Do you have a website that could use more traffic? More than likely you answered yes. It is true that traffic is the life blood of any business. Without traffic there isn't much you can do even if you have the greatest product in the world. Traffic = money it's just that simple. But, how to I get traffic to my site? There are many ways to accomplish this task you can join free traffic exchanges, you can pay for advertising like Google PPC (Pay Per Click) or you can advertise for free writing articles.
Article Marketing is a win-win practice for every business owner. You can be taking advantage of this awesome low cost marketing technique - even if you think you can't write! People that say they can't write are only lying to themselves. Think about it for a moment, whatever you are promoting chances are that someone else has written an article about it. Go to ezinearticles.com and do a search on your topic and I am sure that there will be some information. Then all you have to do is read the article and take some notes and you are up and running. I am not saying take their article and reproduce it but, you can rewrite it in your own words. You see most of the work has already been done for you. There are lots of article directories out there just go to Google and do a search for article directories and you should get a huge list. That is basically how I got started and along the way you just get better and better at writing articles.

************************************************************* TIP # 1 ************************************************************* Research! If you are going to be writing articles on something make sure you research the topic before you start writing. You want to know what you are writing about so you don't come off looking like a total idiot. People will know if you are just throwing something together to make a few bucks or if you actually know what you are talking about. Trust, it is the main ingredient in article marketing to be successful. If people don't trust what you are saying then they are not going to click on your link to see what it is you are offering. If you need a place to start your research just go to Google and type in a search and you should find lots of information available. Do yourself a favor and research your topic first.

************************************************************* TIP # 2 ************************************************************* Keywords and keyword phrases. An article must always be centered on the keywords and keyword phrases. As each website visitor goes to a site, there are those who are just merely browsing but actually looking for a specific something. When this happens, a searcher usually goes to a search engine and types in the keywords they are looking for (e.g. Ford F150, Real Estate Agent and Etcetera). It could be anything they want. The important thing to remember is that you have keywords that are related to your site. There are a lot of keyword generators on line that you can use for this again go to Google and do a look-up on free keyword generators. I know that Overture has a good one.

Know that you have your keywords and keyword phrases, you must use them fully. An article must have good keyword density for a search engine to "feel" its presence. Articles should at least have ten to fifteen percent of keyword density in their content for search engines to rank a site high in their search results. Getting a high rank is what articles do best for a site. Keyword density is the number of times a keyword or keyword phrase is used.

************************************************************* TIP # 3 ************************************************************* Read and spell-check everything. Just because you don't have experience writing articles doesn't mean you have to appear like a newbie. Use proper grammar and spell-check everything you write. You can use MS Word for that but, do not save the article in Word always cut and paste it to a plain text editor like Notepad. Word sometimes will put in hidden properties and cause the article directory to kick it out. There are also online checkers like spellcheck.com etc... You should always re-read everything you write just to make sure it makes sense and is put together in a logical manner.

************************************************************** TIP # 4 ************************************************************** Submitting to article directories. After you have proof read your article and you are happy with it now is the time to submit your article for exposure. There are literally hundreds of free article submission sites on the internet here are a few to get you going: ezinearticles.com, goarticles.com, articledashboard.com, articlebiz.com. If you want more go to Google and do a search on article directories. This is where it can get a bit tedious since there are so many directories and you spend about 10 - 15 minutes at each directory submitting so some people would rather use an article submitter. You can if you choose but, I like to submit to each one. There are lots of article submitters out there and some are even free but, remember you still have to sign up at all of those directories and submit to them one at a time. The choice is yours.

It's well known in the article marketing industry that the short, 400-600 word articles, generally get the most traffic. People have short attention spans and they want quick, easily absorbed tidbits, not long in depth quality articles.

Article Marketing works slowly and you shouldn't expect to get a load of traffic overnight. If you work at it and continue adding articles consistently, you will eventually receive a sizeable amount of free traffic. You should try and write 1 article a day with that you should earn some good money. The more articles you write and submit the money and traffic you will make.

If you would like more information on writing articles then I would recommend Nicole Dean. She has been in the article business for years and really knows her stuff. Her E-Course is the only one that I have taken and it is in my opinion the best available. She takes you by the hand and leads you every step of the way.