You are here: DIME Home > Writing & Publishing > Article Submissions - Part 2: How To Ensure Your Articles Are Approved

Article Submissions - Part 2: How To Ensure Your Articles Are Approved

(AKA: The Right Way To Submit Articles to Any Site)  In part one, we covered the wrong way to submit articles. Now let's talk about the right way. I will tackle each point in order of part 1, to make it easier to follow.

Author: Amber Jalink
Date: Jan 13, 2007 - 5:04:09 PM

Printer friendly page

(AKA: The Right Way To Submit Articles to Any Site)

Now that we've covered the wrong way to submit articles, let's talk about the right way. I will tackle each point in order of part 1, to make it easier to follow.

1. Articles should be a minimum of 4 paragraphs, each containing roughly 4 sentences per paragraph, to as much as 10 to 12 paragraphs. This may be different according to the site you submit it to, as some have a 'minimum' and a 'maximum' number of words. This guideline of 4-12 paragraphs is a good one to follow.

EXAMPLE - Wrong: (This is an actual submission)

Pretty obvious eh? Pay attention to the articles please - this is an ad, not an article.


2. Avoid placing links to dozens of different pages to your website in your article. The ONLY time this would be acceptable is for example, your topic provides resources (WITHOUT affiliate links) such as,


and so on. THIS is a resource and is acceptable, because it shows the true websites for a purpose.

3. Do not attempt to change headlines and a sentence or two just for the purpose of putting it in a different topic - or a misleading headline - and at the same time - never submit the same article to a directory twice or even repeatedly/daily.

Example WRONG (real submission):



Believe it or not - this is one I get REPEATEDLY (with variations of the article title), and it results deletion instantly. I don't even bother to read the articles. Also those that start like,


This is a disguised pitch.

All you need to do is submit it once. If it wasn't accepted, maybe you should consider checking the article to see if it falls in one of the 'no no's'. Alternately, it simply may not have been approved yet, if its a manually approved site such as dime-co.com.

4. Never attempt to post the same article in different topics, especially if it doesn't match the category. An article may cross into more than one topic, but pick the closest one. When people search, they'll find it either way. It is especially wrong to put it into a category it doesn't belong. I find that often people don't pay attention to this - and usually there are better topics the article fits in.

In these cases, I "may" change the category - but only if it's a near topic, not a totally wrong topic.

5. Please re-read 3 and 4 ;)

6. Your article should never start with "hi friends". You aren't addressing them in an email, you aren't addressing them on a forum - it's an article for information. If you approach it with "Hi friends", readers will instantly sense that it is likely a pitch.

7. Your article should be informational - not telling how incredible an offer is, but actually provide information regarding the topic.

Example - WRONG #1:


Example #2 - WRONG: (This is an example of a REAL one submitted - word for word, error for error that they REPEATEDLY submit - and repeatedly, I delete).


EXAMPLE: RIGHT




8. For goodness sakes, Microsoft Word has a spell and grammar check. If you don't understand the concept of spelling and can't get it right, then consider paying for a professional to edit for you. Virtual Assistants are all over the net, and you can get your article corrected at a minimum of cost.

In addition to spelling, sentences should never be "run ons". There should be one full space (aka: hit the spacebar once or twice after a .) And of course, commas should be used where a sentence should have a pause in them (if appropriate).

I don't care about proper grammar in the respect of ALL the rules - and most sites don't. This isn't a major news network or university professor looking at the grammatic rules. However, punctuation and proper spelling is a MUST.

9. Incomplete Articles.  I don't think writers always realize if they've done this - but in most cases it's likely that they didn't re-read the article out loud or to themselves. Incomplete articles are those that leave off in the middle of a point with no closure. I won't write a whole article here, but suppose we're talking about how to clean your glass with vinegar. You explain why you should use vinegar, then state:


.... ?

Where's the end. The correct way could be,


See how this closed off with the point? It gave the full instruction - not partial - and then said the result.

Believe it or not, incomplete articles are submitted. Not anywhere near as often as the above points, but it happens at least a few times a week.

The proper end to an article is to include a "sig file" AFTER the article, which appears like:



10. While I recognize that having additional links on keywords is useful (to a point) to the search engines, it CAN be seen as "spam" to the engines. There is no reason from a legitimate article standpoint, to put your link inside your article on keywords except to hoarde search engine traffic. It can result in getting the site in use banned - and is not acceptable, nor is it necessary. If you really want to link to your site inside an article, consider linking a sub-heading in the article.

