Craft Articles = Targeted Traffic

One of the most effective methods of generating targeted traffic to your craft website is to submit articles to article directories such as ezinearticles.com. How this works is you write a craft related article and submit it. At the end of each article is a resource box. This is where you get to put a link to your site.

Other webmasters and newsletter publishers use the article for their sites or newsletter. Everyone who reads your article on another site then becomes potential traffic for your craft site.

The key to making this work for you is to write good articles that people will want to publish. If your article goes unnoticed and therefore unpublished there is no benefit to having written it.

First choose a good craft topic that will utilize keywords that you also use on your site. It is important to tell your reader at the very beginning what they will get by reading your article. Make that your first or second sentence.

Web viewers are notoriously fickle readers and they will hit the back button within a few seconds if their interest isn't piqued. Therefore, it is vital that you capture the readers interest within the first few words or they won't stick around long enough to get to your resource box and follow your link.

Besides making your craft article interesting and useful, other points to keep in mind are making short sentences and paragraphs. Use bullets and bold text for key points and in general do everything you can to make it easy to read.

I don't mean to imply that you should write as if to a five year old. But it is important to note that most web viewers tend to scan rather than just read every word. Reading on a computer monitor can be very hard on the eyes and you should do all that you can to make it easy for viewers to find the information they are looking for.

At the end of your article is a perfect opportunity for some sort of call to action. It might be suggestion to make a project or encouragement that goes along with the topic you've written about.

This should be followed by your resource box that contains an invitation to visit your website. Also be sure to include your name in your resource box. It gives your more credibility with the viewer.

Once your article is written you need to come up with a catchy title. This is probably the most important part of your article because without an interesting title most people won't even click on the article to begin with. Also try to include keywords in your title.

I hope this helps motivate some of you to submit articles for publication. Give it a try, you might be pleased with the result.

Good luck and happy crafting!

Theresa