A good ezine writer can become a star in their field when
widely published. Those who provide great content and
(who make it easy to publish), can escalate their writing
careers. Organizations who publish quality content in trade
for publicity can achieve maximum exposure if they follow
some simple guidelines.
As an ezine editor, my job is to filter and present interesting
and compelling content to our visitors. I frequently visit the
free article web sites and find a wide variety of article ideas.
Often, I am disappointed. - Many articles have sound
merits, but are either poorly written or formatted in a manner
that is not compatible with our page layout." The latter is the
most frustrating reason to reject articles. - "It may have been
a great piece of writing, but the author chose to clutter it up
with excessive self-serving ad copy and URLs."
A good article is one that takes an objective view of a
subject. This approach will better engage the reader, as it
possesses a higher degree of believability. Just like in
verbal conversation, the listener (reader) backs away in a
defensive posture when someone is being pushy. The
reader is less likely to believe all that is said because they
detect an ulterior motive of the author. For example, biased,
one-sided reporting has less value to the reader than
detailing a rational argument addressing both sides of an
issue. -Even if the author is clearly biased, they can still
address the subject from the reader's point of view.
The reason why most profit-based ezines will publish your
article is to build traffic. Just like print magazines,
readership drives the business model. - The more readers,
the more advertisement exposure. Most ezines are in
business to provide a service to advertisers. This is widely
true with most print magazines and newspapers as well.
Ezines generally hope that your article will have a ready
made answer for someone conducting a specific internet
search on Google, Yahoo, MSN or other search engines.
The text of your article will be indexed into these search
engines so that the public can find your article. With Google,
their page order ranking system is forever changing. The
Google system for instance, (today fielding the majority of
Internet searches) is based on "degree of relevance".
Google measures relevance not only by the specific content
in your article, but also by the related subject matter on the
host ezine web site, as well as the number of links pointing
to the page and host site. That's why your article may rank
higher on one site over another based on the specific
search criteria. Just remember that the search engines are
getting smarter every year. They are getting better at
detecting quality over quantity.
Here Are Some Dos and Don'ts From an Ezine
Content
Editor's Perspective:
Write a Good Lead-in:
Make sure the first two lines of your first paragraph are very
appropriate to your subject. Write catchy descriptive titles: no
more than 65 characters. - (You will notice that there are
about 65 characters that show up on the title line of a
Google search result page). Try to write like a news writer. -
Most important information up front, with the supportive data
towards the end. Your whole article should be generally
written with this rule in mind as well.
Be Original.
Have a unique perspective on your topic. Too often I see
very general subjects that will never stand out from the sea
of content on the Internet. - And thus never come up when
searched. If you are going to spend the time to write
something, try to narrow the focus and answer a specific
topic for a specific reader. This approach will allow you to
"work and turn" or tweak the article with a different angle and
different audience with little effort. - Resulting in more
exposure with less work.
Don't Write a Blatant "Advertorial".
Don't write overtly self-serving advertorials unless you just
want your articles to only appear on the
come-get-your-free-content web sites. Remember, your
articles will have the best chance of being seen if it is
associated with other similar content.
We all know the reason why most people are writing and
distributing free content, but don't make it so obvious that
you loose credibility with the reader. Intelligent readers will
know when they are being "sold to" and will stop reading
before they get to the end of your article. Most quality ezines
(ones that readers respect and come back to), don't want to
publish a pushy sales pitch. -It will just make their readers
not want to come back. There are a lot of ways a good writer
can cleverly disguise their motives. The easiest way is to be
complete, truthful and objective so that you gain the trust of
the reader. Put your sales pitch on the your page link in your
byline. This way, readers will be more ready to accept your
sales pitch since they specifically requested information
about your product or service.
Don't Write About Something You Don't
Know.
