I have read several articles, blogs, and message board postings concerning the rise of article theft. Specifically, this is where your article is lifted from your site without your permission or pulled from a third party site.

In many ways I consider the internet to be the “Wild West” in terms of lawlessness. Ignoring established and set rules is common, meaning that us law abiding folks have our work cut out for us.

It may surprise you, but I don’t take action in many cases of known article theft. Why? Because, I just don’t have the time to police everything. I know of authors who check every link to their site, but that work is both tedious and time consuming.

A golden rule: If someone takes my article without my permission and the content and links are still in place, I don’t worry about it. If they take my article and change the content, paragraph headers, the title, or steal credit for themselves, then I will contact the offending party and demand that they make the appropriate corrections. Even for links that are broken, I generally let these types of mistakes slide.

When it comes to writing, time is money. I only respond to egregious violations while letting everything else slip by. I would rather spend my time making money instead of losing that time to chasing down violators. No, my policy or “golden rule” isn’t perfect, but it saves me from being bogged down in what I find to be a wasteful pursuit.

Publishing articles, especially via an e-zine, is the ideal opportunity to showcase your business. By sharing your knowledge and expertise, you build credibility as an expert, while spreading the word about your services and products.

While I’m sure that sometimes you have dozens of content ideas, I bet other times you find yourself staring at a blank computer screen, grumbling that it’s publishing time again. Well, have no fear! Here are 11 quick (and good) content ideas for when you’re in a pinch.

1. Give real-life success stories.

Describe a problem you’ve solved for a client/customer, and use that as a springboard to offer more general advice. Show your readers how you’ve helped customers address challenges — “case studies” if you will. This positions you as the expert in your readers’ minds more than your coming out and saying so.

2. Think of three areas in which you’d like your clients to think of you as a resource.

Now develop content in those areas. For example, in my past life as a professional copywriter, I really enjoyed writing for Web sites. To help encourage my clients and prospects to hire me for these projects, I published several articles on how to write Web copy that sells.

3. Read industry publications for ideas.

Are there any hot issues in your field right now? The more controversial, the better. Don’t be afraid to offer your own opinion — your readers want to know it. After all, YOU are the expert in their eyes.

4. Jot down 8 questions your clients have asked you in the past.

You know, the ones they ask you over and over. Answer each in a short article. If you publish weekly, that’s two months’ worth of content, right off the bat! And if you can’t think of any questions, send all your current clients/customers a quick e-mail, asking them what topics they’re most interested in learning more about.

5. Learn anything neat lately from an industry conference, workshop, seminar, or insightful article?

No one says you have to reinvent the wheel of information! Pass on any gems of advice you’ve learned elsewhere — just give them full attribution. Or give your opinion of the event or article itself. Your readers will appreciate your frankness.

6. Offer a list of your top 5 or 10 tips on a certain subject.

It’s much easier to bang out a list of tips than to put together a real article. Of course, the tips can evolve into an article if you wish! Be sure to list your best tip first, or at least close to the top. (If you “fire your biggest gun” last, you risk losing your audience before they get to the good stuff.)

7. Interview associates whose expertise would interest your readers

(while not competing with yours). E-mail interviews are incredibly easy to do. Just send your interviewee 3 to 5 questions via e-mail, edit their answers, and have them approve the final version. Be sure to give them a short plug in your e-zine as a thank you. (A one- or two-sentence description of their business and their Web address should be fine.)

8. Recommend books and resources that you use, and offer full reviews on them.In one issue of my old

ezine newsletters, “AKB MarCom Tips,” I featured reviews of my favorite four copywriting resource books. I’m glad I also gave my Amazon.com associate links, because I ended up making some nice commission, to boot!

9. Invite clients or readers to write you with their own questions, and answer one in each issue.

Right after their question, publish the person’s name, business, and Web address, with their permission. They’ll enjoy the attention and free publicity!

10. Invite readers to send in profiles.

Ask them to tell you about themselves — their names, businesses, locations, and how they use the information gained in your e-zine. Feature one profile in each issue or one every few issues.

11. When all else fails, borrow an article!

There are dozens of Web sites offering hundreds of articles that you can use in your e-zine. The articles are free and available for you to use immediately. The only catch is you’re required to leave the entire article intact, including the author’s promotional information. One of my favorite places to search for articles is .ezinearticles.com.

