Why Article Marketing is Great for Generating Leads For Your Home Based Business

Long before the internet rose to its position of importance in marketing, the use of article marketing was considered a useful promotion tool in print media. Today, the availability of online venues such as websites, ezines and newsletters via email have created an even greater need for well-written articles on a variety of topics. As a result, article marketing has become a more powerful tool than ever before. Articles are seen as a powerful tool to help advertise your home based business. It remains one of the best ways to draw your target market to your website and convince them to do business with you.

Article marketing has become increasingly popular as a marketing method under the Web 2.0. Article marketing has several benefits, including establishing yourself as an expert, lead generation, increased site traffic and improved search engine rank. Article marketing is a cost-effective method of marketing your Web site and services, and driving up your search engine ranking in the process. Article work slowly and you shouldn’t expect to get a load of traffic overnight.

Article marketing is the practice of providing well-written content for distribution to websites and epublishers in exchange for a blurb about the author’s business and contact information. These “bios” usually include a link to the business owner’s website.

When a business owner offers content for publication, it is equivalent to getting free ad space on countless websites worldwide. The opportunity for exposure to the right market is significant, while the cost is virtually nil, making it a highly efficient means of business communication.

Unlike using email campaigns for lead generation, which net about a one percent response rate, article marketing targets a willing audience. Readers either voluntarily visited the website on which the article is published, or have opted in to receive the newsletter or ezine. This audience is inherently more open to the information contained in the article, and therefore more likely to follow the link to the author’s website to learn more.

Publishers who pick up the articles already have an audience of potential buyers in place. Readers are interested in the content of the articles, suggesting they may be in the market to purchase products or services related to that content. By comparison, the cost to purchase a list of such well-qualified leads would be formidable. Providing an article costs no more than the investment of the time required to write it.

Business owners can further increase the conversion rate by including a link to a particular piece of information in the author’s bio. Rather than linking to the home page, authors can include a link to an article on their own site that elaborates on the article topic. Readers will be more likely to seek out additional specific information.

Conversion rates can be improved further by publishing an email address that readers can use to subscribe to the author’s newsletter or website. Making the desired action as easy as possible increases the reader’s likelihood of doing so. An auto-response can then be sent to new signature links to specific features of the author’s website.

Providing content to publishers in related fields can be a highly cost-effective means of increasing website traffic, generating qualified leads, and improving both brand awareness and ultimately, sales.

Your article is your opportunity to establish yourself as an expert. The best articles (and the ones that are most often picked up) are focused, easy-to-understand and helpful to your readers. The article is not the place to be promoting your product or service...at least not blatantly.

You can write articles and place them in thousands of places to put your name before millions of people, establish yourself as an expert on your subject matter, and drive traffic to your websites.
So, how do you come up with ideas for articles? Keyword research. Instead of guessing at topics, keyword research identifies issues of interest to your prospects and corresponding article topics. Articles are then created that suggest solutions to these problems. Once the articles are published, prospects will realize you offer a solution to their problems and contact you.
Marketers now understand that an informative article distributed to the influential spots on the web will get you a lot of attention and pull visitors to your site.

Linda Hampton