A Publisher’s Rant – Why I Hate Your Articles

I’m a publisher for numerous sites. I HATE many of your articles. Here’s my rant and what you can do to change my mind.
Don’t Send Me Your Articles
First of all, don’t send me articles. I only take them from directories. The purpose of this article is to give you a better idea of what I’m looking for in articles. It is not to create an assault on my email account.
You’re Killing Me
Okay, "hate" is strong word and I probably shouldn’t use it. It is, however, the word that comes to mind when I blow an hour in an article directory trying to find usable articles!
As an Internet marketing firm, we beef up client sites by adding article content. This means I handle the article sections of more sites than I wish to admit. Because of this, I spend most of my time hunting for good articles. By "good articles," I am talking about articles that are formatted and arranged in a manner that makes them ready for publishing. I am NOT talking about what you write, just how you organize and format it.
Building article pages on sites is a tedious process. If dealing with your article is going to require me to make a lot of modifications, I will not publish it. More so, I will NEVER look at your articles again. Despite your captivating headline, I will simply bypass it as soon as I see your name. Whether you realize it or not, you have a reputation with webmasters, publishers and editors.
But I Need You
I hunt through article directories because I need your content. New content equals happy visitors for the sites I work on. With the exception of a few of you, however, I loath the very ground you walk on because you make my job miserable. Yes, miserable. The problem I have with your articles is you create them in a style and format that makes my teeth grind. Again, I am not talking about WHAT you write about, just HOW you put it together.
When I look for articles every two days, I am trying to find something I can slap onto the sites as quickly as possible. This means your article should be formatted to make meta tagging and hyperlinking as easy as humanly possible. Keep in mind that I am publishing hundreds of articles a day, not one or two. Time is at a premium. If you make the job easy for me, I will snap up articles as fast as you can post them.
Why Should You Care
You should care about my gripe because many of my peers feel the same way. When we get together, bitching about your articles is a popular subject. That hurts you from both a readership and link building perspective. You want to get publicity from your articles and we want to give it to you. Comply with our demands and we will paste you all over the net. Don’t and you can watch the proverbial tumbleweed continue to roll by your site.
Now, you’re probably thinking none of this applies to you. In truth, I suspect it applies to 90 percent of the authors publishing in directories. Yes, this is even true for the authors publishing hundreds of articles.
I am going to publish a series of articles on this subject all at once. These articles will cover in detail what I want to see in each section of your article. I pray that you will read them and ease the misery of all of us lowly publishers.

10 Ways To Generate New Articles Ideas And Topics

1. Brainstorm for new ideas.
Add your brainstormed ideas to an idea file that you can go back to when you are stuck for a topic.
Also add ideas you get from other sources into this file so that you'll always have a fresh source of inspiration.
2. Visit forums and message boards.
Look for an interesting topic or thread in the posts that you can turn into a new article.
3. Check out newspapers and news programs.
Depending on what you like to write about, you could find some new hot topics.
4. Subscribe to e-zines that reach your target audience.
You'll be able to get new, relevant information that could spark an idea for an article.
5. Review your own articles.
Keep your eyes open for things that you touch on in your articles that you could expand into a full article.
Also look for ways to further educate your readers on the topics that you've written about in the past.
6. Read other people's articles.
You could look over the submissions to article announcement lists and article directories, or you could visit a site that has articles you enjoy reading.
You might be able to come up with an original slant that the other author didn't cover in her article or a topic that you could research for your next article.
7. Use questions you get from your subscribers, visitors, or customers for ideas.
Questions that you get on a regular basis can be an excellent source of new ideas and topics that will appeal to your target audience.
8. Go to a seminar or marketing conference.
In addition, to finding more new article topics, you'll be able to learn new things and gain more contacts.
9. Conduct an interview.
You'll be able to get a new article from the interview itself.
The person you interview could also bring up things in their responses that you could do some research on for a new article.
10. Run a survey.
Ask your participants what topics they're interested in learning more about in your e-zine or on your site, and you'll be able to get more new ideas and topics.

Free Reprint Articles That Will Interest Publishers - 4 Tips

Have you been writing and submitting your free reprint articles for quite sometime now?
If so, how is your reprint rate doing? Is it doing well or is it a bit below 50%? Are webmasters approving your articles?
Here are some tips on how to write effective free reprint articles that would guarantee great interest from ezine publishers and webmasters.
1. Choose a good keyword
A good keyword is your "key" to getting high reprint rates for even just a single article. Try using the keywords found in this page http://random9.com/Googlest-site/index.htm
2. Keyword density
Keyword density is the number of "keywords" found in an article or content which is then divided by the total number of words. Try to keep your keyword density at 5% to 7% maximum especially if you choose common keywords for your article. Keyword density is important because this is one of the things search engines look into when they rank the search results.
Do not try to make your article an article for search engines, make them full of quality, informative but still search engine optimized.
3. Shorter word count
Publishers or webmasters often love articles that are less than 1000 words, but it totally depends on the topic and how informative is your article. Try not to go around the bush and result to making your article at 1800 words. In other words, do not make it like a short story. A good article may only have at least 250 words, but could still capture the reader's attention and have the attributes mentioned in numbers 1 and 2 above.
4. Good content
You wrote a 700-word article with good keywords and keyword density, but does it contain good content? Well, only you can answer that truthfully and if your answer is yes, then great! But for some few inviduals this isn't the fact, many are still writing articles that editors label as an "indirect" advert. If you really want a good reprint rate then make your article body 100% of quality information, tips, how-tos and tricks. Keep the 100% advert in your bylines and keep them short.
Good luck and enjoy writing!

