There really isn't a simpler way to get traffic to your website than article marketing.

The reason article marketing works so well is because it's so simple. Unlike the articles you see in newspapers and in magazines, the articles you write do not need to be long and complicated to get you traffic.

Actually, the opposite is true. Simpler and shorter articles are more likely to get you traffic and sell more of your products.

You don't need to write a detailed essay about your topic. Rather make your articles a simple extension of your thoughts. This way you can grab your readers' attention and get them to click on your hyperlink, and make sure they don't get bored.

Web surfers are generally not interested in reading a lengthy article about whatever it is you're selling. The people who are likely to buy probably don't need much persuasion.

So it's important that you keep it short, which of course makes it much easier for you to write an article without spending hours doing research.

The other great thing about marketing with articles is that these days it's so simple to get your work published on the Internet. All you need is a blog. There's no longer any need to buy confusing, pricy web design software and spend hours learning how to use it. You're just dealing with typed words, not any of the technical stuff. Go to LiveJournal.com, Blogger.com, MSN or Yahoo and you can create a blog and publish your articles in a few minutes - although the best way is to get your own webhosting and domain name and install WordPress (or have it done for you). If you choose a web host with Fantastico, you can install WordPress in seconds.

If you just type "free blog" on Google you'll find dozens of places which will host your blog.

There are also hundreds of websites which will publish your articles on the Internet. Sites which publish articles are spidered regularly by the search engines. The more unique content these sites publish, the higher their ranking in the search engine results - which increases their revenue. That makes them only too happy to publish your articles, which will be read by their readers and indexed on their site. Your articles are then quickly spidered, which makes them appear in the search engine results, along with a link back to your site so that web surfers from all around the world can find and buy your product.

What I'm talking about here involves writing good-quality articles, not grade-school level rubbish like most PLR articles. If you want to see what well-written articles look like, read a popular magazine. The standard is streets ahead of any of the spammy junk you'll find in most PLR articles. Remember that most content sites will review your submissions, and will quickly discard articles which are not original, or which are not at least reasonably well-written.