Article Marketing is one of the ways to make money online these days. You take 10-15 minutes to write a refined 300-400 word article for about 2-4 hours a day and you can easily make $20-30 a day (depending on where you submit to).

Introduction:

What people do not also realize is that if you submit to the right places, and market your article the way it should be done, then you also have extra traffic and quality link backs. These articles are pretty short and basically conveys an idea or concept that you should be familiar with (before writing it), like I do with this blog. I tend to avoid writing about things if I have not yet experienced them, so this blog is as much of my journey as it is yours.

Why I post about what I do:

We’ve discussed in previous posts why content is key, why quality backlinks are crucial, what SEO mistakes to avoid and how SEO-friendly permalinks are awesome. What does all of this have to do with articles? Simple. Articles = Content for YOU. You include links (to your site) which increase quality backlinks (do not spam with hundreds of links in your article, that is poor sport).

By looking at this blog, it is beginning to have a nice amount of quality content on it. You can see that by how my subscribers almost doubled overnight after I posted my traffic stats and profits for about 4 hours of work all week. (mainly blog posts, article submissions and proxy tweaking). Once a website or blog has quality content, it is definitely on its way to being visible.

What now?

Lets say you have a blog/website about acne (one of the higher-paying adsense niches, by the way), and you want to get some quality backlinks. What do you do? You find article directories and submit articles about acne (about 400-500 words each). You do not just copy-paste your blog posts or already index threads, you re-word as much as possible. Why? Google does not like duplicate content and if enough is floating around then it might hurt your quality score.

A Sad Realization:

The bottom line, there are millions of websites out there struggling to gain visibility. You need visibility to get visitors, and visitors to get clicks/sales (depending on which way you plan on making money). The goal of these articles is not to sell a product (which is slowly saturating many article directories), but to ’sell’ your website and basically position you to being an expert in your field (whether you are or not).

Why be like the others who are constantly trying to spam their clickbank products over article directories? Although, yes, it can be profitable, but its rather poor taste in my opinion. Instead, provide quality information (that you already know) and link it back to your site for ‘more tips and tricks’ (or whatever your angle may be *evil-eyes you*). Remember, an article should NOT be an advertisement, but more so a gateway to more knowledge and useful information.

A Few Article Directories:

I have stumbled upon a few of the higher PR article directories which you can submit to. I do not submit to 100’s of them, just a few. I have not even started submitting about money making, or else I’d get some nice traffic gains for ThinkBlogger - im not in a rush, I just wish to deliver content/tips.

• Ezine Articles - www.ezinearticles.com - PR6
• WebProNews.com - www.webpronews.com - PR6
• Li’l Engine - www.lilengine.com - PR6
• Buzzle.com - www.buzzle.com - PR6
• Article City - www.articlecity.com - PR6

Things to Remember:

• Do not submit duplicate content (I know, a drag).
• Do whatever is necessary to NOT sound like an advertisement.
• Know your topic, do not write about something you just read on wikipedia and claim yourself an expert.
• Article Directories are a bit of a dying breed now. If you want PR3-5 Article Directories (for mass submissions), leave a comment! I have a whole list I can give to you for free.