When it comes to article marketing, it seems like many people just don't understand what it's really about. Just go to any of the article directories on the web and read some of the junk that's posted, masquerading as "articles." They are articles in name only, and more often than not completely uninspired and uninformative. This is article marketing run amok, where people who have very little interest in real writing figure they will just post a text string in the hope of getting Google's attention, a very cynical ploy. For such people, they have lost sight of the original purpose of the whole endeavor - or at least what should be its driving motivation, anyway - and substituted instead a mathematical monster of keywords and relevancy and text length and number of paragraphs.

No, gentle reader, article marketing is more than that. As with many things in our world it seems, let's go back to the good old-fashioned variety for insight. Let us revisit article marketing for our own edification, and in the process improve our methods and distinguish ourselves from the hacks, barely literate and certainly no intellectuals.

Let us swear instead to fight against internet pollution, where every result by Google seems to be just mathematically manipulated garbage bearing little information and even less interest. For article marketing was a successful promotional method way before its unfortunate incarnation on the web.

It was, originally, virtually indistinguishable from real news back in the days of the so-called old media, the days when news media meant newspapers and magazines, television and radio. At the time, it was all meant in earnesty, all intended to provide actual information that is of use. Along the way, a quick mention was made ever-so-casually that promoted some business, the business that had provided the helpful information.

For example, around tax season, the local accountant would pen an article or even narrate a radio spot (or be interviewed on television) on changes in the law that may affect refunds that year. Or for Thanksgiving, a local chef would, again, whether in print or another venue, provide tips on how to make the perfect holiday meal. And somewhere in it all would be a brief mention of the company or restaurant, as in, "Mr. So-and-so of Acme Tax Prep, Inc., says that...."

But most important of all for our discussion, what was actually said or written was helpful and almost always interesting. It was not only informative but well written or well done, with professional production values. Compare that to the articles floating about the web these days that say nothing in particular, whose only purpose is to create backlinks. Such an article would never have seen the light of day back when articles were meant to be read by people instead of being scanned by algorithms for keyword metrics!