External Links And Article Marketing - Gaining Exposure

If your goal is to make money online, writing articles is a great way to start. Before the internet, an article meant a column in the newspaper. That was it! Written by degreed, experienced journalists and reporters who were on salary and weren't necessarily looking to do anything other than getting a byline and a check for doing what they love to do - writing. Once the Internet came into being, everything changed. Learn how external links and article marketing can change you from a hobbyist to a pro.

Online articles has become a generic term for almost any kind of writing - web content, reviews, product descriptions, web page sales letters, blogs, and of course, online publishing houses such as Ezines.

Submitting content to these sites can be simple, and rewarding. You have a few choices when you submit your writing. You can do one, or both.

First, you can submit to sites that don't pay you but they do give the opportunity to talk about your services and your business; not in a salesy kind of way, but as a kind of expert on the topic. At the end of your article you should place a link to your own website for the readers to either get more information or turn into paying customers.

For instance, if you happen to be a dog trainer you could write a series of articles on tips to train your dog. At the end of each article you should have your bio ("Tod Jones has been a professional dog trainer for twenty years in the Chicago area..." and so on). Then, add your website. If people like what you have to say, you'll get customers!

Other sites do pay you, you may be able to get a byline, and you may be able to add a link to your site. They all differ.

You may never get rich writing. Really - how many people do? It's all about marketing your business. Whatever you write, even an email, should promote you and what you do. Viral marketing has been around ever since Hotmail. Even though the service was free, every time you sent an email, there was advertising on the bottom. This idea caught on and now every company uses this same idea.

Let's say you work for a company that sells cell phones. Put a link on the bottom of all your emails talking about the great deals available. Change it weekly to talk about sales, promotions etc. Even though this is technically promoting a company, you could get customers coming to you personally!

All businesses should pay attention to the various strategies for building external links. It will pay big dividends in time.