Article Submissions 101

Now that you have written those helpful articles to bring more business to your business, they’ll need to find a home.  Good articles can find plenty of homes at article submissions websites.  Here are the basics for getting that article ready and submitting it to an article site.

1.  Write about what you know.  This goes for anyone who wants to write articles and have them accepted by a submission site.  For the business owner looking to increase traffic and revenue, the topics will pertain to your business in general, business products that you sell, and/or business services that you provide. 

2.  Aim for an article length of at least 400 words.  Some sites will accept articles with as few as 250 words, but it will take at least 400 words to flesh out an idea and gain the interest of the reader.  Check with the sites you will submit to for word count requirements.

3.  Proofread the article.  There is nothing worse than an article with typos and grammatical errors.  Good articles have been rejected because of simple errors that could have been avoided.  Use spell checker or a second pair of eyes to be sure the article is ready to go to a submission site.  Even if you use a ghostwriter for the articles, give the work a once over to be sure it says exactly what you are trying to convey to the reader.  Don’t forget to use keywords for a more SEO-friendly piece.

4.  Check out the sites where your article will get the most coverage.  Popular article submissions sites with high marks will work the best.  If you don’t want to put all of your eggs into one basket or even a few baskets, use an article submission service.  They submit good quality articles to hundreds of sites for you depending on the subject matter of your articles.  You submit once on their site and that’s that.  Be aware that there are sites that don’t accept submissions from article services.  For those you will have to submit one by one.

5.  Some sites require registration.  Even for the free ones, the registration comes with a profile page.  This is where you will post links to your business and talk about it. 

6.  Keep a running list of article submission for your records.  This way, you can track when the articles are published, the upfront payment, and how business traffic and sales change as a result of the articles.

7.  Wait for news that the articles have been published and are being viewed.  Submit more articles as you have time.  It is a good idea to keep making regular submissions.  If you gain a following you don’t want to lose them.