Thank you Tim, here are links to some of my articles.  I will email later.

http://community.adlandpro.com/forums/thread/901404.aspx
http://community.adlandpro.com/forums/thread/921189.aspx

Happy New Year,

Sara

Hello Tim,

Thank you for sharing all that information......

Hi Tim, Your topic certainly caught my attention. I've been writing at Helium, an online writing site since April of 2007, where I get paid a small amount of money for my articles, and where they get rated by the other writers there for grammar, spelling, content, etc. Helium is the first place where any of my writing went up for public viewing, though I've been writing more for myself for many years. Notebooks filled with short stories, poems, or just journaling to get the words out of my head. I've begun submitting a few of my articles for free publication, but I admit I have a great amount of reluctance in doing that. So maybe I have the opposite viewpoint that other people here might have regarding Publish or Perish? Many people in Affiliate Marketing have recommended submitting articles for free publication. I understand that might help increase my by-name recognition out in that vast Internet World. But if I do a lot of that, doesn't that also increase the possibility of others plagarizing my articles, if I submit a lot of them for totally free publication? Doesn't that in a way encourage others to plagarize even more? I know that Article Directories are supposed to keep the authors by line and resource box intact, but does it always work that way? Or do other people take the viewpoint, well, this writer, thinks so little of their own writing efforts they don't feel they should actually be paid anything at all, for writing that article? They've submitted their article for free publication after all. So then why should it be any kind of problem to anyone, if Mr. or Ms. Plagarizer should come along and falsely claims that they wrote my article? Does this Internet trend towards free publication, diminish the efforts that many writers actually put into their writing? It's not just the time spent writing, but the proofreading, revising, editing, to make that article as good as I can get it. Smaller lesser known brick and mortar publishing places used to pay their published writers in contributors copies, if they couldn't afford to pay them with actual cash money. How did the Internet become a place where it's not only recommended but it's now almost expected, that writers will willingly submit their articles for free publication? Not only free publication, but allowing others needing that content, to freely use those articles anyway they want to on their web sites? I think other people, have the mistaken idea that a well written article can just be quickly produced in a matter of minutes. That's sure not the case for me. Maybe I'm old fashioned? But I think most writers desire some sort of recognition for the efforts we put into our writing. How do you get even a small amount of recognition, for your writing efforts, by allowing and agreeing to, letting your articles be published for free? Then the only possible recognition I might get at all, is maybe eventually having my by-line recognized by a few people, if I even should get that much recognition? I'm also very knew at Affiliate Marketing. So maybe I'm looking at all of this more from the viewpoint of a writer then from that of an Affiliate Marketer? I'd like to know what other people think about this issue of free publication. I have not yet done very much of it myself. I'd like to know what kinds of good and bad experiences other writers/Affiliate Marketers have had with doing that? I personally have not had any success at all, so far with Affiliate Marketing. I haven't yet sold one product. I don't think I've gotten anyone to join me as a referral in any of my Affiliate Programs. I don't feel it's been because of a lack of trying on my part. I've often put in 12 to 16 hour days on my computer. Reading and learning about the many different aspects of Affiliate Marketing. But one thing that Affiliate Marketing has given to me, is that it got me writing again. I had a long dry writting spell for quite awhile. People tell you to write about things you have a passion for. People also tell you to write about what you know. So here I am making lists for myself, of the many things I now want to write about regarding Affiliate Marketing, an area that I actually don't know much about at all. Even if I'm never able to sell one product by doing this or even if I never make any money from trying my hand at this, Affiliate Marketing got me writing again! For that I'm incredibly grateful. So it isn't only about the money, for me, when it comes to writing. It's about the need, the desire, the pure enjoyment I actually get from writing, and from tying to write as well as I'm humanly able to. As the Moody Blues a soft rock group of the 60's and 70's put it, "For I have riches more then these..." Jan http://janspromoplace.blogspot.com

Hi Jan,

Thanks so much for your post.

You've raised a interesting point of view that few in this arena have really considered. Of course most of the members here would enjoy being paid for their writing, I guess for the most part it's just become a paradigm that we don't.

