Prior to the rise of the internet as a major player in marketing, article marketing was considered to be useful for promotion in print media. The need for well-written articles has increased greatly with new online venues such as websites, ezines, and e-mail newsletters. Today, article marketing is even more powerful, due to these new means of communication.

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\”.

For a business owner, offering content for publication basically provides them with free ad space on thousands of websites all over the world. There is a compelling opportunity for exposure to the right customers in the right market, while the expense is next to nothing, which makes the practice a powerful and quite elegant method for a business\’s 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.

An article will only be published if there is an established group of potential buyers already ready to read it. Readers seek out good content articles and you can use good articles as an chance to promote related products and services. Think about your other option. If you were to buy a database of comparably active leads you would pay considerably more! By taking just a small amount of time to write an article you\’ve already provided all the investment needed.

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.

A further improvement to conversion rates can be made by providing an email address that readers can contact to subscribe to the author\’s newsletter or website. It is best to make this action as simple as possible to increase the chances of readers opting in. Then an auto-responder can send automated messages to those who\’ve signed up that point out certain features of the author\’s website they might be interested in.

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.