Search Engines like Google prefer blogs and sites that build back links at a uniform, gradual pace. If they detect unnatural spurts of back links to your site, they discount these links, and may even sandbox your site.

So, if you submit your articles by any automated process to 100’s of article directories at a time, and if the directories approve them quickly (which they will if your articles are good), chances are the back links you get may be discounted by SEs like Google. (Yes, if the content submitted to the directories is identical, that may be again discounted; the solution to this, as we’ve seen elsewhere in this blog, is in re-creating 100’s of unique, non-duplicate, versions of the article and submitting one per article directory, also changing the anchor texts, title, etc.)

However, your time is valuable, and you may not be able to keep submitting your articles by hand to different directories, one at a time, keeping a record of where you submitted which version, on which day. This may become practically impossible if you have many articles to submit.

So, how do you submit your articles and yet pre-empt SEs from penalizing you for mass submission? The answer lies in ‘automated drip-submission’, a software that submits your articles only to a certain number of article directories every day, while simultaneously keeping track of the submissions.

Submit the article you’ve prepared for re-creation to a scheduling software. The scheduler would schedule different versions of your article for submission to different article directories on different days. If, for some reason (like the non-availability of the site in question, or time-out), a few of them don’t get submitted, the scheduler should try to re-submit, or submit to alternative directories (postponing the re-submission for another day). The scheduler would also keep track of which versions have already been submitted, so that you don’t submit the same version to more than one directory.

How many articles should the scheduler be made to submit per day? No one knows for sure, but consensus appears to be that up to 20-25 a day should be just fine. So, if you’re planning to submit to about 500 article directories, the entire submission process (of every single article) should be over in less than one month.

This strategy should help your blog (or site) earn back links, at a gradual and natural pace. SEs should be happy, and you should be happy too!

“For want of a nail the shoe was lost.
For want of a shoe the horse was lost.
For want of a horse the rider was lost.
For want of a rider the battle was lost.
For want of a battle the kingdom was lost.
And all for the want of a horseshoe nail.”

So goes a nursery rhyme.

An article succeeds only when every element contributes its bit. A failure of just one element could result in the failure of your article. One of the key elements of your article is the Resource Box (or the ‘Author Bio’ as it is also called). Don’t let your good article fail, with poor spinning, or a bad submission strategy, or an inappropriate Resource Box. Learn the secret success strategies for your Resource Box, and create a winning Resource Box.

Article Resource Box Secret Strategy #1: Tell, don’t Sell.
An ad is different from an article. A good ad should sell, but a good article should just inform. It’s like the editorial ‘info’ pages in a good magazine. A magazine article is read with a different mindset than an ad. The goal in an article is to create a ‘wow’ feeling, and make the reader look to see “who is the author, and what more can I learn from her/ him”. The Author Bio should read more like a factual statement of how the author can really help the reader learn all there is to learn in the niche. Please see an example of a reasonably well-writen Author Bio:

Richard J. Runion is the President of Geostar Publishing & Services LLC. He has published successful eBooks written by several Subject Matter Experts in diverse fields. He offers a unique ‘article writing & drip-submission’ service for internet marketers who don’t have the time, or content, or interest to write & submit articles. His blog on Article Marketing giving revolutionary new free tips is fast becoming popular, as it is comprehensive and well-researched. You can read his blog at: http://www.1ClickArticleMarketing.com .

The author is introduced, with relevant details that should interest article marketers, esp. the ones who have no time, or content, or interest to write. Revolutionary new free tips are promised for every article marketer. There’s no hard selling done here; just a mild but reasonably powerful introduction of the author.

It doesn’t shout:

“This author’s Amazing New ‘1 Click Article Marketing’ Service Could Change Your Life & Fortunes! For Ever. Just 1 Click By You… And Rich Will Take Care of Your Article Marketing. At ‘1 Click Article Marketing’, Rich Handles All The Hard & Time-consuming Tasks. Writing Articles For You Exactly As Per Your Requirements, If You Want, Re-Create 500+ Unique Articles Out Of Each, And Submit To Each Of Our List Of 500+ Top Article Directories (Which Include All The Highest PR Ranked Sites We Know). Click Here Now, And Order ‘1 Click Article Marketing’ Services at: http://www.1ClickArticleMarketing.com .

