Article Submission - The 3 Most Common Mistakes Made When Submitting Articles

Article submission is a topic that does not get as much focus as article writing. And yet how you submit your articles can make or break your article marketing efforts.

In my experience coaching hundreds of article writers and marketers, I've come across three common mistakes made by both new and experienced article writers and marketers.

Let's take a closer look at each of these three mistakes and what to do instead.

Mistake #1 - Don't submit - Believe it or not, there are many article writers you simply do not submit their articles. Procrastination and fear of rejection are the two most common reasons for not submitting articles. You simply must push past the procrastination and do it now. Procrastinate later, do it now. Article directories, the good ones that is, will help you get your article up to speed if it needs a bit of tweaking before it is published. No need to fear rejection here.

Mistake #2 - Believing that just as few will do - I've heard this from the whiners out there - "I submitted some articles and got nothing, this stuff doesn't work." This stuff works, you just didn't work it. This is a numbers game - the more articles you get our there working for you, the better article marketing will work for you. At 882 articles if this one is accepted, I know article marketing works, and works well.

Mistake #3 - You don't know what you don't know - I've found that many article writers just sort of "throw up" their article and up for the best. I've identified at least 30 specific nuances to successful article submission that result in your getting your articles getting picked up more often and over the competition. For example one tip is "Key words come first" in your title. "The Top 7 Reasons You Need to Write and Market Articles" is a bad title. "Article Writing - The Top 7 Reasons You Need to Ramp Up Your Article Writing" is a great title. Key words come first.

Avoid theses mistakes and use these tips when submitting your articles.

Writing Articles To Promote and Market Yourself

Writing articles is an excellent way to market and promote your products, your services, and you, both online and offline. If you are new to marketing yourself you must find a way for people to get to know who you are and what you do. This is also referred to as the "know, like, and trust" factor. Writing articles, especially informative articles in a conversational tone, is a great way to accelerate the know, like, and trust factor for yourself. You will also become known as an expert in your field.

First, you must let others know what business you are in. Think about your target market and write articles that will appeal to and educate this group of people. Try to narrow this group down with specifics. What information does this group want to know more about that you could provide for them? Give them tips or mistakes to avoid when writing to them. Share stories with them that are directly related to your products and services and their needs and wants. Draw them to the conclusion that you have the information that will help them.

You will want your potential clients to know that you are very knowledgeable in your field. Article writing helps to position you as an expert in whatever you are writing about. Give as much information as you can so that others see you first as a resource and then as a vendor. You will sell more products and services if people are able to see how much you know and care about the area you are specializing in.

Building your database of people interested in your products and services will also be helped immensely through the articles you write. When people who are interested in your area of expertise read your articles they will be more willing to give you their contact information. Be sure to ask for their physical address as well as their email address. Marketing to them both ways, online and offline, will give you the maximum exposure you are looking for.

If you are directing people to your website be sure to give them the opportunity to sign up for your ezine or newsletter and also for a short, free report or other information. This will serve as an incentive for them to leave their contact information so that you can stay in touch with them regularly. Your newsletter can consist of two or three additional articles that will further convince people that you are an expert. You can also use your ezine or newsletter to directly sell your products or services.

Many people have difficulty getting started with writing their articles. It is recommended that you write down any ideas you have on a notepad that you keep with you at all times. Make notes about things that you may write about at a later time. When you have an idea that you feel will make an interesting and informative article make a simple outline with the points you will be addressing in more detail in your article. You will most likely need to do some research to flesh out and expand your ideas before you actually write your article. Do this research and then expand upon what you already know. Be sure to give people excellent information in your articles. Take the time you need to produce quality articles that will inform and educate your audience in the areas of your expertise.

Think about how you want to present the information in the article you have now written. You may want to post all or part of it on your blog or website. The posting on your blog may be a shorter or abbreviated version of what you will post on your website. You may then choose to submit the article to an article directory. It will have greater exposure through a directory and will have a greater chance of being used by others in their newsletter or ezine. If others use your articles they are required to keep your article intact as you wrote it, including the information about you and your website that you have include in the resource box at the end of the article. You may also want to include your articles in your own newsletter or ezine. It is a good idea to make some changes to your work as you present it in the various formats but it is not required if it is your own writing for your own publications.

Remember that your article will be around for a long time, months or even years. Make sure that what you have written is clear and helpful to the many people who will read it over an extended period of time.

Article Research And Writing An Article Outline

When you write as many articles as I have it is easy to forget that not everyone can just sit down and write an article. Being able to write is the backbone of your future success, however, so you need to get your own system for writing quality articles.

It all starts with an idea and a little article research. One of my favorite tools I use everyday is called Search Automator. This makes researching content for any article a breeze.

Here's a couple of more things on writing articles. When you write try and write like you talk. Using fancy words and writing like you think will impress people does not work because it never sounds natural. Writing like you talk works because you are being yourself and you as become a better writer your articles will sound more natural and interesting.

Here is a simple formula you can use as an outline for your articles called AIDA.

When writing an article break it into 4 parts.

Attention

Interest

Desire

Action

Your title should attract attention. If you don't get read your dead. For this reason we try to write around a primary keyword and include it in the title of the article.

Your introduction should create interest and lead people into the body. Let you reader know what the article is about and why they should read it.

The body should continue to create interest in the subject. Try and write short 2-3 word paragraphs which will help get the whole article read and not have people skimming down the article. Long paragraphs get skimmed over because they are hard to read on the Internet.

If you write a compelling article you will create desire to know more which leads into your resource box.

The resource box is where you sell yourself or your website. Your goal is to get action. The action you want is to get the click through to your website.

Using Search Automator to do good research and following this outline is a great way to develop a quality article and increase your website traffic with it.