If you want to find customers in a recession you will probably be looking for creative promotion methods, and I'm guessing it will be even better if there is a plan that's available to anyone with a rock bottom budget - or even for those in need of completely free advertising.

The best way I have found to get website traffic, without a doubt, is Article Marketing.

It's free, the leads are targeted and they are searching whatever product or services you are promoting, and what's even better, unlike an unaffordable month-long advert in the national press, new customers keep coming month on month. I have sites I haven't actively advertised for over 4 years - yet targeted visitors arrive over and over again.

You really don't need to be (or hire) a professional with website promotion tricks, although if you are able, that's great. But you do need to use article marketing well. Even though you will get SOME traffic, with a hit or miss approach, it won't be the best you can attain for the time spent.

Some business owners may be afraid to even think about article marketing because they think they're not "literate" enough. This need NOT be an obstacle. Obviously any submission needs to be properly punctuated and free from spelling mistakes, because that will reflect on you and your company as "sloppy". However a decent spell-checker, in Word or even the one in your browser, will highlight the changes you need.

If you still feel unable to construct content for your articles, you can find authors to write them for you at a surprisingly low cost and, if you pick a good author you can end up with excellent work. Tip - give authors a small project to work on first, as some are better than others. Just one of my initial mistakes!

Another alternative is to get hold of low-cost PLR articles and rewrite them yourself. Please note that th rewriting stage is vital; it is what puts your own personality and stamp to articles that other people may already be using.

So having dismissed fears about being unable to devise good articles, you're well on the way to starting to use article marketing to get free prospects. It really can be that easy.

My original attempts were effective even with a few "raw" articles I'd written myself without considering any of the finer points. But with just a little extra thought, considering a few more tips and tricks, I could have done so much better.

A few of the article marketing concepts that can help you boost your results are:

- How to settle on what keywords to choose?

- Are you trying to get customers to sites that already have too many competitors?

- Which article directories are the best ones to submit to?

- Should you submit your work to many sites or just a small number - is more always better?

- What is the best way to compose articles?

- How to select the best title for your article?

- How to defeat writer's block?

- What about Google's duplicate content penalty?

Formatting your articles for the ease of the people who will use them

The REAL benefit of Article Marketing, that most people have never guessed.

Go over some of these finer points and you'll be streets ahead of most article marketers who don't even know the questions to ask.

Article Publishing Is A Major Piece Of Any Internet Marketing Blog
Many times when I am communicating with other marketers and I bring up the subject of article writing, I'll get a response like "I'd rather have a root canal, than write!" Article writing doesn't have to be this hard, follow these guidlines, and you'll write articles that get more readers!

Article Distribution To Achieve The Highest Possible Amount Of Traffic
Submitting articles to the article directories is a time honored strategy for generating traffic. It has been used since the early days of the Internet and is still an effective traffic generation strategy even in our Web 2.0 times.

How To Earn More By Using Content - Article Directory Is One Pretty Effective Way
Article directories are a great place to put your articles so that they will make you money. By using this method, people who are interested in your product or service will see your article, view you as an expert in the subject, and will visit your website.

Article Marketing As A Fantastic, Affordable Way Of Internet Marketing For Your Home Based Business
A home based business can be a challenge but making use of article marketing as a form of internet marketing can make your job a whole lot easier. If you have a website and want to bring more traffic to your site then submit these articles to article directories over the web that are free

A Few Basic Tips For Bad Writers To Improve Article Quality
Many bad writers feel that it is not worth the effort to write articles that nobody will read. There are solutions to this problem and improvements can be made easily by following a few suggestions.

Is Article Marketing Work An Alternative Way For Internet Marketing? A Clarification
People often ask if article marketing is a new way to do internet marketing, but that is not exactly how things work. Article marketing is only one facet of internet marketing, and is not meant for complete replacement.

How You Can Get Wealthy Composing Articles On The Web? The Excellent Strategy
Did you know that most authors who write articles online never have their work recognized and are never rewarded for the high quality work they produce?