Ezinearticles Warning - Be careful before resubmitting old articles

[howdo-i]

It isn't any fault of ezinearticles.com but I've just had my account suspended and I want to warn others before they fall into the same trap as I did.

As I said it isn't EZA's fault but it isn't really my fault either - here is what happened.

A little while ago EZA put some of my articles into problem status due to broken links in articles. The problem turned out to be a server issue where my landing pages were located. My host fixed the server problems and I resubmitted the articles to EZA.

Most of the articles I resubmitted were reapproved and all was well except for 2 articles where EZA found duplicates with no accreditation to me. The articles in question were obviously taken from EZA and republished elsewhere on the Internet without the resource box.

My articles, which are all 100% uniquely my work, were first published on EZA in 2006 so I had no reason to think that resubmitting them would be a problem but I was wrong.

So my advice to anyone about to resubmit articles to EZA for any reason is to check that noone has stolen your article before you do it.

Steve

[Zeus66]

Steve,

I feel your pain! Same thing has happened to me on more than one occasion. I went round and round with EZA on this once and they didn't budge. I had to write those articles off, basically. I probably could have sent a DMCA and all that jazz, but I just worked up another article using that same keyword and got it into EZA.

John

[chtfld]

Wow, I never even would have thought of that. Thanks for the heads up and sorry your account got suspended. Do you think they'll be willing to work something out with you. I can't imagine having my account suspended - would be even worse if there was no way to fix it.

Another great reason why you "ALWAYS" submit to your own site first ... Sorry for your trouble but this just goes to futher prove what many of us have been trying to say for awhile now...

James

[waken]

Hey Thanks Steve! That really useful. What happened actually when EZA suspended our account? All your existing LIVE articles deleted as well? Or they just locked your account from login to further posting new articles?

Thanks!

[howdo-i]

Originally Posted by Zeus66

Steve,

I feel your pain! Same thing has happened to me on more than one occasion. I went round and round with EZA on this once and they didn't budge. I had to write those articles off, basically. I probably could have sent a DMCA and all that jazz, but I just worked up another article using that same keyword and got it into EZA.

John

I have asked EZA to remove the offending articles to get my account back to good standing. The articles in question were written by me and submitted in 2006 and frankly I was very green back then. They never accumulated a fraction of the views that my more recent articles get so I'm just going to write them off as you did. I can't be bothered with hassling with slimy Internet thieves. I like my kneecaps too much lol.

Originally Posted by TheRichJerksNet

Another great reason why you "ALWAYS" submit to your own site first ... Sorry for your trouble but this just goes to futher prove what many of us have been trying to say for awhile now...

James

I don't think that this would have helped in actual fact. The stolen reprint came up number 1 on a Google search and it had no accreditation to me. There were other instances of the same article to be found that did accredit me. So unless my article had turned up first then I think that the result would have been the same.

I have been religiously submittting unique articles to EZA and nowhere else but this wake up call has prompted me to rethink that strategy.

Originally Posted by waken

Hey Thanks Steve! That really useful. What happened actually when EZA suspended our account? All your existing LIVE articles deleted as well? Or they just locked your account from login to further posting new articles?

Thanks!

Thankfully they have just suspended all future submissions but it gave me a very uncomfortable cold sweat. If they had pulled all my articles it would have been a disaster.

[Jay Jennings]

Originally Posted by howdo-i

It isn't any fault of ezinearticles.com...

Well, actually, it is their fault. If they suspended your account because someone was using your own articles without the resource box, who's fault is it that your account is suspended?

If I want to "get" someone can I...

1. Pull one of their articles from EZA
2. Strip the author info
3. Post on anonymous blog
4. Tell EZA that the "person I want to get" is using stolen articles and point to the blog as proof.

Might be an easy way to make room at the top of a niche -- just take down some of the guys above you, eh?

Jay Jennings

[jamesburchill]

Another thing to consider is that when you resubmit an article, that article is reviewed with the CURRENT or NEW RULES. I've had articles accepted and then after I made a change to 'freshen a broken link or two' they were rejected due to 'new rules.' So far I've always been able to get my articles re-approved, but it's something that never occurred to me until it was too late. Be careful when you pull down an established "old" article, it might not make the cut anymore and you'd end up losing a nice traffic attractor. Just my 2 cents worth - I still love EZA

[howdo-i]

Originally Posted by Jay Jennings

Well, actually, it is their fault. If they suspended your account because someone was using your own articles without the resource box, who's fault is it that your account is suspended?

