One of the best ways to build free traffic to your blog site is with Article Marketing.
There are many article directory sites where articles can be submitted by the article writer. There are always people searching for content for their newsletters and sites. When the article seeker selects an article to use from the article directory, they are required to keep the article intact, including the resource box which is the author’s advertisement for their site or promotion.
Your article should be original material and relevant to your blog topic and should provide good quality information. The usual length is approximately 500 words, although between about 400 and 700 would be acceptable.
With each article submission, you will have a “resource box” to be provided at the end of your article. This is where you promote yourself and your site, and provide your url. It is good to give added motivation for the article reader to go to your blog site, perhaps the lure of further information, possibly where the first half is provided in the artilce and the further step is at the blog, or it may be the lure of a promotional offer.
To submit an article, establish an account at several of the article directory sites, of which http://www.ezinearticles.com is likely to be top of your list. There are also article directories specific to particular markets. To find these search “your market”+”article directory”.
If you are intending to pursue article marketing as an ongoing marketing method, you may want to establish an article submission account (click here for the best option), where your article will automatically be submitted to many directories in one easy action. This is a very useful tool, and very, very time saving, however, there is a cost attached, but it is good value considering the traffic potential of article marketing. Utilising this service for a three month period will cost $99 (currently) which if used effectively can result in a very good flow traffic boost and therefore great value.
The writing of articles for submission to Article Directories, can also be outsourced. http://www.elance.com is one of the options for seeking writers for articles, blog posts, ebooks, etc. The details of the required job are posted, and writers put in their bids and provide their portfolios, work history, references. An acceptable amount to pay for an article would be $12-$15 Start with a small request to assess the quality of the writings by the writer whose bid you have chosen.
It can take several weeks for articles to get into circulation and start creating resulting visits to your site, but the great benefit of an article is that once it is out there, it can just continue to spread and generate traffic. It can have a multiplier effect as it permeates the net. The better the quality and content of the article, the better the traffic results, if the article is adequately distributed into the article directories.
As well as generating traffic, the articles are placing the links back to your blog site from their various locations. The links coming out from the article directories are good strong links.
For some bloggers, article marketing is the main focus for sourcing traffic to the blog site. By submitting articles regularly for at least a few weeks to a few months, you will have build a good platoon of “article soldiers” out there working at building traffic generation. Three articles a week, submitted over alternate days, will create a good solid base. Even one or two articles a week will be very beneficial.
To Your Article Marketing and Blogging Success,
Julie