Article Marketing Connects you Directly to Readers Even brilliantly-written articles can’t "toot your horn" unless they get in front of people who’d care enough to read them. And widely posting articles online is the most direct way to make that occur. Posted articles bring a business many benefits http://www.promotewitharticles.com/benefits.html . Keyword- focused and information-rich articles appeal to both human readers and search engines.

Your List for Article Submissions is the Crucial Link that Makes it Work

The quality of your submission list determines how many people get to read your message. Unless places you submit to are in synch with your message, products and services, most of your efforts are wasted. It’s worth your time to customize and polish your list.

1. Expanding the List

I spend at least as much time each week tweaking my list as writing articles to post. As I travel the Internet, my antenna stays tuned for suitable websites and ezines.

Assessing Websites - Is this a quality, visitor-friendly site? - That’s totally subjective - but if not, I won’t send articles there - Does it reach the readers I write for? - Does it use articles? If so, are they by authors unaffiliated with the site? - Is there a submission form or author guidelines?

Their authors are considered. Am I familiar with their work? Is it worthwhile? Sometimes I Google an author’s name to see what else they’ve written and where it appears. Often I discover a slew of appropriate websites unknown to me.

I regularly query search engines for targeted keywords, or the group I want to reach (chiropractors). From those results, I use Google’s "Search within Results" feature and type in phrases like, "Submit Article" or "Newsletters." That links me directly to possible candidates. I won’t include a site without visiting a website and feeling that it’s a match.

Whenever someone requests permission to post an article of mine I offer similar (and future) ones also. They found me! That’s another emotional payback from posting articles.

2. Culling and Upgrading Listed Sites

Starting a week after posting an article, I query Google with the title (in quotes) in the search box. I notice where it shows up, then re-check regularly. Results are logged for each article. When it appears on websites not already on my list, they’re added.

Requests to be removed from the list are honored immediately. Addresses for undelivered submissions are updated or removed.

3. Organizing the Addresses on the List

I consider Ezine Announcer, http://tinyurl.com/53wo9 invaluable for posting articles. Its auto-fill feature completes online submission forms easily. And it does a good job sending customized email submissions. But I find its most important use to be mailing list management.

My own submission list exceeds 1000 addresses, so it became too difficult to keep organized and updated. Ezine Announcer comes with 1700 addresses included (plus purchasers receive future up-dates). That’s a good start if you haven’t developed your own list already. However, I found that my own tested list was much more extensive for topics where I submit the most. By merging my list with that one (and eliminating overlap) I’ve now got the best of both. And they’re arranged logically.

Customized Categories Save Posting Time

Ezine Announcer has several general categories (like Article Directory) and numerous narrow topics (like Finance or Health). It’s a simple matter to move an address from one category to another, or to add additional categories.

I split the Article Directory into several parallel directories, which simplifies posting. Reorganizing categories further streamlined the posting process - saving hours on each article.

New Directory Categories - My A list (and high Google Page Rank) - Password required (which tend to have more complications) - Submit by email - Must exchange links - Special requirements - Many topics (not primarily business) - Troubled sites (below)

When I encounter a site with problems (temporarily down, weird error messages) I move it into the troubled category. They can be checked or removed later. But such irregularities no longer delay the posting process. And I can deal with them when convenient.

Speed up your Learning Curves

Article marketing is a potent method to promote yourself, your business, your website, and your book. However, there are plenty of tricks to achieving the most mileage from your efforts. Discover in-depth how-to for every step of the process at http://www.promotewitharticles.com - Article Marketing Academy. You’ll get better with practice, and more momentum with every article you send out into the vast Internet. But you have to get started... © 2004, Lynella Grant