Article marketing is a very powerful tool that is very popular in the world of internet marketing, but what is article marketing? That's a great question and hopefully by the time you've finished reading this particular article, the concept will be much clearer for you.
A Definition Of Article Marketing
But, first of all, I think it would be a good idea to break the phrase down and examine the 2 primary words that from the phrase, article and marketing, separately.
When you think of the word "article", what comes to mind? I know for me, I always thought of articles as something one read in a newspaper or magazine or a similar type of publication. But, with the advent of the internet and the use of the internet as a marketing medium, the writing of articles is no longer associated with the print medium alone.
Articles now appear online in various formats, including article directories, web site pages, blogs, etc. The objective is really no different from traditional article writing, and that is to inform the reader and keep their interest up until the end of the article. However, the format of online articles has changed from the printed version due mainly to the way users read online as opposed to in print. Whereas readers tend to read an article in print fairly carefully, pretty much word for word, online article readers tend to scan more than read, so, in order to be effective, online articles need to be succinct, informative and short in order to maintain the reader's attention.
Hopefully, that gives you a decent idea of articles and how they've changed with the advent of the internet. Let's move on to a definition of marketing.
Marketing is all about getting a product or service from concept to customers and has been around, in one form or another, as long as man has been around. The methods have changed as new technology has been introduced, but the objective is still the same. Whereas word of mouth was the only medium at one point, we've since moved on to print and now are bombarded by marketing messages from all angles via the internet, television, radio, etc.
Bringing It All Together
Article marketing isn't a new concept, but has been around about as long as print media have been around. Local businesses would provide content free of charge to a newspaper, and, in return, the newspaper would print the business's contact information.
Article marketing on the internet is similar, in that a business or business owner provides content, and the article directory allows the author to publish contact information, usually in the form of a link to the product or service being marketed by the business. The article directories have guidelines that are sometimes fairly strict regarding the content, style, etc., of articles, and they are very strict as far as plagiarism is concerned. Articles should be a minimum of 400-500 words long (nearer 500 is better), and should provide something of value to the reader. Article directories can put your writing in front of millions of readers worldwide, and an added bonus is that most of them are free.
Marketing through the use of articles is a great way to drive traffic to your web site that can result in sales, subscriptions or whatever the ultimate goal of your marketing is, and is recognized as a vital tool in the field of search engine optimization.
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