Admittedly, article marketing may sound like something complicated, but on a very basic level, it really isn’t. The one and only aim of article marketing is to get visitors to visit your website through the backlink of a submitted article.

Of course, in order to successfully do that, it isn’t enough to just submit tons and tons of articles and then hope that people click the backlink. True, if you went by the quantity over quality approach then you’d probably end up getting a couple of visitors here and there, but it would be more time consuming, and less effective, than going about it the smart way.

Really, the only reason that people tend to flop at article marketing is simply because they don’t think it through from the get go.

So, in order to avoid going through the same tedious rigmarole, we’re going to look at article marketing from the ground up; from the theory right down to the practice. By doing so, you should end this eBook with a firm grasp of what you need to go out there and do, and how you can do it.

Basic Theory of Article Marketing

“What do you think is involved in article marketing?” If you were to pose that question to a group of beginners who are just starting out, 9 out of 10 will probably say that it just involves submitting articles to article directories.

While that isn’t wrong, it is only part true.

Submitting an article to an article directory would get it on the internet. That part is what’s correct. But, it won’t mean that the article will actually get viewed, and it also won’t mean that people will click the backlink.

Basically, you could end up with 1,000 articles that each get 1 view a day since no one can find the article, and getting a total of maybe only 10 click-through. Which is why, the basic ‘dummies’ theory of article marketing is this:

1. Position your articles where they can be found
2. Write headlines that gain attention
3. Evoke interest in the article body
4. Call to action in the resource box
5. Get more visitors to visit your article

Chances are, unless you’ve done article marketing before, you probably didn’t understand any of that. Let’s take a look at them one by one.

Using Keywords to Position Your Articles

In a nutshell, keywords are just words or phrases that people use to search for anything and everything online. Seeing as we’re getting the nomenclature out of the way, ‘keyword density’ is the amount of a certain keyword per 100 words.

Keywords are important – that can’t be stressed enough. Considering that search engines are still the primary way in which people look for anything on the internet, it means that people who are looking for things in whatever niche you’re in, are going to be doing so on search engines.

Thus, when talking about positioning your articles, it essentially means positioning them in the relevant searches, so that they’re more likely to be found by the right people.

What happens if this isn’t done? Well, say you had an article about blogging for money, but it didn’t contain any keywords that are being searched for a decent amount of times per month. In this sort of case, there would be no way that anyone would find your article, and so it would go pretty much unread and unattended.

Admittedly, for long articles there inadvertently ends up being a keyword used here or there, but for reliable results, you’re going to want at least a 1% keyword density (but not more than 3%).

First though, you’re going to have to find the keywords that you intend to use.

Keyword Research

Basic keyword research is really pretty easy, and there isn’t too much about it that even a beginner can’t come to grips with. To start off with, the keyword research tool of choice is Google Adwords Keyword Tool.

Seeing as Google is the most popular search engine around, getting data from it seems to be a logical place to begin.

When conducting keyword research, there are three considerations in particular that play an important role:

1. Number of Searches

Quite literally, this is just the number of searches per month. If a term has a high number of searches, it means lots of people are looking for it, which definitely makes it a better choice.

2. Competition

Once you have a keyword that has a decent amount of searches, plug it into Google and search for it. When you get the results, take note of how many there are. For instance, if there are 11,800,000 results, then that means a lot of people are competing for that keyword.

On the other hand, if you end up with something like 1,800 results, then there are very few competing websites.

Needless to say, with less competition, you stand a much better chance of appearing on the first page of the search results, which is really what you should be aiming for. Once you’re there, you will no doubt see a dramatic increase in your views.

3. Profitability

Not all traffic is as profitable, and sometimes, for certain keywords, the traffic that is obtained just refuses to be converted. While there are a lot of factors that can affect this, it isn’t too relevant as far as keyword research is concerned.

Instead, it is better to know just one simple test of the ‘profitability’ of a keyword.

When you perform a search for the keyword to scope out the competition, take notice as to whether or not any adverts appear. If they do, then that means someone out there feels that it is worth spending money on that keyword.

Admittedly, this isn’t a 100% accurate test, but it should suffice to give you a general idea.

By looking at these three areas of keyword research, you should end up with a list of keywords which you can use to position your articles well. Remember: The idea is to get profitable keywords that have a decent number of searches per month, and low competition.

Keyword Enriched Articles

With the keywords that you’ve acquired, you need to enrich your articles with them. Mind you, there is a difference between enriching and stuffing, and search engines are smart enough to recognize when someone is trying to fool them.

Insert keywords in such a way that they flow smoothly through the article, and follow the 1% to 3% keyword density rule closely. For each article, it is generally advisable to have one ‘short’ keyword of about 2 to 3 words, and two ‘long’ keywords of 4 or more words.

If you do all of this, your articles should be showing up for the keywords that you’re targeting, and so, all that remains is to consider the other aspects of article marketing.

Grabbing Attention with Headlines

When someone searches for your article and sees it in the listing, the very first thing that they’re going to see is the title of the article, or in other words: The Headline.

For this reason, your headlines are of the utmost importance. Essentially, they’re going to ‘make or break’ your article as far as it getting views is concerned. Unfortunately, once you’ve submitted an article you don’t get to edit or tweak the headline, so you’re going to have to get it as right as possible on the very first try.

Certainly, trying to sum up the entire eBooks that are dedicated to the subject of headlines, and how to write them well, in this small space, would be close to impossible. But, at least you can be pointed in the right direction.

Since the whole purpose of the headline is to attract attention, think of what has grabbed your attention in the past. Certain words may tend to perform better than others, but since you can’t be sure without testing… it probably isn’t the right place to experiment.

Here are some types of headlines, with examples:

Lists, such as, “Top 5 Ways to Groom a Dog for Competitions”.

Questions, such as, “Do You Want To Learn How To Groom a Dog?”

Commands, such as, “Start to Learn to Groom a Dog, Now!”

Abstract, such as, “Coming Soon: Fluffed Tails and Trimmed Coats” (careful, it tough to pull these off)

Remember, all that you need to do is attract attention in your headline. It is up to the rest of your article to build interest, and make clicking the backlink more likely.

Content of the Article

Primarily, there are two parts of content in an article. These are both the article body, and the resource box, and each has their own set of rules. Knowing how to craft an article properly could let you get audiences interested in the article body, and then spur them on to action in the resource box.

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