The Best Advertisement For Your Business

It is no secret among internet marketers that writing articles is a great way to market your website. With all the article distribution services and all the websites looking for free, unique content, writing a quality article can bring you more links to your website in one day than an entire month of working out link exchanges and submitting to directories. The benefits of writing articles have been written about time and time again. Yet in order to enjoy the benefits of article writing, your article must first be accepted by the publishers who receive your submissions. This article will focus on a few key points to help increase your chances of getting your article accepted by the Internet's top publishers.

Proofread Your Own Writing

Proofreading is very time consuming. If you want your article to be widely accepted, it is your job to make the publisher's job easier. The first step in making the publisher's job easier is to check, double check, and triple check your spelling and grammar. If you have someone that can review your article, have them read it over. Tell this person to look for grammatical errors, spelling mistakes, and poorly worded sentences. They will be able to point out mistakes that you may never have seen. When you write an article there is a tendency of getting overly familiar with the content and thus you could miss a glaring mistake in your writing. Consider the following exercise by reading aloud what is written:

London
in the
the
spring
x x x

What did you read? If you identified that the word 'the' is written twice, than you can consider yourself one of only 5% of people who get this exercise correct. 95% of people who read this exercise only see "London in the spring X X X". (If you still do not see it, read it aloud again, but this time point to each word as you read it.)

The point of this exercise is to show you just how easy it is to miss obvious mistakes. Add in the element of familiarity with the writing and you are likely to miss even more mistakes. By asking someone else to read over your work, you greatly reduce the chances of missing a glaring error in your writing.

Rule to Remember: Proofread Your Own Writing, and then Proofread Again

Offer Something of Real Value

Articles are an incredible source of free traffic and free advertising for your business. However, articles are not supposed to be advertisements themselves. There is nothing you can do to get a publisher to delete your article faster than writing an article that is nothing more than a long-winded ad copy.

If you want to get your article published, once again you must get into the publisher's mind. The publisher is always looking to offer his or her readers with fresh, insightful, and helpful information. Commentaries on industry trends, useful strategies, tutorials, observations and theories all make good articles. As an owner of a business, reviewing one of your products, offering a teaser of the information you sell, or blatantly marketing your products by including your hyperlink throughout the article makes for a horrible article that will likely not be published.

Think back to the time when you first started your online venture (this may not be very long ago) and remember how thirsty you were for good, quality information. When writing your article, remember how valuable this information was to you when you found it. Every author has the right to a resource box which serves as your advertisement; if you prove to the reader that you are an expert in your field and give them information that only you can provide, this will serve as a stronger advertisement than if you spend 2,000 words on a long-winded, self-promotional article.

Finally, when writing your resource box, it is best to be as concise as possible. Resource boxes that appear to be about as long as the article themselves show that the author has no concern about the content of his or her article. Limit the number of links you put into your resource box to no more than three links and keep the resource box to no more than four or five lines.

Rule to Remember: Write a Good Article, not a Good Advertisement

Be Clear and Concise

Many people fall into the trap of thinking they have to develop an eloquent, graceful writing style in order to be published. What these people seem to forget is that an article is written with one main point: to deliver information. Be concise, be clear, and be direct. When writing your article, you should actually aim to be slightly boring with your writing style. What is slightly boring to you is probably very clear and direct to the reader.

It is important to note that most online publishers have much more to deal with than the writing styles of the authors who submit articles to them. Publishers are more concerned with grammar, spelling, and content than they are with how eloquently a writer can make his or her point. One thing that a publisher will take notice of, however, is a writer who has a confusing and difficult to follow writing style.

Your article should encourage readers to read through the entire article. If a reader gets a few lines into the article, or even a few paragraphs, and finds themselves confused, you can be sure that they will never get to your resource box and thus never visit your website. To keep a reader interested in your article, give them quality information and give it to them directly and clearly. A reader will only continue to read an article if they believe there is a good chance that they will gain something further by finishing the article. Although it may be counter-intuitive, boring writing does just that.

