A friend and I were talking the other day about writing. He liked to write, but even so his biggest problem was finding things to write about. My friend was astounded at the volume of writing that I do - at least one article and something as many as six, per day. Where do I get all of the ideas from?
I, in turn, was astonished myself. Why on earth would anyone have any trouble finding things to write about? In fact, my main problem has been I have so much to write about that I often find myself locked in a silent battle over which subject should be put on paper first.
People find it even more amazing when I tell them I try very hard to only write about positive events and provide helpful articles. Only rarely will you find any of my writings containing criticism, complaints or, worst of all, whining. Occasionally I will write an article which recommends against purchasing a product, seeing a movie, reading a book or visiting a web site, but these are the exception.
The world is a huge, amazing, wondrous place. Things are going on around us all of the time. There is so much good to see and do all over the planet, so very many wonderful things going on all over the place, that it's easy to find something to communicate about if only you open your eyes and look.
One of my passions is the internet. I've written over 1,000 articles about all aspects of this massive communication medium. Much of this is taken from my 23 years of experience in the computer field, and the rest is from research, reading and, most of all, questions from other people.
Although much of my writing is about the internet, I also find time to communicate about many other subjects as well. These include relationships (marriage and romance), raising children, building a career, handling office politics, current events, hobbies and history. I have yet to find a subject which I don't have something useful to contribute to other people.
How do I find so much to write about? Let me tell you some of the ways: Many of my article ideas some from real life - For example, I have a long and happy marriage, so I like to write articles which help people with their relationships. I've also worked hard most of my life, as have most people, building a career, which is another area where I enjoy passing along tips to help others.
Question and answer sites - Sites like askme.com and askjeeves.com are perfect places to visit once in a while looking for ideas for articles. I visit and just scan the questions (and there are thousands of them), looking for anything which looks interesting. When I find something, I write an article.
Newsgroups - There are over 70,000 newsgroups. Most of these are worthless, but several thousand of them contain useful information and varied conversations. Lurk in any active newsgroup for a while and you should find something worthwhile to write about.
Yahoo and DMOZ - Visit any big directory site and you will find thousands of subjects to explore.
Egroups and Topica - There are thousands of email discussion lists available at these two sites. Sign up for a few and get articles ideas from them.
There are many other places to look for article ideas all over the internet. I tend to avoid looking at things like ezines, ebooks and web sites for article ideas. Why? Because when I look for article ideas I am not looking for answers.
What I tend to look for is questions. What kind of questions are people asking? Is there a question which begs some further analysis and a little more explanation than a simple sentence? It does not matter if someone else has already answered, as my primary purpose is not to provide raw information. My primary purpose is to help people understand. You can find out raw information from any number of books or encyclopedias, but finding out how to clean up the clutter in your bedroom, well, that takes something different. That requires the experience and knowledge passed from someone who has had to go through the experience of cleaning many times, so many times that it has become easy.
Interestingly, I've found that television is not as worthwhile as one would expect for article ideas. Excluding a few reviews, I've found television to be a vast wasteland, void of anything but the most trivial or violent concepts in our society. The exceptions are, of course, channels such as Nova, History channel and Discovery.
So the next time you are trying to figure out something to write about for your own ezine, web site or ebook, just check out a newsgroup, elist or directory on a subject which you find interesting. Sooner or later, you will get an idea and you can start writing.
Monday 19 May 2008
Massive Exposure for New Authors
Most writers nowadays are aware of the current buzz on the internet: writing articles is one of the best ways to build name recognition and web presence. Here are some words of encouragement for those just starting out with this approach to promotion.
By now most of you are probably aware of the current buzz across the internet: writing articles about your area of expertise is one of the best ways to build name recognition and web presence. If you can communicate your ideas and information well in a short piece, and include a by-line at the end that provides a link to your own website, then you can generate more traffic this way than by other typical approaches like submitting to search engines or link-sharing.
Much has been written about it, so I’ll assume that you’re already privy to the potential benefits of article publishing. I want to address THIS particular article to writers with published works; especially those who have self-published, and are now faced with the daunting (and much different) task of self-promotion.
If you mainly write fiction, maybe you balk at the idea of devoting your time to writing more informative pieces. Believe me, I understand this resistance. I am a fantasy author, and for a long time I believed that my muse lived at a far extreme from day-to-day concerns. But at the same time, I often used to (jokingly, I thought) remark to various people: “Get me on the topic of creativity and writing and I could just ramble on for days.”
Then one day the inspiration hit me: maybe I should write all that “rambling” down for a change and then post it somewhere where other people could benefit from it.
I found that it was not only relatively easy to do this, but actually enjoyable; and it allows for a little relief from the right-brain strain of constantly cranking out creative fiction ideas.
If you’re hesitant about diving into article writing because you don’t feel like you’re quite an expert on anything, let me address that issue too. To write articles, you don’t need exhaustive knowledge about any topic; you only need to know a little more than the many others out there who might benefit from what you’ve experienced.
If you’ve completed a novel, then you can write for all aspiring novelists who haven’t yet summoned the courage to commit anything to the page. If you’re published, then you can write for others who HAVE completed a book but are still wallowing in obscurity. Share what you learned along the bitter road that is littered with rejection letters, lonely hours at the writing desk, despair, and oftentimes the misunderstandings of even our closest loved ones.
The point is, wherever you are along the path of your writing ambition, there are others behind you who could benefit from your experience. They will be grateful for your articles and the information and encouragement you gave them. Some will respond by clicking through to your website and learning about your other writings. Some will hopefully purchase your book.
How many can you hope to reach? Well, I just recently began this article writing endeavor myself. Now when I search by my name on Google or Yahoo I find my pieces turning up on over a dozen e-zines and blogs. Some of these sites have heavy traffic. As I write more, and submit more, the numbers increase exponentially. In mathematical terms, articles are the great multiplier.
By now most of you are probably aware of the current buzz across the internet: writing articles about your area of expertise is one of the best ways to build name recognition and web presence. If you can communicate your ideas and information well in a short piece, and include a by-line at the end that provides a link to your own website, then you can generate more traffic this way than by other typical approaches like submitting to search engines or link-sharing.
Much has been written about it, so I’ll assume that you’re already privy to the potential benefits of article publishing. I want to address THIS particular article to writers with published works; especially those who have self-published, and are now faced with the daunting (and much different) task of self-promotion.
If you mainly write fiction, maybe you balk at the idea of devoting your time to writing more informative pieces. Believe me, I understand this resistance. I am a fantasy author, and for a long time I believed that my muse lived at a far extreme from day-to-day concerns. But at the same time, I often used to (jokingly, I thought) remark to various people: “Get me on the topic of creativity and writing and I could just ramble on for days.”
Then one day the inspiration hit me: maybe I should write all that “rambling” down for a change and then post it somewhere where other people could benefit from it.
I found that it was not only relatively easy to do this, but actually enjoyable; and it allows for a little relief from the right-brain strain of constantly cranking out creative fiction ideas.
If you’re hesitant about diving into article writing because you don’t feel like you’re quite an expert on anything, let me address that issue too. To write articles, you don’t need exhaustive knowledge about any topic; you only need to know a little more than the many others out there who might benefit from what you’ve experienced.
If you’ve completed a novel, then you can write for all aspiring novelists who haven’t yet summoned the courage to commit anything to the page. If you’re published, then you can write for others who HAVE completed a book but are still wallowing in obscurity. Share what you learned along the bitter road that is littered with rejection letters, lonely hours at the writing desk, despair, and oftentimes the misunderstandings of even our closest loved ones.
The point is, wherever you are along the path of your writing ambition, there are others behind you who could benefit from your experience. They will be grateful for your articles and the information and encouragement you gave them. Some will respond by clicking through to your website and learning about your other writings. Some will hopefully purchase your book.
How many can you hope to reach? Well, I just recently began this article writing endeavor myself. Now when I search by my name on Google or Yahoo I find my pieces turning up on over a dozen e-zines and blogs. Some of these sites have heavy traffic. As I write more, and submit more, the numbers increase exponentially. In mathematical terms, articles are the great multiplier.
5 Dynamite Ways to Generate Ideas for Parenting Articles
The key to selling reprints to parenting publications is the creation of dynamite ideas followed through with professional writing. Here, I’m focusing only on finding those lucrative topics.
Most topics in regional parenting publications are straightforward: finance, parenting tips, health, sports, and education. The trick is to twist them in an unusual way.
If you’re a parent, what do you wish you knew about a topic? Write down questions that you have as you go through the day. When I was driving the other day, I complained to myself about bad teenage drivers. Then I wondered, “What can parents do to encourage good driving?” If you already know the answer to the question, it won’t make a good article unless you’re an expert on the subject.
Take a generic topic and make it seasonal. Choose a season about four months away, because the lead-time for parenting publications is 2 to 6 months. Four months from now is April. What happens in April (or would be published in April) that I can combine with a topic like health? In April, parenting publications start printing their summer guides to camps. What can parents do to make sure their children stay healthy at camp? What are the traits of a safe camp? Change to camping plus another topic like education or finance to create unique articles.
Who do you know who has an unusual or remarkable story – something that affected children? What did the parents learn? Write an article using the anecdote as an introduction to the information you want to give. A great anecdote can sell a story.
Visit online parenting forums and read the questions people ask. Use some of these as a basis for your article ideas.
When you research a piece and talk to experts, look for what you don’t know. “Joe says insurance is important for families,” won’t make an article interesting. Too many people know that insurance is important. But a quote like, “Joe says disability insurance is the most neglected area of insurance, but it protects young families from the biggest threat to their security,” will make parents keep reading.
If you give editors timely articles that readers will want to read, you’ll sell your work over and over again.
Most topics in regional parenting publications are straightforward: finance, parenting tips, health, sports, and education. The trick is to twist them in an unusual way.
If you’re a parent, what do you wish you knew about a topic? Write down questions that you have as you go through the day. When I was driving the other day, I complained to myself about bad teenage drivers. Then I wondered, “What can parents do to encourage good driving?” If you already know the answer to the question, it won’t make a good article unless you’re an expert on the subject.
Take a generic topic and make it seasonal. Choose a season about four months away, because the lead-time for parenting publications is 2 to 6 months. Four months from now is April. What happens in April (or would be published in April) that I can combine with a topic like health? In April, parenting publications start printing their summer guides to camps. What can parents do to make sure their children stay healthy at camp? What are the traits of a safe camp? Change to camping plus another topic like education or finance to create unique articles.
Who do you know who has an unusual or remarkable story – something that affected children? What did the parents learn? Write an article using the anecdote as an introduction to the information you want to give. A great anecdote can sell a story.
Visit online parenting forums and read the questions people ask. Use some of these as a basis for your article ideas.
When you research a piece and talk to experts, look for what you don’t know. “Joe says insurance is important for families,” won’t make an article interesting. Too many people know that insurance is important. But a quote like, “Joe says disability insurance is the most neglected area of insurance, but it protects young families from the biggest threat to their security,” will make parents keep reading.
If you give editors timely articles that readers will want to read, you’ll sell your work over and over again.
How to Start and Sustain a Career as a Freelance Writer
Have you wondered how you can make a career writing books or articles for various publications? Or are you seeking a viable second income opportunity but do not know where to start? Well, freelance writing may be the right career for you and it can open a world of lucrative opportunities for you.
You do not need to have special qualifications to be a freelance writer and make money. What you need is the ambition, diligence in your craft and willingness to learn the necessary skills. Of course you need to be literate in a popular language especially English in order to communicate with a large readership and sell your work widely.
Getting Started
Getting started as a freelance writer is easy compared to what it takes to enter other careers .You need to assess your skills to enable you to choose what to write about. What knowledge or training do you have? Are there issues or facts you are more familiar with? What are your hobbies/interests? These and other questions if well answered will have set you on the path to being a writer.
However, it may be necessary to learn the art of writing from experts and this is why you should take a writing course. There are many writing courses available and an appropriate search on the Internet will reveal some, which may be suitable for you. While some courses are full-time and may require minimum entry qualifications you may find a host of others which are part-time and do not require any special qualifications.
A good option is to take a distance learning course and you will find several in this category. These give you an opportunity to study at home at your own pace. Notable among them are those offered by two UK based colleges and which are available to prospective writers worldwide. One is offered by the Writers Bureau of Manchester United Kingdom. The college offers a freelance writing distance learning course which leads to the issue of a certificate on completion and gives you an opportunity to earn from writing while you learn.
The other college is the London School of Journalism which offers diplomas and post graduate diplomas in writing. Many areas of writing are covered by both colleges and it is advisable that you enroll in one of these courses to sharpen your talents and take advantage of the opportunities that go with studying them.
In case you do not feel like enrolling in writing courses for any reason then all is not lost. There are vast resources on the internet and elsewhere which you can resort to for learning about writing. You may read various essays on writing on the internet written by experienced writers. There are many of these and it’s only a matter of knowing how and where to find them. There are also books about freelance writing which you may order from book stores or direct from publishers. A visit to your local library may also prove useful in unearthing useful information on writing.
Once you have embarked on writing you need to keep a notebook or journal to record wild ideas as they come to your mind or while reading various publications. To discover ideas for your writing you need to read widely magazines, newspapers, books, watch television and so on. Give the news and features a second thought, study them critically and ask yourself questions about what is contained in them. Imagine what would have been the situation if the events cited had not happened. Since they have happened how can the situation be made better? What are the effects of those events? Think more about them. Dream and take notes.
WRITING YOUR PIECE
Now comes the hard part putting your ideas in black and white. This part may be difficult depending on your circumstances. You could be having so many ideas that you are overwhelmed by the sheer volume of information you have collected. You are stuck with stacks of sheets of information you have jotted down that you do not know where to begin. Alternatively you could be having only a few ideas to fit only one page and do not know where to find information to write the rest of your book or article.
These are dilemmas that face writers at various points in time perhaps they reflect lack of tact in handling theirs work. As a writer you need to do proper planning to avoid any of those two scenarios you need to have researched your market first before even researching the subject.
This brings us to the issue of markets study. You need to study the audience to know what their requirements are. In the case of articles, you should study the writers/submission guidelines and a few issues of the publications to know your markets well. Many publications have writers/submission guidelines on their web pages. Next you need to be familiar with the style guidelines. These are more or less the same as the writers guidelines but may include issues such as spelling, punctuation and other aspects of grammar.
It is important that you read their style guides to avoid you articles being rejected. In case you do not know where to find them then it is advisable to write to the editors for copies. Alternatively you may be find some in libraries and bookstores.
As important as the study of the market is the research on the topic you want to write about. Write down all ideas you have on the topic as they come to mind without editing them. Turn them upside down to come up with fresh ideas. Then decide on the angle and slant of your article.
The above exercise would have generated a lot of material, which may be used as a basis for your story. Then depending on the type of article you are writing you can do extensive research, taking notes as you carry on. The research could be on the internet, which is a good place to start from or in publications found at the library. You may have to buy some books, which are not locally available or pay for photos from media agencies. Alternatively you may use the services of hired researchers or research agencies. A good source of research documents is the British Library, which can for a small fee send you photocopies of requested material anywhere in the world. The US Library of congress has a similar service. You may also search for experts in your local directory who may provide you with useful information. In sum there is limitless scope for research and only you may decide on the limit based on the requirements of the article.
Next, you should organize the ideas and information from the research into a concise and coherent order. This is the planning face where you decide the structure and format of your article, choose what is relevant and would advance the goal and spirit of your article. Select ideas from the research information and not word for word copying. Be careful lest you be accused of plagiarism of other people’s work or infringing on their copyrights. Write several drafts until the complete article has taken the shape and tone you want, check on the spelling, punctuation and other aspects of grammar and style in each draft to achieve a well polished article. It is not a bad idea if you seek a second opinion from your peers before preparing the final draft. There are thousand of writing communities on the internet which may assist you in that regard.
After writing the final draft type it and send it to the responsible editor of the publication.
The Contents
What goes into making a successful article? Well the answers could be varied depending on the scope and nature of the article. I believe there can be no standard way of writing an article. However, we can at least agree on some universal principles of what constitutes a good article.
