Ten years ago I wrote an article (The Big Bang Publicity Campaign) that was picked up by the major online ezines. Within one month that article brought in $13,000 worth of business. This article not only was published in nearly a thousand online ezines but was also picked up and published in business magazines. Ya know, the kind you buy at Barnes and Noble. That article is still being published today. How did I do it?
First, ten years ago there were only a handful of ezine directories but there were thousands of ezine editors. I decided to focus my efforts on the ezine editors and that is where you should direct your efforts now. The important thing to remember is that the large ezine editors do not have time to go sifting through a pile of articles in hundreds of directories to find you! They don’t have to because they already receive targeted articles by email by writers such as yourself. Don’t wait for a back-link, go directly to the source! (You will likely also get a back-link as many ezine editors also publish their articles to their websites as well as sending them to their subscribers by email.)
Articles submitted to ezine editors should:
1. Include a headline that will catch their attention and that of their readers.
2. Be at least 400 words long, but not more than 1,000 words.
3. Be spell checked! Reread your article to be sure it flows and makes sense.
4. Be submitted in plain text.
Don’t just dump your article into an email and send it off to the editor. Address your email directly to the editor by name and write a small email to them. Ask for consideration for publication in their ezine and then tell them why their readers will benefit from your article. Give them concrete reasons for wanting to publish your work. Also, be sure to ask them to reply back to you should they select your article for publication. When they do, be sure to thank them and then put that editor in a separate list of editors that have accepted your work. While you will want to continuously submit to new editors, always submit new articles to editors that have already published your articles. Additionally, if an editor really loves your article they might ask you to write a weekly column.
Having your articles published in ezines gives you instant credibility. It tells the readers that you are an expert in your industry and is the equivalent of getting the thumbs up from the ezine owner. Your click through rates will sky rocket and the percentage of actual buyers will be much higher. Instead of hoping buyers will drop by a particular website, your article will download directly into their email through the ezine that published you.
Consider this, one ezine might have 10,000 readers. Think about how many buyers might read your article if just ten ezine editors select your article for publication! Once one editor has picked you up, others will follow.
It really doesn’t matter what you are selling, it only matters that you pick ezines in the same category as your article topic and that the articles that you send to editors are top quality. Don’t use rehashed articles content. Send original work.
Of course, now that you know to submit your articles directly to ezine editors, the problem is finding them! It’s easier than you might imagine to get your articles published in hundreds of ezines. It happened for me, it can happen for you.
Anne Marie Baugh.
