In the previous issue of this series, we looked at how you could use article directories to generate traffic for any product or services you are selling. In this issue, we’ll be looking at how we can move it a little further. You’ll be learning how to use your articles to even generate a bigger readership audience and make more money in the process.

Asides using the article directories, there are various means you can promote your articles with. Some of them are: Use of social network sites popularly known as Web2.0 portals, Submitting your articles to Ezine publishers who need quality content related to the topic you are writing on, News Sites and News feeds, tagging, allowing other people to publish your articles, increasing the Keyword Density of the article etc. Using these techniques is not rocket science. If you know how to check your email and type a few letters and emails, then you can use the techniques to gather as many visitors as you want.

Let’s start with using social networking websites. These are communities online that cater to providing an avenue through which people can get to meet each other for the first time, or where old time friends can catch up with each other. It’s like a get together joint for people across the globe. Examples of these include MySpace, Orkut, hi5, etc. Some of these websites have as much as a billion hits daily. At least hi5 has that much traffic on a daily basis and MySpace has about the same. Imagine the potentials inherent here. A billion hits! What if you could divert some of that traffic to you so other people can visit your website, blog etc.? The potential is limitless. How do you divert the traffic to your website or blog or get people to read your article?

1. Register with any of these websites that you choose. I am more familiar with MySpace.com although the dynamics of the other websites are not too different. So, we’ll use that as our working example.

2. Then create your profile page. The key to this is making your profile attractive and funny except if you intend to join the very serious-minded folks or “no-jokes” groups. Make your profile page appear interesting. Let people see that you are a fun guy to be with etc.

3. Set up your blog. This is highly important as you’ll be needing it on a daily basis. MySpace provides you with facilities so you can create your blog and start posting. Note that your blog address is different from your MySpace page. Your MySpace page is where you tell all about yourself. In short it is where the world first gets o meet you. Their first impression of you will definitely result in their either wanting to know you better or not. You can insert your blog link here as they’ll want to see what you have to offer if they are interested in knowing more about you.

4. Then start adding your articles, videos, and audios to your blog. This is what your invitees will see when they visit your blog and may either keep them coming back or keep them away. There is no limit to the amount of articles you can add. So as long as you are producing those, post them on your MySpace blog.

5. After setting up your blog and your page, you are good to go. Browse through the groups you like and start sending invites. Sending invites simply means adding people as your friends. This is your first step of introduction. When you send them the Request to add as a friend, they get it in their inbox. More often than not, they will want to check out who wants to add them; that’s the reason the initial preparation of the home page and blog page is highly important. Be careful about adding too many friends. MySpace has placed the limit of friends you can add to 400 a day. Anything above marks you out as a spammer. But as a starter, add 250 a day. It’s safe. As you get used to the modalities involved with using MySpace, you can increase the number of invites you send out.

6. Then start posting bulletins to your friends who have accepted you. Bulletins are a form of message. After the bulletin, include the link to your article at the bottom. Then, send and in no time, they’ll get your message. If you have just 12,000 people on your friends list, they are bound to read it if it is interesting.

That’s it. No rocket science at all. If you spend one hour a day working on this, you’ll get appreciable results in no time and lots of people will get to see your articles and probably tell their friends about it which will result in increased website traffic.