Advantages Article Authors are Missing Out On

December 7th, 2007

Article marketing is a formidable way to get the word out about your website, products and services and does bring traffic if done in the right way. Unfortunately, many authors don’t appear to be thinking when they make their article submissions to the various article directories and therefore don’t get the full advantage of the absolutely free advertising, submitting articles can bring them.

Here are a few tips on some simple things article authors should think about seriously when submitting articles to article directories:

One chance – so make it count

1). Signing up for various article directories is simple. These directories on the whole have a user friendly interface and make things easy for the author to register and submit articles. Article directories have terms and conditions that state what the owners allow authors to submit and what not. When authors register they are normally asked to agree to the terms and conditions – if they don’t agree, they simply can’t register. Surprisingly enough many authors, even though they have agreed to these terms – don’t actually follow them.

Surprised? No. We tell ourselves that we have to be more social, more Web 2.0 but that’s only on the surface. Under that surface – all most of us are concerned with is ourselves and how much money is coming in. What we also need to remember is, that most article directories offer free submission of author articles. Most article submission sites do a grand job of bringing free traffic to the article authors website – all free of charge. And yet authors don’t seem to care – they have a ‘me, me, me – money, money, money’ attitude.

Article directories and the work they put in for you

2). Most article submission sites have a ‘submit your URL’ link on their sites, where authors can add their site URL in exchange for a reciprocal link. It’s not something that submitting authors have to do, but is a nice gesture to the directory owner, saying ‘thank you’ for their hard work in bringing a website more exposure. Linking to the directory is an incentive for them and inspires them to help you more in your online endeavours.

As an author submitting articles, when was the last time you gave of your own free will a reciprocal link on the indexed, right up there in your face front-page of your website to an article directory, where you reap the rewards of getting free traffic to your website?

Submitting articles under real name or pen name

2). Once your article is submitted – it’s a foot-print on the internet, there for all to see. If you absolutely feel that you have to use a pen name instead of your real name – then at least use one that’s original. When a visitor reads your article, the first thing they look at is the author’s name. If you’ve registered your author name as gibberish nonsense, then right then and there you’re credibility is blown. An otherwise interested reader, will leave your article quicker than you can say ‘article submission’.

Why is it that time and again, authors don’t take the time to give either their real name or a pen name? Instead, they use for example JoeJoe for the first name and yep – you’ve guessed it JoeJoe for their second name too and sometimes with a number after it. Some even use their website name, or even try to sign up using numbers or just plain old gibberish. Is this the picture an author wants to give to a potential customer?

3). Spelling, grammar and formatting

In this day and age, with all the technical bits and pieces, plugins and heaven knows what, that aid us in providing quality articles, written without spelling and grammar mistakes – why are 6 out 10 articles oh so filled with one error after the other? There are tons of free tools, for example Firefox and Google plugins such as spelling checks that can help any author to fix any errors.

When was the last time you checked your article for spelling and grammar mistakes before pressing ‘go’ to submit?

Submitting to the correct category

4). Article directories all have categories, authors can choose from to submit their articles. In order to be noticed and read, it’s a must that an article be submitted and categorized in the correct category. Picture this: Josey Bloggs (fictive person) is interested in widgets for windmills and she knows a great article directory, where she will look for this information. So she browses to her favourite directory and clicks on category ‘Widgets’ – nothing there. She really wants this information so she clicks on sub-category ‘Windmills’ – still nothing.

Days previously – you the author, had submitted a great article on ‘widgets for windmills’. But did you check that you were submitting to the right category? Nope – cause if you had Josey would have found it and your website and very likely have bought that super windmill widget that you’re offering right now.

Lucky for you Josy is a frequent visitor to this particular directory and she knows to make a search, to make absolutely sure that the information she’s looking for can’t be found, before going somewhere else. But what if it was another visitor – one that couldn’t be bothered to do a search? Or didn’t know that you could search.

There are thousands of situations that could lead to you losing out on a visitor to your website, simply because you didn’t have or take the time to check your work before finally submitting your article. Submitting your article to the correct category gives you more of an edge than if you don’t. Remember, internet visitor loyalty can be fickle – they are there until they find something better. Make sure yours is optimal, the best.

Conclusion:

In conclusion – my guess is that many authors are spreading themselves too thinly, many putting quantity (tons of it) before quality, many shooting from the hip with a pellet gun into the masses to try and get a hit somehow, somewhere. We agree, the bottom line is the one that should bring in the meat and gravy – bus does it, when we submit less than quality content for our readers?

Having an online business and being noticed in the crowd of the ever growing competitive nature of the internet, is not easy these days. There are so many juicy advantages to be had – sadly, with a formidable way of getting free traffic, many article authors are missing out due a few small – but big in comparison – issues that take a couple of minutes to change.