You're probably aware that fresh content is important to getting search engine traffic to your website or blog. A lot of webmaster and bloggers frequent these article directory websites, looking for new articles for their own sites.
When you submit an article to a directory, you are allowing other website owners and bloggers permission to add your article to their site - for free. However, they need to include an "about the author" box at the end of the article.
This resource box is basically an area where you can include information about your website, as well as links back to it.
When someone posts your article on their site, they also post this about the author section and everyone who reads the article on their website sees it. Your article can ultimately end up on hundreds of websites, with thousands of visitors reading it and clicking the links through to your own site.
There are plenty of article directories to choose from on the web. All you need to do is search Google for 'free article directories' and you'll find a bunch. Some of them will be topic-specific (say, health or finance related articles for example) while others are more general. You can submit the same article to multiple directories to get the best exposure. In fact, you can even get software that will automate the process for you.
Coming up with ideas for article topics is really not hard. Just take the topic of your website and think of a question your visitors would have, then write an article answering it. For example, if you have a gardening website, you could write about how to care for your indoor plants or when to start planting seeds.
If you do not like to write, don't worry. You can hire a ghostwriter to write your article for you. You can ask other internet marketers for referrals on reputable ghostwriters. The prices for an article will vary, but an average rate is about $10 to $12 for a 500 word article. Once you discuss with the ghostwriter what you are looking for, they will write the article and send it back to you. Some ghostwriters may also include submit the article to reprint directories for you.
Theo MacLanahan offers more helpful information about article marketing at ArticlesGoneViral.com. You can also find more helpful information at my article marketing Blogger site and my article marketing Google site.