As someone who uses articles to promote my business interests, I'd like to offer my best tips for writing and promoting articles so that they get you the result you want, which is more traffic and sales.

1. The purpose of writing an article, other than to get traffic and sales to your site, is to establish your expertise. You are offering your potential customer value he/she can't get anywhere else.

You are branding yourself as an expert. By branding yourself as an expert in your topic, you raise the credibility of your offering and others are more likely to buy from you.

Where most get into trouble here is writing an article on one topic and advertising a totally unrelated topic in the resource box.

For example, you write an article on internet marketing. However, when the reader gets to the resource box, you're advertising a balding cure. Your resource box has just been wasted. Readers won't click through.

The reason why is that you have nothing else left to offer them on the topic of internet marketing.

When creating your resource box, remember, this is your opportunity to advertise your products and services. Give the reader a reason to click through.

2. Write and submit for the market you are targeting.

I know. This one sounds obvious, but you'd be surprised at the number of internet marketing articles I get on my health site, or articles I get on Eastern religion on my Christian site.

Although there is nothing fundamentally wrong with the articles themselves, they have nothing to do with the topic I am promoting.

In one of his books, marketer Jay Abraham mentions the bank robber Willie Sutton. When Sutton was asked why he robbed banks, he said, "Because that's where the money is".

Good advice. Go where the money is. Post your articles where your readers are. Besides, if you post them on unrelated sites, you just irritate the site owner. When you finally do post content the site owner can use, he/she will probably delete it because you've lost credibility.

3. Use short words, short sentences, and short paragraphs.

Writer Ernest Hemingway gave this advice when he worked for the "Kansas City Star".

However, when writing for the internet, it's even better advice.

Readers read 25 percent slower when reading on a computer screen. It doesn't take long for your eyes to get tired. Think about your reader.

All of those long paragraphs might make you think that your writing is impressive because you can string lots of sentences together, but your reader will click away because it's not worth the effort to read text that's all crammed together.

Use good grammar and correct spelling.

One of my authors submitted an article the other day on article promotion. He spelled article artical. Mistakes like this one can hurt your credibility.

Another issue you should consider is acronyms. Acronyms are abbreviations that stand for something, like ASAP. (ASAP means as soon as possible).

Make sure that you spell out what the acronym is. Your reader may or may not know, and if they don't, they won't understand the article eventhough it's information he/she is looking for.

Also, don't type your titles in all capital letters. On the internet, this looks like you are shouting. I don't read articles with titles like that, and if I receive emails in all caps, they get deleted. It isn't worth the effort to read them.

Finally, make sure you format your article according to the site's guidelines. I don't accept formatted articles. The only time the writer should use a return is at the end of the paragraph. The only exception to my rule on formatting is that HTML can be used.

4. Make the most of your resource box.

I mentioned this briefly above, but you'd be surprised at the number of article writers who forget to include the url of their sites in the resource box.

Don't forget to include your url!

Offer your reader a reason to click through to your site. A free ebook, more information, a special offer, are always good ways to do it.

Include one link in your resource box. Otherwise, you'll just confuse the reader.

Also, keep your resource box short, Usually 65 characters wide and six lines long.

I've seen writers use resource boxes that are longer than their articles. It's a waste of time because the writer gives the impression that the resource box is more important than the information he/she is trying to share.

Remember, your article is meant to build credibility and provide valuable information for your reader. That means avoiding a blatant sales pitch. This means posting articles in article directories, not ads.

Give your reader information he/she can read, make it easy to read, and you'll have your readers coming back for more.