The 7 Point Editorial Test For Free Articles
Free article distribution has been popular among Internet marketers for several years. It wasn’t always like that, however. I remember when I and a few other innovative people had to constantly argue with would-be SEOs (search engine optimization specialists), business owners, and self-promoting authors about the benefits of free article distribution.
But as happens with all good marketing ideas, the deal has now been done to death. Now everyone who wants to promote a Web site heads over to ezine and a few competitors and starts uploading poorly written, badly formatted, quickly composed articles.
The topics for most new articles are now boring and uncompelling. The “7 points for some blah-blah technique” format has been rubber-stamped into a congealed mess. Most of the hint and tip articles I read in online ezine archives are so poorly informed it’s obvious their authors got their points from magazine articles, blogs, forums, and other ezine articles.
Rehashing information you cannot truly explain doesn’t make you an expert, regardless of whether you upload enough articles to improve your rating on an archive service. What makes you an expert is your ability to explain the principles — both basic and advanced — in your chosen topic area without sounding like you scraped your ideas from someone else.
Most of these articles will be published on Web sites that carry Google AdSense or Yahoo! advertising or some other advertising. A large percentage of these articles are used by Web spammers on free blogs and low-cost domains. Few people actually bother to read the articles on those Web sites. The spammers and “marketers” are just counting on people to click on the advertising. So anyone who offers “marketing” advice through republished ezine articles on an ad-bearing Web site probably doesn’t know anything about marketing.
The real Internet marketers are not interested in carrying Javascript ads on their pages. They are looking for quality content that may be both useful and interesting to their readers. I do occasionally use free articles from ezine and other services, but my criteria for selecting those articles are extremely challenging and uncompromising. Most free articles never even have a chance of appearing on a Web site I control.
Here is how you can influence my choice the next time I need an article from a free distribution service:
- Write something unique. Don’t publish another “Top 10 SEO myths” article or “10 ways to finance your car”. It’s been done (and done better than you probably can do it).
- Learn how to spell. Most of the articles I review have very simple spelling errors that are clearly typographic errors, but many people try to use rare words they cannot spell.
- Use a spell-checker to fix those typographical errors I mentioned.
- Share substantial information. Point roundups don’t make the cut with me. I want truly informative articles that tell people how to do something from first step to last, or articles that provide interesting background information (and I should be able to verify it through other sources).
- Don’t tell people they can use your products or services in your article. If your article is clearly self-promotional, it’s only self-serving. I’ll carry your ad in your signature section, not your main copy.
- Learn how to use pronouns correctly. That means “people like myself” is wrong but “my friends and I” is right only if used as the subject of a sentence and not as the object of a verb or preposition. Learn to say “me” and “you”. “How about yourself” makes you sound like an ignorant hillbilly.
- Don’t use Wikipedia as a resource. Don’t recommend Wikipedia as a resource. Better yet, don’t even mention Wikipedia unless you’re explaining why it should not used as a resource. Wikipedia is not a reliable source of information.
Look at the free article distribution services as channels through which you may convey your ideas to people. You make your first impression on thousands of strangers here, in this article. If you cannot do any better than to repeat tired, worn out ideas that many hundreds or thousands of other writers have presented, you’re not making a great impression. I can read only so many “how to make a peanut butter and jelly sandwich” articles before my eyes glaze over. I think most people are like that.
Don’t look at free article distribution services as slick Web site promotional resources. If you’re only writing articles to promote Web sites most people will see right through your intentions and move on. If you’re honestly trying to share some cool information your passion will show through your words and people will keep reading.
Sure, they’ll forgive a few typos but most people are not looking for good content to reuse on other Web sites. I am looking for good content, and my standards are very high. If you want me to help promote you, then write your articles as if I were paying you $1,000.00 per article. I will accept no less than your best effort. And in my opinion if you want to convince people that you bring a professional perspective to free articles, then you should not be satisfied with anything less than your best effort, either.
Michael Martinez is a published author and successful search engine marketer. He presently works as Director of Search Strategies for an Internet Marketing firm and writes for the SEO Theory and VisInsights blogs. Michael has appeared on radio and television and has been interviewed by Wired Magazine, TV Guide, and other well-known publications.
Official Web site of Michael Martinez
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