ForeclosureFish writes:

Although I write for our site a lot, only the best writings that I feel are useful and well-written are considered for submission anywhere as an article. Occasionally I write something off-topic or review a book and, if I feel the writing is worthwhile, that will get submitted as an article.

I’d rather provide some useful content and have a body of work that can stand on its own, rather than simply publish everything I write. I’m not looking for perfection, per se, but I know which articles are truly inspired and contain great, well-written information.

[Reply]

S. Maurer writes:

Hi fellows,

I have a question:

Some guys say that Google willl penalize if you publish the same article several times in diferent publishers, they say that will be considered as duplicate.

I really don’t know what is the true, because in my opinion if you publish your article any re-publishing by other prople will be considered duplication, and this is out of control of the first publisher. It is not logical, you publish your article and more 1000 will re-publish.

What is the true?

Thanks !!!

[Reply]

Jen writes:

Hi Chris,

Your observation is quite accurate. Perfection is the thief of progress and most new article authors and business owners fail prey to this mindset.

[Reply]

Gary Ames writes:

The articles that I’ve written were not widely picked up and haven’t led to more business.

[Reply]

Elizabeth Adams writes:

I have now published my 3rd article at Ezine. These articles were not all accepted at first; I have deleted two other articles from submission. Perhaps the greatest problem I have had is the sometimes ambiguous feedback I get when the article has been rejected. In one case, I submitted an article and it was accepted. Later, I made a small edit change in one sentence of the article, and the article was rejected upon review. I still don’t understand why the article could be accepted one day and rejected another without any significant change in the article. I did drastically edit the art and it was accepted after re-submission. However, the article, when submitted again, was a “gutted” article.

Elizabeth Adams

[Reply]

Gary Hughes writes:

I just recently submitted my second article. It took me over a year to submit the first article, and I followed up with the second within a couple of weeks.

What held me back initially?

I suppose it is the same thing that can prevent us all from being successful in our chosen fields – the feeling that something must be “perfect” before releasing it into the world.

Perfectionism can lead to inactivity. It can keep the best and brightest stuck in the firm grips of mediocrity. The only way to break free from this obstacle is to take action.

Just as Newton’s principle of inertia is true in the physical realm, it also holds true in the mental arena as well. Once thoughts are put into action consistently within a short period, it becomes much more likely that the process will be repeated.

It’s very difficult to complete and submit the first article. Some may stop there because they feel the sense of accomplishment from taking that action. By following up quickly with the next article, you can form a pattern of taking action. After establishing that pattern of action, the idea of submitting 10, 20, or 50 articles doesn’t seem nearly as impossible.

[Reply]

Chris Duncan writes:

My problem is really one of time. I’m in commission sales and I have to hit a certain volume. I maintain and enhance the site, do the local computer programming, handle our network, and my clients. I’ve done four articles so far.

For first times, seeing your first article on the web feels great. Then when you learn a few things and see your second ranked on the 1st Page of Google, you are on top of the world.

[Reply]

Harrine Freeman writes:

Time is a factor for me. I am so busy doing so many things I don’t have enough time to write all of article topics I have in my head. I wrote my first ten articles and I now need to just make some time to continually post articles on the website.

I must admit I was nervous about writing my first few articles although I had taken writing classes and written a book. I didn’t know how the reviewers would respond to my articles because I had never written EzineArticles before. I have written technical articles but that is a whole different genre.

I am very glad this website exists and allow writers and authors to exhibit their talents and helps readers learn about many various new topics. Keep up the good work!

[Reply]

Jimm Crouse writes:

The frustration I am feeling right now is a prime example of why I haven’t submitted my first 10 articles. I have tried to submit my comments 3 times now and each time the system says I did something wrong.
I haven’t made my initial submissions because the guidelines and requirements confuse me. I’m afraid that I will submit my articles incorrectly, get blackballed and yet never understand what I did wrong.

[Reply]

Scot Duke writes:

Chris, there are a number of things that keep me from posting articles on Ezine. One is unique topics to write about. There are some many people writing on simular subjects, what else can be said that is different. Two, I feel that most readers are looking for a style of writing I am not capable of writing in, and not interested in the subjects I am interested in writing on. Three:Feeling that it is not worth my time posting articles on EzineArticles to just have them buried under some of the writers who have more articles published. And Four: time and rationalizing the time to write something for this site and the six or seven other sites I am writing for.

Hope that helps.

[Reply]

john writes:

my biggest fear of writing articles was fear of negative criticism – the reason is my articles are about an industry that needs change, so i have to point a finger and point out where exactly the industry is failing. My message is important to me and is a very necessary message but i wasn’t prepared to take alot on my shoulders in the way of criticism. So i broke into the writing from a slightly different perspective than just immediately going after the”Meat”. Once i got some good results and feedback it gave me more confidence. Then i got bold and went after what i really wanted. So now it’s not an issue anymore – i’ll say what i feel is necessary whether it might stir up some trouble or not – but of course i’m totally confident in my message which is necessary.
On the other side of the coin , i usually write my “Headlines” as i think of them when i’m out and about during the day . Many times i’ll speak into a recording device as well. But when i come to sit at the computer to actually do the writing sometimes the first two sentences seem like a struggle even though i fully know what i want to talk about. So i’ll erase the first sentence – try again – erase again – try – erase again – until i get into a “FLOW”. I feel this way i actually get into a early groove where things have “Started” out in a way i find acceptable and then the rest of the article follows. But if i can’t get those first two sentences then i’d be struggling through the whole article trying to make up for the begining. So by erasing the first two sentences till they’re right ( instead of waiting till i have 15 sentencces that i have to erase ) i don’t feel so INVESTED in the article and start struggling. It’s much easier to erase one or two sentences instead of several paragraphs.
i’m still learning.
and having a word processor program has proved indespensible for me- i didn’t like english in school so never really learned much grammar etc etc. The word precessing programs do all of that for me, i make quite a few mistakes and it fixes them right then and there.
john silveira

[Reply]

Selanac writes:

The one thing that’s stopping me from submitting the first 10 articles is time. I am extremely busy, and just don’t have the time. I know it’s extremely important to submit as many articles as possible, but I need to develope a strategy to write them as I’m doing other things. Maybe a paragraph every now and then, may help. Once I have a rough draft, it will be easier to touch it up and send them.

