Hi Deirdre:
I'm a huge proponent of article marketing. Writing articles allows you to present yourself as an expert in your field. This not only gives you instant credibility, it also gives you a leg up on your competition.
Let me explain: When someone reads an informative, value-packed article written by you, at the end of the article, they click on the link in your resource box which takes them to your website or a page of your choosing.
The prospect is much more relaxed and less apprehensive when she arrives at your website, because she arrived via an informative article as opposed to an advertisement. And since she just read your article, she feels as if she knows you and is much more likely to purchase whatever it is that you're selling.
Another reason I like article marketing so much is because it allows you to target your audience. That's because people generally read information that focuses on the subject matter that they're interested in. For example, pet owners enjoy reading information related to their pets. Car enthusiasts enjoy reading information about cars, and so on and so forth.
That means readers of your articles are already targeted - because they wouldn't be reading your article if they weren't interested in the topic at hand. And if what you're selling is related to the subject matter of the article (which it should be), you have a better than average chance of making the sale.
Articles are viral. That means if people find value in what you write, they will pass along your articles to others voluntarily. I can't even count the number of times friends and colleagues of mine have e-mailed articles to me they thought I might be interested in reading, and vice versa.
If your article is well-written and contains valuable information, it could be passed along and seen by thousands of potential prospects.
Now I realize not everyone is capable of writing articles. However, you can still participate in article marketing, because there are services that will write articles for you affordably and allow you to claim ownership of those articles. For example, ArticlesBase has an article writing service.
David Jackson
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