Article marketing is such an effective free marketing opportunity and one that you don’t want to squander by making mistakes that are completely avoidable.

There are mistakes that will make your submitted articles useless and they will never be downloaded and reproduced. You will have wasted valuable time, effort and energy that you didn’t have to waste.

Mistake #1: The first mistake that many first time article marketers make is not realizing just how important the headline or title of the article is.

The title is the first thing a web surfer sees and what will determine whether he stops to read the article or not. Titles must be attention getting and they MUST contain relative key words.

If these criteria aren’t met, the article is of no use no matter how great the content of the article is.

Mistake #2: The first line of the first paragraph must continue to hold the reader’s interest in order for him to continue reading the article. Web site owners and ezine publishers know this rule and you need to understand and abide by it.

Start with a sentence that will continue to hold the reader’s interest after the title has done its part.

Mistake #3: Writers write. Writers just love seeing their thoughts in print even if it’s only in a word document on their own computers.

Remember that less is more when it comes to marketable articles. Write all you want to about a subject, then cut those thousand words into pieces and make three articles out of them.

Articles of 300 to 400 words are best for article marketing purposes.

Mistake #4: Not putting all of the allowed links into your resource box is a big one in the mistake department. If you are allowed three links, use three links.

Four of the many methods used in Internet marketing are:

1.Search Engine Marketing: This is done by paying search engines (like Google) for each time your advertisement is clicked on by a web surfer. This is called Pay-per-click (PPC) marketing sometimes.

You are allowed to write your own advertisement for the search engine to use when providing results of searches made using your relevant key words.

2.Affiliate Marketing: An affiliate marketing program is set up by the owner or producer of a product or service whereby other marketers are paid to sell that product or service for a percentage of the sale or a flat fee for each sale.

This is one of the more popular forms of Internet marketing. Many times savvy marketers can set up website businesses without owning or producing any product of service of their own and those who do own products are services are happy to have others selling for them.

3.E-mail Marketing: This is a form of Internet marketing that has fallen on hard times of late with the being enacted prohibiting spamming.

Opt-in lists are now required to avoid being penalized for sending out spam e-mails. It is still, however, a very effective method of Internet marketing because the opt-in lists are people who are most interested in the product or service being offered.

4.Article Marketing: Owners of products or service operations write articles using key words and attention getting titles.

They then list them in article directories, repositories or article banks to be downloaded and reproduced by other website owners and ezine publishers free of charge as long as the articles remain unaltered and the resource box is included in the reproduction.

It may even be THE best if it is done right. Where blogging posts fall off the front page of an active blog in hours, articles remain visible for days or weeks on websites that download and post them…..and your resource box with them.

Like a fisherman, the more lines one has in the water, the more opportunities an Internet marketer has for success and articles that are downloaded and reproduced on many websites puts a lot of lines out in the Internet fishing hole.

If you can write (or have written) articles and post (or have them posted for you) in article directories or repositories, you have the opportunity to get your articles downloaded and posted on websites or downloaded and included in ezine publications.

These articles provide several opportunities for you:

1.Reproduced articles are free advertising! Your resource box is included in each reproduction and in that resource box there is a link to your website. The article itself, if it is well written, is the best advertising you can get paid or free.

2.Reproduced articles help establish you as an expert in your niche market or field.  As the author and the holder of the copyright on a well written and informative article, you will become known as a guru…the go-to guy or gal in your field.

3.PageRank improvement is another side effect of article marketing that is so valuable. Each time your article is downloaded and reproduced another link is on the Internet for the search engine spiders to count. PageRank improvement will bring a lot more traffic to your website.

4.A better bottom line is the result of more targeted traffic to your website. More traffic will equal more sales and that will make your bottom line very happy.

Writing articles that are designed to attract website owners and ezine publishers are written much the same way that other articles are written but with a few very significant differences. Website owners and ezine publishers look for articles that:

1.Have attention getting headlines that also have key words in them. Website owners and ezine publishers are well aware of the notoriously short attention span of the average Internet surfer.

They know they have about 30 seconds to convince a surfer to actually read an article. If the headline isn’t attention getting and if it doesn’t have key words, the surfer will…well….surf away.

2.Have an attention holding first line. This same notoriously impatient surfer reads the headline and then his eyes automatically go to the first line of the first paragraph of an article.

If the surfer is attracted by the headline and his attention can be held through the first sentence, there is an excellent chance that he will read the remainder of the article.

3. Are short. Articles submitted to article directories must never be more than 300-400 words. Remember that notoriously short attention span? If you want readers to get to the all important resource box, hold those articles down to 300 to 400 words.

4.Follow the rules: Each article directory has its own rules and regulations regarding submissions. Some limit the number of links that may be included in the resource box; others have stringent requirements for other aspects of the articles they accept. Be sure that you always follow the rules to the letter.

Article marketing is an effective marketing tool and can provide excellent results if the articles are well-written and follow the rules.

Four of the many methods used in Internet marketing are:

1. Search Engine Marketing: This is done by paying search engines (like Google) for each time your advertisement is clicked on by a web surfer.

This is called Pay-per-click (PPC) marketing sometimes. You are allowed to write your own advertisement for the search engine to use when providing results of searches made using your relevant key words.

2. Affiliate Marketing: An affiliate marketing program is set up by the owner or producer of a product or service whereby other marketers are paid to sell that product or service for a percentage of the sale or a flat fee for each sale.

This is one of the more popular forms of Internet marketing. Many times savvy marketers can set up website businesses without owning or producing any product of service of their own and those who do own products are services are happy to have others selling for them.

3. E-mail Marketing: This is a form of Internet marketing that has fallen on hard times of late with the being enacted prohibiting spamming.

Opt-in lists are now required to avoid being penalized for sending out spam e-mails. It is still, however, a very effective method of Internet marketing because the opt-in lists are people who are most interested in the product or service being offered.

4. Article Marketing: Owners of products or service operations write articles using key words and attention getting titles.

They then list them in article directories, repositories or article banks to be downloaded and reproduced by other website owners and ezine publishers free of charge as long as the articles remain unaltered and the resource box is included in the reproduction.