ArticleSwitchboard.com Article Submission Guidelines:

Compliance with the following Article Submission Guidelines insures your article(s) approval and inclusion in our Article Directory.

These guidelines are necessary to maintain the degree of professionalism we promise our Readers, Publishers and Authors.

All of your approved articles will be included in ArticleSwitchboard.com article directory, at www.ArticleSwitchboard.com, for distribution to other publishers.

While ArticleSwitchboard.com understands, supports, condones and encourages Article Marketing , we have established Guidelines for Authors to adhere to in an effort to offer articles to Publishers and Readers that are well written and informative, but not blatant advertising.

Please read ALL of the following Article Submission Guidelines completely. Understanding and adhering to the ArticleSwitchboard.com Article Submission Guidelines will insure the acceptance and listing of your article in the ArticleSwitchboard.com Article Directory.

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1. BASICS:

   1. Authors submitting articles to ArticleSwitchboard.com for approval to be added to the ArticleSwitchboard.com directory will not be compensated in any way, for the writing or submitting of any article.
   2. All author's will reserve and retain all copyright to their articles.
   3. Author's are only permitted to submit an article to one category. If you don't see a category listed you feel is most appropriate for the subject matter of your article, please Contact Us using our "Contact Us Form" as the SUBJECT. Normally we approve all reasonable new category and Sub-Catagory's, and notify you of their availability by return email. ArticleSwitchboard.com will reply to your email within 2 business days with our decision.
   4. ArticleSwitchboard.com reserve the right to publish your articles anywhere on our web site, blog or syndicate through RSS Feeds. Other ArticleSwitchboard.com users have the right to publish your articles on their web sites, in their newsletters or ezines, and more as long as the article is left in the original state including the information in your Resource Box giving you credit as author, and any links within the article or Resource Box.
   5. All articles submitted by you must be written/authored by you. Plagiarism will not be tolerated. Plagiarists will be banned without recourse. Anyone proven guilty of copyright infringement will have their ArticleSwitchboard.com account closed, all articles removed from the directory and be banned for life. We do track IP addresses.
   6. Your article should serve to educate and inform rather than just serve as a promotional piece. Include How To's, Tips, Strategies, Techniques, Case-studies, Analyses, Opinions and/or Commentary in your articles from your own experience.
   7. Naturally, ArticleSwitchboard.com is looking for QUALITY articles with content that is informational and well thought out. Articles with grammatical or spelling errors will be rejected. Formatting will be covered below.
   8. Article Submission does NOT mean your article will be automatically accepted and listed in the ArticleSwitchboard.com Article Directory. ArticleSwitchboard.com has the sole authority to except or reject any article. As long as your article meets the requirements in these guidelines, your article will be accepted. However, if your article is not up to the general standards of our guidelines, ArticleSwitchboard.com will indicate the reason for rejection in your rejection email notice.
   9. If your article is rejected , you can resubmit your article 2 additional times only, with errors corrected for approval. If errors are not corrected in the 3rd submission, it will not be reconsidered for approval again.
   10. Spamming of this directory will not be tolerated. Submitting multiple copies, (2 or more), of the same article using different Titles, or with only slight modifications is strictly forbidden. Offenders will have their articles deleted, account terminated and be banned from future submissions.
   11. Offensive content will be cause for immediate account termination. Articles must not promote hate, racism, pornography, hacking, bomb building, terrorism and other illegal and/or offensive activities.
   12. While direct affiliate links will NOT be tolerated , you are allowed to have links to pages on your domain that redirect to your affiliate program. NO Pop-Ups Allowed, NO Java Scripting Allowed. NO "Promotional" links are allowed in the Title, Summary or Body of your article. However ,Resource and Source Credit links, Up to a maximum of 3 "Source" links, (Links to a third party work you are referencing for credibility), in the body of your article ARE allowed.


2. Web Site Active/Inactive Links/Anchors/URLs
   
   1. Download links are STRICTLY Forbidden. No direct links to any type of digital download are allowed.
   2. ArticleSwitchboard.com does not accept articles that have the same ACTIVE link more than once. Do not submit duplicate identical URLs.
   3. ArticleSwitchboard.com does not knowingly allow any URLs in any of our articles that are banned by Google or if your web site engages in questionable SEO practices -- ArticleSwitchboard.com may reject your articles.
   4. ArticleSwitchboard.com does not auto format URL's that are in the BODY of your article.
   5. ArticleSwitchboard.com does not allow active links in the first sentence, the first paragraph or above the fold of an article. (This is as follows; If an article is printed out and the paper is folded in three parts as if being readied for an envelope, there should be no links above the first fold in the paper.)
   6. ArticleSwitchboard.com does not allow articles which have strategic keyword anchor text links in the body to your domain that do not add informational value to the article. Any use of anchored text links to web sites that you own should add value to the article topic rather than stand out as an obvious abuse an anchored text link. The goal of this policy is to be a good net citizen by only allowing articles that add value with the anchored text links rather than purely for SEO reasons.

3. 1. Example: Within your article, you link the word "bird dog" to an article that you wrote about bird dogging. This is a good example of an anchored text link vs. linking the same text to your home page as it doesn't really add informational value.

   2. BANNED LINKS: Be for warned! ArticleSwitchboard.com will not accept articles with links (in the Article Body or Resource Box) to adult oriented web sites, including but not limited to web sites that include nudity, pornography, adult-oriented shopping sites and adult-oriented sexual content or any other potentially offensive or illegal content promoting hate, racism, hacking, bomb building, terrorism or any other illegal and/or offensive activities. Also articles referencing products which enhance, enlarge or otherwise have any reference to sex will be rejected out of hand with no explanation given.
   3. EMAIL 'MAILTO:' LINKS: We highly recommend including a link to your web site in the Resource Box, but do not advocate including a mailto: or email link to your personal or work email account. Spammers will abuse it. It would be better to include a web site URL and let potential customers find your email address on your web site.