First, any article must be captivating to its intended readership or audience. Readers must be glued to it and have the thirst to read it on until the end. They will read it twice, thrice and even more or keep it as a souvenir for days and years to come. This is the ideal article and if yours can reach that level then the better.
Your article must offer useful information, which the reader may use to his benefit or at least enlighten him on important issues. If it is a story it will give the reader temporary relief or inspiration on a particular issue. It will make him dream or be filled with imagination, which will give him a sense of relaxation. In brief it will entertain him.
How will you achieve all that? By organizing the article in a logical and structured order. You will use words to convey ideas precisely; you will say what you mean and mean what you say. Choose the right words to convey the intended message. You swear not to use incomprehensible metaphors and jargon and if you do then you are certain that they are at the level that your audience is readily familiar with. Use the right similes and aphorisms. Be concise in your use of language, make the sentences and paragraphs flow smoothly with similar ideas aptly grouped and flowing in a logical and pleasant order. Paragraphs are short and measured.
All that is not easy to achieve with the stroke of a pen and you will have to do much learning and imagination to attain that level. Hopefully there is an easy path to that objective. This is through constant reading especially of fiction books since they are a great resource of imaginative ideas and are models of language use.
Read them regularly and take a few notes down. Do not stop with fiction books but do also read magazines, newspapers and other non-fiction works. See what other successful writers have done and follows the principles behind their writing success.
Let’s now look at the how part of writing. An article contains three main parts that is introduction, the body and the conclusion. The introduction may be said to be the most important part of the article. This is not to underrate the other two parts or to say that we can have an article without the other parts.
We wish rather to show its significance in interesting your readers to want to read the article. This is exemplified with the first opening paragraph popularly known as the leader or lead paragraph. It is a strong paragraph which aptly summarized the theme of the article. It will mostly likely be one sentence but no harm if it is split into two or three sentences.
The body of the article follows next after the introduction and is divided into many paragraphs depending on the length of the article. The main theme of the article is developed here. Arguments and counter-arguments are made. Facts are spilled. Comments are made. Analysis is done. Without the body you have no successful article or no article at all. Your credibility as a writer will be judged on how you successfully handled the writing of the body. You readers will have no regrets of having gone past the introduction and entering the body. If they find it satisfactorily written, suspense overcomes them until they reach the conclusion.
To conclude the article, the writer ingeniously in a few sentences summarizes the theme of the article. He does not recapitulate the facts cited in the body but gives the reader the sequel of the story. It all requires creativity to write a good conclusion that leaves the readers with good memories of your article. The conclusion does not leave questions lingering the minds of your readers but gives a final word on the theme. In matters which are full of uncertainty the writer speculates on the most likely outcome.
Marketing Your Work
Here comes the most important part. You have taken days or weeks collecting information, gathering ideas, writing and polishing your article and it is high time you gained from your sweat.
There are several approaches to selling your article. Each has its own advantages but most experts are unanimous that querying is the better option. This is simply because it is inexpensive and you get value for what you work for even if after a long time. It is hassle-free and while not without its disappointments, it is relatively less painful if you receive a rejection.
Querying is the first thing you should do after you have formed a strong idea on the theme of your article. Check publications directories and on the internet for addresses of editors responsible for accepting freelance writers' work and then write to them addressing them by their names and titles.
A query is a one page or so letter to a named editor of a publication asking for an opportunity to contribute an article for publication. It contains a brief summary of the main theme of the article, it’s suggested length, when you are likely to deliver it if you are commissioned to write it, the likely benefits the readers will derive from the article and why you are the right person to write the article.
You should put a lot of imagination in writing the query letter as this is your best opportunity to convince the editor of your ability to deliver on your promises. If you have a good resume attach it or mention briefly relevant contents which makes you stand out as the most suitable to write the article. Editors prefer experienced writers to novices and if you have what it takes then say so. Otherwise if you are a beginner avoid saying so but include a few samples tailored to the publications readers taste. If you will use special or exclusive sources of information then don’t forget to mention that in your query.
How many times should one query per article? As many times as is practicable, just so long as you are able to deliver on your promises taking into consideration time constraints. In fact for your writing business to be viable you need to send many queries to ensure that your potential earnings will be able to sustain you in your career. However you should be wary of a situation where you receive several acceptances on the same theme and you send exact replicas of the article. Try to give a different spin and change the wording to suit different publications. Take work according to your ability and capacity.
The other alternative to marketing your work is to write articles for mass audiences imagining their needs and tastes and submitting to various publications. You target several publications in one category which you feel will be most suitable to accept the theme of your article. You may also copy your article from your disk or computer and paste on virtual publishing communities websites or email your article to various editors. This is a quick and cheap way of making multiple submissions of your articles.
We have mentioned virtual publishing communities websites and I feel we should explain briefly what they are. These are websites which accept articles or work form writers and sell to various publications and pay you a modest fee. They are a good starting point for the beginner as they provide quick results of seeing your work published. To be frank it is difficult to win writing assignments without some writing experience or proof that you are a published writer. Such websites give you an easy way of proving yourself and also earning something from your work.
However, these type of websites may have their own pitfalls such as going out of business before you get paid or profiting from your work and giving you little in return. A consoling fact is that you still retain your copyright and you can sell your articles to other publications. Please regard these websites as sources of additional income and not the ultimate markets for your writing work.
How do you know which publications accept work from freelance writers or even the names and addresses of magazines and newspapers editors? There are several ways to do that and we shall mention a few here. A good reference for finding freelance writing markets is the annual Writers Markets. This contains names and addresses publications which accept freelance work. You may order it from Amazon.com or you can check if there is a copy at your local library. On the web, you can use search engines such as Google.com to search for markets by using keywords such as “newspapers and magazines”. You will be surprised by the sheer volume of links that are available which you can browse slowly to look for the categories you want. You will find thousands of publications whether classified by country, subject or readership.
Dealing With Rejections
While doing your marketing you will experience some difficulties such as some publications which have gone out of circulation or editors who do not respond but more often you will receive many polite rejections. Some editors may give you suggestions they wish you to consider before accepting your proposal.
All in all we have to accept that rejections are a fact of life and we will have to live with them but you will be a lot wiser if you study the reasons for your rejections to enable you improve your future queries and submissions thus increasing your chances of getting acceptances. While some editors may not be interested in the theme you are proposing others would have been dissatisfied with your level of experience to handle the articles you are proposing to write. It could also be that the publication has received a similar query from another writer or has plans to write a similar piece using their staff writers. Probably they have published an article on the same theme recently and they feel they have exhaustively covered the subject and unless you have something new or refreshing they are not accepting any proposals for now.
Read what they write to you and learn from their reasons. Do not be discouraged but send more queries to other publications. Choose popular themes for articles and add more value in them such as statistics, photographs, expert comments and an objective assessment of the issues. With time and patience you will ultimately succeed.
Organizing Yourself
As you carry on with your writing you need to organize yourself to successfully take advantage of opportunities as they come along and to ensure that you do not fail to beat deadlines. There are basic necessities such as stationery including files for clippings manuscripts and photographs. You need to keep track of your articles to know where they were published, when and follow up payments. You may need to draw up contracts, type up your articles, post or email them.
Prepare and follow a work plan to enable you succeed in researching and writing articles. Deal with one assignment first before you go to the next. Dedicate as much time as possible to writing since this is the core function of your career. If you write less then the less you will earn and the less motivated you will be to continue with writing.
You also need to spend much time querying on multiple article ideas. This is important since you will be looking for future sales. Though specializing on one genre is good, you should occasionally look for other branches of writing and markets to maximize your chances of making sales.
Manage your financial affairs well so that you do not cripple your career, budget your income and invest in books and other publications o keep your ideas train moving on and on. Don’t forget to invest in savings and other lucrative opportunities for the occasional rainy day.
Once you have a stable income you may open a small office and employ staff to assist you in research, typing and other important tasks. This will enable you churn out more articles every month than if you handle everything yourself. Keep expenses to a minimum and go for high paying markets.
You can build a career out of writing and earn yourself extra income part-time or regular income full time from freelance writing. However you need to study the art of writing, organize yourself and constantly search for markets to stay afloat.
Don’t fear to take the plunge, the time is now!
You do not need to have special qualifications to be a freelance writer and make money. What you need is the ambition, diligence in your craft and willingness to learn the necessary skills. Of course you need to be literate in a popular language especially English in order to communicate with a large readership and sell your work widely.
Getting Started
Getting started as a freelance writer is easy compared to what it takes to enter other careers .You need to assess your skills to enable you to choose what to write about. What knowledge or training do you have? Are there issues or facts you are more familiar with? What are your hobbies/interests? These and other questions if well answered will have set you on the path to being a writer.
However, it may be necessary to learn the art of writing from experts and this is why you should take a writing course. There are many writing courses available and an appropriate search on the Internet will reveal some, which may be suitable for you. While some courses are full-time and may require minimum entry qualifications you may find a host of others which are part-time and do not require any special qualifications.
A good option is to take a distance learning course and you will find several in this category. These give you an opportunity to study at home at your own pace. Notable among them are those offered by two UK based colleges and which are available to prospective writers worldwide. One is offered by the Writers Bureau of Manchester United Kingdom. The college offers a freelance writing distance learning course which leads to the issue of a certificate on completion and gives you an opportunity to earn from writing while you learn.
The other college is the London School of Journalism which offers diplomas and post graduate diplomas in writing. Many areas of writing are covered by both colleges and it is advisable that you enroll in one of these courses to sharpen your talents and take advantage of the opportunities that go with studying them.
In case you do not feel like enrolling in writing courses for any reason then all is not lost. There are vast resources on the internet and elsewhere which you can resort to for learning about writing. You may read various essays on writing on the internet written by experienced writers. There are many of these and it’s only a matter of knowing how and where to find them. There are also books about freelance writing which you may order from book stores or direct from publishers. A visit to your local library may also prove useful in unearthing useful information on writing.
Once you have embarked on writing you need to keep a notebook or journal to record wild ideas as they come to your mind or while reading various publications. To discover ideas for your writing you need to read widely magazines, newspapers, books, watch television and so on. Give the news and features a second thought, study them critically and ask yourself questions about what is contained in them. Imagine what would have been the situation if the events cited had not happened. Since they have happened how can the situation be made better? What are the effects of those events? Think more about them. Dream and take notes.
WRITING YOUR PIECE
Now comes the hard part putting your ideas in black and white. This part may be difficult depending on your circumstances. You could be having so many ideas that you are overwhelmed by the sheer volume of information you have collected. You are stuck with stacks of sheets of information you have jotted down that you do not know where to begin. Alternatively you could be having only a few ideas to fit only one page and do not know where to find information to write the rest of your book or article.
These are dilemmas that face writers at various points in time perhaps they reflect lack of tact in handling theirs work. As a writer you need to do proper planning to avoid any of those two scenarios you need to have researched your market first before even researching the subject.
This brings us to the issue of markets study. You need to study the audience to know what their requirements are. In the case of articles, you should study the writers/submission guidelines and a few issues of the publications to know your markets well. Many publications have writers/submission guidelines on their web pages. Next you need to be familiar with the style guidelines. These are more or less the same as the writers guidelines but may include issues such as spelling, punctuation and other aspects of grammar.
It is important that you read their style guides to avoid you articles being rejected. In case you do not know where to find them then it is advisable to write to the editors for copies. Alternatively you may be find some in libraries and bookstores.
As important as the study of the market is the research on the topic you want to write about. Write down all ideas you have on the topic as they come to mind without editing them. Turn them upside down to come up with fresh ideas. Then decide on the angle and slant of your article.
The above exercise would have generated a lot of material, which may be used as a basis for your story. Then depending on the type of article you are writing you can do extensive research, taking notes as you carry on. The research could be on the internet, which is a good place to start from or in publications found at the library. You may have to buy some books, which are not locally available or pay for photos from media agencies. Alternatively you may use the services of hired researchers or research agencies. A good source of research documents is the British Library, which can for a small fee send you photocopies of requested material anywhere in the world. The US Library of congress has a similar service. You may also search for experts in your local directory who may provide you with useful information. In sum there is limitless scope for research and only you may decide on the limit based on the requirements of the article.
Next, you should organize the ideas and information from the research into a concise and coherent order. This is the planning face where you decide the structure and format of your article, choose what is relevant and would advance the goal and spirit of your article. Select ideas from the research information and not word for word copying. Be careful lest you be accused of plagiarism of other people’s work or infringing on their copyrights. Write several drafts until the complete article has taken the shape and tone you want, check on the spelling, punctuation and other aspects of grammar and style in each draft to achieve a well polished article. It is not a bad idea if you seek a second opinion from your peers before preparing the final draft. There are thousand of writing communities on the internet which may assist you in that regard.
After writing the final draft type it and send it to the responsible editor of the publication.
The Contents
What goes into making a successful article? Well the answers could be varied depending on the scope and nature of the article. I believe there can be no standard way of writing an article. However, we can at least agree on some universal principles of what constitutes a good article.
First, any article must be captivating to its intended readership or audience. Readers must be glued to it and have the thirst to read it on until the end. They will read it twice, thrice and even more or keep it as a souvenir for days and years to come. This is the ideal article and if yours can reach that level then the better.
Your article must offer useful information, which the reader may use to his benefit or at least enlighten him on important issues. If it is a story it will give the reader temporary relief or inspiration on a particular issue. It will make him dream or be filled with imagination, which will give him a sense of relaxation. In brief it will entertain him.
How will you achieve all that? By organizing the article in a logical and structured order. You will use words to convey ideas precisely; you will say what you mean and mean what you say. Choose the right words to convey the intended message. You swear not to use incomprehensible metaphors and jargon and if you do then you are certain that they are at the level that your audience is readily familiar with. Use the right similes and aphorisms. Be concise in your use of language, make the sentences and paragraphs flow smoothly with similar ideas aptly grouped and flowing in a logical and pleasant order. Paragraphs are short and measured.
All that is not easy to achieve with the stroke of a pen and you will have to do much learning and imagination to attain that level. Hopefully there is an easy path to that objective. This is through constant reading especially of fiction books since they are a great resource of imaginative ideas and are models of language use.
Read them regularly and take a few notes down. Do not stop with fiction books but do also read magazines, newspapers and other non-fiction works. See what other successful writers have done and follows the principles behind their writing success.
Let’s now look at the how part of writing. An article contains three main parts that is introduction, the body and the conclusion. The introduction may be said to be the most important part of the article. This is not to underrate the other two parts or to say that we can have an article without the other parts.
We wish rather to show its significance in interesting your readers to want to read the article. This is exemplified with the first opening paragraph popularly known as the leader or lead paragraph. It is a strong paragraph which aptly summarized the theme of the article. It will mostly likely be one sentence but no harm if it is split into two or three sentences.
The body of the article follows next after the introduction and is divided into many paragraphs depending on the length of the article. The main theme of the article is developed here. Arguments and counter-arguments are made. Facts are spilled. Comments are made. Analysis is done. Without the body you have no successful article or no article at all. Your credibility as a writer will be judged on how you successfully handled the writing of the body. You readers will have no regrets of having gone past the introduction and entering the body. If they find it satisfactorily written, suspense overcomes them until they reach the conclusion.
To conclude the article, the writer ingeniously in a few sentences summarizes the theme of the article. He does not recapitulate the facts cited in the body but gives the reader the sequel of the story. It all requires creativity to write a good conclusion that leaves the readers with good memories of your article. The conclusion does not leave questions lingering the minds of your readers but gives a final word on the theme. In matters which are full of uncertainty the writer speculates on the most likely outcome.
Marketing Your Work
Here comes the most important part. You have taken days or weeks collecting information, gathering ideas, writing and polishing your article and it is high time you gained from your sweat.
There are several approaches to selling your article. Each has its own advantages but most experts are unanimous that querying is the better option. This is simply because it is inexpensive and you get value for what you work for even if after a long time. It is hassle-free and while not without its disappointments, it is relatively less painful if you receive a rejection.
