Want to know how to increase publicity for your website, in a sure and steady way? You may not realize it but many website operators use the same trick to generate traffic for virtually nothing.

Which is? Write content-rich and focused articles and submit to directory sites, other people’s sites and ezines. This process is called article writing and article marketing.

Now, why would an ezine publisher or website owner want to post your targeted articles on their websites or use your articles for their mailing lists? The answer is that not many can produce tons of content that is specific and focused. And tons of high quality content helps to build traffic to their sites and loyal subscribers to their mailing lists.

Here is where your article comes in. In exchange for a byline and a link to your site (called a “resource box”), you allow website owners to use your content as it is. No one is allowed to make any changes to your article without your permission.

Here are some other advantages for article writing and article marketing:

* Gain “Expert” Status when you share your knowledge and expertise. Just look at the people who write newspaper columns. You get to appear like an expert when your articles are posted in a couple of article directory websites and when you write on a variety of topics pertaining to the same niche area.

* You can do some nifty preselling. This is especially if your article appeals to a niche audience hungry for some specific information. That way, you’ve already presold yourself, when they click over to your site.

* You get more links to your site. Then, you’d be able to enhance your search engine positioning just by your “link popularity”. Once your article is posted on another person’s website or an article directory, it is likely that it will stay there for a long time.

* You are providing an excellent tool to help your affiliates. Your affiliates are likely to promote you more often and more effectively compared to those who don’t provide such help.

* It is also excellent for building an opt-in email list. Statistics show that on average, a prospect visits your website seven times before clicking a buy order. A constant stream of emails (with his/her permission) at regular intervals can help break down “defences” and build relationships. In addition, once the relationship is build, back end sales or sales of other products and services become easier.

So, do you need to have a flair for writing in order for you to write? Absolutely not. You just need to remember just two simple rules:

* Put down your thoughts naturally. Just like how you would explain to a friend about this subject over a cup of tea.

* Write simply. Bad grammer does not help. Complicated sentences and sentences that go on and on forever may not help you get your message across. So make your article an easy read.

Now, what is an easy way to get started on writing? Think of key problems that your audience is likely to have and then write an article that provides the solution. A few key examples here should help kick-start your writing:

10 ways to help you…..
5 extremely useful resource tips that you should know about….
7 time saving tips to….
1 breakthrough tip that…..

You can organize your article in this manner: an introduction (you can identify the problems that your readers are facing and your own short story or experiences), the list of points (the “solution”) and a concluding paragraph (asking your readers to take some action).

After you finished writing, get someone to vet through your article. Alternatively, you can wait some time later and take a look at your article again. Improve it and check for grammer and spelling.

Then, it’s time for article marketing. Submit your article to article announcement lists and article directories like http://www.ArticleMap.com. In your submission, make sure your articles comply with specific guidelines required by the publisher.

Article marketing can generate visitor traffic to your website as your articles get published and syndicated across the world. As you write and submit more articles, traffic to your site will definitely pick up speed!

I don’t claim to be an article marketing expert, but I do both. I run about 10 article sites and I submit articles using an auto submitter. I feel that you can make money both ways.

I submit anywhere from 5 to 25 articles per weeks using a free, online article submitter to post my articles to hundreds or thousands or sites. The articles run from 500 to 1,000 words and are related to whatever it is that I am selling.

For example, I write articles about Thailand while promoting my affiliate hotel sites geared specifically to Thailand. I also write marketing articles and point them to a variety of sites that I run.

Using the auto submitter, I can get my articles and more importantly, links to my sites, all over the Internet. The more links that point back to my sites, the better the search engines like me.

I have about 10 different article sites and a few blogs that accept articles automatically. I manually approve each and every article. I like to check to make sure that the articles are following my submission guidelines. The biggest violators put links in the text and more than 2 links in the resource box. I try to contact them to advise them of the rules and if they continue, I disable their accounts.

So, which is better? I would have to say that submitting the articles is the more beneficial as it gets my links in hundreds or even thousands of web sites. Back links are looked upon very favorably by the search engines and I love to have my links everywhere and for a long time. And, if I am lucky, some marketer or eZine will send out my article to their mail list getting me more exposure.

Running the article sites is a bit time consuming since I have to check the articles 2 or 3 times per day or I get inundated. Manual approval is a must for me since I want to check and make sure the articles are quality. And with the auto submitters, not many actual people visit the site, just the auto bots. But I still think there is value since my own articles get posted to my article sites, I can easily advertise, and they are ranked high in Google and Alexa.

