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!

Whether you write your own articles or get them written by others, you need to have clear strategies for article writing. I recommend the following 5 secret strategies.

Article Writing Secret Strategy #1: Showcase your subject matter expertise as best as you can.

Ideally, you should be the subject matter expert, writing ezine articles on your subject. Or you should try to become one, asap. I strongly believe that such people pursuing their passion rather than trying to sell all kinds of things have the highest chances of resounding success. In such a case, you are sitting on top of a gold mine; your ezines will have a high potential to deliver, as they come from your heart. You could depend on both the power of your ideas and the power of your writing.

If you’re not the subject matter expert,… it is still possible to do reasonably well online. Your articles could still get published and get you good traffic and back links. For example, you may be selling an affiliate product, or angling for some adsense income. There may be no original ideas in your ezines/ articles; your articles may be a rehash of content from elsewhere on the net. Of course, the words stringing the ezine article together could still be original. Here, you have to depend mainly on the power of your writing, and the fact that the reader may be a newbie in your market, and your content may be useful to him/ her.

Whichever be the case, your first goal should be to write the article (or get it written) as best as you possibly can, for your readers first, and only then for the SEs.

If you have your own distinctive style, follow it. ‘How To’ articles are the most liked ones. If you could add an element of humor/ sensation/ romance/ drama/ thrill/ intrigue/ sarcasm/ suspense,… all the better.

If you use shared articles, don’t publish them as such. Make sure they are rewritten. Powerfully enough, so your original words make up for the lack of original ideas.

If you get your articles written by someone else, it still helps you to understand the subject well, and decide what gets written. You could give a good brief and ‘how to’ tips to help your writer to write exactly what you want written.

Article Writing Secret Strategy #2: Just Tell. Don’t Sell.

Article directories are not ‘ad columns’. They are not publishing YOUR articles just because YOU want back links and traffic. Article publishers have THEIR OWN agenda. They want to appear to their readers that the articles in their sites are ‘pure’ content with lots of useful tips, not somebody’s propaganda material. So, they want you to completely cut out your self-promotion in your articles, limiting your publicity to the ‘Author Bio’ (also called ‘Resource Box’).

Also, articles get maximum traffic to your site when they are useful and interesting (even if incomplete). They should appeal to the emotions/ intellect of your target audience, identifying with them, creating a rapport, and making them drop their defenses. Your articles should make your audience look up to you as the guru they’ve been searching for. This is exactly what article publishers expect too, not your sales pitch. So, write such that you give away content, including at least one useful tip they may not know. Get the readers to read your Author’s Bio and visit your site. In other words, write articles, not ad copy.

Article Writing Secret Strategy #3: Edit.

Articles that contain typos, written with scant regard for grammar, present you and your site in poor light. Preferably, get your article edited/ proof-read by someone who’s good at English, unless you’re 100% sure of your spelling and grammar.

Article Writing Secret Strategy #4: Write compelling/ appropriate collaterals.

Though your article body is important, its collaterals are important too. Write a compelling Article Title, Author Bio (Resource Box), and Summary, and identify appropriate keywords and Category. When you publish your article, each of these plays an important role too. Pay more attention to your Author Bio than your article.

Article Writing Secret Strategy #5: Re-create your article (Don’t Spin).

Even a great article, when spun, becomes junk, usually. Don’t just spin. Re-create your article with more effort than when you first wrote it. Re-create not just the article body, but also the Title, Author Bio, and Summary. Add varying anchor text to all the links. Make sure you include the right long-tailed keywords, and the right LSI, with the keyword mentioned aptly (just 3 to 4 times, once in the title and once at the very start), and links to different pages of your site, all of which will get your article good SE placement.

Why you should seriously pursue these 5 Article Writing Secret Strategies: If you enjoy writing articles and have built your business around your own articles, you know the value of Article Marketing. You’re doing just fine. Follow these 5 strategies.

No doubt, Article Marketing is tedious and time-consuming for the busy/ uninitiated. Because you have to churn them out, day in and day out. Particularly if you are very busy otherwise (may be minting money managing your online/ offline business, or may be in a day job). Or if you are too lazy to write. Or if you lack the skills and/or motivation to write.

Whatever your reasons, don’t avoid Article Marketing! It is too good an opportunity to pass up. Outsource this service from a good vendor, whoever you think measures up to your expectations. And make sure your vendor follows these 5 article writing strategies.