Article marketing is proven to be a steady lead source if done correctly. You can target keywords, write great content, publish them on high quality directories, and then it gets really interesting. It is not enough to just write and publish anymore. Sure, that works, but to really make it effective you want your articles picked up by other people and publishing them for you on high traffic sites. Social bookmarking is becoming extremely important, even more interesting is to leverage other people's websites that publish your content. You can set up google alerts with your title or snipet of your article and get notices on when anyone publishes your work. Then if you find out they are a site you are interested in being noticed on. Set up an agreement for exclusive publishing rights for unique content. This will allow you to do quality back links related to keywords that will help with your SEO efforts. (this is just a glimpse on the topic). I will expand into an article.