One last note: Keep in mind that if your e-zine’s main objective is to get you more clients and customers, you should NOT feature other writers’ articles more than once in a blue moon. Remember our main goal is to continually showcase YOU.

Writing down your thoughts is an easy task but making them appealing to the readers is difficult. When you write an article, you sit on chair of an expert. People read your thoughts as if you have a thorough knowledge of the topic you are dealing within your article. So writing an article puts whole lot of responsibility on your shoulders, the responsibility of being true and genuine. If you want to have panache in your writing, there are certain points that you should keep in mind. These are certain basics of article writing.

In this day and age, competition is fierce when it comes to article writing on the Net. One of the most important elements of successful article writing today is to be able to produce high quality articles fast. There is a method that you can use in order to write an article fast.

The ultimate key to writing an article fast is to understand your topic. There is an old mantra in writing that you should only write of those things of which you have actual knowledge. Start writing about something you are familiar with. After that before you begin writing any article, you need to make sure that you educate yourself on the subject.

In addition, when it comes to the easiest way to write an article fast you need to understand that fast article writing takes practice. Therefore, you need to “workout,” you need to write regularly. Many professional writers recommend that you write each and every day. You need to schedule a regular time to write … even if you do not have an active project in production. By following this course, you will become a better and faster writer in no time.

The basic of article writing is that the articles you write should be well organized. This means that the article should have an introduction to the topic, which introduces the readers to the topic followed by paragraphs that deal with the topic, and a conclusion to the topic. Using the above format gives the readers a chance to understand your article better and you will be able to convey your message properly to the readers.

Finally, when it comes to the easiest way to write an article fast, remember the principle of keeping it simple. You do not have to write a complicated article. People like to read articles that are easy to understand. Therefore, you do not need to litter your writing with unnecessary fancy words. Keep it simple and you will keep it easy.

Have you wasted valuable time and money trying to promote your online business? If you’ve spent hard-earned cash buying ads on ezines or on websites, you may have been disappointed with the results.

There’s a better way to advertise your business or website!

Article writing is for you if you want great benefits that don’t cost anything.

By submitting quality articles you’ll get lots of exposure and publicity — without a financial investment! You’ve probably realized by now that the internet is about information, so content brings visitors to your site. That’s a no-brainer!

Consider the possibilities of regularly writing for the internet.

Your work may be seen by millions. Articles written today can quickly appear on over 100 websites.

Search engines are constantly looking for new content to feed content-hungry readers. Why not yours?

By keeping your work before the public, your website will keep getting new visitors who become buyers. As your words are spread all over the internet, your targeted traffic will increase. That’s how to reach lots of qualified buyers. Previous customers will be motivated to become repeat buyers.

By writing regularly, you can reach affiliates or joint venture partners who can help your sales’ potential.

Your articles can be permanently displayed on the internet.

Your reputation can spread all over the internet and beyond. Think of the reach just one article can have!

Your influence could span the globe!

What you’ve written can show up in the most surprising places.

1. Your words may wind up on on a number of publishers’ home pages.

2. You could get featured in a large ezine with thousands of subscribers.

3. Your work could be published in a book or in magazines.

4. An author may ask to use one or more of your articles in an e-book and you’ll be credited.

5. You may get discovered and earn extra income through speaking engagements.

6. You may be given the opportunity to speak on radio shows.

7. You may even be interviewed for national newspapers.

You may not have to wait long before seeing amazing results.

As you submit your work to ezines and article directories, keep in mind that top-ranking sites are crawled by Google more often than other sites. When these sites publish your writing, you’ll soon see results.

With each article you submit, your reputation will grow. After you’ve submitted twenty or so, you may become a household name — at no charge to you!

An author’s works are often kept permanently on websites, so one keyword-rich article can bring thousands of hits for years to come.

Articles not only build your reputation, but are the best way to raise your search engine ranking.

Reciprocal linking is viewed as less important to Google than one-way linking. If numerous sites point to your website without you linking back, Google rewards you with a higher rank.

You get back links automatically by submitting articles and you don’t even have to bother with link exchanges to increase rankings. You also don’t have to worry about Google’s ever-changing algorithm changes that can dump your website several pages down in one day.

Your published works prove you’re an expert — at least in the eyes of readers who view you as knowledgeable. You also establish credibility and trust. Your words can create your own brand for your website and business.

The written word has clout, so you can clinch your point.

Writing brings personal satisfaction.

There’s a great sense of accomplishment from sharing your expertise with the online community.

