A Free, Powerful, and Credible Method to Promote Your Online Business

I'm a big believer in making smart investments -- that is,
I won't hesitate to pay for marketing if I have good reason
to believe that I'll reap big profits from the campaign.
But at the same time, if there's an effective, free method
of promoting my business, I sure wouldn't turn it down!

That's why I write articles.

Articles help to build your reputation as an 'expert' in
your particular field. Over time, they build credibility,
and through credibility, trust. And we all know that
people tend to buy from those they trust!

If you have some basic writing skills you can benefit from
writing and distributing your articles. Here's a quick
overview of how it works: you write an article based on
your own experiences or research. Make it informative or
entertaining (or both), depending on the audience you're
trying to reach. At the end of your article you include a
'resource box'. This small blurb (usually 5-7 lines long)
provides a description of your business and a link to your
website URL and/or email address.

You then offer your article, free for reprint, to other
sites or newsletters within your target audience. In
exchange for this free content, the webmaster/editor
publishes your resource box. Readers that appreciate
your writing can click on your link to find out more
about you and your business.

How to Find Editors that Accept Submissions
---------------------------------------------

You can manually find and email editors within your market,
asking if they accept submissions. It's tedious and time-
consuming, and often times you won't receive a response...
but it can be done.

However, why not make a small investment in exchange for
your time (and sanity!)? Article promotion services such
as WriteBusiness can distribute your work for a fee,
http://www.writebusiness.com/article.html. Or do the
legwork yourself by purchasing a membership into a
convenient ezine directory where you can quickly and
easily find editors who accept submissions. One such
service is http://www.buildyourhomebiz.com/directory.html.

If you choose to do the work yourself, create and
maintain a list of editors in your target market that
accept articles. This will save you from having to
do the research all over again when you write future
articles! Include a brief 'cover letter' with your
publishing guidelines each time you distribute an
article.

Building Your List Over Time
------------------------------

An easy way to continue to build your list of editors
is to place a simple form on your website, inviting
editors and webmasters to subscribe to your article
distribution list. This one technique has grown my
list by about 15%!

Websites Where You Can Promote Your Articles
----------------------------------------------

There are many niche websites that accept articles. Here
are a few to get you started; these are sites that accept
articles on most topics and make them available to others
for reprint:

= Article Announce, an email distribution list,
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/article_announce/
= EzineArticles.com, http://www.ezinearticles.com/
= GoArticles, http://www.goarticles.com/
= Hot Launch, http://www.hotlaunch.com/
= IdeaMarketers, http://www.ideamarketers.com/
= MakingProfit.com, http://www.makingprofit.com/

Of course, there are a large number of sites that accept
articles on specific topics such as health/wellness, small
business, active living, and so on. Distribute your work
to these sites as well.

At first you'll find that your articles may only bring
in a small trickle of traffic. Over time, though, as
you become better known, you have the potential of creating
a steady stream of targeted traffic from the newsletters
and sites which publish your work. And to think it all
started with a simple article!