4. Formatting Your Articles For ArticleSwitchboard.com
   
   1. Title
      1. Your article Title must be in Title Case (i.e.. I Write Great Articles First letter of each work is capitalized. Never all UPPER CASE.
      2. No Author or Web site Name or URL is allowed in the Title.
      3. No HTML tags are allowed in the Title.
      4. Do not put a "period" or "full stop" at the end of the Title.
   2. Article Body
      1. The article must be 400 words minimum and 3,500 words maximum. The ideal article size to us is between 400 to 1,500 words. Less than 400 words does not amount to much more than an advertisement. We are looking for actual informative and original content. The minimum 400-word count does not include title, description or resource box.
      2. Please do NOT repeat the article Title in the article body.
      3. Do not submit articles that are pre-formatted with excessive hard carriage returns such as articles that are pre-formatted to 60-65 characters per line. The article text should flow continuously and wrap naturally. To effect a new line, press the "Enter" key once; to effect a new paragraph, press the "Enter" key twice to create a vertical white space.
      4. The following HTML tags ARE allowed in the article body:-
         • bold
         • italics
         • blockquote – to indent text
      5. The following HTML tags are NOT allowed in the article body:
         • Paragraph tag
         • Break tag
         • Image tag
         • Font tag
         • Header tag
         • Horizontal rule tag
   3. Author Name and Pen Names
      1. Author's Name
         1. Your full name is required for your first article submission. Allowable: You can use, First & Last or, First - Middle Initial & Last or, First Initial - Middle Name & Last. Name prefixes such as Mr. Mrs. Ms. are not allowed . Name Titles such as Dr. (Doctor), Prof. (Professor) Capt. (Captain), are allowed if these can be verified by an external resource. Name suffixes such as Sr. (Senior), Jr. (Junior), III (The third) are allowed. Suffix Titles such as Esq. (Esquire), M.D. (Medical Doctor, etc, etc. are also allowed
      2. Pen/Alternate Author Names:
         1. ArticleSwitchboard.com will only allow one author membership account per individual, but you are allowed to have Pen/Alternate author names under your account (such as a pen-name or if you are an author's assistant or manage articles for multiple different authors.
         2. ALL of the same rules for the Author's Name above apply to the Pen/Alternate Author Names.
         3. The Author Terms Of Service applies to any ALTERNATE AUTHOR NAMES just as it does to you directly. So, be sure you have written permission to submit the articles under any Pen/Alternate Author Name that you might setup.
      3. ATTENTION AFFILIATES - Pen Names: We don't accept articles with affiliate links in them. With that said, PLEASE do not setup a Pen/Alternate Author Name of a guru of an affiliate program that you want to promote. This will be considered "Impersonation" of another individual and will be cause for account termination of your account. You can add alternate author names from your MEMBERS PROFILE once you are logged in to the members only area.
   4. ADDING KEYWORDS
      1. Adding the top keywords related to your article helps ArticleSwitchboard.com to bring more traffic to your article.
      2. Please make sure you put a comma between each KEYWORD.
      Ideally, your keywords should be optimized based on the most commonly searched keywords as published by Overture.com for your particular niche. It helps to use a good keyword research tool to help you determine which ones are best to use.
      3. You should have a minimum of 4-5 keywords and a maximum of 25. ArticleSwitchboard.com does not accept keywords that are completely unrelated to the content of your article.
   5. ARTICLE CATEGORY or SUB-CATEGORY
      - Choosing A Category or Sub-Category
      1. Please choose the best existing category or sub category based on the theme of your article and not the theme of your business.
      2. Suggesting/Requesting a new Category or Sub-Category is permitted. If you are unable to find an existing Category or Sub-Category you feel is appropriate for your article's content/information, you can suggest/recommend a Category or Sub-Category by entering it in the* BODY * field/box as shown in the following examples:
         1. (Entered in the * BODY * Field/Box using ALL UPPER CASE LETTERS),
            NEW CATEGORY = METAL SCULPTURE - SUB-CATEGORY = WELDING
         2. (Entered in the * BODY * Field/Box using ALL UPPER CASE LETTERS),
            NEW SUB-CATEGORY TO HEALTH = HOMEOPATHY
      3. Requesting/Suggesting a new Category or Sub-Category does not guarantee the new Category or Sub-Category will be listed for your article. However, ArticleSwitchboard.com is understanding of all such requests and will take it under advisement. All reasonable (In the estimation of ArticleSwitchboard.com Staff), Request/Suggestions will be implemented. Please understand however, the process may slow the approval of your article by as much a 2 to 3 business days.
   6. ArticleSwitchboard.com reserves the right to make minor changes/edits/additions to the above guidelines at any time without prior notice to our Member Authors. However, when there are any changes/edits/additions of a substantive nature to the above guidelines, Member Authors will be emailed notification upon implementation.
   7. The articles in the ArticleSwitchboard.com on line article directory are provided for information purposes only and for redistribution as outlined in our guidelines.
   8. ArticleSwitchboard.com does not accept any responsibility or liability for the use or misuse of the article content on this on line article directory, by any other publisher or the reliance by any person on the content of any article.

The ArticleSwitchboard.com Administration and Staff hopes you find our publishing process user friendly and effective.