Writing a great deal of articles myself, I see a lot of the other articles that are submitted. Although the majority are spot on, many are not nearly as effective as they could be. Hopefully I can impart some insight on the Do's and Don'ts of writing an effective article.

Choosing a Subject
This is where most people go wrong. When choosing an article they tend to go with a popular subject in order to get the largest audience. The most important thing you can do is to write on what you know and are passionate about. I have read countless articles that although they are technically good, they lack the punch that gets them a wide distribution. Passion is something you can't fake and there is nothing more enticing than an article brimming over with it. One of the ways you can judge the level of passion you have for a subject is the amount you can write. If you find you have to stop yourself or you could go on forever that may be a passion.

Use Proper Spelling and Grammar
This seems obvious but there are countless examples of articles being submitted where the author did not even run a simple spell-check. It is unfortunate when what would be an excellent article is ruined by countless spelling mistakes. Remember that the goal is to have webmasters pick up your content to use on your own site. They will shy away from poorly written articles as they know they will be judged on their content, whether they wrote it or not.

Don't Oversell
It may be your intention to sell your product but overdoing it may result in the opposite effect. Webmasters are wary to use your article if it reads as an advertisement, so leave out the blatant sales pitch. Instead give general advice and use the About the Author box to showcase your site or company. For example, a Web Hosting company will do better to write an article helping readers choose a Host rather than constantly talking about what they offer. Let the reader decide!

Get It Distributed
This may not have to do with the actual writing of the article but is a crucial piece. After all, your main goal is to get as many people to read it as possible. Your best option is to use free article distribution sites like:

Article Depot ? www.articledepot.co.uk
GoArticles ? www.goarticles.com
Ezine Articles ? www.ezinearticles.com

By submitted to the Top 3, you can save hours of work submitting to individual sites.

Jason Rickard is the owner of http://www.yourfavouriteshop.com - Europes largest reseller of White Noise CDs