Believe it or not, but article marketing has been around before the age of the internet. Local businesses would write a helpful article for the local paper in exchange to have their business information included with the article.

Online article marketing works in a similar way. You write a good quality article and submit it to an article directory along with the name and url of your website you are promoting. When people read your article they may want to find out more about the subject and click through to your site.

Also most article directories allow others to take your article and place it on their web-site along with the link to your site.

So it's easy to see that article marketing is a great way to get lots of free traffic, and one of the quickest ways to get good quality back links to your site. The more back links that Google finds to your site, the more traffic they will send you, so you get even more traffic.

You can write about anything that is related to the content on your site. One way is to take your existing content and simply rewrite it into a unique article. This way every time you up-date your website with a new page, all you have to do is simply rewrite it into a shorter version, and there you have an article, ready for submission.

Your articles should be around 300-500 words in length so that you can submit them to multiple article directories. Some directories require the articles to only be about 300 words, while others expect a minimum of 400, or even 500. So to make sure that your article will be accepted always read their submission guidelines before submitting.

Your articles should be informative and give the readers good solid answers on the topic. Of course you don't want to share all your knowledge, because that would defeat the purpose, which is for them to click through to your site.

Make sure to include the keywords within the title of the article and several more times within the article, to make it easier for the search engines to find your article. Keep in mind however, you are writing for an audience, and if you add the keywords in sentences where they don't make sense, or if you just simply overdo it, then you may lose your audience.

After the article is written you should write a short summary, or you may use the first paragraph or first couple of sentences of the article.

Then when you're ready to submit, simply copy and paste your article into the appropriate sections of each article directory.

Now there are some things which you should avoid doing, like being over promotional with your article is a big no-no. Some directories will allow you to put links directly into your article, but it is best that you leave affiliate links for your resource box.

The resource box is where you are allowed to put your websites, and some basic information about yourself, and your credentials. I highly recommend that you do not advertise anywhere in the article except in this area. If you have written a quality article and people are sincere they will take a look at your resource box and pay your site a visit.

Inside this resource box you are permitted to put up to two links that go to your sites, or you can put your affiliate links which take them directly to the page where you are hoping they will make a purchase.

Another thing you should avoid doing is never link to a product or service that is not related to your article, this will only frustrate your readers and they will lose interest in your articles.

Some of the online article directories are:

• ezinearticles.com
• goarticles.com
• articlecity.com
• expertarticles.com
• ideamarketers.com
• articlesbase.com
• articlealley.com
• searchwarp.com

There are many more directories, but these will get you started. It may seem overwhelming to write and submit to all these directories, but in the end your hard work will pay off.