How to Use Articles to Drive Website Traffic

Use Articles to Drive Traffic to Your Website:

I’ve been “working the net” for years and I do use many different promotional tactics to drive people to my sites, but the one I want to talk about with you in this report is “article writing.” I’m a big proponent of it and have had my articles spread wide and far online and benefited from free traffic and name exposure at the same time.

Article Writing Defined:

So what is article writing? And why is it such a good way to promote a website? Glad you asked. The Internet is information and there are many people in need of that information for their websites, blogs, and ezines (aka newsletters). Sure, many of them do create their own content but there are only so many hours in the day, so many publishers are on the constant lookout for good quality material they can utilize quickly and easily. That’s where you come in.

You write an article, and attach a resource box, or what some refer to as a signature line. This includes your name and a link to whatever URL you’re trying to drive traffic to and send it out to be freely published online.

Format & Length:

A good length for articles that will be published online is between 500 to 1000 words, with the average article falling between 500 and 800. You don’t want to go too far past the 1,000-word mark or it will be too long for most editors and site owners to use. In the event that you write a very lengthy article you break it up into two or three parts. I’ve done this many times, and have reaped the additional benefit of giving me more mileage out of the one article — because instead of one article, I
have two or three to distribute.

Importance of a Good Title :

When writing your article, don’t underestimate the power of a headline. A good headline will catch the reader’s eye, drawing him in, making him want to continue reading. You’ll be competing with hundreds of other articles, so you need to make sure yours will stand out from the crowd. Try to stay under seven words if you can.

Last but not the least Important About the Resource Box:

We’re not through yet. Now we’re going to discuss the most important aspect of your article. It’s called a “signature line,” or sometimes a “resource box.” This is the most critical part of the article promotion strategy, so you don’t want to blow it here. The resource box is attached at the bottom of your article, and you need to include strict guidelines that anyone may reprint the article as long as your signature line is kept intact. This is your promotional opportunity.

A signature line should be about three to four lines in length. Again, it should be formatted at about 60 to 65 characters per line. Similar to a small ad, if your resource box is good it will trigger people to click over to your site. Picture this, someone reads your article and thinks to herself, “This is really good, I want to know more about the person who wrote it,” She looks at your signature line next. If it’s
well written and triggers her curiosity, she’ll click over to your website which you’ve included to learn more. So what should you include in your signature line? Your name (of course!), your url
and if at all possible, something free. Face it, people love freebies so if you have something to give away, a resource box is a good place to promote it. When including your web address, make sure to include the whole http://www part so that the link is clickable.

I would advise against including an email address unless you want to be spammed for all of eternity. Once your articles are posted online, the spam bots will pick up your address and add it to their lists, and before you know it you’ll be getting so much spam you won’t be able to find your “real mail.” So don’t invite your readers to email you; send directly to your sign up page instead. Believe me, I’ve learned this lesson the hard way. It’s the same with using an auto responder service. If you ever
change companies or the one you’re using goes “belly up,” you’ll have a bunch of useless signature lines floating around in cyberspace.

~ by Ravi Shanker on March 6, 2008.