Getting Your Articles Accepted & Reprinted

Tips on using free article directories to help you get your articles published & reprinted more often. (September 08, 06)

You can get a lot of free advertising by getting articles published in different places: Websites, blogs, e-zines (e-zine archives get you some great long-term exposure), some of your articles may even get collected into ebooks.

But before any of that can happen, publishers have to be able to find your articles. That's where a free article directory comes in.

I've been running an article directory for about three months now, and it's starting to get a fair amount of traffic and a decent amount of daily article submissions... (Update - the article directory has been removed due to time constraints and submission abuse)

It's not unusual to log on and see 30 or 40 pages (at ten articles per page) of new articles to review. The problem is that we (I have a helper who reviews some of the articles) have to reject over half of the submissions.

I'm also a regular visitor to a forum for article directory owners, and I can tell you that I am not the only one dealing with a lot of article submissions that are not acceptable for one reason or another.

So, I thought that I'd try to give some pointers on how you can get more of your articles accepted, wherever you are submitting them.

  Why Bother To Submit Your Articles?

There are many reasons to write articles for others to reprint: Promotion of your website, the branding & reputation you gain from the exposure, and of course the traffic & leads that they generate.

It only takes one publisher with a hundred thousand readers who reprints one of your articles to make your reputation and increase your potential audience overnight.

But first, he needs to be able to easily find and quickly reprint your article. Ninety percent of the battle is just getting your article listed in a directory and noticed by publishers. Once that is accomplished, having it reprinted time and again is almost assured.

Following these simple guidelines will increase your chances of getting your articles accepted to article directories and, from there, picked up and published on other websites, blogs and e-zines.

  You Must Provide Valuable Content for Publishers.

The first and most important consideration is that your articles must be written with the reader in mind.

Publishers are only going to reprint an article if it provides accurate, timely information that their audience may be interested in. To put it another way: They will only use articles that increase the content value of their own website or e-zine.

As an author, you need to fill the publishers needs by providing articles that they will WANT to reprint... because it makes them look good to their audience.

Only after you satisfy the needs of the publishers can you begin to gain the full benefits of article marketing.

  Your Articles Must Comply With The Basic Submission Guidelines To Be Accepted.

For the most part, all the article directories have the same basic guidelines regarding line-breaks, number and types of links allowed, use of the resource box, etc. If you are submitting your article to several directories, (and you should) the following will comply with most of them.

BUT - you should still read the submission rules for each directory!

Limit your links to the resource box only, not in the body of the article, and only one or two links per article. Your links should point to your website, not to an affiliate sales page.

DO NOT ALL-CAPS THE HEADLINE

Do not put hard line
breaks in the paragraphs.
Allow the text to flow
naturally and only use
breaks between paragraphs.

Keep your paragraphs short - three or four sentences each, and put a space between the paragraphs.

Submit to the proper category! (This is a very common complaint of directory editors) Don't just submit in the "Animals: Pet Health" category if your article fits better in the "Health: Stop Smoking" category. (Even if your pets do smoke)

If the directory does not have your category, then use whatever process they have in place for suggesting a new one, or email the owner and request it. NEVER leave the category field blank!

Submit to the proper directories! If a directory is focused on "Gardening", then the article should have something to do with gardening. If the article is about training puppies, you need to submit it to a 'Pets' directory or a general directory with a 'Pets' category.

  You Must Check and Double-Check Your Spelling, Your Punctuation, Your Syntax & Grammar!

OMG! This is the number-one most common reason for rejecting an article. If we see something stupid in the headline or summary, it is cause for an instant trashing. No need to read any more, and with so many daily submissions, there is no time to correct an article.

For example, a rejected headline and summary:

"Quickly you can see as an eagle again, schedule your Laser eye Operation today!"
Lasek surgery reminds like something right out of a fairy tail and, in a way; it is as there have been a few sci-fi films in the past that explored this theme. Now, thanks to explored operation, laser eye procedures are very much a fact.

You see what I mean? Believe it or not, this is not even an extreme example. The headline is awkwardly phrased & unevenly capitalized, the summary contains errors and the poor syntax makes it difficult to understand. (And as far as I know, Fairys don't even have tails.)

This article was trashed, unread and unlamented.

You should always use your spell checker - that's just basic good sense - but it's also a good idea to read an article out loud. By doing so you will catch many punctuation and syntax errors. If at all possible, you should get someone else to read it too - to catch the errors like 'fairy tail'.

