Articles and e-zines are two great Internet marketing tools to complement your online advertising efforts. If you sell the kind of technical product that needs to be explained at length, using articles and e-zines may be more effective vehicles than advertising in promoting your product. Articles and e-zines give you the freedom to go into great detail about your product or service. They are excellent selling tools.

In article marketing, the Web site owner prepares short articles about his product or business. He then makes these available for free on the Internet or distributes them to the many article sites online. As the Web site owner, your goal is to write articles that have real value. You should ask yourself, 'Are these the kinds of articles that Web users will want to search for and read?'

Like you, Web site owners are always looking for content, especially the kind of content that their users will find valuable. If the content is free, that makes them all the more valuable. And that's why you have a good chance of getting Web sites to publish your articles -- as long as you give them real value. And as an unspoken rule, the Web site has to publish your business information, usually with a link to your Web site. That's free advertising for you, too.

For Internet marketing of this nature, you should write an article or e-zine about what you know. Not only will this establish you as an expert, it will also help drive traffic to your site and increase your visibility. For example, if you're a Web site designer, you could write something like, 'How to Use Design to Make Your Site Stand Out.' A producer of sun tan lotion could write something like '10 Ways to Avoid Sun Burn at the Beach' and distribute the article or e-zine series during summer.

Remember that you want to establish credibility, so make your articles as factual and well written as possible. As an added bonus, your articles may even get new clients for you. Truly compelling articles can make your prospects visit your store or write you an e-mail.

This type of Internet marketing is a big advantage for for another reason: articles can help your search engine optimization. If your articles have strategically placed keywords and phrases, they can boost your ranking on search engines. Obviously, if your Web site is prominent on search engines, this will bring more visitors to your site.

If you have the type of site that lends itself to a host of Internet marketing articles, e-zine may be more effective for you than articles. In Internet marketing, an e-zine or electronic magazine is distributed regularly to subscribers via e-mail. Aside from promoting your site and products, the e-zine can even be an income-generating Internet marketing tool of its own if you can attract paid subscribers. You can also use e-zines as 'teasers' for your site by offering just enough information to entice them to visit your site.

As Internet marketing tools, articles and e-zines can be applied to virtually any product or service. You will be surprised at how effective they can work for you.