Checklist for Writing Articles That Get Read

When writing articles for publication, it is important that you bear certain matters in mind. If you want to write a good article that stands a good chance of publication you need to take the following into consideration before, when you are in the process and after completion:
Have you formed a full idea on what you want to write about? Which subject? Which topic?
Do you know where or how to find facts or material for your article?
Have you collected sufficient raw facts/data for your article?
Have you considered the article’s audience / market? Will it interest or captivate your readers?
Does your article have a main idea and secondary ideas?
Have you written enough to give readers quality and credible information?
Does the article offer any new, refreshing and useful advice or ideas?
Are paragraphs short, well arranged and flow smoothly from each other? Are sentences short and well constructed? Is punctuation all right and there are no grammatical mistakes?
Is your article descriptive? Is it sensational, thought provoking, emotive or inspiring? Does it evoke happy memories, sadness or inspire readers to action?
Have you revised the article to flush out irrelevant ideas, strengthen your points and checked it for any errors?
Does your article content infringe any law? Copyright? Libel?
Has the article undergone rewriting through several drafts to polish it?
Does the article make sense?

The EASY Anyone-Can-Do-It Way To Write Free Reprint Articles

As you may already know, writing free reprint articles and then distributing them to publishers and web sites is one of the best ways to promote your web site - a single article can result in hundreds of new links to your web site and a rapid increase in traffic levels. But there's nothing worse than staring at a blank screen, and wondering how you're going to fill it with hundreds of words. That's why I'm going to give you an easy way that anyone can use to write an article - even if it's your very first one!
1. Get a main idea, or focus for your article.
This is what your whole article is going to be about.
The main idea for your article needs to have some relevance to the web site that you link to in the resource box, because this is how you are going to get the benefit when your article is published.
This is why articles are so effective at directing targeted traffic to your site - the reader will be searching for information on a topic, find your helpful and informative article, and follow the link to your site for even more relevant information. Writing free reprint articles fits right into how Internet users surf the web, and benefits you with targeted traffic.
2. Jot down five or more key points that provide information on your article topic.
For example, if your article's a how-to type of article, you can have say five steps towards accomplishing a specific goal. If your article explains different ways to do something, think of five or more different ways. Each of these points will form a paragraph in your article. Often as you write your article proper, you will find that you can expand each point into two or three paragraphs, which will give you an ideal length for your article.
3. Write an introduction.
Just introduce your topic. Give a little bit of background to the article's topic, and then summarize what you will cover in your article.
Again, you want to keep the reader interested, keep them reading, and push them along to the link in your resource box that you want them to click. So try to spike their curiosity a little, and they won't be able to help but read on to find out more.
4. Write a conclusion.
Your conclusion really just quickly summarizes the main points in your article, similar to how your introduction works, except now you are drawing your article to a natural close.
It's good practice to take a look at some articles in an article directory, and see how authors have concluded their article. Don't copy word for word, but you can base the format of your own conclusion on one that you like the look of.
5. Add a tantalizing title.
You may want to write this at the very beginning, but it's often helpful to write at the end once you are really clear what your article is about.
Your title is also one of the most important elements. It has to draw the reader in, encourage him to read further, make your article stand out from the crowd, and if at all possible contain an element that plays to the reader's curiosity (i.e. literally force them to read just to satisfy their curiosity).
6. Check the length
The ideal article length is 600-800 words, this is what most publishers are looking for, and will ensure that your article gets published in the maximum number of places. If you're short, see if you can expand on certain points, or add a couple of new points in.
7. Write your resource box
The last and arguably most important bit is to write your resource box. Again, it's a good idea to have a look around some article directories and note how other authors have structured theirs.
In my experience, the most effective way to structure a resource box is to first write a sentence about yourself that also gives you some authority on your topic. Then write a sentence about your web site, with a link to it. And that's all it needs. Keep it simple, keep clear of promotional language, and just include a single link.
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Once you've practised these techniques a couple of times, you'll find it as easy as pie and will be churning out quality articles in half the time. There are a few common mistakes that you will also need to avoid, but this is covered in a previous article I wrote at http://www.submityourarticle.com/articles/Steve-Shaw-1/submit-article-963.php , there isn't room to go over them again here.
All you need to do now is get your article out there and published as widely as possible.

