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Elements for an Article Directory Submission

Publishing articles at Article Directories is one of the best strategies a coach or consultant can use to get information on the Internet quickly. Be certain to read some of my suggestions on Article Directories to get yourself started in a good direction.

Here are the elements that you need for nearly every Article Directory: Article Title, Article Description, Name of Author, Article Body, Resource Box, Category, and a List of Keywords. Following descriptions of these elements, I give you some tips on Putting it all Together; Keeping it all Straight and an extremely valuable software called CopyPaste.

It's essential that you read the TOS (Terms of Service) at each Article Directory you submit to, so you're comfortable with your own use as well understanding the responsibilities of those who will re-publish your articles.

Article Title

You create the title, of course. You'll want to make it distinctive, snappy, with at least one strong keyword, and reflective of the content. As far as I know, each Article Directory allows only one article known by a particular title. Please read my article, Tracking Your Articles on the Internet, which turned into an article when I discovered I had too much to say on this page. You'll find some helpful information as you're considering the importance of your title, and more. Chris Knight offers insights to title development in Article Marketing & Copywriting Secret: How To Make Your Article TITLE Sell.

"Craft your article title to match a phrase which has some chance of being used in a search engine, but test it first to ensure there isn't stiff competition. It's fairly easy to get top ranking in the search engine in a less popular phrase, but does little good if nobody will ever types it. You have to find those small niche phrases."
Steve Moore, Owner of PositiveArticles.com

Article Description

While not all Article Directories require it, you'll want to create a summary or description of your article. Some authors use their first few sentences. I sometimes do that if I feel stuck, tired, or lazy. Most of my older articles have the format of one sentence beginning "This article ...." because that's how I published my list of articles on my main web site. With my newer articles, I usually start with a question aimed at the potential reader and then make a statement or two that introduces how the article will answer the question. Most Article Directories tell you the word or character limitation for the description, or suggest 2-3 sentences.

When readers are looking through Article Directories, they usually look first at the title, then to see if the name of the author is recognizable, and then by this description, if one is available. Think of it as a teaser; think of it as an executive summary; think of it as an expanded title. Think of it however you want, but do think about it and use it to your advantage. Even if your favorite Article Directory does not include a description, it's worth writing because it can synthesize your thinking.

Name of Author

This is you, of course. Use the name you want to be known by. A pseudonym is acceptable on the Internet. However, what I'm advocating at this web site is for you, as a professional coach or consultant, to write strong content that is associated with your name. Since the idea is to establish credibility, I presume you want your name circulating with the article, but you may have valid reasons for using a pseudonym. Some Article Directories allow for pseudonyms in a single account, or you can create a separate account.

In many Article Directories (maybe all), each article can have only one author. If the article is co-authored, you'll have to find some way around that. Some people use a company name, and provide details in the resource box. Others alternate the primary credit. Since I am not co-authoring with anyone right now, I've not researched this. If you have information on this, please feel free to contact me.

It's acceptable to put your academic degree in your byline. However, I don't, and I don't recommend that you do. If you think it's important to present academic credentials, I suggest using the resource box because they're stronger there. However, it's your name; it's your choice.

Article Body

Your article needs to be original and owned by you. As a professional, you'll want to stay away from those software programs that are designed to churn out article after article with little difference from one to another. The people you want to attract will know the difference between a well-crafted article based on your knowledge, wisdom, and experience and one that is contrived by a formula.

You can, of course, hire the services of a reputable freelance writer. Dana Davalos gives you some tips in her article, Hiring a Freelancer For Your Article Campaign.

"I always recommend that my clients take advantage of article marketing -- no matter what their business is about. Distributing their content (even if it's ghost-written) across the Web drives traffic to their sites, increases their sales and gives them greater name-recognition."
Dana Davalos, Graphic Designer, Groovy Graphix

Avoid all marketing language in your article. Make no reference to how your readers can learn more if they schedule a session or buy your book. Make the article a stand-alone value-added piece. If you've hired a freelance writer who is oriented toward marketing, be certain that he or she understands this point.

The prevailing opinion is that quality articles for Article Directories weigh in at 400-800 words. Generally, articles under 400 words don't show enough depth or quality -- dynamics that you'll surely want to convey as a professional coach. By all means, if you have an article with 200 words that you feel is valuable, publish it! Articles over 800 words are certainly acceptable. However, they're not as readily re-published. That being said, one of my popular articles is over 1800 words! Usually at that length, there is a way to make two strong articles; this one, though, I wasn't willing to divide.