[Reply]

Nigel Patterson writes:

I think that overcoming the obstacle of perfectionism is a big hurdle for many of us who publish online — whether it’s in article writing, website design or any other facet of ‘putting yourself out there’. And that easily leads to procrastination — as if thinking about things just a little bit more would make the end result better.

But whatever the activity, I have always found that I got better by doing rather than thinking, and that’s certainly the case with article writing. I’m still training myself to be less obsessive about re-drafting and editing, but I have learned a lot along the way about how to write attention-grabbing headlines, produce article copy that can be easily digested and how articles can work wonders for site promotion.

The other thing that makes it useful to break through the 10+ (or 50+!) barrier is that your discover a lot about what readers like by studying the article reports — so the more data you have, the better you can see trends or patterns in keyword or topic popularity.

As Seth Godin says, ‘Everybody is an expert about something’. I think the trick is to realize that what you know or have found out — stuff which seems to familiar to you — is not necessarily obvious to everyone else.

[Reply]

Zac Hawkins writes:

Christopher,

I personally am putting article submission on my priority “to do” list.

Thanks for the nudge…

Best regards,
Zac

[Reply]

Robert writes:

Quite frankly…?

This has nothing to do with writer’s block or anything like that.

The plain fact of the matter is I’ve had reservations about continuing to submit any articles to EzineArticles.com for a number of reasons:

I think some of your editors are confused about the editorial guidelines especially with regards to exactly what constitutes a ‘self-serving active link’. A support request I submitted inquiring about this went completely unanswered (it’s been two months now).

After the support request went unanswered, I tried to join the forum to see if I could discuss it there and my membership has yet to be approved (activated by an administrator of the forum). I made this application to join the forum on January 22nd.

Now I’m starting to wonder whether I should take EzineArticles.com seriously or not.

On the surface, this article directory seems great. I’m a little wary of what’s going on behind the scenes though.

The number one thing stopping me from submitting more articles?

Disrespect.

Plain and simple.

Sorry to be using your blog for this but all other avenues of communication to EzineArticles.com have proven themselves ineffective or inaccessible.

You asked why. And now I’m telling you.

[Reply]

Kathy L. writes:

I’ve written two articles so far and plan to write more. My biggest problem is TIME!!! I simply don’t have enough of it to write articles and handle day to day business. I have four additional articles drafted but need 36 hour days to get everything done. :)

By the way, I love seeing my articles show up all over the place! I google my name every month and then make note of where my articles have appeared. It’s great to see “hard” evidence that your efforts pay off – that does it!

[Reply]

Audrey writes:

Chris,

For me it was what to write about. I really needed some thought starters about what I could write about.

I recently helped one of your new authors get her first 3 articles submitted. She came to me and said “what can I write about now?”.

By the way, I too tried to submit this comment earlier and got 3 rejections :(

Audrey

[Reply]

Michelle L Devon writes:

Well, for me- I wrote about one or two articles, submitted them, got them improved, saw new traffic come to my site, and since I provide services – well, I suddenly had more requests for quotes than I could handle!

I had to back off because I was too busy to actually take on more clients! (Thanks EzineArticles for that!)

Right now, I have a batch of new articles I’ll be submitting soon (even though I’m already over the 10 first ones now)… because I’m adding an informational site that won’t require me to do services – so I’m going to use the articles to promote that, but the site isn’t built yet, completely – so I’m waiting until we launch it to submit the new articles too.

But yeah – it took me so long to write 10 articles because I was too busy from the first couple I submitted!

[Reply]

Jeff Herring writes:

Hi Chris

I started to write about the themes I saw emerging from the posts above, then stopped and wrote an article about it –

Here is the time line, all PM EST

10:25 – Read thru the comments to your post

10:30 – Started to post my comment then decided to write an article about it.

10:34 – Started the article, titled “Article Writing: What to Do with 4 Barriers to Your First 10 Articles So You Can Write More Articles”

10:49 – Finished the article, including title, keywords, summary and resource box.

10:50 – Submitted the article

10:55 – Finished this part of this post.

The other factor I believe holds people back from their second article and thus their first ten is something I call Arrival Syndrome. It’s human nature – once we accomplish a goal we believe we have arrived and then stop doing the things that got us to the goal in the first place.

The winning thing to do is not only keep doing the things that got you there, but do more of them.

Jeff

[Reply]

Alison writes:

My first constraint is time — finding it!

Second is inspiration – you want a topic broad enough to appeal to publishers, yet narrow enough to achieve you marketing purposes (if that’s your focus).

Third is quality – this goes hand in hand with inspiration for mew – the right topic, poorly executed, will also fail to hit the mark.

That said, article writing is a priority for me at the moment so I’m aiming for one a week.

