Should You Use Article Marketing?

Posted By Larry ~ 15th August 2012

There was a time when article marketing was considered to be THE way to boost your website’s rankings in the search engines… and the premise was sound: you create a website, you write articles related to your website, and then you post those articles at other websites with links pointing back to your own.

This not only got the word out about your products and services, it also produced coveted “backlinks,” ensuring that the search engines would move you further up the list of results.

But then like every other trend on the Internet, article marketing seemed to die a horrible death. Those with multiple links in multiple article banks not only lost their high rankings, they also suffered penalties for trying to cheat the system itself.

So, where does article marketing stand now? Is it really dead or is there still a way to benefit from this once tried and true method of marketing online?

The fact is, article marketing can still be a valuable tool in your online marketing arsenal… you just have to be careful how you do it.

The search engines realized that there’s a difference between a quality article posted at a reputable site and a mediocre but keyword-dense piece posted at an article bank with no editorial supervision… and that’s exactly how you should approach this marketing method.

Your articles should be well-written and specific to your products and services, for example. They should be posted at sites where it makes sense to offer that content, rather than at random article banks and link farms. Your content needs to be original and serve a purpose… providing value that your readers wouldn’t have had access to otherwise and your articles should focus more on providing that value than it does providing links to your site.

So, what are some of the best ways to use article marketing successfully?

• Offer to write a guest post for a blog or site related to your industry.
• Create specific niche “hubs” on content sharing sites such as Squidoo or HubPages.
• Create mini—sites that offer in-depth cover of specific issues or aspects related to your products or services.

And last but not least, remember that there is no easy way out when it comes to online marketing. Article marketing is but one piece of a very complex and ever-changing puzzle. If you want the rankings and you want the traffic, you’ll have to work at it just like everyone else. Any trend or product that promises it can circumvent this process isn’t telling you the whole story… and you’re likely to find your website stuck in the Google’s penalty box for your efforts.