by Allen Ferrier

Article marketing is one of the most effective ways to promote a business on the internet today. It is beneficial for companies to engage in article marketing because it allows others to get information about their industry and the business they conduct. Articles are then submitted to one of the many article submission websites where they will be read and possibly picked up by other sites, blogs, magazines etc. For example, an anti-virus software business might submit articles on the subject of “Ways to Maintain your Privacy Online”. Tackling a subject which impacts a number of people will make it more likely that the article will be frequently read, and it might even go viral.

To help drive readers back to your site, you should provide a link to your website at the end of each article. The articles can potentially spread like wildfire, steering possibly enormous amounts of traffic right to your company’s online site.

Increased traffic is not the only benefit of having back links. Google, Yahoo and MSN search engines use back links to evaluate a websites merit. Your search engine rank on the results page will increase if you have numerous links that lead to your page. In addition, links that come from a page with content that is relevant to the page they link to are given more value by the search engines. Websites that contain articles with relevant embedded links increase the value of your site.

The purpose of article marketing isn’t only to facilitate link and search traffic. An internet campaign is successful when it advertises a company while at the same time legitimizing and expanding its presence.

As your articles spread around the internet and are picked up by other sites, your company can use this exposure to help brand your product and establish yourself as an industry expert. When a company can back up their statements in writing, and other businesses use that information as reference, the company gains trust.

An additional trend which has strengthened the role of article marketing recently is the increasing popularity of web 2.0. The Internet has been transformed by social networking sites such as Myspace and Facebook. It seems that each population segment has a unique social structure; more and more of these groups seek information about each other. These sites’ popularity helps to solidify the role of article marketing online for many years to come. Read the rest of this entry