Besides death and taxation, we should add ones willingness to share an opinion to the list of all things definite. Doing this in the past was a pretty cost prohibitive task. Today we have this wonderful tool called the internet to help us.

This can be a good thing for marketing your site or products. But just putting up a web site and hoping people happen upon it is a lot like putting a FSBO sign on your lawn. You'll get a few people to look, but not the traffic it will take to get the job done.

So what else does the internet have to offer us in our quest to rule the online world? Internet Article Directories! And what lovely services they are.

You can begin to share your expertise in most anything. If you can write it you can share it. As far as web site and product marketing, this is a very good thing (sorry Martha). A few neat things about these services are: free to use, traffic opportunity, diverse community and builds credibility.

Let's take a closer look at those points.

Free To Use – While it is true that there is no such thing as a free lunch, these services come pretty close. By free, I mean that there is no monetary cost involved to use the services. You will still have to sign up as a publisher (2 minutes max), create your article, submit your article, and wait for it to be published.

Traffic Opportunity – There are literally thousands of people who see the articles submitted to these services, either by visiting the main page of the service or a web site that has reproduced your article. Your primary responsibility is to write effective copy to take advantage of this exposure.

Diverse Community – It is pretty much understood that if you have 10 people looking for love, you'll get 10 different ways to do it. The same holds true for these article services. There are so many different topics covered. Some are broken down into subtopics which can give you the opportunity to target a more focused audience.

Build Credibility – The fact is this. If you are published writer, people are more likely to trust you and your judgment. If you can write accurate copy on a consistent basis you will build your credibility. The better you do this, the chances of other web masters republishing your article increase.

So where can you get started? I started with Article Alley. I just liked the way the site was set up, and the affiliate sites they had. But as always a visit to Google your favorite search engine should pull up some results. Here are a few to get you started.

Article Alley

Article Dashboard

Articles Factory

ISnare.com

So get writing!

Be sure to check out the first article in the series Pinging Services