* Boosts The Credibility of Both You and Your Business.

In the first instance for the simple reason that you're the author of a published article, and on top of that because when you submit regularly to several article directories, articles of yours start to keep being displayed in searches on your topic.

* No Cost Traffic For Several Years.

Again, both due to the articles being in the directory itself, and also on the sites of those who republish them.

* Provides Effective Advertising That's Free.

Thanks to your writing you are seen as an expert. Before they even arrive at your website, prospects have warmed to you and let their guard down. Article marketing is the best way you can pre-sell your prospects.

* Builds Brand Recognition.

It makes a connection between you and the topic of the article in the reader's mind.

* Leads To Higher Alexa Rankings.

The more people who click on the links in the Author Bio, the more traffic your site gets. This increases your Alexa rankings because Alexa ranks sites according to the number of visitors they receive.

* Leads To Higher PageRank And A Greater Number Of Links To Your Site.

Search engines use the quality and number of backlinks along with the relevance of the anchor text in calculating where to rank web pages in the search results. Having your articles on lots of sites obviously means you will have more backlinks. This is not only from the directories, but also from other sites that found your article there and used it.

* Targeted Newsletter Ads For Free.

Your About The Author Box at the foot of your articles is an advertisement for your website. You are basically enjoying a free ad in their newsletter whenever newsletter publishers reprint your articles.

* Helps Develop Trust.

The knowledge shown in your articles leads your prospects to think of you as an expert, and pre-sells them. When they go to your website, they are more likely to investigate your offerings.

* Funnels Highly Targeted Visitors to Your Site.

Anyone who clicks on the link(s) in the About The Author Box after reading your article is highly-qualified by the way they reached your website. You will get traffic from the subscribers of ezines and visitors to websites that republish your article, and also from article directories themselves.

* Brings Prospects That Wouldn't Have Known Of You Otherwise.

With every submitted article, you are casting your net wider, reaching new prospects that would have never found your business before.

* Boosts Profits.

The quality traffic and leads brought by the links in your About The Author Box naturally creates more sales. Visitors from articles frequently become purchasers. And it's very likely that if they do not find what they are looking for, they'll click on your Adsense ads.

* Enables You To Make Better Use Of Your Resources.

It's not difficult to rework your current website content numerous times to submit to article directories.

I think that lot should be enough to convince anyone that article directory submissions really do give a lot of bang for the buck, especially compared to other means of promotion online. If I were you, I'd go and make a start on writing and submitting some articles now, before the lesson here is forgotten!