Article Campaign Management (Part 1) Author Guidelines

We've All Received Them, They Usually Go Something Like This...

• Your article submission has been denied!
• Your article submission is now pending!
• Your article submission has problems, etc...

Even to this date I still get these evil messages once in a while. Why? Because some author guidelines change quarterly, yearly, and even monthly. That's why it's so important for you to do your due-diligence while submitting articles on a regular basis. It's even more important to double check the author guidelines especially when you stop submitting articles for 1/2 or longer.

The author submission world is consistently changing and adapting. Mainly because authors are getting smarter, and spammers are especially getting tougher to beat.

The Newest Tricks Up Spammers Sleeve’s Are:

1) Blatant disrespect for the author guidelines (Hopping to get through the cracks).
2) 1 Paragraph articles (Not really teaching anything).
3) Product / Service reviews (About themselves of course).
4) Press releases disguised as self-promotion (No real news here).
5) Steal other author’s original content!!! (I HATE THAT ONE)

Many authors who spam in this fashion seem to forget that article directories are looking for valuable, original content which their visitors can enjoy reading and actually learn something. No one wants to click on an article in order to read an ad. Advertising online sometimes has to be subtle and not so direct otherwise visitors will simply do as they do in real life, just click away.

Just remember why you're reading this article!
(To learn how to effectively submit articles online)

It's so important to understand the difference between:

DO - Submit an informative article.
DON'T - Submit self-promotion to article directories.

Ask yourself this question, have you once read about my business? or what it is that I do so far?

Not at all. The reason behind this is because I’m an expert in this field and feel the need to share my knowledge with you in the hopes that what I teach here makes you a better author/submission specialist online.

The Difference Between Informative Article & Self-Promotion:

Informative: Talks about the industry.
Self-Promotion: Talks about how their business is performing within the industry.

Informative: Talks about new industry standards.
Self-Promotion: Talks about new company standards compared to the industry.

Informative: Talks about other players within the industry.
Self-Promotion: Bashes other players within the industry.

Informative: Offers resources for visitors to check out.
Self-Promotion: IS the resource.

Informative: Has proof or references to back their statements.
Self-Promotion: Offers company quarterly statements, and/or news clippings.

Are you starting to get the drift?

Talking about how your business is changing the industry is self-promotion. Now on the other hand, if your business DID or IS actually changing the industry, you can then format your article for press release submissions online. Even then, you must verify whether or not each article directory actually accepts press release submissions. You might be surprised to find out that not many article directories do. This is why so many authors fail, because they fail to read the author guidelines laid out to them from the owners of the article directory.

What Should I Expect To See Within Most Author Guidelines?

DO'S (ARTICLE TITLE):

- Create a catchy title
- Add important key words within your title
- Add important key phrases
- Refer to the content within your article
- Offer "10 tips on...", "5 must things you should know...", "etc..."
- Capitalize the 1st letter of each word
- Add (Part 1/10) for a series
- Keep your title within 100-150 characters long
- Try to only include these symbols ( !, -, =, .)

DONT'S (ARTICLE TITLE):

- Curse within your title
- USE ALL CAPS
- Add a web site address
- Add your author name
- Add your company name
- Use "Quotes", or Microsoft 'Smart Quotes', they don't mix well with databases
- Insert these symbols ( #, @, $, %, ^, >, <, + )
- Not use one
- Make false claims
- Create a marketing pitch
- Headline content that is NOT discussed within the article
- Create a title longer than 150 characters long that keeps going and going and...
- Not use valuable key words for search engine performance

DO'S (ARTICLE DESCRIPTION):

- Be creative and catchy
- Lead into your article message
- Keep the reader’s attention
- Use 2-3 sentences
- Use no more than 250 characters
- Introduce your article
- Use fear of loss
- Summarize your article
- Create a unique summary

DONT'S (ARTICLE DESCRIPTIONS):

- Promote yourself
- Add your web site
- Add your company name
- Add your business motto
- Add nothing
- Add "Not available to the public"
- Use more than 0-500 characters
- Add your entire article
- Repeat the title
- Repeat the 1st sentence within your article body
- Use HTML tags
- Try to add hidden links
- Insert key words only
- Use "About the author... "
- Add dates
- Add references
- Add testimonials
- Add resources

DO'S (ARTICLE BODY):

