Recently, I stumbled upon a simple way to hit the target on my Internet marketing strategy for driving potential web traffic to my site. For me, this was an incredible "Ah Ha," because I am not a "techie" and my sales strengths are building relationships and understanding numbers. The Internet by its very nature provides an immediate obstacle to building relationships, but offers opportunities to gather and analyze numbers. And this is where many small businesses and even some larger businesses fail to capitalize upon this potential business strategy in their Internet marketing efforts.

Every day I receive at least one if not several articles about article submission as a marketing strategy to increase web site traffic. And yet, not one of these articles discusses if these articles are meeting the needs of potential readers. One senses that if you write enough articles or white papers (quantity), you will increase your business (quality). This reminds me of the old saying "Build It and They Will Come."

So how do you truly know what articles are being read when you use a paid article distribution service and more specifically what topics are generating the greatest interest? Even though my practice focuses on education and training through organizational and leadership development, I recently authored an article "How to Gain Web Traffic Through 9 Simple Tips." This article was my sharing of my recent experiences through the advice of two marketing experts (www.hodgecomunications and www.leaders-perspective) as I actively worked one goal within my strategic plan to increase traffic to my web site.

This article was first posted on 08/27/05 at www.ezinearticles.com and then submitted to a paid article distribution service www.articlemarketer.com. I was quite surprised when reading the "time viewed" through my free membership and monitoring page at Ezine Articles. Using my most frequently viewed article "Work Ethics - A Paradigm Shift" posted on 04/20/05, I then checked the average daily views through an excel spreadsheet that I had created for all submitted articles. What I discovered to my amazement was that the web traffic article was receiving almost 15 views a day while the other article received around 3 views a day. To ensure that this wasn't an anomaly, I reviewed other daily view rates and learned that no other article was even close.

Wow! With 38 articles in the distribution highway, one article was out performing the other 37 by almost five to one. Remember the Parento Principle: 20% of your efforts account for 80% of your results. For someone who continually advocates if you can't measure it, you can't manage it, I then realized that this adage also applies to writing articles as well as to watching the statistics from my web site. Since this article was distributed, my daily web visits have increased 50% in just 6 days.

Is this article solely responsible for this increase? Absolutely, not. However, given the measurable increase in traffic, the number side of my brain began to click in. I began to wonder if I concentrated my activity during the next month on articles focusing on Internet marketing and web traffic would I continue to secure a daily view rate of 15 or greater for those submissions? During the next 30 days, I hope to have a measurable answer to that question and please feel free to contact me if you wish to know the answer as well.

If you also want to hit the target on your Internet marketing activities or as some might say, work smarter not harder, can you answer these 5 simple questions:

(1) What are your average daily view rates for your articles?

(2) Are your articles within a specific topic area or a variety of topics?

(3) Have you avoided topics that fail to demonstrate your expertise?

(4) What is your strategy for tracking your article submissions against your daily web traffic?

(5) Do you know for your efforts which specific topic generates the most daily views?

With the Internet being a major source of information, writing articles is a definite strategy to drive traffic to your web site. However, given the amount of time it takes to write a quality article, it does appear to make sense to leverage that time to secure the greatest results possible.

Copyright 2005(c) Leanne Hoagland-Smith, www.processspecialist.com

This article may be freely published. Permission to publish this article, electronically or in print, as long as the bylines are included, with a live link, and the article is not changed in any way (grammatical corrections accepted).

Leanne Hoagland-Smith, M.S. CEO of ADVANCED SYSTEMS located outside of Chicago, IL, is the Learning & Process Specialist. With over 25 years of business & education experience, she helps her clients to double their performance. By uniting systems, strategies and people to create loyal internal customers, Leanne delivers ROI solutions in 4 key areas: financials, leadership, relationships and growth & innovation within a variety of industries including education, healthcare, manufacturing and professional services. As co-author of M.A.G.I.C.A.L. Potential: 7 Capacities for Living an Amazing Life Beyond Purpose to Achievement due for 2005 release, Leanne speaks nationally to a variety of audiences. Please contact Leanne at 219.759.5601 or visit http://www.processspecialist.com if you are seeking to connect your passion to your purpose to double your performance for unheard of results.