Is Article Marketing dead? No, absolutely not! I'm still writing articles and submitting articles, and I've recently started an article writing service right here in WA, and I can assure you that Article Marketing is alive and well.

Articles are still a great way to draw traffic to your site, simply because that's what article directories are designed to do. What I've learned writing articles all these years is that big article directories like EzineArticles, Squidoo, Hubpages etc. have their own loyal following, and so by writing for them you'll be able to tap into an audience that you otherwise wouldn't by relying on organic traffic alone. The people that come to your site from these article directories are typically highly qualified, and much closer to making a buying decision than organic search traffic.

The problem is, places like Squidoo and Hubpages don't allow affiliate links anymore, and you could be unpublished/locked simply because you fall foul of their "overpromotional" rule. Simply put, if you don't have a solid website moving forward from 2011 and beyond, you are not going to have a very secure business model. Period.

So what's my Article Marketing strategy going forward? I only exclusively use EZA at this point, for two reasons: targeted, qualified traffic and keyword specific anchor text backlinks to my landing pages. Landing pages that are on my website.

Are you starting to see why having a website is getting so much more important? Wait, there's more...