Here’s how it works.

1. You write an article.
2. You submit it to article directories.
3. Web publishers (website owners & bloggers) grab your article from the article databases and use your article on their sites free of charge.
4. Inside your article, at the end, you include a resource box that contains a link to your website. When the article is published, that portion must tag along and be published, too.

Your link tags along with your article and you get FREE advertising.

Want an example of a great resource box? Here’s one.

Bill Davis is the author of “How to Profit from Small Reports” – if you can write 7-15 page small reports, you can earn a living online working just a few hours each week from your home. Look for his EXCLUSIVE formula “Creating Profits with Small Reports” at http://www.profitablesmallreports.com (fictional)

That would be an example of an author bio.

Here’s another:

http://www.ladypens.com/plr-articles-how-to-choose-a-good-service/

At the end, it says:
Would you like to learn more about how to use PLR articles in your business? Nicole Dean welcomes you to sign up for her free ecourse at www.EasyPrivateLabelArticles.com If you’re ready to start shopping, just stop by www.EasyPLR.com – where you’ll find high-quality PLR articles sold in very limited quantities.

So, everyone who re-publishes that article will include the author blurb and both authors will get lots of free traffic.

There are three main ways article marketing can generate traffic for you:

• People click your link from the article directory and end up on your website.
• Webmasters publish your article (with your link intact) on their own site.
• Your search engine position increases because you’ll gain more backlinks.

That makes article marketing an excellent strategy.

You can read the rest of this post by subscribing to my TinyLetters service.

I just watched a funny video. It's good because it covers something that we're all apprehensive about but it also highlights some neat technology and covers some solid ground.

Watch it–you'll enjoy it. Love the uncanny resemblance of the nemesis to Steve Jobs. I wonder if that was intentional…?

On to the subject of the Title! Is Article Marketing Dead?

I'd say no, but it's clearly lost its favor among the many ways to drive traffic to your site and get valuable backlinks. Whereas a few months ago, if you were to publish a series of articles on Ezinearticles.com, your site would have gotten fair traffic and quality backlinks for doing so, now you're left with a much devalued backlink portfolio.

This is what happens when you don't OWN your own content.

You place your fate in the hands of an article directory that stands in good stead with the search engines and then–BAM!–the search engine or engines take a disliking to your article directory and all of a sudden, your backlinks suck.

Ezinearticles.com used to be an authority–get a few backlinks from it and you were sitting pretty. Now, those backlinks, while they still count–don't count for nearly as much.

It's as if your "referral quotient" went from Dr Drew to Dr Kevorkian.

So, is there a reason to even do article marketing any more? Sure. But your strategy and tactics must change. More in a later post.

Here's another–more informative and less entertaining–video from none other than Google God, Matt Cutts:

1. Crawled
2. Indexed
3. Ranked

{{{*}}}One of the quickest and most effective ways to get a new page or post on Google is to write an article and submit it to one of the popular article directories (ezinearticles, go articles, or SearchWarp, my favorite because it's the fastest).

Here's how it works (and this is really simple).

Write an article about a topic that is relevant to your site. In the resource box at the bottom of the article, include a link back to the post or page you want Google to 1. crawl, 2. index, 3. rank.

In a matter of minutes, you'll find that your web page or post is already on Google. You can check by performing the following search at Google:

In the search box, simply type in the full URL to the post or page you inserted in the resource box of your very recently-submitted article. Make sure you include the http:// part.

I know, super simple.

1. It keeps our writing skills sharp
2. We get backlinks
3. Other website owners can pick up our articles and put them on their sites.

All in all, a pretty cool deal.

Everybody uses Ezinearticles.com, too. They're the "big boys" in the Article Directory world. Think "Google" or "800 Pound Gorilla." That kind of big, relatively speaking.

They got big in large part because they control the quality of the articles they publish. I can write an article for GoArticles.com, for example, and — BAM! — it's live. It could be full of misspellings, grammatical errors, factual errors — Nobody cares there.

However, not so at EZA. It still takes them a freaking week to review my submission (I'm too cheap to buy my way in via their "Premium" service), only to have one of their reviewers come back at me with something along the lines of, "Your article is great. There's only one teeny tiny problem."

