If you have a website you're no doubt constantly wondering "How can I get more traffic to my website?". As web owners we constantly want more traffic, especially if we're doing business online. It's just the nature of things because without traffic a website can't survive. Whether we want more subscribers, more customers or just more visitors to read our content -- and possibly click on our AdSense ads ;) -- it's what we crave: More traffic.

Well, how CAN you get more traffic to your website? There are various methods available, some cost money, some are free, some take a second to do and some can take a long time. What I'm doing to talk about is writing and distributing articles - submitting articles to article directories to be exact. Because it's 100% free and doesn't have to take a lot of time.

No matter what market you are in you should be able to find a subject to write about that your potential subscribers, customers or visitors would be interested in -- and if your article gets read you will most likely get traffic. Plus, you could also get some nice backlinks to your website which is of course always good for search engine rankings. I'll explain the reason behind that later on.

Now, you might not consider yourself a writer but writing an article doesn't have to be hard. It doesn't even have to be long -- 300-400 words per article could be enough if you get your point across even though 600-900 words is more common (but 1200 is usually the maximum).

If you know your market and you're passionate about what you're doing then writing an article shouldn't be a problem. If you need ideas go to forums and blogs in your niche or just see if there is anything in the news you could write about. Also, one trick is to do it like you're writing a letter to a good friend where you're telling him about something specific.

Another solution, if you have no interest in writing an article or just don't have the time, you can let someone else do it. You could go to freelance sites like elance.com, rentacoder.com or guru.com and pay someone to write an article for you. But you should have some idea what it should be about.

Let's assume that you have your article. Next thing you want to do is find article directories that accept articles on your topic and submit to as many as you can find. To find article directories you can go to your favorite search engine and type in "article directory" or "submit article". That should give you a few general directories.

These are some of my favorite directories:

http://www.articleshowroom.com
http://www.goarticles.com
http://www.ezinearticles.com

But if you want to find an article directory that is specific to your market you should search for "X article directory" or "submit X article" - where X is the market you're in (like "gardening" or "health").

Then, when you're on the site look for "Submit an article" or "Add article". Make sure you read all the submission guidelines - some sites allow HTML codes and some don't, some places allow affiliate links and some don't, etc. Usually the article directory is organized into many categories and even subcategories. Try to select the category that best fits your article - it'll help with getting your article approved as fast as possible as well as giving you more targeted readers.

If you're not experienced in article marketing you might not realize the benefit of publishing your articles. First of all, you'll get your name displayed all over the internet - people will start to recognize it and trust you.

But the main reason so many people want to get their article in as many directories as possible is because of the "resource box" or "about the author" that is displayed at the end of the article.

That resource box can contain the name of your business, your mailing address, web address (to your main page or an opt-in page, etc.), e-mail address, phone number or however you want people to contact you or learn more about you and your business. For some people the link to their website is the most important part of their resource box.

Most article directories allow "active links" in the resource box that people can click on. You definitely want to submit to as many of those directories as you can because for each one you'll get another link back to your website - and that will help you rank higher in the search engines.

Another benefit of this is that if you've written a good article that people like they'll be more likely to click on the link in your resource box - hint, hint ;). They might also feel like they've gotten to know you a little and trust you - which means they're more likely to do business with you.

A well written article will probably also be picked up by more website owners and newsletter editors - giving you more exposure and traffic. But you don't have to write a masterpiece the first time - just get started and you'll get better with each article you write.

So, to get more traffic, sales and subscribers you should get yourself an article about a subject related to your market (either write it yourself or have it written for you by a ghostwriter), find article directories that accept your topic and submit to as many of them that you can find.