Article marketing is the best form of online advertising. No one buys products or services without the proper research. The Internet is a great way for consumers to find targeted information about the products and services they plan to purchase.

Quality Content is King

Everywhere you look, people are insistent that content is king. Unfortunately that isn’t the case. A website filled with random content is not ranked as high as a website filled with custom created content.

Content isn’t the king of the Internet any more. Well-written, targeted content has defeated plain content and has become the new king of the Internet. Anyone can write a sentence. Professional writers make your articles and website content shine.

Provide Quality Information

Search engines point your target audience to your articles or website based on keywords. By the time someone reads your article or the information on your website, they’ve searched for it with the help of search engines. Don’t let your readers leave disappointed.

Provide the quality information they need to base their decision to make a purchase. The purpose of article marketing is to reach a targeted audience and pre-sell products or services. Targeted readers look for specific information before spending their hard-earned money.

Submit Articles to Publishers

A deep and wide reach is essential when submitting articles to publishers. A wide reach creates thousands of links back to the author’s website. Deep distribution places articles in specific categories that people search for intentionally.

When someone reaches deep into article directories to find information, they’re serious about making a purchase. Highly targeted, niche categories provide a great way to pre-sell a product or service to a targeted audience.

Make the most of your article marketing campaign by submitting your articles to hundreds of article directories. Distribution services are often the best way to get your articles distributed. Manually submitting articles to a hundred article directories takes a lot of time and effort.

Keep it Seriously Simple

Just remember to KISS your online content. Keep it Seriously Simple by using every-day language to get your point across. Don’t use words that people have to use a dictionary to figure out.

Don’t require your target audience to be scholars in order to read your content. Easily readable content attracts more readers than content that makes use of words people don’t use on a daily basis. Content must be easily read and just as easily scanned.

The average Internet user stays on a website about 45 seconds. Rarely do people take the time to reference a dictionary if they are trying to read something. They scan an article or website to find the information they seek and move on to the next website.

Market Your Articles

After publishing your articles, it’s time to market them. Visit and join several forums, blogs and online communities to share the information from your articles. Direct traffic to your articles daily and encourage people to read and leave feedback.

Add a link to your articles in your e-mail and forum signatures. Use persuasive text to encourage the reader to click to read the article. Each time you leave a message on a forum, you create a link to one of your articles or to your website.

Blog communities are a great way to market your articles and website. Bloggers enjoy seeing comments and building relationships on their blog. Every time you leave a comment on a blog, you leave a link to your website or articles.

Rebecca Taylor is a coach for the Affiliate Program at Article Marketer. She assists and coaches Article Marketer affiliates. Learn about articles relationship with search engines here.

The overall benefits of an article marketing campaign cannot be measured by one aspect alone. Article marketing is a great way to increase your online exposure, drive targeted traffic and increase sales. Other benefits include increased page rank and SERP.

When someone visits their favorite search engine and types in keywords that lead them to your website, they’re actively searching for what you offer. Well-written articles using those keywords help put your website near the top of the search engine rankings. High page rank creates more potential for traffic, sales and profits.

How Article Marketing Works

Marketing with articles is easy. Write articles that showcase the products or services you sell. Well-written articles are submitted to ezines and other online publishers. Some publishers encourage syndication to other websites and ezines.

Distribution services submit your articles to thousands of publishers. Deep and wide distribution involves distributing articles to a wide variety of publishers in specific categories. Readers dig deeply into categories to find targeted information they seek.

Targeted traffic is qualified traffic. Consumers make purchases based on the information they find during the online search process. Articles inform and educate readers so they feel more comfortable about making a purchase.

Online Exposure

Article marketing helps increase your online exposure. People often share information about products and services with their friends. As more people read your articles, your online exposure is increased exponentially.

Each article you submit creates a backlink. Links to your website from relevant sources increase your page rank. Higher page rank increases the chances that your link will be clicked from search engine results pages.

In short, article marketing ultimately means increased profits. Custom written articles pave the way to your website. Increased traffic means increased sales. Increased sales mean higher profits.

Search Engine Friendly

Search engine friendly articles receive more traffic because search engines find them more easily. Information and keywords must be used correctly to achieve the best ranking positions with search engines. Article marketing is the ultimate white-hat marketing method.

White-hat marketing received its name based on old Hollywood-produced westerns. The distinction between good and bad was purely black or white. Bad guys wore black hats and good guys wore white hats.

With that in mind, article marketing is the ultimate in white-hat marketing. Search engines require a certain set of rules to be followed to achieve high page rank and SERP. Article marketing follows several of those rules and is the best form of marketing to date.

Keyword Optimization

Keywords and key phrases are words that your target audience uses in their favorite search engine to find your website. Your website can only go so far in helping people find their way there. Marketing efforts finish the job your website started.

Proper use of keywords in text ads and articles helps search engines relate those keywords to your website. When used correctly, article marketing increases backlinks, page rank and SERP. It also increases traffic, sales and profits.