Great. Here it comes.

And that's exactly how it went down today.

I got a note from somebody at EZA requesting that I fill out one of their forms "because there was something wrong with my submission." Note that they didn't have any issue number or reference identifier at all in their email to me.

So I filled out the form. The funniest part about it was they actually asked me why I was filling out the form! My reply:

Because you asked me to.

Silly rabbits.

So I waited.

And waited.

I waited some more.

Finally, I sent them another note. This is what happened (see the screenshot  where hilarity ensued).

Here's a copy of the exchange (follow along if you're easily amused like I am — otherwise, move along, there's nothing to see here). Note that I put in bold those parts I thought were especially funny. I fully expect to be banned from EZA before the day is over.

Except that they probably won't get to it until I don't care any more.

*********************************************************************************

Hi Bill,

Thank you for your emails.

Please refrain from sending multiple emails regarding the same issue. We will get to your email as soon as we are able to.

Your article "How to Set Up an Autoresponder" has been placed in
problem status due to the link:

http://www.internet-marketing-muscle.com/

This is problematic as the page contains information on SEnuke, which we are not able to accept. We recommend editing the page to remove this content or linking to another site you have a vested interest in.

Thank you,

(Name withheld to protect the uninitiated)

*********************************************************************************

My reply:

Seriously? What if I said something bad about SEnuke? Just because there is a mention of it makes it a bad page?

I'm not changing my page to accommodate EZA's ridiculous policies. Sorry. No can do.

Next thing you know, my page on President Obama gets flagged, too, because somebody at EZA gets his tighty whities in a bunch. Sheesh. You guys are ridiculous!

Bill

*********************************************************************************

Now, I could have just sucked it up; after all, I shouldn't really mess with 800 pound gorillas. But I'm an idiot.

After careful consideration, I attempted to circumvent their recommendation (sort of) and put in a link to a "special" page just for visitors who got to my page through their site.

I am not going to change my website just to accommodate their "standards." I have my own. I don't need them. They certainly don't need me.

If we can cooperate, fine. All the better. But I'm not compromising my standards to suit theirs. They can piss up a rope for all I care!

A blog without readers is pretty much useless. If you’ve been blogging for a while and have only been getting a trickle of viewers to your posts, you need to put a traffic building plan into action. Building traffic is just as an important skill to bloggers as writing quality posts is. Many bloggers are terrific at creating content but don’t know a thing about building traffic. Here is a quick guide to the five most popular (and most effective) traffic building techniques.

1. Get SOCIAL!

Social networking and blogging go hand in hand. Your blog posts can be distributed across social networking channels in many different ways. Sign up for Twitter and tweet about your posts as soon as they are added to your blog. Update your Facebook status with a link to your new blog posts. Submit your stories to Digg.com, Reddit.com and StumbleUpon.com. Remember that in order for social networking to be effective, you need to participate with other people on your list. If you visit their links and respond to their updates, they’ll be likely to do the same for you.

Check out the bottom of this post. See the little icons underneath "Share and Enjoy?" That's the "Sociable" plugin for WordPress. I also employ Hootsuite to automatically update my Twitter status and my Facebook fan page. I'll put together a tutorial on how to use Hootsuite for this purpose if you express an interest.

2.Get SEEN!

Find blogs in your niche and start following their posts. Make sure to add insightful and interesting comments on their posts. Not only will the blog owner take notice and visit your blog, other commenters will visit your blog to get more of your great insight into the topic. Don’t spread yourself too thin with blog commenting, but make it a point to comment on a few related blogs each week.

Not only will you get direct traffic, but you'll also get valuable, relevant backlinks from commenting! Win-win, baby!

3.Get SYNDICATED!

RSS feeds are a way to syndicate your blog’s content so that it is sent to many different people in their own blog readers or on their own sites. Most blogging systems have RSS feeds automatically included but you can add a lot more functionality to your feed by using a free service like FeedBurner.com. With FeedBurner you can add things like sharing the feed via e-mail so it will pull in new readers and encourage previous visitors to come back to the blog again.

See the little icon in the upper righthand corner of the page? That is the RSS feed link for Internet Marketing Muscle. You should click on it

4.Get PUBLISHED!

