Regularly adding fresh, new content to one's web site is a key search engine optimization function and will eventually result in increased visitor traffic. Such content will come from two primary sources---readily available free content that someone else has written or the site owner's own personal contributions.

While its value has been proven, writing articles---quality articles---takes some time, and submitting them, once they are finished, takes a considerable amount of time.

A number of software programs have been introduced over the years designed to automate certain tasks involved in the writing and submission of articles, but are they worth it?

There are software programs that will take various parts of your article and spin it---rewrite it in numerous variations. I have never used any of these, so I do not know how reliable they are, but it would be wise to make certain that they are not trying to intentionally shorcut the search engines with poor quality makeovers. There are services, however, that will do this on a legitimate level and in a professional manner.

There are other software products that attempt to automate, at least to some extent, the article submission process. Some of these, I have used, and while they do cut out some of the repetition, you're still doing a lot of manual work. Ideally, you want to use the same login and password for all the article directories you submit to simply to expedite the process, but there are directories that throw a wrench in this by wanting to issue their own login and password for you---some software applications will not accommodate multiple logins.

You still have to manually go into each directory separately, select the appropriate category for your article, and make sure your article formatted correctly onto their site. Doing this for hundreds of directories, especially if you are writing one-to-two articles per week as is recommended, can take an enormous amount of time. If you are still working a traditional job while you are getting your online business up and running, you will find yourself pushed to the wall pretty fast.

Article Post Robot is the one exception that I know of, where you enter all of your login information initially and then, when you submit your articles, you just click a Submit button only once---but there is still the time factor even for having to enter all of your login info upon setup.

On the service side, there are a couple of very good ones---Article Marketer and Submit Your Article (which I use). With these, you pay a monthly fee and you have access to their article writing software and they will submit the article for you---to a lot more places than you would ever be able to do manually or with any of the previously mentioned software products.

It had gotten to the point where it was taking me two weeks or more to submit an article after I had written it and I just had to find a better way. I chose the Submit Your Article service and I am very pleased and it is such a time-saver.

I know when you're starting out, you have to go with what you can afford at the time and work your way up---I had to do that, too. Given the importance of article marketing and the benefits you will reap from it, when you get to the place where you can afford the monthly service, by all means go for it because it will give you a lot more time to do all the other things that you need to do.

Copyright (c) 2009 Michael Crank