  About Your Headline and Summary:

The category pages in a directory show only the headline and a summary. Your article will be listed with many others, and this is your only chance to catch the publishers attention, so you need to make the most of it.

Your headline must be descriptive and enticing, to create Interest, and it Must Be Believable. To illustrate: here is a headline submitted last week that is a perfect example: "Marketing Lessons From A Rabid Chipmunk".

That headline fits all three requirements listed above; it's descriptive (marketing lessons), enticing (from a rabid chipmunk !?) and it's not an un-believable over-exaggeration.

It takes a lively imagination to take a mundane topic like marketing lessons and create a headline that is so memorable and interesting, but the results are worth the effort.

Your summary should be an introduction to the article, written to catch the interest of the publisher. It should show that your article is informative AND well-written, so the publisher will quickly see that your article is good enough for his readers.

For example, here is the summary for the article above:
What can a ferocious, acorn-hunting chipmunk in suburbia teach you about marketing and business? Plenty, and it's quite a cautionary tale ...

Just enough information to show a potential publisher that the author can write and spell, and pique the interest enough that he is tempted to read the article.

Note: a publisher may or may not print the summary with the article, so don't just paste the first paragraph of the article in the summary box and start the article with the second paragraph.

  More About Your Links and the 'Resource Box':

The resource box is the small section at the end of the article where you include your name, business name, your credentials, and links to your website. Think of it as your 'payment' for the article. Publishers are required to leave it intact so readers will know who you are and where to find you.

Common resource box errors are links that are incorrectly formatted, misspelled URLs, or just leaving off the http:// part.

Simple errors like that can defeat the entire purpose of writing and submitting the article! Make sure that your URL is correct and that the link is coded correctly.

Double check after it is accepted to see if the system is formatting the link correctly. Depending on the software a directory uses, you may need to change something to make the link work.

It may also be a good idea to put your URL in unformatted as well, for the publishers who are reprinting your article in a plain-text newsletter.

An example of a well written resource box:

This article was written by Rob Robert, longtime author and owner of <a href="http://www.robstoysite.com">Robs Toy Site</a>, where you can find a ton of information about <a href="http://www.robstoysite.com">Toys and Games</a> for kids of all ages.
  Visit http://www.robstoysite.com for more information.

OK? That introduces the writer, gives a very brief resumé, provides a reason to click (a ton of info), and two clickable links - one of which uses the keywords in the anchor text. It also shows the URL as text for plain-text emails.

When you submit the same article to many directories, don't put any links in the body or summary. While some directories do allow links in the article body IF it's germane to the article, most directories only allow links in the resource box, so it's easiest to just use the resource box.

  Submission No-No's That Can Get You Banned:

* Re-submitting the same article with a different headline, or re-submitting the same articles every two weeks.

Spamming an article directory will eventually get you banned, and all of your previous articles may be removed.

* Submitting Un-Edited PL (Private Label) Articles

If you have joined one of those PL distribution programs and used their content for article marketing you should be aware that article directory owners don't like them. Not at all.

It's a pain in the butt to get ten (or fifty) nearly-identical articles. The software can find identical headlines, and in some cases we read a little and think: "I've seen this before", then it takes only a minute to search a phrase and find any other PL articles.

Once an author is labeled as an unoriginal PL copycat, it's likely that all their articles will be trashed.

The best way to use those PL articles is to think of them as a "Starting Point" to your real article and totally re-write them, placing your own indelible stamp of personality in every paragraph.

* "Wrapping" Another Writers Work With Your Own.

One thing I see (from only a few writers, thankfully) is a good article with one or two poorly-written paragraphs pasted at the beginning and/or the end. These are fairly easy to spot, but still a waste of time for everyone involved.

Wrapping an article with additional content is a good idea if you are reprinting it on your website, but to try that tactic for article marketing is just damn stupid.

  Wrapping Up...

Submitting articles to directories is a great long-term promotional strategy, but keep in mind that while getting listed in a multi-topic directory is good, you will get even better results if you can find a directory that is focused on your own topic.

Probably the most important point to take away from this is to double check your articles before submission. If at all possible, you should also have a friend read the article to check for errors that you and your software miss.

To Your Success!
Tim

By Tim Brown © 2006. About the author: Tim is the webmaster at http://BLT-Web.com, where webmasters can find free tools, advice, tips and other useful resources designed to help them build a successful website.

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