Internet marketers at the top of the Internet success ladder understand that articles are a marketing tool. They write articles constantly and strive to post two articles per day to the Internet. Why? Do these Internet marketers just love to write articles? Perhaps they do, but there is more to it. These Internet marketers understand the power of viral marketing. Viral marketing is an efficient way to advertise your Internet business on the Internet without any extra effort on your part.

Read on to find out the secrets of creating effective articles to promote your Internet business.

1) What is viral marketing and how does it apply to articles?
Viral marketing with articles is a process in which you post your article to specific number of article directories. These websites allow anyone to copy and paste your article, including your bio information, onto their own website for free. Sometimes they put articles into their ezines and newsletters. These websites love obtaining free content. They can do this as long as they give you credit. Therefore, your articles spread to websites all over the Internet.

An example of viral marketing is the case of an Internet marketer that posted articles to 10 locations to begin with. The number of locations quickly blossomed into 30,000 locations on the Internet with no extra work on his part.

2) What is the proper format for articles?
Your articles should contain the following five elements: Title, content, summary, keyword list, and bio.

Title: Write an engaging title that contains a keyword.

Content: 300-700 words. The content should be informative to the reader and not a sales pitch. If you have sales copy in your article then it will most likely be rejected by the various article directories. Technically, 70% of the article should be informative content while the remaining 30% can be sales copy. However, strive to provide 100% content. This will please readers who will be more apt to click on the link to your squeeze page.

Summary: 125 words or fewer. The summary tells the reader what the article is about.

Keyword list: The keyword list should contain keywords from your article to be used in searches by the reader and search engines.

Bio: Your bio is the most important part of your article because it contains a clickable link to your squeeze page. This is the place to have your sales pitch. Ham it up!

3) Where should I submit articles?
You can use a program such as Article Announcer to submit articles. Recommended free article submission directories include http://www.ezinearticles.com and http://www.searchwarp.com. A great paid article submission directory is http://www.submityourarticles.com.

You can also find potential article submission locations by searching for your keyword in Google. Look at the first few links that come up on Google. These locations have a high page rank which is what you want. Some of them may be article submission directories.