It is a beautiful thing when one of my clients tell me that they need to stop article distributions for a spell because they are swamped with new business and need to have time to catch up. Of course, that is less money for now, but they will be back.



TIPS THAT WILL HELP YOU GET GREAT RESULTS WITH YOUR ARTICLES TOO

1. Teach, Don't Sell

Article writers who generate a 1000 word sales pitch will not get the results they expect, if any at all. Publishers do not want to reprint sales pitches. They want to reprint articles that will teach or entertain their readers.

2. Tell an Interesting Story

Just the other day, I saw an article in the lists that flat put me to sleep after two paragraphs. Did I finish the article? No. Do you think the article got republished? I doubt it. Did the article generate any traffic or sales? Not likely.

If you can capture the interest of readers and keep their interest through your whole message, you will have overcome the greatest challenge all writers face.

3. Trim Excessive Words

Even I occasionally put together an article that should have had the excess baggage trimmed from it. One of my most printed articles ran 200 words longer on its first publication. On the first run, I received zero reprints. Trimmed and resent, the article has been published hundreds of times.

4. Select a Good Title

A title should always catch the eye and tell the reader that it is an article they want to read. An article that is written well can fail to produce results if the title does not match the quality of the article.

5. White Space Management

In newspapers and books, white space is not as important as it is when you are writing for the web. Short paragraphs are vitally important to keeping the interest of the reader. And extra white space to break up the ideas in an article are just as important.

Unless you can manage white space properly, reading on the web can be extremely difficult. The reasons for this are the smaller viewing area in electronic print, AND the eye strain that comes from looking at a monitor.

6. Highlighting Ideas in the Copy

Some writers use a Numbered List like I am using here. This can generally produce good results. Better than a Numbered List is a Bulleted List with stars or dashes defining the different ideas.

Yes, I considered using a Bulleted List, but thought a Numbered List would be better for this particular article.

7. Highlighting Subtitles in the Copy

Most articles I write do not fit the Numbered or Bulleted List scenarios. In those cases, I always use subtitles to differentiate my ideas. With subtitles, I either use ALL CAPS or Title Case for the subtitle. In most cases, I prefer using all caps for the subtitle to ensure that the title case subtitle is not mistook as standard body text.

8. Write an Effective Resource Box

The Resource Box is otherwise referred to as your About the Author Information. When your reader reaches the end of the article, if you have done a good job in the body of the article, the reader will be interested in who you are and what you do.

Your goal is not to sell a product or service in your Resource Box. Your goal is to provide an intriguing biography that will entice the reader to actually visit your website URL.

9. Keep Your Resource Box Short

The basic length restriction for your Resource Box is 500 text characters.

Sure, you can put out a larger Resource Box, but the chances of getting published is greatly diminished if you spent too many words talking about yourself. People really do not care what you have done in the past or what your credentials are. What people care about is what you can do for them today. So tell your readers what they want to know --- tell them how you can help them to solve a problem.

10. Leave Your Site URL's in the Resource Box

You should always try to leave links to your website in the Resource Box and not in the body of the article. The only links that should appear in the body of your article are links to URL's where the reader can find additional documentation to support the basis of your article or where the reader can find additional tools or resources associated to the context of your article.

Your site URL is expected to be seen in your Resource Box. That is where it belongs.

11. Rules Governing Links to Your Site in an Article

Many publishers and distribution list moderators believe that if you put your own links in the body of your article, then your article is simply an advertisement disguising itself as an article. Most publishers and distribution list moderators reject this type of offense out of hand without any recourse.

The only exception to this rule is when you are linking to a related resource on your website or providing a shorter-burl redirect for another website.

Most publishers and distribution list moderators will check your on-site links to verify where they go.

12. End With a Solid Conclusion

It is always good to conclude your article and wind everything up nicely. Sometimes we see bulleted list articles that would have done well, had they only told us that the article was over. When your reader gets to the end of the article and wonders where the ending is, then you will know that you have failed to reach your true potential.

13. Get Wide Distribution for the Articles You Publish

Over time, you might be able to search out all of the resources available for distributing your article for free. There are literally thousands of them out there.

Figure out which ones have the widest possible reach and use those. Some places will never actually generate any reprints, so do be careful of your time. Make your assessments of a resource's value over several uses, since not all articles will appeal to all publishers.