How To Execute a Kick-Ass Online Article Campaign

Online article submissions are one of the key elements in any effective online marketing strategy.

It's fast, simple, and relatively inexpensive. An article submission site can deliver your articles to massive quantities of publishers with the click of a button and garner you residual targeted traffic to your website for years and years to come, all while also establishing you as an expert in your field.

Although it isn't rocket science or anything, there are still some tricks you need to know in order to execute an online article campaign that gets you the most bang for your buck (and your effort).

Here are 5 crucial tips for taking over the internet with online articles:

1. Choose an upstanding article submission site. Here's one thing most folks don't realize--when you submit an article to an article submission site, it doesn't go directly out onto the internet. What happens is the submission site electronically submits your article to online article directories, ezine editors and Yahoo! announcement groups, then those publishers either accept or reject your article, depending on if it meets the standards for their site.

Many online publishers have standards about what types of articles they'll accept and how many they're willing to take from any one author at a time, so it's crucial to submit your articles through and article submission service that is well-respected by the industry and known for distributing quality articles.

If you're submitting from a site that is known for putting out tons of articles of questionable quality, the article distribution sites and groups will cringe when they see your article show up before they've even seen what you've written. It's paramount that you use a well-respected service, because your article may be rejected just for the fact that it came from the seedy site you're using.

Here's what an top-notch article submission site looks like:

*They place a limit on the number of articles you can submit each month so that they'll/you'll stay in good standing with the publishers on their distribution list.

*They're in tune with the types of articles their publishers want, and they have editorial guidelines in place to help their members provide quality articles.

*Every single article is reviewed by an actual live human being to be sure that it meets the standards of the article directories and has the best chance of being accepted.

BTW--Don't feel bad if your article gets declined at first--this has happened to me before! I'd rather the submission service tell me and give me a chance to fix it than to have it be ultimately rejected by the article directories.

2. Stagger your article submissions. I would suggest you submit no more than 2 articles each week on different days. These guidelines may sound wacky to you at first, but there's method to the madness.

The article submission site is submitting your articles to the article distribution sites, and those sites have standards and rules. Some don't like multiple article submissions by the same author within a short time period, and if you submit more than one or two a week you reduce your chances of your article being picked up for publication.

You may be allowed to submit a certain number of articles during your subscription cycle but you need to space them out across the month so that you'll have the best chance of getting your articles accepted.

3. Focus on quality, not quantity. It isn't enough to just get your articles to the distribution sites; the articles have to be of such quality that it makes website and newsletter owners want to publish them. That's how you get your best exposure and boost your targeted traffic to your website.

A good article submission site will have a limitation on the number of articles they'll let you distribute in a month, but don't get it into your head that you MUST use all of your article credits.

This is one of those cases where it's in your best interest to take the "less is more" approach.

Submitting more than 1 to 2 articles a week can actually hurt your chances of publication, and honestly, who has time to write 8 high quality articles every month while being foresighted enough to space them out appropriately? Definitely not me!

Here's the insider secret--some top internet marketers will submit only 1 or 2 top-notch articles a month and get very satisfying results. Let's learn from those online marketing gurus--less is often more when it comes to article submissions.

If you get the writing bug and are able to come up with 8 breathtaking articles, and you're super-organized so that you space out your submissions throughout the month, go for it! Blow it out and take over the internet!

It's fine to do that, but just don't feel pressured or guilty if you can't attain that level of organization and writing stamina.

Rest easy--you're doing just fine if you can submit 1 or 2 articles a month.

4. It's a long-term investment. While it's not in your best interest to inundate the internet with tons of articles all at one time, it is extremely effective to consistently produce quality articles and trickle them out over the long term.

Here's how that works:

The more quality articles you write, the more websites will publish your article online. The more websites pick up your article, the more inbound links you'll have coming to your site (remember, you'll have your URL in your bio that's attached to your article). The more inbound links you have, the more long-term targeted traffic you'll have. The inbound links and steady traffic will improve your search engine ranking, which will then, in turn bring you even more traffic.

Also, the more articles you write over time, the more you solidify yourself as an expert in your field. Publishers will start to know who you are and be more likely to choose your articles for publication. Readers will also get the feeling that you really know what you're talking about. After all, you've been publishing quality articles in your area of expertise for a long period of time.

The benefits of article submission increase exponentially over time, so stick with it!

5. Carefully craft your resource box. Your resource box appears at the end of your article and contains your author bio info. It's the one place where you get to include a link to your website and do a little promo for yourself; therefore, it's uber-important to take special care when crafting it.

To make the best resource box possible, do the following :

• Ask folks to click the link to your URL. You don't have to be blatantly obvious about it, but you can phrase your resource box info so that you're telling the reader what to do and why.
• Relate your bio to the article. Some folks come up with a catch-all bio and use the same one on all the articles they submit. If you do this, you're missing a HUGE opportunity to capitalize on the targeted traffic that's reading your article.
• Use a single link. I know, it's so very tempting to put links in your resource box to your website, your blog, your product pages and everything on the internet that's yours, but you've got to exercise some control! The more links you put in your resource box, the less likely anyone is to click any of them. You're diluting your impact on your readers with the more links you put in their face, so do yourself a favor and pick just one special link to share.
• Don't make your resource box sound like an advertisement. Tell us about yourself and your business and include a link to your URL, but don't make the reader feel like you're giving a sales pitch. Being subtle is more effective.

I hope this info puts some folks' minds at ease who think that they need to produce massive numbers of articles in order to have an effective article writing campaign.

That's a complete myth--you can write fewer articles of higher quality and get more amazing results than if you submitted tons of articles.

With these basic guidelines, you should be able to generate a kick-ass online article writing campaign that will bring more traffic to your website, establish you as an expert in your field, and bring you a few steps closer to taking over the internet within your chosen niche.