Writing articles for your site and for the use of others, is a simple proven way low cost way to get more traffic.

Articles can be used for all subjects and just like newspapers and magazines, is a recognised way of sharing information.

Articles a low cost way of promotion but they do take time which can pay you back year after year for your efforts.

Most people tend to think that they can't write well. It's nothing more than sharing helpful information that you have learned. For example the idea of this article is to help format you thoughts and then the best way to format it best for users. So lets get started.

1. Firstly you need to choose who is your target market. Who is your article for and why would they find it helpful?

Example: "Home business websites who are looking for low cost traffic"

2. Choose the purpose of you article. Why are you writing it? How will you use it? This will help guide the content of it.

Example: "Provide an article for distribution, which other webmasters/ezine owners can use creating links back to my site, and subscribers to my ezine"

Always keep the purpose of the article in mind, which will help you keep on track with your content.

3. Article Subject -What are you going to write about? What subject? Use other articles you have seen or experiences you have had for ideas.

Example: Using articles for low cost online promotion

From the subject you have chosen you need to create a headline of sorts- some thing that makes people want to read it. Create curiosity and use emotion.

Example: How to turn words into free traffic for your site

4. Format Outline -This is when you decide the format of your article, just like you were taught at school.

a. Introduction - An outline of what you are going to discuss and why.

b. Main body - Points you are going to cover including any references to helpful sites or site involved in what you learnt

c. Conclusion - What resulted and how it worked or it didn't. What could you do differently next time.

d. Resource box - Normally a link to your site, information about your site, about you. Here is good article on resource boxes:

http://digitalawol.com/box

5. Checking - At this stage you should have the outline of an article. You need to get someone else to read it over, spell checking it, making sure the information flows well.

I also recommend leaving it overnight before using it. It gives you a chance to re think it.

6. Online formatting - If you intend to make your article available to ezine owners, then you need to make sure it is formatted correctly and easy for them to use. The standard accepted format is 65 Characters wide- in plain text.

Most people us Microsoft word for word processing so you will need to re-format by using a program such as Note Tab light http://www.notetab.com/ (no cost) which will format your article correctly.

One thing you will also need to do is ensure you only have paragraphs of 4-5 lines otherwise it creates a "mental block" for the reader, and becomes too hard to read online.

So now you have a formatted, helpful article ready for your use. The last thing you need to keep in mind is that you need to provide helpful, well-researched information. A full-page ad for your site will not do you any good and will get deleted quickly.

Try to write from your own experiences and it will come across as real and very readable.

My next article will cover getting the information out there and working for you.

You can get the next article by subscribing to our ezine. It will surprize you find out that there are places you should NOT post your article, as they may not help your business.