Writing Articles?

[Ryocheck]

I have seen people who write articles and submit them to article directories to help increase their traffic.

Does this really work or is it a waste of time?

Do they expect the articles to send them traffic or are they just supposed to improve the web rankings in search engines?

Any thoughts would be appreciated as I am new at this and don't want to waste anymore time doing the wrong things.

[REW Tyler]

Article writing "works" in terms of bringing traffic and increasing search engine rankings, how-ever the two major variables are article topic and content. A well written article on a hot topic can do very well, especially if submitted to a big article directory with lots of readers / bloggers using that directory for content.

[RESteve]

I've written a few articles and submitted them, and have found the articles to be picked up on various agent sites. However, I'd experienced a little frustration trying to keep my links intact.

I agree with Tyler; and would coach you to not expect a night/day difference my submitting one article once in a blue moon.

[Ryocheck]

Any recommendations as to which article directories seem to be the best to submit to or are most worthwhile?

[RESteve]

Any recommendations as to which article directories seem to be the best to submit to or are most worthwhile?

There's plenty.

http://www.ericbramlett.com/articlesites.php

Also, see this thread: http://www.realestatewebmasters.com/thread14298.html

[SEO Nick]

Any recommendations as to which article directories seem to be the best to submit to or are most worthwhile?

I think the most beneficial out of all of them is Ezinearticles.com

[jdonnovan]

Any recommendations as to which article directories seem to be the best to submit to or are most worthwhile?

I recommend going with a paid service like articlemarketer.com. You can write one article and submit it to hundreds of article directories instantly. Then do a rewrite of that article and hand submit it to ezinearticles.com. You will get the most bang for your work that way.

[Ryocheck]

Do your articles get penalized in any way by using articlemarketer.com or do they get declined by the directories? It seems a bit on the easy side to really work well. Anyone else have experiences to share before I spend my money?

Thanks in advance.

[erogers]

Any recommendations as to which article directories seem to be the best to submit to or are most worthwhile?

IMHO:

EzineArticles
Amazines.com
iSnare
VKHowto
Go Articles
ArticleMarketer
Buzzle

[jdonnovan]

Do your articles get penalized in any way by using articlemarketer.com or do they get declined by the directories? It seems a bit on the easy side to really work well. Anyone else have experiences to share before I spend my money?

Thanks in advance.

I have never suffered any penalty from this, actually its how a lot of the seo guys are doing it now. Rather than spending your money right away check out that site and try their free version, it doesn't submit to as many sites but still gives quite the boost.

If you use the full paid service you can usually expect to get about a hundred or so backlinks that stick. Those are the ones that are accepted by the directories. You also don't need to have accounts with all of the directories they take care of that for you. I first heard about the service on courtneytuttle.com, you might head over there and check out their post on keyword sniping. Its amazing how many things you can learn from it.