Writing Articles to Promote Your Web Site - Article 2: How to do it

Your articles should be written in a general way - don't directly promote your product or service in the body of the article, you can add contact details in the article Resource Box (see below). Make the article a useful, informative piece of text - if you provide enough authoritive content then the articles on your web site will make your web site a source of reliable, useful information that people will recommend to their friends and thus increase the number of visits to your site.

The structure of any article written for your own web site is up to you, but be sure to include your key words and phrases - without over-doing it! On your own web site you can openly promote your products and services.

And talking of your web site - take a careful look at it - are there pages on your web site that, with a bit of tweaking, could be made into articles? This may also apply to PDFs that you make available from your web site - don't overlook your current assets!

When writing for publication on article web site you need to create or supply the following components, though not all article web sites will employ them:

• A title for your web site: make it short, snappy and attractive!
• A list of key words and phrases that relate to the article only, nit to your whole web site
• A brief summary of the article: a couple of sentances will be enough and try not to just copy out the first paragraph!
• The article: aim for at least 250 words, though some article web sites require at least 500 words. The maximum length is usually 2000 words, but if you've written that many words you should consider splitting the article into two or more articles!
• A Resource Box: this should contain a brief biography of the author - a couple of sentances is enough - and contact details: your web site address and an email address. These will normally be "live" links to your site
• A photograph: not compulsory, but it's nice for readers to see the person who wrote the site and it makes the article more human.

When you've done all that check it very carefully then submit it to your chosen article web site or get your webmaster to do it for you, making sure that you are acknowledged as the author, and get them to add it to your web site too.

What are you waiting for - get writing!

If you'd like help with writing and publishing articles contact John S at SiteWeave