Information-based marketing is one of the oldest and most effective methods for generating targeted visitors to your website and converting them into buyers. Article writing, submissions and publications are also regaining their popularity in the age of information technology. Already, there exist many tools that facilitate the tedious process of article distribution. The presence of such tools merely reinforces the popularity of article marketing as a means of website traffic generation.

Before we plunge headlong into article submissions, it is important to be aware of three common mistakes made by new marketers:

1. Confusing the reason for submitting the articles with the reason to write them.

There are three key benefits for submitting articles: branding, lead generation and website promotion. These are all part of your optimisation efforts. However, there is only one reason why you write an article, and that is to offer information that your audience is interested in. If the article does not focus on this critical purpose, it will fail to achieve the three benefits for submitting the article because readers will not be interested to read them. It is important, therefore, to learn what captures your readers’ attention then get them to click on your resource box. This can be achieved by producing better article content.

2. Failing to maximise the promotional opportunities of article marketing.

You may be aware that your articles can help generate additional links back to your website but do you know that you can get more visitors and better search engine results from those same articles? By mentioning keywords at strategic places you can achieve that as long as you do not overdo it. You can also use anchor text which can also be an effective method, however, most the directories cannot support this.

It is also important to be aware that article submission is not only about getting links back to your website. Another benefit of having your articles published on free content websites is that other website publishers with a large readership may also choose to publish your article. By writing quality articles, you can leverage other brands and gain better search engine results.

3. Publishing content that does not help your readers.

Many marketers write articles for submission to article directories with the purpose of generating links back to their websites. All that matters is that the article brings visitors to their websites. The problem is that article banks and directories do not automatically accept all content submitted. Many have guidelines and specifications that each article must meet in order to be published.

You need to write articles that publishers want in their publications and you can easily double the number of sites that your article will be accepted by. Remember, it only takes one publisher with a hundred thousand readers to increase your potential audience overnight. Follow the standard guidelines, make sure you use spell checks, and take some time researching a good topic. Consider hiring a ghost writer if writing articles is not your forte.

At the end of the day, what you achieve from your article marketing activities depends on you. You can use it to start getting some exposure from increased links back to your website at a very basic level or you can enjoy massive exposure by taking a little extra time to produce quality content. If you are going to take the trouble to write and article and submit it, you might as well put in a little extra effort to create a wave rather than just ripples.