Real people are sitting behind computers in their homes or offices reading what you’ve written. Through the right words you can build rapport with them.

You’ll probably get emails from time to time telling how something you wrote helped someone. And that’s satisfying!

So there you have it –

Writing articles can open surprising doors to success!

1 Remove your limits

Reduce your subject to a single core word and then brainstorm around it. For example, if you’re trying to write about “Study Skills”, expand your thinking to “School”. Now jot down everything that comes to mind when you think about School, and when you run out of ideas start asking yourself open questions around the subject and noting your answers.

Examples:

What did I enjoy about school?

What scared me?

What did I wish I’d known from Day 1?

This will help you get back into the mindset of someone struggling with school issues of all kinds and you’ll start to get a feel for their concerns and worries.

2 Restore your focus

Once you’ve started to understand the general feelings of your readers, allow your mind to focus back on your original topic of Study Skills. From your new perspective, what questions would you ask? What would you want to know? Is this really a “Studying” issue or is it more about Time Management or being able to work without distractions or being paralyzed by the fear of not doing well?

3 Be your audience

Write each question on a separate sheet of paper; don’t stop until you have at least ten and preferably more. Stay in the mindset of your readers until you feel you’ve asked every major question that concerns them.

4 Take a step back

Put your pile of question aside for a few hours, overnight if possible. Don’t consciously think about them; just go about your day as usual. Give your subconscious time to process them without any further prompting from you. If new questions come to mind jot them down somewhere safe and then forget about them.

5 Get out your pen and write

When you’re ready, sit down with your pages of questions and simply start to answer them. Writing your answers by hand can give you access to ideas that might be missed if you type them. Don’t edit yourself at this stage. Using Speech to Text software or a digital recorder can also be helpful in bypassing the internal editor.

Imagine someone sitting in front of you asking for advice and just talk to them. Keep your tone natural and conversational and stay with the question-and-answer format.

6 Edit lightly

Trust your first instincts. Proof-read and correct any obvious errors, but don’t do any major editing until your piece has had time to “sit” for a while. Again, leaving it overnight will give you a fresh perspective the next time you look at it, but even if your deadline doesn’t allow for that it’s important to give yourself a break from it.

When you’re pushed for time, writing several articles at one sitting can create enough change of focus to make you “forget” the one you’ve just written.

7 Polish it up

Short articles are unlikely to need major editing if you’ve written them as described here. They will flow easily and naturally already and having each Q & A on a separate sheet makes it easier to select only the ones you want. Your job now is to put them in a reasonably logical sequence and make sure they’re understandable and that the reader is led smoothly from one question and answer to the next.

8 Top and tail it

Write a brief introductory paragraph as a “teaser” for the main article. Many article directories now put the first paragraph of each piece into RSS feeds which are picked up by other websites, so you’ll want to make sure that your two or three major keywords appear at least once in that first paragraph.

Write another short paragraph to summarize the major points of the article and provide some ideas for the reader to explore the subject further. Don’t of course forget your own resource box: use the format SubmitYourNewArticle.com for your link, so when your article is converted to html your link will automatically be live.

9 Submit it!

You may have heard advice from Internet marketing gurus that ezine ads are one of the best forms of advertising. You may also have heard that Google AdWords and other pay per click search engines are one of the best advertising methods. But when it comes to marketing your web site, article submission trumps ezine ads and Google AdWords anytime.

The advantage of article submission is trust. Suppose you subscribe to an ezine in the form of an email newsletter. You’ve just sat down at your PC, coffee in hand, to read your email. There in your inbox is a copy of one of your favorite ezines, the one you read every time.

Clicking on the newsletter, you see that this edition starts with a sponsor ad and then has a couple of great sounding articles and a couple more ezine ads. Sipping your coffee, one of the articles catches your attention. You read the article, and you were right. It’s a great article.

At the bottom of the article, there is a link to the author’s web site and a short biography. You notice the author has a link to pick up a free report with more information about the article’s topic. Then you notice that right below that there’s a sponsor’s link in an ezine ad. The sponsor’s link is for a different web site, but it also offers a free report about the same topic.

Now you might click both links. But if you could only click one, which would you choose: the one by the author of the great article you just read or the one in the ezine ad?

If you would click on the one from the author of the article you just read, you’re not alone. Most people would, wouldn’t they?

