One of the many benefits of writing lots of articles instead of just five or ten is that when you have enough of them out there, they not only build awareness and your list, they also provide valuable market research. You will know at a glance which areas are hot for expansion -- and which are not.

Basic Market Research with Your Articles

Let's look at how this works on EzineArticles, a top article directory site and a favorite of most everyone who is using articles as a part of a serious business-building strategy. You can also do this same type of research on other article directories that show statistics for your articles.

After you have written a number of articles within a general market and had them accepted, it's time to go check your statistics.

Here's an example from my own article-writing experience.

We'll look at the 'number of times viewed' statistics for three articles that were published in the same month on EzineArticles in the Law of Attraction market.

You will find a wealth of statistical information available, such as how many times

someone clicked on the links in each article, keywords people used to find your article, etc.

For right now, let's keep it simple and just look at the number of times each article was viewed:

• Visualization Creates Changes in Your Brain: 53 views

• Learned Happiness - You Can Train Yourself into Joy: 231 views

• Creating Wealth with Quantum Physics: 100 views

Your Turn -- What Do These Numbers Tell You?

OK, looking at these numbers, you tell me which topic should I spend more time on. Which one is begging for more articles, and maybe even a product?

I hear you. You are saying 'Well, duh!'

Clearly it is the topic of Learned Happiness. 231 views compared with 100 views for the next most popular of these three articles.

Is 231 the most views any article written by anyone has ever received? No. But for me, within this topic, it's the most-viewed. And that tells me a lot.

You will need to consider how long each article has been online when you look at your number of views. It goes without saying that an article that has been published for two months might have more views than one that was just published yesterday. As mentioned, all three of these articles were published in the same month.

The more articles you have published in a general market topic, the more useful and reliable your statistics will be. But no matter what, these stats are always informative.

And with the article examples used here, the numbers are pretty clear. Happiness wins!

Obviously, more articles out there to be voted on by your readers is better. If you only have two articles, you don't have a great sample. If you have tens (or even hundreds) of articles, the numbers carry more weight. So keep writing, and don't forget to check your stats regularly!