Article marketing has gained a great deal momentum over the last two years. This is due to the fact that many websites, not to mention website rankings, are driven by quality content. As web site owners have learned more about search engine optimization and the value of quality content, they have gravitated towards article marketing.
If you have yet to jump on the article marketing bandwagon, then I suggest that you get started right away. Article marketing is here to stay. So you do not have to be all that concerned that others are using article marketing as well. In fact, article marketing works no matter how many people use it.
Article marketing is effective because you search engines love quality content. Moreover, you are producing content that will be ranked by search engines and including a link back to your website. Content focused around specific keywords is identified by search engines to display when users search on a particular niche or topic of interest. When your article includes links back to your website, you pass value back to your site.
When you distribute your article to article websites or blogs your article content your content gets additional exposure. Over time, a Google PR is assigned to the page that your article is on, and if you have links to your website, the page rank is transferred resulting in a boost to your search engine rankings.
A common mistake that is made all too often is when individuals forget to include a link back to their website or worse yet place their link in the wrong way. The best way to develop in bound links is by using keyword rich links. This means your, usually within the about the author section, is displayed with your keyword not the usual world wide web designation.
If you are unaware of how to produce such a link, do a Google search on create html links. You will find dozens of websites that give you the html code you need to create links in the proper way. If you do not embed your keyword in your link text, you are wasting your precious time and effort in article marketing.
After writing your articles and including links using the proper format, the next step is to distribute them on sites that have a high Google PR and are popular for article aggregation and or distribution. I used to believe that the benefit of these article distribution sites were that they served as a resource for webmasters seeking content. The truth however is that it is the sites Google PR itself that provides the value.
Many online article websites are not that good at distributing content. To distribute your articles you would have to use a software package or an online distribution service. Therefore, you want to focus on article directories that can provide value in terms of the page rank they pass through to your links. Focus your efforts on the top article directories to put your article marketing in overdrive.
Develop articles in your area of specialty and include links to your website. These links can be placed in the author box or included in the article. Your keywords must be placed in the text of the link. Test your links to make sure they work properly. After you have validated that links are working properly, distribute your articles at will.

