Generating Web Traffic With Articles

[NateP 1]

For new webmasters just getting started online, traffic generation is one of the biggest mysteries they face. Most new webmasters look for free advertising networks or maybe traffic exchange web sites. Rarely however does a new webmaster find a source of quality traffic for free.One method for generating web site traffic that is unknown to most webmasters is a form of advertisement called article marketing. This form of advertising is very effective if done right and can be done for free. I am going to show you step by step how to get started generating traffic to your web site using this method.How this all works is pretty simple. You will need to write articles that relate in some way to the topic of the web site that you want to promote. Writing the articles can be time consuming but your work will be rewarded later. Once you have some articles written that you feel are accurate and well written, you will write a small (about 2-3 sentence) bio about yourself and what you do.(your website) Include a link or maybe two within this bio to your web site. Now that you have all this done you will be submitting your article to article directories or open ezines and other similar sites. When you submit these articles you will also be submitting your bio which contains links to your web site. You can see how even in this short description, there is potential for traffic from this method.Now I can show you step by step how to do this effectively to increase your web site traffic.Step One: Research your topics.The very first thing you need to consider is what you will write your articles about. Make a list of things that are related to the topic of your web site. Write down anything you can think of that is related even if the list gets huge. If your web site was about golf clubs for example, some related topics would be golf shirts, golf vacations, golf lessons or golf etiquette.Once you have a good list made, prioritize the list putting the topics you know the most about at the top and working through the list. Once this is done, you should probably have at least 5 or 6 topics at the top of the list that you know a fair amount about. Start researching these top topics online using any sources you can find. Take notes of any interesting statistics or info that seemed surprising. Now that you have some research done and feel knowledgeable on these topics, you can move to the next step.Step Two: Writing your first articles.Now comes the creative part. I do understand that some people simply do not like writing or don't think they are any good at it. The truth is, writing is just as easy as talking. When you speak to your friends/family or co-workers do they understand you? Then you can write an effective article especially if you are working from the top of your list of topics which was prioritized in order of what you know the most about. Even if you struggle to get started, keep at it, its easier after you get started! :)When writing your articles do not try and write your article like an advertisement. Write your article as a piece of information that you are trying to share with your readers. Put real information that your readers can use in some way. Avoid suggesting that your readers visit your web site. The little bio at the bottom of your article already has your link and by suggesting to your readers that they click it, you make your article look like spam. People looking for information want to feel that the information has come from a trustworthy source. If your article is very accurate and informative, you gain credibility to your reader and often they wish to learn more from you. This prompts many readers to click the link in your bio to learn more without the need for you to ask them to click it.Write at least two or three articles for the topics you feel most comfortable about. After you have these articles written, try searching the internet for spell checkers, grammar checkers, and plagiarism checkers. You can find free online versions of all of these tools with a simple Google search using the terms above. Run each of the articles you have written through these tools and modify the articles accordingly. Even though you have written these articles yourself, you shouldn't skip the plagiarism checker. The reason for this is that the internet has millions upon millions of web sites on which someone may have written a very similar article. If your article looks to anyone that it could have been plagiarized, you will lose all your credibility and your articles might be denied or deleted.Step Three: Finding good places to submit your articles.Now up to know you will have done some pretty hard work. You've made your topic list, priorities it, researched a bunch of topics, written a bunch of articles, checked and edited the articles, and you still haven't gotten any more web site traffic. Well, patience my friend, we are getting closer. :)Before you get all excited and start firing those articles off to any old directory or website you can find, you need to do more research. This time you will be using the search engines to find article directories, or open ezines. Take note of the ones that are in the top results of the major search engines. These are the directories that the search engines are currently sending the most traffic to! Take down a list of the top directories from each search engine and filter out the duplicates. These are the directories you will want to submit your articles to. Some of them will be free to submit, and some will be pay to submit. To start with go with the free ones. Be sure when submitting your articles that you read any submission guidelines and adjust your articles if need be to fit.Don't submit your articles too many times. Only submit each article to a maximum of 3 different web sites. The reason for this is because we want your article to be a valuable source of unique information that is not available everywhere else. The search engines use bots and spiders to read the web sites you are submitting to. (we know this since they are highly ranked in search results) The bots/spiders are designed to look for unique content that has not been seen elsewhere. When the search engines find unique content, they tend to rank that site more highly than others with duplicated content. This means the search engines may send visitors directly to your article and if well written, will lead to many clicks on the link to your web site.Step Four: Wash, rinse, repeat.Really that is about all there is to it. Repeat the steps again and again. Submit new articles to the same places or to new places to see what helps. Beware though, when choosing a directory to submit to, avoid ones that automatically accept any article. Be picky, you are building a reputation here. :)Now that is the basics of article marketing. Remember the goal here is not to coax people to click your link, it is to provide a source of information that is unique and will naturally lead the reader to consider you knowledgeable and trustworthy so they WANT to click your link.I have used this method and it has worked very well for me. An example of one of my recent successes is a web site that I have recently started. In the first two days that my web site was live, I wrote six articles. I submitted these articles one each to six different article directories over the two days. I made sure the directories were high ranking on the search engines. It even took one day for the articles to be accepted and viewable on the directories. The next day I was pleased to find that my web site had 32 new members and I had orders to process! This is not a huge success but remember that was only six articles on six directories and not one of the articles asked the reader to visit my site.Obviously this is not the only traffic generation method. Some of you may prefer other methods. For me though this is the backbone of my web promotion efforts and it always brings some level of success. I hope it will now do the same for you!