You may think that by being a blogger you can ignore article marketing. However, you can get a lot  of traffic to your blog by tweaking some of your popular blog posts and adding them to article directories. You can post your popular posts as articles with a link back to your blog in many different article directories. Not only will you get a valuable backlink but your article may also be used by ezine owners which will bring you more traffic.

Plus, your article will get direct traffic from visitors at the article directories. Another win-win. Except this time it's win cubed – you get a backlink, direct traffic, possible syndication, AND you will become known as an expert in your field. But don't call yourself a guru! Let others do that

Oh, yeah, you also get to leverage content you've already written! That's 5 benefits to article marketing! Very powerful stuff.

5.Get BACKLINKS!

Speaking of backlinks, you should work to build backlinks to your blog through several different means. By creating backlinks to your blog, you’ll improve your blog’s ranking in search engine results. You can get lots of traffic from search engines if you are within the first group of search results for your keywords.

Check out 5 x 5 A System for Building Backlinks for a simple backlink-building system.

These five ways of building traffic can be used over and over again to help build traffic to your blog and increase your readership.
 

Here's how it works.

1. You write an article.
2. You submit it to article directories.
3. Web publishers (website owners & bloggers) grab your article from the article databases and use your article on their sites free of charge.

Inside your article, at the end, you include a resource box that contains a link to your website. When the article is published, that portion must tag along and be published, too.

Your link tags along with your article and you get FREE advertising.

Want an example?

I'll give you a few.

http://www.123webmarketing.com/articles/make-money-launch.html

This is the link to one of Jimmy D. Brown's articles.

You see at the end? It says…

Jimmy D. Brown is the author of "Small Reports Fortune" – if you can write 7-15 page small reports, you can earn a living online working just a few hours each week from your home. Look for his EXCLUSIVE formula "Creating A Six-Figure Income With Small Reports" at www.SmallReportsFortune.com.

That would be an example of an author bio.

Here's another:
http://www.ladypens.com/plr-articles-how-to-choose-a-good-service/

At the end, it says:
Would you like to learn more about how to use PLR articles in your business? Nicole Dean welcomes you to sign up for her free ecourse at www.EasyPrivateLabelArticles.com If you’re ready to start shopping, just stop by www.EasyPLR.com – where you’ll find high-quality PLR articles sold in very limited quantities.

So, everyone who re-publishes those article will include the author blurb and both authors will get lots of free traffic.

There are three main ways article marketing can generate traffic for you:

• People click your link from the article directory and end up on your website.
• Webmasters publish your article (with your link intact) on their own site)
• Your search engine position increases because you'll gain more backlinks.

That makes article marketing an excellent strategy.

Tip #1 – Do your keyword research

One of the most important things you can do to make sure your articles do well is keyword research. Since people use keywords to search for information in the search engines like Google, you'll want to target appropriate keywords if you wish to show up at the top of the results pages.

You can find relevant keywords in many different ways, but the easiest way is to use Google’s research tool.

You can find it at: http://adwords.google.com/select/keywordtoolexternal

Simply type in a keyword for your website and Google will give you many keyword ideas.

Example: If you've got a website about pet recipes, you would enter terms like “cooking pet food”, “homemade pet food”, “natural pet food', “cook dog food”, etc.

Google also gives you the numbers that tell you how often people search for each term. That way you know the keywords you’re targeting are worth your efforts.

Another important piece of the puzzle is figuring out how much competition there is for each keyword. If you are targeting words that have too much competition it's going to be harder for you to reach the top of the search engine results pages. Don't worry about that happening, because it’s easy to figure out how much competition there is.

Simply go to Google and type in your keyword surrounded by quote marks. The results that pop up are the other sites that are specifically targeting that term.

Example: When I search for “Pet recipes” I see there are 66,600 webpages that are already listed for that term.

Now that you have these keywords you can use them to give you a basis for your articles. It’s easiest to choose one keyword per article and focus the topic around that keyword. Remember to put the same term in your title as well.

Tip #2 -Write your articles for the reader –>

There are many people who think that in order to rank highly in search engines, they need to stuff their keyword in their article an excessive amount of times. This is definitely not the best way to attract readers or get traffic to your website.

