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What's Wrong With My Article? How to Get Your Article Published and Grow Your Business

I have reviewed thousands of articles written by marketers hoping to promote their websites, products, affiliate programs, and e-books. While most of the articles are useful, all too many are not worth the paper they're printed on (and that's saying a lot in the electronic age!) Are you making the same mistakes?

In this article you will discover the simple, common sense techniques that will get your article accepted by article banks, approved by newsletter editors, and published in some of the largest ezines online.

I'll show you how to increase your "article-submitted-to-published" conversion ratio and draw readers over to your site by improving your "newsletter-reader-to-qualified-visitor" ratio.

~Offer Valuable Content~
This, of course, is paramount to your success, so it's first on the list. Share your knowledge of the topic, and don't be stingy about it. If you include tips, tricks, and helpful information, you'll get more editors to publish your article. They need content to keep their existing subscribers loyal, attract new subscribers, and earn them some money.

What content do they want? Readers want to read about topics of interest, and learn from your experience and insight. Tell a story, explain how things work, offer examples because that's the way people learn. Once you give them some interesting information, they'll visit your website to learn more from you. Because they already trust you, they'll visit your site pre-qualified and open to an offer. This is the best kind of web visitor.

Valuable content will improve your "newsletter-reader-to-qualified-visitor" conversion ratio.

~Don't Sell~
If you submit a sales letter, there isn't a newsletter editor on the planet who will publish it. After all, they have a newsletter that reaches thousands, maybe tens of thousands, of targeted, double opt-in subscribers. If you want them to publish your blatant advertising, you'll have to buy an ad.

Think about the article banks. Why would such article repositories as www.eBusiness-Articles.com or www.Healthy-Articles.com want to clutter up their directories with advertising sales letters? They want original, valuable content, because they serve newsletter editors and publishers. If the content doesn't draw the interest of their audience (editors) the repositories don't want it.

Sales letters will hurt (maybe eliminate) your "article-submitted-to-published" conversion ratio.

~Use Product Placement~
I know, I know, the only reason you're writing articles is to increase your sales, and I just told you not to sell. Don't fret - there's a way to successfully sell your company within your article without submitting a blatant sales letter.

Hollywood producers incorporate products into their movies. Would you pay to see a movie about the features and benefits of Coca-Cola? Probably not. Would you watch a movie with Tom Cruise chasing bad guys? A lot of people will.

No one complains when he drinks a Coke while contemplating his next move. No one minds when screeches past a Coca Cola truck during the high-speed chase. And at the end, when gets the girl while standing in front of a Coca-Cola display, does that bother you? No, of course not, because none of those things took away from the plot of the movie. The story was interesting. Coca Cola spends millions on product placement every year, because they've learned that when movie goers enjoy the movie, Coke sales go up.

Do the same in your article. Use your business as the basis for a story you tell. Use your product as an example. Use one of your customers as a case study explaining your point. One of the authors at ArticleMarketer.com took this advice and wrote an article to submit through our service. When publishers read his article they …

See what I just did there? Now you're just a little disappointed that I didn't finish the story, aren't you? Do that in your article. Engage your readers, involve them in the story, make them want more.

Product placement will improve your "newsletter-reader-to-qualified-visitor" conversion ratio.

~Formatting Matters~
You must follow the rules and guidelines listed by each newsletter, article site and publisher on your list. The formatting of your article can have a tremendous impact on whether or not it gets published. Each publisher has different requirements, so read the guidelines and submit accordingly.

At Article Marketer, we submit articles to a wide variety of article repositories, newsletter editors and email distribution groups for authors around the world. We've made hundreds of thousands of successful article submissions, but before we could launch our service, we had to evaluate the submission criteria of each publisher, repository and article site on our long distribution list. Here's some of what we found:

Most sites don't want HTML. Others allow an anchor tag, but no formatting tags. Some publishers want articles with 60 character lines, with a hard break at the end of each line. Others will reject an article with 60 character lines, preferring automatic word wrap. Others want 65 character lines. One wants an 80 character line.

Some don't want your copyright and personal information at the top of the article. They also don't want you to repeat the article title or your byline in the article body. Others require it there.

Keep in mind that the first few lines of an article (following the headline) are key to capturing a reader's attention. Depending on the submission site, they'll format your article with copyright and reprint rights, without squandering the "prime real estate" on copyright, reprint rules, and other stuff. If a reader doesn't get pulled into your article, your resource box can't deliver traffic to you. Then what's the point?

