As I mentioned in a previous post, article marketing is NOT writing an effortless article (or buying one), submitting it to thousands of article directories and driving traffic to a generic page infested with Google Ad Sense.  When creating an article marketing strategy, time should be spent writing an article that has value and/or satisfies a particular need. The title, probably the most important aspect of the article itself, should be written as bait to draw the attention of potential readers.

The biggest no-no in executing an article marketing strategy is to post the same article on your blog that you do in a directory.  Not only is this considered duplicate content but its proven to be a horrible customer experience. As a user, the last thing I want to do after reading an article somewhere is click through to the blog and see the same exact article.

What I normally do when I write an article is submit it only to a few select directories like (Associated Content, Buzzle, Ezine Articles, Go Articles, Web Pro News, Site Pro News, etc.). Then, I will write a paragraph or two about the article in my blog (perhaps why I wrote it) and then link to it on Associated Content (AC). The reason I choose AC is that they allow readers on their site to easily add content (articles) to social bookmarking sites like Digg, Newsvine, Netscape, De.licio.us, etc.

Lastly, and keeping in mind Social Media Optimization, I would also add the ability for the readers of your blog to easily link to it, subscribe to it, tag it, post a comment; and then add it their favorite social bookmarking site(s).

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