You Got The Article-How Do You Market It?

Creating articles or purchasing articles - to get your site recognized is the first step to Article Marketing. But what do you do after the article is written? Yes, you submit it to directories. You can do this manually or utilize an article submission service.

But the main thing to know, is how to get your article ready. Hopefully, my article "Article Marketing Basics" will give you a quick idea of how to do this. It's a quick read with some helpful tips that you can utilize, especially if you're short of cash, and want to manually submit to some of the article directories available on the Internet.

Do not neglect this method of marketing, some people have utilized only this method to get their traffic-and it's targeted.

Article Marketing Basics
By Vickie J Scanlon

Do you want to utilize articles as one of your marketing strategies? but do not know what you need to do after you write the article? If that's the case, here are some helpful hints to get your article writing out to your target market.

Simple Rules

If you are writing articles for article-marketing purposes keep in mind some simple rules:

The mechanics
1) It is best to use Notepad with the format "word-wrap" off. A lot of the article directories want your article to wrap naturally, without any hidden sentence breaks or page breaks. If your article doesn't wrap naturally and has a lot of unnecessary coding garbage, they will more than likely reject the article and make you clean it up and resubmit it again.

2) If you are using Microsoft Word stay away from the smart quotes. The smart quotes will leave your document with question mark symbols and/or other garbage. In addition, Microsoft Word gives you additional hidden coding garbage-that directories do not want. Again, some of the directories can work with Word, while others cannot. My suggestion is to create it in Word, do your spell check and than transfer it into Notepad to keep the copy clean for the directories- and to eliminate headaches. If you are submitting by hand, you definitely do not want to do this tedious task two or three times.

Your Signature

At the end of your article be sure to put your resource box. That should include your signature. Not only should it include your website info and/or blog info but you can also promote your product or service as well. But don't go crazy with the links in your resource box. Some directories only allow two or three links.

Also make sure your signature is concise and relevant to the article. If your article is talking about programming and you give them a link about shoes, you really missed the mark and your target market. And, that translates into lost affiliate revenue, lost time, lost energy and used bandwidth.


Get your articles out there

If you are a new site, it is important to get your site name out to the masses to see. Granted, for some it may be a tedious job but you will see targeted traffic coming your way. Another alternative is to look at article submissions service-but this option requires an outlay of money.


Articles for the Search Engines

Again, Search Engine Optimization does come into play. Make sure that you have several keywords in mind. Try to weave the keywords into your copy without distorting the quality of your work. The keywords will help the search engines find your article, and thus, get your article indexed and seen by yet more of your targeted market. And who knows, you may find your article in the top ten of Google, MSN and Yahoo.

To conclude, article marketing is a cost effective way to get your business off the ground and in full view of the Internet community. In fact, some webmasters have utilized article marketing as one of their major marketing strategies when promoting their site. It takes time, your energy, but the rewards can be great. Why? Articles do not stop circulating after you're done with a 6 week campaign. Your article will continue to give you traffic for many years to come.

About the Author:
Vickie J Scanlon -- Visit her site at: My Affiliate Place for tools, articles, ebooks, "how to" affiliate info, affiliate programs, tech accessories, software, computers for business use.