This is the first chapter in my latest series The 7 steps to Article Marketing where we set out to clearly define what Article marketing is and how we can benefit from article marketing and maximise traffic and conversion.

What is Article Marketing?

Article marketing is one form of Internet Marketing which has been discussed in depth in one of my previous articles Why Internet marketing is an Old man’s game. Article marketing can be defined as a method of marketing or promoting a website/blog in order to leverage both traffic and conversions whether this be in the case of sales, subscribers or members.

I believe we can say that article marketing has two main functions the first being to leverage traffic through the article directories by taking advantage of the authority site this being the article directory to rank highly for keywords and bring traffic through search engines and through people searching on the article directory already.

The second function would be to gain links to your website as most article directories send out do follow links meaning that the link from your article to your website does count as an external link. Having a backlink from an article directory can make a large difference when there is little competition for a certain keyword however when you are talking about 100,000 plus search results you will generally need more than one or two links.

The amount of traffic you can receive from article directories depends upon several different factors and it is hard to estimate the amount of traffic you could receive until you have answered these questions.

1. What topic does your article cover?
2. Who is your article aimed at (target market)?
3. Has the market got a large enough readership?
4. How do other articles in this market perform in article directories?

The last question is very important and it is vital that you answer this. Although through doing keyword research or other secondary research you may find that your market is quite popular on the internet it is important that you make sure your market is searched on article directories too.

Will’s Top Tip

To find out whether your market is searched on article directories type in the main keyword on an article directory such as eZine articles and have a look at the first page’s results. Try and find several articles that have only just been submitted (within the last month) and see how many views they have had (scroll to the bottom). Take an overall average from perhaps 10-20 articles and this should give you some sort of idea.

Another strategy I use if I don’t think the keyword tools results are accurate enough is by searching relevant keywords on Google and surfing the results to find an article directory link to an article then again checking how many views it has.

For example if a Keyword tool says “gardening tools” has 1,000 searches a month and I find an article from eZine articles that ranks 5th for “gardening tools” and I then proceed to viewing the article and find that it has been viewed 10,000 times and has been live for 12 months then I may believe than 1,000 searches is quite accurate.

I could carry on for ages talking about article marketing but then there would be no point in calling this a series rather it would be one very long post. So I shall stop now and hopefully this will be enough to introduce my new series The 7 steps to Article Marketing.

Overall article marketing can have very different effects on each and every catergory you write about. Primarily I write about two different subjects which are totally different one subject will generally receive 1,000 views a month the other may only receive 100-200 views a month.

I am interested in finding out what your experience of article marketing has been?

I hope you enjoyed the first part of the series if you have any questions or would like me to talk about a specific part of article marketing. Please contact me via email or through the comment box.

Similar Posts:

• Keyword Research - The First Steps to Article Marketing
• Ezine Articles Explained - Where to submit your Articles?
• Why you should pay for keyword tools