One of the most common errors that are made is not reading over an article to check for spelling errors. Although it is understandable that the occasional spelling mistake may go unnoticed, it is not uncommon to find articles with dozens of errors throughout. This immediately conveys that the article author is not as bothered about the article as they should be and is merely using it to try and get their resource box link out to as many sites as possible.

But what about human visitors using article directories?

In order to gain traffic directly from article directories it is important that the article is interesting but also grammatically correct and spell checked, so that readers will respect the article and will be more likely to read it to the end and follow the resource box link. An article author who does not spell check an article after completion is not only missing out on a lot of promotion and wasting time submitting to article directories that reject the article, but also from the direct traffic that could have been received from the directories that do accept it.

One surprising mistake that is made by some, although not as common as spelling and grammatical errors, is an incorrect/broken link provided in the resource area. This area is meant to be the section where a reader will read a brief promotional segment about what you and your website offers and then to hopefully follow the link to your site. However, on occasions mistakes are made in the URL. For example I have noticed a website with an URL such as "mypetdog.com" spelt as "myptedog.com". This is an obvious typo which many article directory owners will notice and correct, however it is possible that a lot of traffic and link popularity is being lost from directory owners who miss the error and accept the article "as is".

Another mistake, and one that is a pet hate of many article directory owners, is article authors who do not read a sites terms of service and article submission guidelines prior to submission. This is shown repeatedly when authors submit articles with more links in the resource box, for example, or directly linking to an affiliate program. Although many errors are corrected by article directory owners, there are some that are simply rejecting articles that do not abide by the submission guidelines, as there are so many others to review that there is no time to correct articles.

To increase the likelihood of an article being accepted, ensure that the layout is correctly formatted. This is to say that the article is not formatted to a specific line width but instead should flow to the end of the line and onto the following line. Space paragraphs clearly as paragraphs with a line space between them.

Probably the biggest point to remember here is to double check an article before submission. If possible, also have a friend read the article to check for errors. Doing so will allow for the best possible results to be gained from the submission.