If you happen to be completely new to running an internet business, then you should already have heard the term article marketing. Article marketing is a way that the regular Joes like you and I can get a foothold in niche markets. You are, through this form of marketing, able to target interested visitors and then turn them into motivated buyers.

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?

Initially, it is going to cost you little or nothing, you if you want write your own articles and then submit them to different article directories and other websites. When submitted these sites in turn will then publish them on theirs for you. The benefit is that your site’s search engine rankings will begin to rise because of the backlinks which you have gained because other sites are now using what you have written.

Article marketing is extremely viral since a single article, if well-written and targeting good keywords, can generate dozens and dozens of links back to the author’s site or other designated landing page.

Through your article marketing you as a new website owner or author can develop a reputation in your niche market of being an authority on it. A person who comes across one your articles in an article directory and remains interested so that they click on the link provided and visit your site, provides you now with the opportunity to build a more lasting relationship with that person. The next step then is to cultivate that relationship further by offering them more relevant content which will address certain questions or problems that they may have.

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.

By creating content in the form of articles you will start to attract a steady stream of visitors to your site. Everyday millions of people go online looking for answers. With your articles you can place yourself in a strong position to provide the answers to their questions and convert the traffic into sales.

Article marketing cost you little or nothing as a way for you to promote a product or a website that you have and anyone is able to do it. It is the ideal way of getting targeted traffic to you as long as you are willing to work at it over a period of time and consistently.

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.

For your article marketing to succeed you should be aiming to submit unique versions of articles that you write to directories and websites. This may seem somewhat of a daunting task initially but the results you get back will be worth all the effort in the end. Gone are the risks of you producing duplicate content and slipping in search engine rankings. Yet whilst the definition of what actually constitutes duplicate content continues to be a subject for discussion, the majority of experienced webmasters are happy for around 30% difference in each article written.

Yet the greater the difference between each article written, then the better this is for your online business. However, you need to keep in mind that the spiders used by top search engines not only review entire web pages but also will look at other elements on a page and take these into consideration. So even a small 30% change between one article and the next can being more than sufficient to avoid yours being ignored.

Submitting unique versions of your articles is the smartest way to undertake article marketing. Not only are you gaining targeted traffic, but the boost in ranking tends to last longer from backlinks you build through marketing unique articles.