Article Marketing, 3 Tips To Authors For Better Results

These 3 tips should help you in your article marketing efforts and answer some of the more common misconceptions about submitting articles for maximum effectiveness.

1.) Don't Submit Junk Articles

Too many authors are using 3rd party software to "write" articles nowadays. Or they hire offshore companies to re-write copy for them. In too many cases you end up with junk articles.

For instance, a proper sentence such as, "With todays economy in rapid decline, it's more important than ever to watch every penny spent.", is turned into, "Economy being in decline today is it is important that every watched penny is not spent." - by one such software program.

Who will read that? No one will. So if you are hoping for some activity from your back-links you can forget it. Except, perhaps, a reader noticing your company or website name and just considering you a joke.

But, you say, I'm still getting results for the backlink right? Wrong. As search engines get smarter and smarter they are beginning not only to ignore junk like this, they are actually turning to FILTER such works. They are already penalizing websites for other activities and soon they will start penalizing websites with these junk articles and their backlinks.

Finally, a lot of article directories are paying more attention to the articles submitted. Some are getting so fed up they are banning authors and websites. The main article directory I write for, Article Fountain, is actually banning IP addresses of repeat junk submitters.


2.) Don't Pay for JUST Article Submissions

There are thousands of Article Directories out there and the vast majority of them are free to both authors and publishers. Article Directories, for the most part, derive their income and cover their operating costs through advertising. All those ads by Google and affiliate links you see flashing on their sites. You might think they are distracting or annoying but they are the reason you're able to put out your articles at no cost.

Some directory sites charge their authors just to publish their articles. Or they will charge a premium fee to "review" the article quicker. If all their charging you for is to publish your article then MOVE ON!

Now, to be fair...some sites offer added services that they will charge you for. Perhaps automatically posting your article to other sites, offering editorial support, or other such options. Then it's really up to you to decide if the added cost is worth it.


3.) Article Submission Companies

Numerous companies offer article submission services. These services can be beneficial for authors who just don't have the time to submit their articles themselves but you have to be careful. Some of the things you need to watch for are;

Are they manually submitting your articles? If not, then the articles are probably not being submitted to the proper categories. Why would you want your article on acne medication submitted to a home improvement category?

Are they being submitted to quality sites? A quality site doesn't just mean a high Page Rank or a lot of articles. Some huge sites are so convoluted and full of junk that your better off skipping them. Their distribution network is also key. Why pay a company to submit your article to "900 sites" when you can get more benefit having them manually submitted to 150 quality sites?

Do you get a report? Do they even offer a reporting service? If they don't tell you where they've submitted your articles or when then RUN!

Hopefully these tips have informed you on some common issues regarding marketing your articles online.

Best of luck!

Read more of J Sean's articles at http://www.articlefountain.com He opines on topics such as Article Distribution, and Author Marketing.