Internet Tip of the Week
by Bob Osgoodby
An Interesting ArticleHow many times have you been told that a great way to gain
exposure for your business or website, has been to write an
article, and get it published in various Newsletters or E-zines?
Let's assume you write a timely, interesting article, and take
the time to figure out who to submit it to, but it never gets
published. Why?Publishers are busy folks, and most are cautious. If you send
your article as an attachment, many won't even open it. With
all the viruses being circulated on the web, a cautious
publisher won't open an attachment - even from someone they
know. So, if you are serious about having an article published,
forget that approach.
Let's talk about the busy part. Some authors place their
articles on an auto-responder, which if you simply respond to
their e-mail, delivers it very quickly. But it is a two
step process. If the author gives no clue as to what it is all
about or its length, many publishers will not take that extra
step.Others simply send out an announcement that there is a new
article on their web page. Now the publisher has to go to the
web page to see if the article fits their needs - very few
publishers have the time to do this.So what is the best way to submit an article?
As an E-mail of course! Give the publisher permission to use
your article in the E-mail, any quid pro quo's that you desire,
followed by the article. You should always give a word count
and a short synopsis of the article. Publishers appreciate this
touch - I know I do.Your authors credit box should be short and to the point. This
is basically an ad that you are putting at the end. Your goal
should be to get them to visit your web site. Do your selling
there and not in the credit box. Many publishers will reject an
article if the credit box is a blatant sales pitch for a product
or service, or if it's too long.Formatting of your text is important. Your best bet is to send
it with a blank line between paragraphs, with no indenting. The
most popular format is 65 characters per line. You can write
your article using your favorite word processor, and reformat it
prior to sending. This can be done easily with a product called
"Ezine Assistant" which is free software that reformats text to
any line length desired. You can get this software at:
http://www.ezineassistant.comOne final thought. Most publishers have a limited amount of
space for your article. Shorter articles (500-700 words) have a
better chance of being published than longer ones (1,000 words
or more).Articles less than 500 words have a great chance of being
published. Publishers are always looking for "fillers". Dr.
Kevin Nunley (See http://DrNunley.com)is the "King" of these
types of articles, which average about 200 words. Kevin can get
his point across in a short article that might take a less
talented author several thousand words.Face it - most articles have a key point to make. If subscribers
have to plow through tomes of information to get that point,
they usually page down to the next article - publishers realize
this.Did I mention spelling and grammatical errors? Do I have to? Get
someone else to proof your work. These types of errors are
normally the "kiss of death" as many publishers will reject an
article that has them.You should never "dash off" an article and send it out right
away. Let it rest for a day or so, and read it. Make revisions
if necessary, and let it rest for another day. Finally, format
the article to the required line length, and clean up any
awkward sentences. Do your final proof just before sending it.
If you have written an interesting article, and have paid
attention the these important details, you have a good chance
of getting published.-----
Bob has been publishing online since 1996. All the “tricks of the trade” are contained in his latest E-book. Learn how to avoid being shut down by your ISP for Spamming, and where to find “E-mail friendly ISP's. Learn which software packages are available to easily manage and distribute your email. For more information - http://www.adv-marketing.com/business/handbook.htm
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