Businesses used to submit articles to local or regional publications so as to spread the word about their business. Their only profit from writing content was the exposure they achieved for their business, since every article also carried the contact details of the company. This model, which remains in use, has been taken over by online advertisers and marketers that need a viable pattern to use for their business promotion. Lots of article directories now give the opportunity to businesses to submit articles and improve the number of visitors to their websites as well as the page rank.

You can submit articles manually or automatically. You need to follow several steps before you have your materials ready for approval and publication. First of all, you should write the articles using the same top-notch keywords that you rely on for the search engine optimization of your website. Then, you have to create interesting, original content that you organize in four or five paragraphs. The average length of the articles is somewhere between 400 and 600 words. You should not use a keyword density higher than 4%.

One other thing you should check before you submit articles is the number of links you can include in the text body or in the author resource box. Some directories accept anchor text links while others allow only simple URLs. Check all the rules concerning publication before you submit articles to directories. Furthermore, it is essential for the success of your business to provide quality content. Readers will not be interested in a poorly written material, and they certainly won’t click on the links that you provide.

Then, there is always the possibility to submit articles automatically using a software tool that does all the work for you. The automatic article submitter can only be used for article directories where you have a valid account, for the only reason that the program records your login info and uses it to sign in and submit articles. There are good bits and bad bits about using automatic programs, and most web marketers prefer to perform the submission task both automatically and manually, depending on the situation and the context.

What you also need to be aware of that article marketing requires consistency, meaning that you have to submit articles on a continuous basis in order to maintain the increasing trend in the traffic that reaches your website. Keep on writing good stuff and distribute it across the web. The more you insist on article marketing, the better your results.

Experience has taught many web developers that they can increase traffic with article marketing really well. Many beginners are lured by vain promises of thousands of new subscribers and a huge traffic overnight, and they learn the hard way that this is not possible. Article marketing gets the closest to making such opportunities come true on the sole condition that you work hard and consistently to grow your business. With article marketing, you’ll write content to spread the word about your business.

People go on the Internet searching for some kind of information. Your offer has to match the demand. This is the number one rule of article marketing. If a reader discards your material as useless, you lose a potential client and even more. This is why you should mainly focus on quality rather than on quantity. Another frequent mistake here is that of publishing poor quality materials. This usually happens because of the pressure to submit more and more content in a short period of time, and increase traffic with article marketing.

The extent of such ‘quantity’-focused strategies has gone so far that ‘writers’ are no longer using original materials. They write a first article and then use ‘spinning’ tools to make three, five or ten other pseudo-original materials that will pass the test for duplicate content. This is not wrong, but this kind of strategies weaken or undermine the quality of the content presently available on the Internet. Yet, one cannot blame inventive developers for trying to make things easier and increase traffic with article marketing with less personal investment.

Try to work with top article directories because they bring the most rewarding traffic of all. A fine example here is www.EnzineAricles.com, which enjoys a great reputation with search engines, and provides almost any type of information you may need. There are actually hundreds of directories, and you can use as many as you see fit to increase traffic with article marketing strategies. The rules for submission could be slightly different, but they seldom pose any challenges.

Be consistent! Keep writing articles every day and submit them to article directories.

Test your articles! See what kind of traffic changes appear after submitting certain articles. EnzineArticles provides traffic reports you can use for the matter.

Create a plan and follow the strategy or strategies in it. Chaotic activity is seldom a source of constant revenue.

Each of the above suggestions should help you increase traffic with article marketing. Or at least you’ll get one step closer to success!

Free article submission is available with most article directories. The most well-known example here is that of the famous www.EnzineArticles.com, but this directory is not at all singular. Once you create an account with the directory, you can submit your materials in the categories that best correspond to your domain, product or service. Besides free article submission, there are several directories that work on the basis of paid membership.

Both free and paid submission are valid options for marketers eager to promote their business and achieve a superior exposure level. Although there are not too many differences between the various directories, you can notice variations in the submission rules. Thus, some directories will only allow the inclusion of simple URLs in the author resource box, while others will also work well with anchor text links, present in the article content too. The present tendency is to focus more on anchor text links because they are more relevant for traffic and sales.

For both paid and free article submission, materials have to pass an approval stage. In most cases this is just a formality, but you should be very keen on the quality of the content you provide. Pay attention to grammar and spelling, use an optimal keyword density and make sure you don’t break the rule of duplicate content. Article directories check your materials for duplication, and unless you provide original content, you will not receive publication or submission approval.

When to use free article submission? Lots of web developers may ask themselves this question before launching into an article marketing project, however, experts say that for this particular case the best moment is right now. Writing articles and submitting them to Internet directories, social networks, blogs and forums can have very numerous benefits for your business evolution. As long as you provide good quality, people will want to read more or learn more and you will get numerous web visitors with a huge potential of converting into real business clients.

There are hundreds of directories that allow free article submission, but instead of trying to create accounts with them all, you should begin by identifying the most relevant ones. Lots of successful business owners and professionals in Internet marketing claim that submission with top ten article directories is the most powerful and effective of all.