When I tell people that I am a small business owner and a freelance writer, they immediately ask “Where have you been published?” and “How much do you make doing that?” When I mention that many of my articles are published for free, they look at me as if I had grown another head.
Who would want to write an article and not get paid for it?
While it is always preferable to get paid for everything that you do, writing articles for free is a very wise business decision. This is because you can market every type of website or small business online through a practice called article marketing.
Article marketing is the practice of writing keyword-rich articles and then distributing them through a network of article directories and content sites. The most important thing about these articles written for free is that they contain a special link. This link will either be to your website itself, or a link for an affiliate program that makes you money.
So, you see, you are not really writing these articles for free after all.
When you write these free articles and paste them into the article directories and content sites, other webmasters, newsletter publishers and ezine writers can take your article and paste it on their site. They must, however, include your special link. SO, what happens? Your website link or affiliate program link will be spread about the internet for more and more people to see.
That article you wrote for free is now turning into a viral marketing advertisement that is bringing you in some serious cash.
There is a difference in these website content style articles that people write just for this purpose and articles that are intended for magazines, newspapers, and other, more literary outlets. Some people do not understand the difference.
Of course, quality still matters for these free articles. You want webmasters to pick them up and propagate them across the web. But more important is the topic and keyword density. Keywords are the words that people plug into the search engines to find your article or website. Keyword density, which should be between 2% and 5%, is the percentage of keywords to the text of the article. For example, if you write an article about “free articles,” you should use the phrase “free articles” at least two times out of every hundred words you write.
Writing articles for free is a great way to help you business grow and thrive. It is a great way to make money from other avenues other than the actual freelance writing. Writing articles for free is a truly viable money making prospect.
