We have read and heard a lot about articles and article writing over the last few years online, and many people know exactly how effective they can be, if you have personally written a few and had them distributed, but if you have never done this then let me explain why article are so effective for online business promotion.

Why write articles?

Articles are great for several reasons. including the following:

1) Articles give you a great outlet to 'showcase' your knowledge and expertise on a particular subject. Articles give potential customers the opportunity to 'try you out' by reading your articles before they purchase your products to see if they resonate with your message.

2) Articles give you the ability to test headlines and topics before launching costly advertising campaigns. When you submit articles to web sites that track hits and click thrus, you can see very quickly which headlines and which topics are most effective at getting your potential buyers attention.

3) Article writing gives you the opportunity to hone your writing skills. If you have never written an article before, your first one might take several hours to write and rewrite. After you have written a handful of them, you can literally sit down and crank out several per hour, and the quality is much higher than the first few as you gain your own writing style.

4) Articles, when you place a link back to your web site, offer you the opportunity to gain effortless backlinks to your web site. These backlinks are incredibly important in gaining high search engine rankings, which can truly increase your website traffic, bringing you more business and branding you as an expert in your field.

5) Articles give you a low-risk method of feeling like you are creating while you are gathering material for your next ebook or other writing project. Articles allow you to put your thoughts down while they are fresh in your mind. When you are ready to begin writing your ebook or other information product, you can pull out all your articles and you have the information right at your fingertips. In fact, you already have it in electronic form, so you can cut and paste a lot of it and reformat it into the majority of content for a product. And all the while your articles have been generating traffic and creating name recognition for yourself.