Querying is the first thing you should do after you have formed a strong idea on the theme of your article. Check publications directories and on the internet for addresses of editors responsible for accepting freelance writers' work and then write to them addressing them by their names and titles.
A query is a one page or so letter to a named editor of a publication asking for an opportunity to contribute an article for publication. It contains a brief summary of the main theme of the article, it’s suggested length, when you are likely to deliver it if you are commissioned to write it, the likely benefits the readers will derive from the article and why you are the right person to write the article.
You should put a lot of imagination in writing the query letter as this is your best opportunity to convince the editor of your ability to deliver on your promises. If you have a good resume attach it or mention briefly relevant contents which makes you stand out as the most suitable to write the article. Editors prefer experienced writers to novices and if you have what it takes then say so. Otherwise if you are a beginner avoid saying so but include a few samples tailored to the publications readers taste. If you will use special or exclusive sources of information then don’t forget to mention that in your query.
How many times should one query per article? As many times as is practicable, just so long as you are able to deliver on your promises taking into consideration time constraints. In fact for your writing business to be viable you need to send many queries to ensure that your potential earnings will be able to sustain you in your career. However you should be wary of a situation where you receive several acceptances on the same theme and you send exact replicas of the article. Try to give a different spin and change the wording to suit different publications. Take work according to your ability and capacity.
The other alternative to marketing your work is to write articles for mass audiences imagining their needs and tastes and submitting to various publications. You target several publications in one category which you feel will be most suitable to accept the theme of your article. You may also copy your article from your disk or computer and paste on virtual publishing communities websites or email your article to various editors. This is a quick and cheap way of making multiple submissions of your articles.
We have mentioned virtual publishing communities websites and I feel we should explain briefly what they are. These are websites which accept articles or work form writers and sell to various publications and pay you a modest fee. They are a good starting point for the beginner as they provide quick results of seeing your work published. To be frank it is difficult to win writing assignments without some writing experience or proof that you are a published writer. Such websites give you an easy way of proving yourself and also earning something from your work.
However, these type of websites may have their own pitfalls such as going out of business before you get paid or profiting from your work and giving you little in return. A consoling fact is that you still retain your copyright and you can sell your articles to other publications. Please regard these websites as sources of additional income and not the ultimate markets for your writing work.
How do you know which publications accept work from freelance writers or even the names and addresses of magazines and newspapers editors? There are several ways to do that and we shall mention a few here. A good reference for finding freelance writing markets is the annual Writers Markets. This contains names and addresses publications which accept freelance work. You may order it from Amazon.com or you can check if there is a copy at your local library. On the web, you can use search engines such as Google.com to search for markets by using keywords such as “newspapers and magazines”. You will be surprised by the sheer volume of links that are available which you can browse slowly to look for the categories you want. You will find thousands of publications whether classified by country, subject or readership.
Dealing With Rejections
While doing your marketing you will experience some difficulties such as some publications which have gone out of circulation or editors who do not respond but more often you will receive many polite rejections. Some editors may give you suggestions they wish you to consider before accepting your proposal.
All in all we have to accept that rejections are a fact of life and we will have to live with them but you will be a lot wiser if you study the reasons for your rejections to enable you improve your future queries and submissions thus increasing your chances of getting acceptances. While some editors may not be interested in the theme you are proposing others would have been dissatisfied with your level of experience to handle the articles you are proposing to write. It could also be that the publication has received a similar query from another writer or has plans to write a similar piece using their staff writers. Probably they have published an article on the same theme recently and they feel they have exhaustively covered the subject and unless you have something new or refreshing they are not accepting any proposals for now.
Read what they write to you and learn from their reasons. Do not be discouraged but send more queries to other publications. Choose popular themes for articles and add more value in them such as statistics, photographs, expert comments and an objective assessment of the issues. With time and patience you will ultimately succeed.
Organizing Yourself
As you carry on with your writing you need to organize yourself to successfully take advantage of opportunities as they come along and to ensure that you do not fail to beat deadlines. There are basic necessities such as stationery including files for clippings manuscripts and photographs. You need to keep track of your articles to know where they were published, when and follow up payments. You may need to draw up contracts, type up your articles, post or email them.
Prepare and follow a work plan to enable you succeed in researching and writing articles. Deal with one assignment first before you go to the next. Dedicate as much time as possible to writing since this is the core function of your career. If you write less then the less you will earn and the less motivated you will be to continue with writing.
You also need to spend much time querying on multiple article ideas. This is important since you will be looking for future sales. Though specializing on one genre is good, you should occasionally look for other branches of writing and markets to maximize your chances of making sales.
Manage your financial affairs well so that you do not cripple your career, budget your income and invest in books and other publications o keep your ideas train moving on and on. Don’t forget to invest in savings and other lucrative opportunities for the occasional rainy day.
Once you have a stable income you may open a small office and employ staff to assist you in research, typing and other important tasks. This will enable you churn out more articles every month than if you handle everything yourself. Keep expenses to a minimum and go for high paying markets.
You can build a career out of writing and earn yourself extra income part-time or regular income full time from freelance writing. However you need to study the art of writing, organize yourself and constantly search for markets to stay afloat.
Don’t fear to take the plunge, the time is now!
How to Market Yourself Successfully as a Writer
To ensure a steady flow of work and income, a writer should promote himself constantly. Not everyone knows you are a writer and the competition for work is very high. Not only do you compete with publications regular staffers and commissioned writers but with more learned and skilled freelancers.
Marketing should be on top of your priorities after production of your writing. You need to adopt various strategies to get your name out there and display your prowess.
Here are a few useful ways to promote yourself and achieve success:
WEBSITE PROMOTION
In this information age that we are in, it is necessary for every business person to have a web site to display his/her wares as well as communicate with potential customers. You should consider yourself in business and adopt appropriate business practice in order to succeed.
You need a web-site where you explain what writing services you offer, your writing credentials and samples of your published work is essential not only to provide information to would-be clients but to show them your writing competence. Of course there are other add-ons such as auto-responders, ezines, etc to supplement your site. Your website should be optimized for better search engine ranking and its URL displayed in your business documents so that people are informed of its presence.
ARTICLES SUBMISSIONS
This is a good strategy for publicizing yourself and its effects may last for quite a long time. This strategy works best online.
In this strategy you select subjects and topics in your area of specialization and post the complete articles to article submission websites for free publication. Each article will contain the writer’s byline at the beginning and a brief bio at the end. The bio will include your name, email address, website URL and what you do or who you are.
If your article is good it may be accepted for publication on the website and read by hundreds, if not thousands of people on line. Among these people are editors and ezine publishers who will republish the complete article in their publications.
The interest that your article generates and the information you provide in your bio will market you as a good writer and people will click on your website URL. The multiplier effect of this will be increased enquiries on what you offer, orders for your services or more visitors to your website. You will also have earned credits for publication of your article, which you can send to prospective publishers.
Some of the websites that accept and publish articles submitted are: -
http://www.articlecity.com
http://www.goarticles.com
http://www.ezinearticles.com
http://www.powerhomebiz.com
http://www.ideamarketers.com
http://www.marketing-seek.com
http://www.writerswrite.com
http://ww.web-source.net
http://zinos.com
http://www.authorconnection.com
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/article_announce
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/free-content
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/articles_archives
ADVERTISING
“Advertising pays” is as true today as it was decades back. As we said earlier, nobody knows you are there or you offer writing services. Your website is online. You can advertise your services in the many free classified ads sites and safe lists. You can also put paid ads on high traffic sites, writer’s sites, job boards, ezine ad networks, etc.
SIGNATURE FILE
A one or two line reference of what you do together with your website URL can be added in a special section of your e-mail address so that all e-mail messages you send out will contain the “signature file” is another good way to promote yourself especially if you are sending out many e-mail messages to newsgroups and online communities. After reading your message, people would want to know who you are and what you do. When they click your website or auto-responder address they will be led to what you do or offer. Set up a signature file in your e-mail, participate in discussions by sending e-mail messages and watch enquiries grow. However, be careful not to advertise directly when you post to newsgroups as that may offend others and that is not the main purpose of newsgroups.
SENDING OUT QUERIES
Sometimes, even after using other means to promote yourself you have to use this one also. It may be considered the most common way of finding work for freelance writers. Querying is an art in itself and there are many do’s and don’ts. Some publications accept e-mail queries while others don’t. Some do and others do not accept work from freelancers. You need to read market guides such as the Writers Market or submission guidelines from publishers’ websites as well as practice writing query letters.
The more queries you send the better as they increase you chances of acceptance.
OTHER
Word of mouth promotion/networking are also other ways to promote yourself within your locality. Attend seminars on writing or your area of specialization and inform others that you are a writer and you can assist them in their promoting their businesses in one way or another. Put your name, your occupation and contacts as a writer on business cards, calendars, and diaries and distribute freely locally. Ask your friends to recommend you to others. The possibilities are many and are only limited by your ability to explore them.
Writers need to market themselves in order to keep the business coming in and ensure a steady flow of income throughout the throughout the year.
Marketing should be on top of your priorities after production of your writing. You need to adopt various strategies to get your name out there and display your prowess.
Here are a few useful ways to promote yourself and achieve success:
WEBSITE PROMOTION
In this information age that we are in, it is necessary for every business person to have a web site to display his/her wares as well as communicate with potential customers. You should consider yourself in business and adopt appropriate business practice in order to succeed.
You need a web-site where you explain what writing services you offer, your writing credentials and samples of your published work is essential not only to provide information to would-be clients but to show them your writing competence. Of course there are other add-ons such as auto-responders, ezines, etc to supplement your site. Your website should be optimized for better search engine ranking and its URL displayed in your business documents so that people are informed of its presence.
ARTICLES SUBMISSIONS
This is a good strategy for publicizing yourself and its effects may last for quite a long time. This strategy works best online.
In this strategy you select subjects and topics in your area of specialization and post the complete articles to article submission websites for free publication. Each article will contain the writer’s byline at the beginning and a brief bio at the end. The bio will include your name, email address, website URL and what you do or who you are.
If your article is good it may be accepted for publication on the website and read by hundreds, if not thousands of people on line. Among these people are editors and ezine publishers who will republish the complete article in their publications.
The interest that your article generates and the information you provide in your bio will market you as a good writer and people will click on your website URL. The multiplier effect of this will be increased enquiries on what you offer, orders for your services or more visitors to your website. You will also have earned credits for publication of your article, which you can send to prospective publishers.
Some of the websites that accept and publish articles submitted are: -
http://www.articlecity.com
http://www.goarticles.com
http://www.ezinearticles.com
http://www.powerhomebiz.com
http://www.ideamarketers.com
http://www.marketing-seek.com
http://www.writerswrite.com
http://ww.web-source.net
http://zinos.com
http://www.authorconnection.com
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/article_announce
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/free-content
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/articles_archives
ADVERTISING
“Advertising pays” is as true today as it was decades back. As we said earlier, nobody knows you are there or you offer writing services. Your website is online. You can advertise your services in the many free classified ads sites and safe lists. You can also put paid ads on high traffic sites, writer’s sites, job boards, ezine ad networks, etc.
SIGNATURE FILE
A one or two line reference of what you do together with your website URL can be added in a special section of your e-mail address so that all e-mail messages you send out will contain the “signature file” is another good way to promote yourself especially if you are sending out many e-mail messages to newsgroups and online communities. After reading your message, people would want to know who you are and what you do. When they click your website or auto-responder address they will be led to what you do or offer. Set up a signature file in your e-mail, participate in discussions by sending e-mail messages and watch enquiries grow. However, be careful not to advertise directly when you post to newsgroups as that may offend others and that is not the main purpose of newsgroups.
SENDING OUT QUERIES
Sometimes, even after using other means to promote yourself you have to use this one also. It may be considered the most common way of finding work for freelance writers. Querying is an art in itself and there are many do’s and don’ts. Some publications accept e-mail queries while others don’t. Some do and others do not accept work from freelancers. You need to read market guides such as the Writers Market or submission guidelines from publishers’ websites as well as practice writing query letters.
The more queries you send the better as they increase you chances of acceptance.
OTHER
Word of mouth promotion/networking are also other ways to promote yourself within your locality. Attend seminars on writing or your area of specialization and inform others that you are a writer and you can assist them in their promoting their businesses in one way or another. Put your name, your occupation and contacts as a writer on business cards, calendars, and diaries and distribute freely locally. Ask your friends to recommend you to others. The possibilities are many and are only limited by your ability to explore them.
Writers need to market themselves in order to keep the business coming in and ensure a steady flow of income throughout the throughout the year.
How to Find Ideas for Articles & Speeches
Do you have problems finding ideas for articles and speeches?
I know have had at times, and others tell me the same thing. At my Toastmasters club, for example, I've often heard members say they have difficulty finding topics for speeches.
But, I've learned, like others who write and speak a lot, to start with what I know. To use my own experiences or perspectives to make even a simple subject uniquely my own. And you can do the same.
Indeed, what seems mundane to you may fascinate someone else. Suppose, for example, you work in a fast food restaurant -- tell me about the best and worst customers, or tell me about the processes and training that make it possible to go from order to delivery in just a couple of minutes.
Here's a real-life example from my own experiences. I have a part-time job as a directory assistance operator for a telephone company, and that produces some interesting stories, like the time a woman called because the door knob to exit her borrowed apartment was broken, and she couldn't figure out how to get out. She didn't know who to call except Directory Assistance, and we had an interesting time figuring out a solution. Now there's a story to get an article or speech started, and perhaps even a theme such as "Strange but true stories from a directory assistance operator."
Then, there's the idea of providing insights for others. If you drive a truck, for instance, you might create a Top Ten list of common mistakes you see on the streets and highways. As a professional driver, you have special insight into the patterns of amateur drivers.
Beyond your personal experiences, think about issues that intrigue you. If you're interested, doing research and thinking about a subject will be enjoyable and easy. Perhaps you can even satisfy your own curiosity as you prepare an article or speech that enlightens someone else.
These approaches should lead you to any number of story ideas. Make a list, of say five or ten possible topics. Now, ask yourself which of them will be the most enjoyable or easiest to develop. You also might ask yourself if you have enough examples to illustrate the points that fall under a specific topic.
Now, write an outline, to set out the main themes in your speech or article. By the time you finish outlining these themes, you'll probably have a number of new topics that could be developed into topics that stand on their own.
For example, looking back at the contents of this article so far, I see that discussing something others don't know much about is one of the points. That would open the door to what I call the "Everybody knows" syndrome, the unfounded assumption that others know what we know. Perhaps you think that your parenting experiences are just like everyone else's. Yet, your feelings may very well be unique and of great interest to other parents.
If all else fails, get ideas from others. For example, I subscribe to many online newsletters because I write a lot of articles myself. As potential story ideas come in I store them away in a folder, ready to be searched when I don't have anything available in the top of my mind.
I can use the original article as the starting point, creating something new and unique by using my own experiences and ways of doing things. Or I can abstract someone else's article in my own words, again creating something new in the process. In both cases, I'm creating something new based on my unique experiences or perspectives.
So, never be stuck for an idea for an article or speech! You already have enough experience and knowledge; it's simply a matter of developing one of those ideas within that framework.
And here's a bonus: If you're writing or speaking about something that's happened in your life, you won't have to work hard to create the article or speech. Just follow the path through your memory.
I know have had at times, and others tell me the same thing. At my Toastmasters club, for example, I've often heard members say they have difficulty finding topics for speeches.
But, I've learned, like others who write and speak a lot, to start with what I know. To use my own experiences or perspectives to make even a simple subject uniquely my own. And you can do the same.
Indeed, what seems mundane to you may fascinate someone else. Suppose, for example, you work in a fast food restaurant -- tell me about the best and worst customers, or tell me about the processes and training that make it possible to go from order to delivery in just a couple of minutes.
Here's a real-life example from my own experiences. I have a part-time job as a directory assistance operator for a telephone company, and that produces some interesting stories, like the time a woman called because the door knob to exit her borrowed apartment was broken, and she couldn't figure out how to get out. She didn't know who to call except Directory Assistance, and we had an interesting time figuring out a solution. Now there's a story to get an article or speech started, and perhaps even a theme such as "Strange but true stories from a directory assistance operator."
