There’s a lot of fuss made about article marketing (also known as ‘bum marketing’) and the various ways to undertake it. There’s no doubt we can do things to improve our results, but the basic premise of article marketing is dead simple…and I happen to like simple. The premise is as follows:

1. We do our keyword research and take a juicy keyword with low competition and high search volume.

2. We then write an article using that keyword in said article.

3. At the end of our article, we include a byline which includes a link to our squeeze or content page.

4. We then submit said article to article submission directories (I primarily use Ezine Articles)

We can take a few additional steps to draw attention to our article or web content containing our keyword (see below); but if done correctly, we should rank highly (preferably first page) on the major search engines for our juicy keyword.

Couple of quick tips:-

Article Title

When creating a title for our article, try and use the ‘keyword – benefit’ technique. That is, start by listing the keyword, then a benefit of the keyword, and then repeat the keyword again if appropriate.

Example:

Aspergers Syndrome – Recognizing Symptoms Of Aspergers Syndrome

Dog Barking – 5 Ways To Stop Your Dog Barking

Keyword Use

Let’s not go crazy splattering our keyword all the way through our article. Aim to use it 4 to 5 times in a 500 word article. We should use it in the first paragraph and use it in a way that once again highlights the benefit of reading the article.

Example:

Recognizing the symptoms of Aspergers syndrome can be a significant first step in the successful diagnosis and treatment of the condition.

People Love Steps Or Tips

It’s true. Readers love easy steps, tips, top tens, anything that we can put in a list format. Consider making our articles thus.

Byline Hype

It might seem pretty obvious, but it’s no good having great search engine rankings and a brilliant article if we have a garbage byline. We don’t just want to put a link to our squeeze page or web site at the bottom, we want to invoke some curiosity in our reader so they are hungry for more. The whole point of having written the article is to get people to our squeeze page, so let’s make it a no-brainer decision to click on our link.

Tell them to click on our link, and what the benefit will be to them if they do.

Keep Em Short

If you are anything like me you actually have to curb your writing juices from flowing. I always write articles that are too big. Try and keep your articles to around 500 words. Give the reader two or three hard hitting and interesting points and then let the byline do the rest. We aren’t looking to educate in our articles, just incite…incite curiosity that is.

Can’t write? Outsource the writing.

It’s A Numbers Game

No matter how good a writer we are, chances are that not all of our articles will make it to #1 on Google. Those that do are wonderful, and make it a pleasure to look at our traffic statistics. Those that don’t can nevertheless create reasonable streams of traffic.

Remember we looked earlier at the concept of long tail keywords, and that having multiple sources of small amounts of traffic can often yield better results than a single large source. Same principle here. If we write even just one article a day, that’s 30 articles a month, or conservatively 300 articles a year. If even half of those are effective at brining in a couple of hundred visitors or ‘hits’ a month, we can expect to do quite handsomely with our affiliate marketing. They say the average income expectancy of any single article is around $20. Some will yield more, some less. Try not to get too bogged down when writing articles. Just make them interesting enough that the reader will be left wanting more, and get them out there. The great part about articles is that they will continue to earn you money in the long term as well as the short.