One of the tasks I do for my clients is submitting articles to article directories. When I first started submitting articles a few years ago, what should have been a 30-minute task was sometimes dragging out to a few days or more. I was frustrated and tired of playing email tag or the more popular ‘Guess Which Category’ game. I knew there had to be a better way.
“Necessity, who is the mother of invention.” – Plato
If you have submitted an article to any of the more popular directories, like Ezine Articles, Idea Marketers, or Self Growth, you know they are all different and each has its own set of categories, “fields” that differ from one site to the next, as well as different submission guidelines. Trying to keep track of all of these things can get really hairy! Since one of my favorite things to do is create checklists, forms, and worksheets, I created an article submission sheet to simplify the process.
Before you get started, you will need to do a few things. (Don’t worry, I’ve provided instructions on how to edit the form in the video below.)
- If you don’t have the article submission form, go to http://www.virtualassistantforms.com,sign up, and it will be sent to you via email immediately along with a tracking spreadsheet.
- Visit each article directory listed on the form to sign up for your account (they are all free).
- List the possible categories and sub-categories from each article directory and edit the submission form.
- Create an author resource box, maybe two, depending on if you write for more than one target audience or want to steer readers to a particular product or service over another.
Click the video below for instructions on how to edit and use the form.
Once you edit the submission sheet, it’s ready to be sent to your client (who will be WOWed with your initiative!) or, if you are the writer, you can send it along with the article to your assistant. Now, let’s submit an article!
Watch the video below as I walk you through submitting an article to one of the more popular article directories, Ezine Articles.
Next month I’ll show you how to submit to Idea Marketers, another popular directory. In the meantime, work on sprucing up your author resource box. You can use mine as an example (directly below), or read Christopher Knight’s article: Article Marketing 101: The Perfect Author Resource Box. You can also follow Christopher Knight on Twitter -he has loads of article marketing expertise.
Copyright 2009, Lisa Wells.
Want to publish this article on your site? You may, but please include the following resource information: Lisa Wells is a Certified eMarketing Associate who partners with successful coaches, consultants, and online marketers, managing their online marketing needs. Move your business to the next level and up your e-marketing game – sign up for her FREE e-course at http://www.eMarketingToolboxEssentials.com.
I'm Lisa Wells and I'm passionate about helping entrepreneurs. Whether you need someone to help you get to the 7-figure level, manage your virtual team, help you grow your business, or need a mentor for your virtual assistant business, I can help.
i do a lot of Article Submissions because it is a good way of getting a good pagerank. i am still looking for a good article submission software.
Hi Cecil – I’ve used SubmitYourArticle and it’s pretty good. The only limitation is that the subject area in which you are submitting to has to conform with SYA. For example, if you have an article about SEO, it will be sent to all of the article directories using SYA bcause that’s a popular topic. But if your article was on something specialized like “how to convert drum brakes to disc brakes” or something like that, not all article directories have a category for that, thus your article probably wouldn’t fit. Also, SYA has an area where it will provide links to a LOT of other article directories, but they won’t submit for you; it’s just providing an easy way for you to link to the site and you still have to setup your account, login, etc.
i always submit to article directories to gain backlinks, most of them are free anyway *