Six Things You Must Do Before Publishing An Article

If you’ve written an article for publishing (online or offline) there are a few things you need to make sure you do before you hit the “publish” button, or send it off to an editor.
Here’s my checklist:
1. Make sure you are typo and spelling error free. I’d best make sure this missive is typo free then…;o) A trick used in marketing agencies is to read something forward for sense (ie does it make sense) and backwards for typos. If you read something backwards you’ll read each individual word, whereas when you read forwards, your brain will see what’s not there, so this is not very helpful when you’re proof reading. (In fact, you only read the first two or three letters of a word – your brain is clever enough to “see” the rest of it and know what’s there, without actually reading it.) And get someone else to read it too for you: they will always spot what you’ve missed.
2. Make sure your grammar is correct – most common place is the mis-use of apostrophes, and when to use ‘their’ or ‘there’. Spell check won’t pick up all of these, so go through with a fine tooth comb and correct as necessary. Incorrect spellings and grammar will ‘grate’ on your reader’s subconscious (or just outright annoy them) and you will not come across as the expert you were hoping to be seen as (“If they can’t get the spelling right, will my order be right..?”).
3. Only ever write to ‘one’ person. It’s really important that you know your target audience. If you know them like you know your best mate, then you can write to them as an individual. Even if you think you can’t write an article, you can write some information for your closest friend. And this is what makes the difference between an ‘OK’ article and a killer article.
4. If you’re writing an article for the internet, then you will probably need to include the key words that people are searching for in order that they your article pops up. For example, ‘article marketing’ will be a key word that people will be searching for. There are various services around that can help with keywords, including Google’s free version. I recommend you trial them and see which one you understand and can use.
5. Again, for the internet, you are not allowed to ‘sell’ in your article. Actually, the same goes for offline article marketing. Articles are there to provide information to people, and that’s what you should provide. If people are impressed at the information in your article they will follow through and find out more information from you, which means…
6….you need to have a ‘Biog’ box at the end of your articles. Make it short and sweet with a link back to a page on your site that captures your reader’s information, or to a squeeze page (which does the same job). With offline article marketing, it’s actually no different but include your phone number as well.
So, there you have it. Six ways to make sure your article is perfect and ready for the world.
Hope that helps!