Article Marketing is one of the best, easiest and most effective ways of promoting and marketing your website and business on the web - IF DONE CORRECTLY!!

It is very important to have a clear understanding of what it is that you want to achieve through Article Marketing before you start with the process. Some online users believe in quantity before quality. They will flood the market with articles containing links to their website in the hope of generating a massive amount of traffic and one-way links. Some of these users will make use of article spinning techniques and software in order to generate higher volumes of articles.

The problem with this strategy is that it is time consuming and less effective. You will receive some traffic from the thousands of articles that you have submitted but with a very low click-through rate. One of the reasons for this low success rate will be the quality of your articles and the fact that the right people cannot find your articles in order to read them.

The Basic Theory of Article Marketing.

In order to manage a successful Article Marketing campaign you need to:

• Position your articles where they can be found resulting in a page 1 or 2 search result listing.

• Make use of attention grabbing titles.

• Use content in your article body that keeps the reader interested.

• Close the deal in the resource box.

• Benefit from the higher volume of visitors.

Position your Articles by using Keywords.

The use of effective keywords is vital to the success of your Article Marketing campaign. Keep the following in mind:

• Research your keywords and phrases by making use of the Google Adwords Keyword Tool.

• Find the best keywords by assessing the volume of searches and competition per keyword or phrase.

• You are looking for keywords with a decent amount of searches and the least amount of competition to improve your chances of success.

• Use your chosen keywords throughout your article but be careful not to overdo it.

• As a guideline, keywords should be between 1 and 3 per 100 words.

Attention Grabbing Titles

The title of your article is the first thing that people will see. It needs to grab their attention and make them want to read the article. Keep the following in mind:

• Lists for instance "The 15 Best Kept Secrets on the Web" will normally be very effective.

• Using questions similar to "What would you do with the best kept secrets on the Web?" is also effective.

• Commands similar to "Read about the Best Kept Secrets on the Web NOW!" works well.

• Your title should be relevant to the content of your article.

• Ensure that your main keywords are used in the title.

Interesting Content

It is very important that the reader is enticed by the title and kept interested by the content. You want the reader to reach the resource box and to click on your link. Keep the following in mind:

• Create and maintain interest throughout the article to prevent the reader from stopping halfway through.

• The content should be relevant to your keywords and title.

• Look at adding value to the reader through advice, general information or tips.

• Keep your articles fresh and do not stuff it with useless fluff just to reach the minimum word count.

• Visit blogs or forums and read books or articles to find more ideas.

• Use your keywords throughout the article body but do not overdo it (1 - 3 keywords for every 100 words).

The Resource Box

The resource box is the most important part of your article since the link to your website will be located here. Keep the following in mind:

• You should entice the reader to visit your site by clicking on the link.

• Using "If you want more information just visit http://www.mywebsite.com" is not effective enough.

• Look at using something similar to "If you want to learn more, there are additional articles and a FREE e-Book at http://www.mywebsite.com".

Now that you have written your article you are ready to submit and promote it.Submit the article at one of the article sites on the web. You can decide through trial and error which article site is best suited to your requirements. To promote your article it is advisable to bookmark your article on a couple of dozen social bookmarks. The higher up your article is placed on the search results page the more visitors your article will receive and more people will visit your site through the link in the resource box. If executed well, SEO Article Marketing can be a sublime tool in your search engine ranking strategy.