Writing Articles For Profit

Article writing has suddenly become very popular among online marketers lately. A lot of people are taking advantage of this fact to make extra money.
So just how can writing articles make YOU extra money?
Firstly the obvious answer is to write keyword dense articles on specific subjects and offer them for sale. These will be quickly snapped up by people trying to create niche market sites to sell a product within that niche. They will also be in demand with people setting up content sites to make money from Googles Adsense (you could also do this yourself as you write the articles).
Research the most popular keywords at http://www.wordtracker.com to find a niche which will give you a good idea of what to target your articles at.
Secondly, a series of articles about one niche can be placed in one volume and turned into an ebook, or course which can be sold with very little overheads. Using one or two of the articles to submit to article directories like http://www.ArticleCity.com or http://www.DEBSArticleSite.com and adding your bio with a link to your ebook salespage will quickly add some traffic and lead to sales.
You can also use articles to promote affiliate products. Search at http://www.clickbank.com and find a product you can market from it's marketplace. Make your new link and use a service like TrackThtaAd ( http://www.trackthatad.com/?s=13753) to mask the link. Then write articles using keywords related to the product and submit those to article directories (see above).
There are a lot of ways to make money from writing articles, so get out there and start writing and submitting them today.

8 Tips to Get Publishers to Notice You

If your articles aren't getting published very often, or you just want to increase the chances of them being published, then you will benefit from the tips in this article.
1. Article Length
You should always keep you article 500 to 800 words long. If you can't fit what you want to say into that amount of space, then break your article up into more than one part.
2. Resource Box Length
When writing your resource box, keep it 5 to 6 lines long. In a resource box you are simply trying to get people to request more information, not sell them something. If you want a longer ad, purchase one!
3. Line Length
The lines in both your article and your resource box should be formatted to 60 to 65 characters per line. One of the consequences of not doing so is that, in some email programs, your article may appear with every line at a different length.
You can get your article formatted, as well as learning its character, line, and word count, at the following website for free. http://www.fwointl.com/FWOFormatter.html
4. Is Your Article Actually An Article?
Publishers want to provide their readers with actually useful information and you should want the same. If you write an article that is just a sales letter or press release it will be rejected 99 percent of the time.
5. Inactive Links
Before you even think about publishing or submitting your article check that all links within it are active and working. Nothing is more irritating than to click on a link for a site you're interested in only to find out that it no longer exists.
6. Spelling, Punctuation, and Grammar
If you submit your article and it's full of errors it will be thrown into the trash folder so fast that your head will spin. Submitting articles with these types of errors not only makes you look extremely unprofessional, but it shows disrespect for both the publisher and their readers.
7. S*AM Triggers
As a courtesy, you should run your article through a program that will check it for triggers that could possibly get it rejected by filters. This isn't a necessary step but it will definitely impress publishers and increase the chances of your article being published.
You can check your article for free at http://www.lyris.com/contentchecker.
8. Publisher Guidelines
This should be understood without having to say it, but it is still important enough to mention. Always, always, always follow the publisher's guidelines when submitting an article to them. Not doing so will get your article rejected quicker than anything else.
Read this list, print it out, and keep it by you when you are writing an article. Read each tip and make sure that you are following it.
Making the above mistakes will insult the intelligence of both the publishers and their readers, as well as wasting your time and theirs.

You can Master Article Marketing In 7 Days or Less

Let me clarify my definition of an "article marketer". An article marketer provides helpful information in the form of articles written about the industry they work within. Article marketers focus on writing quality content and publishing techniques to complement their existing marketing channels.
It is a win/win situation. The author gains many benefits for being published, and the reader satisfies a thirst for knowledge of the topic being discussed.
Have you considered article marketing?
Anyone can enjoy the benefits of writing content articles for the Web. I am living proof.
2 years ago I was introduced to the idea of using articles as a marketing strategy. Like so many other ideas we are subjected to, it didn't sink in right away. Excuse after excuse, I let procrastination stand in the way.
I had never written an article before …
As I began to see more and more SEO consultants and successful marketers discussing article marekting, I decided to dig in deeper and see what all the fuss was about. It sounded good, and I wanted in too.
Ironically, I begin to read articles about writing articles. Article after article the concepts begin making sense. I understood why article marketing worked, I understood how article marketing worked … but I still had no clue how to start my first article.
I discovered my first article topic quite by accident one evening. Here's how. (Be on the lookout for conversations like this that may take place between you and your colleagues every day.)
While in a general discussion with another site administrator I realized the KEY to successful articles or any ad copy.
Find a problem and solve it. That is what we all want - we want solutions to our problems!
The scenario went like this. My colleague offered live event webinars and needed a easy way to update specifics of these classes to members. Further more, I wanted a way to tell people about the live training without the burden of updating these live events through HTML on my web site.
Having some background experiences with blogs, and actively testing different blog creation scripts and services, he welcomed my advise on adopting RSS as an option to easily feed us the training class schedules.
It solved his problem of updating the live class schedules to us, and my problem of updating the content for my visitors. Realizing the solution to a problem - the research for the article began.
I started in the search engines, read some forums, and gathered facts.
The facts were then picked apart to determine the benefit of each fact. I used those benefits as the central focal point of my article.
My first article "Got Blog" was written and published soon after. Taking that first step and writing that first article, opened the door for me to be able to write a second article, then press releases, and Ebooks now too.
That article was submitted to only 15 free directories, and then I left it alone and went on to other projects.
By digging through all those articles about articles, I inadvertently learned "top notch" techniques from successful article writers themselves.
I felt that learning by this method was so helpful to me, that I created a free guide called "All About Articles the Marketing Advantage ". This guide incorporates all the great articles and techniques that gave me the confidence to build my first article campaign.
The guide was not created until a year after I had published several of my own articles and seen the successful results for myself.
One year later … there are over 140 sites - many of which I have never heard of, some of which are high traffic and successful sites, proudly telling people some interesting tips on using RSS - each one with a healthy link back to my website for more information.
I found the above information by doing a keyword search on Google using the exact phrase of the byline used on that article.
Article writing and circulation has been the single most rewarding "free" promotion effort I have accomplished in my years of trial and error! Be inspired, if I can do it, you can too!

