Learning to write articles about business issues is an effective way to attract traffic to your site. It doesn't require specialist writing skills to write about your own experiences.

Writing and distributing articles is an extremely effective way of attracting visitors to your site. Don't believe that you need years of experience to be able to write articles. Once you've started your own online business, and have been through a few hoops, you'll already know far more than the millions of people online, who're looking for information!

Write from your own experiences in getting started with your internet business. Help others by telling how you made your own selection from all the options open to you.

You will certainly have made some mistakes along the way. Write about them, so that others will benefit from your experiences. Describe the steps you took to correct your mistakes, and in this way you will be seen as a genuine, helpful person, who is prepared to share your experience, to the benefit of others.

You don't need to be a language expert to write short articles; write in plain, simple, down to earth English. It's a good idea also to read articles by other authors, to get ideas about style and content and you'll find that reading articles will trigger your own thought processes, and then you're ready to have a go!

Once you start writing, you'll find that the ideas and the words suddenly start to flow. That's when to keep writing without stopping constantly to check for errors. You will need to correct these later, but try not to interrupt your creative flow.

Once your readers realize that your site offers useful information which can assist them in establishing their own businesses, they will come back for more information. The trick then is to keep a ready supply of fresh, informative articles, to be published once or twice a week. The search engines love fresh content, and this will move your site up in the page rankings.

Once you've written your articles - spend time proof-reading very carefully. Avoid publishing an article that's littered with errors, or your credibility will be lost. Remember to use your spell-check in case you've overlooked any errors.

Keep paragraphs no longer than two or three sentences - this makes for much easier reading than long, complicated paragraphs. This also helps reinforce a punchy direct style which has more impact on your reader. Remember you're writing to provide information, so avoid long flowery phrases and overly complicated explanations.

Articles should ideally be between about 450 and 600 words long. Most readers are looking for a quick overview, and something too long will deter many of them from reading your whole article. Keep your writing short and focused - don't go into too much detail.

Remember of course that you'll also get better with practice, so break the ice and have a go! It will be worth the effort for sure.

We'll discuss more tips and ideas about writing and publishing articles in this current series.