Thousands of article marketers submit their articles every day. Only a small percentage of them are successful, and a minuscule percentage of them are ranked by Search Engines (SEs) in top positions. So, only a very small percentage of the articles submitted are ultra-successful, some are moderately successful, and many fail for various reasons.

What accounts for the success of the successful articles? Here’s my ‘ready to use’ checklist, in my own order of importance. You may know some of these, if you’re already into Article Marketing. Chances are, there should be at least a few in my list that you may not be aware of.

Every time you write and submit an article, compare your article and its submission process with this Checklist, and increase the chances of your article’s success. Ok, here we go.

1. Is Your Article Title Powerful? Is it Shocking/ Controversial/ Intriguing/ Beneficial/ Topical/ Informative/ Calling To Action?

2. How High Are The PR’s Of The Article Directories Where You Submit Your Articles?

3. Is Your Author Bio (Resource Box) Sufficiently Promising?

4. Do You Offer Any Incentives To Visit Your Site?

5. Do Your Sites/ Blogs and Products Deliver On Your Article’s Promise?

6. Have You Created Variable Anchor Texts In Your Author Bio?

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

8. How Many Directories Are You Submitting Your Article To?

9. Do You Submit Multiple Versions Of Your Article To Different Directories, Or Mass-Submit Just One Version To All Of Them?

10. Do You Re-Create Your Article Into Multiple Versions, Or Spin Them?

11. How Popular Is Your Niche? And How Much Competition Vies For Your Niche?

12. Have You Written Your Articles Well Enough?

13. Are You Submitting Your Article to The Right Category In Every Directory?

14. Do You Post A Copy Of Your Article In Your Own Blog/ Site?

15. Do You Own An Article Directory In Your Niche, Getting Populated Automatically? Do You Post Your Articles In It?

16. Is Your Article Summary Enticing?

17. How Popular An Author Are You?

18. How Popular Are Your Articles’ Keywords? And How High Is The Competition For These Keywords?

19. How Well Do You Use Your Time?

20. How Lucky Are You?

21. After article marketing, are you marketing your article?

Like it or not, the most precious commodity you have is your time. Most of the successful online entrepreneurs outsource most of their work; they use their time only for strategic thinking. Most of them don’t even write or submit their articles. It’s absolutely essential for your articles to appear very frequently in article directories. Ideally, many per day, but at least one per week. If you don’t have enough time, try to at least write your articles, and outsource effective submission. If you have no time for writing too (or if you have no interest or skills in writing), it’s better to outsource both writing and submission.

Articles are like food - the fuel that drives business. Skip writing and submitting articles at the risk of your business.

Good Luck for you and your article!

There are basically two types of internet marketers. The first type are subject matter experts (SMEs) in their respective domains; they’ve turned to the internet to gain a wider audience. They are in business for the passion of their subject,… whether their niche is an exotic pet, a fancy gadget, a farming technique, or a burning (or even not-so-burning) social issue. The second type are ‘internet marketers’ who’re always on the look out for any and every niche where they can make quick and easy money.

I propose specific but different article marketing strategies for the 2 types of Internet Marketers, in this post.

Content is never a problem for type 1 people. Because they know their niche inside out. They fear no competition. In fact, they get very friendly and collaborate with their competitors, also of type 1. They can churn out articles at will, every day, for years on end. Their quality shows in their content, even if the language is awful. No one will make a fuss about the language of their content; their writings are lapped up for their focus and depth. Their first love is their subject; any money they make is incidental. However, they are likely to make lots of profits, even if they take their time.

The people belonging to type 2 mainly get into ‘internet marketing’ for gaining financial freedom, with no subject expertise of their own, to start with. They’re always searching for new niches. Since they have less in-depth knowledge of their niches, their content isn’t likely to be original. Though there are many success stories in type 2, most of those struggling to succeed belong to this type.

These two types of IM’ers need different article marketing strategies.

Type 1 people, being highly focused, have lots of original thoughts and ideas to share with their audience. They don’t need shared articles. However, if their language skills are not up to the mark, they could hire good article writers and brief them, getting them to just present their points better. The first ideal destination for posting their article is ‘ezinearticles.com‘. They will get their back links and traffic naturally, in due course of time. However, to speed up the process of becoming an authority in their respective niches, they could consider re-creating their articles into uniques and drip-submitting them to 100’s of article directories, if time and/or budget should permit.