[Reply]

Danny Snyder writes:

10 in 3 Challenge:

Whatever holds you and I back does not hold everyone back. Some people have the same busy lives and many ideas running through their heads, but they still pump out article after article after article.

I see other writers who seemingly crank out articles. And as I read their articles, I do not feel that their writing is any better than mine. And I feel that their ideas are not any more powerful or original than ideas I have for articles.

It reminds me of what Paul Simon said in reply to someone saying that they could have written a song that he had written. Paul said that the difference is that He had done it.

Sometimes the only difference between two people’s abilities are that one person continues until they get their desired result.

I have only written ten articles so far. I wrote those first 10 in about two weeks. I see others who have written over a 100, 1000, and 10K. So I am making a decision to ramp up my production to ten in the next three days. And I challenge other writers, content creators, marketers, or website owners who written less than twenty articles to a 10 in 3 challenge.

I will submit 10 new articles by Sunday evening 3/10/07. Nothing gets done without a deadline. And a little challenge helps too.

BTW: If you need any direction, just search this site for articles on writing articles. But only read one or two before you write an article so the research will not keep you from meeting this 10 in 3 challenge.

[Reply]

Sharmila writes:

If this isn’t synchronicity then what is? Today I decided I would write non-stop for 15mins every day. Writing makes me release, makes me grow, makes me flow – expand. Every book I read I decided to write whatever came to me after I closed the book, just put it donw on words and add another page to my website with that /bookname.html … and here I am reading this article.

Thank you so much. This is a sign and thank you for being the instrumnet.

Sharing with you peace and prosperity… Love!

[Reply]

Danny Snyder writes:

Date Correction to the 10 in 3 Challenge above:

Correct Date is Sunday evening 3/4/07.

[Reply]

Lance Winslow writes:

Basically I was a Big Chicken to submit my first 10-articles. I was invited to post 10-articles, because that is what it said. I actually had 111 that I wanted to submit, but I wanted to pick the 10 best articles. So, I picked out the 10 best ones from my previous articles, forum posts on my website and edited them the best I could?

I was concerned because I got a D+ in Journalism in th 7th Grade and so, my self-esteem for writing was not so good you see? Anyway, reluctantly I posted 10 articles and waited to see if they were good enough. I was so happy to see that they were.

Then the next two-days I posted all 111 that I had, from other places and re-made them into articles. Then I got an email from Chris; “Quick Question- is this all your own work?” I said yes, and he was okay with it, so the next week I scoured my old material to make into articles and got to 210 articles and that passed up the number one guy, back two-years ago.

I must say, it was a matter of time really for me, but I became more efficient and I admit I was a Big Chicken due to that 7th grade teacher and well, now I sure showed her!

I would say to others you can get past that 10-article barrier by taking your previous writings and making them into articles and then you will get more confident and proficient and then you will have a much easier time due to increased self-confindence. Nothing good in life is easy, I was scared when I started.

[Reply]

Jeff Herring writes:

Danny – great Paul Simon quote – it is spot on!

Thanks too for the 10 in 3 article writing challenge – I’ll see you Sunday nite with 10 more too.

Lance – I hear you on the 7th grade teacher. I never finished my dissertation for my Ph.D. cuz I was told I could not write.

Let’s go find those teachers and sing them the Toby Keith song

“How do you like me now!?!”

[Reply]

Majelis writes:

For the first article, I agree with you Chris. Most people want to be absolutely perfect and this will keep them delaying their submission. But, I didn’t feel that way because I didn’t have any target at first. Then when my first submission was accepted I felt very happy and set my own target to submit at least one article per week. This acceptance has motivated me to be more productive in writing. I hope I can achieve my target.

[Reply]

LanceWinslow writes:

Jeff, Yes, I love that song and I love the movie Rocky, Vision Quest and Tom Gun, I think for the same reasons as Toby Keith’s song. Good call; “So, How do You Like Me Now!”

And you can never succeed at anything until after you start. This is why I like that saying; “You Miss 100% of the shots you don’t take!” You are an inspiration Jeff, and a breath of fresh air; thanks for everything you do for online article authors.

[Reply]

Jeff Herring writes:

Thanks, Lance, for your kind words. With you on the Rocky thing.

To All: Here is the link to at the article I wrote in response to the posts on this blog thread:

Article Writing: What to Do with 4 Barriers to Your First 10 Articles So You Can Write More Articles

Check out the time line in the above post to see how this was done….

[Reply]

Gillian Dearnley writes:

Two things prevent me from submitting more articles to EzineArticles.com.

1. The length of time it took for my articles to be approved – several weeks I think, despite the fact that none required subsequent editing.

2. Google refuse to recognise the back links to my website from the articles, despite the fact that the content is rich and relevant.

[Reply]

Lynn Upthagrove writes:

Okay, enough said. I have followed this newsletter for well over a year, but have never followed up. I will make an article a priority for this week. Then maybe the other 9 will follow.

Thanks for the kick.

[Reply]

samer writes:

Hi Chris!
thanx for remember me through mail.im bzy wid different stuff thats why not be able to do so,but i am planing to submit my new article in next few days.
Takecare
bye

[Reply]

Christopher M. Knight writes:

All,

*Wow* thanks for all of the feedback!

Gary Ames,

I looked up your account and you have (5) articles listed with us. 7 years ago, 5-25 might have been enough, but the market content supply is so high today (billions of more pages than only a few years ago) that it will take at least 10x the number of articles to make an impact.

My gentle (and obviously biased) recommendation is to shoot for 50 articles before determining whether it’s worth it or not.

