Why Aren't You Writing Ezine Articles? Teacher: Michael Southon I'm amazed! Everywhere I go on the Web, people are desperately searching for ways to get more traffic to their websites. Some will even pay hundreds of dollars for an Express Listing in Yahoo.And yet one of the most powerful ways of driving traffic to your website is completely free and anyone can do it. A few savvy webmasters have been using this technique for years to drive high-volume traffic to their websites. And they've made a fortune! I'm talking about Ezine Articles. There's a huge demand for Ezine Articles right now but only a handful of people are using this technique. That's why you keep seeing the same articles being published in dozens of different Ezines. Why are Ezine Articles such a powerful promotion technique? When you get your Article published in an Ezine, you're basically getting an enormous Ezine Ad for free. But your Article is much more powerful than an Ezine Ad. Why? A normal Ad is there simply because someone paid to have it placed there. But your Article is there because the Publisher thinks you have valuable information that will benefit his or her readers. In other words, you are an expert. Who would you be more likely to buy from? Someone who paid to have an Ad inserted, or someone who is an expert and has just written an Article full of valuable information? I first discovered the power of Ezine Articles in May of this year when I wrote an Article titled '10 Tips For Successful Ezine Advertising'. Two weeks later it was published in 'WebProNews' (WebProNews, May 15, 2000), which has a circulation of 500,000. I could hardly believe it - my Article being read by half a million people! Less than 2 weeks later another of my articles ('How To Get The Most Out of Your Ezines') was published in the same Newsletter (WebProNews, May 26, 2000). By the end of that month, traffic to my website had more than tripled. Suddenly, I was earning a very respectable income from my affiliate programs. To fully understand the power of Ezine Articles, let's put a monetary value on them. At a rough guess, I would say that a well-written Ezine Article has at least twice the pulling-power of a Top Sponsor Ad. A Top Sponsor Ad in 'WebProNews' costs $4,000 - so with those two articles of mine, I got $16,000 worth of free Ezine Advertising! Let's compare Ezine Articles with two other, highly-rated promotion techniques: Search Engine Listings and Ezine Publishing. A Search Engine listing is essentially a 'passive' approach to marketing. You still have to wait for people to search on your keywords. Ezine Articles are much more 'pro-active'; your articles land right in the middle of dozens or hundreds of different Ezines. With Ezine Articles you're not waiting for people to find you - you're going out there and finding them. Let's say you publish an Ezine that has 2 or 3 thousand readers. Each week, your website URL and your name are going to 2,000 to 3,000 people. Even if your subscriber-base is growing by 5% per month, basically you're reaching the same audience each issue. But imagine you write an Article that gets published in 30 Ezines that each have a readership of 2000 people. You've now reached 60,000 people! The possibilities with Ezine Articles are enormous. Many people feel unable to write. You may be one of them. But the fact is, anyone can write an Ezine Article. You must have seen those 'Tips' Articles that look like a shopping list of things to do? They're very popular amongst Ezine Publishers. Every week I see half-a-dozen of them. So the fact is, if you can write a shopping list, you can write an Ezine Article! At this point you may be saying to yourself: "But I'm not an expert - who would be interested in my Articles?". The answer is: "Lots of people!". If you've been running an online business for 6 months, or even just for 3 or 4 months, you now know many things that you didn't when you first started. Imagine if you could have had the knowledge you now have when you first began! So for someone who has just ventured onto the Web, your experience and knowledge could be extremely useful. And remember - the Internet is growing so fast, there are masses of people who know much less than you do. More than 5 million Americans joined the online world in the first three months of 2000, which averages to roughly 55,000 new users each day, 2,289 new users each hour, or 38 new users each minute! So if you learn this technique, there's a huge market waiting for you. About the teacher: Michael Southon is the author of the popular new eBook, 'Ezine Writer!' Discover how to dramatically increase your traffic and sales, starting today: www.ezine-writer.com Join his twice-monthly 'e-Profit Tips Newsletter'