Seven Great Reasons To Use Article Marketing To Get Free Traffic

The internet has proven to be quite the marketing treasure trove. It is difficult to believe that a little over a decade ago, internet commerce was in the infancy stages. Today, it has expanded far beyond anyone's wildest expectations. It is estimated that well over $5 billion dollars flows through the coffers of online commercial enterprises each year. However, simply launching an online commercial venture will not automatically tap into this revenue. A website still needs to be properly marketed. One of the best ways to achieve this is through article marketing.

What is article marketing? As the name implies, it is a form of informational marketing that uses short articles to promote a product or service. While simple in concept, article marketing can be enormously helpful in promoting a commercial venture. Here are seven of the most common advantages of article marketing:

1. Article marketing is relatively inexpensive. The costs of hiring a writer are far less than it would cost to place a banner advertisement on a website. A professional writer can easily produce a short (500 word) article for under $20. Additionally, the writer can be far more compelling than a stoic banner ad could ever be.

2. Article marketing can help provide credibility towards a product or service. If you read an article on the subject of weight loss that was unique, informative, and thought provoking, would you be more or less inclined to purchase a product promoted in the body of the article. Of course, you would be more likely to purchase. This is because the expertise presented in the article lent a great deal of credibility to the product.

3. You have no control over the number of people who will see your article marketing efforts. It can simply mushroom and go viral. To get your new article to the internet and be seen is quite simple and again free in most cases. You simply register with an article directory and submit your article for distribution. Actually, there are hundreds of article directories on the internet and submitting multiple articles to these various directories opens the doors to untold scores of readers.

4. The articles are forever. Some article directories will inevitably close from time to time, but your articles will still live on. You see, the directory simply "gives birth" to the article and gets it out into the public domain. That means your published articles will remain indexed in the search engines. So, the article you wrote years ago can still draw in potential customers today.

5. Articles can also be used in email marketing campaigns as well. Yes, it is true that most articles are submitted to article directories, but the flexibility of article marketing is quite vast. Often, articles can be used quite effectively in email campaigns. Most people despise spam emails due to their curt nature. Emails that utilize article marketing are more welcome because of their information and entertainment value.

6. Article marketing can also aid in search engine optimization. Adding links to the body of an article that is published on the web will yield "votes" for the website the links point towards. This will increase the site's ranking in the search engines.

7. Article marketing can easily cross over with website content. If a website lacks relevant content then the search engines will ignore it. Also, a "barren" website does very little for stimulating visitor interest in a product. Adding quality, promotional articles to a website can perform the "double duty" of marketing the site and adding keyword rich content. Consider this two-for-one approach another way article marketing is cost effective.

Naturally, there are more than seven benefits to article marketing but these are a good selection. Anyone who is operating a commercial venture on the internet should make article marketing a prime component of their advertising strategy. The reason for this is that it is among the most effective promotional strategies ever devised.