How Free Articles and Content Have Revolutionized Internet Marketing

Having an internet site is a great way to generate interest in your business. But with all the hassle of running a business, who has time to keep it updated? Yet, if you don’t have new content occasionally, people will stop visiting your site, making it a wasted effort.

            Of course, you could hire a writer to come up with new content. However, that costs money and the writer might not come up with articles that meet your business’ needs. So what do you do?

            One very popular solution is to find articles on the internet. There are many websites that offer Article marketing on just about any subject you can imagine. Even better, there are many sites that offer those articles for free. Yes, that’s right – it doesn’t cost you a thing to use them.

            Why on earth would a writer offer his or her hard work for free? They do it mainly for exposure. Like any other industry, publishing is very competitive. Even if something is brilliantly written, it is very difficult to get it published. However, submitting the article to an on-line service, that article could very well get “picked up” by a website (like yours) where more people would see it.

That exposure could generate interest in a writer’s other work. The writer could also be inspired to write more articles on the same topic. The more articles he or she writes, the better the chances are that he or she can land a paying writing job.

Well, that’s great for a beginning writer, but what about the website owner (i.e., you?) You gain by gaining access to fresh content on a subject related to your business. Post the article to your website, and then change it with newer content on a regular basis. This encourages visitors to return to your site often. Thus, you build a rapport with them and the visitor is more likely to use your business in the future.

            So, how do you make this work for your business? First, use your favorite search engine to look for “free articles”. You’ll be surprised at how many sites offer them. Choose one, then look at the subject categories available, then simply choose one that meets the needs of your business and website.

            For example, let’s pretend you are a veterinarian and you want to find articles for your new website. You specialize in the care of horses so you use the article site’s search function to find “horses”. Voila! There’s an article on laminitis, a very painful malady. Simply select it and follow the site’s directions and you have your website’s content for the week. Next week, just repeat the process to find another article.

            Of course, as with anything, sometimes free stuff is not even worth that much. Be sure to read the article first to make sure it really offers new information and that it is well-written. It pays to be cautious: Sometimes people will try to pass off an article as their own work when they really ripped it off of someone else. Select a key phrase and enter it in a search engine. If it turns up other articles that eerily resemble the article that you are considering, stay well away from it. Using a plagiarized article could hurt your credibility, and thus your business, in the long run.

            Also, students please don’t get any bright ideas for using free article sites for an “automatic” term paper. Your professors and teachers have many ways to check if a paper has been “lifted” from another site. Don’t ruin your grade, and your academic career, by trying it.

            However, if you have a paper that received a good grade, or you wrote a professional paper that generated interest, you might consider submitting it to a free article site. Many of these sites allow other users to rate articles. Highly rated articles can earn points and even money. Other sites host contests, debates and list publishers and the articles they are seeking. Who knows? Your article could be the start of a whole new career for you.

            If you have an article to submit, be sure to check the website’s guidelines. They can be very stringent. These guidelines ensure that articles are original and are formatted correctly so they appear correctly on the website. Many articles sites have rules about what subjects they won’t accept (such as adult content or hate-speech). They do check articles submitted and do refuse articles that don’t meet the guidelines.

            Using free article websites is a great way to update your website and to gain exposure to your writing capabilities. Give it a try.