Each week I receive dozens of article submissions to my websites from aspiring authors, website owners, and entrepreneurs embarking on a new article marketing campaign. Most of the time, I can only use a small fraction of the content I receive because people writing articles make one of the crucial article marketing mistakes listed below.

KEY POINT: When you submit articles to a newsletter/ezine publisher or a website owner as part of your article marketing campaign, you have to remember that they aren't going to publish YOUR article for THEIR customers and visitors unless it is high quality content that gives something of value.

If you're writing articles like crazy as part of your article marketing, but getting very few of them actually published, then you might want to re-evaluate your approach. Are you making one of these crucial article marketing mistakes?

1. Poor Subject Matter:
If you're going to bother writing articles, write about something that people are interested in reading about. In other words, address a problem and provide a solution within your content. This is your best bet when in comes to article marketing. Content pieces that approach an old problem in a new way or with a new twist work well too -- you don't have to necessarily discover a whole new problem that no one else has ever though of before (If you discover a whole new problem and have the solution you better be thinking of product creation not just an article marketing!).

2. Write With Personality:
No one likes to read text books. Put a little of your own personality into your article marketing and make your content engaging and entertaining as well as informative. If you have a sense of humor, use it.

3. Write For Your Audience:
Don't distribute content about the value of protein in the American diet to a Russian Political website or the publisher of a podiatry newsletter... They don't care.

4. Write A Decent Sized Article:
Most publishers would rather an article be a little bit too long than very short. Four hundred word articles just don't have enough meat in them. Don't ramble when you're writing articles, but you've got to provide some details if you want to be published.

5. Break Up Your Article:
When writing articles, don't use three long paragraphs. Break it up into smaller paragraphs with a few single lines, bullets, etc. to make it easier and more enjoyable to read. Again -- no one likes to read text books.

6. Spell Check And Grammar:
If you're writing articles as part of a serious article marketing campaign, then you've got to spell check. No one will publish your content if it's full of spelling and grammar errors.

7. Don't Write A Sales Letter:
No one will publish an article that reads like a sales letter... period. Article marketing isn't about selling, it's about pre-selling.

8. Forget About Affiliate Links:
Use your head... why would anyone use your content article if it's full of your own affiliate links? Ever hear of the "Golden Rule?" It applies to article marketing too. Would you publish another writer's article if it were full of his affiliate links? I doubt it.

9. Create A Reasonable Resource Box:
A resource box should tell me who you are, what you do, and how I can get in touch with you. It's not unlimited advertising space for you to describe every website you run and each product you sell. Article marketing is about providing content, not advertising. That "Golden Rule" thing applies to resource boxes too.

10. Only Write About What You Know:
Even if you're writing articles based on opinion, get your facts straight. Don't write content filled with advice that you have no business giving... it will hurt your article marketing campaign.

If you take nothing else away from this discussion, remember that a good article writing campaign always answers "What's in it for me?"

When you're writing articles to send to newsletter and website publishers, you have to answer that question on two fronts...

What's in it for the publisher? Why should they show your content to their customers and visitors? Does it give something of value?

-- AND --

What's in it for the people who will ultimately be reading your article when it's published?

After all, the idea behind article marketing is to provide some worthy content that compels readers to visit your site, subscribe to your newsletter, or buy your product.

Article marketing can be extremely lucrative... but you've got to do it right.