First of all what is article marketing? According to Wikipedia: “Article marketing is a type of advertising in which businesses write short articles related to their respective industry. These articles are made available for distribution and publication in the marketplace. Each article contains a bio box and byline (collectively known as the resource box) that include references and contact information for the author’s business. Well-written content articles released for free distribution have the potential of increasing the authoring business’ credibility within its market as well as attracting new clients.”
If you’re just starting a home based business online and you’re wondering how to market your website, my suggestion would be article marketing. Article marketing is one of the most popular forms of Internet marketing in use today by home business owners online and there are many reasons for this popularity.
First of all as the definition above suggests, a well written article has the potential of driving free targeted traffic to your home business website. Because your editorial relates to your business anyone taking the time to read it must be interested in what you have to offer. When these people visit your website they are already potential customers and now your task is to convert them into paying clients.
Secondly, when you distribute your articles to the top article directories online they are allocated to various websites who download your content and from there they are read by visitors to these websites who also view your biography box with your website link. This creates the opportunity for your writings to live on the Internet for years after they were published thus sending endless streams of free targeted traffic to your home business website.
Another attraction of article marketing is that it’s relatively inexpensive. If you write your own articles and distribute them yourself to the top article directories your only cost involves maintaining a website.
Next, this form of Internet marketing brings you instant credibility online because it sets you up as an expert in your field. People begin to view you as an authority on your particular subject which brings with it immediate respect. This helps your home business get recognized as well.
This form of website promotion also increases the odds of attracting return traffic to your home business site. If people enjoy your articles they will probably come back for more. The more often a potential customer visits your website the more likely they will become a paying customer.
When these people return for more information this creates the opportunity to build relationships. Also when visitors leave comments about your writing they usually leave their own contact information. You can use this information to respond to their comments and therefore begin the relationship building process. People who feel that they know you are more likely to do business with you than people who don’t.
Finally, the more articles you write the more content you’re creating for your website. The more content you have the more likely you are to be indexed by the major search engines. Getting indexed and recognized by these search engines is critical to the success of your home business website.
As you can see article marketing offers many advantages for your home business online and is a great way for newbies to get started down the road to Internet success.