If you are new to article marketing you may have the misconception that all you need do is write an article, have it published, then sit back and wait for the money to come in.
You then patiently wait for the article to be singled out by one of the many publishers to which your article directory has access.
Not so.
Find out how to take an active role in your article's distribution.
Read on.
If you are serious about Internet marketing and article writing, you won't sit back and relax.
Getting your article approved by an article directory is a passive method of promoting your article.
It will be exposed to the public, but you don't always know where it has been published.
You do not control where it might end up.
You can discover where your article has been published by searching for your article using Google and searching for your title in quotes.
Publication by a directory is only part of the effort needed to expose your article.
You can take an active role in promoting your article.
You can extend your article's distribution to even more potential customers.
After all, getting your article read by as many potential customers as possible is the goal of a good article.
Without traffic there are no clicks on your affiliate links.
No clicks.
No money.
This may sound self evident.
It is.
Here are three things that will help get your article before the public eye; help you to get it more traffic.

• Social Marketing-

The minute your article is approved, bookmark it.
How? That depends on where you will bookmark it.
Four of the more popular sites are Twitter, Facebook, Stumble Upon, and Digg.
There are many others.
Use Google, search for 'social sites' (without the quotes) and you will find them.
Simply register with the sites of your choice and refer to your article at each of the sites.
Each site has its own method of posting or referring to an article, but the principle is the same.
You can easily follow their directions for posting your article.

• Niche Ezines-

Once your article is finished, you can submit it to ezines that target your niche.
Finding niche ezines is easy.
You can Google your niche topic and you'll find them.
Determining ezine submission and acceptance guidelines is very time consuming.
It is best to search for Ezine directories that will help sort out that information.
You can use your favorite search engine and search for ezine directories.
The Directory of Ezines is one of the better ones, if not the best.

• Blogs-

Register with blog directories and post or link your own blog to them.
Again you can use your search engine of choice to search for blog directories.
Be cautioned, many blog directories are very stringent about the content of your blog and may not agree to link to your blog.
Just move on to the next one.
Post your article to your blog or website.
If you don't have one, WordPress.
org, WordPress.
com, Blogger.
com offer free blogs that are amazingly simple to create.
You will have to purchase a domain name for your blog or website.
You can purchase a domain for $10 or less.
There are other sites that offer free website creation.
With Blogger.
com and WordPress.
com you don't need a host for your domain name.
They host it for you.
Create social bookmark tags on your blog or website so that visitors can easily bookmark your post to their favorite Social Site.
Posting your article in Social sites and posting on your own blog or website are the easiest and least time consuming of the three methods.
Submitting to an Ezine is profitable because you are targeting your audience and are more likely to interest them with your article topic and finding a good Ezine directory is critical.