Now suppose you’re surfing around on the web. You do a Google search on a topic you’re interested in, and you follow a link to a great article with some excellent advice on the topic. Again, there is a link to the author’s web site and a link to a free report with more information on the topic. Right beside it are five Google AdWords ads on the same topic. As luck would have it, they are also each offering a free report on the same topic.

You would still be most likely to click on the author’s link at the bottom of the article, though, wouldn’t you?

Article submission trumps ezine ads and Google AdWords because you establish a relationship and build trust with your reader. You are obviously the expert. After all, you wrote the article. And the webmaster or ezine publisher wouldn’t have published the article if they didn’t think you knew what you were talking about, right?

Years ago, I used to do direct sales in people’s homes. I learned that one of the first things you need to do is the “warm up.” You’ve just entered someone’s home, they don’t know who you are as a person, and they know you’re going to be trying to get money from them before you leave.

If you don’t establish rapport quickly, it’s difficult to overcome people’s natural sales resistance. In direct sales in the home, you do that by talking a little with people before you begin your sales presentation. They get to know you as a person, and their resistance is lowered.

Most people can’t do sales because they remain the “enemy,” the horrible sales person who wants to sell them something. Let’s face it, people hate sales people!

But imagine if you could warm up to people easily - and not just one or two people, but thousands of people. Imagine if instead of selling them something, you could educate them about something that will solve a problem and be of great benefit to them. That’s entirely different, isn’t it?

Article submission allows you to do exactly this, and on a massive scale. If you submit many articles to article submission sites and article directories, many will be published on web sites and in ezines around the Internet. People will read your articles and warm up to you. Solve their problems and they’ll want more.

It’s hard to accomplish that with Google AdWords. You only have three lines and a few words to build interest and trust and to get the click. It’s also hard to achieve that with ezine ads. Even with solo ezine ads, everyone knows they are advertisements.

Article submission is the secret. Writing and submitting articles is relatively easy. Just write very helpful articles on your topic and link to your web site. Through article submission you will build your reputation. Through article submission you will gain trust. And through article submission you will get visitors to your web site that already like you, value your advice, and want to know more about what you can do to help them.

That’s already an incredible benefit, but it gets even better. Article submission is usually free, or low cost if you use an article submission service. Ezine ads and Google AdWords can be very expensive, and it is unlikely you could ever get traffic coming to your site as open to listening to you and trusting you as they will be from an article submission.

This is why article submission trumps ezine ads and Google AdWords.

This article on the 10 (no, 11… yes, 11) tips for newbies is not written from the catbird seat point of view of the article host or database manager. Rather it is by and from the perspective of an author who remembers the early misgivings. It is written especially for the beginning article writer. The Tennessee Mountain Man has written and submitted hundreds of articles for publication to thousands of article hosts and database managers and still finds article writing his nemesis.

1. Necessity vs Desire:

Articles and Blogs are necessary in today’s scheme of search engine indexing. Not what the newbie wants to hear. Just remember what the Bible says, “there has nothing over taken you that is not common to man”. That’s right! All of us hate article and Blog writing at times, and some of us dread the journey to pen and paper (or keyboard as the case may be) all the time. Many a webmaster would call them “a necessary evil” as they are not generally anyone’s best liked house keeping chores.

2. Just Start, It Gets Easier:

First it is sometimes difficult to get a subject or theme and to get the first couple of lines scribbled down. The Tennessee Mountain Man knows authors who literally get sick thinking about the process. Lighten up. Once an author has a starting point and gets passed the initial thoughts, article and Blog writing usually goes fairly smoothly.

The main thing is that you get started. Pick a subject you know something about and just start. You will be pleasantly surprised at just how easily ideasflow. Don’t assume everyone knows what you know. They don’t. Will Rogers once said, “all men are ignorant, just on different subjects”. And, so it is!

3. Good vs Perfection:

Your old English comp professor is not looking over your shoulder. This paper does not have to be perfect. That is not to say it does not have to be on point or to say that it does not have to be correct. It does or at least it should be. But, perfection is not the goal and is, in fact, seldom possible. Too much detail and you run the risk of losing your reader on several levels. Too long and

most readers simply don’t have the time or interest to wade through the material regardless of how important it is.

4. Blog Length vs Article Length:

Most publishers want a minimum of six hundred (600) words per article - some will let you slide with four hundred (400) words. Blogs can be much smaller. Blogs can and maybe should support appropriate pictures and embedded links.