Type 2 people typically have multiple niches and domains to work on, simultaneously. They are less focused. Content, including articles, are not an end by themselves for them, but just a means to bring traffic to their sites and sell. Most of them don’t care about the originality of their articles, in terms of thought, but may realize the need to make the wordings their own. They may not mind completely relying on good article writers to write on their multiple subjects, simultaneously. Their articles must necessarily be re-created and submitted to 100’s of directories, again in drips, as that is the way their sites could get to the top in SE rankings. The sheer volume of work involved dictates that they may have to depend on high quality service providers like article writers, shared article vendors, and drip-submitters. Despite their handicaps, type 2 can also do well in article marketing, if they pursue these strategies.

Most newbies of type 2 may not have a budget for article marketing, and so can’t avoid doing their own things in their ameteurish ways, till they get to a point where they can afford professional assistance.

I have an another important strategy to suggest to type 2 ‘internet marketers’. Apart from the niches they may be working in, they should try to look within, and identify the subject they love most or have expertise in. Even if they’re not yet experts in the subjects they love, they could become SMEs, over time. And transit to type 1 at least in one niche, where they could increase their chances of success many times over.

Which type of internet marketer are you?

If you have already tasted success from Article Marketing, you know it is one of the (if not THE) most potent and cost-effective forms of internet marketing. Informative, unique, and powerful articles can get you tons of free direct traffic. Every day, day after day, for years after they were initially posted. And, you’ll keep posting… , why not, when you’ve found an easy way to market?

As a bonus, your articles will also get you back links. The more links you can get from every article, the merrier, because your site’s chances of ranking higher in Search Engines (SEs) increases.

Can you ask for more?

There are many important secrets to learn about article marketing, which this blog discusses elsewhere. However, in this post, I’m now going to reveal 6 secret strategies for success in article marketing. Here we go:

Article Marketing Secret Strategy #1: Writing and submitting, to SEs, plenty of good quality, original articles.

Easier said than done. Can you (or your ghostwriter) write one article per article directory that you submit to? How else will your site compete with your competitors’ sites with 1000’s (or at least 100’s) of back links? If you submit the same article to more than one directory, perhaps all but one of your links would end up in the ’supplemental index’ of the SEs (like Google), thereby getting you no more than one credit for the article.

If you spin your article and submit, what your prospects read will be more amusing (making a complete mockery of your article) than delightful…. Click here to find out how a typical spun article reads! After reading this, do you think they’ll buy anything from you at all?

Yet, you should find a way out to Write plenty of good quality, original articles and submit to 100’s of article directories.

Article Marketing Secret Strategy #2: Creating 100’s of versions of the same article that read as good as the original.

Spinning of articles is time-consuming work. And every version of the article spun should be unique, and different from one another in the watchful eyes of the ‘content duplication’ software that SEs use. Additionally, SEs don’t quite like to see the very same article title and anchor text in your links. So, you need to make sure these are varied across your article versions as well.

Article Marketing Secret Strategy #3: ‘Drip submission’ of articles to directories.

Almost every article submission software submits articles in bursts. SEs (esp. Google) don’t like that; if your site does receive a flood of back links, SEs may, at worst, sandbox your site (and that may be the end of your SE ranking hopes),.. or at best, deny credit for your links. SEs like sites that get back links naturally, at a steady rate.

Article Marketing Secret Strategy #4: Submission to the right category in every directory.

Most Article submission software don’t bother about the category to which your article should be submitted. This is because, the directories don’t have a standard set of categories.

Article Marketing Secret Strategy #5: Creation of logins for several 100 article directories.
Don’t mind the pain, because it’s a one-time effort, that creates the opportunity for you to submit every one of your articles for years to come.

Article Marketing Secret Strategy #6: Tracking submissions, and resubmitting articles that fail during submission.

Some submissions will fail in the first attempt in some directories for whatever reasons. The failure rate will be higher when you submit using software. Most software submissions are not tracked by the submission software, and so, they wouldn’t even know if your articles got submitted properly. If the software gives you a report of the date and time of submission, you’re reasonably safe. And if the software is programmed to resubmit later, all the better.

Why you should seriously pursue these 6 Article Marketing Secret Strategies: True, there are many challenges in article marketing. But therein lies the opportunity. Precisely for the same reasons of these challenges, your competitors are more likely to give up or make many compromises. If you pursue all these strategies rigorously, you’ll be one up on your competition.