Rights: Governs whether or not publication will accept original or reprinted articles, how long they plan to use material and whether article can be used elsewhere at same time.

Query requirement: A query is a letter written to editor that proposes an article topic and asks permission to submit. Some publications require that you query editor (by e-mail, fax or mail) prior to forwarding your article.

Submission methods: Methods of submissions may include via fax, e-mail or hard copy sent by courier or standard mail.

Editorial calendar: It is not unusual for a publication to establish an editorial calendar for each year far in advance. The calendar will cover topics, themes, article types and required submission dates broken down by publication dates.

Format accepted: Each publication will accept articles in certain formats such as Word, WordPerfect, text or Adobe Acrobat.

Audience: Demographics such as number of subscribers, gender, educational level, age and income level.

Notification: When you will be contacted about your submission. Many publishers choose to contact only if an article is chosen for publication.

Acknowledgements: In some cases you will be required to sign (either electronically or on paper) an acknowledgement that you have read guidelines.

It is very important to understand and follow editorial guidelines of your target publications in order to maximize your chances of publication. Not all publications will include all of above items in their editorial guidelines. Contact editor if any of this information is not disclosed and you need it to refine your submission.

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I have come across many web sites with sales copy that extends over more than 5 pages. It hops from one idea to next without remaining focused. I personally am lost in their premise after page 2. There is no doubt that your copy should be compelling but stick to point. Don't go overboard with your benefits list. A well laid out list of benefits will succeed at grabbing readers interest. If it's too long, people will simply click away to another site. Do you really need a benefits list longer than 5 or 6 key items?

If your product is that good that it takes 15 to 20 items to describe all of benefits, you need to take special care to capture them all and readers attention. I suggest dispersing several within body of copy. Don't itemize each. Carefully draft your copy with some of benefits included. If this proves too hard then simply use only most important. You can weed out ones that aren't necessary by going back and thinking in detail about your target audience. See if you can sort your benefits into different groups based on people who would make most use of each benefit. Then write several different pages of sales copy and advertise each to its respective group.

Remember that point to all of this is to capture a readers attention and drive home sale. Success will be very hard if you make your readers work hard to understand and see your point. Do yourself and your readers a favor by getting to and sticking to point.

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