What's Wrong With My Article? How to
Get Your Article Published and Grow Your Business
BY CHRIS ELLINGTON
I have reviewed thousands of
articles written by marketers hoping to promote their
websites, products, affiliate programs, and eBooks. 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 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 he screeches past a Coca Cola truck during the high-speed
chase. And at the end, when he 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.
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.
Chris Ellington is a
consultant, writer, and speaker, and the publisher of
Article Marketer, a site that helps article marketing
campaigns easier to execute, more cost effective for small
business owners, and gives articles a much wider distribution.
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