Just don’t over do it. Too gaudy or too slow to load and you have wasted your time, ticked off a potential reader, and probably upset a host who can ban you from their publications. Articles, on the other hand, typically cannot carry these extra touches according to the requirements of most publishers.

5. Format:

Prepare your article in American Standard Code for Information Interchange (ASCII) format. There are many tools from which to choose to get the job done. A search for ‘free ASCII editor’ or for ‘free plain text editors’ will provide one with a multitude of free options. Word Press is a popular choice. If all else fails simply use notepad to turn out your masterpiece.

6. Spelling and Grammar:

Once you have your article or Blog run it through a good spell checker and a good grammar checker. Microsoft Word works well for these purposes. Just don’t use the MS Word copy for publication of your article. Rather use it’s suggestions to make any necessary corrections to your plain text copy. The MS Word copy will work for Blogs although the Computerman prefers other editors.

Just like the days when you were pushed by Profs, you will find Article and Blog writing skills become easier with time and practice.

7. Publish and Announce:

Once your Blog is ready you may want to use some automatic tools to publish and announce it. First do a search for Blog hosts and select those which best suit your needs. Join one or more and publish your Blog there. Then search for Blog announcers and rss announcers and use them to get your Blog noticed.

Now that you have that out of the way find an article wizard that will post your Articles to free publishers. You can post them one at a time by hand if you are really bored and have absolutely nothing else in life to do. Using an automatic poster you can publish to hundreds of hosts in an hour or so. The only way to go.

8. Patience:

Now, have some patience. Here is where you lose control. Many of the men and women who host articles are timely and your articles will be reviewed within twenty-four (24) to forty-eight (48) hours. But, many others will be days and weeks down the road therefore never date an article - a sure way to get rejected.

9. Rejection - “sorry your article has been declined”:

Be prepared for most hosts to reject your articles. Do not take it personally. It usually has little to do with you or your article.

Some databases routinely reject articles for spelling errors when there are none or where there is more than way to spell a word. And, just as in any other endeavor some hosts are simply too lazy and get so far behind, the easiest and fastest thing to do (and perhaps the only alternative) is to reject everything. You will learn who these are over time.

Then there are those who run your articles through the sausage grinder and if they find certain words, irrespective of how they are used, your article gets no farther. These are the people who can’t publish the Holy Bible because it contains words that offend them or their readers. Don’t worry about these folks who are so heavenly minded they are of no earthly use.

Remember, just as in everything else in life, for every rule there is an exception

10. Keep the faith, and keep cranking out articles:

Since most authors, especially newbies, prepare only one copy of an article against the advice of most seasoned authors it is important that the newbie keep his chin up - keep the faith. That will be easier as more and more of your articles are accepted and published driving visitors to your website while creating those all important back links.

It is not necessary that every host to accept everything submitted to them. After one or two hosts publish your article on any given subject, the search engines tend to penalize you anyway by ignoring additional postings. This is close to spamming and while it could help someone find you, it probably won’t. It is not necessarily, the more the merrier. The additional listings will not increase your page rankings or links reported by the search engines. It is more important to get published by hosts with the highest Google page rank possible.

Now, one BONUS TIP for you: Along with “the rejection slip” will usually come a suggestion on how to “fix” your article and a request that you resubmit it. Don’t waste your time. While trying comply with one database manager’s request you could have written a new article from which you get much more punch. Enough publishers will pick your article up so move on and save yourself some time and heartburn.

Everybody has a thought or idea at least once a day usually at the most inopportune time. How many good ideas have you lost because of waiting? Don’t procrastinate! Go! Capture that thought before it is gone forever.

#Make your article published; avoid some mistakes that many article authors did.

Sending successful article to ezine publishers could exposed your website to thousands of subscribers even millions of readers online.

However, to do this successful, you must compete with others internet marketers. They also send articles to the same ezine publishers like yours.

The question is…How to make your article stand out of the crowd?

Alternatively…

Your article goes to the trash bin.

Here are common mistakes many article authors did.

Mistake #1- Wrong-targeted niche market

Many article authors sent their article to the wrong-targeted niche market. Send your article to the targeted audience. Do not try to blast your article to all ezine publishers. For instance, as an ezine editor I received many articles do not related to internet marketing. Therefore, I’m not published it.

Mistake #2- No Subject

You do not write your article headline on your subject email. Many article authors send their article without subject line. Instead of writing “New Article submission” “article for your publication,” consider “New article &ndash 6 Mistakes You Should Avoid Before Sending Article To Ezine Publishers.”

