One of the better ways you can build your credibility, establish a solid online reputation, and drive traffic to your site is by writing articles on a topic that relates to your products or services. The true secret of giving away content for free to drive customers to you is through this powerful method of promotion.

Web users generally check email, look for information, and surf for entertainment. While Internet users do make purchases, this is not the typical reason why they have logged on. Information is the general reason why!

People who own or manage web sites are seeking information too. They have a desire to be recognized by their visitors as a valuable resource. If they are providing information better than their competition, people will return to their sites.

One of the larger problems site owners have, is they simply don't have the knowledge or time to write articles that would be of interest to their visitors. Many site owners contract other providers for quality content for their home pages. Whether it's done through a RSS or streaming content sites that warrant good information will yield better qualified visitors.

Imagine how excited a site owner will be when you contact them with your article offer to make your expert information available to them at no charge. Typically when you provide fresh information that's relevant and well written, chances are they'll be happy to post your articles on their site.

What to write?

First, before going into the body of an article, the most important key to marketing using articles is the "resource box" or "About The Author." This is the last section of your article where you leave a brief blurb about yourself, any experience, and web site link back to your site. You can drive a ton of traffic to your site. And since readers already view you as a credible source of information, they'll be highly receptive to what you have to offer.

Second, you'll want to write about something that relates to your product or service. The goal of the article is to drive visitors who are interested in whatever it is you offer. Make sure the article you write contains valuable, hard to find information. Not only will this increase the chance that other site owners will post your article, it will also increase the number of visitors who click through to your site after reading your article.

The Body

You may say to me that you are not a writer. Well, that just doesn’t matter. What do you know about your industry? I am sure there is something you know. The writing style online is not that of English professors. The best explanation of what is popular in the online world would be to define it as a "down home" style of writing. Since the technology we are all using seems so impersonal, your readers are seeking someone who is real. You can write in a conversational tone to help you accomplish this.

Decide on a Topic 

You want to choose a hot online topic. What are people talking about on the news, in discussion boards, and in newsletters that you are receiving. Look at the articles from some of the magazines in your industry to gauge where people’s interest is at. You want to make sure that your article is covering a subject people are excited about.

Create a Title.

The title will make or break your article. A title for an article is just as important as a headline for an ad. If your title doesn’t grab people’s attention they will never read the rest of the article. If they don’t read the article, they won’t see your resource box. Write a minimum of 10 - 20 titles and then let your family or friends pick the most interesting one to use in your article.

Write 3 - 5 Major Points 

If it was a special report, you may do as many as 10. The key to making your writing easy is dividing up the content. Through creating these main points you can also establish a flow to the article. Using a step-by-step system will also help you stay organized in your mind. Decide on the number of words 

This is probably around 500 for most articles. Most newsletters publish shorter articles than what you see in magazines. The best number to plan for is to create articles that are around 500 words in length although some newsletters may ask for a little bit longer of articles. 

Divide up the number of words and create each section individually

If you have 5 points, each one only gets 100 words. Once you add on a short introduction and a short conclusion, then you are at about 80 - 90 words per section. If you have 3 points, then each section will have around 150 words plus an introduction and conclusion. It is easier to get started when you think of it like this. You don’t have to write 500 words. You need to write 150 words.

Create Your Resource Box

Give your contact info such as your name, email address, and web site. Then, give one or two benefit phrases, headlines you could say, along with web site links. You will receive your absolute best results if the benefit phrases coincide with the article you have just written.

Edit your Article

Take a step back after you have written and prepared your article. Sleep on it. Come back to your article the next day and edit it. Rephrase sections that you can make better. Do a spell check. It is amazing what a short rest will do for the creative process.

Email it to newsletter publishers with a short cover letter

Find a large section of online publications with their name and contact emails. Send it to them with a short personalized cover paragraph at the top. Personalization is a major key since most newsletter publishers receive hundreds of these emails every day. 

Submit it to various Article Banks

There are hundreds of article sites to submit your articles. Finding these sites can be easy, simply by going to any major search engine. Whatever your category, I'm sure you can find sites that will accept your article.

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