Article directories are used by many people for various reasons.
Driving targeted traffic to a website that offers information, sells a product or provides a service is what Internet marketers use these content rich sites for.
Article marketing is one method you can use to promote your online business.
In this article we look at some of the advantages of article marketing and go over a few guidelines to help you get started.
Why should you include article marketing when you promote your online business? There are a number of good reasons to do it:

• Article directories provide readership for your article submissions and allow placement of your links at the end of your article so you will receive some of their traffic.
  
• Anyone from the article directories who reads your article will most likely have a strong interest in your topic and are much more targeted or motivated to act on your information compared to other sources of traffic.
  
• The articles you write and submit to the article directories allow you to establish yourself as an expert or authority on the topic.
  If the information you provide is good, people will trust you enough to buy anything you may have to offer.
  

Before you take up article marketing to build your online business, there are a few simple tips you should follow so you can take full advantage of everything it has to offer:

• Write about topics that relate to your business that people are interested in.
  There is no point in writing an article and submitting it to the article directories when there will be no audience for it.
  It won't generate any traffic for you and you'll be wasting your time.
  
• Don't tell everything in your article.
  Give just enough information about the topic to get the reader interested in finding out more by visiting the link article directories allow you to place at the end of your article or in the resource box...
  if you tell them all upfront there will be no reason to go to your site or buy your product.
  
• Spend time on your resource box.
  The resource box is where you are allowed to make your sales pitch and place a link to your sales page.
  You need to craft or word your resource box so readers will want to click your link and visit your site.
  For a business owner's view, it would be pointless to write an article, submit it to the article directory and not get any traffic in return.
  

In this article we have highlighted several advantages of article marketing and went through a few tips to help you get started.
Article marketing is one of the most effective ways to promote your online business.
It will payoff when you use if for your online business.