Then, there's the idea of providing insights for others. If you drive a truck, for instance, you might create a Top Ten list of common mistakes you see on the streets and highways. As a professional driver, you have special insight into the patterns of amateur drivers.
Beyond your personal experiences, think about issues that intrigue you. If you're interested, doing research and thinking about a subject will be enjoyable and easy. Perhaps you can even satisfy your own curiosity as you prepare an article or speech that enlightens someone else.
These approaches should lead you to any number of story ideas. Make a list, of say five or ten possible topics. Now, ask yourself which of them will be the most enjoyable or easiest to develop. You also might ask yourself if you have enough examples to illustrate the points that fall under a specific topic.
Now, write an outline, to set out the main themes in your speech or article. By the time you finish outlining these themes, you'll probably have a number of new topics that could be developed into topics that stand on their own.
For example, looking back at the contents of this article so far, I see that discussing something others don't know much about is one of the points. That would open the door to what I call the "Everybody knows" syndrome, the unfounded assumption that others know what we know. Perhaps you think that your parenting experiences are just like everyone else's. Yet, your feelings may very well be unique and of great interest to other parents.
If all else fails, get ideas from others. For example, I subscribe to many online newsletters because I write a lot of articles myself. As potential story ideas come in I store them away in a folder, ready to be searched when I don't have anything available in the top of my mind.
I can use the original article as the starting point, creating something new and unique by using my own experiences and ways of doing things. Or I can abstract someone else's article in my own words, again creating something new in the process. In both cases, I'm creating something new based on my unique experiences or perspectives.
So, never be stuck for an idea for an article or speech! You already have enough experience and knowledge; it's simply a matter of developing one of those ideas within that framework.
And here's a bonus: If you're writing or speaking about something that's happened in your life, you won't have to work hard to create the article or speech. Just follow the path through your memory.
Is Someone Plagiarizing Your Work?
About two weeks ago I received an article submission that immediately attracted my attention. The title was identical to the title of an article I wrote and which was published in 'WebProNews' in May 1999.
"Probably just a coincidence", I thought to myself, and kept reading. But the first paragraph stopped me in my tracks. It was quite clearly plagiarized from my article. As I kept reading I recognized sentence after sentence that had been lifted from my article and then modified slightly.
The whole article was plagiarized. I could hardly believe it. As the English say, I was 'gob-smacked'.
What Is Plagiarism?
'Plagiarism' comes from the Latin word 'plagiarius', a kidnapper. Here are two dictionary definitions of plagiarism:
'[to] take (the work or idea of someone else) and pass it off as one's own' (Concise Oxford Dictionary, Third Edition, 1999).
'to appropriate ideas, passages etc. from another work or author' (Collins Dictionary of the English Language, ed. P. Hanks 1979).
Plagiarism can be done in many ways, but the most common technique is to paraphrase someone else's words.
Here's an example:
Original:
"And if you've matched the ezine to the product you're selling, you've reached your target audience."
Plagiarized version:
"If you have correctly matched the ezine or newsletter to the product you're selling, then you will have reached your target audience."
As you can see, the plagiarist has simply taken the original and then replaced the phrase 'you've matched' with the phrase 'you have correctly matched', inserted the words 'or newsletter', and replaced the word 'you've' with the words 'then you will have'.
Part of the reason that plagiarism is so rampant on the Internet is that many people genuinely believe that it's okay to take someone else's writing, make a few changes, and then present it as their own.
Is Plagiarism a Crime?
As far as I know plagiarism is not a crime in most countries, and this is probably because plagiarism is so difficult to define. How many words does a plagiarist have to substitute and rearrange before the copied version ceases to be a copy of the original?
This is why plagiarism is much more difficult to deal with than copyright theft. A copyright thief simply steals your work, lock-stock-and-barrel. A plagiarist steals your work and disguises it as their own.
But while plagiarism may not be a crime, it is heavily sanctioned in professions that are based on the written word. I know of one professor of sociology who lost his job almost overnight because he plagiarized someone else's work. And in journalism the consequences of being exposed as a plagiarist would be the same.
Unfortunately, internet plagiarism is flourishing. There's now a whole industry that supplies college students with 'model' term papers for the purpose of plagiarism. Here are just some of the websites that are part of this industry:
School Sucks http://www.schoolsucks.com/
Other People's Papers http://www.oppapers.com/
Evil House of Cheat http://www.cheathouse.com/
But the plagiarism industry has spawned another industry: websites and software designed to detect plagiarism. One such software was developed by turnitin.com (www.turnitin.com) and plagiarism.org (www.plagiarism.org).
This is how it works: the software makes a 'digital fingerprint' of a submitted document using an elaborate set of algorithms. That fingerprint is then checked against a database that contains over 1 billion publicly-available web pages. Plagiarism.org then produces an 'originality report' that gives the user an index of how original the submitted paper was, and whether it falls above or below the 'plagiarism threshold'.
This software, however - while an excellent tool for college professors - probably wouldn't help writers find out if their work has been plagiarized.
What Can You Do About It?
The Internet is so vast, chances are you wouldn't know if someone had plagiarized your work. I only discovered that my work had been plagiarized because the 'author' sent his plagiarized article to me for publication in my own newsletter.
But if you do discover that someone has plagiarized one of your articles, you could do what I did.
I immediately contacted the author of the 'article' and requested that he email everyone to whom he had sent the article, explaining that it was plagiarized, and that they should on no account publish it. I added that if he did not withdraw the article from circulation I would contact his web host and the moderators of any lists that distributed the article.
The author replied within a few hours and admitted that the similarity between the 2 articles was "VERY uncanny". He said he had no idea "how they could be so similar". But after a few emails, he did withdraw the article.
In a way, it's a compliment when someone plagiarizes your work: it means you're writing good stuff. But that's little consolation. If you make your living from writing on the Internet, plagiarism could be the greatest threat to your livelihood.
"Probably just a coincidence", I thought to myself, and kept reading. But the first paragraph stopped me in my tracks. It was quite clearly plagiarized from my article. As I kept reading I recognized sentence after sentence that had been lifted from my article and then modified slightly.
The whole article was plagiarized. I could hardly believe it. As the English say, I was 'gob-smacked'.
What Is Plagiarism?
'Plagiarism' comes from the Latin word 'plagiarius', a kidnapper. Here are two dictionary definitions of plagiarism:
'[to] take (the work or idea of someone else) and pass it off as one's own' (Concise Oxford Dictionary, Third Edition, 1999).
'to appropriate ideas, passages etc. from another work or author' (Collins Dictionary of the English Language, ed. P. Hanks 1979).
Plagiarism can be done in many ways, but the most common technique is to paraphrase someone else's words.
Here's an example:
Original:
"And if you've matched the ezine to the product you're selling, you've reached your target audience."
Plagiarized version:
"If you have correctly matched the ezine or newsletter to the product you're selling, then you will have reached your target audience."
As you can see, the plagiarist has simply taken the original and then replaced the phrase 'you've matched' with the phrase 'you have correctly matched', inserted the words 'or newsletter', and replaced the word 'you've' with the words 'then you will have'.
Part of the reason that plagiarism is so rampant on the Internet is that many people genuinely believe that it's okay to take someone else's writing, make a few changes, and then present it as their own.
Is Plagiarism a Crime?
As far as I know plagiarism is not a crime in most countries, and this is probably because plagiarism is so difficult to define. How many words does a plagiarist have to substitute and rearrange before the copied version ceases to be a copy of the original?
This is why plagiarism is much more difficult to deal with than copyright theft. A copyright thief simply steals your work, lock-stock-and-barrel. A plagiarist steals your work and disguises it as their own.
But while plagiarism may not be a crime, it is heavily sanctioned in professions that are based on the written word. I know of one professor of sociology who lost his job almost overnight because he plagiarized someone else's work. And in journalism the consequences of being exposed as a plagiarist would be the same.
Unfortunately, internet plagiarism is flourishing. There's now a whole industry that supplies college students with 'model' term papers for the purpose of plagiarism. Here are just some of the websites that are part of this industry:
School Sucks http://www.schoolsucks.com/
Other People's Papers http://www.oppapers.com/
Evil House of Cheat http://www.cheathouse.com/
But the plagiarism industry has spawned another industry: websites and software designed to detect plagiarism. One such software was developed by turnitin.com (www.turnitin.com) and plagiarism.org (www.plagiarism.org).
This is how it works: the software makes a 'digital fingerprint' of a submitted document using an elaborate set of algorithms. That fingerprint is then checked against a database that contains over 1 billion publicly-available web pages. Plagiarism.org then produces an 'originality report' that gives the user an index of how original the submitted paper was, and whether it falls above or below the 'plagiarism threshold'.
This software, however - while an excellent tool for college professors - probably wouldn't help writers find out if their work has been plagiarized.
What Can You Do About It?
The Internet is so vast, chances are you wouldn't know if someone had plagiarized your work. I only discovered that my work had been plagiarized because the 'author' sent his plagiarized article to me for publication in my own newsletter.
But if you do discover that someone has plagiarized one of your articles, you could do what I did.
I immediately contacted the author of the 'article' and requested that he email everyone to whom he had sent the article, explaining that it was plagiarized, and that they should on no account publish it. I added that if he did not withdraw the article from circulation I would contact his web host and the moderators of any lists that distributed the article.
The author replied within a few hours and admitted that the similarity between the 2 articles was "VERY uncanny". He said he had no idea "how they could be so similar". But after a few emails, he did withdraw the article.
In a way, it's a compliment when someone plagiarizes your work: it means you're writing good stuff. But that's little consolation. If you make your living from writing on the Internet, plagiarism could be the greatest threat to your livelihood.
Tackling a Writing Assignment: How To Get Started
Writing assignments are often considered the worst possible class or course assignment. There's nothing worse than sitting down in front of a computer, with a blank screen in front of you. Where do you start? How do you get that first sentence written? Once you start, how do you avoid common mistakes? And when you are ready to finish the paper, how do you make sure you catch all the mistakes?
Using Word
Unless you regularly use Word (the word-processing software in Microsoft-based operating systems), you might not know too much about how to use it to create even a simple document, much less a term paper or other research-type paper.
If you are pretty much clueless about how to format a document so that it is New Times Roman, 12pt, with 1-inch margins (or whatever other format is required for the assignment), then you can get some really easy help in my article, Working With Word...it's easier than you think! You can get this article at: http://freecontent.janktheproofer.com/WorkWord.htm.
Getting Started
Once your assignment has been researched, and you are ready to start writing, you might not have too much of an idea of how to even begin. It's really not a mystical process, all you need is a little bit of direction and some overall organization.
In order to get some good tips for writing, and writing effectively, review my two-part series, Writing Effectively. You can get this series at: http://www.janktheproofer.com/articles/WritingEffectivelyPart1.htm Part 1, and http://www.janktheproofer.com/articles/WritingEffectivelyPart2.htm Part 2.
These two articles will help you organize your notes, create a rough outline for your paper, and then actually begin the process of writing the paper by filling in the outline.
Need Some Help with Grammar, etc.?
It is affect or effect? That's a question that floors most people. You've got a foreign name that has a funny wiggly mark of the letter n---how do you do that? What are the most common punctuation and spelling mistakes, and how do you avoid them? Is just running spellcheck enough to insure that you are going to turn in an error free assignment? And what happens if you've already run spellcheck, but you think you changed something you shouldn't have because you got brain-numbed and just kept hitting "Change" in the spellchecker window?
I've written several articles that provide hints, tips, and suggestions for how to end up with a paper that is as error-free as a human being (and a computer) can create:
Some Sticky Grammar Situations, at http://www.janktheproofer.com/articles/GrammarSituations.htm
Diacritics: Those Squiggly Marks Above and Below a Letter, at http://freecontent.janktheproofer.com/Diacritics.htm
Checking for Mismatched Quotation Marks, at http://freecontent.janktheproofer.com/MatchingQuoteMarks.htm
How To Check Name Spellings in a Term-Research Paper, at http://freecontent.janktheproofer.com/CheckNameSpelling.htm
Your Spellchecker Can Catch Punctuation Mistakes, at http://freecontent.janktheproofer.com/PunctuationMistakes.htm
Good Reasons Why You Can’t Rely on Your Spellchecker, at http://businessside.janktheproofer.com/Spellchecker.htm
How To Re-Set Your Spellchecker, at http://freecontent.janktheproofer.com/ResetSpellcheck.htm
Each of these articles will open in a new window, for your reviewing convenience.
Writing assignments don't have to be the Big Bad Ugly Monster that you might think they are. Just approach it logically, and understand what your computer can, and cannot, do for you!
Using Word
Unless you regularly use Word (the word-processing software in Microsoft-based operating systems), you might not know too much about how to use it to create even a simple document, much less a term paper or other research-type paper.
If you are pretty much clueless about how to format a document so that it is New Times Roman, 12pt, with 1-inch margins (or whatever other format is required for the assignment), then you can get some really easy help in my article, Working With Word...it's easier than you think! You can get this article at: http://freecontent.janktheproofer.com/WorkWord.htm.
Getting Started
Once your assignment has been researched, and you are ready to start writing, you might not have too much of an idea of how to even begin. It's really not a mystical process, all you need is a little bit of direction and some overall organization.
In order to get some good tips for writing, and writing effectively, review my two-part series, Writing Effectively. You can get this series at: http://www.janktheproofer.com/articles/WritingEffectivelyPart1.htm Part 1, and http://www.janktheproofer.com/articles/WritingEffectivelyPart2.htm Part 2.
These two articles will help you organize your notes, create a rough outline for your paper, and then actually begin the process of writing the paper by filling in the outline.
Need Some Help with Grammar, etc.?
It is affect or effect? That's a question that floors most people. You've got a foreign name that has a funny wiggly mark of the letter n---how do you do that? What are the most common punctuation and spelling mistakes, and how do you avoid them? Is just running spellcheck enough to insure that you are going to turn in an error free assignment? And what happens if you've already run spellcheck, but you think you changed something you shouldn't have because you got brain-numbed and just kept hitting "Change" in the spellchecker window?
I've written several articles that provide hints, tips, and suggestions for how to end up with a paper that is as error-free as a human being (and a computer) can create:
Some Sticky Grammar Situations, at http://www.janktheproofer.com/articles/GrammarSituations.htm
Diacritics: Those Squiggly Marks Above and Below a Letter, at http://freecontent.janktheproofer.com/Diacritics.htm
Checking for Mismatched Quotation Marks, at http://freecontent.janktheproofer.com/MatchingQuoteMarks.htm
How To Check Name Spellings in a Term-Research Paper, at http://freecontent.janktheproofer.com/CheckNameSpelling.htm
Your Spellchecker Can Catch Punctuation Mistakes, at http://freecontent.janktheproofer.com/PunctuationMistakes.htm
Good Reasons Why You Can’t Rely on Your Spellchecker, at http://businessside.janktheproofer.com/Spellchecker.htm
How To Re-Set Your Spellchecker, at http://freecontent.janktheproofer.com/ResetSpellcheck.htm
Each of these articles will open in a new window, for your reviewing convenience.
Writing assignments don't have to be the Big Bad Ugly Monster that you might think they are. Just approach it logically, and understand what your computer can, and cannot, do for you!
Well-Written Articles Can Help You!
You've heard it time and time again: if you want to get your name out there, write articles and allow them to be freely reproduced (with a resource box pointing back to you, of course). Largely, that is true. Well-written articles can:
- help you build your profile as an expert
- draw traffic to your website, and
- help you to build a database of potential clients through associated e-courses or a newsletter.
So far you probably haven't heard anything you didn't already know. What YOU are likely to be struggling with is the process of actually writing the article. Sure, you can come up with the content - but how do you really grab those readers? How do you keep their attention all the way through? And most importantly, how do you make them want to come back for more?
