One of the most effective methods of generating traffic to your website is writing articles and submitting them to the article publishers. The efforts of the next few days may not drive any real traffic to your website but writing articles and submitting them will serve you well in the future and it is in your best interest to use this technique to your advantage. While you may not think you have any writing talent, you are probably incorrect. You may not be the next John Grisham, but you can effectively write about your website and products that you sell. Of course you need to know the rules for writing articles effectively. The number one rule is that the headline or title HAS To contain keywords pertaining to your website or product. This will be the determining factor when E-zine publishers or website owners decide if they want to publish your article. This is because they are aware of how much importance the search engines place on keywords in searches.
* Note: Search engines are used by people looking for information or products on the internet. They type "key words" in the search box and click submit. An example might be "planting tomatoes" or "growing tomatoes". What the search engine returns is based on whatever key words were entered into the search box.
The other thing about the title or headline of your article is that it must be attention getting. You cant just title your article Fish Bait. You have to make your title interesting enough to entice the reader to keep reading. Fish Bait that Works...that isnt very good either. How about, Fish Bait from Heaven or The Fish Bait the Fish Cant Resist? Either of those titles would entice the person who was looking for information about fish bait to keep reading.
After the title, the next most important words in your article are in the first line. Experienced internet surfers are well known for having a short attention span and rarely read anything word for word unless it is information that they think will meet their needs, solve a problem they have or make life better for them. So...the title...and the first line become the bait and the hook that is used to lure the reader to truly read the complete article. If the first line contains the key words it must also be be attention getting. "The customers were begging for more tips after the first line!" If you were an internet marketer, wouldn't you keep reading?
The article banks want short articles. Brief, in fact! The longest an article should be is 400 words but closer to 300 is better. You can get carried away and end up with an article that is 1000 words or more when discussing a subject in which you are interested and know a lot about. If you wind up with a long wordy article just break it down into three or four short articles.
Use short sentences and short paragraphs. Remember that short attention span that we talked about? Dont use big words and dont use run-on sentences. Make your article easy to read.
Go easy on the exclamation points, as well. One exclamation point indicates importance or excitement... a half a dozen are just rude.
Your resource box which comes at the end of the article is the most important part of all. Anyone who downloads and reproduces your article is required to include your resource box. And this box should contain your full name, your contact information and, most importantly, the link to your website. That link is the reason you are writing this article anyway. It is to help increase traffic for you.
Warning! Do NOT word-wrap your url! It must be typed out in full, http://www.whatever.com. Not all E-zine editors send out their newsletters and E-zines using email programs that support word-wrapped links so it is possible to ruin your own purpose by word-wrapping your website url.
Submitting Articles: Once you have found article banks and article repositories on the Internet by simple doing a search using your favorite search engine it is time to submit your articles. Every site has their own guidelines for accepting articles which you must follow or risk rejection.
You will likely be told that you can use software that is available to automatically submit your articles to banks and repositories...and in fact, there is such software. But the problem is that most of the larger banks and repositories do not accept automatic submissions. While the software does in fact save you time when submitting to the smaller sites, it doesnt help you much with the bigger sites.
Submitting articles can be time consuming and boring, but it is work that will provide a lot of targeted traffic to your site. Every person who reads an article you've written is also exposed to your URL. If they like the article because it provides good information for them, they will visit your site. Once there, they may buy something you are selling or maybe opt-in for your mailing list... or possibly even do both. There are services available to submit your articles for you. You do have to pay for this service.
One solution I use is Unique Article Wizard. UAW can submit unique articles to hundreds of article banks at the click of a mouse. Spend one to two hours setting up your article, click Submit and sit back and watch the traffic build to your site.
* Note: Search engines are used by people looking for information or products on the internet. They type "key words" in the search box and click submit. An example might be "planting tomatoes" or "growing tomatoes". What the search engine returns is based on whatever key words were entered into the search box.
The other thing about the title or headline of your article is that it must be attention getting. You cant just title your article Fish Bait. You have to make your title interesting enough to entice the reader to keep reading. Fish Bait that Works...that isnt very good either. How about, Fish Bait from Heaven or The Fish Bait the Fish Cant Resist? Either of those titles would entice the person who was looking for information about fish bait to keep reading.
After the title, the next most important words in your article are in the first line. Experienced internet surfers are well known for having a short attention span and rarely read anything word for word unless it is information that they think will meet their needs, solve a problem they have or make life better for them. So...the title...and the first line become the bait and the hook that is used to lure the reader to truly read the complete article. If the first line contains the key words it must also be be attention getting. "The customers were begging for more tips after the first line!" If you were an internet marketer, wouldn't you keep reading?
The article banks want short articles. Brief, in fact! The longest an article should be is 400 words but closer to 300 is better. You can get carried away and end up with an article that is 1000 words or more when discussing a subject in which you are interested and know a lot about. If you wind up with a long wordy article just break it down into three or four short articles.
Use short sentences and short paragraphs. Remember that short attention span that we talked about? Dont use big words and dont use run-on sentences. Make your article easy to read.
Go easy on the exclamation points, as well. One exclamation point indicates importance or excitement... a half a dozen are just rude.
Your resource box which comes at the end of the article is the most important part of all. Anyone who downloads and reproduces your article is required to include your resource box. And this box should contain your full name, your contact information and, most importantly, the link to your website. That link is the reason you are writing this article anyway. It is to help increase traffic for you.
Warning! Do NOT word-wrap your url! It must be typed out in full, http://www.whatever.com. Not all E-zine editors send out their newsletters and E-zines using email programs that support word-wrapped links so it is possible to ruin your own purpose by word-wrapping your website url.
Submitting Articles: Once you have found article banks and article repositories on the Internet by simple doing a search using your favorite search engine it is time to submit your articles. Every site has their own guidelines for accepting articles which you must follow or risk rejection.
You will likely be told that you can use software that is available to automatically submit your articles to banks and repositories...and in fact, there is such software. But the problem is that most of the larger banks and repositories do not accept automatic submissions. While the software does in fact save you time when submitting to the smaller sites, it doesnt help you much with the bigger sites.
Submitting articles can be time consuming and boring, but it is work that will provide a lot of targeted traffic to your site. Every person who reads an article you've written is also exposed to your URL. If they like the article because it provides good information for them, they will visit your site. Once there, they may buy something you are selling or maybe opt-in for your mailing list... or possibly even do both. There are services available to submit your articles for you. You do have to pay for this service.
One solution I use is Unique Article Wizard. UAW can submit unique articles to hundreds of article banks at the click of a mouse. Spend one to two hours setting up your article, click Submit and sit back and watch the traffic build to your site.
About the Author:
Author Porfirio G Krasternak uses theUnique Article Wizard to ensure each article submitted is unique. For exciting information on how you can submit unique articles to all the article publishers, go toUnique Article Wizard.
