An article bank is a web site where people can post articles for webmasters, ezine publishers, newsletter editors and offline publications to find and reprint. The writer's "payment" for having his or her article used is that the writer's byline, resource box and link will be included with the article.
In essence, it's free advertising for the writer and helps build link popularity to his or her web site. Since starting IdeaMarketers.com as an article submission site in December 1998, the number of article banks has mushroomed.

There are literally hundreds of them. But every article directory isn't of the same value to you as a submitter. Some receive little traffic. With the 1,000's of articles in these databases, your article is bound to get lost. A good way to decide which article banks to submit your articles to is to go to http://www.alexa.com and look up their traffic. A site with an Alexa ranking of 500,000 or less is receiving a decent clip of traffic.

The lower the Alexa ranking number, the more Alexa users visit that site. It's not a hard and fast determination of traffic because not everyone has Alexa's toolbar installed on their browser. But, it will give you a good general idea.

Here are ten of the most popular article banks on the internet, in alphabetical order:

www.amazines.com
www.articlealley.com
www.articlecity.com
www.articledashboard.com
www.articledepot.co.uk
www.articlefinders.com
www.certificate.net
www.ezinearticles.com
www.freesticky.com

There are many ways to market your website. Do you have a big budget? Or is your budget the size of a small piggy bank? Figure out how much you want to spend. Then use some or all of the below ways to promote your website.
You can trade links with other companies that are in the same kind of business you are. This is called Exchange Link traffic. It has a proven track record of getting business to your site. Make sure you exchange with sites that have similar interests that your business has.

Have a newsletter or e-zine for your website. People will receive and remember to visit your website. These people will tell their friends about your site also. This will generate even more traffic. It is not advisable for them to forward your newsletter or e-zine but it is done.

Use an online community like a message board or chat room. This will generate people from all over the web with your same interests. Again, word of mouth will work here.

Write articles and submit them to e-zines, websites, and magazine that accept article submissions. Make sure you put your website information at the end of the article. It would be best to write about something that pertains to your website. Make the articles full of interesting facts and show your wisdom.

Giving away electronic freebies is a good way to get traffic to your website. People love freebies. With electronic freebies they do not have to wait to receive it in the snail mail. It is an instantaneous result that people like. Send your freebie to an e-zine or online directory just for freebies. This will generate word of mouth guaranteed.

Have a package deal with your products. By combining several of your products together from your website you will have people thinking about the good deals they can get from you. They will come back over and over. If your deals are really good then your website traffic will increase.

Post answers to other people's questions at online message boards. Write complete and knowledgeable answers so you look credible. Put your website address under your answer. This is a good way to get free publicity.

By using some or all of the above website traffic tricks you will be ready to compete with a whole bunch of other companies. Make sure you are above par and outshine the other sites