A good way to promote your product or service is via article marketing. You can write and distribute articles online to boost traffic to your website and increase your sales accordingly. Articles which have been carefully written can be freely distributed over the Internet to boost the authors' business credibility within the market and get new customers. However, like any other form of marketing, article marketing also needs to be done keeping certain guidelines in mind.

Choose your articles carefully: First analyze the product or service that you are promoting. Ask yourself what would interest people who are likely to buy this product or service. Now create a list of articles you can write which will include information and tips which your potential buyers are likely to find useful. Think of your articles as hooks to grab your potential clients' interest and draw their attention in the direction of your product or service.

The right title matters: The title of your article will probably play a big role in determining how much traffic is directed to your website. It will have a significant impact on how many people access and read the article. Therefore it is important to ensure that you use the right keywords in your title so that users are interested enough to click on it.

Keep it short: Since most people browsing the net have very short attention spans, it helps if you keep your article as short as possible. Aim for a word count of 400 to 600 words. Make every word count for something. The idea is to pack in as much useful information as possible within your article.

Useful and incomplete information: Your articles should provide useful information which your users can actually apply in the context of their personal or professional lives. However the trick is to leave this information incomplete. The idea is that your article should trigger the readers' curiosity and leave them asking for more which they can get when they actually buy your product or service.

Your information can be in the form of tips, a tutorial, a step by step guide,

The finishing touches: Proofread your article. Make sure that no typos or other unwanted errors have crept into your writing. If possible get your article reviewed by a peer or colleague. This will help you get a fresh perspective on your article.

Publish your article: Now you are ready to publish your article to ezine directories and of course upload it on your own website. You can use automated article submission services to submit your article. This is an efficient way to submitting your articles. The software will submit a certain number of copies of your articles for a set price to various ezine directories. Of course if you are counting your dollars or working on a shoe string budget you can do a manual submission as well.

A cleverly crafted article will help your pre-sell your product or service and can be a relatively inexpensive and invaluable way of advertising your product or service.