That's a good question. Why write articles indeed. It's all about exposure, about getting yourself out there. Being recognised as someone who knows the subject they are writing about and someone who knows it well.

Writing an article on the subject of your choice is a great way to get yourself recognised, to spread the word about you as an individual. So why would you want to do that? The primary aim for writing an article is to drive traffic to a specific website you want to promote. The great thing with articles is that the traffic you get is targeted traffic. In other words people are reading your article because it's on a subject they are interested in.

Where does the traffic come from? You will have noticed that most article directory sites allow you to have a biog or resource box which appears at the end of the article. This is where you write a little information about yourself and include a link back to the website you want to promote. With most article directory's there are restrictions on what you are allowed to link back to so it's advisable to look up the sites' terms of service or submission guidelines first.

Now here's the clever bit. There are millions of websites out there, all of which require content. Some of the website owners will be writing their own content, but a large proportion get their content from article directory sites. This is a win win situation. The website owner gets fresh content on tap for free and your article gets listed on many different websites around the globe. If the website owner is using your article correctly, your resource box will remain intact with the link back to your website. Now your getting exposure.

How much does is cost? Well, it's free. Okay so it will cost you a little time but that's about all it will cost. A little time to write the article, a little time to submit the article and a little time to wait for the word to spread.

Submitting articles is free and although most article directory sites require you to set up an account, which is free, you are ready to go and submit as many articles as you like. Once you have written your article and have checked the spelling etc. and submitted it, the directory owners will review the article first just to make sure there isn't anything in there that shouldn't be. This usually takes a couple of days and then the article is live. Log into your article directory account and most will have an area where you can view your article statistics. Here you can view the number of times your article has been downloaded for use on another website. You'll be surprised how the download count steadily rises over the days following the article submission.

Try this for fun! If you've never submitted an article before or had an any exposure on the internet before, then do a search on your name or the pen name you used to write your article. You'll be amazed at where your article ends up. But remember, it's all about exposure and it's all free advertising.

In summary, article writing is free, it gets you exposure, it gets targeted traffic to your site and it's fun.