Here’s proof that this whole internet marketing thing works, and can work with practically no effort. This is also proof that article marketing works, and it is probably an example of how NOT to do it.

A while back, I was doing some keyword research and found a niche that I knew something about. I say keyword research loosely, because in all reality, I wasn’t doing research. I was playing with SEOBook’s Keyword Research tools to see what it could do. I found a keyword set that had some pretty good results in a niche that I know something about (bad credit auto loans and “buy here pay here” lots, if you must know), and figured I’d write a short article on it.

I had been invited to join the affiliate program of a bad credit lender on Commission Junction (which is really what sparked this whole thing). This particular program pays 10 bucks a lead. Not too bad.

I was able to register a dot com name with the keywords in it. I grabbed a free web template and put my article in it along with the affiliate link in several strategic places throughout the article.

I then forgot about it. Did nothing with it – no promotion at all.

6 months later, I’ve made 50 bucks off of the site.Sure, 5 leads in the time the site has been up is not a lot. But you know what? It’s 50 bucks I didn’t have before.

Proof to me that organic search works, and that you CAN make something from article marketing if you even take just a little action.