Elizabeth Adams,

I’m aware that our ‘GENERAL” problem article (PA) status is ambiguous and apologize that we’re unable to provide a detailed email on each general problem that prevents us from approving an article.

We are always usually happy to provide an email explanation though.

In the last year we’ve expanded the Problem Article rejection system to almost 2 dozen more detailed explanations in our attempt to get more specific.

You can expect in the coming year we’ll be working to do less and less of the GENERAL problem article status and more of the detailed specific emails because we have the motivation to help you move your article into a state that allows us to accept it.

Gary Hughes,

You are so right! For some authors, cranking out 5-10 quality articles IN-A-DAY is normal and not that difficult… and for them, they must be scratching their head trying to figure out why some authors take multiple-days to get a single article done.

Jimm Crouse,

Sorry about this. We had a few complaints about that today and we’re investigating why the blog CAPTCHA might not be working for some folks.

For the record, we blackball no one, but we do ban members to protect ourselves for various reasons from time to time… In most cases, we look at intent… and we do implement cool-off periods for some authors who need to chill out before we can accept their articles again… and lastly, we address re-instatement requests DAILY for those who can meet our posted editorial guidelines.

Provided you don’t submit PLR (Private Label Rights) articles of any kind, that your content is original and you have the exclusive rights to the content…and that the content doesn’t infringe on the rights of others (keep it on a positive tone) and it doesn’t trip on some of our gray content areas (ex: We don’t accept articles that condone spamming, etc.)… you should have nothing to worry about.

We’d be glad to address any editorial guideline clarification questions you have via email.

Scot Duke,

If your topic is *GOLF*, I can see why you’d have a hesitation to compete with the other golf expert authors that are on our site. They are a very agressive group of authors for sure…. And here’s something I’d like you to consider: Did you ever notice what is across the street from McDonalds restaurant? Burger King in most cases or other fast food competitors.

My advice: Don’t worry about being buried unless you only intend to write 10 articles. :)

In the GOLF category, there are only 56 expert authors writing on this topic… so there is still room for more.

John,

On the fear of negative criticism because of having to write about a dark topic that won’t be respected or accepted by a particular audience… How about writing about your topic in terms of what you are FOR rather than what you are AGAINST?

And keep in mind that most people are so wrapped up in other problems or matters that they don’t have the time in a day to reject you personally… Most rejection is that of the content or message and not the person writing the content. Unless you attack someone directly (and we reject that type of article), most people who disagree with your views will ignore you… and those who don’t, well… that comes with the cause it sounds like you’ve taken up.

Keep it positive and if you still want to take up a highly controversial cause, there are other sites that like that type of content.

Nigel Patterson,

Yes! We love stats and reading article reports…along with what they can tell us about whether there is market demand for various types of content.

Robert,

Yes, some of our editors are confused because (5) of the 9 are brand new in the last 3 months…. Sorry, we’re training as fast as we can.

Thanks for the blunt honestly. I apologize for the poor experience you had with us.

The forums are not heavily supported and because they were so abused by forumspammers, we’ve had a hard time differentiating legit members from paid forumposters. If I had my way, we’d dump the forums all together and replace it with a member-driven only forum and that’s on deck for the farther future.

Looking into your specific case, I see we failed… as a newbie editor of ours who started the same day he wrongly rejected one of your articles…and then your follow up reply email never got a response.

We’re solving this with two strategies: 1) We’re going to stop our newbie editors from wrongly rejecting articles and they will be able to soft reject while a Sr. level editor then makes the hard reject decision that kicks out the email rejection notice… and 2) Later this year, we will have a member support email ticket tracking system to stop emails from falling through the cracks like this. It’s rare when it happens, but it should never happen.

Danny,

Cool! Nice challenge indeed.

Lance,

I guess you really showed your 7th grade teacher up.

Gillian Dearnley,

Great news! We’re caught back up again and only running 1 day behind at most during the weekdays.

Just so you know, we give articles that are edited after they were accepted a higher priority than approving new articles… which means, you would not have to wait as long after you edit an already published article to have it re-approved.

Also, Platinum authors over the last 3 months were completely unaware that we were backed up by as much as 2 weeks for BASIC level member submissions. Hint Hint. Earn Platinum unlimited status and you’ll get our highest priority for future submissions. You can earn this by submitting at least your first 10 submissions that we’re able to accept…assuming they met the posted editorial guidelines.

Samer,

Gentle Recommendation: Have someone proofread your submission before sending it to us. :)

[Reply]

Christopher M. Knight writes:

All,

For those who had CAPTCHA problems commenting on this thread, we’re pretty certain we identified the problem that caused it and have corrected it.

Talk about bad timing for this problem to occur after we send 22k emails out to our newsletter members, but now we know better what not to do and apologize for this error on our part.

[Reply]

Venkat writes:

Hi:

Recently my technical article was accepted for publication.

Though my article was published, there was no new visitors as a result of that. That put me into doubt whether there is a value of writing articles and submitting it to EzineArticles?

This is because, inspite of having RSS feeds article marketing, innumerable visitors to the site, if there were not a single visitor coming to the site, there is a serious problem.

My experience with a website for software developers has been very good. They posted on their main page about my product for a few days. They have a traffic of 3 to 5 visitors a day. Out of that I got 40 visitors a day.

When EzineArticles get about 300,000 visitors a day, if I am not getting a single visitor, that is a real concern.

