Day SEVEN of Traffic Generation….

(just a side note…remember that what we’re attempting to get you to do with this “Take Action Today” series is to work on one website or one product at a time.  Take one action each day to build your traffic. Once you have built up traffic to that one website and it’s working on autopilot, you can move on to your next product and website.  Too many people get scattered by trying to do too many things at once and end up doing nothing.  Focus is primary!  Focus on one thing…take it through the entire process…then of course it’s the “rinse and repeat”).

I’ve spent a lot of time the past few days writing and submitting 20+ articles for my Adsense Templates business, so I thought it would be appropriate if the next traffic generation method was on article writing.

Ask almost any internet marketer and webmaster and they will tell you that one of the most effective free methods of traffic generation is article writing (next to the newest revolution of videos) .  None of us were born copywriters or went to school for editorial or journalism degrees, however if you want to learn how to drive droves of free traffic to your websites you’ll need to learn how to write articles.

Articles not only establish you as an expert in your field or market, but in addition they offer useful information to the reader and establish a curiosity in them that encourages them to find out more about your company.  Article marketing is showing no signs of slowing down so if you want to get lots of free fast traffic to your websites and blogs, you need to break down the barriers and fears of writing an article.

Don’t be overwhelmed by article writing.  Once you get going on it and submit your first few articles you’ll start learning how to become more and more profound at writing those all important traffic generating articles.  Try writing just one or two articles per week.  An article only needs to be 400 to 600 words so don’t try to cram everything you know about a subject into one article.  Break your knowledge up into several articles.

So What Do You Write About?

Write about what you know and write it in your own words expressing your own personality and your own expertise.  MAKE SURE that you do keyword research before you write your articles.  Use your keywords in your article title and throughout your article.

Most article submission sites allow you to add your own keywords and tags…so make sure you are using the keywords that you want the search engines to find.

Make your articles interesting and relative.  Your titles are extremely important so make sure that your titles are interesting enough to attract readers (and other website owners who are looking for articles to use on their websites and blogs).  “8 Things You Should Know About Building An Adsense Website“  is a good title because people want to read and learn about the 8 things they need to know.  My most successful articles have this “5 Must Knows” or “6 Steps To a Successful”, etc. in their title.  It’s unrealistic to think you can do this with every title, but try it whenever feasible.

Your Resource Box

The resource box is where you get the opportunity to send readers to your websites and blogs.  Here is where you can add your anchor text (keyword driven) with your URL to send visitors to your websites for additional information.  Most article submission sites allow you to add 2 links in your resource box (some allow 3 but I try to limit mine to just 2—-again you don’t want to look like you’re trying to sell them on something and too many links may seem desperate).

Your resource box should not sound too salesy!  Try and peak the curiosity of the reader and make them realize they need to visit the site to get the answer to their questions.  Here’s an article that I recently submitted for my Adsense Templates website.  ( My resource box encourages readers to make it easier on themselves by purchasing adsense templates rather than struggle through the process of learning how to add adsense to their own websites.)

How Do Articles Generate Traffic?

First off…once again there’s good old Google.  Google’s passionate about new content and passionate about article directory content.  I’ve written articles that have shown up on the first page of Google within an hour after being published…so Google and search engine rankings from article writing will generate traffic.

There’s the obvious.  Anyone who comes across your article and is curious enough to read it may click on your website links in your resource box to get more information on your product and your company.

Backlinks are one of the greatest benefits of article marketing.  Webmasters and website owners are always looking for new content to add to their own websites and blogs.  If your article is interesting and informative it gets picked up and added to other websites which adds backlinks to your own website.  In addition, your resource box gets added (as part of the article) to that other website so you are generating traffic from others using your articles through backlinks and your resource box getting clickthroughs.

Which Article Directories Do You Submit To?

There are hundreds of article directories out there.  Here are the ones that I use:

http://ezinearticles.com

http://goarticles.com

http://articlecity.com

http://searchwarp.com

http://ideamarketers.com

http://articlebase.com

You will need to create an account with each article directory before you can submit articles to them.  Make sure to read through their submission policies as each directory has different rules you must follow (or you can be permanently deleted from further submissions).

Most article directories DO NOT accept affiliate links, so if you’re promoting an affiliate product you will need to either create a Hub Page or Squidoo Page or Blog Post, etc. with the affiliate link and direct your article resource box back to that site.

What Not To Do?

Don’t ever try to copy an article and claim it as your own.  Many article directories do have human beings reading your articles and will know if your article is a copy of someone else’s.

Some article directories do not allow you to mention the words PLR (private label rights) in your articles, so make sure if you’re promoting PLR you know the directories guidelines on submissions.

As mentioned, don’t make your resource box sound like you’re selling something.  Be creative and make the reader want to click on your anchor text URL to get more information.

Duplicate Content Theories

So how many article directories can you submit the same article to?  Well, there’s a lot of controversy about this topic.  I have never had a problem submitting the same article to 7 or 8 directories at the same time.  I’ve had Google rank several of them from different article directories on the first few pages at once.

As far as article submission software goes:  there are those that say it will not cause a problem with duplicate content and those that say it will.  There are many “article spinners” available that take the same article and spin it into several variations so as to avoid the duplication of content so you may want to consider looking into one of those.  I have used article submission software at times, however when I’ve written an article that really “strikes” it…I tend to avoid submitting it to hundreds of directories at the same time.

I’ve personally found that just by submitting to some of the most popular article directories that I’ve listed above you really don’t need to use article submission software to submit to hundreds of article directories, but you may find differently.

Sometimes rather than submitting all of my articles at once to several different directories I follow this rule. I will do some keyword research, and find a keyword phrase I want to target. I’ll then write about 10 articles all focused on that keyword phrase. I will submit 5 to article directories, use 1 for a hub page, 1 for a squidoo lens, 1 for my blog, and the other 2 as more content for my adsense websites.  This article writing pattern has worked well for me for many niche and adsense markets.

Still need more information on article writing? Here are some article writing videos I came across a while back at Article Writing For Newbies Videos.  I wish I could give them to your for free, but I don’t own them.  Sorry! There is a small cost of $4.90 to pick them up which is a value for the information they offer (especially if you’re still uncertain about how to begin your article writing campaigns).

Article marketing is Viral Marketing and absolutely one of the most effective means of viral marketing you can use for traffic generation. We have a full page dedicated to Viral Article Marketing on our website.  Nothing to buy…just lots of good free information on how to get started with article writing to promote your websites and products.

Please leave your questions or comments below.  Remember…we now have “CommentLuv” so if you have a blog not only can you create a backlink but your most recent blog post will also show up by your comments. (if the comment box isn’t viewable just click on the _Comments and you’ll be taken to the full comment box where you can leave your own URL for some link love).