How To Promote Your Website By Writing Articles

By Heli K Iso-Aho

Promoting your website is essential to getting prospects to notice and order your offers, as well as to get them to sign up to your list and promote your website to their family, friends, and colleagues. However, it can get quite expensive if you try to use paid traffic methods like Pay-Per-Click (especially if you don't know what you are doing), solo ads in ezines, and other methods. Fortunately, article marketing, or marketing through the use of written articles, can be just as effective as those paid methods, yet is relatively free.

I can hear you asking, "What am I supposed to write about in these articles?" Article marketing involves providing useful content about your business, the industry it's in, and current industry news in the form of an article. The key is to make the content compelling where prospects will want to read it.

The next question I hear you asking is, "Where do I post these articles?" Certainly, you can post them on your site, but of course, prospects have to find your site first. This is why you should post articles at various article directories on the Internet. Article directories are sites that have thousands of articles on thousands of topics. You submit your articles to these sites via their guidelines, and once they are approved by the corresponding site, your article will appear in the category or categories you specify.

"How will your article get seen on these article directory sites?" you ask. Well, once your article is approved, anyone who wishes to use that article for his/her own purposes can. However, that article must be unedited (i.e. must remain exactly as you wrote it). This is important because, when you submit that article to the article directory site, you're allowed to fill in a resource box with your signature file.

The signature file is between three to six lines of text that identify you, your business, or your main offer. It will usually have a link back to your chosen site. This is how other interested prospects will find your site, and the main basis of how successful article marketing works.

You're probably thinking, "Well, article marketing sounds great? But, it will take me a lot of time to write those quality articles." Yes, that's true. This is why I said earlier, "relatively free." Articles will cost you in time if you choose to write them yourself. You could, if you choose, decide to outsource this to writers if you do not feel your writing skills are up to the task (though it's not that hard - we're not talking Shakespearean masterpieces or Pulitzer Prize winners here). Or, if you want to focus your efforts on other areas of your business and leave the writing to someone else who you feel is more capable, you can pay out a small amount of cash for each article.

However, it's important to note that prices can vary for quality articles, and not all article writers are good writers. Some have English as their first language, while others don't. Some are more proficient at writing, while others are not as proficient. You have to find that writer or writers who will provide the high quality you want at a reasonable price. Some sites to try include eLance.com, oDesk.com, iWriter.com, ArticleTeller.com, and others. The prices can range anywhere from $2.00 to $25.00+ per 500-word article.

To help you narrow down what writer to hire, conduct a test of their skills first before hiring them, such as writing a sample article first. See how they do, then determine whether you want to hire that specific writer or not. Keep in mind that the lowest price isn't always your best option, especially if you have to edit the article afterwards. By the same token, though, that doesn't mean you have to pay the highest price either; only some due diligence will help you to find the best writer for your needs at the best price possible.

As you can see, article marketing can be very effective in promoting your site and your business, and you don't necessarily have to write the articles yourself if you choose not to. Certainly, you do want to incorporate article marketing into your online marketing efforts, as it is a free way to gain targeted traffic to your website, and quality content is a great way to boost your reputation and credibility in your field. By using article marketing to get free targeted traffic to your website, you can help boost the reputation and profitability of your business.

Heli Iso-Aho is passionate about helping people to start their own internet marketing business. For more information and tips how to create and run your own internet marketing business, please go to http://www.myinternetmarketingsolutions.com today.

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