I note your concern over the issue of plagiarism and I'd just have to say that whether free or paid, the issue remains the same, and there will always be the chance that someone might want to "steal" your work, and free or paid articles..they take their chances. Copyright infringement is a serious matter, but while I won't hesitate to prosecute such trespass on my work, I'm not going to fret either. If it happens I'll deal with it in an appropriate manner.

I don't think that the world of paid writers is particularly threatened by the publication of unpaid (free) articles, as each has it's place. Certainly I would expect to be paid if a major magazine wanted my work, but in the case of ezinearticles.com or any of the article directories I benefit in many ways personally from posting my articles for "free".

You could even consider that although I'm not being paid to write for those directories, it's a given that any writing takes time, and time is money, so in some respects I am PAYING to have my work listed. The reason I'm willing to do that though are several fold.

First, is the exposure I get, and the more traffic the site I post to gets, the more exposure I get. If you ever post with ezinearticles you'll understand what I mean that they aren't exactly easy to post with. They have strict guidelines and policies that writers must adhere to, but they are also a popular spot and that leads me to my next point.

Second, because of that popularity (page rank 6) having my links...even my name on the site helps to boost my "visibility" online through the search engines. If someone is looking for info on blogging networks there is a good chance that my article will appear in the search as a result of ezinearticles ranking and popularity, thus any affiliate links I might have in the piece at least stand some chance of being clicked on.

Third, with every mention of my name and my links I am creating another conversation that is picked up in the search engines increasing my presence and boosting the rank of my site. As an example, if you do a Google search on Tim Southernwood chances are you will see my name first on ezinearticles.(bear in mind that the effect is not nearly as effective with affiliate links as it is with your own website or blog links)

Fourth, I'm hoping people WILL take on my articles (while of course respecting my copyright and leaving my author box intact) as that will even further increase my exposure, and the benefit that site gains by using my content to help their efforts and my benefit from increased exposure (in my mind) makes it a win win situation.

So to summarize, I just want to say that although my articles were posted for free, they are anything but. They cost me time and money to produce them, and while the financial benefits might not be in the immediate, there is a future expectation of some kind of benefit whether financial or otherwise.

Thanks again for your comments.

Thank you Tim! While many people recommended submitting articles for Free Publication, I hadn't yet found many resources that explained clearly to me why I should do that, or how it will benefit me down the road. Thank you Tim, for going into the details of how you benefit from doing that. It may now convince me to give it more of a try. I've newly started blogging. I'm promoting other people's products. I don't have any of my own products to promote yet! I'm not even far enough along yet to have giveaways or free downloads that I can give to anybody who might read my blog. So if anybody does read it, the only thing I currently have to offer to them, is whatever ability I might have when it comes to what I write or blog about. Since I don't yet have any freebies, giveaways, or ebooks people can download, then how do I keep those visitors coming back a 2nd, 3rd time, etc, to read whatever I might be promoting or ranting or raving about on my blog? With what you've said in your post, is it then possible that I would get increased exposure, visibility, higher page ranking, for my blog, even though I DON'T have any products of my own to offer to anybody else right now? Could that lead to people possibly clicking on my affiliate links, and joining my programs as my referrals, or even buying or trying out some of the products I hope to be promoting there? I guess that's where my confusion comes in regarding the benefits I might get from free article submission, since I'm promoting other people's products, but have no products of my own on my blog, and currently have no giveaways or downloads there either. Tim, have you had the experience that because of your name recognition, other Web Site owners have contacted you about writing content for their Web Sites? In addition to the name recognition, and I do see the value of that, has submitting your articles to free publications also had a positive effect in increasing your earnings? I think that's the part I don't totally understand. How it gets from Point A, submitting my articles for free publication to Point B, where people, might be interested in possibly paying me to write content or a promotional piece about their website, product or service? You have deffinately given me some reasons to more seriously consider submitting articles for free publication. I guess it's that "future expectation", that other people have only hinted at, but nobody seemed to come out and directly say, as you did in your post, how that could possibly occur for me, or for other people, in the future. Thank you for taking the time to go into the detail of it, as you did here. Jan