Following the submission guidelines will increase your "article-submitted-to-published" conversion ratio.

~A Powerful Call to Action~
Every article should end with a distinct and powerful call to action. I've seen authors who try to cram every site they know into their resource box. This is a waste of time, and it confuses the reader.

Imagine if you're reading an article about how to whiten your teeth. The article is well written and you start thinking to yourself "Hey, this author knows his stuff!". When you get to the end and you see a link to whiter teeth dot com, you'll probably visit. However, if the whiter teeth link is stacked on top of clean fuel dot com and marketing stuff dot com, a confused reader will not click at all. Talk directly to your qualified audience about your topic and send them to a specific site, then watch as your sales go up.

Focusing your call to action will improve your "newsletter-reader-to-qualified-visitor" conversion ratio.

~It's An Article, Not a Letter~
Many authors make the mistake of thinking of their article as a personal missive to the reader. A personal voice is terrific, just remember that you're writing an article, not a letter to a friend. Articles in Time Magazine never end with:

Sincerely,
Susie Jones

While it is true that some authors will sign off with a trademark tagline, that tagline is incorporated into their article, and it's never followed by a signature. Besides that, a signature isn't a powerful way to close your article. Use a powerful call to action.

Avoiding the look of a personal letter will increase your "article-submitted-to-published" ratio.

~Don't Change the Title and Resubmit~
If there's one thing that an editor hates more than anything, it's to get the same article multiple times. I know that there are people telling you to resubmit your articles with new titles, because the headline is important. While I don't deny the importance of a good headline, just putting a new headline on an old article is a really bad idea.

Christopher Knight at http://www.ezinearticles.com tells me that the surest way for an author to get penalized is to submit the same article multiple times with different titles.

If you want to try different titles, also rework the article. There's no reason you can't write several articles on the same topic. Just make each unique. The more articles you write in your subject area, the more you are seen as an expert in that area.

Writing multiple unique articles in a given subject will improve both your "article-submitted-to-published" and your "newsletter-reader-to-qualified-visitor" ratios.

~Use Pre-Written Articles to Your Advantage~
There are many places that will give you articles to publish as your own. While publishing this content on your own website is perfectly fine, submitting it to editors and publishers all around the net is a waste of time.

Think of it like the hoaxes that are passed around the net. How many times did you get the one about Bill Gates paying a nickel for each email? How long after that did you tire of receiving it? And how long after that did you start getting really annoyed at receiving it? Editors get a lot of articles – and they've seen the free reprint articles more than they'd care to remember.

If you want to submit these articles to editors, you can, but you need to know a trick. Use them as a foundation for your own work. Add your own personal spin to each one. Change it around, add your own personal flair, make it your own. Incorporate your insight and your expertise. Then it will truly be your article.

Making the article your own will improve your "article-submitted-to-published" ratio.

~Use a Spell Checker~
If I had a nickle for every time a authr maked a grimmatical or speeling error, I could retire. Every word processor has a spell checker (mine just went crazy after that last sentence!) and if English isn't your primary language, have it reviewed by a native English speaker. You're trying to establish credibility, and using "your" instead of "you're" or "there" instead of "they're" blows your whole image.

Using a spell checker and having someone proofread your work will improve your "article-submitted-to-published" ratio.

~Address the Promise of the Title~
If your title is, "How to Bake Cookies" then a reader had better have the basics down at the end of your article. No, you don't have to turn her into the next Mrs. Fields, (after all, it's just an article, not a graduate study program) but a reader should be able to finish your article with a decent approach to the baking of a cookie. She'll know about cooking times and required utensils and where to find recipes, or whatever else goes into the basics of cookie baking. You're the expert, give her what she needs based on your title.

~Conclusion~
Every article should end with a strong conclusion, one that leads to your resource box. Your article is being reviewed by real people, who have real standards for publishing. If you follow the tips in this article, you'll get better results from your article marketing campaign, you will get your article approved at most article sites and find it published in the larger ezines.

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Marketing Your Home Business in Just 30 Minutes a Week

It’s all the rage. It’s what everyone is talking about. It is unquestionably the most effective form of marketing available to home based business owners. It costs almost nothing, it takes about 30 minutes a week, and it makes your business stand out above the competition.

