Article marketing is a type of free advertising within a certain niche market where the author writes a short article concerning some subject, problem or fact within the specified market, 500-750 words most often, and submits it to article submission sites and article directories to get free exposure for his business.

Articles are submitted for free and they can get viewed on mentioned directories and sites, and can be republished on e-zines, on niche market blogs and elsewhere.

The true strength of article marketing is in the continuity of writing and submission of the articles. The more you write, the more exposure you get and you get better results on the search engines like Google and Yahoo which love fresh content.

Naturally, there is a downside to all of this. In the chase for higher search engine rankings, more links pointing to one's website, there are a lot of low-quality articles out there and tons of duplicate material, which can be a bit tiresome when you try to research a subject only to find re-hashed info everywhere.

I encourage you to write high-quality article or at least try to. Credibility can be attained by quality and continuous presence, never when one of those two is missing!

"How" is probably what concerns you.
Don't worry...just follow me!

1. You must choose a niche market issue to write about.

There's no sense in writing about cars or dog food if you're in a business that sells chairs or furniture. You need to find a topic that is somehow relevant to what you do and what service your business provides. The article must provide a clear structure if its objective is to define something and/or should give new insight to the matter.

2. Do the research on the subject.

Search for content on the subject, find information that you can use, investigate a specific "angle" with which you wish to approach the subject and remember - Google is your weapon!

3. Research the most common keywords used in your niche market.

When you write an article, be sure to pay attention to the keywords on-demand in your niche. The SEO aspect of article marketing is very important. You need to optimize your articles with those keywords so that you can get higher search engine listings, but do not sacrifice content to SEO. It just won't be worth it...

4. Write the article title first.

The article is the most important thing for search engine listings. Make sure that it's optimized with your niche market on-demand keywords and that it can get your reader's interest.

Bad title: Article marketing for dummies
Good title: 7 Reasons Why Article Marketing Is The Most Effective Technique For Getting Targeted Traffic To Your Website

5.Writing the article.

Uhhh, the hardest part! Sorry, this is something you are going to have to do yourself:-) If you are inexperienced, be patient and give yourself time. Surf the web, explore, discover new angles and then try to write simply, in your own words descibe what you've found out

6. Check the article for misspellings.

Make sure there are no errors in your article.

7. Step away from the article.

I repeat, step away from the article!

Give it a few hours, a day if you have to to clear your head of it and do something else.

8. Re-read your article and make additional changes.

This is the very important. This is when the surge of new thoughts, ideas and improvements occurs. Read it again and make the changes that are required. You'll get insight and finish it.

9. Create your resource box.

The resource box is where you put your info. It generally goes at the bottom of the article and it's there that you put info about yourself, your business and provide links to your website or affiliate link. Make it short and sweet:-) A great resource box has only one true requirement: It must compel the reader to take action and click the link!

10. Submit the article.

Find article sites and article directories where you can submit articles. I have listed my recommendations below.

That's it! Now do it again:-)

1. SEO is one of the major reasons why people write and submit articles.

The more quality articles you submit, the better search engine listings you have for your niche market. Articles are excellent content for the search engines.

2. Credibility and name branding

You are established as an expert in your industry and niche market if you provide valuable and useful content. When your viewers constantly see your interesting articles, a relationship forms and they start to trust you.

WARNING: Credibility will not be gained by re-hashing articles written by someone else or by plagiarizing someone's work.

Give it your best to write a quality article!

3. A lot of one-way in-bound links to your site.

The resource box kicks in! The exposure to your website increases with every article, as well as the search engine ranking for the site included in your resource box.

4. Viral marketing aspect.

If well written, your articles can become a viral marketing weapon. Niche market blogs and business e-zines are always hungry for fresh content to give to their subscribers and readers. Thousands of people get to see your article, your resource box and if they like what they see, they'll visit your site.

5.Joint Venture Opportunities (JV)

When others read your interesting articles, it provides a form of written confidence in your expertise. In this way, you gain many more business opportunities.

How To Use Squidoo To Promote Your Business
© Josip Barbaric

Using Squidoo to promote your business or affiliate site is one of the most effective affiliate marketing methods online, right there with article marketing and blogging. It has become one of the most popular online marketing trends in the last couple of years.

