Web_Footed_Newbie - 12:19 am on Jul 6, 2005 (gmt 0)

You just spent an hour or more on penning an article. You have big plans of submitting it to article sites so you can get that one way back link. Keep these tips in mind!
I receive about 10 articles a day on one of my sites optimized to receive articles. Unfortunately, only 1 in 10 are decent enough to even post on my site.

Top 10 reasons why I refuse articles:
1. Misssspelllinnngggss
2. Poor grammar.
3. Off topic - article does not address my site's audience. At least review the site you are submitting too before you send the article.
4. Not optimized. Yes, write articles for readers first, but keep the search engines in mind. ;)
5. Sentence structure. Remember English 101, topic sentence, supporting sentences (2 or 3) in the paragraph to support the topic, etc., etc.
6. Embedded links don't work. If you are going to take the time to write the article, and include links, make sure they work, especially the links back to your own site!
7. Article too long. Don't submit a 14-page dissertation; give me a short and sweet article - even better if the article does not require scrolling!
8. Terrible title. This is the first step to having someone even look at the article. Write the article first, then write a title that would work well on any magazine cover.
9. Article doesn't challenge my site audience. Write controversially, or at the very least, intriguing.
10. No author information. Why would you even consider writing an article and not put your name, or at least a back link to your site? Anonymity has its purposes, but not when you are trying to get one way back links.
Good luck!
Web Footed Newbie

p.s. Once articles are snapped up, you can check to see what sites are using them. Copy a sentence out of the second paragraph of your article, put quotes around it, and do a search for the entire sentence! It works wonders!