As a small business owner or entrepreneur, no doubt you have a wealth of knowledge to share with your prospective clients.
You already know that writing articles is a great way to introduce your services and expertise to the masses and increase your exposure to a wider audience via the internet. It just makes good business sense.
So, why on earth would any article directory not want to publish what you have to share?
Each article directory has its standards and reasons why it may not accept your article for publication. It is extremely important to follow their submission guidelines to the letter. No two article directories are alike. For example, some sites allow HTML and/or links in the body of the article - others don’t.
Another thing to keep in mind is that articles are generally reviewed by a human editorial team to ensure that you are not spamming or simply submitting multiple links to drive traffic to your website. Not only will the editors pick up on this right away, so will your readers (if your article even gets published). The editors devote a significant amount of time reviewing each article to ensure the overall integrity of their directory and that of its contributors.
I’m sure, as an author, you don’t want to find your valuable contribution listed shoulder to shoulder with yet another thinly-disguised advertisement for a male enhancement product or some enticement for folks to gamble at a newly-opened casino.
From time to time, you may write an article that does not meet certain criteria in terms of its length, content or perhaps because of its formatting. Don’t be discouraged by this. Make the necessary changes and resubmit it. It’s well worth the effort to do so.
1) Keep self-promotion to a minimum
When reading your article, if someone is truly wowed by your content, they will want to learn more. They’re not reading your article to find out more about 'you'.
They’re actually reading to find out more about themselves and perhaps how you might be able to help them.
2) Be aware of the length of your article
Between 700 and 850 words is optimal for the length of most articles because most readers truly don’t have that much time to devote their attention to what you have to say.
3) Keep the "affiliate" thing out of it
Reputable article submission sites hate when contributors try to use them as cheap and easy ways to make money just for the sake of making money.
Keep affiliate links entirely out of your articles.
In fact, some article directories won’t allow you to include links to your own website or even to other websites within the body of your article, whether self-promotional or not.
4) Maximize your author resource box and/or profile
Here is where you are encouraged to promote yourself, your business, your services and your latest book, product or website. If a person likes what they’ve read in your article, naturally, they will want to find out more about you. Normally, you are allowed to alternate between different resource boxes depending on the content of your article and where you want to direct your reader.
If your article submission site allows, feel free to add a photo of yourself to your profile. This will immediately add a more human touch and will give readers the sense that you are a real person who is truly interested in helping THEM.
5) Ensure your article is properly formatted
If you have written an article in Microsoft Word, for example, there are many quirky things that can happen during the copy and paste process into an article directory. Sometimes you’ll submit an article that you’ve composed in Word and then realize that it has been published with all sorts of weird characters and symbols. That doesn’t look very cool or professional.
I usually take the Word document, save it as a plain text and then copy it into Notepad. This usually removes "smart quotes" and other things that can warp your article’s formatting after the fact. (Always look at the article directory’s preview before you submit.)
6) Keep track of your articles and where you have submitted them
It’s easy to lose track of where you have already submitted an article and when. New article directories crop up every day and you may have written an article a year ago, but now want to submit it to some new sites. But you may wonder, "Have I already submitted that to XYZ?"
It’s a good idea to keep a simple spreadsheet of your article submissions. Each page within the workbook can be devoted to one article and include the article’s title, the date submitted and published, the link to the URL of the published article and the login information for each site. You can also add notes about each directory’s key guidelines.
It serves as a permanent record of the history of the article. It avoids duplication and tracks those various email addresses and passwords that you might have used while submitting your articles in the past.
In summary, a well-circulated article can pay amazing dividends to your business and reputation. The internet has a very long memory. Make sure you maximize this excellent opportunity to reach out to others and maintain a valuable presence for many years to come by ensuring that your articles get published.
Copyright 2008 Karen Braschuk
