If you own a website such as a blog or an information resource website, one of the biggest challenges in getting started is getting your name out there ? building enough reputation to become at least some sort of authority in your field. Although this can happen naturally, you're probably going to want to find something to catalyze the process; otherwise, you may be waiting months upon months before you even have any sort of audience. Luckily, there is a handy process available (and in most cases, it's free) that allows you to get your name out there.

So, what is this magic process? Article submission. Basically, there are tons of websites that house thousands of articles. These websites are called article directories. They operate for free, in exchange for the ad revenue that they receive, so don't worry about paying anything. Consider your article as payment. (Keep in mind that if you are going to hire someone to submit articles for you, a modest amount of money will be required, but it's still a great value.) The cool thing here, though, is that you get tons of benefits whenever you grant them permission to use your article.

First of all, nearly all article directory websites will give a link to your website below your article. This link is good for a lot of different reasons. For one thing, you get SEO benefits, as search engines frequently index most article directories. If someone decides to use your article on their website, they are also required to paste your link, meaning that you get even more link exposure, which can give your SERPs a good boost.

By using a good keyword density, you can even target which keywords your site will rank highly for. If you sell something, whether it's a product or targeted advertisements, it is extremely important to rank for relevant terms. If you own a dog food website, who cares if you rank highly for hot dog buns? It's not going to get you any business. By correctly correlating your keywords and article title, you can rest assured that you will be receiving targeted traffic.

One other thing to keep in mind about this targeted traffic is that it is residual. When you buy clicks off of Adwords or some other advertising mechanism, your traffic will stop coming when you stop paying for it. With firmly rooted top rankings in the search engines, the traffic will continue to come for months or even years without you ever having to pay any more money or do any more work. The process of submitting articles may be tedious at first, but it's well worth it in the long run. And as it's mentioned above, keep in mind that if you don't have the time to go through the time consuming process of article submission, there are plenty of people willing to do it for you for just a small charge. Whether you do it yourself or you hire someone to submit the articles for you, your website traffic statistics will be thanking you a long way into the future.