Should I Use Quotes For Every Paragraph, or Main Point?
What HTML Can I Use Within The Body?
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Should I Use Double Lines To Format My Article?
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No, Not At All!
Submitting articles online is not like submitting an essay to your professor. This is not college, or university. Article directories do not review and edit your articles for grammar mistakes, or even spelling mistakes. Article directories are there to simply make sure that; your article is formatted properly, doesn't contain too much self-promotion, is listed within the correct category, and is labelled as an "informative article" that visitors can benefit from.
What Are Double Lines?
Instead of letting your paragraph run smoothly, double lines are created when
you hit "break" or "enter" at the end of the page. Do not hit enter at the of each
link. Instead, keep writing until you complete your paragraph..
As you can see, this is a sample of forcing double lines for your article. Each
line doesn't wrap to the next line end of the page, instead they are forced
to another line with a space in between.
If your articles are written with double lines, remove them before submitting
them online!
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Should I Use Paragraphs, or No Paragraphs?
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Paragraphs Help To Give Readers A Break!
Some authors feel it's necessary not to break up their article within paragraphs. I feel this is a grave mistake. Reading text online is NOT like reading a book. Many books don't need to include paragraphs, they seem to flow anyway. Reading online is completely different. Most people WILL NOT read your article that has not been formatted with paragraphs.
This is true because reading from a computer screen strains your eyes, it's a proven fact. Trying to follow an article without paragraphs is extremely hard to keep track. After a couple of minutes, the reader will loose their spot, and loose interest within your article.
Myth: No Paragraphs = No Hard Breaks!
Many article directories do not want authors to submit articles with hard breaks. This is true. Even Article99.com has restrictions against this. Hard breaks don't mean you need to remove your paragraphs completely! Hard breaks are usually used for email newsletters. They contain a line of text no longer than 60-65 characters long. Articles that are submitting within this format have to be edited in order to remove the hard breaks.
For this reason, authors tend to submit articles without paragraphs so that editors won't send their articles back as "pending", or delete them completely. In my years of submitting articles online, I've never had an article returned because I hit "enter" to create a new paragraph.
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Should I Use Quotes For Every Paragraph, or Main Point?
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"Quotes are used to quote something, or somebody."
Quotes should only be used for these purposes. Quoting each paragraph within your article is not necessary. The only 2 times you use quotes within paragraphs are; 1) within a press release. A press release will typically quote the owner, or manager on a certain product, or service from the company. 2) Quoting a person directly.
For ex. "Martin said this is the way it should be!" - I agree with this because...
Microsoft Word "Smart Quotes":
Using Microsoft Word is not recommended, but if you are using Microsoft Word, make sure to that you select the right options before creating your articles.
This Is What "Smart Quotes" Looks Like When They Are Not Properly Formatted:
"Smart Quotes" don't look professional!
Turns into this...
“Smart Quotes” don’t look professional!
The Same Applies When Writing HTML Within Microsoft Word, or Frontpage!
I can't stress it enough about not using Microsoft products to format your articles for submission online.
Microsoft employs 1000's of generic developers that put together everything they know into one product while never considering industry standards, or trying to make their products output clean code.
For example, someone who uses Microsoft Frontpage for developing a web site is considered an amateur by industry standards because if they truly knew how to view the outputted HTML that Microsoft Frontpage creates, they would never program their web sites with Frontpage again.
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What HTML Can I Use Within The Body?
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If you wish to post HMTL to format your article while submitting articles online, typically you only want use the below HTML tags for most article submissions online. Many article directories do not allow HTML within the article itself so make sure to pay attention to each directories author submission guidelines before submitting HTML to them.
PLEASE NOTE: ALL "" end tags have been removed for illustration purposes!
p>Paragraph/p> This paragraph tag allows you to create paragraphs within your article.
b>Bold/b> or strong>Strong/stong> These two tags allow you to bold any text that you like within your article.
i>Italics/i> This tag allows you to italicize any text within your articles.
u>Underline/u> This tag allows you to underline text within your articles.
ol>Numbered List/ol> This tag allows you to create a numbered list!
ul>Bullet List/ul> This tag allows you to create a bullet list!
a title="XYZ.com" href="http://www.XYZ.com" target="_blank"XYZ.com
This tag allows you to create an active link with your website address (href=""), a title for your link (title=""), a new window for your link (target="_blank"), and text to display your link (Article99.com).
Banned / Unwanted HTML:
We have some restrictions on which HTML tags you can use, here is a small list:
span>Font properties/span> font>Font type properties/font> div>Special commands, left justified, right justified, or center justified.../div> table>Creates a table/table>
If you follow these guidelines correctly, you should never have any returned "problem" articles..
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What ELSE Will You Learn Within This Series?
Part 1:
How Long, or Short Should Your Article Body Be?
Should I Ever Use "Hard Breaks"?
Should I Have Links Within My Article Body?
Should I Include Author Information Within The Body?
Part 3:
What Is The Best Article Body Layout?
What Programs Should I Use To Write My Text?
What's The Difference Between The WYSIWYG and Simple Text Editor?
When Should I Use Bullet Points?
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Martin Lemieux is the owner of a successful article directory network with over 80,000 author submitted articles, with over 30,000 active authors world wide.
This tutorial is a small part of:
http://www.Article99.com - Authors Club http://www.MyFamilyLiving.com - Family Article Directory
Copyright, All Rights Reserved. Reprints accepted as long as the entire article remains the same including this author resource box.
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