If you prepare your articles in Microsoft Word, be certain to turn off curly quotes. They play havoc at Article Directories. Also, don't use any extended characters or overly complicated formatting. Even the familiar and all-important apostrophe (') and quotation marks (") can be problematic. That's the reason that I rarely use contractions in my online writing, although I'm experimenting with using contractions at this web site. (Please tell me if they're a problem on your browser.) The dash (—) often is not read properly, which is the reason that most writers replace it with two hyphens (--). If a preview feature is available, be certain to use it so that you can check your article.

Incidentally, if you have articles that are already written with some of the problematic characters mentioned above, you can copy and paste them using the software, CopyPaste (more below). One of the CopyPaste features allows you to remove styles when you paste what you've copied.

Most Article Directories use either text or very basic html. Your articles won't be as nicely formatted as, for example, they are at this web site. Keep that in mind as you find ways to format your articles so that they're not just flush left and plain text.

Since I compose my articles in Dreamweaver, I use a separate word counter, which also gives you a character count. Some Article Directories also give you a word count when you submit articles; however, you really want to know your word count before you get to the point of submission. Eventually you'll know intuitively the approximate word count, which will be close enough.

No Article Directory I know about allows hyperlinks in the body of the article, unless they lead to universal resources, like newspapers, government agencies, etc. Shelley Lowery's article, Selecting the Best Web Design Language for Your Project, is an example of appropriate links in the body of an article. My own articles at this site do have links in the body of the article, but, well, this is my site and not an Article Directory.

Resource Box

This is where you place your contact information, credentials, and marketing language. When your articles are re-published from the Article Directory that you've submitted to, the publishers are responsible for carrying forward this information and creating the same hyperlinks. Some directories limit the number of links you can include; some tell you not to include affiliate links. Be certain to check the TOC.

I like to put a copyright sign (©) and date in my resource box; neither is required. Even though my name is in the byline, I always include it again in the resource box (actually a few Article Directories don't use a byline, which I think is strange). And, of course, I say something about myself that is relevant to the article. I personally feel that a word count of about 50 is optimal.

Do not include your email address. Trust me on this one! If you decide to include your email address, please remember that I did recommend against it. Your phone number is optional and if you don't have a web site, it's better to use your phone number than your email address.

I have many different web sites, so I select the one or two links that seem most relevant. I make sure that at least one of my links is spelled out with the full URL, for example, http://www.mhmail.com. Then, if a careless publisher doesn't create the hyperlinks, I still have at least one URL spelled out. I also avoid placing a period (.) at the end of a link because someone could easily pick that up when creating the link, making it unclickable.

Be certain that the information in your resource box will still be valid in six months or later. For example, if you have some "special" that expires in 30 days, this is not helpful information in an article resource box. You should be thinking long term about these articles because they can circulate for years.

I definitely recommend that you review a number of resource boxes after you've prepared a rough draft of your own. As you need or want, change the information over time. You don't need to return to older articles to edit your resource box, just move forward with the more current information.

Category

Each Article Directory provides its own selection of categories for you to choose from. In some Article Directories, you'll find no category that remotely fits your article. Move on. Some directories are very coach-friendly and might even have so many categories for one of your articles that you have a hard time choosing! In that case, you can include in your article marketing strategy a plan to place different articles in different categories.

Make sure your article is in the proper category. At most directories, there is a drop-down menu with "Arts" (or something else beginning with A) as the selected category. So be certain to change that. Other directories will more properly configure their drop down menu so that the exposed item says something like "Select your category here" and give you an error message if you fail to do so.

At EzineArticles.com, anyone can subscribe to email alerts of new articles by category. This is one of the ways that Ezine publishers are able to find the fresh, new articles of the authors they like. And, of course, they spot the titles of articles that appeal to them whether they know the authors or not. While you think of it, this could be a good time for you to subscribe to a few categories of interest, so that you can see what's being written in your niche.

Keywords

The keywords associated with your article are very important. You decide the keywords and prepare a list. Any keyword in your list should be in your article at least once, preferably twice. Do not overdo the repetition of your keywords. Most Article Directories limit you to a number of characters for your list of keywords and require that you separate the keywords by commas. Spelling is important!

