by Marige O'Brien, 1/13/2006

Many internet marketers have heard about the traffic that article marketing can bring to a website. Yet, when they try it themselves, they find the results less than rewarding. With article marketing becoming more and more well-known as a FREE (or very cheap) way to quickly gain lots of inbound links to a website, the value of it cannot be over-emphasized.

However, as this trend grows, so does the population of articles that are available. With the inherent competition, article distributors and newsletter editors, are becoming more selective toward the articles they accept. Since they are in the driver's seat, the sensible thing to do is find out what it is they need, as well as the most efficient way to offer that to them.

Below are 9 tips that include everything from offline preparation, to Byline Do's & Don't's. Each is designed to make the process as efficient and painless as possible. Included in the byline is a link to a current list of approximately 100 submission sites and recommended submission services.

1. LIKE A GOOD SCOUT, BE PREPARED

There are several items each distributor will need regarding each article submission. Preparing these beforehand, as part of the writing process, will make the submission session flow smoothly. The list below includes everything needed to submit an article:

Title

Like the name of a website, a Title is, was, and shall always be the articles first advertisement. This is true for editors and distributions as much as those who will eventually read it. Though there are many articles devoted to this subject alone, the most important thing to remember is: short and to the point. The faster people can understand what the article is about, the faster they can decide if they're interested. And never, never use a deceptive Title. Though it may gain some attention, in the long run, the editors will mostly remember being disappointed by you.

Synopsis or Abstract

This is a short description of the article, which is usually only one or two sentences long. Many distributors even have a byte or character limit for it. Respect that limit. If your synopsis exceeds it, the system will probably just cut off the last few words. The synopsis is used by the distributor to promote the article on their article listings. It is the short "blurb" that explains a little more of the article.

Keywords

Like the keywords for a website, these keywords must be relevant to the subject. For example, the keywords used for this article were: business writing, article marketing, internet marketing, affiliate marketing, article submission, newsletter distribution. They all relate in some meaningful way to the overall subject. There needn't be more than four or five phrases. These will be used, not only within the database searches, but with major seach engines, too.

Body

Most distributors also have a limit on the amount of characters/bytes for this, but are usually generous with this amount. Respect that amount. If your article exceeds these limits, edit it appropriately.

Byline

This is the little box at the bottom of the page that is "About The Author". The reason it's called a "byline" is because this is who the article is "by", i.e., who wrote it. Keep this short, too, but be sure to include any background that is pertinent to the subject and could deem you an "expert", as well as your profession and a link to your site is needed. Again, there are limitations on these, which vary according to the distributor. Generally, if it's brief (like mine, below), no one will object.

Once all of these items are written and edited the article is ready for submission. It's also a good idea, before beginning to make a short template that includes all these items, then save it as something like, "basic_article.txt". But--