One of the biggest mistakes I see authors make is not spell checking their own work and not hiring their own editor. – Meg Meyer

When your own name goes on the work, and it is YOU self-publishing – regardless of what printing or publishing company you work with – You, Mr. or Ms. Author, are responsible for the quality of your work. If you spend $1000, to have your book in print, and it comes out with a typo, a wrong word, or formatting issues – it is likely your own fault and $1000 down the drain.

People work hard for their money. They don’t want to spend $10-$20 a pop for a shoddy product. You might get your friends and family and possibly a few others to buy a copy. But if the work is poor – you lose the possibility of turning those buyers into fans.

So in your budget for your writing business, be sure to include time and money to ensure your book is perfect prior to printing. Then you can turn each new reader into a fan for life.

Many article directories do not pay money. And while that may deter you – consider some of the non-monitary rewards that you may reap from submitting original content in a subject matter that interests you.

Tip: Quality is Key! Make sure your articles are well researched, spell-checked, and edited! Poor articles make you look bad & may be rejected for quality standards.

Marketing – when you want to get the word out about you, or what you do – you use marketing to do it. Rather than paying for advertising – you can submit your articles to content directories and include a promo blurb about you or your business. People that read your article about the stock market and find the free information helpful will be very likely to click through to your website to find out more about your expertise in that industry.

Google Page Rank – this is especially important if you have a website that relies on SEO, search engine placing, search engine ranking, and advertising to pay the bills. Many article directories, like the one linked here, allow search engines to follow the links in your bio. More quality pages that link to yours – the more value the search engine robots see in your site. That improves ranking and exposure. This generally leads to hits, sales, and making money.

Note: The article directory that I’m checking out now is currently accepting original submissions. They must not be published elsewhere. Feel free to check out if Web Articles is the right site for your article marketing.

These are just a few of the benefits an author gets when they market their ideas through writing articles and publishing them in directories. Research the industry a bit and you’ll find out what features would most benefit your online business and help you make money online.

Today is a good day to:

1. Request your free copy of your credit report from the credit reporting agencies. Contrary to what the credit report commercials may say – you don’t have to pay for their service or be charged for a 3-in-1 report. You can just mail a letter to each of the credit reporting agencies and have them mail you your one free yearly report.
2. Check your interest rates & fees. Check with your bank, credit companies, etc to find out what rate you’re paying or being paid for using their services. Ask if they can do better. Really, they may give you a lower APR or up the interest you are earning, just for asking.
3. Collect your receipts for the year. Go over how much you’ve spent on what, and check to see if certain expenses are tax-deductible or qualify for a tax-credit. Ask your accountant or tax professional about often overlooked items that you should watch for.
4. Set your budget – if you haven’t already done so – for your Holiday Gifting. Set how much money you will be spending total. Then list the people and charities that you want to give to. Set them in order of importance. Take out just enough cash to cover your budget, so you’re not paying interest on the gifts you give. Search the internet and call around for the best prices on what you want to buy. If you run out of money, which you shouldn’t, the people and charities at the bottom of the list will just have to wait. The people that you care about and would want to give gifts to, probably wouldn’t want you to pay double for what you give them – they’d probably graciously wait, rather than make you pay interest on their gift. If they don’t care enough about you to wait – why do you care about putting yourself in debt to give them a gift?

Well, there you have it – aside from taking care of my clients and articles today – this is what I’ll be doing. Feel free to join me in Money Monday!