by Stan Seecrets

You dream to write Hollywood’s next biggest hit, the next biggest best-seller and so forth. Maybe, you want to improve your site’s ranking with getting more inbound links, or you may want to establish your name as an authority in a particular field. Perhaps, you want to master the art of internet writing and you are ready to make a fool of yourself with idiosyncratic ramblings, like this author. You love writing. More likely, it may be a combination of the above.

Whatever the reasons, the last one is vital. Love for writing is acquired and cultivated, not necessarily inborn.

A lesser known fact is that when you become an internet writer, your name may be immortalized. 500 years from now, graduate students in internet history may discover one of their ancestors was a pioneer internet writer from the 21^st century. Think of the possible bragging rights for your descendants.

What are free-reprint articles?

There is no denying free-reprint articles are the bottom of the food chain. Publishers keep central depositories or mailing lists to feed to other publishers of ezines and newsletters, rarely to the print media.

A free-reprint article gives the freedom for publishers to reprint your article on their websites, ezines or newsletters subject to terms you specify. These are the Terms of Reprint and are normally located at the top of the article.

The Terms of Reprint this author uses is liberal and allows translation to other languages, editing and so forth. You can see other examples from the articles submission sites.

The other important item of your free-reprint article is the resource box or bio. Here you are normally allowed one specific active link to your website and your personal message of 3 to 5 lines. Please make sure the active link is not enclosed with parentheses. If you choose to include your email, spell it out to prevent illegal harvesting from spammers.

How to start?

Obviously, you need writing skills. Having just scrapped through with his high school English and being a trained mathematician and a techie all his professional life, this author will not maker a bigger fool of himself by suggesting he is an expert on writing. There are many free resources and writing classes on the internet.

Most experts recommend plain language, short sentences and writing in the active. Thankfully, most word processing tools have inbuilt word-count, grammar and spelling checking functions. A great tool is available from www.openoffice.org and it’s free.

What to write?

Great starting points are those topics which interest you. What happens if your areas of interest include cryptography and technical analysis? A sagely veteran writer advised: "Not to worry, young lad (to this middle-aged author) - use simple examples to explain complex topics, human-interest, public-interest angles. Make a difficult subject simple and you’ll have the makings of a great communicator".

Reading other people’s articles is a great help. There, one can assess the competition and provide a hotbed of new ideas. Use contrarian views (a popular topic in stock market investing) and provide logical counterarguments to popular opinion.

Use a RSS news feed reader to get current news efficiently without a browser. Commenting on news events are favorite topics. If RSS sounds alien, stay tuned for an article on this subject by this author.

Another is the lack of articles quantifying results on the internet like a simple science experiment. Say, if you file one article, how many sites publish it within a week or a month. When this author wrote on this topic, the hits doubled and so did the number of sites publishing it. This author intends to write an article on the effects of using a press release.

Where to submit?

After check for grammatical and spelling mistakes, save up your work in plain text format. Ensure the hyperlink in your bio is explicit, that is, <a href="http://www.mysite.com">http://www.mysite.com</a>

There are some article submission sites at Yahoo Groups. You have to be a member of the group and each group will have a subscribe address. Joining and submitting is easy. Just go to their site and follow from there.

You can find other submission sites with a simple search for “Free-Reprint Articles Submission Sites” using any search engine. Some sites require you enroll as a member. Admission is free and the submission procedures are simple to follow.

This writer’s personal take.

Articles should be between 500 and 1000 words long. Some submission sites may allow up to 1500 words. If it longer, split into 2 maybe 3 parts.

Choose a title that is unique. It will simplify checking which sites published your articles

Although you are free to write on any subject, publishers too have the right not to publish your articles. If you avoid adult content, hatred, religious intolerances, you should be in safe territory.

If you are writing a first article, give it all the attention it needs. You may have to undergo many cycles of edit and tweaking until it is ready for publication. As they say, first appearances count and it does. Start your internet writing experience with a bang, not a whimper.

If you write disparaging remarks about someone or some company, balance up with the good points also. The target of your venom is as imperfect as we are – good points with faults as well. The internet is about building links (bridges), not creating enemies.

You can check all the inbound links to your site using Google, Yahoo or MSN search engines by typing: “link:http://www.mysite.com” (without the quotation marks). Please note that these 3 search engines only give a partial listing.

Should you see a site that reprinted your article without providing an active link, write them a message using firm, nonconfrontational language. Most will comply. This should apply to article-pirates. This author wrote to one: “Do not something stupid that may spoil your future forever. Copyright violation is a serious crime”. This particular article-pirate complied.

Be proud of your own works. Defend your rights. If you don’t, almost nobody will on your behalf. Evil will triumph when the good remains silent.

Go forth and fill the internet’s mighty search engines with words until they overflow and irretrievably break down – the writers’ revenge on the search engines. Hollywood producers, please take note. This author is prepared to take your calls 24/7 (short for 24 hours a day, 7 days a week).

Stan Seecrets’ Postulate: “If reading maketh the man, conference the complete man and writing the exact man, then the internet maketh writers free.”

[This article may be freely reprinted provided it is published with the author’s bio and activating the link to the URL below. It can be edited, summarized, expanded, and translated into any human language. In the case of print media, the same condition applies except that the URL must be printed in bold letters. Violators will be required to read “Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance” by Robert Pirsig and travel by motorcycle across Siberia during the months of November to February. In cases of reprinting in realms outside this planet, you are free to do anything with it – our copyright laws do not apply to you, nor enforceable within your realms. ]

About the author

The author, Stan Seecrets, is a veteran software developer with 25+ years experience at http://www.seecrets.biz which specializes in digital asset protection and total website management. A free RSS/XML syndicated feed on all his free-reprint articles is also available. You can email Stan at seecrets.biz. © Copyright 2005, Stan Seecrets. All rights reserved.