How my list of article directories evolved - and shrunk

I've been submitting regular articles through a particular article submitter for a couple months now. And I've laid out some of the difficulties with it - but these were with the directories themselves, for the most part, to wit:

• Many of these directories have a glitch in their acceptance script, in that they say you are declined when you click your confirmation link. So they got nixed - they wouldn't let me in.
• Others got nixed because they consistently came up with low bandwidth errors, SQL or PHP errors, or some other erratic messes. So these came off - they interrupted the whole flow.
• Finally, someone hacked about 70 of them and set it up to send out viruses - as well as prohibiting my posting any article there. (That Geocities hack.)

The program I'm using said that they had nearly 400 directories in it. Since it only sends out to the categories that are applicable, I was running nearly 240 directories to begin with - but it would take about three days to get through.

I "unregistered" from all those who wouldn't let me in and had consistent errors so I would/wouldn't be able to post (mostly not).

Then I "unregistered" from all those who had the GeoCities hack.

Now I'm down to under a hundred. But I can post between three and five article in a single day.

Recently, I've started removing those who simply consistently reject my articles (and say, "please review our posted policies, we're not going to tell you why - just guess..."). And I found out of nearly a hundred (or more) articles I've sent their way, they've rejected every one. As I check into these others, I'll start peeling them out as well.

The main point is that the best directories accept the majority of my articles quickly and easily. The more amateur-run sites are run problematically - and so drop off my list.

Interestingly, while I've cut down the number of sites by over half, I'm now able to send out 15 times as many articles. (One in three days up to 5 in one day.) So this becomes much more efficient and my overall number of potential back links has more than quintupled (5x'd). I might get 600 potential backlinks in one week - now I can get 9000 potential backlinks - that is if all I wanted to do all week was to post articles.

Efficiency is the remarkable scene to note here.

Article writing is only one of several ways to get list subscriptions. And I have more than one product line to push - meaning I need to get my articles out for each product line, not just posting a handful every other week.

And that list needs to be managed.

And I have other bright ideas for products to offer my list which need to be developed.

And I'm writing and editing the Online Millionaire Plan blook - bit by bit.

AND... there's research to be done. I'm not in this just to make money - that's a sideline business to finding out all this stuff and telling people about it. The money-making sales only pays for the research.

Meanwhile, I have two other jobs besides my online work - averaging 70-hour work weeks.

The more efficient I can get, the better everything else can go.

- - - -

For you, here's a potential schedule to keep everything getting done:

Mon - Submit 5 articles for the first product line. Blog, Squidoo, and social bookmark each of these articles. Check your lists for this product line and send out a broadcast with a special offer for that week.

Tues - Repeat the above for your second product line.

Wed - figure out special offers for the next week, or create them. Polish your sales funnels on each list and review both autoresponder and website logs to see how things are going, what uptrends need to be reinforced and what downtrends need to be reverted - and then planning out and executing what you need to do on these.

Thur - Write my next book for several hours. Research the rest of the day on what I need to write the next day (or a combination of the two).

Fri - More writing and research.

Right now, I spend my weekend at my day job, but when I get my online business producing more than my day job - consistently - then I'll use the week end to get some time off, and start my art business, which is far more fun than work. And I'll go out and attend auctions, or do caricatures for local festivals - and generally have a great time.

Relaxed and refreshed, I'm ready for another week sending out articles and writing, etc.

(Oh, that third job? I farm in the mornings - 5 hour days, 5 days a week. Gets me room and board, plus some great insight into how things actually work on this planet - much, much different from what you get off the Internet or from the "news".)

So, it can be done.