The search engines are also getting smarter and they know when you’re trying to game them.

It is much better to weave your keywords in more naturally. This will serve both the search engines and your readers. There is no set keyword density that works well, but many experts suggest you stick to around 2 to 5%. That means for every hundred words you would include the keyword about 2 to 5 times.

Remember — the search engines can tell if you’re trying to stuff your keyword in your article. Their main goal is to provide a good user experience for people who use their search engine, and your main goal is to get people to your website.

It makes sense, then, that you would strive to provide good content that the search engines will like and that people find useful when they visit your website.

Tip #3 – Submit to the right article directories

There are many article directories, but not all of them are worth your time. Since you're trying to get traffic to your website, you want to find the very best ones. It can be hard to choose since the search engine’s “love” for these directories seems to change all the time. Still, there are a few that you can always count on.

These include:

• EzineArticles.com
• GoArticles.com
• ArticleDashboard.com
• Buzzle.com

If you open an account at these different directories and start a regular submission schedule, you’ll find that you start getting visitors to your website.

Since these are people who are looking for exactly what you’re offering, your conversions should be great as well.

Tip #4 – Focus on your author’s resource box

One of the most important article marketing tips you can follow is to focus on your author’s resource box. This is your "take" for your site, whereas the actual article body is your "give" to the directory.

Your author's resource box should contain a compelling reason for people to continue on to your website. You may talk a little about yourself, but it really has to be more about the reader and what he/she wants.

For example, if your website is offering a solution for people suffering from acne, you want to give them a reason to visit. Clearly, you need to let them know that you have the answer they are looking for in order to get them to visit your website.

A huge part of crafting a great resource box is including one or more links to your website. Different directories have different rules about this, but the standard is to allow you to include two links. You want to surround these links in what is called "anchor text." This is simply a way for you to name the link to let the search engines know exactly what your site is about.

Here is an example of anchor text:

If you want the search engines to know your site is about acne treatments you would type:

<a href="http://acnesite.com">best acne treatments</a>

This would help boost your rankings for the keyword "best acne treatments."

Tip #5 – Submit many articles

There are webmasters who think that they can boost their search engine rankings and get tons of article directory visitors to their site just by submitting an article or two. If only this were true. Unfortunately, this isn’t the case at all. You need to sustain an active level of submission to stay at the top of the search engines.

That doesn’t mean you need to spend your life writing articles. As long as you’re consistent in your efforts and don’t stop at just a few articles you’ll likely see great results. Still, those who submit many articles over a long amount of time usually see higher levels of traffic.

You’ll find that the number of articles you need to submit really depends on the niche you‘re in. There are some niches out there where just one or two articles a month will do. There are other niches where it’s ultra-competitive, so you’ll need to submit more articles, more often.

The recommendation by EasyArticleMarketing.com is to try to submit one article per week, every week. If that's too much, then shoot for 2 articles per month, every month. The key is to be consistent.

Tip #6 – Re-purpose your content

Since your main goal is to get more traffic, you’ll want to use your content in as many different ways as possible. It’s no use to just write an article one time, submit it to one directory, and expect to get traffic. It’s a much better use of your time to use your content in more than one way. After all — you still own the article.

In fact, many people are finding that it actually increases their rankings greatly if they use the same article at more than one article directory. There is some debate about this, so you might find that you want to rewrite it a little bit before submitting it to another directory. Still, this saves you a lot of time.

Three article submission services that have grown to get a lot of respect over the years are:

Isnare: Submits to many publishers for a very reasonable price. You can learn more about this submission service at http://easyplr.com/isnare

Article Marketer Service: Offers a free trial. Definitely worth trying just for that reason. http://easyplr.com/AM

Unique Article Submitter: This is great if you are concerned about duplicate content. http://easyplr.com/unique

Beware signing up with other services until you check them out. These three are respected and updated constantly.

You should also take the content that you submitted to the directories and put it on your own website. This updates your site and shows the search engines that you are constantly adding new content. Adding new content often helps you get "spidered" (visited by the search engines) more frequently. The more frequently you are spidered, the faster you can rank for new content and the faster you can make money.

It’s true — content really does make the web go round. The more content you have on your websites, the more chances you have to get traffic. People are on the web to find information so be sure to offer them lots of quality articles on your websites.