Article Resource Box Secret Strategy #2: Vary the anchor text across article directories.
SEs would see the links along with their anchor text. If all the anchor texts are identical, the SEs would presume that the articles may have been mass submitted, and/ or the links have been engineered, with the result that your site may be sandboxed, or may get fewer credits for your back-links. SEs believe that natural linking should have varying anchor texts. So, re-create multiple versions of the Author Bio and submit to the different article directories, with different versions of the aricles and article titles.

In case you happen to be writing and submitting articles on different subjects, vary your complete Author Bio.

There are so many article directories around. Ezinearticles.com and a few others have grown quite big. Who owns the them? Did you know, it is people like you and me? Not multi-million dollar companies. Why do they own them? Because, not only are they profitable by themselves, but also silently help their owners significantly in their SEO efforts.

So, why don’t you own one too?

What are the benefits of owning an article directory?
You’ll own a site that will soon have lots of content, attain a high PR, and SEs would love it (as they love article directories). The article directory would, by itself, generate additional sales for your own/ affiliate products, and at least a small (yet decent) adsense (and perhaps Amazon) income. If your article directory focuses on your ‘niche’ and word gets around, you’ll soon get popular in your niche as most people operating in your niche would try to post their articles there. They will source articles from your directory, linking to it. You’ll get to know the ‘goings on’ in your niche better.

Now, instead of the article directory being hosted separately under a new domain name, if you make it part of your main business domain (like in my case; my article directory is at: http://www.1clickarticlemarketing.com/directory/ , within my own main domain viz. http://www.1clickarticlemarketing.com/ ), you can exploit the large volume of content, higher PR ranking, traffic, and the popularity of your article directory within your niche, all for your site too.

In fact, you should also consider incorporating a blog, list-building and a forum within the same domain where you have your article directory, monetizing everything appropriately, and maximizing the domain’s value for you. Each of these elements will help the other elements. Synergy at its highest!

Here are a few things you should know, to be an article directory owner:

1. There are free article directory scripts available, and there are paid ones. There are also service providers who will create one for you. I propose to create free article directories for my clients.

2. It’s better to own a niche article directory, hoping to become the (or at least a) leader in the niche, rather than a generic article directory.

3. It’s better to own fewer article directories (preferably just one) and build it well, than create many, and struggle with their maintenance. If you operate in many niches, and believe you can manage many, you could own one for every niche.

4. Create keyword-rich category names, preferably similar to the ones in popular directories like ezinearticles.com. But if yours is a super-niche, you should consider creating your own set of categories, based mainly on your keyword research.

5. Pre-populated article directories won’t help you much, as all the content in them will be duplicate. However, pre-populating with your own articles is a good idea.

6. Find a way of getting lots of articles submitted to it regularly, without your effort. For my clients, I propose to add the names of their article directories to my list of article directories to which I’ll submit regularly. So, they’re assured a certain volume of submissions (assuming there are other clients who submit articles in those niches. I expect almost all my clients to benefit from this).

7. Unless at least 25% of these articles are unique, your directory’s PR and SE ranking won’t improve. This is likely to be the biggest challenge you’ll have very little control over. My customers will be at an advantage here because all my submissions will be unique, since I follow a ‘unique articles’ submission strategy (as you may have read from the other pages of this blog). This is a service for which my customers won’t have to pay me.

8. If you are pre-populating with your own articles, and if you have re-created these articles, you should strongly consider posting a unique version in your directory.

9. If yours is a niche directory, identify good articles from the other popular directories and post them in your directories (making sure you comply with their rules; typically, you may have to post them without alteration of the content, resource box, etc., giving a Source Link to that directory, limiting such re-prints to the number they specify (about 25 typically per source directory).

