Get Your Articles Blasted Across the Web

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Get Your Articles Blasted Across the Web

By Stephen Bucaro

The most effective way to promote your online business is
to write articles for publication in ezines and on web
sites. Many successful marketers use articles as the
primary means of promoting their businesses. Unfortunately,
many people think all they have to do is type up some
dribble and publishers will be waiting in line to promote
it.

As a member of several free content groups, my email is
filled with articles every morning. Unfortunately, less
than one in ten of those articles is good enough for
publication. In this article, I reveal the criteria I use
to accept or reject an article. I'm sure that some
publishers use different standards than I do, but
I suspect that most are similar to mine.

The most important element of an article is the subject.
The most desirable subjects are:

-Web business
-Web marketing
-Web design

Non-web related articles can get published if they are
about practical useful matters, such as time or money
management, health, computers, or employment. Don't waste
your time writing about:

- Off line business
- Emotional or philosophical subjects
- Dated subjects (like 911)
- Book or product reviews (advertising)

Another important criteria is the content of your article.
Your article must contain practical, useful information.
Most articles I receive are worthless dribble. After you
have completed your article, re-read it to see if any of
the statements below apply.

- It should be a letter to my mother
- It should be an entry in my diary
- It should be chatter for my coffee clutch
- It should be passed around at my church
- It's just rhetoric containing little practical or useful
information
- It's about the basics, like ten million similar articles
already out there

The format of your article is also a very important factor
in getting your article published. Follow the rules
below to increase your chances of getting published.

- Your title should be six words or less (not counting
connecting words like "the").

- Your paragraphs should contain between three and six
lines. Keep your paragraphs short, but don't write an
article full of two sentence paragraphs or straggling
sentences.

- A publisher should be able to use your opening paragraph
as a "lead".

- Don't use dates or refer to current events or holiday
seasons in your article. If you do, your article will
quickly become dated and unpublishable.

- Your link goes in the resource section at the bottom of
your article. If you put a link to your web site in the
body of your article, it better be a very good article.
If you put more than one link to your web site in the body
of the article, it better be a damn good article.
Publishers are looking for good content, not a link farm
back to your web site.

- Links to resources not on your web site should go
directly to the resource. If the resources URL is long,
provide link text with the link. Long links can mess up a
the formatting of a newsletter or web page.

- Use a closing paragraph as a summary or a conclusion,
but don't use the phrase "in summary" or "in conclusion".

There are some techniques that will get publishers very
excited about your article. Follow the tips below to get
your article blasted across the Web.

- Search for every instance of "I" in your article and see
if you can replace it with "you". People reading your
article couldn't care less about the writer. Always keep
in mind that people are always thinking "what's in it for
me?".

- People don't want rhetoric or useless information. Think
of a way to approach the subject from a "how-to" angle.
Again, people are always thinking "what's in it for me?".
They want something practical and useful.

- Use numbered or bulleted lists in your article. This
draws people to your article like a homing missile. Try it
yourself next time you see an article. Your eyes are
drawn right to the bulleted list in the article. I don't
know why it works, but it does. Put a list in your
articles every chance you get.

- Approach a subject from a different angle than everybody
else. Be a devils advocate. If everybody thinks something
is wonderful, write an article about how terrible it is.
Write about something that you think is a scam and use the
word SCAM in the title.

The most effective way to market your online business is
to write articles for publication in ezines and on
websites. Unfortunately, most articles are not good enough
to get published. You can write a quick, easy article that
causes publishers to hit the delete button, or you can
follow the rules above and get your article blasted across
the Web.
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Resource Box:
Copyright(C)2002 Bucaro TecHelp. To learn how to maintain
your computer and use it more effectively to design a Web
site and make money on the Web visit
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