Squidoo is an online community of lensmasters. Lensmasters are Squidoo members that create content on Squidoo via Squidoo lenses, one-page information sites that serve to inform people of a certain topic or subject and to point the way, providing links to products, sites or giving product reviews.

Squidoo has many different aspects, such as member interaction via commenting on lenses, joining relevant groups or rating other members lenses. Promotion of affiliate products and sites has been made very easy by Squidoo. In fact, unlike most sites online, they welcome affiliate marketers.

One of the best things about Squidoo is that the content created on it ranks extremely well in the search engines. It is highly optimized and many lenses to this day have made it to the first page of Google and other search engines with virtually no effort beyond making the lens and publishing it. This is probably the most important part of Squidoo.

Squidoo lenses give you the ability to rank very high in the search engines for your selected keywords, while giving you the ability to get high quality backlinks to your site, give your site or blog big exposure. Also, you can make affiliate sales directly from Squidoo by providing people info on a certain subject and then directing them to selected products from stores such as Amazon and Ebay.

There are several important things that you have to remember when using Squidoo to promote your site, affiliate website or a subscriber capture page.

1. You must create quality content. Period. That means info that people can actually use.

2. If you have your own website, be sure to link to it from your Squidoo lenses and use an anchor text with the targeted keywords that you want your site to compete on in the search engines. This can give a great boost to your site's search engine rankings.

3. Use social bookmarking to get the word out about your lens. This will give you more backlinks and more readers. And more sales.

4. Update your lenses at least one per week if you want to make a long term profit from them. There are two reasons for this. First, updating your lens frequently will make it rank higher on Squidoo, which gives you credibility as an expert on the given subject. Second, you can track the click through rate and tweak the content to be more appealing.

5. Post comments on other people's lenses, but make them constructive. Also, be sure to compliment them on a great lens. This will give you more traffic to your own lenses.

6. When you become a lensmaster, every lens that you make will look like this: Squidoo.com/nameofyourlens. Be sure to choose the name of your lens carefully, as well as the title of your lens. It must be something that gives the visitors a clear view at the lens' content.

Squidoo is a powerful asset for everyone who wants to make money online. Use it to get the word out about your site and to build your credibility, to create more presence in the search engines and to make sales. And then more sales.

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Josip Barbaric, a successful affiliate marketer and a Squidoo lensmaster, is very passionate about helping people make money online. If you want to learn more on how to effectively promote your business, visit Josip's Affiliate Marketing Guide

Here are the basic things that should be in your resource box:

Your Name: You'd be amazed at how many folks forget to include their name in the resource box.
It should be the first thing in your resource box.

Your Website Address: in valid URL form. Example: http://Your-Domain-Name.com/

Your Elevator Pitch: This is 1 to 3 sentences that encapsulates the essence of what makes you and your offering unique. Also known as your USP (Unique Selling Proposition).

Your Call To Action: You've got them warmed up and now it's time to lead them to BUY from you or visit your website. This is where you "Ask For The Sale." Best to only give (1) specific call to action.

Example #1

Josip Barbaric is a successful affiliate marketer, the creator of the Affiliate Marketing Guide and a published author, both online and offline. He invites you get his free affiliate marketing newsletter jam-packed with great material at: Free Affiliate Marketing Training

Example #2

Josip Barbaric, the creator of the Affiliate Guide For Newbies, runs a free affiliate marketing newsletter to help new affiliate marketers. You can get the free newsletter and a free 325-page guide to online marketing here: Affiliate Marketing Newsletter

Example #3

Josip Barbaric, the creator of the Best Affiliate Marketing Guide, is a successful affiliate marketer and a published author. Get his awesome affiliate marketing newsletter here: Awesome Newsletter

I hope you have found this information helpful.

If not, I hope you find something that can help you to achieve success in internet marketing.

Writing articles is probably the most powerful technique for getting exposure online, but it isn't the only one. For a successful "online adventure", you must combine many different things to achieve the best result!

And remember, always, and I mean always, EMPOWER YOURSELF, EMPOWER OTHERS and I'm sure you'll do just fine!

Wishing you success!

Josip Barbaric
Affiliate Marketing Guide