Tackling site promotion can be a challenge. There is everything from adwords, to buying adspace on other websites. On the free side, there are things like link exchanges, and getting listed in directories. These ways can be hit or miss. Many of the paid methods do produce results, but what if you don't make money from your website. What you really need is a free way to get results.

Enter article writing. Basically, you write information articles on your website's subject, giving out valuable information, and at the end you get a small part to put a little about you and your site, along with a link. Seems like a lot of work for a little gain, but read on and you'll see it's quite the opposite.

Now, let's say you take that article and submit it to 10 article directories. That's 10 instant backlinks, and people searching find your article on the the websites that have good PR, and follow the link to your website.

So you now have targetted traffic (the best), backlinks, and improved search rank for your website. Now, let's say, since your article is free to use from the article directory provided it is fully intact with backlinks, that it gets picked up and used by 25 websites from each article directory. Now you have 250 backlinks, and many of those are coming from websites where the theme is related to yours directly, since they used the articles.

Now, does it seem like a lot of work to write 500-600 words for those 250 backlinks? Just imagine if you sent it out to even more article directories. And mind you, it's FREE. It's just mindblowing.

And there's more. The more backlinks, the more you appear the expert, which can invaluable. Becoming the name to go to in the market can have a serious value attached to it. It can lead to jobs, more work, making more money out a website, etc.

Now, some quick tips to make the most of it.

Length - You want 500 words or more. Many article directories do not accept under 500 words, so staying above that threshhold is the best method.
Content - You need to give to receive. Give good valuable information that is of use to your readers, and they will rewards you with visits.
Resource - At the end, you normally have a small blurb to really sell yourself, give a backlink (great time to pick your anchor text for you backlinks), and in general give the readers where to go for more information. You want to hold self-serving backlinks until this resource section, as most article directories require that.
Target Audience - You want to target and write for who you expect to read your article. That way, you can make it interesting and a better read.
Target Topic - You need to determine what burning questions and topics you want to tackle.

Writing articles gives you every bit of marketing and advertising at its best. You get backlinks, recognition, targetted visitors, and a cheap price (FREE). It's a no-brainer.