Good Ezines

Article marketing is the triple threat of online marketing. First, it helps establish you as an expert in your field; second it drives targeted traffic to your site; and third, it creates backlinks to your site, helping you come up higher in organic (unpaid) searches.

Let’s take them one by one.

Writing articles gives you instant credibility by putting you in the position of authority. You are the person giving information to those seeking it. People respect people who are published, whether it is online or offline.

People hesitate to write articles for any number of reasons. Most commonly, some people lack confidence in their writing skills. Article writing is different from the essays you were assigned in high school. Yes, spelling and grammar still count, but the quality of the information that you impart is even more important.

Another stopping point is that people think they do not have the expertise or authority to write articles. Do you have to be one of the top people in your field to be considered an expert? No. You do have to make sure the information you give is correct and relevant. The great thing about article marketing? The more research you do to write your articles, the more you truly deserve the title of expert.

Articles are the best way I know of to drive targeted traffic to your site. You can take out ads or pay someone to send people to your site, but if they aren’t interested in what you’re offering, they are just going to click off again. Traffic that comes from one of your articles gives you a person who is interested in your topic, likes what you had to say, and is interested in learning more about you and your topic. That’s about as targeted as you can get.

Backlinks are links from other websites that connect to your site. If higher ranked sites hook into yours, it helps your site gain in rank and come up higher in the organic searches. Every link back to your site is like a vote; some web master is saying “This site has good quality content and is worth looking at.” The more backlinks, the more credit for quality the search engines give you.

These are just three benefits of article marketing. Here’s a hidden benefit: article marketing is one of the few methods of driving traffic to your site that is low-cost or no-cost. Most article submission sites accept articles at no charge to you. If you want to use automated distribution sites most charge a nominal fee, either per article or monthly.

Why would you write articles? Well, if you are not trying to establish yourself as an expert and you have nothing to sell, you would write for the sheer pleasure of writing and the joy of seeing your work spread around the internet. But for me, I write articles to drive traffic to my websites. Having your work spread around the internet is gratifying, but getting paid for writing and sharing information is even better.

Remember: It doesn’t have to be perfect. It just has to be done.

Barbara Grassey is an author, speaker and trainer on writing and internet marketing. For a free DVD that shows you how to create information products fast, go to http://www.informationproductfasttrack.com