Since the inception of the internet, webmasters have drawn prospective customers to their sites by providing worthwhile information to their guests. This information based marketing is a proven technique for targeting interested individuals and bringing them to a website, then turning those visitors into paying clients.

Today, the same marketing technique is still practiced using article publications. Marketing with informative articles is actually growing in popularity as more website owners realize the simplicity, as well as the benefits, of this method. There are several tools and programs that make it easy to submit articles to the numerous article directories available, but the exposure and promotion of your article and website are the benefits of article writing, not the reason.

Before submitting articles to any directory, there are a few key points to consider if you want to enjoy success from your efforts.

First, remember the reason you are writing an article. The purpose of an article is to inform the reader. A well written, quality article will catch the reader’s attention, while poor content will go unread. If you want your articles to promote your website or business and draw in new clients, it has to create interest so that it is read. If your reader doesn’t care to read your article, he most likely will have no interest in visiting your site. To run a successful article campaign, make quality content your primary focus. Keyword density and other optimization efforts are worthless if no one reads the article.

While keyword density should not be your main goal, it is important. Submitting your articles to directories not only brings your website incoming links that can boost your search engine rankings, article directory submissions can also increase your traffic in other ways if done correctly. Placing targeted keywords that relate to the topic of your article throughout the content can bring higher search rankings to the article, giving it more exposure to those specifically searching for the information you offer.

The placement of your keywords is just as important as the actual terms. Take care not to overdo the key phrase or search engines may see it as spam. A well written article that fairs well in the search engines is more likely to be used and published by other websites than an article without keywords, resulting in more promotion of your website and increased profits. Anchor text, or using keywords within links to your website or products, is one of the most effective methods of using keyword marketing, but many article directories do not support these types of links.

Finally, it is critical that you write articles that these directories want to publish. While there are several article directories that will publish most any content, the directories that receive the most traffic and will benefit you the most typically have strict guidelines that must be adhered to. The leading article directories only accept a small percentage of the content submitted to them, but these are the directories that will bring you the most success.

Concentrate on writing high quality content that the leading article directories will want to publish. Follow their guidelines for submission, taking care to correctly format your articles, and check your content closely for spelling errors or grammatical mistakes. If you’re not comfortable with your own writing capabilities, hire someone more qualified to write for you if you want to see success with your article marketing campaign.