During that time, I've found that writing and submitting articles has been the most effective way for me to drive traffic to my sites.

There are a lot of reasons for this, but the most important is giving others a taste of the type of content available on my sites and demonstrating how what I offer can solve visitors' problems.

Although there are many ways you can improve your articles to get better results, here are five article marketing strategies that can increase your results.

1. Don't just write good articles; write a lot of them.

The more articles you have circulating on the internet, the more chances you have of being read by your target market.

This is especially important if you have more than one specialty. You'll want to write a wide variety of articles on your particular topic and circulate them to as many article directories as possible to broaden your reach.

Remember, article directories are your friends. Directory owners are looking for great content for their visitors, and they can help you get better exposure. Treat them right by giving them good content.

2. Submit to directories that offer RSS feeds.

RSS is really simple syndication. It's a form of code that's search engine friendly. Many websites use this code to display constantly updated content on their websites, and so it's another opportunity for others to find your articles.

Make sure you submit your articles to sites that offer this, and it's even better if there's a syndication feed for you by name in case others want to syndicate your content specifically.

3. Don't obsess over the duplicate content penalty.

Duplicate content is something that really has gotten a bad rap. I really do believe that many of the article directories available today would shut down if they weren't benefiting from the "duplicate content" they're receiving. Sites like Google, Yahoo, and MSN all use duplicate content with their news services, as well as other features on their sites. These sites are more interested in good content on sites than obsessing over sites that use duplicate content because the ultimate goal of content is to serve the readers.

As an article writer, it's not your responsibility to worry about getting the article directories indexed anyway. Your job is to write good articles that site owners, ezine owners, and article directories want to publish.

Regardless of how many times your article is published on the internet, at least one copy will be found in the search engines, so why worry about it?

4. Pay particular attention to your resource box.

No one wants to hear your life story. What they want to know is how you can help them solve their problems. Although your articles give your readers a taste of how you can help them, your resource box should drive them back to your website for a complete solution.

Although you may want to tell others a little about yourself, as well as your credentials, don't waste your time telling others about your personal life, where you're from, or your likes and dislikes. Give your visitors a reason to visit your site: a free report, white paper, newsletter, or something that further explains your solution. Build a relationship. It makes it easier to sell your product.

5. Check your word count.

Most article directories have some type of guidelines about the articles they accept, and the requirements you need to meet to get your articles accepted.

Word count is probably one of the biggest things that causes writers problems now. If your article is too short, it won't get accepted. Sometimes your article can even be too long.

You can give plenty of information in your article without it being too long. Most article directories will accept articles that are between 400 and 750 words. Some article directories will require your article be at least 500 words. Hit somewhere in between these numbers, and your article will be fine.

There are many things you can do to improve your acceptance rate on your articles. The most important is to just write good articles, and you'll get read.