Marketing your online business doesn’t have to cost you hundreds of dollars. Spending some money isn’t a bad thing, but there are also free methods available.

Paid methods often produce results faster, but not everyone has an advertising budget. Besides, a smart marketing strategy includes free and paid methods.

One of the best free options (and my favorite) is article marketing.

I don’t want you to think article marketing is the greatest marketing method in the world. It doesn’t work for everybody. And some people really hate it. However, you owe it to yourself to give it a try before deciding it’s not your cup of tea.

Here are some pros and cons associated with article marketing:

Pros

Article Marketing…

• …is free. It costs you nothing to write and submit your own articles.
• …allows you to test the popularity of a niche. Are you interested in selling a Blue Widget? Write a few articles and see how well they perform. If they get no attention at all, maybe the Blue Widget is a dud.
• …is quick. You can write (or hire someone to write) 5 or 10 short articles in one afternoon. The only time consuming part is submitting the articles to your chosen outlets.
• …is easily accessible. It’s an even playing field. If you can write and research an article, then you have just as much of a chance to succeed as anyone else.

Cons

Article Marketing…

• …has a bad reputation with some people because spammers use it often.
• …can take longer to show results than paid forms of advertising.
• …works best when you produce a steady flow of articles. Chances are you won’t see major results until you’ve written at least 10 articles using a specific keyword. (I got great results with one article, but my results weren’t typical).
• …can be time consuming if you don’t manage your time well. It’s easy to get wrapped up doing more research than necessary.

Can you think of any additional pros or cons? Don’t be shy. Share your opinions here.