Article marketing is one of the oldest yet most effective SEO (Search Engine Optimization) tactics in the affiliate marketing universe.

Article marketing’s worth to affiliate marketers has been proven again and again. But SEO isn’t the only advantage article marketing offers you as an affiliate marketer.

Your Author Name

Article marketing is also one of the best authority-building tools on the Internet. Writing articles on a topic which are picked up and published by others in ezines and on websites helps to establish you as an authority in your niche.

All articles that you submit to an article directory (Ezine Articles, AffSphere, etc.) are offered for reproduction at no cost to others. But there is one stipulation of reproduction of an article that ensures that the author of the article is given credit for writing the article: the resource box!

Your name is in the resource box. A link to your website or to an offer you are making is also in the resource box. Anyone who reads the article you wrote, knows that YOU wrote the article. And if your articles is well written and provides useful and timely information, the reader is apt to click on your link.

The idea is to establish YOU as a niche authority. You want people to associate your name with your niche. One author name is fine for one niche.

Different Author Names for Different Niches

Most affiliate marketers eventually work in more than one niche.
You probably started affiliate marketing in only one niche, most do. But you’ve very likely branched out and are working in two or three niches now.

If not, you soon will.

The best article directories (Ezine Articles, AffSphere and others) allow you to list up to three alternate author names in your account. You associate each variation of your name with a different niche.

Let’s say your name is John Quincy Doe.

Your author names related to your various niches could be:

• Johnny Doe – Wind surfing – resource link goes to your wind surfing site

• John Q. Doe – Social Gaming – resource link goes to your social gaming site

• J. Q. Doe – Body Building – resource link goes to your bodybuilding site

You’ll get all of the SEO benefits for each of your sites, AND you’ll be establishing yourself as an authority in three different niches.