Let's assume that you understand the basics of constructing and editing an article (it has a beginning, middle, and an end and you know how to check the grammar and spelling.) Most of us can manage that. But if you're not content with simply "getting something out there" - if you want to WIN readers - then you need to start thinking about what they want to know, rather than what you want to tell them.
Put your readers first - every time. Give them what they want, and they'll be queuing up to read anything you produce. Give them something bland (or worse, blatantly self-serving) and they'll blast by you so fast you'll be spinning in the back draft.
The following four steps will give you a blueprint for writing articles that captivate your readers - whatever the topic.
== 1. Find Out What Your Readers Really Want ==
Sometimes you'll know what they want because you're an expert in the field, and understand the problems. If you don't know the subject area well, you'll have to do more research. Look for forums on your topic and see what people are discussing. What are the problems that need solving? Can you provide an answer? ("If they have a headache, give them an aspirin.")
== 2. Start With An Attention-Grabber ==
Spend time working on your opening. Try to avoid trite questions like "Have you ever wondered why so many people find it difficult to lose weight?" Firstly, it's dull. Secondly, it's not targeting the person reading the article - what do they care about the difficulties "many people" have with losing weight? They only care about THEIR weight problem!
Try to come up with an opening paragraph that gives the reader that warm "Hey, this is about me!" feeling right away. Better still; try to generate a rush of excitement - "This could be the answer I've been looking for..."
Example: "The diet gurus make it all sound so easy: to lose weight, all you have to do is expend more energy than you take in. Huh! If it were that simple, the "Big People" stores would be out of business in a heartbeat. Luckily for those of us who are tired of diets, gyms and dull group meetings, there is a back-to-basics way to tackle this. A way that won't cost you a fortune or leave you feeling deprived."
== 3. Write As You Speak... Then Edit! ==
The sample opening above also illustrates the importance of the tone you use in your article. You need 'meat' in each article, of course, to make it worth reading - but make sure it's not indigestible!
You're better off writing your article in a natural, relaxed style that's akin to normal conversation. It doesn't matter if the first draft is a little too informal - you can fix that when you edit. Naturally you don't want to irritate your readers with a too-breezy style, but too-formal is worse. Readers may want facts, tips, and strategies, but they hope to be entertained, too! Let your personality shine through.
== 4. End On A High ==
What's one of the biggest problems with most articles? They fizzle out! Writers often don't know how to end on an upbeat note. They either just stop dead or they come up with a trite ending like: "So what are you waiting for? Get started today!"
The beginning and the end of your article are the two parts that make the biggest impression. Start by creating a feeling of anticipation... and leave them feeling satisfied (or excited) when you finish.
If you are offering advice to help them solve a problem (like obesity) gives your readers a reason to feel optimistic and good about them. Don't make rash promises... but do offer hope. If you are giving hints on marketing or business, sum up the benefits of acting on your tips. You can also experiment with using a pithy/humorous quote, or giving readers a specific action to get them started. Be creative - and don't rush it.
Here's a final tip: create an article-writing cheat-sheet for yourself. Divide it into beginnings/middles/ends and add more useful strategies as you think of them. (For example, using the tips in this article, you might write: ENDINGS - end on a high, offer hope, use funny quote, suggest action to get started.)
Do this, and you'll be steadily cranking out articles that everyone wants to publish!
- help you build your profile as an expert
- draw traffic to your website, and
- help you to build a database of potential clients through associated e-courses or a newsletter.
So far you probably haven't heard anything you didn't already know. What YOU are likely to be struggling with is the process of actually writing the article. Sure, you can come up with the content - but how do you really grab those readers? How do you keep their attention all the way through? And most importantly, how do you make them want to come back for more?
Let's assume that you understand the basics of constructing and editing an article (it has a beginning, middle, and an end and you know how to check the grammar and spelling.) Most of us can manage that. But if you're not content with simply "getting something out there" - if you want to WIN readers - then you need to start thinking about what they want to know, rather than what you want to tell them.
Put your readers first - every time. Give them what they want, and they'll be queuing up to read anything you produce. Give them something bland (or worse, blatantly self-serving) and they'll blast by you so fast you'll be spinning in the back draft.
The following four steps will give you a blueprint for writing articles that captivate your readers - whatever the topic.
== 1. Find Out What Your Readers Really Want ==
Sometimes you'll know what they want because you're an expert in the field, and understand the problems. If you don't know the subject area well, you'll have to do more research. Look for forums on your topic and see what people are discussing. What are the problems that need solving? Can you provide an answer? ("If they have a headache, give them an aspirin.")
== 2. Start With An Attention-Grabber ==
Spend time working on your opening. Try to avoid trite questions like "Have you ever wondered why so many people find it difficult to lose weight?" Firstly, it's dull. Secondly, it's not targeting the person reading the article - what do they care about the difficulties "many people" have with losing weight? They only care about THEIR weight problem!
Try to come up with an opening paragraph that gives the reader that warm "Hey, this is about me!" feeling right away. Better still; try to generate a rush of excitement - "This could be the answer I've been looking for..."
Example: "The diet gurus make it all sound so easy: to lose weight, all you have to do is expend more energy than you take in. Huh! If it were that simple, the "Big People" stores would be out of business in a heartbeat. Luckily for those of us who are tired of diets, gyms and dull group meetings, there is a back-to-basics way to tackle this. A way that won't cost you a fortune or leave you feeling deprived."
== 3. Write As You Speak... Then Edit! ==
The sample opening above also illustrates the importance of the tone you use in your article. You need 'meat' in each article, of course, to make it worth reading - but make sure it's not indigestible!
You're better off writing your article in a natural, relaxed style that's akin to normal conversation. It doesn't matter if the first draft is a little too informal - you can fix that when you edit. Naturally you don't want to irritate your readers with a too-breezy style, but too-formal is worse. Readers may want facts, tips, and strategies, but they hope to be entertained, too! Let your personality shine through.
== 4. End On A High ==
What's one of the biggest problems with most articles? They fizzle out! Writers often don't know how to end on an upbeat note. They either just stop dead or they come up with a trite ending like: "So what are you waiting for? Get started today!"
The beginning and the end of your article are the two parts that make the biggest impression. Start by creating a feeling of anticipation... and leave them feeling satisfied (or excited) when you finish.
If you are offering advice to help them solve a problem (like obesity) gives your readers a reason to feel optimistic and good about them. Don't make rash promises... but do offer hope. If you are giving hints on marketing or business, sum up the benefits of acting on your tips. You can also experiment with using a pithy/humorous quote, or giving readers a specific action to get them started. Be creative - and don't rush it.
Here's a final tip: create an article-writing cheat-sheet for yourself. Divide it into beginnings/middles/ends and add more useful strategies as you think of them. (For example, using the tips in this article, you might write: ENDINGS - end on a high, offer hope, use funny quote, suggest action to get started.)
Do this, and you'll be steadily cranking out articles that everyone wants to publish!
Dreading the Writing Assignment? Outlines to the Rescue
Writing technical articles is a challenge. There you sit, surrounded by reams of research, notes and interviews. Where do you start?
Remember 5th grade English? You start with an outline.
Outlining has fallen on hard times lately. Mind mapping and brainstorming are much more fashionable. These techniques are great when generating ideas, but once you’ve got your ideas germinating you’ve got to outline them. Without an outline, your article will:
Be an unstructured mess.
Take three times as long to write.
Don’t let this happen to you – outline. If it’s been a while since 5th grade – or if your “progressive” school didn’t stoop to teach you actual English skills – let me remind you why it’s important and how to do it.
Outlining keeps you from writing an unstructured mess. Readers, especially American readers, prefer distinct sections in their media. For example, look at American screenplays. Movies invariably have three acts, and anything that doesn’t have them is considered an art film. Effective speeches often contain three parts, and readers like three points because the structure makes easier to retain information.
Outlining shrinks your writing time by a third to a half. How do you whittle down that pile of research notes and interviews into an article or white paper? You guess it – outline it. By assigning sections to your notes before you start writing, you’ll categorize, simplify and clarify. Not bad before you’ve even written an introduction. For example, let’s say you’re writing an article about mirroring. You can divide such an article into several different sections depending on what your client wants to get across. Here are some examples of different outlines:
1) Explanation of mirroring 2) Differences between local and remote mirroring, 3) Contrasting mirroring with other forms of replication, or
1) Define mirroring 2) List environments that require mirroring 3) Decision matrix for assigning different mirroring levels.
Once you’ve done your research it’s simple to assign pieces to different sections. Believe me, it’ll light a fire under your writing time.
Remember 5th grade English? You start with an outline.
Outlining has fallen on hard times lately. Mind mapping and brainstorming are much more fashionable. These techniques are great when generating ideas, but once you’ve got your ideas germinating you’ve got to outline them. Without an outline, your article will:
Be an unstructured mess.
Take three times as long to write.
Don’t let this happen to you – outline. If it’s been a while since 5th grade – or if your “progressive” school didn’t stoop to teach you actual English skills – let me remind you why it’s important and how to do it.
Outlining keeps you from writing an unstructured mess. Readers, especially American readers, prefer distinct sections in their media. For example, look at American screenplays. Movies invariably have three acts, and anything that doesn’t have them is considered an art film. Effective speeches often contain three parts, and readers like three points because the structure makes easier to retain information.
Outlining shrinks your writing time by a third to a half. How do you whittle down that pile of research notes and interviews into an article or white paper? You guess it – outline it. By assigning sections to your notes before you start writing, you’ll categorize, simplify and clarify. Not bad before you’ve even written an introduction. For example, let’s say you’re writing an article about mirroring. You can divide such an article into several different sections depending on what your client wants to get across. Here are some examples of different outlines:
1) Explanation of mirroring 2) Differences between local and remote mirroring, 3) Contrasting mirroring with other forms of replication, or
1) Define mirroring 2) List environments that require mirroring 3) Decision matrix for assigning different mirroring levels.
Once you’ve done your research it’s simple to assign pieces to different sections. Believe me, it’ll light a fire under your writing time.
The Best Places To Submit Your Articles For Viral Traffic Generation
If you've spent any time online trying to promote your website or business, you must have very likely realised that one of the most effective ways to generate tons of free targetted web traffic on a long term basis is to write your own informative articles and freely distribute them to other webmasters and ezine publishers for their use.
Some of the benefits of this amazing strategy include:
-it's totally FREE and gets links to your website distributed to a huge number of other related websites on a permanent basis...
...no need to pay for the links...
...no need to give a return link on your own website to other sites...
-The presence of your links in many other websites also directly increases your Google PageRank and increases the targetted free traffic you get from search engines!
-When people see your name and website/company in the bylines of the articles on different sites, you will naturally be thought of as an "expert" in that field...This increases your credibility and makes it more likely that your visitors will take your recommendations to them more seriously.
The purpose of this article is to seek to create a comprehensive list of places where writers can submit their articles for distribution...
By creating this list based on the contributions and "tip offs" of the visitors to HugeAffiliates.com, we hope to save you the large amounts of time searching the web for websites and article announcement services (yes, you can try to use google to search for "article submission sites" but you will waste precious time going through a lot of unrelated websites).
If you find this page useful, please bookmark it...and use it whenever you have new articles to distribute...we will continue to update it with the latest links as we get "tip offs" from our visitors.
If you have any links to suggest to us, please let us know using the "Contact Us" page on HugeAffiliates.com.
If you would like to reproduce this article and link resource in your website/ezine to increase your website's "stickability", please feel free to do so. (because of the convenience of finding all the possible submission sites on one page,many writers will bookmark your site if you have this resource on it...Go Ahead...Bookmark this page NOW!)
Please reproduce the whole article including any reference to HugeAffiliates.com though.
Here Are The Links:
http://goarticles.com/ulogin.html
http://www.ezinearticles.com/add_url.html
http://www.freewebarticles.com/index.php
http://www.certificate.net/wwio/ideas.shtml
http://www.ideamarketers.com/writers.cfm
http://www.womans-net.com/submit.php
http://www.netterweb.com/articles/articlesubmit.htm
http://www.allnetarticles.com/submitarticle.asp
http://www.articlecity.com/article_submission.shtml
http://cerebuswebmaster.com/onsite/articles/submit_article.html
http://www.huginc.com/secure/frmarticle_submission.asp?AuthorID=11286&FrmMd=ADD
http://www.boconline.com/sub-art.htm
http://clickforcontent.com/cgi-bin/epro/reporter.pl?signup
http://www.marketing-seek.com/articles/submit.shtml
http://www.addme.com/nlsubmit.htm
http://www.scamfreesuccess.com/article.htm
http://www.connectionteam.com/submit.html
http://www.vectorcentral.com/articles-form.html
http://www.marketing-of-training.com/motoarticles/submityourarticle.htm
http://www.work911.com/cgi-bin/links/add.cgi
http://www.businesstoolchest.com/articles/submit.shtml
http://thewhir.com/find/articlecentral/suggest.asp
http://top7business.com/submit/
http://www.upromote.com/newsletter/submit.html
http://www.digital-women.com/submitarticle.htm
http://www.coolpick.com/way/cool/submit1.html
http://www.freesticky.com/stickyweb/submitarticle.asp
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/aabusiness/
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/aageneral/
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/aainet/
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/article_announce_list/
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/articles4you2use4promotion/
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/articles_archives/
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/ArticlePublish/
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/ArticlePublisher/
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/articlesubmission/
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Free-Content/
Hope you found this article useful...
Remember...bookmark this page and if you discover any other good sites to distribute articles through, let me know.Thanks!
Some of the benefits of this amazing strategy include:
-it's totally FREE and gets links to your website distributed to a huge number of other related websites on a permanent basis...
...no need to pay for the links...
...no need to give a return link on your own website to other sites...
-The presence of your links in many other websites also directly increases your Google PageRank and increases the targetted free traffic you get from search engines!
-When people see your name and website/company in the bylines of the articles on different sites, you will naturally be thought of as an "expert" in that field...This increases your credibility and makes it more likely that your visitors will take your recommendations to them more seriously.
The purpose of this article is to seek to create a comprehensive list of places where writers can submit their articles for distribution...
By creating this list based on the contributions and "tip offs" of the visitors to HugeAffiliates.com, we hope to save you the large amounts of time searching the web for websites and article announcement services (yes, you can try to use google to search for "article submission sites" but you will waste precious time going through a lot of unrelated websites).
If you find this page useful, please bookmark it...and use it whenever you have new articles to distribute...we will continue to update it with the latest links as we get "tip offs" from our visitors.
If you have any links to suggest to us, please let us know using the "Contact Us" page on HugeAffiliates.com.
If you would like to reproduce this article and link resource in your website/ezine to increase your website's "stickability", please feel free to do so. (because of the convenience of finding all the possible submission sites on one page,many writers will bookmark your site if you have this resource on it...Go Ahead...Bookmark this page NOW!)
Please reproduce the whole article including any reference to HugeAffiliates.com though.
Here Are The Links:
http://goarticles.com/ulogin.html
http://www.ezinearticles.com/add_url.html
http://www.freewebarticles.com/index.php
http://www.certificate.net/wwio/ideas.shtml
http://www.ideamarketers.com/writers.cfm
http://www.womans-net.com/submit.php
http://www.netterweb.com/articles/articlesubmit.htm
http://www.allnetarticles.com/submitarticle.asp
http://www.articlecity.com/article_submission.shtml
http://cerebuswebmaster.com/onsite/articles/submit_article.html
http://www.huginc.com/secure/frmarticle_submission.asp?AuthorID=11286&FrmMd=ADD
http://www.boconline.com/sub-art.htm
http://clickforcontent.com/cgi-bin/epro/reporter.pl?signup
http://www.marketing-seek.com/articles/submit.shtml
http://www.addme.com/nlsubmit.htm
http://www.scamfreesuccess.com/article.htm
http://www.connectionteam.com/submit.html
http://www.vectorcentral.com/articles-form.html
http://www.marketing-of-training.com/motoarticles/submityourarticle.htm
http://www.work911.com/cgi-bin/links/add.cgi
http://www.businesstoolchest.com/articles/submit.shtml
http://thewhir.com/find/articlecentral/suggest.asp
http://top7business.com/submit/
http://www.upromote.com/newsletter/submit.html
http://www.digital-women.com/submitarticle.htm
http://www.coolpick.com/way/cool/submit1.html
http://www.freesticky.com/stickyweb/submitarticle.asp
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/aabusiness/
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/aageneral/
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/aainet/
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/article_announce_list/
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/articles4you2use4promotion/
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/articles_archives/
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/ArticlePublish/
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/ArticlePublisher/
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/articlesubmission/
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Free-Content/
Hope you found this article useful...
