Have you spent hours on end trying your best to make money on the internet and ended up empty handed? Trust me you're not alone.

I've been there myself.

After running into a brick wall for years, I've finally found what works for me.

If I were starting today and could choose one method to promote my business and to brand myself, it would be writing and submitting articles.

Why?

** It's Free promotion

** It's extremely viral

** It brands you fast

** Most marketers won't do it

Your articles are actually more than just free promotion, they're free promotion on steroids.

Think about it?

What's the main feature of the average ezine? The featured article. Get featured in an ezine and you're the spotlight of that issue.

Get featured in multiple ezines every week and readers will be saying, I see this name everywhere.

You're branding yourself fast and it hasn't cost you a dime.

Once you start getting your name recognized, the articles will start taking on a life of their own. Have a few webmasters pick them up and you're name recognition (brand) keeps spreading.

It's truly amazing what article writing can do. After you've been doing it long enough, readers will get the feeling they know you.

There's not much chance of that happening from running an ad. An ad is just one of many and gives no clue as to who you are.

The fourth reason I gave for writing articles was, "Most marketers won't do it."

If you're serious about your business and branding yourself, there is one thing you should realize. You have to start thinking out of the box.

Become a contrarian. Learn what everybody is doing, and then start doing what they are not.

You're a unique individual and you don't have to follow the herd. Birds of a feather may flock together, but the brave eagle flies alone.

Get in the habit of writing and submitting articles and hopefully, the next article I read will be yours.