The traffic statistics page for Robert's new small business web site starts to load. He scrolls down the page, dismayed. Just one or two visitors daily. Robert sits back and sighs. Most were probably curious friends and family.

When his internet-savvy nephew suggested promoting his small business on the Internet, Robert designed a simple but attractive five-page small business web site. He added meta-tags and keywords, and waited for the search engines.

Robert wonders, "What now?"

Robert's experience is common among small businesses getting started on the Internet. He has just faced the first big lesson for a small business web site: the web site is not enough. Unlike the weekly advertisement Robert places in the local paper, he needs to promote the web site itself. In a sense, he needs to advertise the advertisement.

What Robert doesn't realize is that he already has the most valuable asset a small business can leverage online -- knowledge and experience. Anyone who runs a small business off-line is an expert on something that other people would like to know about. Writing articles can turn that knowledge into targeted traffic. Article writing is the ideal free method for a small business to promote itself on the Internet.

Every small business has expertise it can share in 500-1,000 word bites. A landscaper could write about the uses for different kinds of turf grass. A window installer can describe new types of energy-efficient windows. A home cleaning service can provide cleaning tips.

Customers ask Robert five questions repeatedly. He can easily write five simple articles to answer them. Then, he just needs to add a "resource box" which advertises and links to his web site.

Robert can also include a few of his web site's keywords in each article, and, if possible, in his resource box. Robert's business depends on local customers. Including his city's name in anecdotes within the articles, or in the resource box, can help his articles to appear in local searches for that city.

Robert would start by uploading his article to a new web page. This gives visitors more to read -- and starts to establish Robert as an expert. More importantly, the article becomes "spider bait" for the content-loving search engines to find and index.

He could stop there, but his new article gives him a more valuable opportunity to promote his site.

Next, Robert can offer his article to other web sites. Most article directories accept submissions of articles. They offer those articles for others to use in newsletters or on web sites. A quick search for "article directory" will yield a sizable list of sites that accept article submissions.

Prepared, with a simple text file ready to copy and paste, it takes just minutes to submit an article to an article directory site. Once posted, the article provides a link to Robert's site. Other webmasters may reprint his article, also linking to his site.

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