Writing articles is an essential tool for promoting yourself as as writer online and offline. Whenever I hear writers complaining about “low pay for writers” I know that they haven’t bothered to market their writing skills with articles. Discover how article marketing can help you to make money.

Let’s start by getting a definition out of the way. What’s “article marketing”? Article marketing is marketing your writing services by writing articles – for your own Web site(s), and for others’ Web sites.

Here’s how article marketing can help you to make money.

1. Your articles promote your name so you can increase your fees

Anyone can call himself/ herself a writer online. Because content is a necessity for every Web site, anyone and everyone can be a writer. This means that the general quality of online content is low – and so is the money people are prepared to pay for content.

Here’s the secret of getting great rates for your writing online: build your name, so that people know you.

As your articles are disseminated online, people who want to hire you learn who you are. They’re already reading your writing, so every article is a sample of your skills. When they’re impressed with your writing skill, you can set your fees as high as you please.

Tip: The more articles you write, the more people learn your name – and the more people want to hire YOU, not a generic “writer.”

2. When you add articles to your Web site(s) you can make money from advertising

Every Web site is a publication. And like print publications, Web sites make money from advertising. The more pages a site has, and the more traffic, the more money it makes from advertising.

Writing articles for your own sites lets you make money from advertising dollars.

3. Make money as an affiliate by writing reviews of products

There are thousands of products online which pay money to affiliates. When you sign up as an affiliate for a product, you make money for each one of the products you sell. This means that when you write review-style articles about the products for which you’re an affiliate, you make money.

4. Create your own Web sites to make money

Finally, when you create your own Web sites, you can use article marketing, both to get traffic to the sites so you can sell advertising, and also by selling affiliate products on your sites.

If you’re stuck in the “low pay for writing” trap, article marketing frees you from the trap. Your words can make money for you online, so get started today.