Once you have your articles written, you need to submit them to one or more online article directories. There are literally scores of directories online, but not all are created equal. To achieve your purposes of traffic generation and reputation enhancement, you want to go with directories that are well-respected and actually USED by online and offline publishers to find quality content.

Here are a few directories to check out:

Ezinearticles.com With a high Google page rank and Alexa ranking, Ezinearticles.com is a well-respected leader in the article marketing field. Creating your account is free, and will take only minutes. The site includes lots of videos and help topics to get you going. You are limited to submitting 10 articles until your article quality is confirmed. Paid premium services available (quicker publication, scheduled release, etc.).

Hubpages.com If you want to add video, photos, or other media types beyond basic text, Hubpages.com may be for you. Create a hub and add content, driving traffic to your blog. A robust community and help section to assist you. Free account creation and article submission.

Ladypens.com If you’re looking for a high-quality “boutique” article directory, Ladypens.com is a great choice. You must apply to be selected as an author, but once you’re accepted, your chances of having your articles picked up by publishers is very high.

Articlesbase.com Articlesbase.com is another popular basic article directory. You can create a free author account, and once your articles are published, you can review extensive statistics regarding views and clicks.

Associatedcontent.com A Yahoo!-affiliated content network, Associatedcontent.com includes over 2 million pieces of content (articles, videos, images). It’s free to create an account, and you can actually earn money from advertising and revenue share.

In most cases, the first time you submit your articles you are going to need to register with the article directory. If you intend to submit to a very large number of article directories it’s a good idea to set up a separate email account for this process so that you can easily store your article directory information together. This also allows you to keep any notifications or promotional emails sent out by the directories out of you main inbox.

When you go to submit your articles make sure you are prepared with your article in a couple of formats (text and html) and that you have written a targeted bio to go at the end of each article.
One thing to keep in mind is that many directories will allow you to submit the same article to multiple directories – check each directory’s specific guidelines and terms of service. There are also submission services that allow you to upload your article once, and then submit it to numerous sites, giving you bigger bang from your writing efforts.

When submitting articles to directories it’s not always quantity over quality. I’d much rather zero in my efforts on a small number of high-quality directories than spend a lot of time submitting to hundreds of low-quality ones. Keep this in mind as you plan your article marketing strategy.

Here are some examples of articles submitted to article directories.
Remember, the goal is to get targeted readers who are drawn into your article and motivated to click through to your website. This will happen when you do your homework, choose great article directories, write a quality article and give a clear call to action back to your blog with a resource box link.