When I started my own article directory, I was a bit overwhelmed at first at the number of articles and topics there were out there. I spent quite a bit of time arranging my directory, and adding categories that could narrow down someone’s search when trying to find something on a specific topic. I also became a quick study on all facets because I need to know a little bit about a lot of topics. I was also quite amazed at the number of authors out there that didn’t take the time to place their articles in the proper category. How are customers ever going to find your information, if you put it in the wrong category? Say you sell widgets on the internet and put your article in internet marketing. The websites that pick up all the articles in internet marketing will have your articles listed, but you will be missing your target audience, and the website that picks up the content from the widget category, will not have your content on their sites. You will have wasted all of your time writing the article.
This goes for article directory owners as well. Anybody can buy a domain name, install a program and start looking for articles. If the articles are not in the proper categories, then webmasters and Ezine publishers are not going to use your directory for its content because it’s not trustworthy. They need content that exactly matches what they are looking for. Close enough doesn’t count. Just because it contains the word widget, doesn’t mean the article is about widgets.
Here are some examples of how to properly place an article in the proper category.
Article Title: How to sell Acne related products to teenagers.
Now you may think that this is a no-brainer, but you’d be surprised by the number of authors and directory editors that will get this wrong.
What do you think? Does it go into – a. Health/Acne, b. Beauty/skin care, c. Business/Sales, d. Parenting/Teens, or e. Marketing?
The answer is c. Business/Sales. The author is trying to teach you about sales…plain and simple. The article may contain the word acne, but that’s really not its main purpose.
I’ve written quite a few articles on home inspections. When I submit the articles to directories, many of them do not have a subcategory under Real Estate called Home Inspection. So I place the article in the next closest category which is Real Estate. You would be surprised at the number of editors that will change it to the home improvement category because it contains the word “home”. Home inspection has nothing to do with home improvement. But because they have not taken the time to educate themselves in all the aspects needed in being an article directory editor, they made the wrong decision…now multiply that by 10,000 articles and you will see that their directories will be basically worthless to webmasters and Ezine publishers. They are just going thru the motions.
Another aspect to this is writing an article that is over everyone’s head, including editors and then leaving the category choosing to the editor. If I scan thru an article, and come out the other side not knowing what the author is trying to convey, the article will get deleted, plain and simple. I feel if the author cannot educate me in the first few sentences as to the proper category, then he will miss the boat on educating his audience.
Article directory editors and owners mostly do this as a part time gig, so they have very little time to review and approve 200-400 articles per day. Making sure that you submit your article to the proper category will ensure that you reach your intended audience.
Here's another tip. The first words of your title can incicate which category it belongs. Bad example: Need Help? We can point you in the right direction. Help with what? What direction? What the heck are you trying to say?
Here's a good example:Sales - How to sell widgets to people with pink houses. You get the point. Be as specific in your title as possible.
If you use this advice, you will have no problems finding your target market.
Content Provider: http://www.my-articles.com
More About Patrick McMahon: The author is editor of ArticleStack.com - Article Submission Directory and a Niche article directory for home and related articles: Home Article Submission Directory.
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