10. Remember to create links to your site/ blog/ sales page appropriately. Text links work better than banners.

11. You have to scrutinize and approve articles; else you may end up with a lot of junk and spam messages in disguise. You have to allocate time for this, at least once a week. I can also offer this as a paid service, if anyone is interested.

12. Do SEO like you do for any other site.

13. It could never hurt to request popular writers (in your niche) to write a few articles for your directory exclusively. Inform members of Warrior Forum and other such forums, and service providers submitting to article directories. Promote your directory in every way possible, not only to prospective article authors, but also to your target audience, wherever possible.

14. Though your host may periodically backup your site content, back up your article directory regularly, in your own interest, for the mere ease of restoring later, if required.

Some day, if at all you decide to sell your site, you’ll realize how much this article directory gets additionally valued (apart from the indirect benefits it would have already fetched your main site, in terms of traffic and SE ranking).

The sequence of submission to article directories matters. In what sequence should you submit your articles to them? Let’s formulate a strategy.

Ezine Article Submission Strategy #1: Post In Your Own Blog/ Site, First.
This is a no-brainer, as everyone with experience knows. Since content is King, why lose it? By posting in your own blog/ site first, and making sure it’s indexed before posting elsewhere, you’re making sure the content in your blog/ site is not reckoned wrongly as duplicate and ignored/ penalized.

Ezine Article Submission Strategy #2: Submit To The Best (One) Article Directory, Next.
The one I recommend based on my own experience, which is also the ‘near unanimous’ choice of many other experienced article marketers is ezineArticles.com . This has a high PR rank (PR6, at the time of writing). Though there are a few with PR7, ezineArticles has the best standing with the whole industry, including Google. You’ll get the maximum traffic from this one posting. And if you’ve handled all other issues (like anchor text) well, you’ll get back-links that count a lot, too.

Ezine Article Submission Strategy #3: Drip-Submit To Relevant Article Directories, Next.
After making sure that your article has, in deed, been approved and posted in ezineArticles, post in as many of the relevant article directories as you can. Only you will know which ones are relevant to your site, based on your own knowledge and experience. This is likely to be a very small number, unless you’re in a big market, not just a small niche.

Don’t mass-submit. Submit in trickles. I prefer to submit around 20 to 25 per day.

Ezine Article Submission Strategy #4: Finally, Drip-Submit To 100’s Of Article Directories, Sequentially, Based On Their Relative Importance.
Leaving out article directories with specific focus outside your niche, and the ones that are mere link farms or are non-functional, submit to as many directories as you possibly can. How do you rank the article directories in terms of their relative importance? I use a combination of two parameters. One is, of course, the PR rank. (You can use Alexa ranking instead, if you like.) The second is the list of the article directories that gurus recommend (please see ‘Warrior Forum’). You may alternatively create such a list from the ones that major article submission software submit to. I have my own formula to rank the article directories.

Again drip-submit; don’t mass-submit.

Ezine Article Submission Strategy #5: Use High Quality Unique Versions Of Your Article For All These Submissions.
Don’t submit the same one version all around. And don’t use article spinners to spin; they will kill the spirit of your articles. In case you have a ‘blog post’/ ’site page’ with similar content, perhaps you may avoid posting it also as an article in your blog/ site (that is, you may skip strategy #1), as it may become over-kill.

Thousands of articles are submitted every day. Only a minuscule percentage of them are ultra-successful, while the rest of them are, at best, only moderately successful. So, what accounts for the success of articles? I propose below, a checklist, in my order of importance. Add to the list, or amend it, or modify the order as you like, and make your own checklist. Every time you write and submit your articles, I suggest that you compare your article and its submission process with this, and increase the chances of your article being ultra-successful. I welcome your suggestions to improve this list, at my blog.

I explain below, only a few of the items in the checklist; the others are fairly obvious (and are, anyway, explained in detail in this blog under the respective categories).

