Article marketing is a great way to improve your credibility and boost your website traffic. But you can’t just submit any old rubbish to the directories. Here are the seven pillars you should consider every time you want to write an article.

1. Prepare
A good article requires good research. This requires visiting websites, reading the news, spending some time surfing forums in your niche, reading blog posts and comments, and reviewing sites like Yahoo Answers. Find problems that people have that you can provide a solution to.

2. Produce
When you have your article idea you are ready to start writing. Your article needs to be well structured. In the introduction to the article you need to outline the problem for the reader. Then break the solution down into a series of short paragraphs; walk them through it step-by-step. Finally you need to summarize the solution. The first two steps in this process are often the hardest for business owners and others with limited time and resources, which is where companies similar to Hat Trick Associates and other freelancers come into play.

3. Polish
When you’re finished re-read your article. Does your article provide the reader with enough useful information to make them want to take action, but lacks the final piece of the puzzle (that you can gladly provide once they contact you, btw). You need to spend time polishing your article. Make it shine. It has a specific purpose, so make sure it achieves this!

4. Promote
Hopefully by this point your reader will be chomping at the bit to take action so now is the time to use your resource box to promote your offer. Give the reader what they want; a way to maximize the information you just gave them in the article.

5. Proof
If you want to encourage your reader to trust you enough to take you up on your offer then you need to present high quality information to them. That means that spelling mistakes and grammatical errors are a no-no. If you write the article yourself, ask someone else to check it over for you; a second pair of eyes is sometimes required to spot mistakes.

6. Publish
Now it’s time to publish that article. Send it out to your favorite publishers. Submit it to the top article directories. Don’t forget to send it to your prospect list too! There is no point spending time and effort writing a compelling article if you don’t put it in front of many readers.

7. Profit
If you’ve covered all the bases that I’ve mentioned then you should start to profit when your article is published, and business comes directly to you – and the backlinks the article creates enhances your SEO score so that future consumers or clients can find you. Now you can just take time to be proud of your accomplishments, before you write another article!