Article Marketing: Top 5 Mistakes Made By Article Marketers

While there are many ways to increase your website traffic, Article Marketing is one of the best as there are so many benefits. Sure, you can generate fast website traffic through Pay-Per-Click advertising but if you stop advertising, your traffic disappears immediately!

Article Marketing is different. Done properly, Article Marketing brings credibility, targeted website traffic and a huge influx of one-way backlinks.

Think about all the benefits...

Web surfers benefit by reading your articles and the valuable content they provide. You, in turn, are viewed as an expert and get the opportunity to "start a conversation" with the reader.

If your readers enjoy your articles, they're likely to click the link you've provided in your resource box to learn more about their topic of interest.

Another huge benefit of Article Marketing is the increase in one-way backlinks. The more quality links a site can produce, the better the odds are the site will be found in the search engines.

This is phenomenal as your articles will bring you direct website traffic and improve your chances of getting "free traffic" from the organic Search Engine Result Pages (SERP's).

That said, there are a number of things the article marketer must know to improve their chances of success.

Here are the Top 5 mistakes made by article marketers:

1. Failure to learn the basic requirements of the article directories.

Each article directory has its own set of rules and regulations but the majority of them are pretty consistent. If you error on the side of caution... like not including HTML coding in your article's body text, you'll find your articles gain wider acceptance.

2. Failure to treat the Article Directory Editors with respect.

Since most article directories allow authors to submit articles for free, the Editors are under no obligation to accept or publish the articles we submit.

It is wise to treat the Editors with kindness and respect. Learn their regulations and follow them.

Don't submit articles unless they are unique and well-written and don't try to "trick" them by re-submitting an article after only making a few "tweaks."

3. Submitting an article with a poorly-written title.

Many article marketers spend a good deal of time perfecting their body text but put little thought into their title copy.

This is a huge mistake as a "killer" title is vital to an article's success. Make sure your titles contain relevant keywords and make them enticing to your audience.

Titles which include an element of curiosity are read more often.

4. Submitting an article without a "killer" resource box.

Like the title, many article marketers fail to capitalize on the benefits the resource box provides.

The whole goal of Article Marketing is to get readers to read and enjoy our articles and then get them to click on the link(s) we've provided in our resource box to visit our site.

Without this traffic, we've lost the main benefit that Article Marketing provides... targeted website traffic.

Write your resource box copy in the "third person" and make sure you include an element which directs your reader to take action.

You can be aggressive and use something like "Click Here" or include a more subtle element like "Please visit my site for more information."

Either way, make sure to include an "action element" and provide the link to your site.

5. Stopping too soon.

Article Marketing is very effective and much faster than pure SEO but it still takes some time to realize the full benefits.

Too often, article marketers write a couple of articles and then stop because they don't experience the success they've envisioned.

In order to keep yourself motivated, it's important you track your progress. Make note of your Alexa traffic rating (if any), your Google PageRank and your backlinks before beginning your Article Marketing campaign.

Also, check your site's Search Engine Placement in the major search engines for the keywords you'll be targeting.

Check these stats every month and compare them to the figures you recorded before beginning your Article Marketing campaign. I'm sure you'll see a significant improvement and get the "fuel" you need to continue your Article Marketing efforts.

While I'm sure I haven't covered everything, these 5 tips will help you stay in the "good graces" of Article Directory Editors everywhere and will help your articles be found more often.

The "Golden Rule" is alive and well! Remember to treat each Editor with kindness and respect and they in turn, will promote your articles for maximum effect.