4 for 1 Promotional Deal

By Will Dylan
Posted Saturday, October 23, 2004

Article writing offers multiple benefits for small business

One of the most popular methods of website promotion is article writing. By writing brief 500 word articles on topics that relate to your small business and by having those articles published by other websites or off-line publications, you are on the path to high traffic and an improved image in the business community.

How can those little articles lift you to such great heights? Here are the 4 critical positive results of writing and publishing articles.

Articles Generate Inbound Links

When you publish an article on-line, you automatically generate a link back to your website. That link is in the form of your “Resource Box”, a small trailing message that is attached to your article. There’s one at the bottom of this article, and you’ll often see them in your local newspapers and magazines as well. The resource box is a way for publishers to provide something to the writer in exchange for their valuable information.

If you look closely at resource boxes, you’ll notice that they all contain an active link back to the author’s website. This link is picked up by popular search engines like Google and Altavista, and actually helps to improve your site’s ranking in search results. Of course the links on their own also generate traffic, as readers who like the content of your article are likely to click on the link to see the rest of your site.

Articles Create Content

Next to inbound links, one of the major factors that search engines evaluate for their ranking algorithms is the content of your site. The Internet is all about information, and websites that contain free information that is relevant to the audience are more likely to rank higher in search engine results than sites that have no free content.

The articles that you write in support of your website should be posted on your website when they are completed. My website currently displays 20 of my recent small business marketing articles. This means that search engines are picking up 20 pages of free valuable content on my website, and are more likely to rank my site higher than others that do not offer content.

Creating content is easy once you’ve written the articles. Simply create a new page on your website and drop in your article.

Articles Promote You

As an author, you immediately gain credibility as an expert in your field. If your business sells garden supplies and write a series of articles about gardening, you will appear to be an expert on the topic to anyone who reads your articles.

Remember, we live in a fast moving society. People don’t have time to research topics as they did in the past, and a quick 500 word article from you will go a long way towards positioning you as an expert in their minds. People want fast information, so provide it!

Articles Promote your Products

Who says you can’t promote your products in an article? While you should NOT turn your articles into blatant sales pitches for your product (as you will lose credibility), you can certainly write about problems that your product can solve. Think back to the garden supply store mentioned earlier. An article on the safe use of pesticides to solve this year’s grub epidemic would be a great way to stimulate sales of pesticides, while still being seen as an expert providing advice to readers. By outlining the need for pesticides to kill off the grub population, you are gently saying to readers “You need to buy this product.” Of course since you sell the product, you stand to benefit from such buying activity.

Through the generation of inbound links and content, along with the added benefits of enhanced credibility for you and enhanced visibility for your products, you can see that articles writing is a valuable endeavor. In just one 500 word article you can accomplish 4 significant marketing objectives. Now that’s something to write home about.

About the Author
Will Dylan is the Author of “Small Business, Big Marketing” a powerful e-book for small businesses available through his website (http://www.marketingyoursmallbusiness.com) . Will also offers article and news release writing services. You can contact Will at askwill@marketingyoursmallbusiness.com