As the Google guys foresaw with such prescience when they created their search engine, the first and foremost reason people want to go online is to gather information. Internet users want answers. They want them quickly, and they want them to be accurate.

It is to this end that Google created its search algorithm, which gives preference to websites with lots of links back to other credible websites.

Well, here goes. I'm going to give this "writing" thing a shot, even though I'm not much of a writer. Right now, my graphic design site only gets a hundred or so hits a week -- and that's not even enough to show up as a blip on the radar when Google searches the Net.

I've tried writing search engine optimized articles in the past to sell my graphic design services and I've got to tell you -- it didn't do me much good.

Have you dreamed of working from home but just don't know how to get started? Take it from me, it's not as difficult as you might think. Warm up the bathrobe in the drier and get ready to cozy up with a cup of tea. Sound like the way to start the day? You don't have to tell me!

It's true that making money online isn't as easy as it might have been 10 years ago, for the simple fact that it's such an attractive option to so many people.

Does it seem like the path to your website is completely deserted? Do you find you're not getting hits and clicks, no matter what you try? When you visit your site, do you hear the sound of crickets? Before you do anything drastic, wait! There is an easy way to drive traffic to your site.

1) Increase Backlinks
The best way to start showing up in searches when people look for your product or service is to make sure there are plenty of links to your site out there on the Web.

If your parents were like mine, constantly stressing the importance of education, then you know full well that "knowledge is power." Isn't it also true that a whole lot of power lies in the hands of the wealthy? And from watching certain reality TV shows about certain real housewives of a certain citrus-y county, you don't always have to have (ahem) one to have the other.

You know social marketing is the key to internet networking success. So, as any good businessperson would, you create and post only good, solid, high-quality content on your site. You visit and post regularly in forums and you've been consistently submitting articles to article directories.

You're doing all the things you know you should do to get links all over the wonderful World Wide Web.

Back links - links back to your site from another site - are considered to be nods of approval by major search engines such as Google and Yahoo! In other words, the more links back to your site that are floating around on the Web, the more your page rank is likely to rise. And we all know that leads to what every internet marketer covets - more traffic.

Having a site banned from Google or Yahoo! is an internet marketer's worst nightmare. All this talk about the duplicate content penalty has everyone shaking in their boots. While you certainly should respect the duplicate content penalty, there's no reason to let it bring your marketing campaign to a halt. In fact, the penalty doesn't even affect article marketers.

If you're not seeing the results you want with your article marketing campaign, you may be falling prey to any of the common mistakes people make. We're all pressed for time these days and it's easy to discount the importance of things like providing unique content, using good spelling and grammar and avoiding black hat SEO tactics. But the fact that your time is so precious should make it all the more important to you to use that time wisely by producing articles that are more likely to be published around the Web.

I struggled for many years to figure out the answer this very question: How can I get noticed on the Internet? Even in the mid-nineties, it seemed like everyone had beaten me to it. "Look for graphic designer in QUOTES," a helpful friend instructed me. Thanks a lot, buddy. That still didn't cut it.

Well, over the years I got lucky -- some would even say smart.

As a small business owner, I know the importance of marketing and advertising. The Web is such a vast sea of information that it is all too easy to get lost -- and that also means it can be difficult to get noticed at all!

Advertising in traditional media is prohibitively expensive for most self-employed entrepreneurs. Luckily, the Internet has changed all of that.