If you're a writer or have an internet business, I've got good news and better news and best news. If you are or wish to be a writer and have, or wish you had, an internet business, it's all best!
There is a new type of advertising for internet businesses these days and it is very effective. Even better, it is easy, and best, it is free!
Many people roaming the internet MAY be searching for your business, MIGHT find it, and PERHAPS might go through your web site to make a purchase.
However, it's a big internet business ocean, and chances are, you, like me, are a small frog in this big pond.
Don't get me wrong, I make a comfortable income in six figures from my internet business, but I am NOT Ford, Verizon, or even Jimmy Dean Sausage. Those are big players, and you and I cannot effectively compete against them head to head on a daily basis. If I advertise my brand of sausage, and someone searches for sausage, they will probably wind up at Jimmy Dean's web site, and will buy Jimmy Dean's sausage!
If, on the other hand, someone is trying to find information on healthy breakfast foods or foods that can be used in a weight loss program, and I just happen to be able to provide that information, AND I JUST HAPPEN TO HAVE A LINK (NO PUN INTENDED) TO MY BREAKFAST SAUSAGE, I might just have made a sale.
That's where this new type of advertising has come in.
At first, the internet seemed to be a vast market with everybody trying to sell things. Over time, another picture has emerged. People are roaming the internet daily in search of information! He or she who can provide the information is going to rise in the respect of the information seeker, and is going to have the opportunity to introduce his or her product or service to the information seeker. And, as is common on the internet today, the information seeker is usually not looking for an encyclopedic article on all aspects of a topic. They want one or two specific pieces of information or answers to certain questions they may have.
Additionally, search engine businesses have realized this, and many of the most effective search engines are giving higher priority to web sites and pages which provide the informational content their customers are seeking.
This new, free, effective advertising technique I mentioned above is based on this. You provide the information people are seeking in small simple articles, and include information about your product either within the body of the article or in an informational tag of some sort. The search engines are happy to find the information you provide and follow links from the informational site back to your internet business web site, thus increasing your visibility and ability to attract traffic.
So far, so good, but you are still the small internet business in the huge pond full of leviathan internet businesses. What you do is get a lot of other fishes to help spread your message across the internet pond.
There is on the internet a huge array of web sites which specialize in accepting articles from authors who have written these small informational or entertaining articles. Once accepted, these articles are posted on their web sites for their visitors to view. Many of these are high traffic web sites and you have the chance of having your article viewed by many visitors. If the web site where you post your article is visited by a search engine, and many have very high rankings with major search engines, your article will eventually be indexed by the search engine and probably the web site you have linked to as well.
Additionally, and this may be the best part, this site where you have posted your article will be visited by thousands of people looking for content to include on their web sites or in their e-zines. They are not looking for Herman Melville or Alexandre Dumas, they are looking for short informational articles which provide valid information to their web site visitors or readers. If your article fits their needs, some of them will use it, distributing your article...AND LINKS...across the internet ocean.
So how hard is it to write one of these articles?
I just did.
It includes practical information on a subject of interest to a great many people. It is on a subject I know something about, but, even had I only known a little bit, fifteen minutes research on the internet would have provided the information I needed. It took me less than an hour to complete (not counting stopping to play with the cats, Big Foot and Amber, and letting Diamond, the dog, outside). Now, I am going to spend a few minutes at EzineArticles.com, SubmitYourArticle.com, the Warrior Forum, and at one of my own internet business web sites where I post many of my articles, and at my internet business blog where I will also post this article. Within a few days, it will be on a few web sites, following the process I have outlined, and working for me twenty-four hours a day, every day of the year.
Guess I'll go have breakfast now. Love my internet business!
You have a great day.
The author is retired from the Army after 21 years of service. He has worked as an accountant, purchasing agent, optical lab manager, restaurant manager, instructor and long-haul, over-the-road truck driver. He has been a member of Mensa for several years, and has written and published poetry, essays, and articles on various subjects for the last 40 years. He has been an active internet marketer since 2000, and now makes his living online. He has blogs on the subjects of Internet Business and Marketing, Writing and Poetry, and Real Estate Investing.