An Easy Way To Write Articles To Promote Your Biz

If you're not a born writer, a simple way to begin writing articles to promote your business is to write list articles.
Your list articles could be a top ten list or top seven list that deals with a specific subject.
You could also write up a list of tips that deals with a broad subject such as marketing or promotion, and then add a catchy headline or title to your list.
Your list article could be without an introduction or you could write up a few short sentences or paragraphs to lead into your new list article.
With your introduction, write just enough to get your readers interested in your article before going into your list.
Some tips that will help you to maximize the success of your list articles are:
1. Make each tip informative.
You could tell your reader the benefit of using your tip, go into detail about how to use your tip, or define how your tip works if you're writing about something that is new to your reader.
One tip could simply state the benefit of using your tip, or you could tell your reader the benefit of using your tip and also how to use your tip.
The key is to provide genuinely useful information to your reader. If you're able to do this, you'll be able to get your articles published and achieve long term promotion of your business.
2. Write for your target audience.
For example, if you wrote a manual on e-zine publishing you could write up a list of ten e-zine promotion tips.
3. Use lots of white space.
Your articles will look cleaner and more professional, and you'll be able to keep your readers, including your skim readers, interested in your article.
4. Vary the length of your sentences.
Use short and long sentences to get your points across.
For example, if you have two or three short sentences in a row, you could transform these short sentences into one compound sentence.
You could also make these short sentences into one compound sentence and one short sentence.
5. Write your articles as if you are writing to one person or even talking to that person.
Writing your articles in this way will help you to add your personality to your writing, and make it feel like you're speaking directly to your reader.
6. Use the active voice.
Using the active voice will make your writing more straightforward.
It will also help you to keep your list article from becoming uninteresting or confusing to your reader.
7. Go over your article for mistakes.
Many article writers, even though they write very informative articles, have a problem with spelling and grammar mistakes.
Because they're easily avoidable, making mistakes like this can make your writing seem amateurish and decrease your chances of getting your article published.
8. Leave your list article for a couple of days and then go over it again adding detail where it's needed and eliminating parts of your article that are unneeded.
Afterwards recheck your article for mistakes.
9. Read your article out loud.
By doing this, you'll be able to make your article read just like you speak.
You'll also be able to make changes to parts of your article that don't flow very well or that are unclear to your reader.
10. Have someone else read over your article after you're done.
You'll be able to get honest feedback for your article that will either tell you that you're article is really good or that your article needs some work.
If you're article needs some work, getting this feedback will help you to avoid making the mistake of promoting your article before it's ready to be published.
11. Promote your e-zine in your resource box.
Promoting your e-zine in your resource box will help you to successfully keep in contact with your readers and keep your marketing message on their minds.
In your resource box, have your readers visit your site to subscribe to your e-zine or have an email address (i.e., subscribe@yourdomain.com) that forwards emails to your subscription email.
Doing this will enable you to continue to get more subscribers from your list articles even if you decide to change list hosts or autoresponder services.
12. Promote your finished article.
Submit your article to article directories, article announcement lists, and also to e-zine publishers.
Also post your article on your site, and keep your site updated with your new articles.

Article Writing & Promotion...Your Fast Track To Sales & Profits.

Writing articles, and promoting them for publication, is one of the most productive long-term promotional tactics available. Well researched and written articles... which provide valuable, useable information, are highly sought after by newsletter publishers, magazines, ezines, etc.
It is a marketing truth that "Content Is King". Good, keyword rich, content is what drives online traffic through search engines and gives the visitor a reason to keep coming back to a website. This is often referred to as "sticky content". As a traffic-generation tool it is unsurpassed.
Webmasters and publication editors have an insatiable appetite for tightly written "niched" articles that are relevant to their web sites or publications themes.
This need is your opportunity...
An editor of an ezine, newsletter or magazine has a never-ending need for good content. Each issue they publish must be filled with useful, relevant content that will appeal to their readers or subscribers self-interest. A publication that cannot provide great content will not long survive.