Keyword stuffing is a black-hat method of advertising and must be avoided at all costs. The act of using keywords at higher than 2 percent keyword density is considered keyword stuffing. Proper use of keywords yields better results and is approved by search engines.

Most publishers will not accept articles with higher than 2 percent keyword density. Hire a writing service for your marketing articles if you are unsure about the specifics. Editors often review articles before they are published to ensure that only the highest quality articles are published.

Jim Slader manages the affiliate program at Article Marketer, the largest article distribution service on the Internet. Earn commissions on a product that virtually sells itself; become an Article Marketer Affiliate today. Learn about articles relationship with search engines here.

CPA networks, or affiliate marketing operations based on a Cost-Per-Action model, have been around for years, even though they’re seldom discussed in the Internet Marketing arena, and just slightly more often in the affiliate marketing realm. Cost per action, also sometimes called cost per acquisition, is like most other affiliate marketing programs in that you make money from actions taken by targeted traffic your refer to the merchant’s site - but that’s where the similarity usually ends.

In regular affiliate programs, the money you earn is a percentage of each sale you make. With CPA offers, usually you’re earning your affiliate commissions based not on sales but on other actions the merchant wants to effect. It can be downloading a free report, asking for a free sample, having free information mailed out to you, getting access to a private members’ area of a website, etc.

As you can see from the above examples, cost-per-action or cost-per-acquisition is usually modeled so that you’re getting paid for free actions taken by the traffic you refer. So if you’re firmly planted in the affiliate marketing mindset, alarm bells are probably going off in your head right now… After all, what kind of shady operation is promising to pay you commissions when you haven’t made any sales? As if they had the money to just give away like that… Yeah, right!

If that’s what you’re thinking, here’s a real surprise for you: almost without exception, these cost per action arrangements are set up by, or on behalf of, some of the biggest offline companies in the world, including insurance companies, travel companies, offshoots of international banking consortiums, etc. These very large, very dependable corporations use cost per acquisition models to get leads from targeted prospects, leads they obviously hope to convert to ongoing clients. Their lead acquisition programs are tested, tweaked, and tested again, and are some of the most closely monitored results of any online activities anywhere.

It’s very important to remember that marketing is much more mature and professional in the offline world than in most of the online world. Look at the highly-varied background of today’s Internet marketers and affiliate marketers - surprisingly few have a solid marketing background or any formal marketing education at the post-secondary level. While many are earning 6, 7 or 8 figures a year online, most couldn’t even secure a junior-level position in corporate marketing departments - especially not on an international scale.

As a result, online marketers look at what they make on each sale and offer a piece of that to their affiliates. Affiliate marketers look at the product, the conversion rate of the salespage, and the percentage offered as affiliate commissions.

Everything is based on the current sale in most cases. The closest most come to a CPA model is offering 100% commissions, meaning that really they’re giving away the sale to get the lead. But again, even 100% commissions are based solely on the current sale.

High-level offline marketing, however, is based on the lifetime value of each customer and factors in the ratio of leads to sales, the average retention rate and longevity of client contracts, and the total dollars earned from the ‘average’ customer or client. While this involves a lot of research and number-crunching Internet marketers are loath to even attempt, it allows lead acquisition programs to blow online marketers out of the water in terms of payouts.

Newer affiliates try to sign up in droves, often spurred on by e-books about CPA programs that tout the high earning possible from a pay-per-lead program. They don’t realize that corporations are very protective both of their brand’s image and of the quality of leads they receive - remember that the conversion ratio is one of the main factors in determining what they pay per lead. This results in as many as 90% of all applications to CPA networks being rejected, dashing the affiliate’s hopes for big CPA earnings.

In truth, without an existing track record in CPA, or very professionally-designed websites heavy in marketing psychology, most marketers will never get into the CPA networks and have a chance at earning money with cost per action opportunities. New CPA networks are coming online though that raise the bar for average marketers, providing both cost per acquisition offers and pre-designed websites shown to drive the right quality of traffic to the merchants’ sites and opt-in forms.

These should finally open the cost per action field up to a great many more online marketers, finally making it a viable way for affiliate marketing businesses to make money online using the CPA model.

Doug Champigny is a well-known Internet marketing mentor and speaker with over 30 years of marketing experience, including founding 2 offline ad agencies and 12+ years of online marketing experience. Visit his affiliate marketing blog or see this CPA network for more info about using CPA networks.

Article marketing success is dependent on four key strategies wrapped into one. Search engines know that links appear over time, not all at once. The perfect article marketing campaign creates several links quickly then continues to create more over time.

Relevant links carry more weight with search engines than links from sites that do not contain relevant content. Custom written articles create relevant links because they are based on the content from your website. Article marketing increases page rank and SERP simultaneously.

Meet Publisher Guidelines

Each article must first meet the guidelines of each individual publisher. Meeting the guidelines for thousands of different publishers can be quite challenging. Distribution services often offer the services of an experienced editorial staff to ensure every article they distribute meets those guidelines.

