Author: Deanna Raeke
Article source: http://www.articledeshboard.com/. Used with author's permission.
Online, there are many ways to market, to get the word out about your website or business; paid and free advertising, PPC, eBook distribution, email, banners, sig-files, different exchanges from banners to links, PR, personal recommendations, SEO and article marketing, to name a few. All of these do work to one degree or another.
In the past I have usually relied on natural SEO, which since my platform is blog sites, tends to work relatively well. With well written content, a blog will be indexed very quickly. I have found myself getting search engine traffic within days to some of my sites.
I also use free eBook distribution through free eBook sites or JVs. JVs can be an especially good way to start building your list, especially if you're new but most of them tend to fall in the Internet Marketing category. I have used them to market one of my niche sites with some success though.
Oddly enough, one of the best methods I have found is one that I have begun to utilize only recently; Article Marketing. If you have a website or blog site, you have to provide good quality content, usually in the form of writing something to pass along information; an article. I have been writing articles for years. I am an avid researcher in numerous fields of my interest of which I have developed sites for, so although I may not be an absolute expert, I know a great deal. On top of that I find that I have a natural knack for writing and enjoy it immensely.
Recently I decided to start submitting some of my many articles to article directories and have been amazed at the results! I started a new site a short while ago, an offshoot of my main site and wanted to get the word out. Since I had been researching and writing articles to populate the site already, I just started submitting them to article directories and within two weeks I went from zero to over 600 visitors and more than two thousand page views.
One thing I do want to mention is that the site I am talking about is a 'real' site with 'real' information, not just something cobbled together with the aim to make money off of Adsense or affiliate marketing. Likewise the articles are original, well researched and well written. It does make a difference. Using article marketing may give you a spike of traffic when your article is published but only quality will keep people coming back. So if you're in it for the long term, take the time to do the research and do the writing, in the long run it will be worth it.
You can submit your article to numerous free directories and people interested in the subject will use your articles which will contain your by-line, a link to your site. For me I have found that a great deal of my traffic to my niche sites come from people actually emailing the articles which surprised me. Sure, there are quite a number of people using them on their websites, but I think the majority are actually going into email and newsletters. No complaints. The bottom line is still that the word is going out and I am getting some traffic, quality traffic which is signing up for my newsletter and my RSS feed and email digests. This is because they can easily see the subject matter and the quality of my site by reading my articles.
So now I try to take the time to write an article or two a day, some are quick and easy to put together, others are lengthy and highly researched but since I am going to be doing this anyway for my site, I just take the time to submit them to article directories as well.
Do you write articles? If you've heard of article marketing but never tried it, take the time, it's well worth it, especially if you're in it for the long run and you write well and really have something to say!
The author of this article, Deanna Raeke, has been successfully marketing offline and online for almost 20 years and wants to share her knowledge and experience with others. You can visit her at Your E-Info Source for more tips and information.
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