How To Write and Publish Articles?
Publishing articles is one of the most effective ways to increase your credibility and to position yourself as an expert in your field. In fact, several presentations at the recent ICCA National Conference in New York mentioned article writing as a key step in achieving success as a consultant. So how do you get published? It’s easier than you might think. But before you get excited about writing on any topic, stop and consider some important factors that will help you get the most out your effort. What services do you provide as a consultant? Who is your target audience for each of these services? Which publications do they read? Are the readers of those publications in a position to hire or influence hiring you? If not, which publications do the “decision makers” read? What kinds of articles appear in those publications? Can you contribute a meaningful story, involving something in your area of expertise, to those publications? Now, we introduce some tips on writting and publishing articles to help you publish articles on our site.
Article title: This is the title for your article; make sure to have your main keyword phrase in this title.
Author biography: 200 characters. Some allow more, but I think shorter is better. Most article directories don’t allow you to link to your Web site in the content of the article. If you’re allowed two links, make one to the page with the article and the other to your home page. Make sure that readers know you’re experienced in helping people with the specific problem that you write about and for more information go to your Web site.
Sample Bioigraphy: Terry Stanfield is a SEM consultant with over 15 years of sales and marketing experience. His company, Clickadvantage, manages PPC and SEO efforts for his lead generation and ecommerce clients. For more information, visit: http://www.domain.com/page.htm
Keyword list: It’s best to use one or two keyword phrases. Then think of the questions behind these phrases and write your article to answer the questions. Limit yourself to two or three keyword phrases and use those phrases in the content of the article. These keywords will help keep you on track.
Article Content: Don’t include the title of the article in this box. I suggest that articles be from 500 - 550 words, since the minimum number of words with our article directory is 500. If you have a long article (of a thousand words or more), break that into two articles.
Spelling and grammar are important. If you’re not experienced in this area, find someone with the necessary qualifications to help you. Initially, add the content to your Web site and leave it there for a week or more before you publish the article in directory. This establishes your site as having the content first.
Note: Make sure the content on your site is different from what you submit to the article directories. If it’s the same, you could be penalized by the search engines for having duplicate content.
