If you’re looking to monetize your website in a serious way, you will have to adopt a multi-pronged marketing strategy. Earlier, we’ve talked about internet advertising, affiliate programs and search engine optimization. There’s another one – article marketing.

The term article marketing needs no definition, since it pretty much defines itself. Owners of websites write simple, useful articles on any subject of their choice and publish them on the internet. An interested reader is likely to want more information, which would be available on the website of the author, so that’s where he’ll go next. Simple!

No doubt, that there’s a whole lot of fish crowding the article marketing sea. So, how do you go about creating your own space?

The good news is that while some amount of hard work is required to get things going, there are shortcuts in the world of article marketing. Let’s talk about all of it.

Content is king. Sadly, there’s no way around this. The whole purpose of article marketing is to make the write-up so convincing that the reader is spurred into further action. That won’t happen if the story is poorly written, dull or completely useless. Before you choose to hop on the article marketing bandwagon, you must be sure that you have adequate knowledge to impart.

Shortcut: Now for the good part! Most of us have lifelong writer’s block, so is there an easy way out? Sure is – get a ghost writer to do it for you. You can visit sites like Killer Content or The Phantom Writers for such services. That being said, make sure you’re totally involved in the content that is being published, because it’s your reputation on the line! Alternatively, use article building software to help you.

Play the keyword game. This is a bit tricky. An article must have the right type and number of keywords in order to make it attractive for search engines to pick up. Keywords must be written according to how an average user would phrase them. One way is to visit public forums relating to your subject area and find out what are the hottest topics under discussion.

Shortcut: There is, however, a more systematic way out. Site Build It! has a tool called "Brainstormer" that helps you locate the most profitable keywords in any category. This way, you get to find those words that are used in searches, but have relatively fewer pages containing them – hence, your site or page shows up high on the list.

Be seen in the right places. Finally, that’s what it’s all about. There are a gazillion sites where you can place your articles, where they will be read by hundreds of thousands of visitors. The best part is that it is free; the worst is that it is extremely painful to post articles one by one.

Shortcut: Fortunately, some smart people have invented article submission software that gives you instant access to thousands of sites at a click. Other sites charge you a small fee to submit your article in bulk to other sites. Use these to save time, and eventually, money.