Article marketing is a type of advertising in which businesses write short articles related to their respective industry. These articles are made available for distribution and publication in the marketplace. Each article contains a bio box and byline (collectively known as the resource box) that include references and contact information for the author's business. Well-written content articles released for free distribution have the potential of increasing the authoring business' credibility within its market as well as attracting new clients.

[edit] Traditional Article Marketing

Article marketing has been used by professionals for nearly as long as mass print has been available. In paper-print form (as opposed to online forms), article marketing is utilized commonly by business owners as a means of obtaining free press space. A local business provides useful content to the newspaper free of charge, and in return the newspaper prints the business' contact information with the article. Because newspapers and other traditional media are expected to present content on limited budgets, this arrangement is generally advantageous for all parties involved.

For example, an accounting firm may market itself by writing an article entitled "The Top 10 Ways to Avoid Being Audited" and offering it to the local newspapers several weeks prior to tax season. Similarly, a roofing company may offer radio stations a concise article entitled "How to Avoid Ice Damage to Your Roof this Winter" shortly before the winter season.

[edit] Internet Article Marketing

Internet article marketing, is an Internet marketing technique to subtly advertise products and services via online article directories. Most directories receive a high volume of traffic and are considered authority sites by search engines, which often results in submitted articles receiving substantial free traffic.

Internet marketers will often try to maximize the results of an article marketing campaign by submitting their promotion to multiple article directories. However, most search engines filter duplicate content to prevent the same content from appearing multiple times in searches. Some marketers try to circumvent this filter by creating multiple variations of an article, called article spinning. By doing this, one article can theoretically gain traffic from multiple article directories.

Most forms of search engine optimization and Internet marketing require a domain, hosting plan, and advertising budget. However, article marketing uses article directories as a free host and receives traffic via organic searches due to the directory's search engine authority.

[edit] See also

• e-zine
• Digital marketing
• Geo (marketing)
• Marketing
• Media transparency
• Web syndication
• Article directory

[edit] References