It's all the rage. It's what everyone is talking about. It is unquestionably the most effective form of marketing available to home based business owners. It costs almost nothing, it takes about 30 minutes a week, and it makes your business stand out above the competition.

What is this thing that everyone is talking about? The buzz is about "article marketing" ? the practice of providing royalty free content to websites, e-zines and newsletters.

It works like this: You write a simple article that is interesting to a particular group of people. It doesn't have to be The Great American Novel, just about 500 words on the topic of your choice. Then you submit your article all over the web to ezine publishers, newsletter editors and content-laden websites.

When they publish your article (and they almost always do) your target market reads your words, sees you as an expert (after all, you're a published author!) and they click on a link to your website that you conveniently provided at the end of the article. Viola! Instant, qualified traffic.

And it's not fleeting traffic. Your article remains out there for people to find for weeks, months, even years. As new people happen across your article, they click the link and visit your site. You have a perpetual traffic machine, driving tons of pre-qualified, open-to-an-offer, interested traffic to your site. This is better than advertising, and far less expensive.

The problem is the effort of submitting your articles to enough sites that you really make a splash. Most authors will submit their articles to 20-30 places before getting totally burned out on the submission process. It's tedious, dull, drudge work.

There are three online services that automatically submit articles for authors. Each of these services explain the intrinsic value of publishing your articles, and of course they each describe their services as best-in-class. They range from single submissions to unlimited submissions and from completely free to $119.85. Check them out and draw your own conclusions.

- - - - - http://www.SubmitYourArticle.com - - - - -

Sends out articles in three categories: * Internet marketing/online business * Self-improvement/motivation * Health and fitness. (They promise "Business-General" and "Finance/Investment" categories soon.)

Submits articles to an undefined number of ezine publishers and 15 or more article announcement lists with over 10,000 subscribers.

Special Feature: Offers an article management suite to retrieve, edit, or resubmit your article.

Cost: * Bronze membership, $37.00/month, you may submit one (1) article per month * Silver membership, $57.00/month, you may submit two (2) articles per month * Gold membership, $75.00/month, you may submit three (3) articles per month * Platinum membership, $90.00/month, you may submit four (4) articles per month

- - - - - http://www.ThePhantomWriters.com - - - - -

Accepts articles in nine categories: * Business and Marketing * Coaching and Personal Development * Health * Internet * Money Saving Tips * Home and Family * Pets * Writing Related * Christian.

Submits articles to about 20,000 publishers and webmasters. Depending on how you categorize your article, it will be submitted to appropriate publishers.

Special Feature: No limit to the number of articles that can be submitted. (Is this really a "special feature"? They seem to think so. I guess it's better than SubmitYourArticle.com's one article/month limitation)

Cost: * One article: $49.95 * Three articles: $119.85 + $39.95 per article thereafter.

- - - - - http://www.ArticleMarketer.com - - - - -

Accepts articles in 27 categories, with tons of subcategories which (for the sake of space) I won't list here. These are the main categories: * Art * Books * Business (with 41 sub categories) * Consumer (6 sub categories) * Current Affairs * Education (1 sub category) * Entrepreneurship (19 sub categories) * Family (2 sub categories) * Finance/Accounting (12 sub categories) * Government * Health & Beauty (4 sub categories) * Hobbies (4 sub categories) * Home & Garden (2 sub categories) * Internet (22 sub topics) * Internet Marketing (9 sub categories) * Law & Legal (6 sub categories) * Politics * Psychology/Sociology * Recreation & Leisure (2 sub categories) * Religion (2 sub categories) * Self Improvement (3 sub categories) * Social Issues * Sports * Technology & Science (3 sub categories) * Travel & Tourism * Women's Issues * Writing & Speaking (6 sub categories)

Submits articles to over 50,000 people. Depending on how you categorize your article, it will be submitted to appropriate publishers.

Special Feature: An "auto pilot" feature where an author can submit several articles at once and have them distributed on to a custom defined schedule. (That's one of my favorite features. I just set it up for the month and don't have to think about it again. The articles are consistently distributed.)

Cost: * Free Article Distribution: goes to over 2,000 people * Best Exposure: goes out to over 50,000 people: $8.95 for one article * 3 months of Best Exposure: $39.95 for as many articles as you want to send out

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All three of these services seem to do a fine job submitting articles. They appear to have automated the process and articles are distributed within a few days of submission. Of course, each offers the disclaimer that your article will only get published if it's interesting.

Of the three, I prefer Article Marketer (for obvious reasons) and I have absolute proof that it works: you are currently reading this article.

Now that's what I call effective marketing!

Chris Ellington gives effective and easy to implement marketing strategies to small business owners and home business entrepreneurs. His Simplified Selling System has been a favorite of salespeople around the world. Get your free marketing strategies at http://www.simplifiedselling.com.