So, I would try to do both but would put the emphasis on getting my articles out to the world with links back to my sites. This will get more traffic and hopefully more sales.

Several years ago I began an online business.

At the time, the field I was entering was not all that crowded, search engine algorithms were much easier to manipulate, and links from relevent sites were not too tough to come by.

In short – if you wanted traffic, and were willing to do a little footwork, you could get it.

Over the past few years, things have changed.

Almost by accident, I stumbled upon a method for increasing, quite dramatically, the number of visitors to my website.

It turns out that almost everybody can design a really cool website…but very few people can write an interesting article. Writing is not a skill which is crucial in todays world, and very few can do it well.

(I, on the other hand, have the opposite problem…it’s one of the few thing I can do well)

So, what is a webmaster to do if he wants to provide well written content to his visitors? Obviously, he needs to get somebody else to write it for him.

That leaves two options:

1. Pay cold hard cash to a professional writer.

2. Find a way to entice good writers to write good content for free.

3. Trade something of value for well written content.

My father once told me that there’s no such thing as a free lunch. I believe he was correct, so option 2 is out.

That leaves paying or trading as the only viable options.

Most webmasters have opted for trading.

But what, you may ask, do they have to trade?

The trading arrangement which has evolved is one of wriiten content in exchange for a hyperlink.

Hyperlinks are gold in today’s Internet economy. The more links a website has back to it, the higher it will rank in the search engines.

Therefore, if I, as a webmaster, can obtain several hundred relevent links to my website, my search engine rank goes way up, and I end up with a ton of visitors.

Do you see the possibilites? If you’re a decent writer, you can end up having your articles published all over the Internet, with hyperlinks galore pointing back to your website.

“But how” you ask, “do I hook up with website owners who will publish my articles?”.

Basically, there are several large article repositories online which will allow you to post your articles. Some of these are:

Go Articles
Article Beam
iSnare
Article Factory
Ezine Articles

There are actually quite a few more, if you do a search in Google.

Write a few articles, post them, and see what happens!

There are many people who dread having to write papers or articles. Many just feel like it seems to be too much work and it all just goes to waste when no one reads the. To some people, reading articles seems like work to, especially if the article is boring and very bland. Well, articles are supposed to be read, that’s their purpose to impart your message and information. If it is not read then it is a waste of time and effort.

But all the same, articles have to be written to be read. It’s just a matter of making them good. Making a good article doesn’t have to be strenuous and straining. There are just some points needed to be reminded of, and some guides to follow. Once you get the hang of it, writing articles could be fun, as well as profitable for you and your site.

Of course, writing articles must be about something you know about, that’s why if you own a site, you probably is knowledgeable about that certain topic and theme. When you write about it, you won’t have a hard time because you already know what it is and what it’s about. It’s just a matter of making your articles creative and interesting.

To make sure that your articles get read and enjoyed, here are six red hot tips to get your articles read. These tips will make your articles readable and interesting.

1) Use short paragraphs. When the paragraph are very long, the words get jumbled in the mind of the reader just looking at it It can get quite confusing and too much of a hard work to read. The reader will just quickly disregard the paragraph and move on to much easier reading articles that are good to look at as well as read. Paragraphs can be a single sentence, sometimes even a single word!

2) Make use of numbers or bullets. As each point is stressed out, numbers and bullets can quickly make the point easy to remember and digest. As each point, tip, guide or method is started with a bullet or point, readers will know that this is where the tips start and getting stressed. Format you bullets and numbers with indentations so that your4 article won’t look like a single block of square paragraphs. Add a little bit of flair and pizzazz to your articles shape.

3) Use Sub-headings to sub-divide your paragraphs in the page. Doing this will break each point into sections but still would be incorporated into one whole article. It would also be easy for the reader to move on from one point to another; the transition would be smooth and easy. You will never lose your readers attention as well as the point and direction to where the article is pointing.

4) Provide a good attention-grabbing title or header. If your title can entice a person’s curiosity you’re already halfway in getting a person to read your article. Use statements and questions that utilize keywords that people are looking for. Provide titles or headers that describe your articles content but should also be short and concise.

Use titles like, “Tips on making her want you more”, or “How to make her swoon and blush” .You could also use titles that can command people, for example, “Make her yours in six easy Ways”. These types of titles reach out to a persons’ emotions and makes them interested.

