For the last 10 days I've been writing articles and submitting them via a mass submitter. Since they are my own articles, I didn't have to do much revision, rewriting, or other changes to make them unique; thus not a single one was rejected as 'duplicate content.'

If you are revamping and sprucing up someone else's article you must use the 'spinner' to make sure you don't infringe on author's copyrights.

During this period I've produced 24 articles, of which 18 articles have been approved (on average), with the others pending: being reviewed for approval or rejection. Some publishers will publish your articles immediately; I assume this happens because the author has gained their trust and the human editors can tell they are dealing with a serious person who won't attempt to dupe them.

Why articles are declined:

Incorrect category: if you are submitting an article on pets, you should not attempt to have it published under 'technology' or any other category. This happened to me not because I did it deliberately, but because I was careless and didn't change the category and subcategories.

Inappropriate language: one article was declined because I used the word 'pharmacy;' so I revised it to read 'Duane Reade.' Another was rejected because I used the word 'homosexuality;" so I revised it to read 'pederasty.'

These are nuances and annoyances, but one has to comply with the publishers' editorial guidelines. They are the host and we are the guests. Be decent and they will be decent to you.

One obnoxious indecency is the inclusion of links and product pitches in the body of the text. When you use the submitter, make sure you hit the button "post as plain text." This action will remove the link formats, fonts, headings, and other unnecessary embellishments. The only highlighters I use are italics and bold-nothing else.

Resource box contains excess links. Don't enter more than two links to your own sites. Some publishers will allow you three links, but three in the box begin to look like you are hungry for free advertisement.

Checks and balances

Readership. From one publisher alone, the number of views exceeds 1,000. Since I've submitted my articles to a range of 20 publishers, you can do the math. My readership has increased tremendously. Now, this doesn't translate into business. To my understanding, it's a matter of time before I have a significant number of followers avid for my next article. This is no different from print media. Why do I look avidly for Maureen Dowd's columns? Because I like her, know her style, and respect her opinions.

Traffic to personal websites. The two websites I listed in my author resource box are now showing steady traffic, building slowly from 0 to 15 visitors daily in my first week. At the end of my second week I see about 40 hits a day. Nothing to write home about, but the beauty of article writing is that visitors keep growing-and it's all free!

The number of back links is growing exponentially: from 0 to 6, to 27, and after 10 days to 162 back links. Some of the backlinkers --huge, well known sites-have syndicated my work, which is really a great morale booster to a writer.

Today my total back links number is 290, with Google, Microsoft, AltaVista, and Yahoo, reporting about 70-72 back links each. A free service that checks "Link Popularity" is submitexpress.com. If you type "link popularity" in any search box you'll get a whole list of these services. They are all free; there's no need to subscribe or pay.

Retired. Former investment banker, Columbia University-educated, Vietnam Vet (67-68). For the writing techniques I use, see Mary Duffy's e-book: Sentence Openers http://sentenceopeners.com/. To read more about easy traffic See Dominic Tay's spinner http://www.articlesubmitauto.com/.