Congratulations! You've written your first article (or
possibly your 10th or 100th!)
As you no doubt already know, writing articles is probably
the most effective way to establish yourself as an expert in
your field and increase the traffic to your website. So you
diligently write articles and then spend hours posting them
to Article Submission websites. ?There must be a smarter
way?? you think each time you submit your articles. There
is! Let's look at simple techniques to get the most out of
the time you will be investing in article submissions.
Organization Saves Time
Create a simple spreadsheet to organize each submission.
The spreadsheet should contain the following:
-URLs for all submission websites
-User names and passwords for each site
-Submission format (text, HTML, hyperlink URLs, etc.)
-Submission date
Prep Your Article
Most submission sites allow HTML coding, so spend the time
to code your article before you start your submissions.
Other sites post warnings that copying and pasting directly
from Word will cause the article to be improperly formatted.
Be sure you have a text version (created in Notepad)
available. A few select sites require you to code the
carriage returns into your article. Again, having a text
file with HTML tags ready and waiting makes the submission
process flow smoothly.
Know the Rules
Here are some simple Do's and Don'ts to help increase your
success as a self-publisher.
Do's
1. Always read the submission criteria before submitting
your article.
2. Format your article to 60-65 characters/line when
submitting to announcement lists or by email.
3. Use proper English, spelling, grammar, punctuation,
capitalization and sentence structure.
4. Make time to manually submit articles. Most automated
article submission services are frowned upon in the
publishing industry.
Don'ts
1. Do not write solo ads: You're here to share your
knowledge. No sales pitches allowed.
2. Do not include affiliate links: Again, education is the
goal, not sales.
3. Do not submit more than one article per week: Most
publishers receive thousands of articles daily. If you
submit more than 1 article per week, chances are, your
second submission will be discarded.
Remember: You don't have to go it alone. If you're
overwhelmed by the writing or submission process, hire help.
Deborah Carraro is the Founder and Owner of Vascorp VA
Services. Vascorp VA Services is the virtual support
specialty company for solo professionals and entrepreneurs.
We work late so you don't have to! Vascorp brings you the
very best in virtual assistant services: shopping cart
integration, affiliate program management, web design,ebook
design, desktop publishing, business consulting services and
more! She publishes a monthly newsletter Vascorp VA
Advantage. To subscribe or find out more, please visit
http://www.vascorp.com/va.
