Writing Wrong
Steve Shaw discusses the importance writing correctly
when you publish your business articles and how writing
wrong is even worse than not writing at all. Learn the common
mistakes the new business writers make when promoting their
websites through article writing.
The WRONG Way To WRITE Articles
As you no doubt already know, writing articles is probably the
most effective way to promote your web site. It's a very simple
principle - publishers want a vast quantity of good quality content
that they do not have to pay for; you provide that content, with
the proviso that at the bottom of your article, they include your
resource box with a link to your web site. It's a win-win situation.
With your article published on heaps of web sites, and in several
ezines, it's enough to set your traffic counter spinning.
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However, I see many articles that are
simply not written in a way that will maximize the benefits
for the author.
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Minor mistakes can turn an article that would otherwise get published
several times and achieve a great deal for the author, into an
article that is barely published and discarded by most publishers
into the trash.
By avoiding these common mistakes, your article will appeal
much more to publishers, and you will see the results from
your article submissions vastly improve:
1. Do Not Write A Solo Ad
Many authors make the mistake of submitting articles that
are actually little more than solo advertisements for their
web sites. Containing little helpful information, they read
like a sales letter and then urge the reader to visit their
web site - and that's before you get to the resource box.
The chances of such an article getting published are virtually
zero. Publishers are looking for an informative article,
a quality piece that they can publish in order to benefit
their readership and their visitors.
This means that including a link to your own web site in
the article body is generally a no-no, unless for example,
you are linking to a helpful article that adds further to
the information you have included and is in context.
Your article should not read like a promotional vehicle
for a particular product or service.
2. Do Not Include Affiliate Links
The site of an affiliate link within your article is a
big turn-off for publishers - unless your article is highly
informative and of an extremely high quality, but that is
quite rare.
Generally, if you want to maximize your chances of publication,
avoid including affiliate links in your article. You can
sometimes get away with it, if for example you include a
link to a straight domain that actually forwards via your
affiliate link to another web site. The publisher might
not notice, as it appears to be a straightforward web site
link, but I find it quite sneaky and dishonest, and I would
not generally recommend it.
3. Avoid Spelling Mistakes
The sight of a spelling mistake in an article is another
big turn-off for publishers. It turns what could otherwise
be an acceptable article with good chances of publication,
into a poor quality article that will end up in the trash.
Publishers are busy people - they don't have time to edit
out your mistakes. But the main point is that spelling mistakes
leave a Very Bad Impression - it points to a lack of care
on your part, and reduces the credibility of the information
provided in the article.
Take a minute to run your article through a spell checker
- there's a free one online at http://www.spellcheck.net/
- before you submit it. You may be surprised at what you
failed to spot.
4. Do Not Include Hype In Your Resource Box
While your resource box can include a link to your web
site, it should not read like an advert. I see many resource
boxes that read like over-hyped promotional material more
at home on a classified ad page. Your resource box should
contain some brief information about you as an author, with
a link to your web page - nothing more.
A badly written, overly-promotional resource box can cause
a publisher to reject your article, even if your article
would otherwise have been accepted - the simple reason is
that such a hyped-up resource box would 'lower the tone'
of their publication, and turn off their readership. That's
obviously not what they want to do.
Just respect your potential publishers, and keep your resource
box brief and to the point.
As long as you avoid these common mistakes, you are on
the right track, and you should see the results from your
article submissions greatly improve.
Copyright 2005 Steve Shaw
About The Author
Steve Shaw provides systems and software for effective
e-marketing. Find out more about how to publish articles
for profit online with his popular free ecourse, available
at:
http://www.takanomi.com/publish-articles.php
Business articles are the life blood for
many trying to get ahead in today's changing marketplace.
It is estimated that 67-percent of business people read
7 or more business articles per week. This is a great testament
for the yearning for knowledge in today's business environment.
This business articles website is devoted
to keeping you up-to-date with what is going on in today's
web business world. Check out the entire site to learn how
you can get an edge and keep it.
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