As a rule, they are looking for information. They are not interested in what you have to sell. The internet is chock full of information. No matter what your question, the answer is somewhere on the net.

How can you get in on the act?. I would like to ask you a question. Have you ever looked up a word in a dictionary? Did you find it? What did you do then, did you close the book straight away, or did you see another word that took your attention, and another, and yet another?

If you are like a lot of folks that I know, (Including myself) you probably carried on scanning that page and the next one as well.

It's the same when looking for something on the internet. Even if you found what you were looking for, you are just as likely to carry on over the page because something else caught your eye.

Perhaps the item that caught their eye was something that you had written. At the bottom of the article, was there a short note about the author? Was there also a link back to your website where they would gain even more information?

Do you mention on the website that for a small donation to your funds they could receive a book that would be vital to them should they wish to progress further with the subject?

Writing articles is still one of the quickest and easiest ways of bringing targeted traffic to your website. Articles will bring you traffic from a number of different sources.

What kind of articles do people read? A good question. There is no ready made answer. What interests one person may leave another person cold. It's up to you to create interest in as many people as possible.

The headline is what catches the initial interest. If they don't read the headline, they will not read the article, no matter how informative it may be. The headline must be the best that you can possibly compose.

Writing headlines is a huge subject. An art-form in its own right. There have been whole books written on the subject. I strongly advise you to get hold of at least a couple and study them in depth before you start writing the actual articles, to avoid disappointment later.

Start your article with a sentence that grabs your reader's attention. People are bombarded with information on the Internet - they'll decide whether to read your article when reading the first sentence. If it intrigues them, if it startles them, if it excites them, if it engages them, if it challenges them, they'll keep reading and want to visit your website for more information.

When you have written your article, with it's fantastic headline and fascinating content, what do you do with it? How can you be sure that it will get read? There are a number of ways to achieve this.

1/ You will offer it for publication for free. On the condition that the content is not altered in any way and that the (BIO) the bit at the bottom with your personal information and the link back to your website is included as well.

2/ You will offer it to publishers of e-zines and newsletters. Few of these publishers write their own articles. They just don't have the time to write a new article every week, fifty two weeks a year. They rely on people like us to keep them supplied with articles of interest to their particular readers.

3/ Offer them to webmasters who want content-rich websites. They also need your articles.

4/ Submit your articles to the article announcement lists. Go to Google and type in: ?Article announcement lists.? You will get enough addresses to keep you going for years.

5/ Submit to article banks. There are dozens of them. You only have to:(Ask Google). These banks generally have their own lists of distributors to offer your articles to. Your new article could be spread across the entire net in a couple of days. Generating traffic to your website on overdrive.

6/ Search engines love articles with interesting content. Plus the URL in your resource box increases your link popularity, resulting in higher search engine rankings for your website.

For anyone who asks the question: Is it worth it? I think I have given the answer. Don't think about it. Get stuck in and do it.

Copyright 2006 Homer Farey