A Few Basic Tips and Rules for Article Writing and Submission

One of the EASIEST and MOST EFFECTIVE ways to advertise for FREE is through article submission. You can submit articles to:

• websites
• e-zines
• newsletters
• e-books
• and many other sources

Publishers are constantly looking for new material to publish. When you get your article published, you are usually given the opportunity to have an advertisement run either on the publisher's website or in their newsletter. This is a great source of publicity because not only are you advertising for free, but you are also GAINING CREDIBILITY. You would be amazed how simple it is to get an article published. It is so easy because publishers are finding it harder and harder to find quality work worthy of publishing. They normally get stuck with doing all the writing themselves, because everything that comes across their desks is trash.

As the co-publisher of an online newsletter myself, I get my fair share of articles every day. Most of these articles would be graded an F, if we were back in school. You would not believe the terrible grammar and spelling in these articles. Now please understand that I am no English professor, but when I see blatant proof that someone hasn't even run spell check on their article, it completely BLOWS MY MIND. Here is a chance for someone to get published in a very popular online newsletter and they can't take 2 extra minutes to proofread and spell check. When I get articles like this, I can't hit the delete key fast enough. You may think that is unfair, but I believe my subscribers deserve to have HIGH QUALITY articles. By my standards that covers a whole lot more than just content. I have seen articles with great content that I have to completely edit before I will put them in front of my readers. This has only happened very few times. Normally, the content just isn't good enough for me to waste my time double checking everything that the author wrote. Trust me, if you want an even greater chance of having your article be selected to run: proofread, grammar and spell check -- twice!

One problem that I run into daily is people submitting advertisements that are blatantly presented as "articles." I have to laugh at these because I know that the authors of these articles honestly believe that I am not going to notice that they just submitted a 2 page business opportunity ad. To be honest, nothing will send a submission to the trash bin quicker, than an ad being passed off as an article; not even poor spelling. With poor spelling and grammar at least I have something to work with. If I receive an article that I think will blow my readers out of the water, then I would be willing to run spell check and proofread. However, what am I supposed to do with a 2 page ad?

The first thing that I do when I receive a new article is scan the submission to see if it contains any URLs. If I find one in the body of the "article," I look to see if it has relevance to the article, or if it's simply an advertisement link to a product/service the author is promoting. Then I do one of two things:

1. I either read the article in full


or


2. I press the delete key and move on to the next submission

I look for articles that are going to inform my readers; not try to sell something to them. If you want to sell something in my newsletter, you can simply place an ad like everyone else does. Don't try to slide it past me by calling it an "article." Many have tried and not one has ever made it in the newsletter. I know that most publishers feel the same way, so this is a good general guideline to follow: DO NOT submit an advertisement as an article.

There are a few basic grammar and sentence structure rules that you should always follow if you want to submit the best article possible. Probably the most missed rule is about quotation markers. Quotation marks go outside the punctuation mark, not inside. [ For example (.") (,") ] Also, a quote within a sentence is NEVER followed by a period. It is ALWAYS followed by a comma, even though it may be a complete sentence by itself.

One "pet peeve" of mine that may be accepted by other authors is this. Do not use "internet" gestures in articles that you submit; it looks very unprofessional. [ For example, :-) or :-| ]

I almost didn't include this rule in the article because I mess up with this all of the time. It is important though, so I have included it. When you use periods to leave a thought hanging or to connect to another thought, they are NOT connected to other words. They REPLACE words and therefore, stand alone with a space between them and the word before or after them. For example, "Think about it ..." This is a typographic symbol. It is a sequence of ONLY 3 periods and substitutes for an unlimited number of words. I'm sure if you read this article, or others that I have wrote, you will see me fumble with this a little. That doesn't mean that you should though.

Aside from punctuation and grammar, there is also sentence structure to consider. Don't ever end a sentence with a preposition. Make sure that it is a complete sentence. A simple proofread will normally catch all prepositions. In addition, it is important for you to learn the difference in how to use the words "that" and "which." The word, "that" is an indicator, or locator. It points out something specific. The word, "which" is used to describe. It is followed by a description. Also, learn the difference in how to use the words "that" and "who." The word "who" indicates a person. The word "that" indicates an object.

One final rule that I would like to leave you with is, "Always make the article interesting." No, this isn't a grammar rule or anything about sentence structure. This is however, one of the most important rules you need to follow. You can have the most grammatically correct article ever, and it could put every single reader to sleep in the matter of seconds. Use action sentences, capitalization, bold and italicized words. All of these will add a little spice to your writing. In addition, make sure that the subject that you are writing about is going to interest the target audience.

I hope that all of these rules didn't scare you off from ever writing another article. These are just meant as a guideline, and most should already be second-hand to you. We are all going to make mistakes in our writing from time to time. The main point is to keep the mistakes down to a minimum. With a little extra work, you can be writing killer articles in no time.