[rpgsearcherz 5]

This is some pretty good information! I think it would help a lot if you also gave out information on the article directories you think are worth submitting to. It'd at least help with gauging what's "good" and what isn't, through a type of comparison.

[NateP 1]

Although listing some good article directories or open ezines here might be very helpful, I worry that this topic would quickly become filled with responses from people wanting to advertise their own article directories here.To find good article directories, try getting the google toolbar to see the pagerank of the directories you are considering. The higher the pagerank as reported from the toolbar, the better.If you would like to get a little more in depth and investigate the quality of a directory, you could actually spend some time browsing through the articles. Look to see what kind of articles that the editors of the directory are willing to accept. Are the articles written well? Are they written like an informational resource, or more like an advertisement. Do the articles contain spelling and grammar mistakes? The best directories are very picky about what articles they will publish. Good directories will check for spelling and grammar. They will also check for plagiarism or article duplication on other web sites.One more important thing to look for is social network linking. A good directory should include easy one click sharing of articles on all the major social networks. These are buttons such as the facebook like button, or google + 1 buttons. These can cause your article to become a viral sensation on the social networks.I do have a list of directories that I find are very good to use but I think sharing them here would send this topic off course. If anyone wants to use my list, send me a PM and I'll get back to you.

[rpgsearcherz 5]

Although listing some good article directories or open ezines here might be very helpful, I worry that this topic would quickly become filled with responses from people wanting to advertise their own article directories here.
To find good article directories, try getting the google toolbar to see the pagerank of the directories you are considering. The higher the pagerank as reported from the toolbar, the better.

If you would like to get a little more in depth and investigate the quality of a directory, you could actually spend some time browsing through the articles. Look to see what kind of articles that the editors of the directory are willing to accept. Are the articles written well? Are they written like an informational resource, or more like an advertisement. Do the articles contain spelling and grammar mistakes? The best directories are very picky about what articles they will publish. Good directories will check for spelling and grammar. They will also check for plagiarism or article duplication on other web sites.

One more important thing to look for is social network linking. A good directory should include easy one click sharing of articles on all the major social networks. These are buttons such as the facebook like button, or google + 1 buttons. These can cause your article to become a viral sensation on the social networks.

I do have a list of directories that I find are very good to use but I think sharing them here would send this topic off course. If anyone wants to use my list, send me a PM and I'll get back to you.

Ah, you bring up a good point regarding the spam that would be brought up as a result. My biggest problem with most article directories is that they are so filled with ads that usually the information is kind of skewed. Take, for example, ezinearticles. Basically unless I try really hard to concentrate on the center of the article I'm reading there, I get distracted constantly by the advertisements.

I'd definitely love to take a look at your list though!

[sheepdog 10]

Hey, what a great post! You've done a really good job of explaining exactly what a person needs to do, and did it in such a way that even a computer dummy like me could make sense of it. One part of it I am not at all familiar with are article directories or open ezines. How would a person go about finding those? Do you need to find ones that are specific to the articule you are writing, as in my case, an ezine that caters to dog information or are ezines just general information sites? Promoting a web site is really hard to do. I do appreciate all the ideas like yours that I find.

[rpgsearcherz 5]

Hey, what a great post! You've done a really good job of explaining exactly what a person needs to do, and did it in such a way that even a computer dummy like me could make sense of it. One part of it I am not at all familiar with are article directories or open ezines. How would a person go about finding those? Do you need to find ones that are specific to the articule you are writing, as in my case, an ezine that caters to dog information or are ezines just general information sites?
Promoting a web site is really hard to do. I do appreciate all the ideas like yours that I find.

To just find them in general, you can search for "article directories." The most well-known one (as far as I know) that covers all possible topics is ezinearticles.com

I'm sure there are some in your specific niche though, and they may be better in the sense that the people who visit them are looking for similar information to what you're offering, but at the same time the quality is probably a bit lower.

A majority of the article directories are going to be topic-insensitive though, taking in anything they can get.

