We are big on article marketing as a way to drive traffic and improve our search engine rankings as well.

When you combine article marketing and affiliate marketing it is the great way to start your own affiliate marketing home business and make money online. All it cost you is your time.

This is all you will need:

- A free text editor
- A free keyword research tool
- A free Blogger account
- A free Clickbank account

Do a quick search on your favorite search engine and you will find these free tools very easily.

Quick cash blue print:

1 - Keyword research:

Using your keyword research tool, search for low competition keywords. Those are keywords that have at least 300 searches a month and that have less than 5000 competing pages in Google (when entered between quotation marks like this “keyword”). Try to find 5 to 10 good keywords related to the same topic.

The idea is to focus on keywords for which you can get a first page ranking in Google, Msn and Yahoo.

Hint: If you have no idea of which market to target, start by checking popular phrases like: how to, purchase, get rid of, help, cure, tips, etc.

2 - Find a digital product to promote

Go to Clickbank.com and find a product related to your topic. Choose one that pays at least $15 to $20. Generate your affiliate link and write it down or save it in a text file on your computer.

3 - Article writing:

Write an informative article (approximately 400 words) focused on each of your keywords. Put your keyword in the title and in the first and last paragraph of your article. Also sprinkle it throughout your copy. You can also throw in a few other keywords related to your topic. This will help you rank well.

Most important, write a great bio box that will make people want to learn more and click on the link to your blog. Put your keyword in your bio box as an anchor text link to your blog.

4 – Set up your blog.

More and more article directories will not let you put your affiliate link in your bio box. So your blog is going to be your landing page. The idea here is to put up a simple blog that will presell (not sell) your product and make people click on your Clickbank affiliate link to go to the sales page.

Hint: set up a blog for every product you promote and give it a keyword-focused name.

5 – Submit your articles to article directories.

You will need to find article directories with a PR of 5 or more. These are the ones Google likes and it will help you get a first page ranking in the search engines and drive tons of free traffic to your blog.

Post one article a day on each article directory and do not post the exact same article to more than one directory.

Hint: Your best choice is Ezinearticles.com. You will need good quality articles, but it is the most powerful directory online. Alternatively you can use Goarticles.com.

6 – Rinse and repeat!

Article marketing is a game of numbers. The more articles your submit, the more money you will earn. But every product is not going to be a winner. Some will do well, some will not. So test a new product every week putting up 5 to 10 focused articles each time.

If you are willing to stick to this it will work. You have to write and write and write and on and on.