Online Article Marketing

Online article marketing

With the rise of e-commerce and Internet marketing, article marketing has made a move to the online world as well. As in traditional forms of media, online article marketing has served the dual role of providing publishers with essentially free content, and advertisers with essentially free advertising.

The website where an author can post an article is known as an article directory. The primary reason an author can post an article without cost is that the directory owner places advertising on each article page and collects the revenue generated from the advertising. The article directory site gradually gains in search engine popularity as more articles are posted, which benefits both the author and the directory owner with increased article views.

However unlike the off-line version, there are additional dimensions to article marketing online. Most notable among the differences is the use of articles for search engine optimization. Articles are written to target particular keyword niches, and distributed to content publishers that cater to those markets. Authors are able to target their audience with informative content, sent to an already-interested group of readers.

Many online article marketers enjoy the low cost of this advertising venue, thus have written hundreds and some thousands of articles. One online article writer has written 12,900 articles.[citation needed] These prolific article authors also enjoy abundant backlinks (i.e., links pointing back to the business' website). When the articles are distributed via RSS, the exposure to the authoring business and number of backlinks is increased greatly.

Because of this, article marketing has been the victim of junk content over the past few years. It's important that article marketers be careful not to abuse the Internet and post dozens of useless content on the web just for promotional purposes; smart article marketers use scientifically proven techniques that dig deep into their own businesses and their readers' concerns and needs and tactfully persuades them to click through to their web sites.

Another article marketing option available is where the author can choose to take control of the advertising space on the page where his article is posted. With this option the author has the choice to either have no advertising to compete with the article, or to have control over the advertising on the page along with the revenue generated.