Article Marketing Directory No No’s

Many of you have written in telling me that you’ve started, or are planning to start, article marketing campaigns since my post here entitled How to Increase Ebook Sales with an Article Marketing Blitz.

That being the case, I thought this was a good time to write a post on article marketing no no’s. This will save you a lot of time and headaches as you start submitting to various directories.

For the record, the five directories I submit to most often are EzineArticles, IdeaMarketers, Buzzle, Amazines and ArticleDashboard. I also submit to AssociatedContent (AC), which is technically not an article directory, but is a great way to get some search engine juice.

Moneymaking Tip: I submit to AC for two reasons, ie, (i) I have close to 600 articles there and earn passive income on them every month; and (ii) I have 127 subscribers to date. Hence, I feel obligated to keep them in my content loop as they’re loyal readers.

Now, on to the article marketing no no’s.

3 Article Marketing Submission Tactics to Avoid

Don’t submit porn, hate material, etc.: This is obvious, but I just wanted to throw it out there. I don’t know of any directories that accept this kind of material.

No bold tags around links: One of my articles submitted to ArticleDashboard got flagged because I placed a bold tag around a link. Even though this was in the resource box section, it still got flagged. I don’t know how many other article marketing directories have this rule, but just to be on the safe side, don’t do it.

Linking to your site in the body of the article: Most article directories have a limit to the number of what they term “self-serving links” you can place in your article. For example, at EzineArticles, it’s two. I recently received the following note from them about one of my articles:

We do not accept articles that contain more than 2 self-serving active or inactive links. Please edit your article, removing any links in excess of this, and resubmit for Editorial Review.

I had two links in the resource box, and one in the body of the article. I thought that I could not have more than two in just the resource box. Apparently, an article can only have two links overall (including the resource box).

This rule varies from directory to directory. If you want your submission process to go faster, as a general rule, just put two links in the resource box and NONE in the body of the article.

FYI, IdeaMarketers seems to be the most liberal in their linking policy – you can include links in the body of the article and in the resource box. And, your article is published immediately there. Many directories have a review policy that prevents immediate publishing. Even though IdeaMarketers doesn’t, this directory has a very good repository of professional articles.

More Article Marketing Tactics to Avoid

There are many, many more article marketing tactics to avoid. I listed these three because they’re the ones that trip me up most often (well, not the first one, but the other two).

Each directory lists their guidelines, but as they’re so extensive, it can be difficult to remember what works for some as opposed to others. Once you submit to each article directory a few times, you’ll start to get an idea of what is permitted and what isn’t.

About Article Marketing Directory Submission Software

There is article directory submission software you can use to automate the article submission process. I’ve never used any of it. I manually submit my articles, as I only use a handful of directories. As article marketing is working so well though even with just a few, submission software is something I’m looking to purchase once the busy fall season rolls around.