[NateP 1]

Hey, what a great post! You've done a really good job of explaining exactly what a person needs to do, and did it in such a way that even a computer dummy like me could make sense of it. One part of it I am not at all familiar with are article directories or open ezines. How would a person go about finding those? Do you need to find ones that are specific to the articule you are writing, as in my case, an ezine that caters to dog information or are ezines just general information sites?
Promoting a web site is really hard to do. I do appreciate all the ideas like yours that I find.

It is true that there are a wide variety of different article directories online. The easiest to find will be the ones that are more general in topic. As for directories that are more specific to your niche, they are out there as rpgsearcherz has pointed out. Finding them can be a bit tricky though.

To find directories or ezines that cater to dog information, try searching google using terms such as: dog article directory, or submit pet articles. I have tried these two searches and they returned quite a few directories that allow article submission.

One alternate option is to use google blog search to find dog related blogs. Many of these blogs may allow guest posting. Often if this is the case, a link will be posted somewhere on the blog. You may also try contacting the blog owner and offering to guest post on their blog. If contacting the blog owner, include a copy of the article you wish to post, or a link for them to view the content before making their decision. Many blog owners welcome new and fresh content as long as it is well written and accurate.

I think I may need to write another tutorial outlining some article marketing strategies in more detail.

[rpgsearcherz 5]

It is true that there are a wide variety of different article directories online. The easiest to find will be the ones that are more general in topic. As for directories that are more specific to your niche, they are out there as rpgsearcherz has pointed out. Finding them can be a bit tricky though.
To find directories or ezines that cater to dog information, try searching google using terms such as: dog article directory, or submit pet articles. I have tried these two searches and they returned quite a few directories that allow article submission.

One alternate option is to use google blog search to find dog related blogs. Many of these blogs may allow guest posting. Often if this is the case, a link will be posted somewhere on the blog. You may also try contacting the blog owner and offering to guest post on their blog. If contacting the blog owner, include a copy of the article you wish to post, or a link for them to view the content before making their decision. Many blog owners welcome new and fresh content as long as it is well written and accurate.

I think I may need to write another tutorial outlining some article marketing strategies in more detail.

Ah, yes, guest posting is beneficial all-around as well, I completely agree. It gives the website owner the free content, and allows you to get your name/site out there a bit.

[sheepdog 10]

I'm glad we've had this topic and discusion. I was surfing for places to put ads on line the other day and actually ran across a site that you can right articlues for, and one they need on the site is one I can do with some real athourity on a subject I am well versed in, so with the incouragement from this discusion, I have added articule writing now on my to do list! Sadly, it's hard to find all the hours in the day I need, I seen to have dificulties just keeping up with posting here to pay for my web hosting. Oh well, I'll keep trying!

[mamer 0]

Very informing tutorial. Thank you.Just a question, would it help in boasting the search rank of your website to add links to the articles that you published in those directories.If it does I would expect an increase of traffic as well as you might get visitors coming to your website through the web search. Am I right?

[iGuest 3]

For new webmasters just getting started online, traffic generation is one of the biggest mysteries they face. Most new webmasters look for free advertising networks or maybe traffic exchange web sites. Rarely however does a new webmaster find a source of quality traffic for free.
One method for generating web site traffic that is unknown to most webmasters is a form of advertisement called article marketing. This form of advertising is very effective if done right and can be done for free. I am going to show you step by step how to get started generating traffic to your web site using this method.

How this all works is pretty simple. You will need to write articles that relate in some way to the topic of the web site that you want to promote. Writing the articles can be time consuming but your work will be rewarded later. Once you have some articles written that you feel are accurate and well written, you will write a small (about 2-3 sentence) bio about yourself and what you do.(your website) Include a link or maybe two within this bio to your web site. Now that you have all this done you will be submitting your article to article directories or open ezines and other similar sites. When you submit these articles you will also be submitting your bio which contains links to your web site. You can see how even in this short description, there is potential for traffic from this method.

Now I can show you step by step how to do this effectively to increase your web site traffic.

Step One: Research your topics.

The very first thing you need to consider is what you will write your articles about. Make a list of things that are related to the topic of your web site. Write down anything you can think of that is related even if the list gets huge. If your web site was about golf clubs for example, some related topics would be golf shirts, golf vacations, golf lessons or golf etiquette.

Once you have a good list made, prioritize the list putting the topics you know the most about at the top and working through the list. Once this is done, you should probably have at least 5 or 6 topics at the top of the list that you know a fair amount about. Start researching these top topics online using any sources you can find. Take notes of any interesting statistics or info that seemed surprising. Now that you have some research done and feel knowledgeable on these topics, you can move to the next step.

Step Two: Writing your first articles.

