If you want to boost your marketing results for your website or blog you should consider article marketing. Articles are a great way to drive targeted traffic to your site, helping you convert more buyers. While it is relatively easy to write an article on any topic, it is much harder to find a correct article marketing strategy.

Marketing with articles is very challenging for most online marketers because they lack the strategy to doing it right from the start.

Consider your niche

Before you write your articles, you need to consider what type will do best in your niche. Some industries benefit from how-to articles whereas others are better served with general articles.

Many people totally overlook this part of their article marketing strategy and then wonder why no one visits their site.

A good way to start off on the right path is by considering the problems and questions your potential buyers have. Put yourself into their shoes. The more you can identify with their needs and problems, the better your results will be.

Plan a schedule and then stick to it

One of the biggest downfalls of most article marketers is their failure to stick to their plan. Remember, any plan is worthless unless it is implemented consistently. Consistency is key to seeing success from your article marketing strategy.

A lot of newcomers start off with a very aggressive marketing plan, only to end up doing nothing when they don't see instant results.

The Internet doesn't work that way. After your article goes live you need to build links and traffic to it to optimize your initial efforts to the max. The more articles you publish, the more links you need to build. Doing otherwise will negate all of your previous efforts.

Writing vs outsourcing

Before you plan a massive article marketing strategy think about the impact this will have on your daily schedule. Can you handle the work? If not, consider outsourcing the writing and perhaps even the article publishing to the various directories to save time and money.

If you are scared of outsourcing, think about the possible cost of doing the work yourself:

• How long does it take for you to write an article?
• Are you familiar with the topic at all?
• What could you do if someone else writes these articles for you, leaving you valuable time to focus on the things that earn you the most money?

You might be positively surprised to find that by outsourcing the work you can actually make more profits.

For the best impact use the top article directories

Any strategy to market with articles should include the top article marketing directories on the Net to get the most impact. There are literally hundreds of them. To help you pick from the top, below are 10 of the best:

• EzineArticles.com
• Goarticles.com
• Buzzle.com
• ArticleDashboard.com
• Isnare.com
• ArticlesBase.com
• Suite101.com
• Amazines.com
• IdeaMarketers.com
• Helium.com

SEO

Never overlook the SEO part of your article marketing strategy. This includes the proper use of keywords to help your article rank better in the search engines and backlinks.

One of the easiest ways to build backlinks is to get into the habit of building a handful of links to each article you publish. You can do this with the help of bookmarking software, blog commenting, directory submissions, link exchanges, social media marketing, guest blogging, video marketing, etc.

In closing

Your article marketing strategy should incorporate all of the above to give you the most ROI (Return of Investment). It is one of the best ways to generate traffic and sales for any online business. Develop a plan and then work it!