Mistake #3- Not unique

Your article content is a blatant idea. Topic you write it like the others publishers and not much different. Make your article fresh and unique. Learn something new in your market. Convert what you learnt into a unique article. You could write article on topic “how to,” “Tips” or anything that come to your mind. Even on article, title “how to avoid SPAM,” “how to hack hackers back.”

Mistake #4- Advertising article

Your article more on promoting your product or affiliate program you join. Writing advertising article only will kill your business online. Give your website info only on your resource box. Give something free like free e-books, free report, or free download. Make your readers visit your website to receive their free bonus.

Mistake #5- Lack of valuable information

Your article does not educate your targeted audience. People subscribe to ezine to receive valuable information. If they receive information on topic they do not want, not educate them at all, they will unsubscribe. Therefore, ezine publishers will not publish your article. Many ezine publishers provide information as best as they can to their subscribers.

Mistake #6- Spelling problem

There are too many spelling errors on your article. Sending article with too many spelling errors only waste your time. Check, your article twice before publishes it. You could use spell-checking software.

Go to the major search engine and type “free spell-checking.”Most word processor today built in with spelling check. For instance, MS Office can check the misspell words for you with underline red color.

Mistake #7- Without format

Make sure your article format 65 characters per line. Length of your article must between 500-750 words. Formatting your article will make for ezine publisher easy to copy and paste it. You could send your article through MS Outlook Express.

Go to “tools” menu and click “Options.” Click “Send” tab and choose mail-sending format to “plain text.” Then click “plain text setting” tab, select 65 characters for automatically wrap text when sending email.

Mistakes #8- No Personalize message

Personalize your email message with a short cover letter. Personalization your emails are very important because many ezine publishers receive hundreds of article submission every day. Also, include your article information in your personalize message.

Avoiding those mistakes above will make your article successful published by many ezine publishers on the net. Good luck.

Ezine article writing is a proven method of generating traffic to your site. No hype here, it works, and it works well. After reading your interesting article, the reader clicks on your link in the last paragraph to learn more. Every article I have read about Ezine article writing has been quite honest in stating that Ezine is a proven traffic generator, but that it requires work. That is does. If you are a newbie, this article has information that will get you off to the right start. If you are an experienced article writer, let us review the steps to see why the process requires so much work, and what we can do to lessen the time required.

The first step is to write an interesting article on a particular subject. The article should be over 500 words, as that is a requirement of most submittal sites. Be sure to read the Submittal Guidelines of each site before submitting your article.

Next comes the preparation of a list of sites to submit your article. The person who said “easier said than done” must have been an Ezine article writer! The accepted guideline is to submit your article to at least 100 sites, but the more the better. Using Internet sources I made a list of 100 sites, but as I checked them out the list was suddenly reduced to 25. Some sites were no longer in operation, some were simply not article submit sites, others were subject specific, not applicable to my subject, and other problems. Eventually, from a list of around 300, I finally compiled my initial list of 100 sites to submit my article. This was a time consuming task.

Next comes the submitting of your article to various article sites. This is pretty straightforward. Visiting a site for the first time will require becoming a member. This involves filling out a short information form, perhaps submitting a photo, and then activating your account from the authorization sent to your listed e-mail address. Subsequent logins to the site are much faster as one can go directly to Member Sign In and then to Submit Articles. Now it is time to submit your article. Select a Category, then cut and paste each element of your article from your word processor to the data input form on the site. Cut and paste the Title, Summary, Body, Resource Box, Bio info, and Keywords into the form on the site. Sounds easy, it is easy, but again a tedious time consuming process.

Recognizing this as a very real problem, a number of innovative companies have come up with tools to lessen the time required to submit an article. No, I am not talking about Robot systems that are frowned upon. In fact, even if such systems were allowed would you really want the article that you worked so hard on, submitted without seeing that it was done properly?

This is where the article submitter program comes into play. These programs allow you to submit your articles to hundreds of article directories and can save you an incredible amount of time in doing so. You simply enter your article details into the software once, and then select the directory you would like to submit to. The software will then, automatically fill in all of the submission criteria for each directory and allow you to quickly submit your articles.

Try one of these programs, and take advantage of one of the easiest ways to submit articles and generate traffic to your website. Stop wasting time on list building and cutting and pasting.

