Article Marketing – Unique Content Is King
by Mark Thompson on May 16, 2008
in Affiliate Marketing
Unless you happen to be someone who has only recently started doing business online then you will Know about article marketing. Through article marketing people like you and me are able to get involved in niche markets and target those visitors who are interested in the product you are promoting and turn them into being motivated to purchase from you.
Article marketing without any shadow of a doubt is a very powerful tool for using to promote a website. Certainly, if done properly it is an extremely effective method of getting targeted traffic to your site and building backlinks. By using informative articles that are short to promote your site may seem a waste of time, but the actual return on the time you investment can be astounding. But just how does article marketing work?
For a start it cost little or not to write an article and then submit it to various article directories or even to other websites. Then in turn a directory or website will publish the article you have written on them. The affect is that the rankings for your site on search engines will begin to rise because of all the backlinks which have been created because other sites are now using your content.
Article marketing is extremely viral. As you will find it only takes one well written article using the appropriate targeting keywords will allow you to generate numerous links back to your site or to some other designated landing page.
Article marketing also provides the added benefit allowing even a new website owner or author to develop a reputation as an authority in a niche. When a reader comes across your article through an article directory and is interested enough to click through your links and visit your site, you’ve been handed the opportunity to develop a relationship with that reader. It’s up to you to cultivate that relationship by offering even more relevant content for your readers that addresses their questions, needs or wants.
On occasion you may hear that article marketing is not as effective as it use to be. Also by submitting an article to a number of different article directories is only actually helping to create duplicate content, and which is putting your site at risk of the major search engines choosing to de-index it.
Putting aside any arguments for or against duplicate content for the moment, article marketing is every bit as effective as any traffic or promotional tactic touted these days. Various promotional strategies will come and go, but the strength of article marketing lies in the fact that the World Wide Web is built upon and needs fresh, relevant content continuously.
Each and every day millions of potential customers are going online searching for information. By giving these potential customers the information they want you are placing yourself in a position from which you can profit. By writing many articles you will soon attact a steady stream of traffic to your websites. It’s then just down to your site whether you convert that traffic into sales.
Article marketing is the one free or nearly free strategy to promote a product or website that anyone can do. It is an excellent way to bring in targeted traffic if you are willing to work at it consistently and for the long-term.
Writing informative articles that use well researched keywords no matter what niche you are involved in cannot only get your more exposure, but increase your rankings in search engines. However, submitting the same article to numerous article directories or specialist websites will dilute just how effective your article marketing efforts are.
In order to succeed with your article marketing you need to submit only unique versions of the articles you produce to a various websites and directories. Although this may seem somewhat daunting the results are amazing and it will be worth all the effort in the end. The risks of duplicate content are gone along with the risks of your site or product slipping in the search engine rankings. But whilst what constitutes being duplicate content is still one of the hot subjects of debate online, many of the more experienced webmasters are happy if each article they produce is different by not more than 30%.
Of course, the greater the difference between versions, the better, but keep in mind that the top search engines spiders review a webpage in its entirety and take other elements of the page into consideration. Even a seemingly small 30% change can be quite sufficient to avoid being “sandboxed”.
The smartest way when it comes to article marketing is to ensure that you submit unique versions of your articles. Not only will you gain more targeted traffic, but the increase in the rankings tends to last for much longer because of the backlinks you have built through the marketing of unique articles.

