Article submission companies have a list of clear, standard guidelines. These guidelines apply across the board with all article submission companies. And apply to any article, submitted by any author, for publication. The guidelines are designed to provide authentic, clean, non-promotional articles that can be read by anyone and efficiently tracked by search engines.
As you begin to use article writing to promote your website, you will want to do everything in your power to get your articles published. Your article may have great content and the perfect searchable keyword title, but if you don't observe submission guidelines, don't expect to be published.
And, if you don't follow the rules, there's no gray area - your article simply won't get published. Here's a quick reference checklist of the standard guidelines that are mandatory for article submissions.
* You cannot submit articles that are self serving or promotional.
* No use of any type of pornography, computer hacking tips, racial intolerance comments, promotion of violence, insulting or abusive comments or profanity.
* Always construct your articles to be original, informative and helpful.
* Specific special characters are not allowed in articles.
* No HTML coding is allowed, except in the author block.
* Avoid excessive hard breaks and tables.
You cannot submit articles that are self serving or promotional. Articles are about writing pieces that are informative, not fashioned as an advertisement for your business. Save your promotions for your more traditional marketing campaigns.
Self-promotional items include advertising of any kind. Pieces considered to be self serving are promotional copy, sales letters and press releases. Your writing goal is to provide helpful content for your readers and establish yourself as an expert, not market your business.
Article submissions companies strictly prohibit the use of any type of pornography, computer hacking tips, racial intolerance comments, promotion of violence, insulting or abusive comments and profanity. If you have to question if your content is suitable for all readers, it isn't.
All articles need be rated G - for General Audiences. There should be no problem with your 10-year-old niece reading your article. It's your responsibility to make sure your article does not contain content that could be offensive or inappropriate in any way.
Always construct your articles to be original, informative and helpful. Your articles have to be original. It's your goal to provide articles to establish your own expertise with your readers, not a copy of someone else's knowledge. Never take another author's previously published article and attach your name as author.
Likewise do not take excerpts or pieces of others' articles, unless you are prepared to note the original author and use it as a direct quote. But why would you want use another author's material, giving them credit, if your goal is to establish your own expertise?
All article submission companies will run a thorough Internet check to see if your article has been published before. If you use someone else's material, it will be certain rejection.
There are also a number of special characters that are not allowed in articles. Special characters typically do not translate well into web based documents. Some characters can convert to unreadable fonts or symbols that distract your reader or worse, change or confuse your content.
You are not allowed to use curly quotation marks, but rather use straight quotes. You can change the way your Microsoft Word program types quotes by going into your Tools Toolbar.
1. On the Tools menu, click AutoCorrect, and then click the AutoFormat As You Type tab.
2. Under Replace as you type, select or clear the "Straight quotes" with "smart quotes" check box.
You cannot use a long dash, but rather use a single short dash. The pound sign and the ampersand sign are also prohibited, along with other special characters.
HTML coding is not allowed.
You are not allowed to use any HTML coding in your article. You can however include HTML in your author block with your keywords and call to action.
And finally, article submission companies look for excessive hard line breaks and tabs. Excessive hard line breaks are defined as a manual return or tab. Your text and paragraphs should flow with minimal manual returns. The exception to this guideline is poetry that requires shorter lines of text.
If you chose to not abide by these simple guidelines, don't expect to get published. Keep your content clean, informative, original and flowing for your best chances of publication.
Author Resource:-
Join Bob Sommers at the Recognized Expert article marketing forum and participate in our lively article marketing discussion. Learn how to write marketing copy from Saint Louis marketing writers and professional writers from around the world.
![[Valid RSS feed]](images/icon_Rss.png "XML Feed For RSS"){kind=icon}
Category Rss Feed
Print This Article
Add To Favorites
