Not From Cache
I know what you’re thinking: Article information marketing? It’s article marketing! Nah nah nah nah nah, KokPang made a mistake. Nah nah nah…

Well, I feel bad spoiling your mood when you’re dancing in joy, still…I know everyone calls it article marketing. I’m calling it article information marketing to point out to you that article marketing is no more than a form of information marketing.

Information marketing is nothing new and you see it everywhere offline. Like the infomercials on TV, or the advertorials in the newspaper. And using article to sell all kinds of products and services is the specialty of magazine.

In the virtual world, information is even more important. So much so it has been proudly proclaimed that “content is king!” on the internet. You can bet online marketers will exploit this fact to their advantage and they do. Article marketing is simply one such application.

What is article marketing?

Here is how Wikipedia explains article marketing:

“In its simplest form, article marketing is a type of advertising through which a business writes short articles related to its respective industry. Once written, the business makes these articles freely available for distribution and publication in the marketplace. Each article contains a ‘bio box’ and ‘by-line’ which include references and contact information for the author’s business. Well written content articles released for free distribution have the potential of gaining the author business credibility within his or her market, as well as new clients.”

As you can see, the main purpose of article marketing is advertising. You want the readers to take a certain action, namely: click on the link in your resource box (’by-line’), which normally leads to a sales page. Basically, you’re pre-selling a product or service with article. There is often another type of selling going on at the same time. You’re selling your image. You’re branding yourself. You do this with a blurb on yourself in the author’s bio (’bio box’) and a link to your main web site or blog.

What makes article marketing hot?

I can think of at least 6 reasons why article information marketing is hot.

1. Easy start
   Firstly, it’s very easy to start. If you’re reading this blog, I can safely assume that you already have what it takes for article marketing: a basic writing skill. In fact, practically any online surfer can make use of article marketing with such a bare requirement. Of course, whether you do it right and do it effectively is another question.
2. No cost
   You don’t need a big budget to advertise with article marketing. There are many online media for you to publish the articles without paying a cent. EzineArticles, GoArticles and many other article directories are usually the favorites amongst article marketers. Online magazine is another avenue. You can also put article on your own web site. Don’t have a web site? Sign up for a free blog at Blogger or WordPress to tell the whole world about your article.
3. Traffic potential
   Remember I said “content is king” earlier? Web sites and newsletter publishers all over the internet are forever looking for fresh content. What is article if it isn’t content? Imagine then if your article is picked up by a popular web site or newsletter… The minute the article is published, I bet you will cry in joy with the overwhelming visitors… apart from the fact that your web site crashed.
4. Targeted audience
   The visitors you get from article marketing is more targeted and more likely to act. Look, reading requires an effort on the reader. You’re reading this blog right now not because there is nothing better to do. You’re reading it because you’re interested in the subject, you want to find out more. So you’re more likely to take action, right? All these will generally translate into a better sales conversion.
5. SEO advantage
   I mentioned that you put links in the resource box and author’s bio for advertising purpose. One side effect of the links is SEO (Search Engine Optimization). SEO experts agree that backlinks–incoming links to a web site–play a role in the search engine ranking of a web site. The more articles you have out there, the more backlinks you create, the higher the ranking of your web site. It’s actually more complicated than that, but that’s the gist of it.
6. Expert creditability
   I also talked about branding yourself with articles. It’s an interesting study of human psychology the way I see it.There is this thing in everybody’s mind that only an expert in the field can write about a topic. So when you put up an article, you immediately brand yourself as an expert. In the minds of the readers, you know more stuff than others about the article topic.

   The authority of the publisher in the topic will influence the author’s expert status. The more established and reputable the publisher, the more credible your expert status. The readers somehow or other subconsciously transfer their trust and confidence of the publisher’s authority to the author.

   One more thing, the volume or quantity of the published works plays a part as well. The more articles you publish, the more confident the readers are of your expertise. More equates better in this case.

What now?

Now, can you see why article information marketing is hot? Can you see why you can’t stop at 1 or 2 articles in your article marketing efforts?

The only way to succeed with article marketing is to write many many articles. To do this, you must develop your own system on how to write short article. I’ll show you one of the systems I use which you can adapt in a few days. If you can’t wait, you can always go get another system known as Article Speed Writing.