- Use Notepad or SimpleText to create it
- Use proper paragraphs
- Use HTML when you can
- Use (B, I, U, P, BR, UL, OL, LI, A) HTML tags only
- References at the bottom
- Use headlines to help visitors to scan your article quickly
- Use bullet points to illustrate a list of things
- Use important key words
- Use important key phrases
- Break up long articles into multiple series

DONT'S (ARTICLE BODY):

- Use Microsoft word, or your web site to copy & paste from
- Use unwanted HTML tags
- Use HTML when it calls for straight text
- Use hidden links within your article
- Add links to your web site when guidelines say not to
- Promote yourself within the body
- Add a copyright notice up top
- Add multiple author names up top
- Submit 1 paragraph articles
- Create an article longer than 3000 words
- Add your author resource box when they offer a separate field for it
- Repeat your summary twice
- Repeat your title twice
- Repeat your author resource box twice
- Submit improperly formatted HTML links
- Submit hate, warrez, porn content
- Forgot to use spell-check your text
- Forget to use proper grammar
- Forget to get someone to review your article for errors
- Talk about apples when your title says oranges
- Bash other people or companies
- Use false statements without proof
- Submit table structures (HTML Code)

DO'S (AUTHOR RESOURCE BOX):

- Tell people who you are and what you do
- Offer a website for visitors to go to
- Add your company phone number for quick access
- Add other contact information to maximize referrals
- Add "Copyright, All Rights Reserved"
- Add reprint rights for publishers
- Add a free download, or call-to-action phrase
- Add your RSS feed
- Add your blog
- Add a new promotion
- Add a link to more related content
- Keep your bio to 1-3 sentences only
- Keep your bio within 300-600 characters long
- Add a word count for publishers
- Use proper HTML links when asked for
- Use a WYSIWYG when you can to format your links

DONT'S (AUTHOR RESOURCE BOX):

- Create an author resource box larger than the article
- Add more than 3 active links
- Have more than 600 characters
- Use HTML when not required
- Not tell people what you do
- Add only (Visit: http://blahblahbla.com)
- Add your email address (Will be picked up for spam)
- Add your full biography
- Add links to affiliate programs
- Add links to porn, hate, warrez sites
- Add links to pages "404 Error - Page Not Found"
- Add the same link over and over again
- Add hidden links
- Add table structures
- Copy your resource box from your web site
- Submit HTML directly within a WYSIWYG editor

UNIVERSAL DO'S:

- Submit original content
- Add your article to your site 1st
- Submit your article to niche newsletters before you submit to multiple directories
- Submit an editorial not when submitting by email
- Find more directories to add to your list
- Submit articles often
- Select Appropriate categories for your articles
- Create series of articles for submission
- Offer publishers the right to reprint your articles to maximum exposure
- Use Notepad or SimpleText to create your articles in
- Submit your article in multiple languages when asked for

UNIVERSAL DON'TS:

- Submit articles with HARD BREAKS ***
- Submit articles with double spacing ***
- Submit HTML when told not to
- Submit No HTML when told not to
- Submit the same article over and over
- Create multiple authors accounts in order to submit the same article (We will catch you!)
- Submit self-promotional articles
- Forget to spell-check
- Submit to improper categories over and over again
- Copy & paste the article directly from your website
- Use Microsoft Word to create your articles
- Submit your author name within the title and description
- Submit your website within every field possible
- Hire a ghost writer without exclusive rights to the article
- Submit articles in Spanish when they call for English
- Submit articles that contain information about breaking the law
- Submit JavaScript within your articles
- Submit images & image tags within your articles
- Submit multiple font sizes, colours, and fonts
- etc.

As you can see from this list, there is a lot to know up front. Once you learn and master these guidelines you should have no problems submitting articles online. Don't forget that every article directory is different and offer unique author guidelines to follow. Taking a couple of seconds to quickly scan through each author guideline may save you a lot of time and headaches later on.

By strictly following these author guidelines, I do not guarantee that your articles will never come back to you as "Pending", "Problematic", or "Deleted". These guidelines just are laid out ensure that you have a higher rate of success when submitting articles online.

From here you are now ready for part 2:
Article Campaign Management (Part 2) Double Checking Your Articles

Download PDF Version: Article Management Campaign (Part 1)

About The Author:

Martin Lemieux is the owner of a successful article directory network with over 80,000 author submitted articles.

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