What is this thing that everyone is talking about? The buzz is about “article marketing” – the practice of providing royalty free content to websites, e-zines and newsletters.

It works like this: You write a simple article that is interesting to a particular group of people. It doesn’t have to be The Great American Novel, just about 500 words on the topic of your choice. Then you submit your article all over the web to ezine publishers, newsletter editors and content-laden websites.

When they publish your article (and they almost always do) your target market reads your words, sees you as an expert (after all, you’re a published author!) and they click on a link to your website that you conveniently provided at the end of the article. Viola! Instant, qualified traffic.

And it’s not fleeting traffic. Your article remains out there for people to find for weeks, months, even years. As new people happen across your article, they click the link and visit your site. You have a perpetual traffic machine, driving tons of pre-qualified, open-to-an-offer, interested traffic to your site. This is better than advertising, and far less expensive.

The problem is the effort of submitting your articles to enough sites that you really make a splash. Most authors will submit their articles to 20-30 places before getting totally burned out on the submission process. It’s tedious, dull, drudge work.

There are three online services that automatically submit articles for authors. Each of these services explain the intrinsic value of publishing your articles, and of course they each describe their services as best-in-class. They range from single submissions to unlimited submissions and from completely free to $299.85. Check them out and draw your own conclusions.

- - - - -Submit Your Article - - - - -

Sends out articles in three categories:

• Internet marketing/online business
• Self-improvement/motivation
• Health and fitness. (They promise “Business-General” and “Finance/Investment” categories soon.)

Submits articles to an undefined number of ezine publishers and 15 or more article announcement lists with over 10,000 subscribers.

Special Feature:
Offers an article management suite to retrieve, edit, or resubmit your article.

Cost:

• Bronze membership, $37.00/month, you may submit one (1) article per month
• Silver membership, $57.00/month, you may submit two (2) articles per month
• Gold membership, $75.00/month, you may submit three (3) articles per month
• Platinum membership, $90.00/month, you may submit four (4) articles per month

Submit 16 articles over four months for $360.00

- - - - - The Phantom Writers - - - - -

Accepts articles in nine categories: * Business and Marketing * Coaching and Personal Development * Health * Internet * Money Saving Tips * Home and Family * Pets * Writing Related * Christian

Submits articles to about 20,000 publishers and webmasters. Depending on how you categorize your article, it will be submitted to appropriate publishers.

Special Feature:
No limit to the number of articles that can be submitted. (Is this really a "special feature"? They seem to think so. I guess it's better than SubmitYourArticle.com's one article/month limitation)

Cost: * One article: $49.95 * Three articles: $119.85 + $39.95 per article thereafter. Submit 16 articles for $639.20

- - - - - Article Marketer - - - - -

Accepts articles in 364 niche categories which (for the sake of space) I won’t list here.

Submits articles to over 30,000 people. Depending on how you categorize your article, it will be submitted to appropriate publishers.

Special Feature: An “auto pilot” feature where an author can submit several articles at once and have them distributed on to a custom defined schedule. (That’s one of my favorite features. I just set it up for the month and don’t have to think about it again. The articles are consistently distributed.)

Cost: * Free Article Distribution: goes to over 3,000 people * Best Exposure: goes out to over 30,000 people: Quarterly Membership $39.95 for as many articles as you want to send out. Annual Membership $119.95 and the best value - $299.95 Lifetime Membership

Submit 16 articles for $39.95. At only $299.95 the Lifetime Membership (with its unlimited article submission) is the financial winner in this comparison.

Summary

All three of these services seem to do a fine job submitting articles. They appear to have automated the process and articles are distributed within a few days of submission. Of course, each offers the disclaimer that your article will only get published if it’s interesting.

Of the three, I prefer Article Marketer (for obvious reasons) and I have absolute proof that it works: you are currently reading this article.

Now that's what I call effective marketing!

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Simple Tricks to Maximize the Reach of Your Marketing Message

Jim was working hard to grow his business. Long hours networking his rolodex, producing high quality products, and delivering exceptional service to his customers, but he was always just a little short at the end of the month. He needed more customers, and he needed them quickly.

Are you in this situation? Would you like more customers? Here are some very simple things you can do to get your message out to a larger number of potential customers.

Write A Message That Works
Stop trying to get customers one at a time – start getting them ten at a time. Reach a larger number of your potential customers by talking to them about topics they like, in a language they understand. No, I'm not suggesting you take up Spanish or Swahili, I mean that your marketing must use terminology that makes sense to the average, uninformed customer. Don't fill your marketing messages with buzzwords that only industry insiders can understand.

