If you go to the trouble of writing an article with unique content that you are proud of then you should definitely be willing to think long and hard about the article directory with which you wish to submit your efforts to.

Page Rank

If you have an article and you wish to submit it to one article directory and one only, then look for one of the high page rank ones like Ezinearticles or Goarticles. Submiting to the lesser ones is only useful for mass submissions.

Category

Make Sure you pick the right category for the topic of your choice - After all you've come this far and done the work, don't you want it in the right subject category?

Biography Box

Also called the author's box, this can be a source of traffic if you make your bio enticing enough. This is also your opportunity to add your link and receive that good old "link juice".

Backlinking

To get more traffic to your article, you can bookmark your submission in many social bookmarking sites and receive some good back links. The more you can get the higher the PR your article will have and this mean SE results glory.

Building A Reputation

For the purposes of branding yourself an expert and moving further up the chain of command in the blogosphere, the more quality articles you have, the more of and expert you will appear to be (be that the case or not).

Article Directories Like Fresh Content

Well, actually - they love it!

Fresh content gets indexed in the big player sites, so be mindful of where you submit to and be sure to keep generating the good stuff.

I hate to say this but there really isn't a lot of point in adding a one off, unique content article to an article directory that isn't one of the top three, unless you have some alterior motive.

Make sure you bookmark the article that you do submit and check back from time to time just to see if they are getting rated or commented on. Sometimes a nice comment can give you a boost and a bad comment can fire you up to write some good content.

If you insist on writing hobby topics, as in only topics of interest to you then at least research a few choice keywords to keep yourself in the game. Why write something that no one will ever see?

There is a very dinstinct flavor to playing the article marketing game the right way and it involves research and effort in considerable quantities. Be prepared and also forwarned.

Premium Article Directories

These Directories may not always be as premium as their self desription. Some charge a fee to contain your article at a certain level, these fees may include "premium" inclusion and offer you a front page link or some similar hook.

I'm dubious as to the value of such things and I'm not sure of the benifits of paying, especially when PR 8 directories are free inclusion.

Unique Content Only Directories

Some directories only include unique content. These are information only resources and they don't offer the articles for download or reproduction. Articles that do not pass copyscape simply will not be included.

There are some benefits to being in such directories. For one there is the little matter of integrity and theses directories usually hve good PR as well.

I have submited pages to some unique content directories and found good traffic and some quality backlinks. Unique Content resources are great to build good pr links .

Bad Submission Practices

Don't try and fill your article to the brim with links, this is just poor form. The article directories hate it and it will probably mean your page won't get included. Two links is more than enough and remember that more than 1 will dilute the value of each other anyway.

Don't submit spun content - It is usually always missing context and will make you look foolish unless you really are thorough and fix it up nicely, at which point you may as well write a new article.

Spell check - Some people get turned off by a smattering of bad grammar.

All in all you have a lot to think about

On top of all this there is the matter of how often you are prepared to write for an article directory.

Becoming The Guru

After a while your name becomes the one people bandy about, when they talk about a given subject. The fact is that if you really commit yourself to the work, then you can put out enough quality content into the internet cloud that you can be that recognizable name - Firmly branded into the minds of your peers and lessers.

With personal branding comes great monetization possibilities too. You trustworthy opinion can sway many viewers towards the affiliate product of your choosing. You referral power will become quite the tasty prospect.

It is certainly nice to be the Guru alright

Write A Few MEGA Articles

Whilst most of your articles will be around the 400-500 word mark, every now and then you should opt to write a huge article that really has some weight. By using your personal knowledge of a subject in which you are well versed, you can construct a valuable land mark resource that others will not only link to, but they will use from time to time as a reference point. A long 1200 word article can also help you hit a few long tail keywords which will bring in more traffic and the article directory in which you place this, combined with the links you may acquire should result in a big hitting page rank for your article.

Having a few big ones can help you the skills it takes to Make Money Writing Articles 

Try for maybe one in twenty articles to be a blockbuster

Concentrate On One Directory

Now this is by no means compulsory, but I've personally seen it used to good effect - Especially in the early atages of a bloggers "career". By hitting one specific directory and writine 5-10 articles per day, you can quickly establish your self ass a brand name and make the most out of your presence.

Once you have around a hundred articles and you're a top author then branch out. I know that most top hubbers, giant squids, ezine top authors and all the others usually do quite good turnover from these single entities.

Stake your claim as a pro and then diversify

Be Prepared To Be Copied

If you publish an article in most directories, be forwarned that from time to time someone will take your article - Rip out your links and pass it as there own. It sucks, but it happens. As long as it isn't a frequent occurence, then it shouldn't hurt you too much but if it happens regularly then you may want to follow it up with an email to the perpertrator or their isp.

For every time this happens, hopefully you'll be getting 10-15 other reproductions that give you all the credit in the world. In fact, once upon a time - One of my best articles was used on a site and they added extra content and gave me all the credit.

Just as you will get published, you shall be plagiarized - Don't take it personally, take it as a compliment that rather than pay homage by imitating your work they have stolen it in it's entirety (I Smile).

Take The Good With The Bad

View Your Status

To find out what sort of presence you have on the net, just place your pen name into the search and voila - What have we here?

The day your articles virtually litter the internet (in a good way) is a funny sort of feeling. It will happen to you eventually when one day you are looking for something online and you keep finding your own articles amongst the results.

It can be both satisfying and amusing to keep stumbling across your own work, knowing that others will inevitably do the same. I loosely compare this to a musician hearing their own song on the radio (hey - I said loosely).

Become Everywhere

Getting Rejected From A Directory

This can really get a writers back up. You go to the trouble of writing an article all to get a few measly backlinks, all the while the directory gets to make money off of your free work and they have the audacity to say to you that your article didn't cut the mustard - Arghhh!

Relax - It's just them trying to maintain the level of quality that they perceive to keep their directory from seeming spammy. That said, it can be even harder to take if the directory is not well known and you were feeling like you were actually dong them a favor by submitting a great piece of your work to this fledgling directory. If you do feel hard done by, your option is to either pack up your bat and ball and go home, or to fix the requirements.

You can of course take the article to another directory and if they publish it you probably will never go back to the very one that rejected you.

I've had maybe 2 or 3 articles rejected in my time and I demanded to know what it was that was unacceptable - I was told that I was not aloud a link in the article, the only problem was I wasn't aloud a link in the Author bio either? You were aloud one link in the profile page, but the odds of anyone clicking 3 times just to get through to there was a bazillion to one - Safe to say I took my fresh content elsewhere.

By the way - That article directory is no longer in existence

I wonder why?

Find A Niche Directory

If you want to pick yourself up a couple of targeted, relevant links then go no further than a niche directory. Their specialised nature means they will be an authority and as such the links from them will be of good value, just be sure to keep your article submissions relevant and avoid using the best keyword phrases.

The Best

The best place I have found to make money writing articles is definitely Article Flame .

Here you get everything else taken care of, while you just develop the articles and links

It's worth investigating if you are an able writer. 

Why You Shouldn't Start Your own directory

Directories cost for hosting, domain names and running costs, but they yeild very little profit, and it's hard to get the pr up for them as it takes years.