Starting an Online Business All-in-One For Dummies®, 3rd Edition

Writing Articles

When people share information, they don't limit themselves to just one or two channels. They're always on the lookout for good information. Countless sites are set up to satisfy people's need for more information, organized around every imaginable subject, discipline, passion, hobby, and criteria. Although these sites are good at organization and attracting traffic, they all usually want help with one particular area: content.

People who contribute content gain lots of exposure by sharing their information. The exposure comes from one simple requirement that you tie in to your free articles: Your name, as the author, contains a profile that links to your Web site. You allow anyone to publish, reprint, or distribute your article, as long as your profile information is attached. That way, everyone who reads these articles knows that you're the source of that information and is inclined to check out your company's Web site to see what else is out there.

Free distribution of your articles has other important benefits. As more and more Web sites pick up your article and publish it, more search engines pick up the link in your profile. Many search engines, especially Google, now rank search results based partially on how many people make references to a given Web page. Your articles create more references on the Web, and ultimately raise your ranking, so you naturally appear in a user's search results and don't have to pay as much in search engine advertising. (See ...