Advertising is a method of spreading a message with the intent of getting a response. Evangelism is a form of advertising. When you tell someone about the Lord Jesus Christ or you invite someone to attend church you are advertising. You want someone to be saved, to accept the Lord Jesus Christ as their own personal Lord and Saviour or you want them to come to your church group and hear about Jesus that is a form of advertising.
Your articles, your writing is a form of advertising. You have a message you want people to hear. If you write about gardening you want people to know about the gardening methods and techniques you write about. If you write about health you are advertising health.
Those things are not generally recognized as advertising, but I would consider it such. Other methods of advertising include commercials you hear and see on the radio and television. Door to door distribution of flyers is a form of advertising. Your local newspaper has classified ads and display ads.
Why advertise at all? Well, to get out a message. If you do a good job in your business and charge a fair price you may receive word of mouth advertising, which has long been considered the most economical and best form of advertising.
Associated Content (AC) by Yahoo is able to pay you your performance pay, in part, because of the income they receive from advertisers.
I haven’t done as much of it as I should, but promoting your articles on social networks is an excellent source of advertising, often free. And on some of those sites, like Gather, you may get paid for participating. Social sites like Twitter, Facebook and Myspace are excellent sites for promoting (advertising) your articles.
Other places for promoting the articles of those you are a fan of are sites like Digg and Stumble Upon. You can also make postcards and or flyers and distribute them door to door to promote your articles. Postcards do not have to be “official”. They can be made with a cheap pack of index cards, then write your link on the cards. One of the simplest yet least expensive way to promote your articles is a signature in your outgoing emails. This is something I did not know about until I read some articles about it.
Well, Hope this helps you to promote your content, not just your articles here, but your videos and slide shows too as well as any content you may have on other sites.