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"An editor of an ezine, newsletter or magazine has a never-ending need for good content.

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By regularly supplying the media with well written articles, you build a never-ending supply of links and traffic to your own websites.
How?... Well, the secret is in the bio. Each article you submit for publication has your own "authors bio" that gives full attribution and links to your site. This is the payment you receive for having supplied the articles... it is a payment which gives you long-term dividends!
Not only will your article be presented to many thousands of subscribers initially... but those same articles (with your bio and links) will be archived on the publications websites. Those archived articles become fodder for search engines which not only provide on-going traffic to the publishing site... but to YOU as well. It is truly a Win/Win proposition.
NOT A WRITER?... NO PROBLEM...
There are countless freelance writers who will "ghost write" articles for you and... giving you the copyrights. I know of many well-known names in the industry who have articles plastered all over the internet...and they have never written a word themselves. I know this because I have written some of their articles. :-)
If you need such services try elance or do a Google search for "ghost writing" or "freelance writers". There are many highly educated, english speaking, foreign-based professionals who will write articles for very nominal fees.
OK... YOU HAVE AN ARTICLE... NOW WHAT?
Having a good article is only the first part of the equatiion... now you need to get the articles distributed to those editors and publications who will welcome your contribution... and publish your work.
There are three primary means of promoting your articles:

• Article Directories
• Article Announcment Lists
• Your Internal List
• Paid Distributiion Services & Software

Here is a breakdown of each... and a list of resources to get you started...

Tracking Your Articles Properly

Writing articles related to your business is a great way to build your link popularity and also to provide more content for your site and other sites. Not too mention it's always nice when someone finds your site and uses it within their newsletter.
The only problem is, what if people dont tell you that they were using your articles??? How would you know who to reward?
I say reward because of another article I wrote, "reward those who publish your articles". It briefly outlines how to boost your articles popularity by boosting the other sites it's listed on.
Let's say for now, you just want to track your articles properly.
#1 Creating appropriate forlders within your "favorites". Every browser allows you to create a folder in order to hold your favorite web sites. Organizing your favorites folder is key when you plan to market your business 24/7. In this case, we'll create a new folder called "Articles Listed".
Within that folder, you'll want to start creating other "sub" categories for EACH INDIVIDUAL ARTILCE that you market.
For instance, let's say you have about 10 articles that you always promote, you'll want to add 10 folders within your new "Articles Listed folder". Make sure to give them a short but recognizable name that you would be able to distinguish which article it is for.
Ex. (I will use 3 of my title's)

1. Tracking your articles properly (Folder: Tracking Articles)
2. Writing Articles To Boost Your Traffic (Folder: Writing Articles)
3. Reward Those Who Publish Your Articles (Folder: Reward Publishers)

#2 Always keep the same headline for your article: I've visited many sites who consistently change the headline of the article simply to make it seem like a different article. Don't be shy, I'm sure we've all thought about it, infact, I am also guilty.
Starting now, let's all keep the same headline...
The reason for keeping the same headline is for 1 keeping a strong consistency with your marketing and 2 making it easyer to find your articles online.
#3 - Finding All Of Your Articles: Now let's find them for you... (Hoping that you already created your folders within your favories menu?)
I preffer using Google's Toolbar for this but it is not required. Let's all go to: www.google.com and start looking.
Why google? Simply the best...
Take your 1st article and cut and paste the EXACT title within the google search. Now add "" at the beginning and the end of your title
Adding "" at the beginning and the end will narrow your search to exactly what's in between.
For ex. "Tracking Your Articles Properly" would give me better results than if I were to search: tracking your articles properly. Actually I do recommend you try both methods just in case.
Now once you have found a site that has listed your article, add the exact page your article is listed within the proper folder you created within your "favorites menu".
Once you have completed this task for all of your articles, it will be very easy to keep up with your new articles. Another thing is, if you plan to reward those sites, you now have them all seperated into proper categories.
I hope this helps you out even a little like it did for me...

5 Free Time-Saving Tools for Article Authors

You can save time and make your article writing and promotion easier by putting some very great tools to use. Below I've included 5 tools that can help you.
1. Article Formatter
If your articles aren't properly formatted before being submitted they have a very high chance of getting rejected. Formatting your articles also shows respect for the publishers you are submitting to. The following tool will not only format your articles to any line length you desire, but give you a total count of characters, words, and lines. To format your articles very quickly, just visit http://www.fwointl.com/FWOFormatter.html.
2. Tracking Software
As you start writing articles, and especially when you have been writing them for awhile, you will need a way to keep track of everything you've written. You can do this using a free program called Writer's Database. Writer's Database is a program that will keep track of everything you've written, potential publishers, submissions to those publishers, writing that hasn't been submitted yet, and more. You can find it at http://www.ultima-thule.co.uk/
3. Text Converter
To make it simple to add your articles to your website you need a simple tool for converting them to HTML. Using such a tool will greatly reduce the time you spend getting your articles up on your site. You can find a free one at http://www.cyber-matrix.com/txt2html.html.
4. SP*M Checker
Whether you submit your articles directly to publishers or to article directories, you can increase the chances of them being picked. Every time you write an article, run it through the checker at http://www.lyris.com/contentchecker. This will check your articles for things that have a probability of triggering SP*M filters. Once the check is finished, you get a detailed report that will show you what you need to change.
5. Spell Checker
I know that this seems pretty obvious, but checking the spelling in your articles is a must. When you submit articles that are full of spelling errors you project a very unprofessional image and turn people away from what you have to offer. Tiny Spell is a free program that will allow you to check the spelling of words in any Windows application. http://www.megspace.com/computers/tinyspell/
Using these tools will not write your articles. That is completely up to you. But using them will dramatically decrease the time you have to spend writing your articles and getting them ready to submit.

