Specialized article directories are all the rage right now, and it really is no wonder. They can be a place for new authors to publish their works, they are a reliable way to get information (minus the advertisements you can get with traditional web searches) and they can be a way for business owners to get some free marketing. Of course, if you own a web zine or blog, you can find articles and content for your publication via article directories.

To understand specialized article directories more clearly, lets look at an example: Web Design Articles (http://www.websitedesignarticles.net/webdesign). The Web Design Articles directory allows authors regardless of experience, education, or past publishing credits to publish informative pieces about web design. If you have something to contribute, you simply follow the guidelines and send in your original article. If accepted, your web design article becomes part of the directory, which means that other web sites and publications can use (if the follow the guidelines about crediting you, the author, and the Web Design Articles directory). Your article also becomes fully searchable in Google and other major search engines. This means that if someone is looking for information about web design, they may be led directly to your article. This feature of the directory increases the potential readership of articles. Many authors and entrepreneurs like the idea that their content is easy to find online and submit their articles to gain exposure and publicity. Writers can claim articles on the Web Design Articles directory as a clip or publication and use that to get other writing assignments.

Since the Web Design Articles directory is specialized, it also allows people who are looking for specific information to have one key resource. If you want to know more about web design, you do not have to look at many online sources you can browse through the many articles writers have already submitted to find what you need. This is a key feature of specialized article directories: they offer one spot for people who are interested in a topic to write to and read each other.