Writing articles is all the rage these days on the web. Or should I say getting other people to write articles for you, joining membership sites that provide "private label" rights -- that is all the rage.

And the reason? You get all the benefits of a well-written article without the work! Someone has to write the articles of course, and if you have writing skills theres plenty of opportunity for you.

Why have articles become so popular? People surf the net looking for information -- or "content" to use the buzz word of the moment. They're not interested in adverts, or flashing banners -- they just annoy people. If they search for bananas they want solid information about bananas, not a list of related banana links!

A good article will provide that content, or information.

A year or so ago webmasters thought they could profit by creating sites filled with ads and related keywords. This still works, but more people are moving away from this as it's becoming harder to get indexed in the search engines, and to stay in the search engines. So, you don't make the money you used to from this kind of site.

That's why articles and content websites have grown in popularity. It's a way to fool the search engines without fooling them, if you see what I mean. You give the SEs what they want, which is good quality content. You give your visitors what they want: solid information that helps them.

And you give yourself what you want: visitors that like your site, search engines that index you, and a growing income.

A well-planned article campaign with backlinks to your site can make a huge difference. This is just one aspect of good SEO, and it's one that everyone can pursue for little cost.