Welcome back to Ethically promoting your website. In the last four posts we have briefly looked at the following:-

Ethically promoting your website ~ Part 1 ~ URL Age

Ethically promoting your website ~ Part 2 ~ URL Indexing

Ethically promoting your website ~ Part 3 ~ Paid Advertising

Ethically promoting your website ~ Part 4 ~ Free Advertising

In this installment we will look at the power of Online Articles and how they can promote your website long term.

The power of article writing

The power of a well written online article can give lasting benefit to your website promotion. Online articles submitted to article directories can continue to promote your website for years. A friend commented recently that they still get free traffic from articles they had written three years before.

How does article writing help promote my website?

Each online article you write will have it’s own URL address and has the capability to rank highly in search engines much more highly than a new website, no matter how great it is. The reason for this is that article directories have established URL age online, are trusted and regarded highly by the search engines for relevant content and provide thousands of Backlinks. All of these factors will benefit your online article URL.

What about Article Writing style?

Many people are put off by article writing because they have little experience in their adult life writing for an audience. Article writing is a learned skill and some article directories provide free training on how to write online articles. Training is provided free to their members and assists you develop and also help the article directory as the content of the online articles will be improved. A key thing to keep in mind is that your online articles need to be easily understood by 13-15year old. It’s a great idea to have a 13-15 year old proof read your articles to make sure they understand what you have written about.

Structure of an online article.

The structure of an online article should include a hook in the first paragraph. A hook is an interesting point or question that makes the reader want to continue reading to the end. The use of bullet points and subtitles can break up the text and make it easier to read. The size of a good article needs to be no less than 300 words and no more than 1000 words. A good rule of thumb is 500 to 700 words is a good read. If you think that is a lot, it’s not really I have already written 438 words in this post and it’s taken about 5 minutes. I have been writing online articles and blog posts for about 4 months so there’s proof that it doesn’t take long to get the hang of writing online articles.

Article writing points to remember.

• Article directories are quite specific about what they will and will not allow, always read and understand their terms and conditions.
• Article directories will not jeopardize their high standing in the online community by publishing articles of a poor quality standard. They may reject your first online article, do not be concerned about this; it happens all of the time. They will give you instruction about what needs to be amended, when you make the necessary adjustments re-submit your work.
• Most article directories will not allow self promotion in the title or body of the article. This means that if you are describing a particular website then it is likely that the article will not be published. Again check the terms and conditions.
• Most article directories are interested in their authors and will provide you with a profile area. Make sure you fill out your profile details truthfully. Your readers will want to know more about you.
• Article directories provide an area at the bottom of your article to add relevant information and this is where you can add your website address or URL. If readers like what they have read they will visit your website. Make sure that what you write about is relevant to your website.

Important article directory information ~ Do not submit online articles until you read this.

For each of the article directories you will need to register as an Author and follow the registration instructions. It is important to note that each online article you submit must be original content. That means that if you write an article it must be your own work and that online article must only be submitted to one article directory. You can change your content and keep it on the same topic however it is best to write and new article for each submission to article directories.

Outsourcing article writing

If you think that you are unable to gain the skills for effective article writing there are options to outsource the article to free lance writers. In this instance you would make contact with a free lance writing agency and give the specifications as follows:-

• Topic, what is your article about?
• How many words you would like?
• List the keywords that you would like used.
• How often the keywords are used in the text.
• Request original written content, you are paying for a service, it needs to be original!

The costs vary, you can get a series of articles written (3-5) for a set price and they may be as little as $10.00 each, however I have heard that the average is between $20.00 to $30.00 dollars. I personally have never used free lance writing services, but it is a viable option for those starting out.

When you receive the article from the free lance writers you always need to proof read it carefully. You may need to make adjustments when you get the article back from a free lance writers. There are a number of good free lance writing agencies available online. An example of a good free lance writing agency is Elance there logo and link to their site is below:-

Top 5 Article Directories.

Here are the top 5 article directories. To be honest I only use a couple of these regularly, however the results over a few months are encouraging and it does make article writing a worth while strategy.

Ezine Articles

Articlebase

Go Articles

Article Dashboard

Article Alley

Number 5 to 20 top Article Directories

• http://www.articlesnatch.com/
• http://www.amazines.com/
• http://www.IdeaMarketers.com/
• http://www.isnare.com/
• http://www.articlecity.com/
• http://www.Articlecube.com/
• http://www.articlebiz.com/
• http://www.easyarticles.com/
• http://www.free-articles-zone.com
• http://www.abcarticledirectory.com
• http://www.a1articles.com
• http://www.dime-co.com/
• http://www.articlegeek.com/
• http://www.articleinsider.com/
• http://www.articleslash.net/

This concludes the series of ethically promoting your website. Of course there are many other ways to promote your website and we will explore some of these ideas in later posts. If you are interested in other ways to learn how to ethically promote your website visit the “Year of the Affiliate” official website by clicking on the image below:-

I hope you enjoyed his post about the of the power of writing online articles.

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