If you pay attention to only one traffic generating idea, this is it!
Articles are by far my number one traffic generator for my sites at
this point. I still work the other methods, obviously, but writing
articles is what I concentrate on.
Why articles?
Because they work so well, but so many are afraid of them.
That's right, afraid. Afraid to write an article because they don't
feel they know enough on their chosen topics, or that their grammar won't
be perfect, or that their English teacher will pick apart their spelling.
If you feel you don't know enough about a topic you have the most
powerful research tool at your disposal...the Internet!
Spend time searching the Net and finding information to put into your
article. You're not looking to plagiarize anyone's work but rather to
learn more about the subject.
This research can reward you in many ways:
- The knowledge you gain will enable you to write your article, or
several articles.
- The more you learn about your topic the more you become a trusted
resource to your visitors and subscribers.
- Keep a file with the links that you visit and find valuable and you
can write another article with just links to great places to visit
related to that topic. You can also use these to create a links page on
your site.
If you are worried about grammar and spelling just paste your article
into Microsoft Word and use the suggestions that it provides. Better yet,
have someone you know read through it for you and make corrections.
Take your time with your article. There is no deadline for getting your
article ready so don't feel pressured. Work on it a little bit at a time.
The more effort you put into it the more reward you will get from it.
Then again maybe you have no problems writing articles but instead
don't feel they are worth the time and effort required.
Writing articles is VERY MUCH worth the effort! Here are just a few
ways:
- More content for your website
- Keyword rich content to feed the search engines
- When someone else publishes your article on their site or in their
newsletter you get more traffic, more exposure for you and your site,
and more links to your website
And once you put together an article you can benefit from it for many
months to come. I get email asking permission to reprint articles that I
wrote over a year ago!
The information is still just as relevant now as it was back then, but
the point is that the minimal effort I put into it is rewarding me over a
year later.
How many banner ad campaigns can promise that?
Also, many people don't realize that you can even benefit from posting
other author's articles on your site.
I'm not saying pretend they are yours, that will get you in trouble.
What I mean is that you can pick up additional search engine traffic
because their articles will have keywords in them. Add some good meta tags
to the pages and submit away.
I have a couple of articles on my site written by various authors that
happen to rank very well for certain keywords.
Since the articles are related to my site content, this is free
targeted traffic, and I didn't even have to go through the effort of
writing the articles.
So get over your fears, get prepared for writer's cramp, and dive into
one of the greatest traffic generators for 2002 and beyond!
