Not all marketing techniques are created equally. Article marketing is the least expensive multitasking marketing technique used today. A great article marketing campaign allows the entrepreneur to share knowledge, create links, direct targeted traffic and increase sales.
Technique vs Trick
The difference between marketing techniques and marketing tricks is usually as simple as white-hat or black-hat. Tricks are often considered ways to "trick" or otherwise convince search engines to index a site differently. Black-hat marketing must be avoided at all costs.
Most marketers refer to legitimate white-hat marketing as a method or technique, not a trick. The terms "white-hat" and "black-hat" are derived from Hollywood westerns in which the good guys wore white hats and the bad guys wore black.
Black-hat marketing tricks are not approved by search engines and trick them into incorrectly indexing websites. Websites using black-hat marketing tricks are quickly discovered and banned. Bans are often permanent.
Marketing techniques that employ white-hat methods are much more effective and produce long term effects. Article marketing is the best form of white-hat marketing in terms of cost and effective page rank and search engine results placement increases.
Identify Keywords
The most important step to building a website or a marketing campaign to promote it is to identify keywords. Many websites use the same keywords but different marketing techniques. Page rank and search engine results placement depend almost entirely on marketing techniques used.
Look at your competitors' websites and find out the keywords they use to promote their websites. You may choose to use the same keywords or slightly different keywords to promote your website. Use keyword tools to determine which keywords are searched the most.
Learn to Use Keywords
Once you've identified the keywords you'll use for your marketing campaign, learn proper placement and use. Articles should never contain more than 2 percent keyword density. Websites may go as high as 7 percent but between 3 and 4 percent is best.
Never stuff your content with keywords. Keyword stuffing is considered a black-hat trick. It tricks spiders and crawlers into incorrectly indexing the website or article.
Write Original Articles
Never use someone else's content directly. Articles may be based on the content from another well written article, but never copied. Plagiarism is never good.
Articles must contain up to date information that doesn't go stale over time. When an article is published it is there forever or until the publisher removes it from their website. Publish the highest quality content you can write.
Not all entrepreneurs are writers and that's perfectly OK. Writing services are abundant and some do a very good job. Interview several writing services to make sure you choose one that will provide high quality, well written articles.
Distribute to Publishers
Ezines, blogs and other content rich websites are great places to publish articles. Distribution companies often submit articles to hundreds of websites simultaneously. The small fee involved is usually recuperated after a few months.
Deep and wide distribution is the best method to follow. Submit your content to as many distributors as possible and use targeted categories to receive the maximum number of targeted views. Targeted readers quickly become customers.
Use Reporting Tools
Search engines are great reporting tools. Type the name of the article between quotes to see the exact number of times your article has been published. Other types of reporting tools are essential to the success of an article marketing campaign as well.
Marketing tools track keywords, websites and article titles to give you the most up to date results from your marketing efforts. When properly used and understood, reporting tools are a magnificent way to track the progress of your marketing campaign.
Jim Slader manages the affiliate program at Article Marketer, the largest article distribution service on the Internet. Earn commissions on a product that virtually sells itself; become an Article Marketer Affiliate today. Learn about articles relationship with search engines here.
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