Types of Articles

We have two kinds of article placements: paid and unpaid. Either way, the article gets professionally edited here and approved by the author. From the visitor's standpoint, paid and unpaid articles are the same—no infomercials.

Articles outperform banners by 100:1, according to some sources. Thus, we are phasing out our banner advertising to bring greater value to both our visitors and our advertisers. Well-written articles build trust and branding.

An article must solve a problem for the reader. No puff pieces. A good article will draw traffic in its own right. That means good exposure for you.

1. Length is about 800 to 1200 words.
2. Focus on the needs of the reader. Don’t brag on your product or service—doing so undermines the reader’s trust.
3. Graphics are OK, if sent as separate files. But, they cannot be very large (Stahlin’s enclosure article is an exception to this).
4. Grammar stuff: write in the active voice, use an informal style, use standard punctuation,
5. Formatting stuff: No fancy fonts, tabs, or special characters—straight text; single space between sentences, left justify
6. Text formats should be Word 97, RTF, or TXT. No PDFs.
7. If you have an HTML file already assembled, forget #4 and #5, and send us the HTML file.
8. Include your contact information in the body—we’ll position as necessary.
9. Give us sufficient time to go through the editing process. Typically, this is 1 to 3 days, but can run as long as two weeks.

Free articles

We have two types of these: straight article swaps with links back, and "public service" kinds of articles.

Public service articles have to be for a social cause (e.g., tips for child safety) or some sort of "higher calling."

Paid articles

We call these focused content pieces. These work well for a merchant with a particular expertise. For example, Sally the Dog Trainer writes dog training tips for us and each of her articles links back to her site. Not everyone who reads your article will click through to your site. However, click rates are higher than for banners, and conversion rates blow banners away.