25
Apr
2008
Posted by Duncan as Articles Marketing, Website Traffic
Driving traffic to your site can be a bit of a challenge, especially if you’re new at it. If you have been writing articles and submitting them to e-zines and article directories for publication, you might be wondering what else there is for you to do. Actually, it’s right there under your nose – article directories are more than just storage sites for articles to help you hone your writing skills. There’s more to them than meets the eye.

What’s an article directory? If you’re new at internet marketing, you might have already encountered it but didn’t know what it was. An article directory is a site that publishes and hosts articles that are written and submitted by internet writers and marketers. These sites promote these articles by categorizing them by subject or author. Better yet, most of these sites enjoy high traffic.
Most articles in the directory have bylines which include the name of the author, his contact information (usually an e-mail address) and a brief biography. In most cases, the author’s byline also includes a link to his website. This provides his readers easy access to his site in case they want to read more or look around for other information. The byline can be found either on top of the article or at the bottom.
To use article directories to your benefit, here are a few ways you can look into:
Publish with intention.
Don’t just write articles with no thought to their purpose. It’s a waste of time and energy. You’re a very busy person and internet marketing can be a very challenging task. Choose the article directory that can present your articles to your intended audience.
Of course, the bigger article directories are quite popular for general searchers and they do have categorized menus that list articles by subject, but there are also smaller article directories that you can use to maximize your exposure to your targeted market. If you’re writing a golf article, for example, you can submit to an article directory that caters mostly to sports articles. This way, you are sure that only golf enthusiasts will read your articles and find their way to your site.
Promote your link.
It’s not enough that your link appears with your article. If you want to attract people, write a short but appealing description of your site next to or below the link. The description should not only include what your site is about, but also what the benefits are of going there and who should be clicking on the link.
For example, if you’re an internet coach, you might want to write: “http://www.thisismysite.com is a site dedicated to bringing the best methods and techniques in internet coaching to trainers and would-be gurus. Click for more tips, articles and information about the latest news and coaching strategies.”
If you like, you can even include some short information about certain freebies that you’re offering on your site. Once your readers know that they can get benefit from clicking on your link, you can be sure that traffic to your site is well-directed.
Submit your article to several directories.
Most article directories don’t require exclusive rights to your articles so you can write one article and submit to several sites. The advantage of this is that your link which is found at the bottom of your article, enjoys exposure in different directories. The more people who find your article, the more there will be clicks to your site.
Let other site owners expose you.
Many article directories allow other sites to copy their published articles, as long as the links and writer’s byline are included. If your article is well written, there is a huge chance that you will get noticed by other site owners and get posted on their sites. This way, your article can still generate traffic even when it’s posted somewhere else.
Don’t worry about originality.
While plagiarism is an issue that is being closely guarded on the internet, being an original is not always a requirement. However, it is a big issue with your article, since many directories insist on original writing.
If writing is not your strong suit, that’s not a problem. Have someone else ghostwrite it for you. Just make sure to check the content for accuracy and relevance and then include your name and resource box in it.
Remember to put them into action.
Duncan
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4 Responses
April 26th, 2008 at 3:00 am
1As someone just getting (deeper) into Article marketing, this is very helpful thank you.
April 26th, 2008 at 4:42 am
2Thanks for stopping by, Dennis.
May 1st, 2008 at 5:03 am
3hi there,
Great post on article marketing.
as for me, i don’t usually send my articles to too many directories..only selective one..the ones that is moderate by human.
Try not to send to too many directories with the same articles unless you make at least 30% changes to the same articles so google will not penalise you for duplicated content.
Furthermore, google will only take maybe 3 to show up in searches. they will not show up the same articles from other directories only from the higher rank directories.
but if you are distributing it for readers to read and visit your site, then it’s fine to submit to many directories and forget about google..
after all, getting reader is more important than getting google to read your articles…hahaha
do drop by my blog http://www.zacksays.com and let’s hear from you
Cheers
Zacky
zackys last blog post..Blog Trafficking
May 8th, 2008 at 9:16 am
4Some great advice. Articles are decent for traffic, but also provide quality 1 way anchored back links, which really help your SEO.
Justins last blog post..Paid Links
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