In previous posts and in the first episode of my podcast (Search Engine Strategies: Getting Incoming Links) I’ve talked about Article Marketing. I’ve talked, but until recently it was only talk.

Article marketing, for those of you that don’t know, is the art of getting incoming links by publishing articles on other Web sites and eZines. The articles include brief bios of the author that link back to the author’s Web site or blog. This increases the perceived importance of the Web site or blog in the search engine’s eyes and can help raise the rank of the site.

In addition, the author now is able to reach hundreds, thousands, or billions of new people who are interested in Web marketing, cheap satellite TV, or how to make a living with an embroidery machine (to choose a few recent topics available at iSnare.)

A month or so ago I tried submitting an article to both iSnare and Phantom Writers. It was What is Podcasting and How Can it Help Your Business? It was accepted at both places, but that’s as far as I got.

Last week I submitted a tweaked version of my recent flyte log article, Your 2006 Web Marketing Plan to iSnare. This time I ponied up $10 for 5 distribution points (each article costs you one distribution point) which is the minimum. Distributed articles go out to 150+ article announcement and distribution lists, which can then send your article out further. (Or is it farther?)

A few days later my article was approved and I started receiving some emails from Web sites I had never heard of that my article was live. Now, looking at these sites I’m not sure how many of them will end up increasing my PageRank or drive more traffic to my site, but I will be monitoring them and updating this post as necessary, and as I remember…                                                               

BTW, feel free to visit these articles and rank them!

Rich Brooks
Web Marketing from Maine