Rumors have been flying all over the Internet that article marketing is no longer effective at driving traffic to blogs or websites. While it is true that the Internet has been bombarded with unfathomable amounts of content, article marketing can still be very effective at driving targeted traffic. One of the differences between article marketing of 4 years ago, and article marketing today, is that one must write more articles to generate signifficant traffic.

The Profitable Article Marketing Formula

1. First, select a niche market that you are familiar with. Make sure you know your market's wants and needs.
2. Next, select a product to promote that corresponds with the wants and needs of your niche market.
3. Write articles that DIRECTLY provide useful information or solve problems of your selected niche market. The product you selected to promote should provide a solution to a problem.
4. Send your prospects directly to a sales page where they either can buy the product or opt-in to your list.

This formula is simple, but it is amazing how many marketers fail to grasp it.

Selecting The Right Category Is The Key

If, for example, your niche market is people who want to lose weight, it is best not to write an article promoting weight training. Your articles should be specifically targeted toward how to lose weight. Most individuals who want to lose weight are not interested in weight training. In fact, many are not interested in exercise at all. When you accurately address your niche market's specific needs, your traffic will not be as high as it would be if you were more general. The traffic that you do get will be FAR more targeted.

Traffic Secrets

We ALL want traffic secrets and tips. If I had to identify the key element in generating targeted traffic, it would be knowing the "deep seeded" wants and needs of your target market. Knowing these desires will allow you to write content that sells your prospects on some, or all, of the benefits of your target market. Renegade University, a FREE members only site, provides excellent training on all phases of traffic generation, including article marketing. Mike Klingler provides step-by-step video tutorials on all phases of marketing, particularly to the Web 2.0 community