Thousands of articles are submitted every day. Only a minuscule percentage of them are ultra-successful, while the rest of them are, at best, only moderately successful. So, what accounts for the success of articles? I propose below, a checklist, in my order of importance. Add to the list, or amend it, or modify the order as you like, and make your own checklist. Every time you write and submit your articles, I suggest that you compare your article and its submission process with this, and increase the chances of your article being ultra-successful. I welcome your suggestions to improve this list, at my blog.
I explain below, only a few of the items in the checklist; the others are fairly obvious (and are, anyway, explained in detail in this blog under the respective categories).
1. How Powerful Is The Article Title? Is it Shocking/ Controversial/ Intriguing/ Beneficial/ Topical/ Informative/ Calling To Action?
Not every article may lend itself for writing in one or more of these formats. Also, it is difficult to say which of these formats would score over the others; it may vary from situation to situation. Every author should pause a moment before writing her/ his article, and consider which of these formats to adopt for maximum effectiveness. And write the Title as effectively as possible.
2. How High Are The PR’s Of The Article Directories Where Your Articles Is Submitted?
Though you may submit your article to 100’s of directories, the relative importance of these directories is not the same. Use the Rule of 80:20 to determine the importance of the key directories.
For example, if you submit to 500 directories, the first 100 of them would contribute about 80% to your results. Out of the 100, the first 20 would contribute about 64% (that is, 80% of 80%). Out of the 20, the first 4 would contribute about 50% (51.2% if you compute – 80% of 80% of 80%) to the success of your article. And the top article directory (ezinearticles.com) will contribute about 40% (about 80% of 80% of 80% of 80%) to the success of your article.
So, when I submit my articles to multiple directories, I follow this order. I submit initially to ezinearticles.com, and only after this gets published, do I submit to the other directories.
3. Is Your Author Bio Sufficiently Promising?
Even if the article is very absorbing/ useful, unless the Author Bio promises more value elsewhere (say in the Author’s blog/ site), the reader may not be motivated to click the url and get to your site/ blog.
4. Do Your Sites/ Blogs & Products Deliver On Your Article’s Promise?
Even after clicking the link(s) in the Author Bio, unless the blog/ site and the products sold therein live up to the article’s promise, the author may not derive any meaningful benefit from the article.
5. Have You Made Sure Of Variable Anchor Texts In Your Author Bio?
6. How Original Is Your Article’s Central Idea?
7. How Many Directories Are You Submitting Your Article To?
The more the merrier. The direct traffic they can bring if they get decent ranks in SEs, and the potential to get a higher SE rank due to more back links are both strong reasons to submit to as many directories as easily possible.
8. Are The Articles Re-Created (Rather Than Spun), And If So, How Well?
9. Are The Articles Drip-Submitted (Rather Than Mass-Submitted)?
10. How Popular Is Your Niche? And How Much Competition Vies For This Niche?
These two factors play an important role because, unless there are adequate searches in the niche, the chances of the article being seen are remote. And if there is too much competition, your odds of success reduce to that extent. However, be ready for pleasant and unpleasant surprises when it comes to which keywords get you traffic. Your article may rank well for keywords you did not intend to target, but not rank so well for the ones you targeted.
11. Are The Articles Well Written?
Your article is the face of your site/ blog. The quality of writing (from the angle of content as well as language style) is very important. If your passion for your subject comes through in your articles, it could make up for lack of language style.
12. Are Your Articles Drip-Submitted?
13. Do You Offer Any Incentives To Visit Your Site?
If you do, and say it in your Author Bio, many people may visit your site for these incentives. If you have any hooks in the incentives (for example, links from your free Report), you enhance the chances of your site being revisited.
14. Is Your Article Being Submitted to The Right Category In Almost Every Directory?
15. Are The Articles Re-Submitted Later After Initial Submission Failure?
16. Do You Post A Copy Of The Article At Your Own Blog/ Site?
17. Is Your Article Summary Enticing?
This matters more with certain Article Directories, and mainly with the more popular ones.
18. How Popular An Author Are You?
The articles of the more popular author have a better chance of being read.
19. How Popular Are Your Articles’ Keywords? And How High Is The Competition For These Keywords?
This is very similar to the issue of the niche, but more focused on the keywords themselves.
20. How Lucky You Are?
All said and done, there’s also an element of luck in the whole thing. For example, there are several reviewers working with Article Directories, and they can give your article a lift (or drown it), based on their subjective opinions. Google may well be considered God by some, but they’ll agree that IT is only an approximate and a ’still learning’ one. But experience shows that better writers most often have better luck.
Good Luck for you and your article!