Become An Article Marketer
Write a few short (500-1000 word) articles on topics that capture the interest of your potential customers. Provide relevant and meaningful advice. Fill your article with substance, not advertising. Read it over and make sure there are no typos or grammatical errors. Don't fill it with hype and hyperbole. Pretend your article is going to be in Time Magazine or the business section of a major metropolitan newspaper.

Once you have your interesting and helpful article written, start submitting it around the web. Newsletter editors and publishers are always looking for content to fill their pages. As an article marketer, you can provide that content. In exchange, you get high-quality links to your site and a resource box to make an offer to the readers.

Stop begging webmasters for link exchanges. Quit submitting your URL to FFA sites. If you want better Google search positioning and Page Rank, start writing short, interesting articles.

But there's a trick.
Many publishers won't accept articles filled with HTML tags. On the other hand, *every* publisher will accept text-based articles, so submit your articles without HTML tags and you instantly extend your reach.

There's a Google trick too.
Everyone knows that Google loves content. Articles are spidered very quickly and can be found on Google in just a few days. Your article (with your link) on a popular page can drive thousands of targeted visitors to your website. Submitting your article to many publishers can create dozens (even hundreds) of links to your page – all counted by Google as good, quality links.

What many authors fail to consider is the fact that Google penalizes identical, keyword rich "anchor text" links. Their rationale is that "natural" links put up on sites will not be worded identically from site to site. With link manipulation comes Google penalties. Authors have complained that their links disappear from Google after a few weeks, even though the articles are still posted everywhere. This is something you want to avoid and there's an easy way around it.

Google DOES NOT penalize identical hyperlinks when that hyperlink text is a URL. They do not consider it link manipulation, because it's the web standard reference to an actual page.

So combine these two simple tricks and watch as your links are published on multiple websites and not punished by Google.

Increase the Number of Sites You Reach Article submission is a tedious task. Finding the sites that want your article, creating a user account, logging in, copying and pasting your article according to each publisher's guidelines – it can take between 3-5 minutes per site. If you want your article to go out to 50 sites, be prepared to spend several long and boring hours in front of your computer.

But there's an easier way. Article submission can be automated. There is software you can buy and there are services to do the work for you. In my opinion, a service is the way to go.

With software, you have to manage the submission work based on a list in the product, which may or may not be updated occasionally. Article submission services such as www.articlemarketer.com are constantly interacting with publishers and editors online, and the list is constantly kept up to date.

The Article Marketer service also allows you to post your articles for distribution over time. You can post several articles at once and direct them to be distributed over the next several days or weeks. With software you have to physically sit at your computer and submit your articles on the day you want them distributed.

Software is expensive. Article Marketer offers free distribution, as well as a subscription that allows you to submit as many articles as you like for a very low price. For the price of some software, you can get many years worth of completely automated article distribution.

To recap:
Start talking to your prospects in their language.
Create interesting informative articles.
Use text based articles and URL hyperlinks to increase your Google exposure.
Sign up with an article distribution service to automate the tedious drudgework.
Get more customers – make more money.

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For The Serious Internet Marketer: Here's A Quick And Easy Way To Reach 1000s of Buyers Today

Why do so many internet marketers waste their time on ineffective practices and outmoded techniques that stopped working before the start of the new millennium?

There is one thing that matters (and one thing only) in the realm of internet marketing: Converting the random web surfer into a pre-qualified, pre-sold visitor to your website.

Does Google Adwords pre-sell your visitors? No, not really.

Does your banner on an affiliate website pre-qualify your visitors? No, not really.

There is a way to drive a stream of targeted, pre-sold, pre-qualified traffic to your website. Write a few articles that are interesting, helpful and unique. It's that simple, really. Take a look at how getting a few articles published makes a world of difference in your actual conversion to subscriptions and sales.

A FREE SAMPLE
When you give someone some very good information in your article, they become familiar with your work. Think of your article like the "free sample" you get at the grocery store. You try the bit of pizza or the latest cheese spread, and then you buy some to take home for later. Your article introduces your expertise and gives the reader a look at the quality of your work. They become familiar with you, with your point of view, with your "take" on things.