Now comes the creative part. I do understand that some people simply do not like writing or don't think they are any good at it. The truth is, writing is just as easy as talking. When you speak to your friends/family or co-workers do they understand you? Then you can write an effective article especially if you are working from the top of your list of topics which was prioritized in order of what you know the most about. Even if you struggle to get started, keep at it, its easier after you get started!

When writing your articles do not try and write your article like an advertisement. Write your article as a piece of information that you are trying to share with your readers. Put real information that your readers can use in some way. Avoid suggesting that your readers visit your web site. The little bio at the bottom of your article already has your link and by suggesting to your readers that they click it, you make your article look like spam. People looking for information want to feel that the information has come from a trustworthy source. If your article is very accurate and informative, you gain credibility to your reader and often they wish to learn more from you. This prompts many readers to click the link in your bio to learn more without the need for you to ask them to click it.

Write at least two or three articles for the topics you feel most comfortable about. After you have these articles written, try searching the internet for spell checkers, grammar checkers, and plagiarism checkers. You can find free online versions of all of these tools with a simple Google search using the terms above. Run each of the articles you have written through these tools and modify the articles accordingly. Even though you have written these articles yourself, you shouldn't skip the plagiarism checker. The reason for this is that the internet has millions upon millions of web sites on which someone may have written a very similar article. If your article looks to anyone that it could have been plagiarized, you will lose all your credibility and your articles might be denied or deleted.

Step Three: Finding good places to submit your articles.

Now up to know you will have done some pretty hard work. You've made your topic list, priorities it, researched a bunch of topics, written a bunch of articles, checked and edited the articles, and you still haven't gotten any more web site traffic. Well, patience my friend, we are getting closer.

Before you get all excited and start firing those articles off to any old directory or website you can find, you need to do more research. This time you will be using the search engines to find article directories, or open ezines. Take note of the ones that are in the top results of the major search engines. These are the directories that the search engines are currently sending the most traffic to! Take down a list of the top directories from each search engine and filter out the duplicates. These are the directories you will want to submit your articles to. Some of them will be free to submit, and some will be pay to submit. To start with go with the free ones. Be sure when submitting your articles that you read any submission guidelines and adjust your articles if need be to fit.

Don't submit your articles too many times. Only submit each article to a maximum of 3 different web sites. The reason for this is because we want your article to be a valuable source of unique information that is not available everywhere else. The search engines use bots and spiders to read the web sites you are submitting to. (we know this since they are highly ranked in search results) The bots/spiders are designed to look for unique content that has not been seen elsewhere. When the search engines find unique content, they tend to rank that site more highly than others with duplicated content. This means the search engines may send visitors directly to your article and if well written, will lead to many clicks on the link to your web site.

Step Four: Wash, rinse, repeat.

Really that is about all there is to it. Repeat the steps again and again. Submit new articles to the same places or to new places to see what helps. Beware though, when choosing a directory to submit to, avoid ones that automatically accept any article. Be picky, you are building a reputation here.

Now that is the basics of article marketing. Remember the goal here is not to coax people to click your link, it is to provide a source of information that is unique and will naturally lead the reader to consider you knowledgeable and trustworthy so they WANT to click your link.

I have used this method and it has worked very well for me. An example of one of my recent successes is a web site that I have recently started. In the first two days that my web site was live, I wrote six articles. I submitted these articles one each to six different article directories over the two days. I made sure the directories were high ranking on the search engines. It even took one day for the articles to be accepted and viewable on the directories. The next day I was pleased to find that my web site had 32 new members and I had orders to process! This is not a huge success but remember that was only six articles on six directories and not one of the articles asked the reader to visit my site.

Obviously this is not the only traffic generation method. Some of you may prefer other methods. For me though this is the backbone of my web promotion efforts and it always brings some level of success. I hope it will now do the same for you!

 

 

 

Thanks for sharing.It's very useful for beginners.Here i want to share my own way of increase web traffic.
Recently i started E-commerce website and everyone recommended me to get PPC since it drives traffic instantly.When i searched i found TheWebPole.com provided PPC at low cost with Standard SEO Plan included FREE,Real-time tracking and reporting.In this way i was able to drive traffic for my website.

[Deaziz 0]

I just ran into this and it's very helpful. I've always had trouble getting traffic to my website and I really want to keep a website running for a long time. I've had many before and had to shut them down because of lack of content. I am going to follow this and hopefully it will bring me some traffic . Thanks!

[xChellesei 0]

Wow, this is a very useful post! I have been thinking of setting up a website but I only know some ways of advertising it for free. For a beginner and a frugal person like me, your method contributed to my knowledge and helped me save my money. During my free time, maybe I should try writing at least three articles. I just hope that my schedule and mood will allow me to produce interesting and informative works. Thank you, buddy!