Article Marketing

A commonly asked question is whether or not article marketing and internet marketing are the same thing. In order to answer this question truthfully, you have to look at the meaning of the words. In both we use the term marketing which refers to using a medium in order to connect the surfer with the information, products or services they desire. However, the differences between the two are the medium in which they use.
In internet marketing, the medium used is the search engines themselves. These search engines account for more then 90% of the money made online. Most people go directly to a search engine to find what they are looking for rather then typing in the name directly. With article marketing, the medium is the article directories. While articles in these directories can make their way into the organic search engines, generally they never make it on to the first page of results. As a result of this, most webmasters cannot simply rely on article marketing alone.

The reason for this is a simple one. Not including a few select nations around the globe, no one really uses the article directories directly but instead use the search engines. If they click on a result which goes to the directory, then they are still not using the directory directly.

In most cases, the use of article marketing cannot even constitute as a means of marketing unless you are specifically targeting those nations which make use of them on a regular basis. Except for these rare occasions, articles are only used for Search Engine Optimization, and only when they are used in a manner to create more nodes for the search engine spiders to find your website.

The organic search engines are, always have been and will continue to be the number one medium for internet marketing. The articles themselves should be utilized for the development of back links which help your website to be indexed the way you would like it to be. While there is a possibility where some people may make a large portion of their online income through traffic that comes directly through the article directories, in most cases these visitors will usually begin from the search engines.

Keeping in mind the three click rule though, you have to remember that leaving the search engines is the first click, leaving the article directories is the second click so never have your articles pointed directly to your front page as you will easily exceed the 3 click rule and watch conversions plummet. At the same time, this can create a serious issue seeing as though most article directories will not allow you to point anywhere other then the front page of the site.