Title: Why Your Articles Are Not Generating Links Word Count: 544 Summary: One of the most powerful, profitable, and frustrating methods of promoting a business is by writing articles for free content sites. Yes, this is a great way to gain exposure for your website, product, or business. No, it is not easy. A simple number, like 100 articles, can turn into millions of hits within a few months – if the article’s topic is catchy and hooks the reader. However, most small businesses and work at home entrepreneurs consistently rehash the same ol... Keywords: article, link, entrepreneur, marketing Article Body: One of the most powerful, profitable, and frustrating methods of promoting a business is by writing articles for free content sites. Yes, this is a great way to gain exposure for your website, product, or business. No, it is not easy. A simple number, like 100 articles, can turn into millions of hits within a few months – if the article’s topic is catchy and hooks the reader. However, most small businesses and work at home entrepreneurs consistently rehash the same old titles, and reword the same old articles. Their content is lost beneath piles of other content, and remains dead on the web. Like most small business owners, this is where you probably say ‘it doesn’t work’, and then go off on some other tangent. Unfortunately, you are saying goodbye to hundreds, even thousands of sales. The publishing industry has a voracious appetite. There is not enough articles to feed it, even though millions of new articles are posted for publication every month. Like book publishing, Internet publishing is full of writers who do not give the publishers what they need. Publishers do not need another article on the ‘10 Top Secrets to an Effective Internet Marketing Campaign.’ They do need articles that tell people How to implement an effective marketing campaign. Titles The first step to success is a catchy title. The days of the ‘flash in the pan’ titles that promised riches and rewards have gone the way of the dinosaur. Now, people want titles that solve problems. This article could have been called ‘Turn Articles into Free Advertising.’ Unfortunately, most people already know the basics, so why read the article? Instead, I wrote a title that takes the Internet marketer to the second level. SEO Content SEO is dead. In 2004, the users took over the internet and gave birth to WEB2.0. Now, search engines are starting to rank web pages by the number of readers who read the pages, not how well optimized the page is. You’ll notice that most professional SEO marketing campaigns do not direct you to a website’s homepage, but an article. That is because people will spend more time reading an article than they will spend on the home page. This increase their chances of listing that site on http://turkiyespot.com/digg.com</a>, or Del.ici.ous. These are the ‘new’ search engines. Web Publishers Web publishers are now looking for content that can be ‘skimmed’ easily, and tells people How to do something, as apposed to telling them What needs to be done. Think of this as writing a step-by-step set of instructions that will teach a skill, solve a problem, or help someone avoid a problem. Uploading Articles Most business owners have two or three favorite places to upload their articles. This is very limited. Articles should be uploaded to dozens, even hundreds, of free article sites. Each publisher has their own favorite sites. They rarely go to another site to find content. One of the reasons why publishers use these services is to save time. The businesses that receive the most exposure are those who spread their articles over the most sites. Marketing is all about exposure. Marketing tools work well when they are used properly. They should also be given a chance.