Remember...bookmark this page and if you discover any other good sites to distribute articles through, let me know.Thanks!
How To Be Rejected By The Article Directories
Article writing is one of the best ways to increase your traffic and get more sales. You've heard it a million times so you decide to finally just do it. You write an article and submit it to the article directories, eagerly anticipating the flow of traffic. Instead you receive the dreaded rejection letter.
What did you do wrong?
1. Did you proof-read your article before you submitted it?
Popular article directory sites receive hundreds of submissions each day. It's much easier for the owner to click "decline" than to edit your typo-filled or unformatted article. Before submitting, proof the article and proof it again. If grammar and spelling make you sweat, then hire a Copywriter or ask a friend to help you before you click that submit button.
2. Is it an Advertisement or an Article?
Article directory sites are looking for informative, useful content, not press releases or ads. If your submission reads like an ad, it will not be accepted. And, think about it -- even if was approved on a fluke, do you think that website owners will be clamoring to publish your 500 word advertisement? Not a chance.
If your goal is to write and submit a press release, then check out places like prweb.com.
3. Did you read the Submission Guidelines?
Each article directory has a different culture. Glance through the Submission Guidelines before setting up an account to make sure your article will be welcome before you submit it. If an article directory is based around a niche like gardening, then please resist the urge to submit your Mesothelioma articles. There are plenty of article directories that want your articles. It’s not an effective use of your time to submit unwanted articles to a niche site.
4. Is your article PG-rated?
Don't submit sex-related articles, profanity, or general nastiness. Article directories are businesses and, therefore, exist to make money. This means they generally receive income through affiliate sales or advertising. So, if your article includes sex or contains words stronger than "darn", don't be surprised if your article is rejected. Of course, if your article contains nastiness or anything illegal -- don't even bother.
5. Is your Article original and written by you?
Submit only original articles. Please do not copy someone else's article, edit it, and submit it. That's stealing and you will be caught. And, do not submit articles from shared content sites. Article directories want original, unique content. Public domain is 'public' but think how ineffective article directories would become if there were 500 versions of the same public domain piece. Instead of wasting your time figuring out how to reinvent other people's content, just write your own.
Now that you know what not to do, start writing the kind of articles that article directories dream of -- and watch your business grow.
What did you do wrong?
1. Did you proof-read your article before you submitted it?
Popular article directory sites receive hundreds of submissions each day. It's much easier for the owner to click "decline" than to edit your typo-filled or unformatted article. Before submitting, proof the article and proof it again. If grammar and spelling make you sweat, then hire a Copywriter or ask a friend to help you before you click that submit button.
2. Is it an Advertisement or an Article?
Article directory sites are looking for informative, useful content, not press releases or ads. If your submission reads like an ad, it will not be accepted. And, think about it -- even if was approved on a fluke, do you think that website owners will be clamoring to publish your 500 word advertisement? Not a chance.
If your goal is to write and submit a press release, then check out places like prweb.com.
3. Did you read the Submission Guidelines?
Each article directory has a different culture. Glance through the Submission Guidelines before setting up an account to make sure your article will be welcome before you submit it. If an article directory is based around a niche like gardening, then please resist the urge to submit your Mesothelioma articles. There are plenty of article directories that want your articles. It’s not an effective use of your time to submit unwanted articles to a niche site.
4. Is your article PG-rated?
Don't submit sex-related articles, profanity, or general nastiness. Article directories are businesses and, therefore, exist to make money. This means they generally receive income through affiliate sales or advertising. So, if your article includes sex or contains words stronger than "darn", don't be surprised if your article is rejected. Of course, if your article contains nastiness or anything illegal -- don't even bother.
5. Is your Article original and written by you?
Submit only original articles. Please do not copy someone else's article, edit it, and submit it. That's stealing and you will be caught. And, do not submit articles from shared content sites. Article directories want original, unique content. Public domain is 'public' but think how ineffective article directories would become if there were 500 versions of the same public domain piece. Instead of wasting your time figuring out how to reinvent other people's content, just write your own.
Now that you know what not to do, start writing the kind of articles that article directories dream of -- and watch your business grow.
Drive Free Traffic To Your Website By Writing Articles
One of the best ways to drive traffic to your website is by writing articles. Getting your own articles written, distributed and published on the Internet is one of the very best Internet marketing techniques in existence.
Once you have become an author of an article, you become an instant authority. When visitors locate and read your article they could obtain some useful information from it. They would most probably appreciate you. When appreciation turns into trust, it is very likely that would click the link in your article resource box to visit your website to get more information.
Chances of them signing up with you in one of your recommended business opportunities or buy one of your recommended products would be greatly enhanced.
The question is how to write the relevant articles which might demand some of your effort and time?
If you are good in writing and enjoy doing it, you might decide to write your own articles. Otherwise you could join an article cooperative to get access to private label articles OR hire someone to write articles for you.
Let’s discuss the differences of these 3 possibilities:
1) Do Your Own Research and Write Your Own Articles.
The main advantage of writing your own articles is that it's "free" and it would give you a sense of pride in accomplishment. You might enjoy writing articles to share your experience in Internet online business. The downside is that it'd take up some of your time to conduct some research work.
2) Join An Article Cooperative to Get Pre-written Articles.
A recommended article cooperative is InfoGoRound where you could get hundreds of pre-written articles for a small enrollment fee. From these you could choose those discussing subjects related to the content of your website. These are referred to as the "Private label articles” which you have full permission to use and also add your own name and article resource box to the article as the author.
3) Hire Someone to Write Articles For You.
If you are not comfortable writing your own articles or if you find it too much a hassle especially when you're new to this business or if you do not fancy pre-written articles due to lack of originality, you could use an article ghost writing service such as Just Articles to put your own ideas into writing.
For a relatively small fee you can get your articles written very quickly.
For article marketing on the Internet, articles written with between 400-700 words would suffice. It goes without saying that your articles must be relevant to your Internet business. Hence topic of your articles should be related to: "working at home", "home based business", "Internet marketing", "making money online", "promoting a website", etc.
The next question is how can you ensure that your articles will reach the maximum amount of potential web visitors?
Below are some routes you can use:
1) Submit to Article Directories
The best place to submit your articles are Article Directories. Many publishers of websites, blogs, and ezines visit the sites of these Directories. Hence your articles will be quickly exposed to people who have a large amount of traffic.
2) Submit to Article Lists/Newsletters
The next step is to submit your articles to article lists such as newsletters on Yahoo and Topica. Articles from such sources are normally better received by publishers. Hence when a submission is done by you via an article list, publishers have more confidence in your articles and would very likely use them.
3) Approach Individual Related Websites
Many Websites focus on providing valuable information and educational materials to their readers. You could submit your articles to these sites if your articles are relevant to what they need. It is best that you only contact sites where the readers would have an interest in the topic of your article.
4) Search Through Ezine Directories
Once your articles have been submitted to directories and article lists as mentioned earlier, you could start contacting individual publishers such as the publishers of ezines that are related to your topic. Choose those who accept articles and write to them and convince them that your articles would be of value for their purpose.
5) Give The Articles to Your New Affiliate members
To help your affiliates especially the newly "recruited" ones, you could give them your articles as a way to help promote your site. They could either publish them as they are or they could substitute your link with theirs in the resource box of the article. They would be impressed by such generous gesture from you.
In conclusion, submitting your articles and getting them re-published on others' websites and newsletters/ezines is one of the most powerful Internet marketing strategies. Your articles will then start working as a free advertisement for you forever. And you do not have to pay even a dime for such advertising space. You will continue to enjoy free traffic driven to your website for a long, long time!
Once you have become an author of an article, you become an instant authority. When visitors locate and read your article they could obtain some useful information from it. They would most probably appreciate you. When appreciation turns into trust, it is very likely that would click the link in your article resource box to visit your website to get more information.
Chances of them signing up with you in one of your recommended business opportunities or buy one of your recommended products would be greatly enhanced.
The question is how to write the relevant articles which might demand some of your effort and time?
If you are good in writing and enjoy doing it, you might decide to write your own articles. Otherwise you could join an article cooperative to get access to private label articles OR hire someone to write articles for you.
Let’s discuss the differences of these 3 possibilities:
1) Do Your Own Research and Write Your Own Articles.
The main advantage of writing your own articles is that it's "free" and it would give you a sense of pride in accomplishment. You might enjoy writing articles to share your experience in Internet online business. The downside is that it'd take up some of your time to conduct some research work.
2) Join An Article Cooperative to Get Pre-written Articles.
A recommended article cooperative is InfoGoRound where you could get hundreds of pre-written articles for a small enrollment fee. From these you could choose those discussing subjects related to the content of your website. These are referred to as the "Private label articles” which you have full permission to use and also add your own name and article resource box to the article as the author.
3) Hire Someone to Write Articles For You.
If you are not comfortable writing your own articles or if you find it too much a hassle especially when you're new to this business or if you do not fancy pre-written articles due to lack of originality, you could use an article ghost writing service such as Just Articles to put your own ideas into writing.
For a relatively small fee you can get your articles written very quickly.
For article marketing on the Internet, articles written with between 400-700 words would suffice. It goes without saying that your articles must be relevant to your Internet business. Hence topic of your articles should be related to: "working at home", "home based business", "Internet marketing", "making money online", "promoting a website", etc.
The next question is how can you ensure that your articles will reach the maximum amount of potential web visitors?
Below are some routes you can use:
1) Submit to Article Directories
The best place to submit your articles are Article Directories. Many publishers of websites, blogs, and ezines visit the sites of these Directories. Hence your articles will be quickly exposed to people who have a large amount of traffic.
2) Submit to Article Lists/Newsletters
The next step is to submit your articles to article lists such as newsletters on Yahoo and Topica. Articles from such sources are normally better received by publishers. Hence when a submission is done by you via an article list, publishers have more confidence in your articles and would very likely use them.
3) Approach Individual Related Websites
Many Websites focus on providing valuable information and educational materials to their readers. You could submit your articles to these sites if your articles are relevant to what they need. It is best that you only contact sites where the readers would have an interest in the topic of your article.
4) Search Through Ezine Directories
Once your articles have been submitted to directories and article lists as mentioned earlier, you could start contacting individual publishers such as the publishers of ezines that are related to your topic. Choose those who accept articles and write to them and convince them that your articles would be of value for their purpose.
5) Give The Articles to Your New Affiliate members
To help your affiliates especially the newly "recruited" ones, you could give them your articles as a way to help promote your site. They could either publish them as they are or they could substitute your link with theirs in the resource box of the article. They would be impressed by such generous gesture from you.
In conclusion, submitting your articles and getting them re-published on others' websites and newsletters/ezines is one of the most powerful Internet marketing strategies. Your articles will then start working as a free advertisement for you forever. And you do not have to pay even a dime for such advertising space. You will continue to enjoy free traffic driven to your website for a long, long time!
12 Top Tips For Up And Coming Article Writers
1. Make your articles available on your site.
You'll have an easy way to get more sales by showing your visitors that your are an expert on the topic your visitors are interested in.
2. Use lots of white space. Keep your sentences and paragraphs short and to the point.
3. Write for your target audience.
You'll have a better chance of attracting people to your site that are interested in purchasing your products.
4. Use numbered lists.
Your numbered lists will help you to effectively share your tips with your readers while making your article easy to read.
Use your numbered lists to share points on your article's topic, list your directions when writing a how to article, or to deliver the content of your article if you wanted to write a list article.
You can also use numbered lists to share resources related to what you talk about in your article along with your descriptions of those resources.
5. Use the active voice.
With the active voice the subject does the action while with the passive voice the subject receives the action expressed by the verb.
For instance:
Active voice: The dog bit the mailman. Passive voice: The mailman was bitten by the dog.
Use the active voice to keep your sentences from being awkward or confusing and to liven up your article.
6. Make your writing more personal by using the word "you" a lot within your article.
A simple way to accomplish this is to write your article to one person.
You'll naturally use the word "you" a lot within your article, and your readers will feel like you're talking directly to them.
7. Don't be afraid to share your personality with your readers.
You could inject a little bit of humor into your article, or share an opinion, story or anecdote that relates to the topic of your article.
8. Offer a subscription to your e-zine or a freebie in your resource box.
Writing articles will help you to get your site promoted on relevant sites and e-zines at no cost to you.
Maximize the profit you get from writing your articles by giving your readers a subscription to your e-zine, or a freebie that they'll find valuable enough to go back to again and again.
9. Once you've written your article, wait a couple of days, and then reread your article.
You might be able to add new points that you might have missed before, add more detail to information you covered in your article, or reword parts of your article that are unclear.
10. Use current topics whether online or in the "real world" to get ideas for your articles.
Your articles will be cutting edge and newsworthy, and will have an excellent chance of being published by e-zine publishers and webmasters.
11. Always check and double-check your articles for errors.
Use your spell checker and go over your articles for words you might have omitted, run-on sentences and for faulty punctuation.
Also look for words used incorrectly; for instance, if you used "effect" when you should have used "affect" or if you used "there" when you should have used "their."
12. Submit your articles to article directories, article announcement lists, and to e-zine publishers.
Your submissions, although time consuming if done manually, will help you to successfully get your articles published.
Be sure to submit your articles to my article directory at http://www.netpromarketer.com and to visit http://www.netpromarketer.com/directoriesandlists.html where you'll find a list of article directories and article announcement lists.
For a handy listing of e-zine publishers that want article submissions check out http://www.ezinelocater.com.
Also search other e-zine directories for publishers that want article submissions and submit your articles to e-zines that you are subscribed to that accept article submissions from their subscribers.
You'll have an easy way to get more sales by showing your visitors that your are an expert on the topic your visitors are interested in.
2. Use lots of white space. Keep your sentences and paragraphs short and to the point.
3. Write for your target audience.
You'll have a better chance of attracting people to your site that are interested in purchasing your products.
4. Use numbered lists.
Your numbered lists will help you to effectively share your tips with your readers while making your article easy to read.
Use your numbered lists to share points on your article's topic, list your directions when writing a how to article, or to deliver the content of your article if you wanted to write a list article.
You can also use numbered lists to share resources related to what you talk about in your article along with your descriptions of those resources.
5. Use the active voice.
With the active voice the subject does the action while with the passive voice the subject receives the action expressed by the verb.
For instance:
Active voice: The dog bit the mailman. Passive voice: The mailman was bitten by the dog.
Use the active voice to keep your sentences from being awkward or confusing and to liven up your article.
6. Make your writing more personal by using the word "you" a lot within your article.
A simple way to accomplish this is to write your article to one person.
You'll naturally use the word "you" a lot within your article, and your readers will feel like you're talking directly to them.
7. Don't be afraid to share your personality with your readers.
You could inject a little bit of humor into your article, or share an opinion, story or anecdote that relates to the topic of your article.
8. Offer a subscription to your e-zine or a freebie in your resource box.
Writing articles will help you to get your site promoted on relevant sites and e-zines at no cost to you.
Maximize the profit you get from writing your articles by giving your readers a subscription to your e-zine, or a freebie that they'll find valuable enough to go back to again and again.
9. Once you've written your article, wait a couple of days, and then reread your article.
You might be able to add new points that you might have missed before, add more detail to information you covered in your article, or reword parts of your article that are unclear.
10. Use current topics whether online or in the "real world" to get ideas for your articles.
Your articles will be cutting edge and newsworthy, and will have an excellent chance of being published by e-zine publishers and webmasters.
11. Always check and double-check your articles for errors.
Use your spell checker and go over your articles for words you might have omitted, run-on sentences and for faulty punctuation.