10 Profitable Tips For Article Writers

1. Write to one person.
When you're writing your article picture one person that you are writing to. This will make your writing more personable and help you to keep your readers interested in your article.
2. Use lots of white space within your article.
Using lots of white space will help you to make your article look more professional and keep more of the skim readers interested in your article.
If you have paragraphs that are too long, try to break them up into two or three paragraphs so that your article will be easier to read.
3. Double check your articles for errors.
Make sure that you haven't misspelled any words, skipped words, or used a homonym such as "their" when you meant "there."
Remember, that spell checking only catches spelling mistakes so you'll need to go over your articles even after using your spell checker to find words used incorrectly and also to find words that were used twice in a row or omitted.
4. Pay attention to feedback you get for your articles.
Getting or seeking constructive feedback about your articles can help you to write better, get back on track with your writing if you're in a slump, and also develop new things to write about.
Even negative feedback or criticisms can help you if it shows you things you can work on. Just don't take everything to heart.
5. Improve your writing skills by trying different things.
When you first start writing your own articles, especially if you're new to writing, you might feel that you can only write list articles like this one.
Nonetheless try your hand at other types of articles that you would like to write such as how to articles or straw man articles.
Also try writing on different subjects that you haven't written about before.
6. Keep a file of articles you've written that you left unfinished or didn't feel were ready to be published.
Also keep parts (i.e., tips, paragraphs, etc.), that you've edited out of your finished articles in this file.
You might be able to rewrite your unfinished articles later on, get new ideas to write about, or get a new tip or two for your list articles from this file.
7. If you run an affiliate program, let your affiliates publish your articles with their affiliate URLs in your resource box.
You'll be able to effectively increase your sales by giving your affiliates an easy way to successfully promote your business to their visitors or subscribers.
8. Create an ebook compilation of your articles.
You could use your ebook as a bonus for subscribing to your ezine or you could let your affiliates brand your ebook with their affiliate URLs.
If you don't run an affiliate program, you could let people brand your ebook with a link to their site or business to get more people to offer your ebook to their visitors or subscribers.
9. Participate in article swaps.
Your swaps will help you to get your articles run in ezines that have subscribers interested in your business.
Your article swaps can also help you to gain more reciprocal links and add more useful content to your site if you swap articles where you publish another writer's article on your site in exchange for the same.
10. Create a list that people can subscribe to that announces when you've written a new article or articles.
Your list will keep people up to date on new articles they can publish in their ezines or post on their web sites.
If you let your affiliates use your articles to earn commissions, you can also use your list to attract more new affiliates and to keep your existing affiliates up to date on new articles they can use to promote your business.

6 Best Places to Submit Your Articles

You know that writing articles is the best free way to promote your business and gain credibility. You understand the importance of articles containing actual information and not being just long sales letters.
Do you know the absolute best places to submit all of those wonderful articles you have written?
Here is your list of the top 6 places to submit your articles:
1. Idea Marketers
With an Alexa ranking of 13,015, this site is one that you definitely don't want to miss submitting to. You have to sign up for a free account. Instantly accepts your article. http://www.ideamarketers.com
2. Go Articles
This one has an Alexa ranking of 17,504. You have to sign up for a free account. This site is part of the Jayde Network. Instantly accepts your article. http://www.goarticles.com
3. Article City
Article City has an Alexa ranking of 20,024. No account is required. http://www.articlecity.com
4. Article Announce
This group has 2,712 subscribers (June 2004). Provides content to hundreds of newsletters, magazines, and websites. http://groups.yahoo.com/group/article_announce/
5. Free Content
This group has 1,557 subscribers (June 2004). Hosted by Website101.com. http://finance.groups.yahoo.com/group/Free-Content/
6. Publisher Network
This group has 686 subscribers (June 2004). Lets you swap articles with other newsletter publishers. http://groups.yahoo.com/group/publisher_network/
By all means, submit your articles anywhere and everywhere it is appropriate. But there are certain websites that should always be included on your list. These places have a high number of visitors and/or subscribers.

Reward Those Who Publish Your Articles!

