Thousands of people are searching the Internet for specific information on a specific topic. Why not save them countless hours of fruitless searches by providing good content articles with useful information written in an interesting and thought provoking way?

Many people such as ezine publishers and website owners will read and link to articles that provide good information relating to topics of interest to their readers.

As more and more of your articles appear around the Internet, the total number of links to your website starts to increase and so does your business! Your websites placement in the search engines will also improve.

Article directories are not going to accept your articles automatically. They have guidelines and specifications that they are looking for before accepting any articles.

You should not expect anyone to want to read, link to and circulate an article that is poorly written, full of mistakes, lacking content and does not provide any new or useful information. The main reason for writing an article should be to inform your audience. If it is not focused on this purpose then you will fail to achieve the benefits of branding, generating leads and promoting your web site.

TIP: What must your article accomplish? You must get your readers to click on the link in your resource box.

What is a resource box? It is usually found at the end of your article and it should contain your name, a brief bio, and a brief description of your web site with a link. Think of the resource box as your readers link to the source of the article. If they like your article then they just may visit your site. Good content for your resource box should contain keywords that relate to your site. Entice people to click the link in your resource box by providing creative and interesting content in your article that touches your readers curiosity.

Below are some things to keep in mind when writing an article:

1. Avoid trying to sell anything in your article, it should not read like a classified ad.

2. Do not include affiliate links in your content since a lot of publishers do not like them.

3. Avoid grammar and spelling mistakes. It is important that your articles look professional.

4. Keep your paragraphs short with plenty of white space. Your readers will ignore long batches of words in long paragraphs. Use bullet points and numbered lists.

5. Use the three sentence formula. Start with a verb as a command, followed by the cost of not doing it and then end with a positive comment.

6. Make sure the title of your article is compelling or people will delete it or move on to something new.

7. Get to the point quickly - in the title and in your article. Your introduction should just contain a sentence or two, the same for the conclusion.

8. Make sure you include a call to action, tell your readers what you want them to do.

9. Target your information to your readers, not everyone will want your information, so keep focused, and write compelling copy.

10. Articles can be anywhere from 500 to 1000 words. Keep them short so your readers will get to see your resource box.

11. Place keywords in strategic places throughout your article. The keywords should be related to your website. Identify your keywords before you start writing your article.

Articles can be one of the most time consuming of free advertising tasks, but they will keep providing traffic for years to come.

Use these tips so that your articles will bring people to your website and to your business.

Copyright 2008 Joe Rispoli