Also look for words used incorrectly; for instance, if you used "effect" when you should have used "affect" or if you used "there" when you should have used "their."
12. Submit your articles to article directories, article announcement lists, and to e-zine publishers.
Your submissions, although time consuming if done manually, will help you to successfully get your articles published.
Be sure to submit your articles to my article directory at http://www.netpromarketer.com and to visit http://www.netpromarketer.com/directoriesandlists.html where you'll find a list of article directories and article announcement lists.
For a handy listing of e-zine publishers that want article submissions check out http://www.ezinelocater.com.
Also search other e-zine directories for publishers that want article submissions and submit your articles to e-zines that you are subscribed to that accept article submissions from their subscribers.
Reward Those Who Publish Your Articles!
It is pretty obvious that content is king online. It is also obvious that writing more content and submitting them to other sites will help boost your popularity and bring more visitors to your site.
So why wouldn't you help boost those pages that have your articles on them?
I want to share a small tip that will help boost your articles popularity all over the world.
See, most of us who do write articles are mainly concerned about getting their articles published. Well why wouldn't you reward those who publish your articles?
I am consistently finding ways to boost pr ratings for ALL of my pages within my site, you should be too. If we are all trying to do this, then why don't we help boost our articles on other sites!
Here's an example of this...
I have an article titled: "Getting A Better Rank For All Your Pages"
Now simply listing this article on my site isn't enough. I also promote and submit this article wherever I can. If by chance a web site publishes my article, I will reward that site by adding a link on my site were that article is listed.
Infact, if you've seen my marketing tip articles, there is a small resource box at the bottom of each article that links to all the sites that have listed that specific article. Being more specific, I don't link to their main page, I link to my article.
Here's what that accomplishes...
Let's say your article is listed on "Artices R Us" and you want your article to be found by anyone who searches for that company, boosting your pr rating for your article on "Articles R Us" will help you get more visitors from that site.
See, it's not only about listing your articles because we would all like to have our articles found right away and 1st. Don't miss the chance to gain more visitors by letting your article die out on the site that you listed it in.
What if all your articles listed on other sites, had a pr rating in google of (pr4) or more? That would be great!
That would be great because we all know that Google rewards your link popularity when listed in a page that is pr4 or more!
So don't be shy to reward those who list your articles, doing so will only boost your search engine ranking and also give you a lot more visitors than before!
So why wouldn't you help boost those pages that have your articles on them?
I want to share a small tip that will help boost your articles popularity all over the world.
See, most of us who do write articles are mainly concerned about getting their articles published. Well why wouldn't you reward those who publish your articles?
I am consistently finding ways to boost pr ratings for ALL of my pages within my site, you should be too. If we are all trying to do this, then why don't we help boost our articles on other sites!
Here's an example of this...
I have an article titled: "Getting A Better Rank For All Your Pages"
Now simply listing this article on my site isn't enough. I also promote and submit this article wherever I can. If by chance a web site publishes my article, I will reward that site by adding a link on my site were that article is listed.
Infact, if you've seen my marketing tip articles, there is a small resource box at the bottom of each article that links to all the sites that have listed that specific article. Being more specific, I don't link to their main page, I link to my article.
Here's what that accomplishes...
Let's say your article is listed on "Artices R Us" and you want your article to be found by anyone who searches for that company, boosting your pr rating for your article on "Articles R Us" will help you get more visitors from that site.
See, it's not only about listing your articles because we would all like to have our articles found right away and 1st. Don't miss the chance to gain more visitors by letting your article die out on the site that you listed it in.
What if all your articles listed on other sites, had a pr rating in google of (pr4) or more? That would be great!
That would be great because we all know that Google rewards your link popularity when listed in a page that is pr4 or more!
So don't be shy to reward those who list your articles, doing so will only boost your search engine ranking and also give you a lot more visitors than before!
6 Best Places to Submit Your Articles
You know that writing articles is the best free way to promote your business and gain credibility. You understand the importance of articles containing actual information and not being just long sales letters.
Do you know the absolute best places to submit all of those wonderful articles you have written?
Here is your list of the top 6 places to submit your articles:
1. Idea Marketers With an Alexa ranking of 13,015, this site is one that you definitely don't want to miss submitting to. You have to sign up for a free account. Instantly accepts your article. http://www.ideamarketers.com
2. Go Articles This one has an Alexa ranking of 17,504. You have to sign up for a free account. This site is part of the Jayde Network. Instantly accepts your article. http://www.goarticles.com
3. Article City Article City has an Alexa ranking of 20,024. No account is required. http://www.articlecity.com
4. Article Announce This group has 2,712 subscribers (June 2004). Provides content to hundreds of newsletters, magazines, and websites. http://groups.yahoo.com/group/article_announce/
5. Free Content This group has 1,557 subscribers (June 2004). Hosted by Website101.com. http://finance.groups.yahoo.com/group/Free-Content/
6. Publisher Network This group has 686 subscribers (June 2004). Lets you swap articles with other newsletter publishers. http://groups.yahoo.com/group/publisher_network/
By all means, submit your articles anywhere and everywhere it is appropriate. But there are certain websites that should always be included on your list. These places have a high number of visitors and/or subscribers.
Do you know the absolute best places to submit all of those wonderful articles you have written?
Here is your list of the top 6 places to submit your articles:
1. Idea Marketers With an Alexa ranking of 13,015, this site is one that you definitely don't want to miss submitting to. You have to sign up for a free account. Instantly accepts your article. http://www.ideamarketers.com
2. Go Articles This one has an Alexa ranking of 17,504. You have to sign up for a free account. This site is part of the Jayde Network. Instantly accepts your article. http://www.goarticles.com
3. Article City Article City has an Alexa ranking of 20,024. No account is required. http://www.articlecity.com
4. Article Announce This group has 2,712 subscribers (June 2004). Provides content to hundreds of newsletters, magazines, and websites. http://groups.yahoo.com/group/article_announce/
5. Free Content This group has 1,557 subscribers (June 2004). Hosted by Website101.com. http://finance.groups.yahoo.com/group/Free-Content/
6. Publisher Network This group has 686 subscribers (June 2004). Lets you swap articles with other newsletter publishers. http://groups.yahoo.com/group/publisher_network/
By all means, submit your articles anywhere and everywhere it is appropriate. But there are certain websites that should always be included on your list. These places have a high number of visitors and/or subscribers.
10 Profitable Tips For Article Writers
1. Write to one person.
When you're writing your article picture one person that you are writing to. This will make your writing more personable and help you to keep your readers interested in your article.
2. Use lots of white space within your article.
Using lots of white space will help you to make your article look more professional and keep more of the skim readers interested in your article.
If you have paragraphs that are too long, try to break them up into two or three paragraphs so that your article will be easier to read.
3. Double check your articles for errors.
Make sure that you haven't misspelled any words, skipped words, or used a homonym such as "their" when you meant "there."
Remember, that spell checking only catches spelling mistakes so you'll need to go over your articles even after using your spell checker to find words used incorrectly and also to find words that were used twice in a row or omitted.
4. Pay attention to feedback you get for your articles.
Getting or seeking constructive feedback about your articles can help you to write better, get back on track with your writing if you're in a slump, and also develop new things to write about.
Even negative feedback or criticisms can help you if it shows you things you can work on. Just don't take everything to heart.
5. Improve your writing skills by trying different things.
When you first start writing your own articles, especially if you're new to writing, you might feel that you can only write list articles like this one.
Nonetheless try your hand at other types of articles that you would like to write such as how to articles or straw man articles.
Also try writing on different subjects that you haven't written about before.
6. Keep a file of articles you've written that you left unfinished or didn't feel were ready to be published.
Also keep parts (i.e., tips, paragraphs, etc.), that you've edited out of your finished articles in this file.
You might be able to rewrite your unfinished articles later on, get new ideas to write about, or get a new tip or two for your list articles from this file.
7. If you run an affiliate program, let your affiliates publish your articles with their affiliate URLs in your resource box.
You'll be able to effectively increase your sales by giving your affiliates an easy way to successfully promote your business to their visitors or subscribers.
8. Create an ebook compilation of your articles.
You could use your ebook as a bonus for subscribing to your ezine or you could let your affiliates brand your ebook with their affiliate URLs.
If you don't run an affiliate program, you could let people brand your ebook with a link to their site or business to get more people to offer your ebook to their visitors or subscribers.
9. Participate in article swaps.
Your swaps will help you to get your articles run in ezines that have subscribers interested in your business.
Your article swaps can also help you to gain more reciprocal links and add more useful content to your site if you swap articles where you publish another writer's article on your site in exchange for the same.
10. Create a list that people can subscribe to that announces when you've written a new article or articles.
Your list will keep people up to date on new articles they can publish in their ezines or post on their web sites.
If you let your affiliates use your articles to earn commissions, you can also use your list to attract more new affiliates and to keep your existing affiliates up to date on new articles they can use to promote your business.
When you're writing your article picture one person that you are writing to. This will make your writing more personable and help you to keep your readers interested in your article.
2. Use lots of white space within your article.
Using lots of white space will help you to make your article look more professional and keep more of the skim readers interested in your article.
If you have paragraphs that are too long, try to break them up into two or three paragraphs so that your article will be easier to read.
3. Double check your articles for errors.
Make sure that you haven't misspelled any words, skipped words, or used a homonym such as "their" when you meant "there."
Remember, that spell checking only catches spelling mistakes so you'll need to go over your articles even after using your spell checker to find words used incorrectly and also to find words that were used twice in a row or omitted.
4. Pay attention to feedback you get for your articles.
Getting or seeking constructive feedback about your articles can help you to write better, get back on track with your writing if you're in a slump, and also develop new things to write about.
Even negative feedback or criticisms can help you if it shows you things you can work on. Just don't take everything to heart.
5. Improve your writing skills by trying different things.
When you first start writing your own articles, especially if you're new to writing, you might feel that you can only write list articles like this one.
Nonetheless try your hand at other types of articles that you would like to write such as how to articles or straw man articles.
Also try writing on different subjects that you haven't written about before.
6. Keep a file of articles you've written that you left unfinished or didn't feel were ready to be published.
Also keep parts (i.e., tips, paragraphs, etc.), that you've edited out of your finished articles in this file.
You might be able to rewrite your unfinished articles later on, get new ideas to write about, or get a new tip or two for your list articles from this file.
7. If you run an affiliate program, let your affiliates publish your articles with their affiliate URLs in your resource box.
You'll be able to effectively increase your sales by giving your affiliates an easy way to successfully promote your business to their visitors or subscribers.
8. Create an ebook compilation of your articles.
You could use your ebook as a bonus for subscribing to your ezine or you could let your affiliates brand your ebook with their affiliate URLs.
If you don't run an affiliate program, you could let people brand your ebook with a link to their site or business to get more people to offer your ebook to their visitors or subscribers.
9. Participate in article swaps.
Your swaps will help you to get your articles run in ezines that have subscribers interested in your business.
Your article swaps can also help you to gain more reciprocal links and add more useful content to your site if you swap articles where you publish another writer's article on your site in exchange for the same.
10. Create a list that people can subscribe to that announces when you've written a new article or articles.
Your list will keep people up to date on new articles they can publish in their ezines or post on their web sites.
If you let your affiliates use your articles to earn commissions, you can also use your list to attract more new affiliates and to keep your existing affiliates up to date on new articles they can use to promote your business.
5 Free Time-Saving Tools for Article Authors
You can save time and make your article writing and promotion easier by putting some very great tools to use. Below I've included 5 tools that can help you.
1. Article Formatter
If your articles aren't properly formatted before being submitted they have a very high chance of getting rejected. Formatting your articles also shows respect for the publishers you are submitting to. The following tool will not only format your articles to any line length you desire, but give you a total count of characters, words, and lines. To format your articles very quickly, just visit http://www.fwointl.com/FWOFormatter.html.
2. Tracking Software
As you start writing articles, and especially when you have been writing them for awhile, you will need a way to keep track of everything you've written. You can do this using a free program called Writer's Database. Writer's Database is a program that will keep track of everything you've written, potential publishers, submissions to those publishers, writing that hasn't been submitted yet, and more. You can find it at http://www.ultima-thule.co.uk/
3. Text Converter
To make it simple to add your articles to your website you need a simple tool for converting them to HTML. Using such a tool will greatly reduce the time you spend getting your articles up on your site. You can find a free one at http://www.cyber-matrix.com/txt2html.html.
4. SP*M Checker
Whether you submit your articles directly to publishers or to article directories, you can increase the chances of them being picked. Every time you write an article, run it through the checker at http://www.lyris.com/contentchecker. This will check your articles for things that have a probability of triggering SP*M filters. Once the check is finished, you get a detailed report that will show you what you need to change.
5. Spell Checker
I know that this seems pretty obvious, but checking the spelling in your articles is a must. When you submit articles that are full of spelling errors you project a very unprofessional image and turn people away from what you have to offer. Tiny Spell is a free program that will allow you to check the spelling of words in any Windows application. http://www.megspace.com/computers/tinyspell/
Using these tools will not write your articles. That is completely up to you. But using them will dramatically decrease the time you have to spend writing your articles and getting them ready to submit.
1. Article Formatter
If your articles aren't properly formatted before being submitted they have a very high chance of getting rejected. Formatting your articles also shows respect for the publishers you are submitting to. The following tool will not only format your articles to any line length you desire, but give you a total count of characters, words, and lines. To format your articles very quickly, just visit http://www.fwointl.com/FWOFormatter.html.
2. Tracking Software
As you start writing articles, and especially when you have been writing them for awhile, you will need a way to keep track of everything you've written. You can do this using a free program called Writer's Database. Writer's Database is a program that will keep track of everything you've written, potential publishers, submissions to those publishers, writing that hasn't been submitted yet, and more. You can find it at http://www.ultima-thule.co.uk/
3. Text Converter
To make it simple to add your articles to your website you need a simple tool for converting them to HTML. Using such a tool will greatly reduce the time you spend getting your articles up on your site. You can find a free one at http://www.cyber-matrix.com/txt2html.html.
4. SP*M Checker
Whether you submit your articles directly to publishers or to article directories, you can increase the chances of them being picked. Every time you write an article, run it through the checker at http://www.lyris.com/contentchecker. This will check your articles for things that have a probability of triggering SP*M filters. Once the check is finished, you get a detailed report that will show you what you need to change.
5. Spell Checker
I know that this seems pretty obvious, but checking the spelling in your articles is a must. When you submit articles that are full of spelling errors you project a very unprofessional image and turn people away from what you have to offer. Tiny Spell is a free program that will allow you to check the spelling of words in any Windows application. http://www.megspace.com/computers/tinyspell/
Using these tools will not write your articles. That is completely up to you. But using them will dramatically decrease the time you have to spend writing your articles and getting them ready to submit.
Tracking Your Articles Properly
Writing articles related to your business is a great way to build your link popularity and also to provide more content for your site and other sites. Not too mention it's always nice when someone finds your site and uses it within their newsletter.
The only problem is, what if people dont tell you that they were using your articles??? How would you know who to reward?
I say reward because of another article I wrote, "reward those who publish your articles". It briefly outlines how to boost your articles popularity by boosting the other sites it's listed on.
Let's say for now, you just want to track your articles properly.
#1 Creating appropriate forlders within your "favorites". Every browser allows you to create a folder in order to hold your favorite web sites. Organizing your favorites folder is key when you plan to market your business 24/7. In this case, we'll create a new folder called "Articles Listed".
Within that folder, you'll want to start creating other "sub" categories for EACH INDIVIDUAL ARTILCE that you market.
For instance, let's say you have about 10 articles that you always promote, you'll want to add 10 folders within your new "Articles Listed folder". Make sure to give them a short but recognizable name that you would be able to distinguish which article it is for.
Ex. (I will use 3 of my title's)
Tracking your articles properly (Folder: Tracking Articles)
Writing Articles To Boost Your Traffic (Folder: Writing Articles)
Reward Those Who Publish Your Articles (Folder: Reward Publishers)
#2 Always keep the same headline for your article: I've visited many sites who consistently change the headline of the article simply to make it seem like a different article. Don't be shy, I'm sure we've all thought about it, infact, I am also guilty.
