Most article writing services on the internet offer comprehensive distribution services that fail to incorporate traditional article marketing strategies. Many businesses and individuals on the web automatically assume that article marketing consists solely of distributing SEO articles out to directories all over the internet. And while this might bring some benefits in terms of search engine optimization, readership and conversions, the fact of the matter is that this type of article distribution is very different from traditional article marketing. Understanding how each type of article marketing works can make the difference between effective strategies - and ones that only drag your business down.

The vast majority of article writing services provide one type of article distribution: Internet Article Marketing. Most people are familiar with the target of these efforts: article directories like EzineArticles, ArticleAlley, GoArticles and more. By syndicating content with these directories, web masters, SEO professional and business owners can achieve the following benefits:

*Backlink Building - Because most article directories permit up to 2 links in the resource box, it's possible to amass thousands of one-way anchor-text links pointing back to your site.

*Traffic - Some article directories receive millions of site visitors every day. Unique, compelling articles on popular topics can redirect a portion of this traffic directly from the article to your target website or landing page.

*Industry Recognition - By writing authoritative articles about topics related to your industry, you can quickly become known as an expert in your field. This is critical for online and offline branding campaigns.

Fortunately, it's not necessary to use an article writing services company to realize these benefits. If you can write well, you can submit your work to hundreds of online directories - in most cases completely free of charge. This is a time consuming process but can provide an excellent ROI if done correctly.

Article writing services that engage in traditional article marketing are getting increasingly more difficult to find. Traditional article marketing refers to the long-standing practice of authors submitting their work directly to editors and other media contacts. This includes both print and online publications like magazines, trade journals, medical journals, newspapers, periodicals, newsletters and other types of media.

This type of article marketing is more difficult because editors are exclusive in what work they will accept. You must know precisely how they prefer queries and submissions, and you must have an article that is powerful, relevant and exceptionally well written. However, when published and syndicated in this manner the results are often astonishing.

By submitting work to editors at publications related to your article, you stand a significant chance of being picked up for real print publication and syndication. And if your work is syndicated in this manner, it will generally be distributed online as well.

The benefits of this are primarily contextual. Imagine that you've written an article about a particular technique you've developed or observed for Bass fishing. Would you prefer to have your article published in hundreds of sites that have no primary focus, or would you prefer to have your article published in Field & Stream? Think there's any chance your article will be published in a real magazine if you're just submitting to online directories? There isn't.

Work published by online article directories is generally considered to be very low authority content. After all, if anyone anywhere in the world can easily submit content and have it published, how could it possibly be authoritative? This is true even for what are considered the best directories, such as EzineArticles. At EzineArticles every person who submits an article that is approved gets "expert" status immediately. This is why work syndicated in this manner generally holds very little weight.

Articles that are submitted to living editors at traditional publications are nearly always considered far more credible - and the writing is generally much better. The reason for this is that this type of publication requires that a document pass through various stages of querying, editing, rewriting, fact-checking and revisions, and receives the intense scrutiny of editors that only accept the very best work.

Internet article marketing is effective for its intended purpose, but only traditional article marketing can truly put you in a position of authority and generate immediate interest in your business.