Title: 
Manual versus Automatic Submission

Word Count:
599

Summary:
One of the most effective ways to promote your website without spending a fortune doing so is through article submission. Manual or Automatic submission? Many people would say you should go for manual submission. Why is that?


Keywords:
manual submission, articles marketing, automatic submission


Article Body:
Promote your website through article submission

One of the most effective ways to promote your website without spending a fortune doing so is through article submission. This means you write or commission someone to write articles pertaining to the content of your website and then submit them to online article directories.

Article submission works by creating backlinks to your website. Every article directory will include a so-called "resource box" at the end of your article with a few details about your website and a link to it. When your article is picked up by newsletters and e-zines that publish material on the subject you chose for your article, they also include the resource box, thus backlinking to your website.

As a result, the traffic to your site increases, and may sometimes come from places you would have never found on your own. What's more, if readers like your content, they may link to it from their websites, as well. The more backlinks to your site out there, the better your position in Google rankings will be.

Manual or Automatical Article Submission?

Manual submission entails finding the right article directory, then creating an account with that directory and submitting the articles in the right category. It may also entail modifying the articles (such as removing or adding html code inside them, putting links only in specific parts of the articles) to meet the requirements of the various directories. 

Article directories have different forms for article submission and the input fields vary from one such directory to another.

Some of the most important article directories are:

    * Article City
    * Article Dashboard
    * Ezine Articles
    * Go Articles
    * Search Warp

There are also article submission services available, if you do not have time to manually submit your articles, like Article Marketer and iSnare, which charge a fee their services. If you prefer to do it yourself but want to speed up the process, you can resort to automatic submission and use a submission tool.

Automatic submission software solutions include products like: Article Announcer, Article Post Robot, Ezine Announcer.

Which One Should You Choose?

Many people would say you should go for manual submission. Why is that? First of all, a lot of directories treat automatically submitted articles as spam. Second, you can quickly see any changes made on the directory's website and respond accordingly, which automatic submission robots can't. Third, it is easier to make changes to your article if you need to, because to manually submit articles you need to have an account with the directory where you can login and edit what you want.

Then there is also the fact that article directories are different in that categories do no always overlap, so if you submit an article manually you can make sure it ends up in the right category. In addition, you can check the terms and conditions of each article directory and see whether they accept links in the body of the article or not, for instance, or whether they accept HTML tags or not. This is something automatic submission tools can not do. The major downside to manual submission is the time spent doing it.

On the other hand, automatic submission saves you the time and effort of manually submitting articles to directories one by one. If you would rather automate the submission process, and use a software submission tool, you should check how often the software is updated, the quality of directories selected and the choice of categories (i.e. are the categories specific enough or does it take only general categories into account) before you pick a solution.