If you need to find customers in a recession you will probably be looking for creative promotion methods, and I'm guessing it will be even better if there is a plan that's available to anyone with a rock bottom budget - or even for those in need of completely free advertising.

The best way I have discovered to get website traffic, without a doubt, is Article Marketing.

It's free, the customers are targeted and they are searching whatever solution you are offering, and what's even better, unlike an unaffordable month-long advert in the national press, new customers keep coming month on month. I have sites I haven't actively promoted for over 4 years - yet targeted visitors arrive over and over again.

You really don't need to be (or hire) a professional with website promotion tricks, although if you are able, that's even better. But you do need to use article marketing well. While you will get SOME traffic, with a haphazard approach, it won't be the best you can attain for the time spent.

Some business owners may be afraid to even think about article marketing because they worry they're not "literate" enough. This need NOT be an obstacle. Of course any article needs to be correctly punctuated and free from spelling mistakes, because that will reflect on you and your company as "sloppy". However a basic spell-checker, in Word or even the one in your browser, will highlight the corrections you need.

If you still feel unable to create content for your articles, you can commission authors to write them for you at a surprisingly low cost and, if you pick a good author you can end up with excellent work. Tip - give authors a small project to work on first, as some are better than others. Just one of my initial mistakes!

Another alternative is to buy low-cost PLR articles and rewrite them yourself. Please note that th rewriting stage is vital; it is what puts your own personality and stamp to articles that other people may already be using.

So having removed fears about being unable to devise good content, you're well on the way to starting to use article marketing to get free prospects. It really can be that easy.

My first attempts were successful even with a few "raw" articles I'd written myself without considering any of the finer points. But with just a little extra thought, using a few more tips and tricks, I could have done so much better.

A few of the article marketing tips that can help you boost your results are:

- How to decide what keywords to target?

- Are you trying to get customers to sites that already have too many competitors?

- Which article directories are the top ones to submit to?

- Should you submit your work to many sites or just a small number - is more always better?

- What is the best way to structure articles?

- How to select the best title for your article?

- How to beat writer's block?

- What about Google's duplicate content penalty?

Formatting your articles for the convenience of the people who will use them

The REAL benefit of Article Marketing, that most people have never guessed.

Go over some of these tricks and you'll be streets ahead of most article marketers who don't even know the questions to ask.

Article Publishing Is A Major Part Of Any Internet Marketing Blog
Many times when I am communicating with other marketers and I bring up the subject of article writing, I'll get a response like "I'd rather have a root canal, than write!" Article writing doesn't have to be this hard, follow these guidlines, and you'll write articles that get more readers!

There Are A Large Number Of Article Directories That You Could Submit Articles To
Online marketing has become very common in the recent past. This together with, the huge expansion of social network websites and increased participation in citizen journalism has lead to more and more articles being submitted to websites.

Article Distribution To Receive The Greatest Amount Of Traffic
Submitting articles to the article directories is a time honored strategy for generating traffic. It has been used since the early days of the Internet and is still an effective traffic generation strategy even in our Web 2.0 times.

The SEO Benefits Of Article Marketing
Why do article marketing? For many Internet marketers, the SEO benefits of article marketing are immense. For one, it is probably the most cost effective, yet more powerful form of Internet marketing. Why is this?

Article Writing & Article Marketing: 7 Ways To Boost Your Prospects, Advertising & Earnings
Writing articles and marketing with articles is one of the best and fastest ways to market your business. In fact, if you can write a seven item grocery list, you can also write an article that will help you increase your prospects, publicity and profits.

Influence Of Article Promotion On Website Visitors - A Short Interpretation
Article marketing is an ideal way to improve your website traffic without expending too much energy. All you need to do is to write a few decent articles, and your traffic will increase significantly.

Article Endorsing And Free Exposure For Your Website - A Wonderful Technique
An increasing number of website and business owners are turning toward a new approach to advertising and best of all; it is free. Article marketing, as it is technically known among webmasters, is achieved by translating expertise into a written article and effectively promoting it across the web.