If your articles aren't getting published very often, or you just want to increase chances of them being published, then you will benefit from tips in this article.

1. Article Length You should always keep you article 500 to 800 words long. If you can't fit what you want to say into that amount of space, then break your article up into more than one part.

2. Resource Box Length When writing your resource box, keep it 5 to 6 lines long. In a resource box you are simply trying to get people to request more information, not sell them something. If you want a longer ad, buy one!

3. Line Length The lines in both your article and your resource box should be formatted to 60 to 65 characters per line. One of consequences of not doing so is that, in some email programs, your article may appear with every line at a different length.

You can get your article formatted, as well as learning its character, line, and word count, at following website for free. http://www.fwointl.com/FWOFormatter.html

4. Is Your Article Actually An Article? Publishers want to provide their readers with actually useful information and you should want same. If you write an article that is just a sales letter or press release it will be rejected 99 percent of time.

Are you struggling to come up with new ideas for articles? Whether you are a new or veteran writer, this problem can effectively halt your ability to use this method of promotion. So, to help you overcome this, I have compiled a list of things you can do to find new article ideas.

1. Message Boards Read posts at message boards to see what people are interested in. You can then write your article on topics that people already want to know more about.

http://homebizlink.com/wwwboard/ http://articlesubmission.com/imf http://www.bizweb2000.com/wwwboard/index.html http://www.websitepublisher.net/forums/ http://www.ablake.net/forum http://www.williecrawford.com/cgi-bin/index.cgi

2. Discussion Lists This is similar to using message boards. Just read to see what others are posting about and write articles on those subjects.

http://groups.yahoo.com/group/hbj_chat/ http://groups.yahoo.com/group/ideasbypost/ http://www.o-a.com/ http://www.netpreneur.org/connect/am/default.html http://www.i-advertising.com/html/join/join.shtml

3. Surveys You can use a survey to find out what people want to hear more about. There are several places to find people to take your survey. Send survey to your net contacts, post to discussion groups, post on message boards, put it in your newsletter, or put it up on your website. Offer something of value for free, like an ebook or ecourse, to those who take your survey.

4. Newsletters By subscribing to and reading newsletters, you can find out what is currently popular. Here are a few directories where you can find newsletters.

http://www.newsletter-directory.com/ http://www.ezinehub.com/ http://www.cumuli.com/ezines/ http://www.expresslists.com/ http://www.jogena.com/ezine/ezinedata.htm http://www.list-city.com/

5. Keywords Get article ideas by studying most searched for keywords, which you can find at these sites.