The smartest online entrepreneuers write several articles a week to get the word out about their small business. These people understand that the more articles that are written, the higher the potential for more traffic to their their website or affiliate page, which amounts to increased sales.

Although this is still a very powerful tool in the online world, there are many experienced businesspeople who will undermine it’s potential as an antiquated method of generating traffic. This is very false! The fact that these people are turning away from such an effective method leaves room for smart people like you to swoop in and take advantage of their lack of vision.

Let it be known that in most cases, even the best writers among us fall into some mistakes. Whether it is laziness or a lack of confidence, at times you will be hard pressed to find the motivation to get the job done and write. Here are a handful of critical mistakes to avoid.

1. Not being knowledgeable about your product. It’s easy to pick up on someones lack of knowledge about their own product. It is a question of competence, and a potential customer will walk away from someone who isn’t or doesn’t appear to be knowledgeable. Be a student of your own product.

2. Not knowing your customer. This takes plenty of homework, but it pays off in the end. Read blogs and other social networking sites related to your product to get your finger on the pulse of your potential market. If you don’t know who it is you’re writing to, you can’t engage with them. If you can’t engage with them, they won’t buy from you. If they don’t buy from you, well, use your imagination! Know your customer.

3. Bulk submitting to article sites. If you’re selling, it is vitally important that you take a reasonably slow approach to article marketing. Think of it as a marathon, not a sprint. You tend to learn far more if you commit to a sustained actionable daily plan than doing ten hours of work on the first day with little to do for the next several weeks. Some of us prefer to do everything at once and leave it alone, but the smartest among us will take their time and submit by the day.

4. Being lazy. I myself didn’t realize until I started writing that an essay of five-hundred or so words really isn’t that difficult. That fact keeps my head in the game and doesn’t allow for the laziness that really cripples a potential online leader. With little more than a few weeks practice, you can easily churn out article after article, each taking no more then thirty minutes of your time a piece. Don’t procrastinate.

Avoid these pitfalls if you want to enjoy sustained success in this business. The people who can’t live up to these principles will inevitably quit their venture. This leaves smart businesspeople like you and me to take over where they left off and succeed in the area where they should have. Mind you, this is exploitation at it’s best, and it’s the American way. But rest well at night with the idea that you are in a race. The most mentally conditioned among us will enjoy the benefits of success, while the one’s who commit too many mistakes go home without their medal!

The owner of any website who firmly believes in giving a sky-high shoot to its value, page rank, and monetary income will be able to appreciate the importance of the link building strategies that play an eminent role in accomplishing these goals. With so many options found over the internet it is easy to get jumbled. Each top ten informative link building strategy below is laid out to serve as an aid to your online victory.

Here we go!

1) Start with submitting to Web Directory Listings- they boost your link popularity and improve your rankings on sites like Yahoo and Google with one way links to your website; driving traffic through direct referrals. You can submit your site to both paid and free directories. Setting up on free directories has one way links to your website and no strings attached; however it can take an eternity for your link to be reviewed. Paid directories have your website listed with a smaller amount of competitive links. Pick one that is moderately priced and find their rankings. Place your links on trusted directories such as Yahoo and DMOZ. There are millions of web directories out there but a more reliable well known one can up the ante of your website link.

2) Request an exchange of links on similar sites- linking to another site that is related to yours and offers no competition can be the step to getting an outgoing link on their site. This increases your site value.

3) Write useful article and press releases- if you write an informative, thoughtful and interesting article or press release it can become a useful piece of information to the readers, thus leading it to be re-blogged, put on newsletters and so on. This will increase your value and lead to more quality linkages to your site.

4) Go for social bookmarking sites- people have a tendency to shy away from this but it is important towards you link building strategies. Every user from all over the world can link to your site. These sites are usually made by real people that tag you, instead of Google using unnatural algorithms to determine your sites worth.

5) If your site is not unique enough BUY text links from other sites – pretty self explanatory. It is important to make the text links look viable and real.

6) Involve yourself in online forums- don’t just comment all in one day instead have an active stream of comments; building your credibility.

7) Try writing testimonials and reviews- another way of creating a stand within the online community and linking back to your site.

Ask clients and vendors to post links back to your site- a simple link building strategy.

9) Blogs are a gold mine- easy set up and easy work. With this you can post on anything, but understand its about quality not quantity; blog commenting is a great link building strategy as well.

10) The last link building strategy is….. Content! Quality content on your site can build major traffic; it is still the ruler! Other webmasters naturally want to link to quality content. They want to link to something that is useful to their readers. Quality content means that you don’t have to go out and build links yourself. They will be built for you.