Tip #7 – Don’t give it all away

A common mistake that many people make when they are using article marketing as a form of traffic generation is giving away too much information in the article body. That doesn’t mean that you don’t want to offer quality writing to your readers, but your main goal is to get them to visit your site.

That's why you'll want to write your articles to entice the reader. A good way to make this easy is to follow the A.I.D.A format of writing articles. This stands for attention, interest, desire, action.

A. This means you want to capture their attention first with a compelling headline and a great opening.
I. Then, you want to maintain their interest by showing them how important what you’re about to say is.
D. Next, you’ll want to increase their desire for visiting your website. You can do this by handing out a solution or piece of information, but indicate that you have addressed the rest of the information on your site.
A. This is a great way to get people to click on your author’s resource box — the action you want — and to get more people to visit your website.

It’s not at all uncommon to get a click-through rate of around 40% if you use the AIDA method.

Tip #8 – Brand yourself as an expert

One of the best perks about writing a lot of articles is that people start to recognize you as an expert. This is an excellent thing for you, because it means you’ll get a lot more traffic to your site. In fact, if people are impressed enough by what you have to say and what they find at your website you’ll discover that more and more people start to link to you and recommend you to others. When this happens, it becomes like a snowball effect of traffic.

The fact of the matter is, you are an expert because you’ve written so many articles and you know so much about the topic. That’s another reason why it’s so important to take advantage of the author’s resource box, because it really helps to brand your website and your name.

That way people start to recognize you as the authority.

Tip #9 – Research the competition

You know what you are doing to generate traffic, but it can be even more helpful to know what your competitors are doing. This is especially true if you know of a website that is ranking especially high in the search engines. You can map what they’ve done based on their articles, and tweak their strategies to perfection for your own uses.

For example, if you go to ezinearticles.com and search for the most viewed articles in your niche, you can usually determine what other websites are doing to rank so highly.

• You might take a look at the keywords they’ve used in the title.
• Notice the way they've crafted their article.
• Examine the resource box.
• You can also look at their profile and see just how many articles they have submitted.
• Check out the website they are linking to as well.

That way you can find out their search engine rankings in Google to get a feel for what these rankings are doing for them.

Tip #10 – Pay attention to your profile

This is something that many article marketers forget about. If you don’t set up your profile, people are going to be less likely to trust you. The more people trust you, the more likely they are to go to your website. Setting up a profile might seem trivial, but it actually has a lot to do with the kind of traffic you may receive.

This doesn't mean you have to give away a lot of information about yourself. But it does help prove yourself as an expert. Remember — people visit the article directories frequently. If they start to like your writing they may subscribe to your articles (an option available at many directories). Your chances of them doing this greatly increases once you’ve added information and a picture to your profile.

Quite frequently if a person finds ONE article they like that you've written, they'll seek out others. However, if they go to your profile to do so, and there's no picture, they may lose trust that you're a real person with a real business.

Here's an example of a great author profile:
http://www.ladypens.com/author/arika-lewis/

No, this doesn’t really help your search engine rankings (unless the directory allows a website link within the profile) but it does help with article directory visitor trust.

Writing an article for article marketing purposes is a great way to market your product, service, blog, or website. Content is what makes the Internet world go ‘round. Without information, the World Wide Web would be a boring place. The net is ever growing and expanding and it’s because of content it will continue to do so.

Remember, “Content is King.” If you keep that in mind in all of your Internet Marketing pursuits, you will be successful (combined with a little luck, determination, hard work, and diligence).

That’s all fine and dandy, but because of this fact, there is a lot of information on the same topic flowing around out there. How do you make yours the information people find, read, and continue to come back for?

Give your readers content full of quality information they are actually looking for – that’s how!

There are many ways to get your article noticed and in the hands (or on the computer screens) of your target market. I’m going to give you four specific areas to focus on that will greatly improve the odds that your article will be read, and – at the same time – you will create a relationship with your prospects that can last a lifetime.

Know What You’re Talking About

Really?

Research is a word that many people dread. Most of those who shy away from research have yet to recognize its true value. If they did, I’m willing to bet they would change their tune on the subject. In order to come up with quality information for your reader, you will want to do research to come up with new ideas and find the latest theories and trends in your niche.

