Article Marketing
How it works
In its simplest form article marketing is a form of advertising where a business owner writes short articles related to their field of business and makes them freely available for distribution and publication to their marketplace. Each article contains a 'bio box' and 'by-line' which contain references and contact information for the author's business. Authors normally have several intentions with the creation of content articles for free distribution. If the articles are well written, the author will stand to gain business credibility within his or her market, as well as new clients.
Background
Article marketing is not a new practice. It has been used by professionals for nearly as long as mass print has been available. In paper-print form (as opposed to online forms) it has commonly been used by business owners as a means of getting free press space. One method that may be most recognizable would be where a local business provides free content to a newspaper that would be of value to the readership in exchange for the inclusion of their business contact information. In many cases newspapers, and other traditional media, are wiling to use this content since it allows them to fill up content space without having to expend any of their own resources creating it.
An example you could encounter might be where an accounting firm writes an article titled "The Top 10 ways to Avoid Getting Audited." and offers it to their local newspapers 2-3 weeks prior to tax season. Another may be a roofing company offering radio stations a short interview on "How to avoid ice damage to your roof this winter" shortly before winter sets in.
Online Article Marketing
With the rise of ecommerce and online marketing, article marketing has made a move to the online world as well. As in the off-line world, online article marketing has served the dual role of providing publishers with essentially free content and advertisers with essentially free advertising. However unlike the off-line version, there are additional dimensions to article marketing online. Most notable among the differences is the use of articles for search engine optimization.
Article marketing and Search Engine Optimization
One theory of search engine optimization (SEO) is that a website's rank in search engines will rise as it obtains more html links pointing back to it from other websites. Therefore writing and distributing articles that contain a link to a business owner's website within the 'bio box' should result in more links back to that website. In theory this will increase that website's rank within search engines. This has led to a trend in online marketing towards writing articles solely for SEO purposes which are commonly referred to as reprint articles. This trend has been matched by a wide selection of article directory sites which accept, vet, and provide redistribution of such articles to online publishers.
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