Article Marketing-Both Sides of the Fence

Every site has its own set of guidelines ' but I think if you adhere to the following ' more of your articles will get published. It is best to check each site's set of rules (but who has the time) or follow this basic set of do's and don'ts.

1. Do submit articles on a regular basis

2. Do capitalize the first letter of every word in the subject line

3. Do check the spelling and grammar ' and then check it again

4. Do write original articles about topics you have a passion for

5. Do write articles that are about 400-800 characters in length ' too short and too long will be rejected

6. Do write an article ' not a blatant advertisement

7. Do check the paragraph formatting

8. Do write an informative Author's resource box

9. Do use HTML tags (if allowed) ' I would demonstrate an example of a proper link ' but most likely it would cause the article to be declined. Just Google HTML link to see how to do it correctly

10. Don't capitalize every letter in the subject line

11. Don't bold the subject or your links

12. Don't submit more than 2 links in the author's resource box

13. Don't put links in the text of the article

14. Don't cloak links ' do it legally to get links back to your site

15. Don't write an ad ' write an article (I know ' I already said this above)

Here are some general recommendations:

1. Get a real domain ' it is much more acceptable and professional than blogspot, angelfire, or any of the other free site places. If you want to have a blog ' get a domain and use wordpress ' the domain will cost all of about 8 dollars per year and hosting can be had for under $5 per year.
2. Use an autosubmitter. There are free and paid services ' either way ' your article(s) will be at hundreds or thousands of sites instead of one or two. Be advised that some article sites don't accept articles submitted by autosubmitters ' but they are in the minority.
3. Visit your articles. Many article sites will send you an email that tells you that your article has been submitted. Go and look and make sure it looks OK, the link(s) are correct and then vote for it and if the site has social bookmarks ' bookmark it.
4. If you use Private Label Rights (PLR) articles ' change them ' make them different so that they are not the same as a bazillion other articles online.
5. Check the sites' guidelines ' some don't accept gambling articles, sexually oriented articles, etc. Some will even decline your article if it doesn't pass their internal word search. I have had some declined for using the word 'sex' or 'marijuana' in the article. Even though the 'sex' article was health related and the 'marijuana' article was a travel advice article informing travelers not to smuggle drugs. Sometimes you can't win.
6. Don't get frustrated. It can take time for the articles to get indexed in the search engines and it can take time for the article site owners to approve your articles. Just keep plugging away and it will pay off.
7. Quality is better than quantity. Just cranking out crap articles daily is not as good as writing 2 or 3 good articles every week.
8. Take time with the subject. If the subject is boring ' most likely the article will not get read. Be creative.
9. Write 2 or 3 sentences in the Author's resource box. Tell us about yourself and why you are the expert on this topic or why we should click your link.

Hopefully this helps you in getting more of your articles published.