Many website owners and marketers are still uninformed about article directories as a means of traffic and getting sign ups. They have many advantages. Here are some.

1 Many writers. Article directories have many authors writing for them and submitting their articles to them. There are a whole range of topics, including in the internet marketing area. This means there are also a whole range of points of view and ideas, as well as how-to articles.

2 Use free. You can write articles yourself and have them downloaded and put on others' websites. This generates backlinks to your site and especially important if a high Page Rank site decides publish your article. The publisher has to use your article as it is with no changes. However, you also could find lots of material for your own website and it will be seen as fresh content by the search engines.

3 Wanted content. If you write articles that contain information people are looking for then you are more likely to be published. This can then raise the authority of your own site as search engines find your links. The more backlinks you have the better.

4 Not a good writer. If you think you're not good at writing there is only one real solution and that is to write more, learning where you can improve and increasing your flow of ideas and ability. On the other hand, you might feel that simply paying someone else to write for you is a better solution. This is OK as long as you're getting the quality that you want, as well as the possible number you need.

5 Many different readers. There are many article directories and each have their own kind of readers, so if you submit widely you will reach as wide an audience as you possibly can with your articles.