5) Keep them interested from the start to the finish. From your opening paragraph, use real life situations that can be adopted by the reader. Use good descriptions and metaphors to drive in your point, just don’t over do it. Driving your examples with graphic metaphors and similes would make it easy for them to imagine what you are talking about. Making the experience pleasurable and enjoyable for them.

6) Utilize figures when necessary and not just ordinary and insipid statements. Using specific facts and figures can heighten your article because it makes it authoritative. But do not make it too formal, it should be light and easy in them and flow. Like a friendly teac her having a little chat with an eager student.

Marketing with articles can take a lot of time, time not everyone has to spare. It can used successfully for most businesses, but if you don’t have a lot of time to spare, this may not be the method you choose.

It only takes a few minutes to write an article of 300 to 500 words. It becomes a problem if you can’t write. If thios is the case with you, it is better not to use articles to market.

Hiring someone to write articles for you isn’t always an option. You must first find an author you can work with then find the money to pay them. Most will seek immediate payment. This may not be something you are prepared to provide.

If you are looking for ways to promote that cost little or nothing, you may try article marketing. It has consistently proven itself as a very effective marketing strategy and shows no signs of that staus disappearing.

You can hire someone to write your articles and hire others to submit them for you. If you have the money to do this, and it can be very affordable, then article marketing may be a good choice for you.

You won’t know how successful you can be with submitting articles unless you at least try it. Write an article. The first ones always take more time but that changes with experience. If the article is good you are on your way.

Now comes the submitting. Try doing this yourself and see how it works. Do you have the time it will take? Are you willing to put in that much time? If the answers are no, are you willing to pay a submission service to do this part for you? The answers to this will help you decide if this method is for you.

Give article marketing a month trial. Write and submit a weekly article during that time and see what happens. By the time the month ends, you will have a good idea whether or not you want to continue with this endeavor.

Writing and marketing articles online is probably the most effective, most cost-effective way to publicize your website, and promote your products and services online. The Web is a printing press with an insatiable appetite for articles written by experts. There are literally millions of websites and ezines that are begging for good articles. They want people to submit good articles to them. They even search sites on the web for permission to use articles.

So, how do you know which sites to select?

Through my years of experience, and many conversations with the top Internet Marketers, in order to have the greatest impact, you need to use a 3-tiered article marketing approach targeting:

1. The major article directories like Ezinearticles.com, Goarticles.com, Ideamarketers.com and ZapContent.com
2. Smaller niche directory sites that are related to your content
3. Niche ezine and website publishers who need and want quality related content that will add value to their website or email newsletter audience

My consulting clients ask me many times, “ What is the best way to find ezines and websites that are the most read so my article gets the most exposure?” That should not be the first question you ask yourself. Yes, you do want to find websites that are highly visited and ezines that are the most read – but more importantly, you want to focus on finding websites and ezine publishers within your specific niche that have strong emotional connections to their audience.

Most likely, you are already visiting their websites or subscribing to their ezines. If you don’t know who has a great ezine related to your industry niche, there are plenty of ezine directories like bestezines.com on the net that can guide you.

Other strategies include:

Research your competitors – where are there articles being published?

Perform a Google search. Just type in your industry or article topic followed by the words article submission. That’s how I helped our client’s book jump to the #2 spot on the NY Times Best Sellers List. I typed into Google, “health article submissions”, “medical article submissions”, and “thyroid dysfunctions article submissions” and discovered (among many other sites) the contact information for an About.com editor – one of the top 50 sites on the net today. After receiving the submission, the editor blasted an email book promotion to her entire list, giving Mark Hyman MD 1500 additional opt-in subscribers and much higher sales in just one day.

Think about which organizations, your audience may belong to. If you’re a sales lead expert, like our client, Mac McIntosh, then the chances of your audience belonging to an organization such as the American Marketing Association are very, very high. With more than 200,000 registered users and more than 2 million visits each year from a wide range of influential decision makers, Mac McIntosh’s soon to be published article on the American Marketing Association’s website will provide him with an excellent opportunity to connect with the marketing community.

And, don’t forget to check sites for magazines within your niche. More and more publications, are looking for fresh, new content for their website, to drive traffic up in order to sell more print magazines in the long run. This constant updating of articles found only on the website and not in their print publications means more opportunities for writers and experts. An article written by you published on sites like Entrepreneur Magazine and Mothering Magazine will give your company the vast amount of exposure and credibility it needs.

