By: Brandie King, Copyright 2004
If your articles aren't getting published very often, or you
just want to increase the chances of them being published, then
you will benefit from the tips in this article.
1. Article Length You should always keep you article 500 to 800
words long. If you can't fit what you want to say into that
amount of space, then break your article up into more than one
part.
2. Resource Box Length When writing your resource box, keep it 5
to 6 lines long. In a resource box you are simply trying to get
people to request more information, not sell them something. If
you want a longer ad, buy one!
3. Line Length The lines in both your article and your resource
box should be formatted to 60 to 65 characters per line. One of
the consequences of not doing so is that, in some email
programs, your article may appear with every line at a different
length.
You can get your article formatted, as well as learning its
character, line, and word count, at the following website for
free. http://www.fwointl.com/FWOFormatter.html
4. Is Your Article Actually An Article? Publishers want to
provide their readers with actually useful information and you
should want the same. If you write an article that is just a
sales letter or press release it will be rejected 99 percent of
the time.
5. Inactive Links Before you even think about publishing or
submitting your article check that all links within it are
active and working. Nothing is more irritating than to click on
a link for a site you're interested in only to find out that it
no longer exists.
6. Spelling, Punctuation, and Grammar If you submit your article
and it's full of errors it will be thrown into the trash folder
so fast that your head will spin. Submitting articles with these
types of errors not only makes you look extremely
unprofessional, but it shows disrespect for both the publisher
and their readers.
7. S*AM Triggers As a courtesy, you should run your article
through a program that will check it for triggers that could
possibly get it rejected by filters. This isn't a necessary step
but it will definitely impress publishers and increase the
chances of your article being published.
You can check your article for free at
http://www.lyris.com/contentchecker.
8. Publisher Guidelines This should be understood without having
to say it, but it is still important enough to mention. Always,
always, always follow the publisher's guidelines when submitting
an article to them. Not doing so will get your article rejected
quicker than anything else.
Read this list, print it out, and keep it by you when you are
writing an article. Read each tip and make sure that you are
following it.
Making the above mistakes will insult the intelligence of both
the publishers and their readers, as well as wasting your time
and theirs.
About Author :
Brandie King is a writer and author who teaches other writers
how to write, as well as promote, using articles. She is
currently looking for a wide variety of articles on a wide
variety of topics for her article directory. You can submit
absolutely free. http://www.articlesubmission.com
You are free to reprint this article in your ezine or ebook, or
on your website, as long as the contents in the article and the
resource box are not changed.