In the past ten years or so I have designed, developed and marketed nearly 100 websites. Some were very simple one to three page sites for local businesses who just wanted a presence on the web, up through very robust sites that included e-commerce.

Beyond the development aspects the number one question I get from customers is, "ok the site looks great, but how do people find it?" That is probably what is on your mind as well; otherwise you would not be reading this article.

Unlike a brick and mortar business an online business has the capability of reaching customers around the globe in an instance, twenty-four hours per day, seven days per week, three hundred sixty-five days (or 366 in leap years) per year.

Before I get into the technique that you can use to bolster your website's hit count and promote your website for free, I must tell you this. If you website is hard to navigate, in other words people on your site find it hard to use, or has no substance that make people want to visit, or come back, then using the technique below will do you no good. Your website must be user friendly, pleasant to look at and give the customer a reason to not only return but tell their friends.

With that said lets get started. In order to promote your website for free people need a link to click on in order to reach you. Of course you need somewhere to put that link, and then you need a reason for the potential customer to view whatever that something is that contains your link.

Now you might be thinking, "ok I am confused", if I could get a person to view something that has my link, why would I just not do that same thing directly on my website?" Well that "one thing" you are going to use that contains your link will be displayed on various websites for the entire Internet user community to see.

That is the whole basis of this technique, and this technique is called article marketing. Article marketing is the process by which you the website owner will write an educational and informational article related to your website, then posts that article on article directories and then you sit back and watch the customers roll in.

Sounds simple right? Well it is, but it does take some work and once you have the process down, you can pump out an article each day using only about an hour of your time.

Your first step is to write the article itself. Your article should be related to the content of your website and it should give the reader of the article useful information. Let's say you sell power tools (a dream of mine by the way). Your articles could be on how to safely use a router, or how to replace a table saw blade or a whole slew of other things that the reader can take away as useful. Your articles should be no less than 450 words and no greater than 850 words. Too short and no one will take it seriously enough and too long and most people just won't read it.

You now have your article written and are probably wondering how do people find me if there is no link in the article? As a side note, article directories (which I will cover in a moment) do not allow links to your website within the article itself. Keep that in mind as you write your articles. People will find you and your website using the resource box located at the end of your article. A resource box is a way to tell the reader a little about who wrote the article. For example, a typical resource box would look like this: "John Jones is the owner of ABC Power Tools. You can learn more about ABC Power Tools by visiting their website at {insert your web address her}."

So you have an article and a resource box but you have no idea as to what to do with it. In steps, article directories. Article directories are websites that allow you to post your articles and resource box free of charge. These directories receive tens of thousands of hits daily. Their visitors are going there to either read about what you have to say or to find content for their own website or blog (more on that in a moment).

By posting your article and resource box you are exposing your website (with active link) to tens of thousands of people. If they think your article is helpful (which is why your article should be educational and not why you like the color blue, that sort of thing) they will click on your website link located in the resource box.

However there is also a different type of visitor to article directories and that is one who is looking for content for their website for their own website visitors. Using our example let's say someone runs a website about the different projects they could do with a router. Here you wrote an article about safely using a router and that is an article that this particular website owner would love to display on their website for their visitors. The process by which someone takes your article and posts in their website is called syndication and not only is it legal, but in fact you should be encouraged when someone picks up your article. The reason is when they syndicate your article they also syndicate your website's active link located in the resource box. The more often your article gets picked up the more people your link is exposed to.

Now all you have to do is repeat this on a daily basis and in about 30 days you will be receiving all kinds of hits to your website. Don't forget to add the Google analytics tool to your home page so you can track how many visitors you receive on a given day, where they came from, how long they stayed and which pages they viewed. It is an incredibly powerful tool and you should be using it when you do article marketing. Otherwise, how will you know if your articles are working? Good luck and happy sales! About the Author:
Mr. Tucker is a regular contributor on Bukisa, an online community for writers that pay you for your articles. You can also follow him on Twitter.