on limited budgets, this arrangement is generally advantageous for all parties involved.
For example, an accounting firm may market itself by writing an article titled "The Top 10 ways to Avoid Getting Audited" and offering it to the local newspapers 2-3 weeks prior to tax season. Similarly, a roofing company could offer radio stations a concise article on "How to avoid ice damage to your roof this winter" shortly before the winter season.
Online Article Marketing
With the rise of ecommerce and online marketing, article marketing has made a move to the online world as well. As in traditional forms of media, online article marketing has served the dual role of providing publishers with essentially free content and advertisers with essentially free advertising. However unlike the off-line version, there are additional dimensions to article marketing online. Most notable among the differences is the use of articles for search engine optimization.
Articles are written to target particular keyword niches, and distributed to content publishers that cater to those markets. Authors are able to target their audience with informative content, sent to an already interested group of readers.
Many online article marketers enjoy the low cost of this advertising venue, thus have written 100s and some 1,000s of articles. One online article writer has written 12,900 articles. These prolific article authors also enjoy the abundant backlinks and when the articles are sent out RSS (real simple syndication) this only multiplies the exposure and number of backlinks.
Web 2.0
Article marketing has become increasingly popular as a marketing method under the Web 2.0 generation of Business on the Internet. Many subjects have gained popularity through viral propagation of articles via social networks such as Facebook and Linkedin.
The sudden popularity of article marketing has caused an overall reduction in quality in many subjects - mainly due to individuals writing low-quality articles as a quick way of achieving exposure. Efficient use of article marketing as a form of promotion requires invested effort in writing high-quality, relevant articles. [1]
Article Marketing and Search Engine Optimization
Search engine optimization (SEO) deals with the order in which web pages are ranked when key words or phrases are typed into search engines. The higher a page is ranked, the more likely it will draw a greater number of site visitors. For company websites, increased traffic often translates into increased sales and article marketing has proven most useful and effective for most of the leading internet marketing ventures around.
One method of Search Engine Optimization encompasses the idea that a website's rank in search engines will rise as it obtains more html links pointing back to it from other websites. Therefore writing and distributing articles that contain a link to a business owner's website within the 'bio box' should result in more links back to that website. In theory, this will increase that website's rank within search engines. This has led to a trend in online marketing towards writing articles solely for SEO purposes, which are commonly referred to as reprint articles. This trend has been matched by a wide selection of article marketing directory sites which accept, vet, and provide redistribution of such articles to online publishers.
The free distribution of articles has, however, led to a large amount of duplicated content appearing on sites across the internet. The quality of articles can also suffer as some authors seek a large quantity of backlinks at the possible expense of quality content.
External links
References
- ^ Newsletter post on article marketing - SCD Marketing
Article Submissions
See also
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