Follow these strategies and you will have a sound article marketing campaign.

Writing articles as I am sure many of you know is a very popular way of increasing the amount of backward links that you have pointing to your site. In theory, the more of these backward links we are able to obtain, the more traffic our site should receive. There are however some very important things to take into consideration when writing and submitting your articles as you do not want to be wasting your time and you do not want your site to get dropped by the major search engines or put in some sort of sandbox.

The first thing to remember is that Rome was not built in a day. What I mean is if you have a new website, about for example hair loss, you may want to reach the top ten in Google for your keywords within say six months. You hear that one way to do this is by building up good number of backward links to this hair site. You think that the more the merrier and start pounding out one article after the other and are very proud of yourself after the first month because you were able to write fifty articles all pointing to your new hair website.

I believe this approach to be totally wrong. The hair loss websites which are in the top ten of Google have probably been around for quite a number of years and will without doubt have a number of quality backward links. If your site sticks around for a long time and you continue to build up its backward links it will go higher and higher in the search engines over time.

The one thing you do not want to do is to raise any red flags with the search engines. A new site which has eight hundred backward links after one month could raise this red flag. The search engines will now probably not trust this site and could easily put it in some sort of sandbox until it decides whether it is kosha or not.

In my opinion it is important to build up the number of backward links to a new website fairly slowly. When writing articles, I would personally only write one article with a link to a new website per week. Of course if you have ten websites, you are able to write ten articles if you only decide to have one link on each article etc.

I also think that it is very worthwhile to only submit the same article to around five or six of the different article directories. I would submit the article in total to around twenty-two article directories but would have around four variations of it etc. The differences in each article are not massive but are big enough to make it more original. There is a big thing being debated at the moment in webmaster circles about the potential damage that can be caused by duplicate content. From what I have read, everybody seems to have a different opinion on this subject. My opinion is that it is better to be safe than sorry, therefore why take the risk? It would be good however if the major search engines could clarify their position on the subject, but lets face it, that is never going to happen.

In conclusion, my advice is to enjoy writing articles, have patience, build up the number of backward links slowly and to submit different variations of the same article to the directories.

Ever wondered how internet marketing worked? How does anybody who is into internet marketing inform his potential customers that he exists? And how do customers who are looking for something specific, know where to look for it? Given the sheer profusion of pages on the internet, this can be a herculean task for both the buyer as well as the seller.

Internet marketing is all about catching the ‘eye of the spider’. ‘Spiders’ are ingenious little devices that search all the pages of the World Wide Web looking for those pages that are most relevant to the search term that the internet user has entered. Not only do spiders find the appropriate pages, but they also rank these pages in order of relevance, making it easier for the user to find what he is looking for. Goes without saying, anybody looking for something would first click on the page that is right on top of the list. If he finds what he is looking for, that’s it- he looks no further. It is only if he does not find what he wants that he will then go down the list of pages that the spiders have ranked in decreasing order of relevance. The key then, is to make sure your website is ranked right up there above all others that have the same keyword.

Here are a few tips on how you can use article marketing to catch the eye of that all-important spider and get your website ranked right up there, where it can be seen by millions of users.

Make sure your article content is original

Spiders never forget! They memorize every article they have ever crawled over. If they come across a similar article during subsequent searches they immediately pick it out as a plagiarized copy. Instead of the brownie points you would expect to win for featuring valuable content on your web site, your web site would get penalized for featuring copied content. It is critical to make sure that your article content is always original.

Post your original articles on your own website first

By posting your original content on your own website before distributing it to other sites, you stake a claim to your article, and prevent those spiders from penalizing it for duplication. Also, when the spider picks up your article during a search, if the article is posted on your website, it will lead the reader straight to your site circumventing the round-about route.

Embed those keywords and keyword phrases

Using appropriate keywords and keyword phrases throughout your article while maintaining optimum keyword density, is critical. Proper keywords used correctly helps spiders index your website and leverages your search engine optimization. It is important to remember that proper usage of keywords and keyword phrases is critical. Keywords that are randomly placed throughout the article, known as keyword stuffing, will only help get your article disqualified and penalized by search engines. And if your article that is unintelligently keyword stuffed, does get past the search engines, your site visitors will be none too impressed with the quality of your articles and will almost certainly turn away. Once this happens, it is almost impossible to lure them back again.