With the best regards,
Venkat

[Reply]

Majelis writes:

Wow! Considering all those psychological handicaps and negative experiences of being repeatedly rejected and long period of acceptance, I really have to thank the editor who handled my writing. I think I just waited less than a week for my first article to be reviewed and accepted. Thanks again for all your efforts and attention, editors.

Good luck to you all !

[Reply]

Christopher M. Knight writes:

Venkat,

I researched your account.

You listed (1) single article less than 3 days ago.

Patience is needed.

EzineArticles.com isn’t an instant traffic slashdot-type site but rather is the kind that can help you build your traffic up over time… like a snowball rolling down hill… it picks up speed and size.

You should see about 1-3 visitors per 100 views. So far, your article has 16 views which isn’t bad considering it’s only 3 days old.

[Reply]

Edward Weiss writes:

After reading many of these posts it looks like some have unrealistic expectations when it comes to article marketing.

EA is usually in the top 10 of all referrers to my site. And that’s after submitting more than 200 articles. But it’s not the quantity of the traffic that makes article marketing effective – it’s the quality!

[Reply]

Soren Breiting writes:

I have passed the 10 miles mark but I think at least two reasones could be serious for many authors:
1. It seems that all possible articles are already written by others.
2. Many of us don’t have English as our first language and we have to dare to write the articles even knowing our language is less than perfect.

[Reply]

Merry writes:

The first articles I wrote were encompassed within ads for my business. Therefore, I broke the ice with no pressure. If I liked the article, I published it. Subsequently, I used those articles to show other editors and started writing for two other publications on a regular basis for pay.

At this point I am trying to break into more prestigious and higher-paying magazines. I will submit articles that I’ve already published and been paid for as a springboard to this next level.

[Reply]

Renee Francis writes:

Nothing is stopping me. I reached my first 10, and the system is not allowing me to send in any more? EzineArticles has been a great source of getting my creative juices flowing. I love it. I want more.

[Reply]

Dan Goodwin writes:

To Danny Snyder –

Thanks for the challenge!

I’ve written and submitted 6 articles already, 4 more to go before tomorrow eve.

To All –

I think the points about quality are very important. I could write 3 or 4 times the quantity of articles I do if only wanted them to be 250 words and of a lower quality.

Instead it’s important to me that each article I write has valuable info and is enjoyable, interesting and in some way motivating to read.

I’m quite surprised at some articles I’ve read on EzineArticles, to me they sometimes seem to be little more than someone’s random passing thoughts they’ve jotted down and sent in.

Sure it means it’ll take me longer to build up my numbers but in the long run I’ll be much happier that each and every article I submit here to EzineArticles and to other websites will be of a quality I’m proud of.

Dan Goodwin

[Reply]

Robert writes:

Gee thanks for straightening that out, Chris! Much appreciated. You’ve restored my faith in EzineArticles. :o) I’ll get working on another seven articles right away. (Actually, I have two on deck already. They just need a little polishing up).

[Reply]

Ron Passfield writes:

Hi Christopher

Great comments here. I agree perfectionism got in the road for me at the start. The real breakthrough came when I read your article about writing in sets.

I got stuck after sumitting 9 articles. In part I needed a new stimulus.

I found it recently by identifying a way to build a marketing website around my hobby. This new focus for my writing resulted in a new website and five new articles in two weeks (plus topics for 20 more).

I submitted two of the articles this morning – so hopefully I have broken the 9 barrier.

In summary, find your passion and writing will come easy – you will find it hard to stop!

PS Christopher – I love the new features on your site – it makes it so much easier to submit and manage articles.

[Reply]

Danny Snyder writes:

To Dan Goodwin et al:

Suggestion:
1. Just write your article. Write an idea for an article. Write an outline of an article. Write an introduction. Write three main body paragraphs. Just write something.

2. Save what you just wrote (very important) and wait a spell – maybe an hour, maybe until after your next meal, or maybe a day. (Not a week or a month)

3. Edit your article. Or add to what you wrote. Complete your original thought or the direction you were headed in.

3(b). Save new thoughts in another place for new articles.

4. Famous shampoo quote: “Rinse and repeat.” But only repeat once or twice then SUBMIT.

I know these four steps may sound simple. Paul Simon even outdid Mohammad Ali in knocking out his opponent – verbally.

Speaking of Ali – he was fighting weeks before his next bout. All of his snipes and big talk was not about puffing himself up. I don’t think he emotionally needed that. He was mentally beating his opponent down. He was preparing the stage for the eventual climax.

You can learn from Paul Simon and Nike by just doing it. Also, when you think of famous Ali quotes, think of preparation.

You don’t think that I would have made a public challenge if I have not done some preparation, do you? Lance confirmed that this is the right way to go.

“Float like a butterfly, sting like a Bee.” Somebody’s got to reach Lance, but it ain’t gonna be me. When you look at how many articles others have written, do not let that discourage you. Lance is like oxygen; he’s everywhere.

But you only have to have an impact on one place: your industry, your marketplace. It’s much easier to be a big fish in a small pond. The more you show your face, your personality, your intelligence, and your helpfulness, the more other people will be interested in finding more about you, your ideas, and your business. So…write more.

Danny

PS I wrote my 10 in 3 Challenge late Thursday night. I woke up Friday morning with the flu or some type of nauseous stomach virus. Friday was a waste. I spent most of Saturday recuperating my strength. Moral of the story – whenever you stretch out a little bit, expect some stumbling blocks. Now I bet I can make this blog entry into an article about how to easily write articles. Oh, but too many people have already done that.

