Im a big believer in - and prolific user of -- article marketing. I submit anywhere from 3-5 articles a week to 5 or more directoires. In doing so, I've noticed some problems that slow down the process.
So, following are a few things you should not do when you submit your article to article directories.
Note: I want to say up front that there are many more rules and guidelines than I can possibly list here. But, these are some common ones that can slow down your article submission process.
4 Things to Avoid that Can Help You Speed Up the Article Marketing Submission Process
1. Links in the Body of the Article: Some article directories let you put links in the body of the article, some don't. If you manually submit your articles, it can be a pain to constantly figure out which directory allows what, revising your article to fit each directory's guidelines and/or reading through an extensive list of guidelines to figure out where you went wrong (in cases where they don't tell you what you did wrong).
To avoid all of this, don't put any links in the body of your article. That's what the resource box is for anyway.
2. Bold Tags Around Links: Some article directories won't let you highlight (ie, bold) a link - even if it is in the resource box. The reason you might be tempted to bold a link is because sometimes the color of your link is so similar to the other text, that it barely stands out. The whole purpose of providing links in articles is to get visitors to click through to your site.
Some article directories bold links for you, others underline them and some will have it show up as a different color. But, it's up to each directory how they make your links stand out, and you're probably going to have to just live with it.
Again, if you're looking to speed up your article submission, don't do anything to your link (eg, bold it, ital it, underline it, etc.). DO however, include it. At least search engines will recognize it as a backlink when it gets published.
3. Link to PLR Sites: Many article directories don't accept articles with links that go to a PLR site. If you don't know what a PLR site is, you probably don't have to worry about this. As a brief overview for those who want to know, PLR stands for Private Label Rights content. It is content that is sold to more than one party - and many article directories don't like to promote this.
Read more about the pros and cons of PLR content if you're really curious.
4. Dead/Inactive Links: If you use a link in the body of your article or in the resource box, make sure it's a live link. Many article directories won't publish articles that have dead and/or inactive links.
This can slow you down if you pre-write promotional content for article directories with the intent of linking to a longer version on your site. So when planning your writing schedule, make sure to leave enough time to write both pieces.
See the resource box of this article for a link to an in-depth article marketing tutorial which can help you increase traffic to your website/blog.