Example:


That's a very rough example - but a guideline to go by.

11. A "sig file" should only be ONE paragraph, and it should be straight and to the point, with one, or "maybe" two links. (NEVER more than two links!)

Here is an example of a "Sig file" (The paragraph at the end of the article that tells about you) that is NOT acceptable. And yes, this is a real one submitted, I simply changed the name and the topic this company does, but it's almost an exact otherwise:



EXAMPLE of a GOOD sig file:


12. Please re-read #9 :)

13. When you copy an article into a submission system, you should ensure that you do it from notepad to ensure that additional characters aren't added.

Some when submitted, particularly an ' (asterisk), are converted to % or other symbols. To approve these articles is tedious to go through and replace them, because it changes depending on whether an asterisk or quote (") is used. This only happens if you're attempting to copy from an editor, not the actual notepad.

Just a suggestion to check how it appears when you submit. We try to edit these and correct them, but when it happens repeatedly, often that article will just get deleted to save time and let us continue to approve articles that are formatted correctly.

14. As mentioned above in #1, articles should not be all one big long paragraph (or a short one). It should be broken down into many paragraphs. It is much easier for a reader to read it when its broken up. Think of the last time you read a page on the internet that was all one huge paragraph... hurts your eyes after a while ;)

15. Avoid the hype, ALL CAPITALS and !!!!!!!! in a heading AND in an article. None of it is necessary. On occasion, you may capitalize ONE word for emphasis, as some article systems don't let you use bold or italics. (If you can, choose to use that instead for emphasis on that word). Also, anything more than ONE ! (exclamation point) is not acceptable. Unless of course, your article is for the purpose of showing what NOT to do (as I have shown here).

I hope these points help you in your article submissions.

The net needs some cleaning up - with the Google(TM) Adwords, and everyone attempting to hoarde traffic, too many have thrown out useless, garbage articles.

People wonder why they've been deleted or even banned from the search engines? Part 1 shows many reasons why.

Internet users are searching for information - so give it to them! Legitimately.

You'll be more likely to gain their respect, and their trust to follow through to your website for more information, than they would to click away to something else.

Happy Writing.

(c) 2007, Amber Jalink. This article may be reproduced in its entirety providing nothing is changed, and this sig file remains in tact.  Amber Jalink is the President of DIME Consultants Inc., and has run this website, http://www.dime-co.com since 1998. She is an expert at what is and is not acceptable with article writing and marketing on the internet.

View all articles by Amber Jalink

Link to this article:

Code to copy:

<a href="http://www.dime-co.com/writing/Article-Submissions-Part-2-How-To-Ensure-Your-Articles-Are-Approved.shtml">Article Submissions - Part 2: How To Ensure Your Articles Are Approved</a>

---

Search for articles: Advanced Search

Recommended Associates

Latest Articles in All Categories

Putting Up a Small Commercial Printing Business

So You Might Be Unemployed And Desire To Become A San Francisco Real Estate Investor Now

Meditation and Mindfulness: Dealing With Emotion

CPA Websites: Five Essential Ideas for Composing Convincing Articles

Set Goals In Order to Come Up With Your Action Plan

Is the Air in Your Home Safe to Breathe?

Coarse Fishing Tackle Review: The JW Young 13ft Trotter Rod

Section 1031 Exchanges For San Diego Real Estate Investors

Phoenix Real Estate Investing For Highest Possible Earnings

Legendary are the Volk Racing TE37 Wheels

Developing the Next Generation Wall Station (ChaseDesk™) for Healthcare - A Case Study

What are step down transformers?

Introducing Sharehype, the Revolutionary Tool for Online Marketers

Rewards To Shopping For Austin Real Estate On The Web

Hydroponics for Beginners

Do you write?

Would you like submit your articles and have them approved on a priority status? Find out more about how you can become a Priority author for pennies a day! Click here.

News Feed

Dime-co.com Home

Business (9328)

Computers & The Internet (5740)

Entertainment (1348)

Family (958)

Finance (1963)

Health (4246)

Home and Living (6670)

Marketing (6113)

Shopping & Product Reviews (2624)

Sports (694)

Travel and Vacations (1689)

Video Articles (1)

Editors Pick (1)