Stop Undermining Your Article Submissions!
By Bonnie Jo Davis
To support your efforts in writing and submitting articles, you need a solid workhorse, which is the job of your web site. It's not just for looks, but rather serves the purpose of offering something of value to your target audience and converting browsers to faithful readers, loyal newsletter subscribers and committed buyers!
On the Internet, just like with bricks-n-mortar businesses, appearance is critical. Use these strategies to elevate your web site giving it literal curb appeal and improving your business, which translates to more article acceptances and more exposure in your target market!
* Cut the Pomp and Circumstance
As with so many elements of the Internet, the use of a Splash Page featuring fancy graphics and an Enter button is obsolete. Most people find them irritating and won't even venture past this point to see the rest of your web site, so delete your splash page now!
* Professionalism
If your web site looks the Internet Amateur Hour, you're probably turning off prospects. Quality clients/customers won't do business with you if your image is unprofessional. Make sure that pages are neat and organized featuring content that's easily readable. Be consistent in formatting from page-to-page to prevent a thrown-together look.
* Focus
Just like your articles, your web site needs focus. No business fills every need for every consumer, so direct your web site to the prospective clients/customers in your target market. Be clear about the products/services you offer and engage prospects in your specific market by catering to their needs exclusively and better than your competition.
* Presence
Online businesses have to overcome the hurdle of not having face-to-face contact with prospects. Make interaction with you a simple process by providing a contact form, listing a phone number and including an e-mail address on every page.
* Stick to Business
Does your web site look reflect you as a business professional or does it blast prospects with a variety of hard-to-read fonts and excessive graphics? Limit the number of fonts and colors used throughout your site. Use graphics judiciously avoiding slow-loading designs that frustrate prospects.
* Content
They call it king for a reason, so don't dethrone your efforts by featuring the same old content. Give prospects and search engines, plus your regular clients/customers, fresh content that fits your theme and offers value to your target audience.
* Accentuate
Pay special attention to your Articles Page. Include reprint details with your required guidelines above your articles. Use inviting language in your guidelines encouraging publishers to take advantage of your material. Make it convenient for publishers by listing articles alphabetically by title and include a three-line description. Link titles to the actual article page with offer versions in html, pdf and text files.
* Courting Publishers
Publishers are very busy people, so make it easy for them to publish your articles. Offer a separate publisher's only subscription notifying them when you have a new article available.
* Show Your Smile
Potential clients want to know who you are. Include a photo on your Article Page for publishers/editors to use when
If the world is flat, as the prophets of globalization proclaim, then what happens on the underside? Alex Perry answers with Falling Off the Edge, his eye-opening journey through the planet's most dangerous hotspots. "Perry, to his great credit, is on the beat, scratching under surfaces and helping to clear away the obfuscation around this important issue," says Kirkus Reviews. ]]>
Number one New York Times-bestselling author and two-time Oprah's Book Club pick Wally Lamb delivers his first novel in over a decade — an extraordinary work of prodigious scope and ambition that explores the consequences of violent events, and the chaos that ensues. "[A] tour de force," proclaims Entertainment Weekly. "The Hour I First Believed is his best yet (Grade: A)." ]]>
From the bestselling, award-winning author of A Conspiracy of Paper comes his most powerful historical mystery yet. Set in post-Revolutionary War America, The Whiskey Rebels is a superb rendering of a vivid and perilous age. "A raucous mix of historical fiction and action-adventure thriller," hails Booklist. ]]>
For Things the Grandchildren Should Know, Mark Oliver Everett draws upon the relentless tragedies in his life (that also inspire his highly acclaimed music with the indie rock group the Eels) to pen a memoir that is a rich and poignant narrative on coming of age, love, death, and the creative vision. Kirkus Reviews calls it "refreshing and bracing. A great big grin of a book, winced out through gritted teeth."]]>
The eagerly awaited third book in Gregory Maguire's beloved Wicked trilogy has arrived! At once a portrait of a would-be survivor and a panoramic glimpse of a world gone shrill with war fever, A Lion Among Men is written with the sympathy and power that have made his books contemporary classics. "An absolute must-read for fans of this ever-evolving dark fairy tale," cheers Booklist. ]]>
Winner of the Washington Writers' Publishing House fiction prize, the stories in David Taylor's Success probe the lives of people caught in an increasingly intertwined world, close to home and abroad. Exploring a human calculus of love, betrayal, and fantasy, this moving collection makes those dramas vivid. ]]>
