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Step 1 - join

The best way to publish is to be an established contributor. To do that, you should JOIN. To join, go to http://www.americanchronicle.com/notices/submit_info

You'll set up your account here: http://www.americanchronicle.com/notices/contributor_welcome.asp

Rules You Must Follow

This is a summary of AmChron promotional publication rules. Political statements and other types of writing follow other rules. You are responsible to read the guidelines and comply with them. Please edit the following shortcut summary in such a way as to represent to you exactly what must be adhered to. We accept no liability for your errors. The following is a starting point for your convenience.

• submit a variety of articles about your products, services, or websites with our family of online magazines
• legitimate articles about legal and honest products or services are welcome
• you may include a few active links in your articles to your websites for the specific purpose of promoting your products or services.
• NO plagiarized articles, copyright violations, or spamming with articles previously submitted to us
• violations will result in your account being closed and your articles deleted
• only honest, reputable, and legitimate writers should request an account

Step 2 - Log In

This is the address to bookmark for returning frequently to post articles and check your readership statistics.
http://www.americanchronicle.com/spool/login

Step 3 - Choose Article Manager

Step 4 - Choose Submit an Article

Step 5 - Title

You have 100 characters for your title - plenty of space to include a catchy heading PLUS your key words. Make people want to read your article.

Step 6 - Body of Article

Paste the body of your article in the big white box. Formatting, other than double line breaks between paragraphs, will not be transferred.

Do not use tabs, double spaces between sentences, or bullets. All such formatting will need to be created within this white box after you've entered your text.

The following formatting elements may be added. They must always occur in pairs - one code to begin the font formatting and a second to end it. When you use two formatting options together, the codes that turn them on are reversed in order when turning them off.

Bold <b> </b>
Italics <i> </i> or, alternatively <em> </em>
Bold and italics <b><i> </i> <b>
Bullets are a little complicated. I suggest using an asterisk (*) followed by one or two spaces.

Make sure you have two paragraph returns between paragraphs, so that you'll have a line break. Though they should paste in well, if you need to add one in code, the code is <p>, or <p> to begin and </p> to end.

Step 7 - Promotional Blurb

The blurb does not appear with your article, so make sure both the article and the blurb can stand alone. No links in the blurb!

Step 8 - Link to Your Chosen Web Page

Before finishing the article, it is key to link to whatever you are promoting. You could use a conventional "So and so is the founder and editor of..." or you could hook people to keep reading with a bit of bad grammar and a big come-on. Like the clip above. The And keeps the reader engaged, the free offer encourages action, and the final sentence underscores the need for action.

AmChron allows a "few" promotional links anywhere in your article. If you use links in the body and the last paragraph, make sure at least one of the body links does not appear to be self-serving.

HOW TO MAKE A LINK

Code to make a link may seem complicated at first, but it's well worth learning - or saving to copy and paste. The link is made of three parts:

• mysterious code
• the link destination - where clicking takes the person
• the description - keywords the person will actually click on

You completely control the latter two and cannot change the first. The format is not forgiving. A space, lack of a bracket or quotation mark, can throw the whole thing off.

1. Code to open: <a href="
2. Within the quotes goes your web address, beginning with http://
3. Code to close the beginning: ">
4. Your descriptive text
5. Code to close the link: </a>

Example:

<a href ="http://www.mywebsite.com">my keyword text</a>

The worst words you can use for the link text are "click here." Use something compelling, original, brief (five words or fewer) and core to your message. "More about WWII," "See clairvoyant art," "Test drive weight loss."

Step 9 - Illustrations

Articles with photographs (or illustrations) pull better than type-only articles. There are three rules for graphic submissions:
1) width maximum is 200 pixels (at 72 px per inch, about 2.75 inches wide. Small!
2) file size maximum is 32 Mb.
3) you must have the right to publish the photo. What I don't create myself, I purchase, usually $1/image. www.dreamstime.com/res40862

Step 10 - Select Categories for Publiscation

Choose a minimum of three and a maximum of five categories in the top section. Keep in mind where your target audience might be reading when they see a link to your article. In the second part, Select Issues, you may or may not find a fit. In general, don't annoy people by posting in a completely far-fetched place, but otherwise, the more links to your article, the better!

Step 11 - Add Tags

Tags are keywords suitable people might use to find your content, or might use to find your competitor's content and you want yours to be right there! Separate words and phrases with commas. Use longer phrases rather than single words when possible. E.g. "send floral bouquets" trumps "floral, bouquet." Use plurals. Use singulars only when the spelling is not derivative of the plural. "Children" includes the word "child," but "criteria" does not include the word "criterion" so use both. No need to say both "art" and "artist." (The art is in the artist.)

Step 12 - Publish

Fortuitously, the system will not let you publish without previewing your article. Making changes after the article is submitted for publication takes it out of the queue and delays your getting noticed. You may have to find the browser tab where you worked on the article and make changes and preview it several times before it's just right. Since this concerns readability, meeting the guidelines and verifying the layout and accuracy are very important!

Learn to Ping...