A lot of people assume reading a few blurbs about a subject here and there is enough to write a quality article. That is far from the truth. In order to really give your readers what they want to know, you’ll want to dig deeper. Determine who the experts in your specific area are, find out what they have to say on the subject, and take a look at the items they are recommending. Do as much as you can to get background information and facts.

I know, B-O-R-I-N-G!!!

Also, necessary!

Researching your content improves credibility and expertise. You’ll be able to present quality content people will want to read and continue to come back for. If you don’t have time to research a topic in depth, find someone who does.

There’s a reason they say “Knowledge is key!”

Clear the Cobwebs & Stay Focused

Hopefully you know what you want your article to sound like and what you want your reader to do after reading it. Do you find yourself struggling with transferring what resides in your brain into an informative, smooth-flowing article that gets the results you want?

One of the smartest steps you can take when writing an article is to create an outline before you begin. This will help you to stay organized and on track. It works wonders for focus too.

An outline doesn’t have to be extremely in-depth or comprehensive. Start off by planning the introduction, add a few key points for the body, and finish it up with a conclusion or miniature summary of your article’s main points. Here’s a little trick writers use to create their outlines.

1. Tell your readers what you’re going to be talking about. (Introduction)

2. Talk about it. (Body)

3. Recap what you just told them. (Conclusion)

If you’re thinking putting together an outline will only create more work for yourself, think again. In all actuality, it will save you time in the long run. Your thoughts will be organized and you’ll be able to focus on each individual piece of the puzzle that – when complete – will flow together nicely.

Spice Things Up with a Dash of Copy

The most important function of any article is to inform its reader. However, your article must get and keep their attention in order to inform, right?

Absolutely!

Many people neglect to focus on the fact that while articles need to be compelling, they also need to sell if you’re trying to make money online (and that’s why you’re here, right?). There are many elements of copy you can include to make your articles compelling and lead people to a certain action. You can create interest and increase action with things like:

• Attention grabbing headlines and subheadings (These draw the reader in and leave them wanting to know more)
• A hook line (This will keep them reading)
• A bulleted list just like this one
• Blockquotes
• Outlined boxes that highlights something important
• Bold, italics, and color fonts

Keep in mind that everyone is very busy these days; if you want to get your article read from beginning to end, you will have a higher chance of success when you add a bit of creative copywriting.

Lead Your Readers Onward

If you remember nothing else about people who buy online, remember this:

You will make more money when you TELL your reader what to do next!

Yes, we humans are fickle creatures. Even if your reader thinks she knows what to do next, that doesn’t mean she will do it. Always remember to tell your readers what to do or where to go after they’ve finished reading your article. Because, believe it or not, even when they know what they want or what they should be doing next, Internet users are indecisive. Like a child who is just learning the ways of the world, your reader needs to be taken by the hand and led to the next step. It’s called “suggesting the sale.”

For instance

• If you want your reader to visit your website to learn more about your product or service, send them there.
• If you would like your reader to complete a survey or give his opinion on the topic he just finished reading about, tell him where to go to do so.

This is where your author or resource box comes into play and can quickly become your best friend. Use this area to tell a bit about yourself or your website, and give your readers something to do. Give them a clear call to action.

Writing an article is not difficult as long as you put the right strategies in place. Know what information is relevant to your target audience.

Summary

• Be as well-versed in the area you’re writing about as you can in order to provide superior information.
• create an outline to help keep you organized and focused.
• Throw in a bit of captivating copy to create interest and keep them reading.
• Tell your readers exactly what you want them to do next to achieve maximum benefits from your article marketing efforts.

Want to learn more? Check out How To Drive Free Traffic To Your List Page With Ezine Articles.

ARTICLE MARKETING

Adding articles to article directories is one of the best ways to build traffic and get your website spidered by the search engines. These two critical things will raise your site up the search engine rankings. Plus, by creatively using your resource box, you get a backlink back to your website.