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Sally writes:

Yes, seeking perfection and fear of rejection are always my main problems when submitting articles.

sally :)

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Danny Snyder writes:

Gillian Dearnley, Venkat, Jimm Crouse, Robert, Scot Duke, et al:

Don’t give up. One month ago I decided to start writing articles. And I get the idea that Chris has been ramping up his Ezine Article business for the last couple of years since the traffic has shot up like a hockey stick. And he is not the only guru out there who recommends writing and submitting articles.

Where else can you submit articles for free and get them published by a web site with a sub 1000 Alexa rank?

Things I keep in mind:
1. Start your title with 1-3 top keywords (make it make sense). Search engines track keywords. Don’t just think of backlinks.)
2. Read everything that other article experts have written (Start with Chris Knight and Jeff Herring)
3. This is an easy way to spread the word about your good ideas.
4. Find what keywords that your prospective customers are searching for. Include them in your article title.

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Jeff Herring writes:

Danny

Great article writing tips. And a great use of Ali – he had often won before he was in the ring.

Summer of ’82 I was fortunate to unexpectedly meet Ali, got to shake his hand, and watched my hand completely disappear inside of his – it was amazing, the man is huge.

Hope you are on the mend.

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W Peter Boyd writes:

Hello,

I saw an advert that offered to set up a free blog and provide articles that would win Google payments using Adsense keywords. When I looked more closely into it I found that the artcicles supplied needed to be re-written to avoid the charge of re-duplication. However, the standard of the articles was so abysmally low and trite that even to re-write them would mean that I had an article going out under my name which would make me ashamed to think that anyone thought it represented my opiniuons on the subject. At best it could only provide a subject for me to write about, and then to write anything worthwhile would need research – and time to research and to write – and also to find a list of good keywords and then it would be highly doubtful whether Google would want to pay anything for it, especially if one lived outside the USA.

All these factors mean that I don’t submit daily articles. However, I have succeeded in writing morew than ten articles published in http://www.loveisjustaroundthecorner.com – in fact I published one yesterday on that most loveable girl –
Drew Barrymore – ah I wish I was 40 years younger! :-)

Peter ( half swooning over the thoughts of her! :-) )

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Ryan writes:

People don’t see results because they don’t know how to properly research their keywords. Keywords are the key to success… I have had article on the front page of google within 5 days thanks to the right keywords. I make between $100 to $300 a day in affiliate sales without spending any money on advertising thanks to EzineArticles.com.

If everyone else knew how to pick the right keywords they would have no problem getting past the 10 article mark… the results would motivate them to move forward.

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Jeff Herring writes:

Ryan – you nailed it!

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Danny Snyder writes:

Jeff Herring’s a liar. (Now that’s an attention-getting headline.)

You said that you wrote an article. One article.

I checked and you managed to write two coherent separate articles directly from the ideas and postings on this individual thread.

Jeff, I think you are the real deal. And I’m starting to like you. And after I realized that this was how I was feeling, I realized that this is why everyone should write more. People like to buy, spend time with, learn from, and hang around people that they like.

And if Jeff only wrote 3-13 articles, then I wouldn’t get to know him as much. I may not have enough information to decide if I trust him or not, or want to learn more from him.

BTW, I do not know Jeff, but I did just sign up for one of his free weekly teleseminars.

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Jeff Herring writes:

Danny – I like your style! (And yes, that headline did get my attention :)

Glad you are going to join us on our Big Tuesday Nite Article Writing & Marketing TeleSeminars – it’s a kick.

I’ve got one more article to finish to meet the 10 article challenge for the weekend.

Are you feeling better?

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Jan Verhoeff writes:

Finishing my first ten articles wasn’t an issue – getting #10 published was. Chris and I exchanged emails, and it was published right away. I was accepted for Platinum before #10 was actually accepted.

Chris rocks!!!

(Chris, Are you sending my $20 by paypal or snail mail?)

Seriously, putting up 10 articles wasn’t a big deal, and adding to my list wasn’t hard. I started trying to do some ‘funny stuff’ online and got a bit side tracked for a while, but I’m back on track now and doing just fine.

It’s the topic line – once I found a topic that rocked for me, I just keep ’em flying.

Jan

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john writes:

OK Jan – what’s your gig anyway. What do you mean having fun ? and what is your article submissions about ? for some reason you have my interest …

john

inquiring minds want to know.

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john writes:

Oh and i forgot to concur with you –

Chris is the man !!

and i’m not one for B/N’ing

john

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Jan Verhoeff writes:

Gee John,

And I’m so easy to look up!

http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Jan_Verhoeff

So tell me your secret?

Jan (VERHOEFF)

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Cassandra writes:

I was deeply concerned that people would not find my articles interesting.

I kept reading other people’s articles until I felt confident enough to submit my own articles.

Since then, I have learned to keep it short, keep it interesting and funny if possible.

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Priscilla writes:

I agree with Nigel Patterson, for me it’s trying to be perfect. My article has to be perfect, my website listed in my resource box has to be perfect, until today I’ve just been sitting on articles I think might not be good enough. Not anymore…

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LanceWinslow writes:

God Bless all the “Plats” and future “Plats” at EzineArticles.com and that is my conclusion to this thread, what’s yours?

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Pat Hubbard writes:

I would compare it with my Divorced and Widowed Support Group, The first walk into the building and into the room full of strangers, is the hardest part of the support process. If they make it into the door, the rest is simple, well not simple, but not what they had envisioned. No bad things happened to them. Te second tip back is easier.
If you send one article in and it is accepted, the next one is much easier. UNLESS OF COURSE, YOU ARE AFRAID OF SUCCESS!

