Are you a business owner who has “writing” as part of your marketing plan? This article is the first in a series of articles about using your articles to market your business on the Internet.

One of my favorite web sites to learn about being an author is about.com and its search engine. It has a forum for freelance writers, screenwriters, a writer’s exchange and more. Just put “writers” in and have fun.

So what is an article bank? It’s a site where you can “deposit” your articles on the web. Don’t look to take your articles to the bank right away by posting to these sites though! Only one site on my list pays in “cash” and at 2 cents per click you won’t get rich quick. You do place copyright information and a bio on each article you submit though. On some sites you can place your picture and/or logo.

Bottom line: you’ll never know who will read your article, write to you, subscribe to your e-Zine, make a trip to your site, hire you or pay for your future articles, until you “get” your articles out there!

Visit an articles bank if you don’t like to write or don’t have enough articles for your own newsletter. With permission and the authors’ attribution, most article banks allow you to use articles from their sites.

Once you have written a piece, how can you get others to notice it? Design a page on your web site (personal or business) where you link the articles you have deposited into an article bank on your page. Visit www.coachmaria.com/articles.html to see an example of my articles page. I give you the option of choosing what type of articles you’d like to read. Below are ten articles banks for you to discover.

1) www.themestream.com: You’ll receive 2c for each person who clicks on your article. They send out a daily newsletter. All types of articles.

2) www.topten.org: It’s not just about top ten lists although that is a main category. You can publish quotes; coaching tips, and more. They send out daily newsletters. Subscribers subscribe to specific areas; such as daily top ten personal tips, daily top ten business tips etc.

3) www.selfgrowth.com: For all sorts of self-growth and recovery articles. Their weekly newsletter has over 67,000 subscribers and a few articles posted to their site are chosen to be in it!

4) www.marketing-seek.com: This is a site of two well known Internet marketing figures. They publish 10 different e-zines with articles, and are just all around “marketers”.

5) www.ideamarketers.com: The concept is very similar to market-seek and they have an affiliate program where, for a fee, they will market your articles.

6) www.top7business.com: This site brings lots of traffic to my site from the articles I’ve posted with them. Turn your top ten into a top 7 and submit it here.

7) www.makingprofit.com: Another site to place your articles that has lots of extras too.

8 ) www.WritingTree.com: Publish here and receive feedback on your articles. Includes a list of articles contests to enter.

9) ezinearticles.com: Twelve different categories of articles to choose from or submit.

10) www.writebusiness.com: A commercial business site that includes a business articles submission area.