Content Marketing Made Simple

What is Article Marketing? How Does it Work?

Do some basic research on the different internet marketing methods, and you’ll no doubt come across discussions on article marketing. Mostly these discussion revolve around 3 questions:

1. What is it?
2. How does it work?
3. Is it worth the time?

In this post, I’ll tackle the first question (and the simplest)… what is article marketing?

Offline Illustration

The best way to understand the concept is to think of the following offline situation:

A local newspaper is doing a story on how to avoid water damage from freezing pipes in the winter. A local plumber offers to write a detailed article explaining the top 10 tips to avoid freezing pipes and gives all publishing rights for this article to the newspaper. In exchange for this free article, the newspaper offers to include the name and phone number of the plumber’s business at the bottom of the story.

Win Win Situation

As the above scenario illustrates, both parties win… the newspaper gets a free, high quality article that it’s readers will appreciate. The plumber receives 2 very powerful benefits:

1. The plumber is touted as the expert in his field
2. The plumber gets leads from the phone # mentioned in the article

How it Works in the Online World

The scenario above involves a newspaper (the publisher), and the plumber (the article author). In the online world, the publishers are online newspapers, industry newsletters, blogs, or any other website that is looking to include high quality content on its site for its readers.

What about the author? In the online world… YOU are the author.

Here’s how it works:

1. You write a unique, high quality article about your industry
   
   
2. At the bottom of your article, you include what’s called a “Resource Box”. This is where you include your name as the author of the article, along with a link to your website where they can learn more information about the topic.
   
   
3. You submit this article to an article directory website, such as www.ezinearticles.com
   
   
4. Publishers looking for free, high quality content access your article from ezinearticle.com and publish it on their site or newsletter.
   
   
5. The readers of these publishers read your article, see your name, contact info, and link to your site, and hopefully, visit your site and trust you now as the authority in your industry!
   
   

In my next post… learn whether or not article marketing is really a viable marketing strategy for your business. Does it really work?