Second Helpings of Roast Chicken is the sequel to the phenomenally successful Roast Chicken and Other Stories, which was voted as the most useful cookbook of all time by Waitrose Food Illustrated. This new book takes 47 of Simon Hopkinson's favorite ingredients as a starting point and provides new inspiration to Hopkinson's many fans. ]]>
In A People's History of Sports in the United States, sportswriter Dave Zirin offers a rollicking, rebellious, myth-busting history of sports in America that puts politics in the ring with pop culture. Booklist calls it a "thought-provoking, contrarian take on American sport." In this INK Q&A, Zirin describes his literary pilgrimage to Powell's, explains why writers are better liars than other people (maybe), and more! ]]>
The New York Times-bestselling author of Reading Like a Writer returns with Goldengrove, an emotionally powerful novel about love and loss filled with echoes of the classics Vertigo and Pygmalion. In this INK Q&A, Francine Prose shares the most interesting letter she's gotten from a reader, the best book she's ever read, and more!]]>
A masterpiece of narrative history that vividly brings to life the original crime of the century, American Lightning shows the lasting impact the 1910 bombing of the Los Angeles Times offices had on three remarkable individuals and, through them, the country itself. In this INK Q&A, Blum shares the excitement of writing for the Village Voice in the '70s, five books he's given to girlfriends, and more!]]>
David Boling's debut novel Guernica is an extraordinary epic of love, family, and war set in the Basque town of Guernica before, during, and after its destruction by the German Luftwaffe during the Spanish Civil War. In this INK Q&A, Boling reveals the strangest jobs he's ever had, shares the question that compels him to write, and more!]]>
Paul Auster's Man in the Dark is the story of 72-year-old August Brill, who is recovering from a car accident in his daughter's house in Vermont. In this INK Q&A, Auster tells us about his literary pilgrimages, how he relaxes, and more!]]>
An astonishingly wise, ambitious, and riveting first novel set in the American community in Cuba during the years leading to Castro's revolution, Telex from Cuba is a masterful debut that will put Rachel Kushner on the map of American fiction. In this INK Q&A, Kushner shares the joys of a paper route, reveals her strangest interaction with a reader, and more!]]>
Angel's Tip is a harrowing stand-alone thriller from former Portland deputy D.A. Alafair Burke, author of the bestselling Samantha Kincaid series. In this INK Q&A, Burke shares which fictional action hero she'd like to date, the origin of her name, and more!]]>
Eminent pollster John Zogby offers The Way We'll Be, an illuminating, fact-filled look at the changing nature of the American Dream and how this is influencing everything — from the politicians people vote for to the goods and services they buy. In this INK Q&A, Zogby shares the favorite breakfast he can't eat anymore, what his favorite historical figures have in common with Larry the Cable Guy, and more!]]>
they reprint your articles. Prospects also appreciate being able to actually see a person because it makes doing business online much more personal.
* Call-to-Action
You're wasting time, effort and valuable space with web pages that don't give clients/customers the opportunity to do business with you! Each page, even your individual article pages, should always include a call-to-action. Strut your stuff by offering prospects your newsletter and/or subscriptions to your exclusive members-only offerings. Streamline the process and gain more clients.
* Testimonials
Share client/customer testimonials with prospects instead of keeping them to yourself. Add at least one testimonial per page including article pages letting prospects know just how valuable others find your products/services.
* Respect Clients/Customers
More than ever, people are concerned with the security of their private information. Establish a clear privacy policy and publish it on your web site and linking to it from each page.
* Guarantee It In Writing
Decide your return/refund policy before your web site goes live! No matter how good your product or service is, at some point, you're going to have an unsatisfied customer. Create a consistent refund policy up front and update it immediately on your web site if you change it.
* Polish The Final Product
Grammatical mistakes like misspellings, improper punctuation, and capitalization errors signal prospects that you're not attentive to detail. Have someone proofread your entire site including your articles to make sure all text is error-free.
So, what's your curb appeal? Your web site is your online office and showroom. Does it make you look like a professional or more like an amateur with a sideline hobby?
Remember, marketing with articles is about generating exposure. Although publishers need articles they may not accept them if your site is poorly designed, disorganized or filled with grammatical errors and outdated content. Put your best foot forward to prospective publishers and clients who come to you through your article submissions. If, despite your best efforts, your web site still needs work consider hiring a professional. You'll quickly recoup the cost of hiring an expert with more sales and increased exposure!
(c) 2005, Davis Virtual Assistance. This article may be reproduced in all venues so long as the content and by-line are reprinted intact and all links are set live.
