It is no secret among internet marketers that writing articles is a great way to market your website. With all the article distribution services and all the websites looking for free, unique content, writing a quality article can bring you more links to your website in one day than an entire month of working out link exchanges and submitting to directories. The benefits of writing articles have been written about time and time again. Yet in order to enjoy the benefits of article writing, your article must first be accepted by the publishers who receive your submissions. This article will focus on a few key points to help increase your chances of getting your article accepted by the Internet's top publishers.
Proofread Your Own Writing
Proofreading is very time consuming. If you want your article to be widely accepted, it is your job to make the publisher's job easier. The first step in making the publisher's job easier is to check, double check, and triple check your spelling and grammar. If you have someone that can review your article, have them read it over. Tell this person to look for grammatical errors, spelling mistakes, and poorly worded sentences. They will be able to point out mistakes that you may never have seen. When you write an article there is a tendency of getting overly familiar with the content and thus you could miss a glaring mistake in your writing. Consider the following exercise by reading aloud what is written:
London
in the
the
spring
x x x
What did you read? If you identified that the word 'the' is written twice, than you can consider yourself one of only 5% of people who get this exercise correct. 95% of people who read this exercise only see "London in the spring X X X". (If you still do not see it, read it aloud again, but this time point to each word as you read it.)
The point of this exercise is to show you just how easy it is to miss obvious mistakes. Add in the element of familiarity with the writing and you are likely to miss even more mistakes. By asking someone else to read over your work, you greatly reduce the chances of missing a glaring error in your writing.
Rule to Remember: Proofread Your Own Writing, and then Proofread Again
Offer Something of Real Value
Articles are an incredible source of free traffic and free advertising for your business. However, articles are not supposed to be advertisements themselves. There is nothing you can do to get a publisher to delete your article faster than writing an article that is nothing more than a long-winded ad copy.
If you want to get your article published, once again you must get into the publisher's mind. The publisher is always looking to offer his or her readers with fresh, insightful, and helpful information. Commentaries on industry trends, useful strategies, tutorials, observations and theories all make good articles. As an owner of a business, reviewing one of your products, offering a teaser of the information you sell, or blatantly marketing your products by including your hyperlink throughout the article makes for a horrible article that will likely not be published.
Think back to the time when you first started your online venture (this may not be very long ago) and remember how thirsty you were for good, quality information. When writing your article, remember how valuable this information was to you when you found it. Every author has the right to a resource box which serves as your advertisement; if you prove to the reader that you are an expert in your field and give them information that only you can provide, this will serve as a stronger advertisement than if you spend 2,000 words on a long-winded, self-promotional article.
Finally, when writing your resource box, it is best to be as concise as possible. Resource boxes that appear to be about as long as the article themselves show that the author has no concern about the content of his or her article. Limit the number of links you put into your resource box to no more than three links and keep the resource box to no more than four or five lines.
Rule to Remember: Write a Good Article, not a Good Advertisement
Be Clear and Concise
Many people fall into the trap of thinking they have to develop an eloquent, graceful writing style in order to be published. What these people seem to forget is that an article is written with one main point: to deliver information. Be concise, be clear, and be direct. When writing your article, you should actually aim to be slightly boring with your writing style. What is slightly boring to you is probably very clear and direct to the reader.
It is important to note that most online publishers have much more to deal with than the writing styles of the authors who submit articles to them. Publishers are more concerned with grammar, spelling, and content than they are with how eloquently a writer can make his or her point. One thing that a publisher will take notice of, however, is a writer who has a confusing and difficult to follow writing style.
Your article should encourage readers to read through the entire article. If a reader gets a few lines into the article, or even a few paragraphs, and finds themselves confused, you can be sure that they will never get to your resource box and thus never visit your website. To keep a reader interested in your article, give them quality information and give it to them directly and clearly. A reader will only continue to read an article if they believe there is a good chance that they will gain something further by finishing the article. Although it may be counter-intuitive, boring writing does just that.
Rule to Remember: Being Boring is Better than Being Confusing
Writing good articles is not difficult. When writing your article, think first about what publishers are looking for in an article. Focus on your grammar, spelling, clarity, conciseness, and content. Remember that your article should actually help people beyond just selling your product or service. Offer valuable information to your readers and they will pay you back ten-fold. Offer valuable information to a publisher's readers and they will be certain to publish your article and provide you with the best free advertisement for your business.
Copyright 2004 Mark Daoust
About The Author
Mark Daoust is the owner of http://www.site-reference.com. Discuss this article further at http://www.site-reference.com.
disinfecting cleaning services Buffalo Grove ..Why do so many internet marketers waste their time on... Read More
Yesterday I met a 13-year old boy with a devilish... Read More
Proven and Exceptional Click-Through ResultsTesting has proven again and again... Read More
Most all ezine publishers need fresh content. Article writing is... Read More
The first twenty-five words of your article are the most... Read More
Everyone that publishes a newsletter or ezine knows that the... Read More
Take a look around the Web and you'll find thousands... Read More
If you've spent any time online trying to promote your... Read More
The first step to getting published is to find your... Read More
This is the "real" Money Maker in the Mail Order... Read More
I'm betting that that 3 out of 4 of you... Read More
Never before in the history of the business of writing... Read More
Most Internet marketers worth their salt know how effective articles... Read More
So you've decided to market your home-based copywriting business through... Read More
Two important factors that play a part in the rankings... Read More
Have you ever seen articles that are not only related... Read More
Writing articles for online newsletters and websites can be a... Read More
You submit it, that's what you do! And submit it... Read More
Sharing knowledge on the web can be a very powerful... Read More
Many writers struggle with the decision of whether or not... Read More
Do you have problems finding ideas for articles and speeches?I... Read More
Gathering information from interviews is really simple. You ask the... Read More
IntroductionThere are two ways to submit to magazine editors.One is... Read More
The Shortest Distance to Your Home Town Enterprise is Over... Read More
Online PR in the form of website and ezine article... Read More
spotless home service Arlington Heights ..How many times have you read the following? If you... Read More
Been reading up on SEO? If so, you know that... Read More
Yesterday I met a 13-year old boy with a devilish... Read More
Writing a letter to your newspaper's editor is a privilege... Read More
MS: Shelley, you're an excellent person to talk to about... Read More
Last month, I began promoting Jason Potash's "Article Announcer." I... Read More
Ease of Submission With so many article distribution sites out... Read More
In today's busy world, whether your business is large or... Read More
Writing for websites -- content, as it is called --... Read More
If you have submitted your articles to EzineArticles.com you have... Read More
MS: Bob, how important have Ezine Articles been in achieving... Read More
This is the "real" Money Maker in the Mail Order... Read More
Part 1 of a 2-part series To read Part 2... Read More
There are times when I want to write an article... Read More
Good technical articles are challenging to write. They're time-consuming, demanding... Read More
Are you an Article Marketer? If so, you know that... Read More
How are you marketing your articles? As a writer prospecting... Read More
Submitting well planned articles on-line will increase traffic and can... Read More
Take a look around the Web and you'll find thousands... Read More
***What is the Resource box?'Resource box' is an information box... Read More
There is no doubt that Spam has affected online business... Read More
Inspirational articles were once limited to self-help and religious publications,... Read More
You may be wondering what persuasive writing has to do... Read More
Having an article published is one of the fastest and... Read More
Queries are not written like business letters or emails; they... Read More
Article Writing |