With eight active websites, I keep pretty busy. But, no matter how busy I get, I allocate at least four hours of my time each day to promoting my sites.

I have, literally, tried almost every known website promotion technique. Article marketing is my favorite because it is by far the most effective. But, only if it is done properly.

If you pay attention to the following suggestions, you can expect to be successful.

1. Be sure you choose a good title for your article. Make it interesting and descriptive.

2. If your article is on a serious topic or if you wish to establish yourself as an authority, avoid slang.

3. Be concise. Avoid going off on tangents.

4. Concentrate on writing articles about, or related to, the subject(s) of your website. But, write on general interest topics as well so you can get your articles in as many article directory sites as possible and maximize the number of website owners who will use them on their sites.

5. Craft your author’s box copy carefully. Be certain that your website links are embedded in your best keywords. Most of my sites are on higher education, so my links are embedded in terms like “online degrees”, “online colleges”, “scholarships” and other terms for which I would like my sites to rank well.

6. Never submit a first draft. Do at least one second draft, even if you only find a few phrases you can improve. Then, proofread very carefully.

Nothing will compensate for good content. But, however good your content, aggressive promotion is required if you want people to visit your site. And, nothing works better than a well-conceived article marketing campaign.