The most important thing not to do in article marketing is to chase links. Google is more interested in quality than quantity of links. So submitting to a hundred article sites may get you links but Google just ignores them.

A good way to start thinking about link quality is: if there is a real chance that a human eye may actually see the article.

What do I mean by that? Consider a site like Ezinearticles. Articles at this site actually appear high in Google search rankings, which means that people are likely to click through and read the article. Furthermore, once someone is on Ezines, there is a good chance that they may look at other articles. In other words, people actually use the site to find information.

Unfortunately the same is not true of many other article sites. Firstly, the articles don't rank well, so they don't get traffic from search engines and, secondly, people are unlikely to go looking for the site.

I would recommend a dual approach. Clearly you should publish at Ezines.

One of the reasons that Ezines ranks well is that articles are reviewed by moderators. This is Google's assurance of quality - and the reason other sites don't do so well.

Google depends for its advertising revenues on people using its search engine. If Google's results are poor people will stop using it - so Google has a very real interest in ensuring that there are quality results at the top.

Many article sites accept articles from anyone - so who is likely to write an article? Somebody with something to sell - not usually an indicator of unbiased advice.

So in answer to the question, where should I publish, the answer is:

• the top article sites - see the list below
• hubpages (well this is an article isn't it?) and squidoo
  
• the unique article wizard network - a great way to get your articles distributed
• the second tier - now I know this seems counter to what I have said above - but read on

After extensive research, I would suggest that these are the top article sites to which you should submit your articles:

• ezinearticles
• go articles
• article dashboard
• articlesbase
• article alley
• goarticles
• article city
• isnare
• ideamarketers
• a1articles
• buzzle
• searchwarp.com
• helium.com
• articlecube.com
• submityourarticle.com

This link will provide you the current Top Article Directories by traffic and PageRank.

These sites are very concerned about quality; each article is moderated prior to publication and many articles will be rejected. Of topmost concern to them is "uniqueness" - the article must not be published on other sites.

I therefore tend to submit to these sites manually.

Uniqueness - there is much discussion about article uniqueness. Some people even claim that you can ignore it and submit the same article to multiple directories - after all, how will they ever find out.

On the other hand, you don't want to risk getting banned by a site like Ezines, so I prefer to play safe. What you need is a good spinner.

I would strongly recommend Unique Article Wizard. This provides not only the ability to spin articles (produce several unique version from a base article) but will also submit the article - and not only to article directories but also to its own network of high quality blogs.

It can even post to your own blog - keeping your blog ticking along on auto-pilot.

Unique Article Wizard is a subscription service so there is an on-going cost and if you are only starting out in internet marketing, it may be overkill at the beginning - you may not be able to leverage its power. The answer would be to consider pay-once software such as Automatic Article Submitter.

Find out more about spinning, Article Submission Software and article marketing strategies.

There are a number of new sites that are not article sites in the conventional sense. Check out:

• DocStoc
• Connexions
• Scribd
• Slideshare
• LearnHub

These offer a more Web 2.0 approach and do well in Google.

My recommendation is that you still submit to a number of the second tier sites - provided you can automate it. Do not waste time on this. You need to find a program that will automatically load your spun articles without requiring too much input from you.

Then monitor the results. If you haven't already, make sure that you have Google Analytics installed on your website.

Follow the weblink above on Article Submission Software - it provides details on software such as Article Post Robot and Automatic Article Submitter (which is also a spinner too).

Your Resource Box can make a big difference to your clickthrough rate. Ensure that is has a Call To Action.

When you submit to an article directory, the directory gives you an opportunity to add a by-line that includes a few links. You should use anchored keywords (Remember deep links are important - don't only link to your main domain, link to a page with keywords related to the content of the article - Google finds pages not websites.)

However, don't think only of the search engines - sell yourself to the human reading the article; give them a reason to clickthrough.

• stimulate their curiosity but hold the answer back (that's on your website)
• establish your credility and expertise
• be likable!
• provide the answer to the unconscious question that all people ask: WIIFM (what's in it for me?)