There are a variety of resources for you to learn about keywords. Before I mention a few, I want to make an important point. You want to use keywords as a tool, not as a means to determine what you write. Start with writing from your heart and writing from your experiences. After you have a first or second draft, open yourself to thinking about keywords and keyword searches. Use keywords to enhance your article; use good keywords to help potential readers find you through search engines.

As an experiment at some time, you might try to start with highly-searched keywords and see what you create as an article. I suggest you not get carried away with this. As I said before, keywords are a tool. Understanding keywords is an important part of your marketing research on the Internet.

At most Article Directories, you'll be asked to type your list of keywords. The keywords are used for the Article Directory's own Search Engine Optimization (SEO) strategies. They will, for example, use RSS feeds for your articles, and perhaps meta tags. Accurate keywords benefit you greatly. When you submit them to the Article Directory, you might think of them as the infrastructure of your article. I've not ever seen a list of keywords published with an article.

Developing keywords is both an art and a science. I expect to bring some resources to this site in the future. Until then, I recommend Wordtracker and Overture Keyword Selector. I also recommend searching Google or other search engines for keywords that you think are right for your article. Search and see what comes up on the Internet.

Wordtracker is run by Perry Marshall (I'd like to say we're related, but we're not). He has a very fine newsletter that is worthy of a subscription if you want to learn from one of the masters. If you're serious about using keywords to their full advantage, take the tour or trial at WordTracker. Many resources are available at his site. Perry also conducts strong and worthwhile seminars.

Overture Keyword Selector is run by Yahoo. It's invaluable, provided you understand its limitations. It's a good way to get started before you're ready to commit money for other options that are more valuable. When you're ready to experiment with it, type in a keyword, press the arrow, and see what comes up. The results will give you the number of searches in a recent previous month, in descending order, by users of Yahoo with your selected keyword and other words used with your keyword. It gives you the relative position of one keyword to another. If you think in absolute numbers, multiply by 3 to know the approximate number of searchs on Google. This tool can also give you ideas for your writing, so that you can include the keywords in your article and in your keyword list.

Here's an example. I just used Overture to do a search for "writing." It gave me the word "writing" at 74,331 searches. "Writing a book" yielded 5745 searches, while "book writing" didn't even make the list. "Business writing" is number three on the list. So if you're writing about business writing, you'll want to be certain to use the phrase "business writing" in your article and in your list of keywords. "Writing about business," "writing in business," and "writing for business" don't make the list of searches. That doesn't mean that you should avoid such phrasing if it makes sense in your article, just be certain to use the more searched-for terms also.

Putting it all Together; Keeping it all Straight

I use a spread sheet to keep track of my article submissions because I have a lot of articles and I'm continuously writing. For me, this is a long-term strategy, but I have times when I submit very few articles because I'm focused on other projects. I need a system to keep everything straight without trying to remember such details, so a spread sheet does that for me.

On occasion, I use an Article Directory submission service, which I discuss in the Article Directories Section. This is my best way of keeping a list of articles submitted to more Article Directories than I can count.

You'll have to maintain some way to keep your articles organized. Even CopyPaste, which I discuss next, can be an organization tool.

CopyPaste Utility

There's a software program which allows you to copy and paste multiple items and hold them in memory. It is, in effect, a multiple clipboard system. The items can be saved in clips. I use CopyPaste all the time and have for many years. It's available for both Mac and Windows. According to the developer, Julian, the Mac version is far superior to the Windows version. Even if Windows users only get a small portion of its value, you'll probably still benefit.

You can find out more about CopyPaste at the developers web site. I cannot imagine being a writer without CopyPaste. I use it every day; I use it hundreds of times a day. You can get a good visual to understand it better by visiting the web site.

For the articles, I use one clip for each article. In the first slot, I save the article title; second is an alternative title, if any; third is the article description, fourth is the article; fifth is the list of keywords. I leave the next few blank or sometimes include the URL where the original article is published, which is usually one of my blogs or web sites. In the last two slots, I include the resource box, one in plain text (needed) and the other in html (rarely, but occasionally needed).

All the above may sound strange until you've installed this software. Once you use it, you won't want to run your computer without it.