Do you find that the article summary is something you write last, just as you’re about to submit the article? Do you put much thought into it? Believe it or not this ‘afterthought’ paragraph is pretty important and can make a dig difference to the success of your article marketing campaign, so grab a cup of coffee and I’ll give you my ideas on the subject, I hope you’ll add yours as comments to this post.

Most article directories require writers to submit something called a summary with their article. It is this ‘summary’, which shows up in searches of the directory when publishers are looking for articles to use. A well-crafted summary is essential if you want your article to be picked up by blogs and e-zine’s across the Web.

One word of warning. An article summary is not a summary in the true sense of the word. A true summary or précis is a brief statement of all the information in the article. In the article marketing world this would be counterproductive; a summary which contains all the information in the article, however brief, would be a good substitute for the article, not a good reason to publish it.

So what should your ‘summary’ look like?

Most article directories have strict rules, so in some ways it’s easier to say what an article summary should not contain

• A restatement of the article title. This is just a waste of words.
• A true summary of the article. Then there will be no need to publish the article.
• Less than three sentences. If your summary is too short some directories ignore it and publish your first paragraph instead.
• More than 100 words. If you go beyond the word limit your summary will be truncated.
• The authors name. Sadly most article directories do not allow you to include your name – in any search it is probably also on the screen as author anme.
• HTML. No html is allowed.
• ‘How’ information. Save that for the article itself.

The summary should be devoted to promoting the article. Not you, not your business. It’s sole purpose is to get people to read or publish the main article.

Be sure to include

• Keywords – to make sure your article is found.
• Reasons to read more. Tell the reader or publisher what’s in it for them if they read more or publish your article. What will they learn?

Once successful strategy is to pose a question your reader wants to have answered and indicate that the article contains that answer. Of course if you do, you have to deliver on your promise.

The article summary is very like a movie trailer. It’s not there to summarize the article, it’s there to whet the appetite and build anticipation for the main event, the article itself. You can develop the summary and the article independently, you can even have them written by different people.
Many article directories like Ezeinarticles.com take a very strict view of the article summary. If the summary you submit doesn’t meet their guidelines they will use the first paragraph of your article instead. So don’t loose control over this very valuable piece of directory real estate. Make sure your summary fits their guidelines. I found this out from bitter experience. I put some summaries together only to have them ignored, ezine didnt use them because they were too short. The result – my carefully considered words junked and replaced by my first paragraph, and most interesting of all, they didn’t tell me.

Prospective publishers see the headline and the summary and will often choose to publish an article on that basis alone. Your article summary is not an after thought. It’s worthy of your time and consideration.  Just as a bad movie trailer can result in a good movie being released to a silent cinema and deserted box office, a bad summary wont do justice to the effort you put into your article. Once you’ve spent the time writing you want to get the best return you can for that time, so go just a bit further, don’t throw the summary together at the end, craft it carefully so all your efforts will be read.

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