6. Spelling and Grammar
Once you have written your article or Blog, use a good spell checker. Microsoft Word works well for these purposes, so use its suggestions to make any necessary corrections to your plain text copy. Remember that Word was created by Americans. If you are writing in the UK, some of the spellings will be different.
If the work has been commissioned, then you need to honour the publisher’s language requirements. If you are writing for your own blog, the most important thing is to be consistent. Decide whether to use US or UK spelling and stick with the one you choose.
7. Publish and Let the World Know
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. Tweet about the article, letting the on-line world, or at least those people who follow you, know where to find it.
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.
8. Patience
If you are submitting for publication by someone else, be patient. It’s beyond your control. Many of the men and women who host articles act quickly and your articles will be reviewed within twenty-four to forty-eight hours. But, many others will take days or even weeks; so never date an article – it’s a sure way to get rejected.
9. Dealing With Rejection
Be prepared for hosts to reject your articles. It often 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. Other 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. If you discover one of these, stop submitting articles to them.
Then there are those who run your articles through software 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!
10. Persistence
Since most authors prepare only one copy of an article, be persistent. Once your articles begin to be accepted and published, this will drive visitors to your website while creating those all important back links. You will also find writing becomes easier as you taste the fuits of your success. Practice, practice, practice!
Bonus Tip
Rejection slips are usually accompanied by 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, sometimes at an “inconvenient time”. How many good ideas have you lost because of waiting? Don’t procrastinate! Go! Capture that thought before it is gone forever.