Once someone has finished reading your article, they will have a "feeling" about what you have written, and they will agree or disagree with your stand on the topic. Those who agree with you are more likely to visit your website to hear more of what you have to say.

These are pre-sold visitors, people who come to your site open to what you have to say, like the way you say it, and are more likely to become subscribers or buyers.

AUTOMATIC TARGETING
When you write an interesting, helpful article, newsletter editors seeking good quality content will want to publish it. These publishers know their audience. Most newsletters are published around a particular topic or theme. The subscribers to this newsletter are interested in this theme, that's why they continue to be subscribers. That means that when your article appears in this newsletter, it is automatically reaching your pre-qualified, perfectly targeted audience.

Combine perfect targeting with your ability to pre-sell your visitors and you have a recipe for success. Now you only need one more thing…

MASSIVE DISTRIBUTION
You've got to get your article in front of newsletter editors. There are three simple ways to do this, and they are all quick, cheap and effective. You can do it yourself, or you can take advantage of a quick and easy approach (which we'll discuss in a moment).

~Groups~
You can submit your article to article announcement groups. These subscription email distribution lists allow you to send your article directly to publishers and editors seeking free content. There are literally hundreds of groups you can join. Some of the more popular are the Yahoo!

Groups Article Announce ( http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Article_Announce ),

The Write Articles ( http://groups.yahoo.com/group/TheWriteArticles )

and Best Free Content- Business ( http://groups.yahoo.com/group/bestfreecontent_business )

These groups are all looking for business related articles.

~Article Repositories~
There are article banks and repositories that accept articles by category. GoArticles.com and ezinearticles.com are some of the biggest players, while some new sites like www.content-articles.com and www.Niche-Content-Articles.com are just getting started and are eager to receive your articles.

~Newsletters & Content Sites~
There are literally hundreds of thousands of ezines online – and they all need content. Niche website owners are looking to publish articles that their niche audience will find interesting. Contact the publisher – ask if they accept articles. Send a sample and see if they like what you write, then you can send them your articles and have them published. It takes some work, but it's doable.

But why go through all the effort when you can use a quick and easy method to reach 1000s of buyers today, without doing the work by hand, without being chained to your computer, and without paying an arm and a leg?

QUICK AND EASY
You can submit all the articles you want, whenever you want, on any schedule you want, with a few clicks of your mouse. It's how I drive thousands of visitors to my sites every single day. It is the hallmark of my success.

I have automated the article submission process. Why? Because I quickly got tired of doing the manual work myself. Visiting sites, copying and pasting my article in different formats, remembering all the myriad usernames and passwords - and that was just the beginning.

Each site has different guidelines and submission rules. Some have word count restrictions; others don't want more than one article per week. Each site has specific categories and content restrictions. Trying to keep track of when I submitted my articles, where this article could go and where I should send that article, remembering which articles had already gone out, where I hadn't yet submitted... it was overwhelming.

TECHNOLOGY TO THE RESCUE!
I now use a system that automatically manages the guidelines, formats the article according the needs of the publisher, inserts the "reprint rights" boilerplate for the article sites that require that, incorporates my resource box and formats the whole thing with the correct number of characters per line.

What used to take me hours and hours of effort is now completed in less than five minutes of my personal attention, and then the system does all the work. My articles get wide distribution. I get traffic every day from the articles I publish, and because the system is constantly monitoring the web, my list is always up to date with current publishers and repositories. When a site disappears, it comes off the list. When a new site pops up, it is incorporated into the list, complete with the categories it accepts, the author terms of service that must be followed and the publishing guidelines. I don't have to remember - the system does.

So the choice is yours. You can certainly submit your articles by hand to newsletter editors and article banks. It's completely free, it just takes you a bit of time. You'll want to keep a log of the places you submit to, and the dates, since it may take you several weeks to achieve full distribution.

With the quick and easy method, I put each article into the http://www.articlemarketer.com system only once, I don't have to keep track of which sites I've submitted to - because I know that the system automatically submits the articles to as many places as possible. It frees me up to do other things - all I have to do is sit back and wait for the traffic to roll in.

And roll in it does. My sites receive thousands and thousands of visitors, and since I started writing articles, my conversions have gone through the roof!

With my this quick and easy method (which is available to you at http://www.ArticleMarketer.com ) I don't have to do any of the drudgework by hand anymore and I get to focus my time and effort on building my business, instead of sitting at a computer filling out web forms by hand.

Isn't that what you'd like to do?