Increase your link popularity

Spiders determine the popularity and relevancy of your website by the quality and quantity of inbound hyperlinks from other websites to yours. Include an “About the Author” section with a link to your website in every author resource box at the end of your article. It is obligatory for other websites to include this section if they decide to publish your article on their site. This in itself will guarantee you unlimited free publicity. If your article is informative and interesting, and is placed on several sites, you would automatically get plenty of links pointing back to your site. This is guaranteed to catch the eye of the spider and increase your search engine ranking.

Maximize your exposure through article distribution sites

By submitting your articles to large distributions sites such as GoArticles.com or eZine.com you increase the chances of your article being repurposed by other webmasters who are continuously seeking quality content. This can have a kind of viral effect and send a continuous stream of significant traffic towards the direction of your articles.

Persistence pays

Writing just one article, no matter how good, is not enough to get you the desired results. Catching the eye of the spider takes time. To reap the benefits of article marketing requires time and patience as well as the unswerving commitment to generate and disseminate good quality articles consistently. This is what will create a valuable footprint in your field of expertise and help increase the number of back-links to your site.

Maintain that word count

Most websites will only accept and distribute articles that meet their specified article requirements with regard to minimum and maximum length. As a rule, articles should be no more than 500 words and no less than 300 words.

It is an estabilished fact that Article Marketing works by a large number of Internet Marketers in wide variety of niches. This has been repeatedly proven. However, those who have not ever attempted article marketing tend to think that it is harder or more time consuming than it actually is.

Starts by writing an article. This can be done by yourself or you can hire a ghost writer. The cost of ghost written articles is usually less than $10.00 for a 300 to 500 word article. It is important that the article be informative and related to your niche. The article should not sound like a sales letter.

At the end of the article, you include your ‘resource box.’ A resource box is simply information about the author, and it usually includes a link to the authors related website, a link to subscribe to a newsletter, and possibly even an email address to contact the author. If your article is ghost written, you are still the author.

Underneath the resource box, you type a statement giving others the right to reprint the article for free, as long as they don’t change it and keep your resource box attached. This allows others to help make your article viral.

Once the article is written, you should distribute it to as many article directories as you can find. It helps to also send the article to ezine publishers within your niche for consideration. You can find lists of ezines in the various ezine directories that are available on the Internet.

There is article-submission software that can be used to speed up submitting your article in. One example of this type of software is Instant Article Submitter at www.instantarticlesubmitter.com . There are also services that will manually submit your article to directories. This is highly recommended because many article directories do not allow and will not accept articles submitted with software. One such recommended article submission service is We Submit Articles at:
www.wesubmitarticles.com .

Submitting the articles yourself is a time consuming task. If you can hire someone else to do that work, you will have more time overall to concentrate your efforts on other marketing tasks, including producing more articles.

One of the most important components of any article that is being used for article marketing purposes is the resource box. This is the portion of the article which typically appears at the very end of the article content itself were you present the reader with information that is self-serving in nature. Here are four simple ways that you can optimize your resource box to maximize its effectiveness.

1) Do Not Be Overly Promotional Or Pushy

It is important that you strike a tone within your resource box that is not overly promotional or pushy. Remember, people seldom like being told what to do. It’s important that you keep this in mind and not come across as somebody who is making demands on the reader. This is very important, don’t forget it.

2) Offer To Provide The Reader With Additional Information

Assuming that you have created an article that provides useful but incomplete information, you will want to utilize some of the space within your resource box to offer the reader additional information that promises to answer questions that they may still have about whatever topic you were discussing in the article itself.

3) Ask The Reader To Click On The Link You Provide

This may sound silly, but it is important that you include wording within your resource box that directly tells the reader to click on the link that you are providing. Do not necessarily assume that somebody will instinctively click on the link that is placed within the resource box at the article. You need to proactively tell the reader to click on the link. Do so in a very matter-of-fact way. Not in an aggressive way or in a pushy way, just in a simple click-on-this-link sort of way.

4) Make Sure One Of Your Resource Box Links Says Click Here

It is very important that one of the hyperlinked lines of text within your resource box that will direct somebody to your website or product actually contain the words “click here.” This may seem somewhat counter-intuitive, but people have been conditioned over the years to click on blue underlined links that literally contain the words “click here.” Don’t fight that trend!

By following this advice, you will have a resource box that converts more readers into clickers. This will usually translate into more website visitors for you, and more profits, too!