1. Do your keyword research. You can get your site indexed for “long-tail” keywords very quickly by writing articles with juicy keywords that you want to get ranked for in search engines. I’ve seen results for ranking for keywords I’m targeting by submitting articles to directories in as little as under 1 hour at Google. There is really no faster way of getting ranked for target keywords than article marketing. But do your research! In order to get ranked quickly, you’ll have to choose keywords that people would use in a search query but that do not suffer from high competition.
2. Balance your articles for your readers, but keep the search engines in mind. What this means is that you write for people but you also write for search engines, which are definitely not people. Sprinkle in keywords that the search engines (SEs from now on) like but in a readable and natural way. Remember this, though: ALWAYS write solid content for your visitors’ sake. Content is, has always been, and will always be — KING!
3. Don’t waste time submitting your same article to dozens of obscure article directories. There is a temptation to write one article and submit it to every “Tom, Dick, and Harry” article directories. Don’t do it! Make your article submissions exclusive with sites like eZineArticles, GoArticles, ArticleDashboard, and SearchWarp. These are quality article directories with thousands of visitors every day.
4. Make the best Resource Box possible. This is your one chance to get your reader to act; and by “act” I mean to go to your website, fill out a form, buy something. In other words, to take an action that you want them to take.
5. It’s a numbers game, so submit MANY articles. Getting your site indexed by the SEs for highly desirable long-tail keywords is an arduous process that requires dozens of article submissions. Like I said before, make your articles exclusive to a particular directory. So, you’ll have to write a bunch of articles and submit them to article directories. See what happens. Watch your stats!
6. Re-purpose your content. Does this contradict what I’ve just said? No, not really. I am suggesting here that you not only put your article up on an article directory, but that you also put that article up on your own website. Don’t worry about the SEs counting those two nearly-identical articles as duplicate content. It’s only “duplicate content” if it’s on YOUR site more than once. This way, you will be leveraging work you’ve already done to building a long-tail keyword page on your site at the same time as you wrote an article for a directory that the SEs love!
7. Don’t give it all away. What do I mean by this? In your article, give enough information to entice your reader to visit whatever link you reference in your Resource Box. Get them to take your “Most Wanted Action.” In other words, give your readers “interesting but incomplete” information that forces them to take the next step of signing up for your email marketing list.
8. Become an expert. By writing dozens of articles that thousands of people daily have access to makes you an expert in your field. Capitalize on that fact!
9. Research your competition. Look at the most popular articles in a particular directory in your niche and find out what their keywords are, how they write about the topics, how they construct their Resource Box, etc. You want to find out how successful people are submitting articles so that you can mimic their process and make it your own.
10. Set up your article marketing profile. Put up a picture and some interesting facts about yourself. If somebody finds one of your articles, he may try to find you on the article directory website. No picture = very little credibility.

That’s 1-10 of our traffic building tips. We’ll bring items 11-20 next week.

• Build backlinks by setting up accounts at different websites that allow you to put up links to your website
• Comment on other people’s blogs
• Submit your website to Directories
• Write articles pointing back to your website and submit them to article directories (called article marketing)
• Join a link exchange
• Set up a PPC campaign and pay for your traffic
• Submit useful posts and replies on forums
• Put your signature with a link back to your website on all your email correspondence
• Run classified ads
• Sell physical products on Amazon and eBay for a nominal fee. On that physical product, put your links back to your site
• Submit your posts to “social media” sites like digg, stumble, reddit, twitter (or better yet, get your friends and business partners to do it)
• Blog about your site. Make sure an RSS feed is available and prominently displayed on your blog.
• Squidoo
• Guest blog
• Hold a contest
• Give something away. Within the freebie, place links back to your site
• Advertise in physical media like newspapers, magazines, flyers, business cards
• Put video and images on your blogs and website. Search engines like Google love this!
• Do interviews on radio and television
• Attend fund raisers and hand out business materials
• Advertise in ezines
• Create “viral” reports
• Write and distribute press releases
• Make sure your website is optimized for search engines (SEO)
• Add “tell a friend” scripts to your blogs
• Answer questions at Yahoo Answers
• Write a useful post at Google Knol

That’s it for now. Let’s just say that you have to focus on a few of these and let the others rest for a bit. In order of importance, I’d say the SEO is near the top of the list. Then build backlinks by following the first 5 bullets. Set up a free blog or two and refer visitors of that blog to your website.