Starting now, let's all keep the same headline...
The reason for keeping the same headline is for 1 keeping a strong consistency with your marketing and 2 making it easyer to find your articles online.
#3 - Finding All Of Your Articles: Now let's find them for you... (Hoping that you already created your folders within your favories menu?)
I preffer using Google's Toolbar for this but it is not required. Let's all go to: www.google.com and start looking.
Why google? Simply the best...
Take your 1st article and cut and paste the EXACT title within the google search. Now add "" at the beginning and the end of your title
Adding "" at the beginning and the end will narrow your search to exactly what's in between.
For ex. "Tracking Your Articles Properly" would give me better results than if I were to search: tracking your articles properly. Actually I do recommend you try both methods just in case.
Now once you have found a site that has listed your article, add the exact page your article is listed within the proper folder you created within your "favorites menu".
Once you have completed this task for all of your articles, it will be very easy to keep up with your new articles. Another thing is, if you plan to reward those sites, you now have them all seperated into proper categories.
I hope this helps you out even a little like it did for me...
The only problem is, what if people dont tell you that they were using your articles??? How would you know who to reward?
I say reward because of another article I wrote, "reward those who publish your articles". It briefly outlines how to boost your articles popularity by boosting the other sites it's listed on.
Let's say for now, you just want to track your articles properly.
#1 Creating appropriate forlders within your "favorites". Every browser allows you to create a folder in order to hold your favorite web sites. Organizing your favorites folder is key when you plan to market your business 24/7. In this case, we'll create a new folder called "Articles Listed".
Within that folder, you'll want to start creating other "sub" categories for EACH INDIVIDUAL ARTILCE that you market.
For instance, let's say you have about 10 articles that you always promote, you'll want to add 10 folders within your new "Articles Listed folder". Make sure to give them a short but recognizable name that you would be able to distinguish which article it is for.
Ex. (I will use 3 of my title's)
Tracking your articles properly (Folder: Tracking Articles)
Writing Articles To Boost Your Traffic (Folder: Writing Articles)
Reward Those Who Publish Your Articles (Folder: Reward Publishers)
#2 Always keep the same headline for your article: I've visited many sites who consistently change the headline of the article simply to make it seem like a different article. Don't be shy, I'm sure we've all thought about it, infact, I am also guilty.
Starting now, let's all keep the same headline...
The reason for keeping the same headline is for 1 keeping a strong consistency with your marketing and 2 making it easyer to find your articles online.
#3 - Finding All Of Your Articles: Now let's find them for you... (Hoping that you already created your folders within your favories menu?)
I preffer using Google's Toolbar for this but it is not required. Let's all go to: www.google.com and start looking.
Why google? Simply the best...
Take your 1st article and cut and paste the EXACT title within the google search. Now add "" at the beginning and the end of your title
Adding "" at the beginning and the end will narrow your search to exactly what's in between.
For ex. "Tracking Your Articles Properly" would give me better results than if I were to search: tracking your articles properly. Actually I do recommend you try both methods just in case.
Now once you have found a site that has listed your article, add the exact page your article is listed within the proper folder you created within your "favorites menu".
Once you have completed this task for all of your articles, it will be very easy to keep up with your new articles. Another thing is, if you plan to reward those sites, you now have them all seperated into proper categories.
I hope this helps you out even a little like it did for me...
Article Writing & Promotion...Your Fast Track To Sales & Profits.
Writing articles, and promoting them for publication, is one of the most productive long-term promotional tactics available. Well researched and written articles... which provide valuable, useable information, are highly sought after by newsletter publishers, magazines, ezines, etc.
It is a marketing truth that "Content Is King". Good, keyword rich, content is what drives online traffic through search engines and gives the visitor a reason to keep coming back to a website. This is often referred to as "sticky content". As a traffic-generation tool it is unsurpassed.
Webmasters and publication editors have an insatiable appetite for tightly written "niched" articles that are relevant to their web sites or publications themes.
This need is your opportunity...
An editor of an ezine, newsletter or magazine has a never-ending need for good content. Each issue they publish must be filled with useful, relevant content that will appeal to their readers or subscribers self-interest. A publication that cannot provide great content will not long survive.
"An editor of an ezine, newsletter or magazine has a never-ending need for good content.
By regularly supplying the media with well written articles, you build a never-ending supply of links and traffic to your own websites.
How?... Well, the secret is in the bio. Each article you submit for publication has your own "authors bio" that gives full attribution and links to your site. This is the payment you receive for having supplied the articles... it is a payment which gives you long-term dividends!
Not only will your article be presented to many thousands of subscribers initially... but those same articles (with your bio and links) will be archived on the publications websites. Those archived articles become fodder for search engines which not only provide on-going traffic to the publishing site... but to YOU as well. It is truly a Win/Win proposition.
NOT A WRITER?... NO PROBLEM...
There are countless freelance writers who will "ghost write" articles for you and... giving you the copyrights. I know of many well-known names in the industry who have articles plastered all over the internet...and they have never written a word themselves. I know this because I have written some of their articles. :-)
If you need such services try elance or do a Google search for "ghost writing" or "freelance writers". There are many highly educated, english speaking, foreign-based professionals who will write articles for very nominal fees.
OK... YOU HAVE AN ARTICLE... NOW WHAT?
Having a good article is only the first part of the equatiion... now you need to get the articles distributed to those editors and publications who will welcome your contribution... and publish your work.
There are three primary means of promoting your articles:
Article Directories
Article Announcment Lists
Your Internal List
Paid Distributiion Services & Software
Here is a breakdown of each... and a list of resources to get you started...
ARTICLE DIRECTORIES...
Article directories are websites which categorize and archive your articles... and promote them to editors and publishers. Most are free... but some are fee based. They all provide a submission system for you to provide your articles to them. In addition, most have their own internal list of editors and publishers that they announce your new article to.
TIP: The simple act of listing your articles in the directory archives will provide you instant incoming links to your website which could increase your site traffic and page ranks.
Here is a partial list of article directories. (Please note that companies go out of business occasionally and you may run into a link which no longer works.)
http://www.allmerchants.com/
http://www.allnetarticles.com/
http://amazines.com/
http://www.articlecity.com/article_submission.shtml
http://articleresponder.com/index.php
http://www.articlesubmissions.com/index.php
http://www.boconline.com/
http://www.businesstoolchest.com/
http://www.certificate.net/wwio/index.shtml
http://www.connectionteam.com
http://www.dime-co.com/
http://www.ebooksnbytes.com
http://www.echievements.com/
http://ezineadhelper.com/cgi-bin/articles/articles.cgi
http://www.ezinearticles.com
http://www.goarticles.com
http://www.internetbasedmoms.com/bb/index.php
http://linksnoop.com/
http://www.mailbiz.com/mailbiz/magcat/
http://www.SimpleSteps2success.biz
http://thewhir.com/find/articlecentral/
http://webmarketingspecialists.com/articlesubmit.htm
http://www.webmomz.com/users/login.shtml
http://www.zongoo.com/index.php
ARTICLE ANNOUNCEMENT LISTS...
Announcement Lists are email newsletters, lists, or ezines, which allow you to "announce" your new articles to thousands of editors and publishers instantly. Most of these announcement lists are sent out daily to their subscribers. This means that you can have your article circulating to key editors and publishers within hours of completion.
Here are a number of important Article Announcement Lists that will give you a simple and fast mechanism for distribution of your articles...
http://topica.com/lists/articlereview/
http://topica.com/lists/freeezinecontent/
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/article_announce/
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/article_announce_list/
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Free-Reprint-Articles/
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Free-Content/
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Free_eContent/
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/freezinecontent/
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/internet_marketing_articleblaster/
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/netwrite-publish-announce/
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/publisher_network/
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/QC_Reprint_Articles
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/ReprintArticles-Paradise/
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/reprintedarticles/
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/TheWriteArticles/
YOUR INTERNAL, IN-HOUSE, DISTRIBUTION LIST...
Over time you will begin to build a list of editors and publishers, who have used your articles in the past, and find them to be relevant. This list is "your private goldmine". Each time you finish an article the first step you want to take is to send it, in a private mailing, to your in-house user list.
You might want to consider doing a "mail merge" to this list and personalize your submission to the specific editor by name.
Remember, this list could be worth thousand of dollars to you over the coming months and years. Do not treat it lightly. This list is truly a center-of-influence list that you will want to spend time and effort nuturing. Remembering them at holidays and on special occasions, goes a long way to building a profitable relationship.
Pick up a phone and call them. Let them know that you appreciate your relationship... and let them know you are available for special writing assignments. (Here is an example of how strong and beneficial this simple act can be... About two years ago I sent a small holiday gift [a screen-saver of tropical Hawaiian images] to a magazine editor who had used a number of my articles in the past. I waited until the package had time to arrive and then I picked up a phone and called her. She was delighted with the thoughtfulness of the gift and then stunned me with the news that one of her regular columnists had been forced to resign... and "would I be interested in replacing him?". So... that simple telephone call resulted in a regular column in a print magazine that serves one of my niche marketplaces. A marvelous result that may not have happened if I had not "nurtured the relationship".
Ask them "What Articles Do You Need?"... and listen closely to their answers.
By doing so... you will develop a sense of what materials are needed and wanted in your marketplace. Write specifically to those needs and you will develop a strong editorial following that will pay off in huge traffic flow, increased sales and profits, and an enhanced image and reputation. These are pretty hefty benefits for some time spent researching and writing articles!
PAID DISTRIBUTION SERVICES...
Two recent innovations that have burst on the article marketing scene are: (1)custom distribution software (Article Announcer) and (2) web-based article distribution services (Article Marketer). My experience with these systems are that the web-based service is much more cost efficient, easier to use, and has the built-in advantage of having the most current and up-to-date database of publishers seeking your content.
It is a marketing truth that "Content Is King". Good, keyword rich, content is what drives online traffic through search engines and gives the visitor a reason to keep coming back to a website. This is often referred to as "sticky content". As a traffic-generation tool it is unsurpassed.
Webmasters and publication editors have an insatiable appetite for tightly written "niched" articles that are relevant to their web sites or publications themes.
This need is your opportunity...
An editor of an ezine, newsletter or magazine has a never-ending need for good content. Each issue they publish must be filled with useful, relevant content that will appeal to their readers or subscribers self-interest. A publication that cannot provide great content will not long survive.
"An editor of an ezine, newsletter or magazine has a never-ending need for good content.
By regularly supplying the media with well written articles, you build a never-ending supply of links and traffic to your own websites.
How?... Well, the secret is in the bio. Each article you submit for publication has your own "authors bio" that gives full attribution and links to your site. This is the payment you receive for having supplied the articles... it is a payment which gives you long-term dividends!
Not only will your article be presented to many thousands of subscribers initially... but those same articles (with your bio and links) will be archived on the publications websites. Those archived articles become fodder for search engines which not only provide on-going traffic to the publishing site... but to YOU as well. It is truly a Win/Win proposition.
NOT A WRITER?... NO PROBLEM...
There are countless freelance writers who will "ghost write" articles for you and... giving you the copyrights. I know of many well-known names in the industry who have articles plastered all over the internet...and they have never written a word themselves. I know this because I have written some of their articles. :-)
If you need such services try elance or do a Google search for "ghost writing" or "freelance writers". There are many highly educated, english speaking, foreign-based professionals who will write articles for very nominal fees.
OK... YOU HAVE AN ARTICLE... NOW WHAT?
Having a good article is only the first part of the equatiion... now you need to get the articles distributed to those editors and publications who will welcome your contribution... and publish your work.
There are three primary means of promoting your articles:
Article Directories
Article Announcment Lists
Your Internal List
Paid Distributiion Services & Software
Here is a breakdown of each... and a list of resources to get you started...
ARTICLE DIRECTORIES...
Article directories are websites which categorize and archive your articles... and promote them to editors and publishers. Most are free... but some are fee based. They all provide a submission system for you to provide your articles to them. In addition, most have their own internal list of editors and publishers that they announce your new article to.
TIP: The simple act of listing your articles in the directory archives will provide you instant incoming links to your website which could increase your site traffic and page ranks.
Here is a partial list of article directories. (Please note that companies go out of business occasionally and you may run into a link which no longer works.)
http://www.allmerchants.com/
http://www.allnetarticles.com/
http://amazines.com/
http://www.articlecity.com/article_submission.shtml
http://articleresponder.com/index.php
http://www.articlesubmissions.com/index.php
http://www.boconline.com/
http://www.businesstoolchest.com/
http://www.certificate.net/wwio/index.shtml
http://www.connectionteam.com
http://www.dime-co.com/
http://www.ebooksnbytes.com
http://www.echievements.com/
http://ezineadhelper.com/cgi-bin/articles/articles.cgi
http://www.ezinearticles.com
http://www.goarticles.com
http://www.internetbasedmoms.com/bb/index.php
http://linksnoop.com/
http://www.mailbiz.com/mailbiz/magcat/
http://www.SimpleSteps2success.biz
http://thewhir.com/find/articlecentral/
http://webmarketingspecialists.com/articlesubmit.htm
http://www.webmomz.com/users/login.shtml
http://www.zongoo.com/index.php
ARTICLE ANNOUNCEMENT LISTS...
Announcement Lists are email newsletters, lists, or ezines, which allow you to "announce" your new articles to thousands of editors and publishers instantly. Most of these announcement lists are sent out daily to their subscribers. This means that you can have your article circulating to key editors and publishers within hours of completion.
Here are a number of important Article Announcement Lists that will give you a simple and fast mechanism for distribution of your articles...
http://topica.com/lists/articlereview/
http://topica.com/lists/freeezinecontent/
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/article_announce/
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/article_announce_list/
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Free-Reprint-Articles/
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Free-Content/
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Free_eContent/
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/freezinecontent/
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/internet_marketing_articleblaster/
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/netwrite-publish-announce/
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/publisher_network/
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/QC_Reprint_Articles
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/ReprintArticles-Paradise/
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/reprintedarticles/
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/TheWriteArticles/
YOUR INTERNAL, IN-HOUSE, DISTRIBUTION LIST...
Over time you will begin to build a list of editors and publishers, who have used your articles in the past, and find them to be relevant. This list is "your private goldmine". Each time you finish an article the first step you want to take is to send it, in a private mailing, to your in-house user list.
You might want to consider doing a "mail merge" to this list and personalize your submission to the specific editor by name.
Remember, this list could be worth thousand of dollars to you over the coming months and years. Do not treat it lightly. This list is truly a center-of-influence list that you will want to spend time and effort nuturing. Remembering them at holidays and on special occasions, goes a long way to building a profitable relationship.
Pick up a phone and call them. Let them know that you appreciate your relationship... and let them know you are available for special writing assignments. (Here is an example of how strong and beneficial this simple act can be... About two years ago I sent a small holiday gift [a screen-saver of tropical Hawaiian images] to a magazine editor who had used a number of my articles in the past. I waited until the package had time to arrive and then I picked up a phone and called her. She was delighted with the thoughtfulness of the gift and then stunned me with the news that one of her regular columnists had been forced to resign... and "would I be interested in replacing him?". So... that simple telephone call resulted in a regular column in a print magazine that serves one of my niche marketplaces. A marvelous result that may not have happened if I had not "nurtured the relationship".
Ask them "What Articles Do You Need?"... and listen closely to their answers.
By doing so... you will develop a sense of what materials are needed and wanted in your marketplace. Write specifically to those needs and you will develop a strong editorial following that will pay off in huge traffic flow, increased sales and profits, and an enhanced image and reputation. These are pretty hefty benefits for some time spent researching and writing articles!
PAID DISTRIBUTION SERVICES...
Two recent innovations that have burst on the article marketing scene are: (1)custom distribution software (Article Announcer) and (2) web-based article distribution services (Article Marketer). My experience with these systems are that the web-based service is much more cost efficient, easier to use, and has the built-in advantage of having the most current and up-to-date database of publishers seeking your content.
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