Is there an art to writing articles for targeted traffic? Black hat gibberish wont cut it. Writing articles about your product or service and distributing them to quality article directories, is the number one priority in getting targeted traffic to your website. It's that simple - but everything is relative, so it's ridiculous to think that just by distributing a few articles, written in bad grammar, black hat gibberish will bring an unending stream of traffic is going to come and crash your server on the first day.

Relevant article content:

Well written, informative, quality and relevant content concerning your particular niche and product is all that you need to write - nothing less will do. Anything less - your potential website visitor and customer will leave and move on to the next more interesting article most likely written by your competitor.

Guidelines, useful product information, reviews and product comparisons letting potential customers know that if they use XYZWidget they'll get this result, but if they use 123Widget they'll get another .... are great for bringing not just traffic - but more importantly targeted traffic to your site.

With the words you put together within the article, your primary task as a writer is to give the reader a good feeling about you and your expertise on the subject, so much so that they feel that you are an expert in your niche and that what they are reading is going to help them solve a problem they have surrounding this particular subject. By the time they've finished reading your article they should feel that they must click on the link in your article resource box, to solve that irritating problem or read more about the subject.

Headlines and excerpts:

Article headlines and excerpts are crucial in initially catching the attention of the reader. You have about 2 seconds to achieve this, before they move on.

Many article writers copy the first paragraph of their article into the excerpt box. This may seem like sense and a time saver - but it can have it's consequences. When writing your excerpts, why not compose a teaser text that's not copied directly from your main article body text.

What happens once an article is submitted to article directories; the first part of any article that's presented and seen by any potential reader is 1) headline and 2) excerpt. Since this is the deciding factor for the reader on whether to click on the headline and actually read the article, it stands to reason that 1 and 2 have to be pretty darn good. This initial part of your article is the welcoming smile and presentation of your business to the world and if they never click on your headline, they will never see the contents of your resource box - no matter how good your product is.

Article resource box:

Your article resource box is very important so make good use of it. Keep things short, to the point, but interesting. But be mindful that some article directories don't allow html or anchor text - but the majority do and since there are plenty of excellent article directories with good PR, choose first those that do accept html so you can anchor your keyword(s), then go back for those that don't if you need to.

Rest assured that the traffic will come if you get this part right. The traffic will come if your content is good enough for the reader to want to click on the links in your resource box at the end of the article to be taken to your site.

Selling third party vendor products:

If you don't have your own product, but are working as an affiliate marketer selling third party vendor products - the same techniques apply. But if you haven't actually purchased the product yourself, it can be difficult to give an unbiased and accurate guide of what the product can do and how it can be of benefit to your readers/potential customers. You would have to rely on second hand information i.e. reviews, which also are not always accurate.

Vendor review copies:

In some cases, but more for internet marketing products, some vendors will provide their affiliates with a review copy of the product, some do it automatically, while others wait until you ask them. This is mainly where reports or ebooks are concerned. However, if you are an affiliate marketer selling third party internet marketing reports, you could try dropping the vendor an email asking if they would provide you with a review copy. Sadly the majority of vendors don't even bother to respond. This would help you

Ideas and brainstorming:

For article ideas, go to the article directories and do some research. Ezine Articles or Go Articles are good alternatives. Read up on the subject, find as much info as you can and take notes. One thing to remember though, stay away from copying other peoples work. A good reputation will serve you well in spreading your knowledge and expertise in the forums and social communities, as this will bring visitors to your site, so you don't want to do anything to jeopardize that.

Taking care and time to write your articles, is a proven method of driving traffic to your site and all it costs is your time, and a bit of innovative effort on your part. Try and look at things from the potential customers point of view and write a good article that are worth reading and you'll begin to see the fruits of your efforts very soon. If you do this right it will bring targeted website traffic for many years to come.