What Makes an Article Marketable?
By Stephanie Foster
Article marketing is one of the most popular ways to market a website. A well-written
article can bring in a number of high quality links and attract traffic to your website.
So why do so many fail so miserably at it?
I run an article directory, and delete around 80-90 percent of the articles submitted to
my site. Why? Because I can see no way anyone would want to read them. And today I would like
to share some of the flaws I see most often. Many of these make it so easy to decline the
article that I don't even have to read it first.
Problem 1: The entire article is one paragraph.
Sometimes these go on and on. Breaking an article up into short paragraphs makes it
much more readable. It also means your ideas are much more clearly presented.
Don't assume that the information you are presenting is so wonderful that everyone will
want to read it, despite your own poor skills at breaking it up into appropriate chunks.
There are plenty of other wonderfully written articles out there that are well formatted too.
Problem 2: Blatant ads.
I don't mind if you cite genuine resources. But if the entire article is so clearly
nothing more than an ad for your product or website, forget it.
The place for linking to your own site is within the resource box. I suggest one or two
links, three if you absolutely must. Any links within the article itself should be quality
references, not just links thrown in because you like the keywords.
Problem 3: Poor grammar, spelling, etc.
I don't mean occasional mistakes. I mean mistakes so obvious that I find them even in
the title of the article.
I don't mind that people have English as a second language when they write articles.
They speak more languages that I do, probably. But if you cannot write clearly enough in
English to get your point across, your article won't be interesting to readers.
Problem 4: Miscategorized articles.
People who run article directories, as well as those who search them for articles,
don't care to recategorize your articles for you. They're an annoyance and are prone to
being deleted by article directory owners, or ignored by potential publishers. Take the
extra few seconds and figure out the right placement.
Problem 5: Using all caps.
This is most often done in the title, but I occasionally see it in articles too. Typing
in all capital letters may bring attention to what you're writing, but it also makes it
just miserable to read. It is also often interpreted as shouting. Take the time to do it
right. You want your quality to stand out, not your attachment to your Caps Lock key.
Problem 6: Writing too short an article.
I rarely look at articles under 400 words. Few writers can get solid information across
in so small a space. If you go under 200 words it's almost certainly nothing more than an
ad, and under 300 words is rarely more than a most superficial effort.
Publishers and readers want articles that teach them something they didn't know. Take
the time to share some of your knowledge. You don't have to give away all the answers, but
a few would be nice.
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