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You are ready to kick off your article marketing campaign. You
have some great aricles put together and you've located the best
directories to promote your articles. But stop!
There are still a few steps you will need to complete before you
are really ready to begin submitting your articles to publishers
and directories.
1. Make Your Article As Attractive As Possible
Is your article formatted so it is easy to read and/or scan with
short paragraphs, subheadings, and bullet points? Are you using
plain text and only plain text in your article?
2. Clean Up Your Act
Have you checked for spelling, grammar, and other surface
errors? You will lose credibility with a lot of mistakes. Read
your article out loud. You will be surprised how many mistakes
you can catch with this method not to mention how many awkward
sentences you can locate for revision.
3. Offer Useful Information
If you article offers an useful tip or a solution to a problem
then make sure you highlight this in your headline and summary.
Don't try to sell with your article. Sell yourself, your
information, your expertise, and your experience, but not your
products. In the long run you will gain far more exposure by
selling your knowledge.
4. Keep It Short
The ideal length (studied by many experts in the field) is a
word count of 250-500 words. If your article is twice this
length then try to break it into two articles (and so on). If a
500-word article performs the same as a 5,000-word article why
give readers more than they can absorb in an easy read.
5. Create Your Resource Box
A resource box is a small paragraph (directory and site
requirements vary so keep it as short as possible) with your
name, the name of your business, a short tagline, and most
important the link to your website (in url form:
http://YourSite.com). Don't get too lengthy but you might add at
the end a one-three sentence pitch for your site that can easily
be trimmed off if some directories have a low character count
for the resource box. Don't forget to include a call to action
here. For example, Find more advice from Deanna Mascle by
clicking here... You an also include an anchor url related to
one keyword or keyword phrase that you want to build backlinks
for. Do not abuse or overuse this strategy. Rule of thumb for
resource box is that it be no longer than 1/5 the length of your
article. If this balance shifts too much it will affect your
credibility.
6. Write A Summary
Many directories will ask you for a summary of your article so
it easier to have this prepared before you begin submitting.
Keep it short and succint. Usually just a few sentences.
7. Generate Your Keywords
Many directories will ask you for a list of keywords or key
phrases for your article so it is easier to have this prepared
before you begin submitting. I would prepare a list of 10-20
words (comma separated) with the most important first working
down to the least important.
Once you've completed these seven steps you are ready to submit.
Taking a few moments to complete these steps BEFORE you begin
submitting will save you time and stress as you work through the
submission process -- not to mention allow you to craft the most
effective resource box and summary possible.
About the author:
Learn more about Creating Your Article Marketing Campaign by visiting
http://AnswersAboutWriting.com or http://NowLearnMore.com . Sign
up for our free Article Marketing tutorial to read the full article and
many more helpful article marketing tips.
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