The goal of free publicity is to get your name in front of as many people as possible. So if you write an article, don't bury it on your web site.

Why hide it? You want as many eyes as possible to see your intelligent professional advice. So offer that article to other web sites.

Articles you author that appear on someone else's web site ? a professional association's, another organization's, your target market's news and resource sites ? are powerful publicity tools. Get on them. When prospective clients find your article on someone else's site, you can drive them right over to your site by telling them they will find deeper information there.

Not only does having articles on other web sites bring web users directly to your site, it also helps improve your search engine ranking. The major search engines now rank sites based on how many other sites link to it. The more places a link to your site appears, the higher you will appear on the search engines.

I've gotten to the top of a search engine search page on the strength of just one article linked to my site. So many people search for services on the Internet now, anything that pushes you up the rankings is a major marketing boon.

Ned Steele works with people in professional services who want to build their practice and accelerate their growth. The president of Ned Steele's MediaImpact, he is the author of 102 Publicity Tips To Grow a Business or Practice. To learn more visit http://www.MediaImpact.biz or call 212-243-8383.