[nicoledeal]

A lot of great suggestions above. Write to the reader, and write to the subject. The reader should feel their needs are being met with the article. Any scent of a sales page and they will run like a scared antelope.

Where you submit your articles is also important. Great articles should be added to your website first, then submitted to sites such as Ezines, Amazines, GoArticles, Seekyt, etc. Leave your link and enticing message in your resource box and move on. Be clear and concise in your article, have an idea of where you are going to start with your reader and where you are going to lead them. Is your message clear? Read other articles to get ideas, and see what works, and what turns you off. Be sure your title gets their interest and is relevant to the content. A boring title means the article is boring or uninformative.

Optimize your keywords in your article, but don't write specifically to your keywords. Always write to the intended audience and the subject matter. Don't treat the reader like a child, write intelligently towards intelligent people.

Understand the terms and conditions of the article sites, to avoid having your article rejected and delaying publication.

Perfect grammar and sentence structure is a given.

Good luck.