I hate to share this, but I love watching infomercials. And I’ve ordered more than once from them! Everything from cosmetics to a cell phone accessory.

When pressed, my friends admit the same. If you sniff around most people’s homes, you’ll find SOMETHING ordered from an infomercial, whether it’s the Ronco Rotisserie or Victoria Principal’s skincare.

You may think of these often annoying programs as “trash TV”, but think again. Did you realize that they use many of the exact same strategies that we should?

Now, I don’t mean you need to scream at your customers or flash “$19.95″ in blinking digits on your website! Those are gimmicks. But what most people don’t realize is that many of the STRATEGIES that sell the kitchen doohickey gadget are the same ones that can also sell your products and programs.)

Here are 7 of my favorites:

1. They grab your attention.

Infomercials air on the most challenging medium there is out there: television. You’re just a second away from your prospect clicking their remote to the next channel. So they do their best to get your attention right away and KEEP it for as long as possible.

That’s why infomercials give bold statements and emphasize how this doohickey will change your life. You should do this too — stop beating around the bush and make it clear to your prospects how your products and services will change *their* lives!

2. They give tons of real-life testimonials.

You’ll see that TV infomercials have evolved greatly since years ago. It used to be one or two people talking to a camera for the entire time. These days most typical 30 minute spots are over 80% customer testimonials! And that’s for good reason… they are the hands-down BEST way to gain instant credibility.

A great example is for one of those home exercise machines. I noticed years ago they just showed the super-ripped guy using it on the infomercial. Now they show that guy, PLUS dozens of before and after testimonials from real-life guys with beer bellies and real jobs who used the product with success. That was a great move on their part, because c’mon, I just can’t believe that super-ripped guy got that hot looking using it just 30 minutes, 3 times a week!

3. They use personalities.

The most successful infomercials now use celebrity guest hosts. They know this gets people’s attention more than practically anything out there. Pro Activ uses Jessica Simpson. Youthful Essence (a skincare product I love) uses Susan Lucci. Even NutriSystem is now using Dan Marino in their commercials to target men.

You can do the same in your marketing. You can either hire a star, or even better, make YOURSELF the celebrity… by sharing stories, being personal, and having fun with your market.

4. They give an irresistible offer.

It’s rare these days to see an infomercial asking for you to pay for something in full. You’ll mostly see things like “3 payments of $19.95″ or “4 payments of $39.95″. Why? Cash-crunched Americans are always more concerned about cash flow than the total price. They’ll even happily pay much MORE in the end in order to gain a lower monthly payment!

You can do the same. Offer a payment plan for your products, courses, workshops, and coaching. You’ll be AMAZED at the increased response, and it’s easy to do with marketing-savvy shopping cart systems.

5. They give a strong call-to-action NOW.

These folks know that as soon as you change the channel, you’re going to forget about their product. So they make it very urgent that you pick up the phone and call them now or visit their website and order. They usually say something like “If you call in the next 10 minutes you also get…” and they list a few great bonuses.

This isn’t just specific to TV. Everyone would rather put off ANY decision these days, we’re all so busy and overwhelmed! So you need to give people a good REASON to act now, whether it’s a discount that expires, a payment plan that expires, a limited number of products or seats, a special bonus… you get the idea.

6. They sell on continuity.

What’s “continuity”? online newsletter it’s when you make ONE sale that results in multiple charges over and over. For example, because my friends have been raving about I.D. Bare Minerals natural makeup, I recently ordered a kit from their infomercial. Now, every 2 months, I receive a fresh supply in the mail, and my card is charged again. I love it because I don’t have to remember to reorder. They love it because they only had to make ONE sale, and how they’ve got me as a customer forever until I cancel!

Hear me now… continuity will change your life! Consider how you can use this principle in your business. Could you convert some of your current offerings into a monthly membership? Or instead of doing one-shot teleseminars, create an ongoing monthly program? (I did this with my Marketing & Motivation Mastermind.)

7. They repeat themselves. And repeat themselves.

And repeat themselves again! Smart marketers know it takes an average of 9 TIMES for someone to see/hear your message BEFORE they will even consider purchasing! That goes for you too. So many of my clients complain that advertising doesn’t work when they only ran one ad ONCE. Or published ONE newsletter and it didn’t get them results.

Remember it’s the ongoing exposure and repetition that breeds familiarity and trust with your prospects! And that leads to more sales than you’ve ever imagined.