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IVA Advice UK writes:

I dare say it has been procrastination so far,… but all that is going to change today! (Thanks for the email)

BR, Kyle

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Gina Hamlyn writes:

I,m not nervous about submitting an article (first one done today). I’ve got valuable info. to share with my collegues worldwide and if what I know can be of benefit to someone else than that in itself will make my day.

Gina Hamlyn

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Rose O'Keefe writes:

As a newbie, I am terrified of making a fool of myself online. My first submission was a restaurant review that I considered a safe entry into unknown territory.
Although I don’t consider myself totally out of it technically, learning a new site for the first time seems to take me a while.
Actually, I forget how to find out what topics are suitable or not. I am a local historian and I’m looking for a decent way to share this love with others who will enjoy it.

[Reply]

Pat Hubbard writes:

Rose, you won’t make a fool of yourself, because no one will see what you write unless it is accepted by the Editorial staff. And they’ll never tell!
If you don’t venture out you will never know the wonderful feeling of seeing your writing in print. As they say, “Just do it!”

Pat Hubbard

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LanceWinslow writes:

Never Fear “Super Chicken” is here and if I can do it anyone can!

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john writes:

OH ! i have to respond to an Okeefe .

Rose , you’re doing fine. when you log in just go to AUTHOR RESOURCES at the top of the page and then click editorial guidelines it will break it all down for you ….
Have fun .
i wrote an article the other day that was totally off the cuff, i didn’t realize till after i submitted that it might not be accepted. It went through after all.
john

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Ron Passfield writes:

Hi Rose

You seem to have lots of support. I see you have published a book. That is a much more demanding task than writing articles for EzineArticles.com

Your local history passion must give you lots of ideas.

Looking forward to reading some of your stuff.

Ron

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Vince Runza writes:

Actually, submitting my first ten articles wasn’t a problem. I simply re-wrote ten of my best blog entries (some needed fleshing-out, others needed to be edited for specific references that were irrelevant), sent some in the evening, the rest in the morning of the next day.

All were accepted and I was given Platinum status. Frankly, I was a bit suspicious at first — I expected a follow-up email asking for my credit card number to be upgraded to PLUTONIUM status! LOL

Only one of my initial submissions was a marketing effort. The rest were simply the best offerings I had at the time, submitted to show I can write and communicate effectively.

I heartily encourage everyone who’s waiting for a green light to start to attend to this:

GREEN LIGHT!

Sincerely,
Vince

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Majelis writes:

Hi everyone, don’t forget to thank a person who introduced you to EzineArticles.Com. This is an amazing vehicle that can bring you all: money, credibility and possibly fame.It is nice to read all your posts or comments here and reading all these comments like taking a dope that can boost our writing creativity. In my first comment I set a target to write at least one article each week, but in less than a week I have 2 other articles accepted, all newly written articles. Today I am going to submit my fourth article. To all of you who doubt the value of being accepted in the EzineArticles.Com, you’d better reconsider your opinion by doing a small research of comparison. I submitted my articles to another article directory and got accepted the following day, but until now (almost a week) my articles have not got any view, all zero view. And I look at other people’s articles in that directory which also got zero view. So, I conclude that being in the EzineArticles.Com is really something to be proud of. I almost got 100 views in less than a week. Good luck and great success to us all!

[Reply]

Mike Samuels writes:

Hi,

I have two articles awaiting approval.
I tend to wait until they have been approved until I submit more.
Maybe a faster OK would keep the kettle on the boil.

Regards,

Mike

[Reply]

Pat Hubbard writes:

This is in response to John Silveira’s response to your question about what stops writers from submitting more articles.
That said…John you said you sometimes dictate your titles or subjects into a recording device, Did you ever think of adding your first 2 sentences also?
Ask yourself why that idea came into your thoughts, “What was its purpose?” and the next question is, “So What?” Then you have a progression of thought to start from.
If you are afraid of rejection, In your articles, use such phrases as “Suppose this happened?” or “Do you think this could be the cause?” If you offer your suppositions instead of writing from an authority position, you give the reader a chance to ask themselves a question, instead of replying, “No, you are wrong.”
If you are going to write, you have to grow a strong shell and a sense of confidence that what you have to say is important. Not everybody will agree with what you say, and you shouldn’t care. You may want to read the little book “What You Think Of Me Is None Of My Business” by Terry-Cole Whittaker. A quick read and an invaluable confidence builder.
Good Luck
Pat Hubbard

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Paul Canales writes:

I was going to write something meaningful, but since this response system said I didn’t use the right security code. So, instead of writing a detail message, with the fear that I’m only going to get rejected, I’m not going to bother. Maybe that’s why others don’t finish their articles.

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Majelis writes:

Thanks God,

My fourth article is accepted too this morning. And Pat Hubbard, the title of the book you mentioned “What You Think Of Me Is None Of My Business” gives me another dope to write more. Before I read that book, I can sense the contents, Pat (must be very motivational writing).

Best of luck to us all!

[Reply]

Pat Hubbard writes:

I would suggest anyone writer or not read the book. It is small and can be read while waiting in the turnstyles of a bank, a doctor’s office or on a plane; wherever you have a few minutes to absorb it’s goodness. You can start in the middle, the end or the beginning and still gather much from it.
Writing takes discipline, but it is fun and rewarding and gets into your skin. You have to be willing to be judged and not take it personjally if someone doesn’t think your “baby” is as beautiful as you do.
Just continue to give what you have to offer. Someone will appreciate it, even if some may not.

