Dreaming of getting tons of targeted traffic to your site without spending a red cent? Fantasizing of effective free advertising? Then you should definitely start writing articles for promotion! The things you’ve gotta love about articles are:

A. They are free to submit, allowing thousands of people to read them (and see your web link) without costing you a dime.

B. They prepare a visitor for purchasing your product or service much more effectively than a three line Pay Per Click ad possibly could.

C. They create a ton of inbound links to your website, which in turn boosts your Search Engine ranking (making it easier for people to find your site).

So, whether you have a product to sell, an affiliate product to promote, a newsletter, or just want more truly targeted traffic to your website, writing articles is THE way to go.

Here are the 4 steps to getting NON-STOP traffic using articles:

1. Write an informative, interesting article that your target audience would enjoy reading. Make sure that the subject covered in your article relates to the content on your site or you won’t convert very many sales or opt-ins.

For instance if your website caters to dog owners: DO write an article on the different breeds of dogs or anything else to do with dogs, but DON’T write an article about cats.

2. If you don’t believe you can write a very good article then pay someone else to write it for you. Elance.com is an excellent place to find potential article writers. Someone on Elance will write you a quality article for a low one time fee, and then you just slap your name on it and promote it as your own (this is perfectly legal).

3. The next step is writing the ad that is inserted at the end of your article in the byline, authors bio, about the author, resource box or whatever else it may be called. This little 3 to 5 line ad will entice your readers to visit your site.

EXAMPLE:
Jane Doe is the author of Hot Copywriting Tips, a must have online newsletter for all website owners. Go to http://www.JanesSite.com to grab your FREE copy now.

4. Submit your article to every article site that has a category relevant to your article, and you’re ready to roll.

My favorite article sites are:

www.ideamarketers.com

www.goarticles.com

www.articlecity.com

www.articlesfactory.com

www.buzzle.com

www.ezinearticles.com

www.netterweb.com

www.isnare.com

Now get started promoting your articles. Get them out there fast if you want to set your traffic counter spinning.

First: You need to be sure your home page is effective at explaining what service or product you are offering. Traffic exchanges have a timer so the person viewing your site has the option to leave within a matter of seconds. So your main goal is to give them a reason to stay!!

Second: Only choose traffic exchanges that offer manual surfing. Most people do not even watch the window when an autosurf is running. If it is a manual surf exchange they have to physically watch the pages in order to go to the next site. This gives you the best opportunity for them to actually see your site and be drawn in by your content.

Third: Be prepared to work. In order to earn credits for people to view your site, you have to view other people’s sites. That is why it is called a “Traffic Exchange”. The more you view other sites, the more your site is viewed.

With these 3 steps you can use traffic exchanges as an effective advertising strategy. It takes planning and work to get results, but doesn’t every advertising plan? I urge everyone new to advertising to do lots of research to find the plan that is best for you and your business.