Writing Articles Print

Writing articles is one of the most powerful and effective ways to bring free LONG TERM traffic to your site.

The cost of this method of advertising is mostly time. The good news is it is very wisely invested time. Once an article is distributed, it will continue to bring traffic to your site for a very long time.

The basic idea

Well, the idea is simply this, you write a useful, informative or entertaining article on something you know about. If you sell jewellery, then your article may be about making handmade jewellery. If you are a mechanic, it may be an article on car maintenance.

What do you do with it once you have written it?

You give it away free of charge. Now, this may seem completely nuts, however it works really well. Yes, you will spend several hours writing your article, but here is why you give it away for free.

There are many sites in all genres that operate newsletters or blogs. They are ALWAYS on the lookout for new articles to publish for their visitors or readers.

The deal is basically this, you let them publish and use your article free of charge as long as they leave your resource box at the end of the article.

Here is an example of a resource box.

This is where the power of giving away your articles comes in. First, for the sites that publish articles, you give them free content, and they give you a permanent one-way link to your website.

In the case of the sites that use articles in their newsletters, a link to your site can get emailed to thousands of readers.

Publish your articles in the right places, and they can be picked up by any site or newsletter at any time.

You also have to remember that if someone gets your article by email and likes it, they may well forward it to friends.

Permanent links and free traffic. This is a VERY powerful form of traffic creation for your site.

However, there are some things you need to know. Some pointers for writing articles.

Write Them Well

Of course, it is no big secret that articles bring traffic, and many people have written many articles. The problem is most of them rush off any old rubbish and assume people will use it. Well, they won't.

Your article needs to be informative, helpful, or entertaining, and it needs to be well written. When I write articles, I write them once, then I revamp them, and then I do them again. Refining and tweaking as I go. Take your time and remember the better the article is the more it will get used and the more potential traffic it will bring, so give it some attention.

DO NOT PLUG YOUR SITE

This may sound silly, but it is a golden rule. An article is not and should not be an ad for your site. It should be designed to help, educate or entertain and nothing more.

Let's use the jewellery example. Imagine I have a site that sells jewellery. If I write an article full of links to my own site plugging my own services or goods, it will not get published by most article sites. The few people who do read it will see it for what it is, a blatant ad. They will probably dismiss it as junk.

So I write an article discussing the best materials for making earrings with, or a “how to make a necklace using leather instead of metals”

An informative article on a subject that you know about, but NEVER a direct plug for your site. The ONLY time your site should be mentioned is in the resource box at the end of your article.

The idea of articles is that you show your expertise in your field and share information and tips freely. If the reader likes the article and finds it useful, I guarantee they will visit your site.

Write about what you know

Many people say to us, “But what should I write about?” Write about something you know, if you own a dating site, write an article on what makes a good dating profile. Make the subject relevant to your site but stick with what you know.

Give The Title Some Zing

One of the most important parts of your article is the headline. In the same way a newspaper uses headlines to grab your attention to read their stories, you need a scroll stopping headline to try to get people to read your article.

For example, many years ago when websites exchanging links was all the rage, I wrote an article about exchanging links for visitors rather than for search engine rankings. I could have called the article:

“Exchange links for people, not search engines”

or

“How to exchange better links”

But that's not very attention-grabbing and is a little boring.

I called my article “Stinking Linking Thinking” Most people's first reaction to that is “What? What is stinking linking thinking?”

Did it work as a title? You bet it did it got distributed all over the web, some people agreed with it the Search Engine Optimisation “Gurus” hated it. But it was widely distributed.

Everywhere that article appeared, there was a direct link to one of my sites that sold a link directory program. That article took me about 3 hours to write and re-write. About another hour or so to distribute, and it sold me plenty of copies of my link program for YEARS.

This is the power of writing articles, you do the work once, and it stays done. You never know who will pick it up or when they will use it.

If you are not sure where to start, searching Google for “advice on writing articles” you will find a lot of good advice out there.

Once It's Done, Distribute It

Obviously, once you have written your killer article, you need to spread it around the internet. This takes a little work, try to find popular sites in your niche that have a blog and just contact them and offer them the article. Search for bloggers who write about your niche or a complimentary genre and offer it to them for their newsletter. Try a Google search for “Submit articles to a repository” 

In short, give it a go, this is a traffic method that can literally bring you thousands of visitors for just a small investment in time.