Writing For Publicity Part 3

Next we'll talk about actual free content directories, free content groups and other content resources available on the web. There are plenty of these on the web, many are a complete waste of time, however others can really help to get your articles out there.

Free content directories are sites which categorize hundreds even thousands of articles which writers have submitted and given permission for people to publish. When ezine and website publishers visit these they search for articles related to their industry and publish ones they like. This is why you want all your articles in all the content directories, the directories that are worthwhile anyhow.

Here's a few of the most popular places writers like to submit their work.

http://www.ezinearticles.com -
This is one of the biggest directories on the web, your articles however have to be available via autoresponder otherwise they won't publish them.

http://www.ideamarketers.com -
http://www.goarticles.com -
http://www.certificate.net/wwio/
http://www.articlecity.com/
http://www.authorconnection.com/
http://www.netterweb.com/articles/

Content groups serve the same principal as content directories, there're basically a place to connect writers and people looking for articles. These groups are hosted by Yahoo and Topica mostly. Writers can submit articles via the Internet or send them to the group email address. Most groups are moderated to prevent blatant advertisements and to maintain a high standard of articles so your article may not be published for a couple of days.

The moderator of the group usually selects his or her favorite articles from recent submissions, these articles are then emailed to members of the group. Some members however choose not to receive articles via email but to read them online instead.

Here's some of the content groups I submit articles to along with the latest member numbers.

Yahoo Groups - article_annouce - 1821
Yahoo Groups - Free-Content - 848
Yahoo Groups - aabusiness - 839
Yahoo Groups - articles_archives - 594
Yahoo Groups - Free-Reprint-Articles - 237
Yahoo Groups - publisher_network - 209
Yahoo Groups - ArticlePublisher - 129
Yahoo Groups - FreeWrites - 118

Before you can submit to any of these you've to have a Yahoo id and then join each group individually. Also see http://www.topica.com/lists/FreeEzineContent

Now I'll talk about the websites which publish ezines but don't say if they accept articles. Just because they don't mention it on their websites doesn't mean they don't accept articles. For sites like these I use a couple of directories devoted to listing ezines only and not free content. These include http://www.homeincome.com/search-it/ezine/ and http://ezine-universe.com/. These directories will usually tell you the following information and more about each ezine they list:

Ezine name
Name and email of the Editor/Publisher
Content Type
Subscription address
If they accept articles or not, what type of articles they accept and how to submit them.
And of course the all important circulation number.

Simply enter your search criteria and visit the bio page for each ezine. Be patient as for some searches there are 2500+ ezines listed. When on an ezines bio page check to see if their circulation is above 500, (otherwise it will just be a waste of time) if it is check to see if the ezine accepts articles. If they do add the editors or publishers first name (if you can), ezine name and the article submission email address to your ezine publishers mailing list. It will take time to visit all the ezine bio pages but after doing so your mailing list should start to take shape. Be careful not to have duplicates in your mailing list, this is sure to annoy the unlucky publisher who receives the same article three or four times.

The resources mentioned higher up the article are only a fraction of the resources available, doing a simple search for related keywords should return many more places for you to promote your articles.

One more final point before I conclude, recently I came across a service on a website. The service offered to promote your article for $50 by sending it to 2,800 ezine publishers. I considered giving the service a try myself but then thought what about the next article I want to submit? I'll have to pay $50 over and over again and I'm not going to do that so I decided against using this service. I would have to promote my articles myself. The point I'm trying to make is to gradually build your own list of people who are interested in your articles then this list will be your for keeps. Don't borrow someone else's list. The process is slower but much more profitable in the long run.

That's the end of the article, in it you've learned the power behind writing articles for others, what's needed in order for your article to be published and what resources there are to help you. Hopefully you can benefit from the information you've read here. Happy Writing!

Back to Part 2

Article by David Callan - admin@akamarketing.com
David is the webmaster of http://www.akamarketing.com.
Visit his site for free articles and tutorials focusing on Internet marketing and website development issues.