I’ve got a riddle for you. What type of online advertising is free, will establish you as an expert, and can improve your website’s popularity with search engines… all while making it easy for others to drive traffic to your website. The answer: article marketing. So why aren’t you doing it? You should be!

What exactly is article marketing? It’s simple. You write an article and then submit it to article directories, websites, and blogs that are looking for quality content. They post your article, including your bio and a link to your website… and then good things start to happen!

How to get started?

• Write about what you know. Make writing easy. Write about topics that you’re interested in and have plenty to say about. Just make sure your articles are related to your business or industry. That way when readers check out your website they’ll know they’ve come to the right place. And no selling please! Your articles are for educating and informing with your reader’s interests in mind. So when writing articles, think coach and teacher… not salesman.

• Keep it keyword rich. You want to make it easy for the search engines to find your article. No surprise right? Make sure your article title includes keywords you care about. It’s also a good idea to sprinkle keywords into the article text… but always remember it’s about engaging your readers not over-stuffing keywords.

• Have a compelling article title. The headline of your article is the only thing that most people read. So make it compelling. That way they’ll have no choice but to read on. How do you do that? Make your article title provocative. Try writing it in the form of a question that draws readers in. Or phrase it as if you’re going to let them in on a little known secret. You get the idea!

• Write articles often. Get in the habit of writing lots of articles. Volume counts… as one or two won’t do. That’s why it’s so important to write about what you know and like. Look for ideas in your favorite magazines and blogs. And from conversations with your prospects and customers. The good news is that your articles don’t need to be long. Figure 300 to 600 words. But you do need to write at least two articles a month (or more!)

• Don’t forget your bio. Besides your article title, your bio is the most important part of your article. Why? Because it’s where you get to brand yourself and include your website’s URL. This is where the selling happens so definitely add a few sentences about you and your company. The goal here is to get prospects to read about you and visit your website.

When you’re ready… start with publishing to the article directories. It’s easy and free. Go ahead and submit to all the top article directories such as: EzineArticles, ArticlesBase, Buzzle.com, SearchWarp, GoArticles, and IdeaMarketers.  Just search “article directories” to find more.

And keep a look out for blogs and websites in your industry that want guest authors (you can be one!) Having your article show up in a popular blog can mean thousands of dollars of exposure for your business.

Happy article writing!

Advertising your website means sending potential customers to your homepage right? Why not, since it’s the first page you want prospects to see so they can decide where to go next. Makes perfect sense… even though it’s the wrong strategy!

Here are five important reasons why:

• Your homepage serves many types of visitors. You’ve got customers and prospects landing on your homepage. Customers trust you, know how to navigate your site, and are open to discovering something new along the way. Prospects don’t know you, are very impatient, and have one specific purpose in mind. Sound the same? Not at all! You’ve also got homepage users that want to learn about your company, find a job, or need help with a problem. Remember, without a focus on prospects, it’s hard to turn them into customers.

• Everybody influences your homepage design. Your homepage reflects that great tradition of democracy… everybody gets a say! Marketing, sales, editorial, technology, and let’s not forget the CEO, each has an opinion on what the homepage should look like and how it can serve their (often conflicting) interests. So don’t be surprised if your online sales numbers aren’t what you’d hoped for.

• Homepages are about navigation… not sales! Most website visitors are thinking: “just passing through”, when they land on a homepage. That’s why good navigation is a rule of homepage design. But having your homepage be the first page a prospect sees also means they may be tempted to navigate to a place where it’s much harder for you to convince them to buy.

• Homepages have many distractions. Blinking ads, breaking news stories, and featured products… not to mention some person talking in a video! How will your prospects know where to click? Your homepage can be like an unfamiliar mall during the Christmas shopping season when you have one last present to find. Do you really want potential customers feeling like that?

• Homepages are hard to optimize. Your homepage serves multiple audiences and purposes, so it can be hard to optimize since there are lots of trade-offs to consider. Too many when compared to a “landing page” that has only one goal in mind: get the prospect to order the product, fill out the form, download the white paper… or whatever action you want your prospects to take!

Instead of using your homepage, you need to create a landing page customized for your ad campaign, target audience, specific offer… you get the idea! And landing pages are easy to set up and optimize, especially when compared to your homepage.

We’ve been led to believe that being number one is what it’s all about. But sometimes that isn’t the best strategy… especially when we’re talking about paid search rankings. Don’t agree… Read on. Agree but not sure what else to do? Read on.

The number one page rank costs too much. Many marketers are bidding for the number one ranking for your favorite keywords. So what happens when there are lots of bidders and only one number one spot? You end up paying too much! Especially, when compared to the cost of the number three, four, or five ranking.

You get lots of traffic but few conversions. There’s no question that you’ll get the most traffic. But, surprisingly, you’ll get fewer conversions. The reason is simple: everyone clicks on the first position to figure out what they really should be clicking on. And you end up paying for every wasted click… making the number one ranking much less effective.

For popular keywords, the top ranking is just not available. For many popular keywords, especially those that define product categories (e.g., digital camera), you’ll be competing against the marketing budget of a Fortune 500 company. You might as well consider these keywords unavailable since they are beyond costly.

So what should you do instead? Here are four strategies to consider:

• Focus on rankings 2 to 5. You’ll get lots of traffic plus generate truly valuable clicks. Why? Because, there’s a better chance that people clicking on these rankings are researching a purchase or shopping around for the best buy. Did we mention that these positions cost a lot less than the number one spot?

• Make it about profits. If you’re not focused on the number one ranking… what should you focus on? Profits! Figure out how many clicks it takes to generate an order, and what your profit per order is. Then calculate your profit per click and compare against your cost per click. Just make your keyword strategy about maximizing profits… and everything else will start to become clear.

• Test, test, and… test! Test lots of keywords. Try targeting keywords for people who are in research mode, and some for shoppers. Also, test different offers and copy in your keyword ads. And try out both Google and Yahoo…and maybe even a few smaller search engines. Test search versus contextual based ad placements. You get the idea!

• Put more emphasis on your “natural” search ranking. Natural search is what the search engines were made for… so update your website to make sure your favorite keywords show up often. And have a good site map to make it easy for search engine “spiders” to access your site, and understand what you’re all about. You’ll improve your ranking and Web traffic… and you won’t have to pay for a single click!

Good search practices will get you results. But as you can see, it’s really not about being number one… instead, it’s about getting the most bang for your search engine buck!