I have an article being prepared for me which I actually paid for.

My thoughts were, if I have a well done article and it's properly submitted through the right channels and I track the results, I will learn whether or not to bother with another. I guarantee I don't have the time for mediocrity.

I've searched for an article submission procedure and found a list of of a hundred sites, guarantees that good quality will get published and so on.

Let's say the article is well done, timely ( "Selecting the Ideal Gift" or something like it) 500 words and ready in 72 hrs or so.

Where and how do I submit it to achieve the best results for links and traffic? Or, did that "list" of sites imply that I should submit it to all of them? I would have credited the author, but made the linking text and link for my site. Correct?

Any thoughts are appreciated.

I've only submitted a singular article so far, and it too needed to be timely, since it is about a particular Christmas gift's value to many. With that, obviously, not an expert, but can tell you what I learned, so far:

1.) "Timely" needs to be thought about ahead of time. There seems to be three kinds of article submission places -- those that will take just about anything and take it quickly, those who look at and edit the article quickly, and ezines, which seem to take quite a while to look at and edit, and are quite picky on what they will accept. You'll get your article out quickly for the first type, takes a few days for the second, and takes up to six weeks for the third.

2.) As for where to publish your article, it really depends on what its purpose it. If it is just supposed to get you traffic, I'd suggest finding a place that either specializes in articles geared to your industry, or, at the very least, has sections that do. If its purpose is to begin to make you an expert in your field, it seems to me, it would almost have to be placed in an ezine aimed towards your niche (which kills off "timely," too.)

3.) I've spent many hours researching different article publishers, but have as yet to find a place that selectively publishes for you. Seems to me (albeit only because I've heard it so often through SR's staff, authors and forum users), one singular article, if even well placed, cannot do the same thing as a multitude of articles can do. To put all your testing of the effectiveness of articles for your site into one singular attempt, where you don't have the time to place it well, is like plopping a singular corn kernel onto some dirt, and then determining if corn does grow by that one experiment. Apparently, corn does grow, but there is only a 25% chance that particular kernnel will sprout, and absolutely no chance for it to produce an ear of corn, since there aren't any other stalks around to fertilize it.

4.) There are lots of places to plop articles, but they aren't all good, and some of therm have strings attached that you might not like. I found one that accepts all articles, BUT the author must give up the rights to the article, and the site then sells the articles. I ended up having to read carefully all the TOS of the different sites because of that, and because I was worried that my articles might be used by the wrong kind of sites.

5.) Now, even though no expert on article publishing yet, I do have a decent knowledge about marketing. Rule of thumb for a business owner to remember -- 1/3rd of your time should be spent doing your business, 1/3rd of your time should be learning more about your business and how to promote it, and 1/3rd of your time (and your money) should be used to market your business, and truthfully the marketing aspect should be first.

Yup, that's a lot of time, but also the reason most folks prefer working for someone else. I don't know how far along your business is, but the only time folks stop worrying about marketing (and article publishing is part of marketing and branding, especially for businesses online) is when they have too much business, and don't want to grow anymore. Even then, it's a bit gutsy to neglect marketing, since you never know when your best customers will disappear for one reason or another.

I hate to say this, knowing how busy this time of year is for most people (personally -- depends on what kind of business you have to know if it is the busiest time for businesses), but if you want your business to be seen and noticed online, you'll have to do one of two things to make that article work for you -- you'll either have to make time to do it right, and keep it up with more articles in the near future, or you'll need to pay money for someone else to do it for you.

I guess there is two more choices -- find someone who will do the work for you for free, or drop the idea of doing articles, but, obcviously, they're not the best solutions.

Now, I'm hoping that maybe some of the experts will chime in, or add to what I've typed so far. Good luck. I'm sure I didn't give you much that you wanted to hear.

DMX wrote:

Where and how do I submit it to achieve the best results for links and traffic?

IMO there is only 2 valuable article sites for "general" (like "Selecting the Ideal Gift" ) articles and those are:

ezinearticles
goarticles

Submit to
Ezine articles
Go articles
Article City

Don't bother with any more - you'll be wasting your time.

I've just been to look at article city, and on second thoughts - maybe not that one.

There was a 3rd I was thinking of, I'll look it up for you....

There are a handful listed in this piece; http://www.reliable-seo.com/knowledge-b … lding.html

and my last Artcile Marketing rant here; http://www.site-reference.com/articles/ … ntity.html


.aaahhh...that was easy :0)

Thanks everybody and especially atwhatcost for the time to reply to a "worn" topic.

I've been away for a while and didn't realize I got a few pointers after all

I've already done the two favorites. I'll get a few more before I leave again Thursday, just to make sure I give it a fair shot.

Hey DMX

1 last thought....depending how "timely" and newsworthy you're article may be...you can always try submitting it to PRWEB (it can be free or up to whatever amount you want to "contribute to them")...but try it for free

won't take long and could be nicely beneficial

NOte: PRWEB does let some articles slide and even if they don't accpet it you only wasted about 5 minutes of your time

Ezine is the best. Allows two links for your site.