• by Dan Janal , April 12, 2007

Building your list and adding prospects to your sales funnel with article submissions is among the hottest sales-lead-generation trends on the Web today. However, the article submission process is one of the most tedious tasks possible. That's why many authors, experts and businesses choose to outsource their article marketing efforts.

How can you choose the best company to handle this important process for you? Try asking these questions:

1. Are the sites on your company's article submission list well known across the Web, or are they dummy sites that you set up? Some unscrupulous article submission service providers promise to post your article to hundreds or thousands of sites for a very low fee -- like $15! What they don't tell you is that these sites are ones they have created for the sole purpose of posting your articles. No one visits these sites. Search engines don't index these sites. So no one will ever see these articles. Ask for a list of sites they submit to. If they don't seem credible, run fast!

2. Does Google index the sites you submit to? If Google doesn't, then you are wasting your time.

3. Does Alexa index the sites your company submits articles to? (Alexa tracks Web site traffic. Go there and type your site URL and you'll see where your it ranks among the millions of Web sites.) Now, ask the marketing company to provide the names of 10 sites they will submit your article to. See where they rank on Alexa. Do they even rank on Alexa? If not, watch out!

4. Is this a targeted campaign, or a scattershot approach? Ask the company how well-targeted the article submission process is going to be. Can they target specific audiences, like health, marketing or C-level executives? If they can't, then you are wasting your money reaching audiences that aren't interested in your message.

5. Does the company submit articles by hand or by software? Most reputable Web sites that accept articles will not accept them delivered by software. They want unique content, and they know articles submitted by software will be sent to every site imaginable.

6. Does the company edit your article? I write constantly, but I still hire proofreaders to review my articles. Sure, you may think you are a great writer, but there's not a person alive who won't benefit from a copy editor giving articles a second look.

7. Will the company use sound search engine optimization strategies to make my articles search-engine friendly? This way, your articles can be found on Google.

8. Will your company handle the day-to-day correspondence with site and ezine editors? The best firms handle the routine correspondence for you. They bring you in only when you need to answer an important question. You should avoid firms that don't respond to editors, because your articles will never be published by highly targeted Web sites. They can say they submitted the article, but you won't have any pickup.

9. Does your company submit articles in a way that Google respects, or do you just blast articles out there? Google hates when people try to manipulate their rankings and will ding your article campaign if you send out too many articles too quickly. Make sure your article marketing company understands this. Otherwise, Google could blackball your article marketing efforts.

10. What do you charge? The article submission process, if performed correctly, can take up to 10 hours or more to submit your article to 100 sites. That doesn't count the editing, optimizing and following up. All this takes time and effort. If the price seems too low, remember the old saying, "You get what you pay for."

Make sure the service you select takes the time to get to know you, your marketing goals and your audience.