It is pretty obvious that content is king online. It is also obvious that writing more content and submitting them to other sites will help boost your popularity and bring more visitors to your site.
So why wouldn't you help boost those pages that have your articles on them?
I want to share a small tip that will help boost your articles popularity all over the world.
See, most of us who do write articles are mainly concerned about getting their articles published. Well why wouldn't you reward those who publish your articles?
I am consistently finding ways to boost pr ratings for ALL of my pages within my site, you should be too. If we are all trying to do this, then why don't we help boost our articles on other sites!
Here's an example of this...
I have an article titled: "Getting A Better Rank For All Your Pages"
Now simply listing this article on my site isn't enough. I also promote and submit this article wherever I can. If by chance a web site publishes my article, I will reward that site by adding a link on my site were that article is listed.
Infact, if you've seen my marketing tip articles, there is a small resource box at the bottom of each article that links to all the sites that have listed that specific article. Being more specific, I don't link to their main page, I link to my article.
Here's what that accomplishes...
Let's say your article is listed on "Artices R Us" and you want your article to be found by anyone who searches for that company, boosting your pr rating for your article on "Articles R Us" will help you get more visitors from that site.
See, it's not only about listing your articles because we would all like to have our articles found right away and 1st. Don't miss the chance to gain more visitors by letting your article die out on the site that you listed it in.
What if all your articles listed on other sites, had a pr rating in google of (pr4) or more? That would be great!
That would be great because we all know that Google rewards your link popularity when listed in a page that is pr4 or more!
So don't be shy to reward those who list your articles, doing so will only boost your search engine ranking and also give you a lot more visitors than before!

12 Top Tips For Up And Coming Article Writers

1. Make your articles available on your site.
You'll have an easy way to get more sales by showing your visitors that your are an expert on the topic your visitors are interested in.
2. Use lots of white space. Keep your sentences and paragraphs short and to the point.
3. Write for your target audience.
You'll have a better chance of attracting people to your site that are interested in purchasing your products.
4. Use numbered lists.
Your numbered lists will help you to effectively share your tips with your readers while making your article easy to read.
Use your numbered lists to share points on your article's topic, list your directions when writing a how to article, or to deliver the content of your article if you wanted to write a list article.
You can also use numbered lists to share resources related to what you talk about in your article along with your descriptions of those resources.
5. Use the active voice.
With the active voice the subject does the action while with the passive voice the subject receives the action expressed by the verb.
For instance:
Active voice: The dog bit the mailman. Passive voice: The mailman was bitten by the dog.
Use the active voice to keep your sentences from being awkward or confusing and to liven up your article.
6. Make your writing more personal by using the word "you" a lot within your article.
A simple way to accomplish this is to write your article to one person.
You'll naturally use the word "you" a lot within your article, and your readers will feel like you're talking directly to them.
7. Don't be afraid to share your personality with your readers.
You could inject a little bit of humor into your article, or share an opinion, story or anecdote that relates to the topic of your article.
8. Offer a subscription to your e-zine or a freebie in your resource box.
Writing articles will help you to get your site promoted on relevant sites and e-zines at no cost to you.
Maximize the profit you get from writing your articles by giving your readers a subscription to your e-zine, or a freebie that they'll find valuable enough to go back to again and again.
9. Once you've written your article, wait a couple of days, and then reread your article.
You might be able to add new points that you might have missed before, add more detail to information you covered in your article, or reword parts of your article that are unclear.
10. Use current topics whether online or in the "real world" to get ideas for your articles.
Your articles will be cutting edge and newsworthy, and will have an excellent chance of being published by e-zine publishers and webmasters.
11. Always check and double-check your articles for errors.
Use your spell checker and go over your articles for words you might have omitted, run-on sentences and for faulty punctuation.
Also look for words used incorrectly; for instance, if you used "effect" when you should have used "affect" or if you used "there" when you should have used "their."
12. Submit your articles to article directories, article announcement lists, and to e-zine publishers.
Your submissions, although time consuming if done manually, will help you to successfully get your articles published.
Be sure to submit your articles to my article directory at http://www.netpromarketer.com and to visit http://www.netpromarketer.com/directoriesandlists.html where you'll find a list of article directories and article announcement lists.
For a handy listing of e-zine publishers that want article submissions check out http://www.ezinelocater.com.
Also search other e-zine directories for publishers that want article submissions and submit your articles to e-zines that you are subscribed to that accept article submissions from their subscribers.