1. How Powerful Is The Article Title? Is it Shocking/ Controversial/ Intriguing/ Beneficial/ Topical/ Informative/ Calling To Action?
Not every article may lend itself for writing in one or more of these formats. Also, it is difficult to say which of these formats would score over the others; it may vary from situation to situation. Every author should pause a moment before writing her/ his article, and consider which of these formats to adopt for maximum effectiveness. And write the Title as effectively as possible.

2. How High Are The PR’s Of The Article Directories Where Your Articles Is Submitted?
Though you may submit your article to 100’s of directories, the relative importance of these directories is not the same. Use the Rule of 80:20 to determine the importance of the key directories.

For example, if you submit to 500 directories, the first 100 of them would contribute about 80% to your results. Out of the 100, the first 20 would contribute about 64% (that is, 80% of 80%). Out of the 20, the first 4 would contribute about 50% (51.2% if you compute - 80% of 80% of 80%) to the success of your article. And the top article directory (ezinearticles.com) will contribute about 40% (about 80% of 80% of 80% of 80%) to the success of your article.

So, when I submit my articles to multiple directories, I follow this order. I submit initially to ezinearticles.com, and only after this gets published, do I submit to the other directories.

3. Is Your Author Bio Sufficiently Promising?
Even if the article is very absorbing/ useful, unless the Author Bio promises more value elsewhere (say in the Author’s blog/ site), the reader may not be motivated to click the url and get to your site/ blog.

4. Do Your Sites/ Blogs & Products Deliver On Your Article’s Promise?
Even after clicking the link(s) in the Author Bio, unless the blog/ site and the products sold therein live up to the article’s promise, the author may not derive any meaningful benefit from the article.

5. Have You Made Sure Of Variable Anchor Texts In Your Author Bio?

6. How Original Is Your Article’s Central Idea?

7. How Many Directories Are You Submitting Your Article To?
The more the merrier. The direct traffic they can bring if they get decent ranks in SEs, and the potential to get a higher SE rank due to more back links are both strong reasons to submit to as many directories as easily possible.

8. Are The Articles Re-Created (Rather Than Spun), And If So, How Well?

9. Are The Articles Drip-Submitted (Rather Than Mass-Submitted)?

10. How Popular Is Your Niche? And How Much Competition Vies For This Niche?
These two factors play an important role because, unless there are adequate searches in the niche, the chances of the article being seen are remote. And if there is too much competition, your odds of success reduce to that extent. However, be ready for pleasant and unpleasant surprises when it comes to which keywords get you traffic. Your article may rank well for keywords you did not intend to target, but not rank so well for the ones you targeted.

11. Are The Articles Well Written?
Your article is the face of your site/ blog. The quality of writing (from the angle of content as well as language style) is very important. If your passion for your subject comes through in your articles, it could make up for lack of language style.

12. Are Your Articles Drip-Submitted?

13. Do You Offer Any Incentives To Visit Your Site?
If you do, and say it in your Author Bio, many people may visit your site for these incentives. If you have any hooks in the incentives (for example, links from your free Report), you enhance the chances of your site being revisited.

14. Is Your Article Being Submitted to The Right Category In Almost Every Directory?

15. Are The Articles Re-Submitted Later After Initial Submission Failure?

16. Do You Post A Copy Of The Article At Your Own Blog/ Site?

17. Is Your Article Summary Enticing?
This matters more with certain Article Directories, and mainly with the more popular ones.

18. How Popular An Author Are You?
The articles of the more popular author have a better chance of being read.

19. How Popular Are Your Articles’ Keywords? And How High Is The Competition For These Keywords?
This is very similar to the issue of the niche, but more focused on the keywords themselves.

20. How Lucky You Are?
All said and done, there’s also an element of luck in the whole thing. For example, there are several reviewers working with Article Directories, and they can give your article a lift (or drown it), based on their subjective opinions. Google may well be considered God by some, but they’ll agree that IT is only an approximate and a ’still learning’ one. But experience shows that better writers most often have better luck.

Good Luck for you and your article!