Articles - They Really Work
by: John Pierce

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

Broaden Your Customer Base: Submit Articles!
by: Tom Antion

If you are going to be writing articles to promote traffic to your website anyway, why not make them available to be used in other people's e-zines? This is a great way to have your work spread around the Internet to reach new customers. Of course my work can be found in my own free e-zine, but that really limits the people that read it. I advise possibly swapping articles and/or ads with another e-zine to double your visibility to subscribers. This process can be studied in greater detail by visiting http://www.e-zinez.com.

Another way to get your work published is to submit it to http://EzineNewsWire.com or http:www.ezinearticles.com. Here publishers can find your article to use in their e-zines. In return for using your work, subscribers will read your bio and have access to your web address which appears at the bottom of all your articles. The outcome of this new publicity will be more traffic to your site, which equals more business, would doesn't like the sound of that?

There are also numerous places that will take free classified ads, or you can pay for ads in selected publications. Make a list of magazines and other publications that make sense for your business in order to broaden your audience. Traditional print and the media are also a great way to get noticed. The key to getting your articles seen is to have them spread virtually everywhere and anywhere that you possibly can. Search engines will give a long list of websites that will publish your article for free. Usually all it takes is a minute to register and then you can submit all night long. This is time consuming but will inevitably help get you more hits on major search engines. Type in your name and found out.

About the author:
Tom Antion provides entertaining speeches and educational seminars. He is the ultimate entrepreneur, having owned many businesses BEFORE graduating college. Tom is the author of the best selling presentation skills book "Wake 'em Up Business Presentations" and "Click: The Ultimate Guide to Electronic Marketing." It is important to Tom that his knowledge be not only absorbed, but enjoyed. This is why he delivers his speeches laced with great humor and hysterical jokes. Tom has addressed more than 87 different industries and is thoroughly committed to his client's needs.

http://www.antion.com