Rule to Remember: Being Boring is Better than Being Confusing

Writing good articles is not difficult. When writing your article, think first about what publishers are looking for in an article. Focus on your grammar, spelling, clarity, conciseness, and content. Remember that your article should actually help people beyond just selling your product or service. Offer valuable information to your readers and they will pay you back ten-fold. Offer valuable information to a publisher's readers and they will be certain to publish your article and provide you with the best free advertisement for your business.

Copyright 2004 Mark Daoust

About The Author

Mark Daoust is the owner of http://www.site-reference.com. Discuss this article further at http://forums.site-reference.com/t120/s.html.

---

Articles That Sizzle - Top Ten Topics

There's one key rule that every writer should understand before... Read More

Dont Miss These 10 Must Know Facts About Promoting Your Website with Article Writing

Most all ezine publishers need fresh content. Article writing is... Read More

Ten Tips Articles

"Ten Tips" articles are the easiest piece to write because... Read More

Article Writing: 5 Tips on How to Pull and Hold the Reader

Okay, so you're getting a feel for this article marketing... Read More

Make Money Online Using Keyword Articles

Routing traffic to your web page is incredibly important in... Read More

Jump From Unknown to Widely Quoted in One Week

Start by Being QuotableIt's tough to stand out online. With... Read More

Guest Articles: Good for Some, Bad for Others

A recent debate started me thinking about how some marketing... Read More

5 Powerful Article Writing Tips

Writing articles is one of the most powerful, if not... Read More

Wise Article Marketing Strategies

If you are an article writer, you may have been... Read More

Simultaneous Article Submission

Do you know the difference between simultaneous article submissions and... Read More

Thought Leaders - Using Article Marketing To Entrench Yourself and Your Personal Brand

A "Thought Leader" is someone recognized as an authority in... Read More

Getting Your Foot in the Door (Or How I Finally Got Published)

This has to be the number one thing that most... Read More

How to use Articles to Boost Your Online Presence

Writing articles is one of the best ways to get... Read More

How to Create a Viral Lead-Generating Machine

Whether you own your own affiliate website, or subscription website,... Read More

Stop Struggling and Write Your Article

Don't let overwhelm hold you back- follow this expert advice... Read More

Every Writers Dilemma: How Do You Decide What to Write About?

The sources of inspiration are all around us, in the... Read More

Write a Better Technical Article in Half the Time

Good technical articles are challenging to write. They're time-consuming, demanding... Read More

1000 Ways to Improve Your Business

One of the best things you can do for your... Read More

Writing Articles to Boost Your Sites Traffic

Two important factors that play a part in the rankings... Read More

Giving Yourself the Right to Write

"But I've only been on the Internet 3 months! How... Read More

Five Benefits of Article Writing

A few years ago as a webmaster with no money,... Read More

Writing Articles

You say, I can't write an article, I have no... Read More

Promote Your Home Business with Keyword Rich Articles

Do you wonder what easy, cheap, and fast way you... Read More

Article Publishing Is A Key Component Of Internet Marketing

Frequently when I am communicating with other webmasters and I... Read More

You Really Can Make Money With Your Words

Sometimes when I am communicating with other webmasters and I... Read More

Using Anchor Text Optimization In Your Article Viral Marketing Campaign

What is Anchor Text Optimization?Anchor text optimization consists of the... Read More

How to Use Articles to Generate Free Traffic to Your Website

Writing articles that are available for reprint is an excellent... Read More

7 Steps Toward Successful Article Writing

As you write the outline for your next article, there... Read More

Effective Affiliate Marketing Using Articles

Every day thousands of people join affiliate programs and yet... Read More

How Your Online Business Can Generate Loads Of Free Traffic From Articles

The biggest challenge facing any online business today is how... Read More

Be in the Trade Publications Your Customers Read

Your publicity dreams may include being featured in Forbes, Fortune,... Read More

The Real Reason You Should Be Marketing With Articles

Article marketing has become very popular of late, especially with... Read More

Article Marketing: The Five Indisputable Rules of Author Bio Creation

Hey! Who's that I see, typing feverishly as brilliant ideas... Read More