Drive Free Traffic To Your Website By Writing Articles

One of the best ways to drive traffic to your website is by writing articles. Getting your own articles written, distributed and published on the Internet is one of the very best Internet marketing techniques in existence.
Once you have become an author of an article, you become an instant authority. When visitors locate and read your article they could obtain some useful information from it. They would most probably appreciate you. When appreciation turns into trust, it is very likely that would click the link in your article resource box to visit your website to get more information.
Chances of them signing up with you in one of your recommended business opportunities or purchase one of your recommended products would be greatly enhanced.
The question is how to write the relevant articles which might demand some of your effort and time?
If you are good in writing and enjoy doing it, you might decide to write your own articles. Otherwise you could join an article cooperative to get access to private label articles OR hire someone to write articles for you.
Let’s discuss the differences of these 3 possibilities:
1) Do Your Own Research and Write Your Own Articles.
The main advantage of writing your own articles is that it's "free" and it would give you a sense of pride in accomplishment. You might enjoy writing articles to share your experience in Internet online business. The downside is that it'd take up some of your time to conduct some research work.
2) Join An Article Cooperative to Get Pre-written Articles.
A recommended article cooperative is InfoGoRound where you could get hundreds of pre-written articles for a small enrollment fee. From these you could choose those discussing subjects related to the content of your website. These are referred to as the "Private label articles” which you have full permission to use and also add your own name and article resource box to the article as the author.
3) Hire Someone to Write Articles For You.
If you are not comfortable writing your own articles or if you find it too much a hassle especially when you're new to this business or if you do not fancy pre-written articles due to lack of originality, you could use an article ghost writing service such as Just Articles to put your own ideas into writing.
For a relatively small fee you can get your articles written very quickly.
For article marketing on the Internet, articles written with between 400-700 words would suffice. It goes without saying that your articles must be relevant to your Internet business. Hence topic of your articles should be related to: "working at home", "home based business", "Internet marketing", "making money online", "promoting a website", etc.
The next question is how can you ensure that your articles will reach the maximum amount of potential web visitors?
Below are some routes you can use:
1) Submit to Article Directories
The best place to submit your articles are Article Directories. Many publishers of websites, blogs, and ezines visit the sites of these Directories. Hence your articles will be quickly exposed to people who have a large amount of traffic.
2) Submit to Article Lists/Newsletters
The next step is to submit your articles to article lists such as newsletters on Yahoo and Topica. Articles from such sources are normally better received by publishers. Hence when a submission is done by you via an article list, publishers have more confidence in your articles and would very likely use them.
3) Approach Individual Related Websites
Many Websites focus on providing valuable information and educational materials to their readers. You could submit your articles to these sites if your articles are relevant to what they need. It is best that you only contact sites where the readers would have an interest in the topic of your article.
4) Search Through Ezine Directories
Once your articles have been submitted to directories and article lists as mentioned earlier, you could start contacting individual publishers such as the publishers of ezines that are related to your topic. Choose those who accept articles and write to them and convince them that your articles would be of value for their purpose.
5) Give The Articles to Your New Affiliate members
To help your affiliates especially the newly "recruited" ones, you could give them your articles as a way to help promote your site. They could either publish them as they are or they could substitute your link with theirs in the resource box of the article. They would be impressed by such generous gesture from you.
In conclusion, submitting your articles and getting them re-published on others' websites and newsletters/ezines is one of the most powerful Internet marketing strategies. Your articles will then start working as a free advertisement for you forever. And you do not have to pay even a dime for such advertising space. You will continue to enjoy free traffic driven to your website for a long, long time!

How To Be Rejected By The Article Directories

Article writing is one of the best ways to increase your traffic and get more sales. You've heard it a million times so you decide to finally just do it. You write an article and submit it to the article directories, eagerly anticipating the flow of traffic. Instead you receive the dreaded rejection letter.
What did you do wrong?
1. Did you proof-read your article before you submitted it?
Popular article directory sites receive hundreds of submissions each day. It's much easier for the owner to click "decline" than to edit your typo-filled or unformatted article. Before submitting, proof the article and proof it again. If grammar and spelling make you sweat, then hire a Copywriter or ask a friend to help you before you click that submit button.
2. Is it an Advertisement or an Article?
Article directory sites are looking for informative, useful content, not press releases or ads. If your submission reads like an ad, it will not be accepted. And, think about it -- even if was approved on a fluke, do you think that website owners will be clamoring to publish your 500 word advertisement? Not a chance.
If your goal is to write and submit a press release, then check out places like prweb.com.
3. Did you read the Submission Guidelines?
Each article directory has a different culture. Glance through the Submission Guidelines before setting up an account to make sure your article will be welcome before you submit it. If an article directory is based around a niche like gardening, then please resist the urge to submit your Mesothelioma articles. There are plenty of article directories that want your articles. It’s not an effective use of your time to submit unwanted articles to a niche site.
4. Is your article PG-rated?
Don't submit sex-related articles, profanity, or general nastiness. Article directories are businesses and, therefore, exist to make money. This means they generally receive income through affiliate sales or advertising. So, if your article includes sex or contains words stronger than "darn", don't be surprised if your article is rejected. Of course, if your article contains nastiness or anything illegal -- don't even bother.
5. Is your Article original and written by you?
Submit only original articles. Please do not copy someone else's article, edit it, and submit it. That's stealing and you will be caught. And, do not submit articles from shared content sites. Article directories want original, unique content. Public domain is 'public' but think how ineffective article directories would become if there were 500 versions of the same public domain piece. Instead of wasting your time figuring out how to reinvent other people's content, just write your own.
Now that you know what not to do, start writing the kind of articles that article directories dream of -- and watch your business grow.