Article marketing is just that – the use of original, quality articles to promote your website. It is a means of generating traffic that is particularly important because it is "pre-qualified". Putting it in simple language, the people reading the article are already interested in the subject so if you can attract them to your website, you are assured of their interest in the topic.

When someone visits your site from an article site, it is considered a one-way link. This type of link is important in your effort to establish yourself as an expert in the field and important enough for the search engines to start directing traffic there.

Webmasters frequent the article sites to locate material to publish on their own sites. In order to use your article, they must include the link back to your site.

Traffic is coming to your web site from four directions: the article directory site itself, from website where your articles have been published, from ezines and their archives and from the search engines.

What About The Articles?

The articles must be original content. If you use PLR, it must be rewritten sufficiently that the original piece is not recognized. The article must contain valuable information. It should never "sell" or promote.

You are allowed to put a resource box at the end of the article. This is where you make your pitch.

Christopher Knight, CEO of EzineArticles.com (considered by many to be the #1 site) is quoted as saying, "The Article Body Is Where You Give; The Resource Box Is Where You Take."

Since your primary reason for writing articles is to generate traffic and lead qualified prospects to your website, you want to provide what the ezine publishers want. They certainly don't want to publish sales literature and they won't. If your article doesn't get published, you have wasted your time.