Yes it sounds crazy to give away articles if you are a writer, however increasing blog traffic by article submission to other sites will actually land more traffic on your own if done correctly.
Many sites thrive through the use of free articles but the terms include leaving the author and links unchanged. Most of these sites allow 2 or 3 links which may use key words as well as one in the author’s bio box, allowing you the opportunity to link keywords. When these articles are picked for use by other site owners your links are posted and stil able to be followed back to your own site, creating free and relevant backlinks, which search engines love!
Each site has it’s own terms and conditions for posting, including several which do not allow links to be placed in the top three paragraphs of the article. It pretty much goes without saying that they may not be used in the title itself.
Write as you would for your own site, create unique informative articles that other users will want to use and post on their sites. Generally skip posting these same articles on your own site as the links will not benefit you anyway.
Some excellent sites to try are:
ezine.com livejournal.com affsphere.com for affiliate marketers, articlebase.com and goarticles.com
If you are seeking free pictures for your website they can be found online as well, be sure to credit the publishers and sites as per the download agreements as well in some cases the photographer or model want to be notified also.
freedigitalphotos.net and sxc.hu are two I have used with success, particularly the first although they have a smaller selection.
In the meantime good luck and best wishes on your freelance writing adventures. Blogging online is becoming more popular daily as people reach out to share their lives and interests.
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