Put some meat into your article. The reader should walk
away with something useful. I see a lot of articles that are
simply a regurgitation of widely known information. As a
publisher, I will remember your name and avoid your work if
it is sub-standard, inaccurate, or immature. Expect
excellence in yourself. If you are writing about something
you don't know, do the research and become an expert.
Your goal should be to give the reader something they
probably did not previously know about.
Don't Overstate Your Keywords.
Redundancy can be boring to read. I often review articles
that make such an obvious attempt to repeat specific
keywords or key phrases that the writing is almost useless
in conveying the subject matter. Search engines will detect
and reject this belligerent abuse of the Internet and so will
most readers. It is best not to make a conscious effort to
boost keyword count in your article. Your subject is what it
is. It will be recognized as relevant when your keywords and
phrases are found in a natural, common and organic
manner.
Don't Write Over the Top of Your Readers.
Write in plain English (or French, German, Japanese, etc.)
so that your target audience will quickly understand what
you are saying. If you are presenting a highly technical
subject, work from the lowest common denominator. If your
lowest common denominator is a lawyer from Harvard, then
your writing can be a bit more complex than if your audience
includes high-school dropouts. However, technical people
enjoy easy reading too.
Please Check Your Spelling.
If I see blatant spelling errors, I will also assume that the
author is not credible and reject the article. If I get to know
your name as a writer who does not check spelling and
grammar, I will avoid looking at your articles. Most editors
don't want to waste time and spell check your work. More
importantly, some of the free article distribution sites
specifically state that the articles cannot be altered. Don't let
bad spelling and grammar keep you from getting your work
published.
Keep you Bio Brief and to the Point.
You want your bio to be short and to the point. Your URL link
should be aimed at a specific page that supports the
purpose of your article. I reject a lot of articles because the
bio reads like an in-your-face advertisement. This is fine if
you do not want to see you work on high quality sites. It is
best to keep the URL's to a minimum (no more than three).
You can always make a special destination page for your
article and place all the copy and URL's you want. Eliminate
redundant copy such as "come visit our web site" or "click
here for more information" And don't make clever formatting
like "F-R-E-E N-E-W-S-L-E-T-T-E-R" or "LOWEST
PRICES!!!" unless you only want your article to appear in low
end ezines and spam sites.
I once had an e-mail complaint from an irate writer who
wanted their article formatted with a lot of "all caps"
statements and to stand out from other writers. I quickly
e-mailed her back with a short note: "No problem. It's fixed!".
She emailed later complaining that she could no longer find
any of her articles on our web site. My point is that there are
a lot of cooperative writers out there and it should be looked
as a cooperative effort between the writer, publisher (and
yes, sponsors) to deliver compelling and worthwhile content
to the reader.
I review countless great articles with incompatible bylines;
as a publisher, I want to respect the wishes of each writer by
including all information they provide. Too often, I reject
articles because the writer feels it necessary to include
excessive information about their services or products. The
worst thing is pushy sales pitches and cute call-to-action
statements that were all the rage in those 1970's marketing
seminars. As a reader, I find this barrage of ad spam to be
confusing clutter that is a distraction and worse, a way to
discredit the article information I had just read.
In the long run, you will find your efforts to have the most
value if they are published on web sites offering cohesive
and quality subject matter to a specific audience. When your
article is published along with other articles within the same
subject grouping, it stands a much better chance of being
found and read. It is important for you to get good quality
links from your EzineArticles so that it builds relevance for
your target web site and cause. Make it easy on us editors
by making your great writing easy to publish!
David Petrich is senior editor for http://www.JustChange.net -an ezine dedicated to helping people accomplish positive changes in their lives. He is also a copywriter for http://www.JDEZ.com - a manufacturer of chic yoga apparel for men and women. David has more than 25 years experience in helping businesses with market communication strategies.
(c) 2005 D. Petrich. (This article may be freely published on your web site provided it is left unchanged including the authors bio with clickable URLs. This article may not be used in conjunction with SPAM email.)