A human eye helps get the attention your articles deserve. Each article is guaranteed to pass the rigorous guidelines set by every publisher the distribution service submits it to.

All publishers have their own guidelines. Authors risk rejection of articles that do not meet the guidelines of the publisher. Unpublished articles do not receive any traffic and are wasted effort.

Submit Over Time

Search engines like Yahoo, Ask and Google rank websites based on sophisticated algorithms that include the number of links to a website. One thing they take into consideration is the rate at which links are created. Too many links created too quickly can be detrimental to a website’s page rank and SERP.

Articles submitted over time create links as each article is submitted. Articles submitted over time create a slow, steady increase in links to the author’s website. Slow and steady is the way to go when increasing page rank and SERP.

Deep and Wide Distribution

The purpose of article marketing is to generate traffic by informing and educating readers. Distributing to a wide variety of publishers creates a wide reach. Niche categories offer a great opportunity for deep, targeted distribution.

Deep and wide distribution is the best way to reach your target audience. Distribute articles to thousands of publishers in targeted categories for the best results.

Track Your Results

Reporting tools are necessary to track your article marketing campaign. The ability to check each article and track details is priceless. Knowing where your articles have been published is a great way to share them with people in community based venues such as forums and blogs.

Share your published articles on blogs, forums and online groups. Each targeted reader you direct to your article has the potential to become a customer. Articles pre-sell products and services better than any other form of advertising.

Make the Most of the Four Keys

The four keys outlined here make article marketing the best white-hat marketing method. Every aspect of article marketing complies with search engine approved guidelines. Article marketing increases PR and SERP while informing and educating your target audience.

Writing and distribution services are a great way to create a hands-free marketing campaign. Professional writers make it their job to know what search engines look for and how to properly use keywords. They know and follow the guidelines of a variety of publishers to ensure your articles will not be rejected.

Paid distribution services often work with thousands of publishers. They employ a team of editors who review each article to ensure they meet the guidelines for each publisher. A hands-free article marketing campaign benefits greatly when paired with a well-known distribution service.

Carol Palmatier is Vice President of Marketing for the premium article distribution service; Article Marketer, and a “Word of Mouth” marketing expert. Learn about articles relationship with search engines here.)

Page rank and SERP can be increased in a variety of ways. Link building campaigns combined with a variety of other marketing techniques are popular. The most popular and most effective white-hat marketing technique is article marketing.

White-hat marketing techniques are simply marketing methods that are approved by search engines. Too many times, people use black-hat marketing methods for quick results but are often disappointed with the long-term results. Black-hat methods include keyword stuffing, hidden text and fake landing pages.

Black-hat methods are most often used by people who are involved in scams or unscrupulous spam related websites. Sites that use black-hat marketing methods are often suspended or banned at some point.

Factors that Impact PR and SERP

High PR and SERP are essential to the success of any web based business. People use keywords or key phrases to search for information on specific items of interest. Whether or not they find your website depends on several factors that impact PR and SERP.

Relevancy of Content to Search Criteria: In order for your website or article to be seen by people using search engines, your keywords or content must match their search criteria. Keywords matching search criteria precisely receive higher PR and SERP than keywords that do not match exactly.

Number and Relevancy of Links: The number of links leading to a website help increase the PR of the site. Google and Yahoo agree that not all links are created equal. Relevant links carry more weight than irrelevant links.

Article Marketing

Article marketing is the one marketing method that meets and exceeds the requirements set forth by search engines. Articles provide information and content for many ezines and websites. Well-written content makes the best use of keywords so search engines can index them properly.

When search engines properly index your content, your keywords are more effective. Effective keyword usage increases PR and SERP with the use of article marketing.

Article Distribution

Publishers have set guidelines that each article must pass before it is published. Experienced article writers are familiar with the guidelines of several publishers and make distribution a breeze. A single distribution service may work with hundreds of publishers for the maximum effect.

The best results are found by submitting your articles to publishers with high PR. Highly ranked publishers have worked hard to achieve and maintain their PR. They put forth the effort to get your articles seen by your target audience.

Article Marketing Creates Relevant Links

One of the primary factors that determine PR and SERP is the number of links back to the author’s website. Relevant links are indexed differently than irrelevant links. Using article marketing, all links back to the author’s website are relevant because the content in the article is based on content on the website.

Where to Start with Article Marketing

Article marketing is as simple as writing quality content. The author simply needs the ability to create informative articles about the products and services they sell. The overall objective is to pre-sell products and services.

Article marketers do not need to understand web programming languages such as HTML or PHP. Web design and graphics design are not factors of article marketing. Words are the only thing the author must master.

The most important part of each article is the author resource or author biography. This is the magical area where the links and clicks happen. The author needs to be as creative as possible when creating an effective author resource box.

Chris Ellington is CEO of IPNM, the parent company of Article Marketer: first choice for article distribution by article marketers around the world. Learn about articles relationship with search engines here.