[Reply]

Jan Verhoeff writes:

If you write to please everyone you will please no one.

The simple fact is, you must learn to write for a specific niche audience, and promote your product to those who are interested in that item. If you don’t learn to write for a specific niche you’ll never hit your target, and your sales will go nowhere.

Identify your niche in each article with title/keywords, and reach that group.

[Reply]

Christopher M. Knight writes:

Paul Canales,

This issue has been resolved. We were testing a new type of server load balancing and found out that it broke the CAPTCHA for some people who use the blog. This has been fixed and I apologize to everyone who lost a blog comment to this mistake.

Also, CAPTCHA is not required to post an article, therefore it can’t be the reason why authors don’t complete their article submissions.

[Reply]

kip winsett writes:

Newbie Writer

I’ve been working on my first article for submission to EzineArticles.com for about a week now. I received a very handy email/newsletter 5 days ago after I signed up but I only looked at it today. Oops! I wrongly assumed that it would just be a standard welcome aboard blah, blah, blah email.

Initial Mistakes:

1. I’d written an article before I even found the site.
2. After finding the site I did more work on the article
3. Then I read the editorial guidelines and the Author TOS so I thought I was good to go.
4. I rewrote the article.
5. I received a very handy email/newsletter 5 days ago, right after I signed up, but I only looked at it today. Oops, big mistake! I wrongly assumed that it would just be a standard welcome aboard blah, blah, blah email.

The email packed a lot of information to read. Links to a whole bunch of links on subjects such Author Resource Box, Good Titles vs Bad, Keywords in Titles, The Importance of Writing a Lot, just all kinds of stuff unrelated to writing in general. Every link I clicked on gave me more information and often it gave me more links to read. Soon I started reading the comments to some of the articles. Then I started reading some of the Platinum Author articles.

Hours went by. I made some progress on my article (I’m currently on revision 3). I also made progress on the Author Resource and, oh yes, I had to modify my web site because of this. Not to mention the article

Now it happens that I’m accustomed to writing. I do a fair amount of it as an editor for an online ezine and as a member of a couple of very intellectual, private conference sites. I don’t find spelling, grammar, syntax particularly difficult, nor do I find it hard to elucidate my thoughts. The kind of writing that is required here, however, is a different kettle of fish.

I finished my first article minutes ago. I’m just going to sleep on it and check it over in the morning.

[Reply]

Mike Samuels writes:

Each time I submit an article the standard email says I am now rated an expert author, promoted from basic.
Apart from the first article, which was rejected for HTML faults, all my subsequent articles were accepted without comment.
When I got to 10 articles I was told I was not Platinum but basic plus, where did expert go?
Send in 25b more articles and be reviewed.
I queried the “promotion/demotion.
I was told that it was because I was not following your guidelines.
Fine.
I asked to be told what I was doing wrong.
After several evasive emails I pointed out that as I never received negative comments with my articles, at my next review I’d be rejected again as I didn’t know what I should improve.
“Your writing” I was told.
In what way?
What did I do wrong?
I did not receive any positive feedback at all.
After several emails back and forward, I was told that my required further 25 emails would be reduced to 15, and the lady was sure I would be promoted to platinum then.
But I will not have improved one iota as I still don’t know what I am doing wrong.
So how can she be sure I will be promoted?
What was the criteria by which I was judged and shown to be lacking?
It ain’t worth sending more articles.

[Reply]

Christopher M. Knight writes:

Mike,

First, any member with an article on EzineArticles.com that is live is considered to be an ‘expert’ author.

We do not tell authors when we don’t like their articles because it often (not always) results in nothing productive for either party.

In other words, most people become predictable angry when we tell them the truth about why a particular article was not accepted.

There is no amount of diplomacy that can ever be enough when there is a mis-match between what an author thinks is acceptable work and what our editors determine is acceptable.

Since you’ve taken this issue public and you’d like to know how your articles could be improved to improve your chances of achieving Platinum status, I’ve reviewed your articles:
http://ezinearticles.com/?expert=Mike_Samuels

I can offer you a simple tip based on how you structured your blog comment #78 above as it’s similar to how you create some of your articles. The challenge is that you didn’t put a space between each paragraph. This makes your articles more difficult to read, visually…and then you over-vertically spaced your resource box so that it was too tall for our desired style.

See this example:
http://ezinearticles.com/?What-Do-Sex-And-Marketing-Have-In-Common?&id=481102

Your article body was 38 lines long and your resource box 25 lines long (39% of your article was your resource box, based on vertical height). Essentially, you didn’t put enough vertical spaces in your article body and you over-included too many vertical spaces in your resource box.

If you do intend to continue submitting, please put spaces between your paragraphs and reduce your resource box so that it’s no bigger than ~15% of your total article height.

[Reply]

Howard A Brown writes:

Well at least I’ve arrived at last and only now perhaps for the same stories I have about not writing.

It isn’t about time and not enough time for regardless what I think of him the President of the United States gets the exact same 24 hours that I’m allotted.

Yes, it’s really quite tempting to lay the finger on all these great and urgent responsibilities setting heavy on my poor shoulder. But were I yield, would I not be among them and those persons you see about dazed, confused and clearly with no joy at all as they wander about in self-pity being at the effect, again, of circumstances?

Huh?

I’d rather be responsible for me and I, what I do, my behavior, such or die than being at at-effectedness.

I am lazy; I say I want to be published but I am not willing to do the work to have that happen.

Well that was in the past for sure. For, assuming this missive gets anywhere and you’re reading this I should say I’m published.

Yes or no?

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