Article marketing has become a very popular tactic of website owners. It’s no wonder why.

Online businesses require just two things to ensure success. The first is content…good content. An adequate number of website visitors is the second…and the more the better. There are any number of ways to advertise and promote a website, including “plugging” it on social media sites. But, all traffic is not equal, and organic search traffic is the best of all.

To begin with, although it takes time and energy to build and optimize a site which ranks well in the search engines, the traffic your site receives from the search engines is free. If you advertise, it may cost you $5 or more to generate a visitor to your site. And, research has clearly revealed that visitors who reach you because they found your site in a Google or Yahoo search are far more likely to be buyers than those who come to you as a result of advertising. Four times as likely, in some studies.

Because people who come to you after a search were looking for what your site offers, they are your best visitors. They’re the ones who will request more information, sign up for your newsletter, or buy your product or service on the spot.

That’s why successful site owners do their best to maximize their search engine rankings, a process that should always include link building. And, article marketing is among the quickest, most effective ways to obtain links. It is not unusual to earn hundreds and even thousands of links by writing just one article.

For the most part, website owners write about topics closely related to their websites. And, for many reasons, that’s a good idea.

The mistake they make all too often is that they do not write about anything else.

By writing on one topic or a very narrow range of topics, website owners limit their audience and the number of links their articles may produce. I write most often about education, the theme of my websites, so many education-related websites have published dozens of my articles, and I’ve reached their readers dozens of times. And, I’ve gotten thousands of links from my education articles, but not everybody is interested in articles about education. So, I write articles like this one on other topics to reach new audiences and earn links on additional websites.

In fact, articles I have written on affiliate marketing, wagering, and great hamburger recipes have produced far more links than some of my education articles. The lesson? Don’t limit yourself to a narrow range of articles. Instead, write at least 2-3 articles a month on mass appeal subjects…the extra exposure and extra links you’ll get are well worth the effort.