In the time before the Internet, marketing using articles was an effective method for promoting products and services. The need for well written articles and newsletters has exploded with the new online options that include newsletters, ezines, and web sites. Due to this marketing with articles has grown in popularity.

The practice of providing good-written contents to epublishers and websites for the exchange of a blurb about the authors contact information and business is said to be as article marketing. The business owners website is normally included as a link by these “bios”.

Offering your own content for publishing is essentially the same as obtaining free advertising spots on web sites across the globe. Being able to target the correct market, and keep costs to an absolute minimum creates an excellent and efficient method of business communication.

Article marketing actually tries to engage an actively interested audience instead of email mass marketing which never was able to capture more than a one percent success rate. In article marketing the readers will have opted in by their own free will by either visiting the content website or having previously agreed to receive an email magazine. Due to this, these readers are by nature more willing to read and trust the articles provided and hence they are more willing and likely to visit the author’s website to read more and possibly even make a transaction.

Established publishers who accept the articles already have a captive audience of likely customers. People who read the articles are concerned most of all with content, suggesting that they could be in a position to buy items or services relating to the content. Buying a comparable list of those high-quality leads would be very expensive. But writing an article only requires a minimal investment of time.

Business owners can up their conversion rates even more by providing a link to specific bits of information in the author’s bio. Instead of linking to the home page, authors can include a link to an external article hosted on their own site that provides more detail on the topic at hand. Visitors are more likely to search for specific information in addition to what is provided on the initial page.

Increasing conversion rates is possible by providing an e-mail address that people can use to subscribe to the author’s web site and/or newsletter. Making this option as simple as possible will increase the chances of the person subscribing. An auto-responder can be set up that provides the reader with links to specific items on the author’s web site.

By giving publishers in related fields access to certain content, a business can expect an increase in website traffic at minimal cost, qualified lead production, and a significant improvement in brand awareness and sales.

Justin Harrison is a leading Internet Marketing consultant responsible for the Internet Marketing strategies behind some of the biggest online brands including Amazon, BBC, MasterCard and many others.

Tags | affiliates, articles, business, ecommerce, internet, internet marketing, online marketing, ppc, SEO & Google Marketing, writing