Writing articles and having them published in ezines (electronic magazines) and on websites is one of the most effective free promotional resource available on the Internet.

When you submit your articles (ie offer them for publishing), a "resource box" is attached to each article. The resource box is simply a couple of sentences containing a brief bit of biographical information about the author or a reference to the author's field of expertise or interest. Most importantly, the resource box contains a link to the author's website.

You need to get the widest possible circulation for your article. To do this, you could submit the article to owners of websites with similar content to the subject of your article. This, however, is a time consuming process and the same results can be achieved faster if you submit your articles to article directories. If there are certain high ranking websites where you particularly want to place your article, you can email the webmasters of those sites direct. However, excellent results can be obtained simply by submitting your articles to directories. When you submit your articles, each one will automatically be available for anyone to republish provided that they do not change the article in any way and that they include your resource box with the link to your website.

Simply having your article posted on article directory websites means that each directory is providing a one-way link back to your website and this will enhance your website's status with the search engines. Free one-way links are sought after by all webmasters, but the benefits of article publishing do not stop there.

Once your article is published on the article directory websites, it will be discovered by owners of websites and ezines who visit the article directories looking for content to use in their web pages or to send to the people who subscribe to their ezines. When these website owners publish your article (complete with resource box) you get the benefit of further one-way links back to your website. When other webmasters read the ezines and like your article, they will use it on their websites and this gives you more one-way links back to your site. When these websites are visited by other webmasters, they can pick up your article and publish it on their websites or in their newsletters where it will be seen by further webmasters... This should give you a pretty clear idea of the viral nature of advertising by article writing. Just sending your article to a few directories can result in it being published in hundreds of different locations, thereby giving you more one-way links, but the benefits do not stop even there.

We have looked at the benefits of article writing as a way of obtaining valuable one-way links. There are also direct benefits to be obtained from every published article in terms of human appreciation. All those webmasters who are republishing your articles are doing so because they believe the article will interest, amuse or maybe even educate their subscribers or site visitors. When people read your article and find it interesting, amusing or informative, they will quite likely click the link to your website.

Sometimes article readers who visit your website will do so out of pure curiosity, others might be looking for something specific and, with luck, you will be offering that very item and will make a sale. Maybe the curious visitor will sign up for your newsletter to see what else they can learn from you or maybe they will bookmark your website for future visits and make a purchase at a later time. Any of these outcomes are satisfactory - the visitors have cost you nothing apart from the time spent in writing and submitting the article and a good article will continue to spread and work for you for years to come.