Webmasters know that having "content" on their websites is the key to attracting more traffic, lucrative ad placement, and overall "rank" in terms of how the world-at-large views the importance of your site. The more content you have on your website, the more pages you have. The more pages you have, the more ads (whether for your products or other ads such as "Ads by Google") there are. The more ads you have, the more opportunities you have to increase your product and/or ad revenues (earnings). So, for no other reason than "making more money" you should be using "free content" articles on your website.

You use free content articles by copying an article that is available for use as free content (such as this one) and pasting the text of that article into one of your web pages. Most sites that offer free content articles provide instructions for copying the text and the author signature (or "bio"). Many times the text that is to be copied---the article title, article text, and author bio---is in a "box" or separated from ads or other information on the web page. There is likely to be a disclaimer on the page that warns against using the text of the article without also using the author's bio. Very often the author's bio will contain a link back to his/her own website. To avoid copyright infringement or plagiarism, be sure to copy the entire article and author bio when you use a free content article on your website.

Regardless of the primary topic of your website, you can pull free content on all sorts of different topics that will attract a wider audience (visitors) to your site. To keep your primary topic apparent--let's say, aardvark farming--you should develop a "page template" that highlights your methods and principles of aardvark farming, leaving just enough space to include a free content article on any one of a wide variety of other topics, like creating a vegetable garden. That way, your site is more likely to be visited by people who are interested in the topic of the free content article, but then might get intrigued about aardvark farming and click through to other pages on your site.

Most ad programs (such as Google ads) now gear the ads and promotions that appear on your site to the text that is on that page. That is, if you have an article about creating a vegetable garden on your site, the visitors who will be reading that article will see ads pertinent to vegetables, gardens, etc., and will be more likely to click through to the advertised product or service. In the meantime, remember that you've now attracted a visitor who might not have otherwise logged onto your website, thus providing that all-important opportunity for you to sell your book Life of an Aardvark Farmer (which is sure to be a bestseller!).

Free content need not be relegated to websites. You can use free content in newsletters, as fillers on blog sites, or really in any manner you chose in order to extend the reach of your publication (electronic or otherwise). Before using free content for non-website use, be sure that the free content doesn't have use restrictions that prohibit its use as non-website-based text.

Who Writes Free Content and Why Do They Want To Give It Away?

Authors, such as myself, write free content articles and upload them to their website for exactly the same reason as people who are looking for free content: to attract visitors to their website. Use this article for example. No doubt you've noticed the "Ads by Google" that appear on this web page. I'm banking on the fact that, over time, people who come to my website looking for free content, or even people who are just interested in one of the topics I write about, will click on one or more of the ads. That's how I earn my revenue. I give away the article, but I make money when people click on the ads on my website. The more topics I write about, the wider the audience that I attract, and the more likely I am that some of those people will click on a Google ad or two.

When you upload your new page that includes this article and my bio, I get just a little more exposure. That is, some of the people who visit your site might read this article and be interested enough to click through the link in my bio to my website. So, the more articles I write, the more chance I have of people visiting my site by clicking through your site to mine.

If You Are Offering Free Content for Me to Use on My Website, Then Why Do I Have to Copy Your Bio?

Unless stated otherwise, the author of the article (or other text, images, graphics, etc.) "owns and retains" the copyright to that article. Unless you buy the article from the author (after which the author cannot sell that same article again or use the text of that article without your express permission), you are committing "copyright infringement" when you use the article text without the author bio. By including the author bio along with the text, you are providing an "attribution" (that is, a citation) to the author of the text.

Can I Use More Than One of Your Free Content Articles on My Website?

Unless there are restrictions provided by the author of the free content article, you can use any to all of the free content articles on your page. The only "catch" is that you must include the author bio for each article (or other type of free content) you use. For example, if you take 10 of my articles, then my author bio must appear 10 times.

Do I Have to Tell You That I've Used Your Free Content?

Unless there is a instruction to do so, you do not need to contact the author of the free content article (or any other type of content offered as "free content") when you copy that article.

I Saw One of Your Articles On Another Website and I'd Like to Use That Same Article On My Site. Can I Do That?

Sure! Simply visit my page and copy the original article along with my signature and paste it into one of your pages.

Free content benefits both you and the author. Using free content provides a quick way for you to put up something new on your website on a regular basis to help you attract new visitors or to keep visitors coming back to see what's new on your site. The author gets exposure through the link back to his/her website.

Using free content articles is definitely a win-win situation!