?Where did you learn to do that?? someone asked.

I didn't want to tell them that the night before I read an article online called ?How to Carve a Turkey.?

This is something I really like about the internet. Just 12 years ago, if I wanted to learn how to carve a turkey, I would have had to go to the library and search for a book or a magazine that would show me how, or ask a family member.

Today I sit down at the computer and can find hundreds of articles on any given topic in a matter of seconds.

When you use the internet, where do you spend the most time? Do you enjoy reading corporate price sheets and sales pitches? Or do you prefer to read helpful articles? Now consider the increased web site traffic for the sites that have the helpful articles as opposed to the price sheets and sales pitches.

By posting occasional articles, you can add a lot of value and credibility to your company website. The more credibility you have, the more customer retention your will have and the more web site traffic you will have. If you employ or know a professional in the industry, perhaps you can get him or her to sit down on a rainy day and write a short weekly article that offers tips or insight for smart purchasing decisions related to your product or service.

These articles don't need to be long or elaborate. Anything helpful to your customers is great and will increase your web site traffic. By adding editorial, you accomplish several things:

• Increased credibility. People are more likely to purchase from your company because they see you genuinely care about helping them, even before they arrive.



• Improved customer loyalty. Your customer retention will continue to increase and your existing customers will be more loyal to your business, because you consistently remind them you exist, and provide them with useful information that makes them more likely to return.

You will have another benefit that you can include in regular e-mail updates, which makes people more likely to come back to your website time and time again giving you even more web site traffic.

Another key to increase web site traffic is submitting articles to other web sites with a link back to your site. The more articles you send to more web sites, the more web site traffic you will get out of it; and its all free! If the article is of high enough quality, other readers may then download that article and add to their site or, even better, their newsletter advertising. This just continues a viral effect and continually sends visitors to increase web site traffic for you. Think about the increased web site traffic you could receive from sending a few articles out each month to 10 different sites?your numbers could grow exponentially!

This article contributed by --Leveraging powerful results for small business leaders.