AdSense traffic tip: Article writing, Part 3

Let's step back from the AdSense case study and our Chitika/eMiniMalls explorations and continue our discussion about article writing as a way to generate traffic for your site.

If you recall, Part 1 talked about why article writing can drive traffic to your site and Part 2 explored the mechanics of article writing. In this part, we talk about article submission.

After writing your article, you want to distribute it to as many places as possible. The idea is to have the article posted on other websites and in newsletters and “e-zines”. Remember, the article has at least one link back to your site/blog, so it benefits you in many ways to have the article in wide distribution.

If you already have a mailing list with a large number of subscribers, then obviously you can mail your article to them (if the topic suits the mailing list). But most people don't have such a mailing list. You can also post the article on your own site/blog (and you should) and hope that people find via standard searching techniques, but that's not the way to drive traffic.

What you want to do is submit your article to as many article repositories as possible. These are sites whose sole purpose is to warehouse free articles. Owners of websites and mailing lists comb these repositories for new articles that they can then repost on their own sites/lists. Well-written articles accepted by these repositories are almost always reposted elsewhere in a matter of days, plus they benefit just from being listed in the repository itself — the repositories are usually fertile ground for search engines to find new content.

There are hundreds, probably thousands, of article repositories out there. Sites like EzineArticles.com and SearchWarp.com are just two examples. Consult this list of article repositories for even more sites.

The biggest problem with submitting articles is that it can take a lot of time to submit your articles to all the different sites. Each site has slightly different requirements. Some accept HTML, some accept only plain text. (This is why I told you in Part 2 to write your article in both formats.) Some require you to separate the resource box (your bio and link) from the article text. Some require editorial approval of the article before they'll accept it, and may request changes. It's a lot of hassle. You may consider buying software to do it for you or even hiring a third party to submit them for you.

The good news is that it often only takes a few article submissions to get the ball rolling. Article repositories often scan other article repositories for new content, especially on hot or niche topics. Like a virus, your article may end up “reproducing” itself (quite literally, in this case!) without much intervention on your part.

You do need to submit it to some repositories, though. The best thing to do is set aside 15 minutes a day and submit an article to one or two repositories. Do this regularly over the course of a few weeks and you'll be surprised at how many places your article shows up.

Don't forget, however, to go looking for specific mailing lists and e-zines that are devoted to your topic and contacting them personally about reprinting your article. Often, it's the personal touch that gets your content distributed, especially when there are a lot of articles being written about a topic.

That pretty much ends this series on article writing. It's not hard, it just takes time and effort. Just like anything!

Eric Giguere is the author of Make Easy Money with Google, a real (printed!) introductory AdSense book for non-technical people, available at all fine bookstores. Be sure to download the free sample chapter for more information about the book.

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