To use an article directory, and start your article marketing campaign, simply go to Google and search for free content, article directories, or web content. 

Simply select an article directory from the list and begin looking for content. You will find more than you ever thought possible. You could spend the rest of your life reading through articles and new articles would be created faster than you could keep up with them. However, rather than force you to look through each one, here are some of the better sources for free online content:

• Go Articles (www.GoArticles.com
  With more than 1 million articles available, this site is the largest free article site on the web. To be sure you are following the rules, click on the tab marked “Publisher Guidelines” and read over the regulations before using any content. Go Articles has slightly more user-friendly features and a better interface for users than other article directories.

 

• EzineArticles (www.ezinearticles.com)
  The low-resolution page layout is good if you have a slower internet connection. Each article is reviewed by a real person before it is posted out to shared, cutting down on low quality and nonsense articles. EzineArticles is popular with many direct mail and copywriting gurus who maintain expert profiles here.
  

 

• ArticleSnatch (www.articlesnatch.com)
  Offers more cross-link potential than other sites. This is because it allows authors to include multiple links in the resource box, while other article directories restrict authors to just one link in the resource box.

 

• GetArticleNow (www.getarticlenow.com)
  A newer site but growing in size rapidly, if you’re looking for quality free content for your eZines and blogs. You’ll find it here. All free articles are reviewed and approved by a human editor.  

  Once you are at the article directory site, start browsing for content in your niche. You will likely see many articles, but don’t go with the first halfway decent article you find. That’s a bit lazy and a disservice to your readers. Try to read through four or five different articles until you can find one that really speaks to your niche and is likely to appeal to your readership. 

Now, if you find you don’t have enough time to write your own blog entries, or if you would like to introduce other viewpoints or facts into your blog, you may want to consider using material from some of the many free online article directories.

These websites are dedicated to providing all kinds of content. Mountains and mountains of content, all free for you to use at your convenience in your blog.

Why would anyone give content away like that? Actually, there are many reasons. Some authors want to make a name for themselves as experts in a certain area, so they write several articles on that topic to share.

Others want to pull traffic to their personal web pages, and share the articles they wrote for their own blogs or sites with the public with that aim in mind. Still others want to share information about a new product, and welcome all comers to comment on the press release and link back to their product page.

Of course, each and every one of these authors wants proper credit for their work. They get that credit when you include their byline (signature) information along with the article. This is usually a condition of using the free content.

Also, most require that you publish the work as is (no editing!) and that you to link back to their website so that readers can see their information in context. However, these conditions are not a problem for most users, and you should be able to easily comply, opening up worlds of ready-made content for you to incorporate in your blog.

Typically, all the information you will need to include with the article to cite it properly will be available at the end of the article in a little space called the resource box. This resource box will have the authors name, a link to a page of the authors’ choice, and sometimes a one or two sentence description of the author and the site included.