If I want to "get" someone can I...

1. Pull one of their articles from EZA
2. Strip the author info
3. Post on anonymous blog
4. Tell EZA that the "person I want to get" is using stolen articles and point to the blog as proof.

Might be an easy way to make room at the top of a niche -- just take down some of the guys above you, eh?

Jay Jennings

Well I say it isn't EZA's fault because I can't see how else they can realistically enforce their TOS. It seems that the only time they check is when you resubmit the article but that could change I guess. As for getting at someone else to get their articles taken down - It might be a real possibility.

[howdo-i]

Originally Posted by jamesburchill

Another thing to consider is that when you resubmit an article, that article is reviewed with the CURRENT or NEW RULES. I've had articles accepted and then after I made a change to 'freshen a broken link or two' they were rejected due to 'new rules.' So far I've always been able to get my articles re-approved, but it's something that never occurred to me until it was too late. Be careful when you pull down an established "old" article, it might not make the cut anymore and you'd end up losing a nice traffic attractor. Just my 2 cents worth - I still love EZA

I did review these articles in the light of current TOS - I wish that I hadn't bothered now.

And I agree with you about amending articles. Some people say that you should not be afraid of making changes to existing articles but I say be very afraid.

[Jesus Perez]

Use the "Wayback" archive to support your defense and get your account back. They will have to re-enable your account.

[howdo-i]

Originally Posted by BlueSquares

Use the "Wayback" archive to support your defense and get your account back. They will have to re-enable your account.

I'm not sure how that would help. EZA still have the original submission dates in 2006 on my articles that are in problem status. The Wayback machine would not give any more information I don't think. Good try though.

Originally Posted by howdo-i

I don't think that this would have helped in actual fact. The stolen reprint came up number 1 on a Google search and it had no accreditation to me. There were other instances of the same article to be found that did accredit me. So unless my article had turned up first then I think that the result would have been the same.

I have been religiously submittting unique articles to EZA and nowhere else but this wake up call has prompted me to rethink that strategy.

First of all I do not waste my time submitting to the gloified ad sense site anyways but this is FACT..

Post it on your site first and yes you can prove it is yours by doing so. It does not matter what google has indexed, the fact is google does not index the "original" in top spot. They index the top spot to those that are actually working and getting backlinks.

By having it on your site first you do have ability to prove it is yours.. Listen to BlueSquares - If it is posted on your site and then you use wayback, you can in fact prove where it was posted first.

Posting on your site first has many many benefits but this is only one benefit that could have saved you from losing your account. It is EZA's fault that they have suspended your account, why defend them I have no idea... To each his own...

James

[howdo-i]

Originally Posted by TheRichJerksNet

First of all I do not waste my time submitting to the gloified ad sense site anyways but this is FACT..

Post it on your site first and yes you can prove it is yours by doing so. It does not matter what google has indexed, the fact is google does not index the "original" in top spot. They index the top spot to those that are actually working and getting backlinks.

By having it on your site first you do have ability to prove it is yours.. Listen to BlueSquares - If it is posted on your site and then you use wayback, you can in fact prove where it was posted first.

Posting on your site first has many many benefits but this is only one benefit that could have saved you from losing your account. It is EZA's fault that they have suspended your account, why defend them I have no idea... To each his own...

James

Hi TheRichJerksNet. I'm quickly coming around to your way of thinking. I haven't actualy lost my account yet - just the ability to post more articles until this is sorted. If I had posted these articles on my site first it might have helped to prove that they are mine but it would not have prevented EZA shooting first and asking questions later.

The articles in question aren't that important to me so I'm not losing much by cutting them free but I'm now getting worried about all my other articles that do provide me with loads of traffic. If the same thing happened to them what would I do?

Do you have any suggestions what I can do retrospectively or would I be completely stuffed? This is a very real problem to anyone with articles on EZA.

Originally Posted by howdo-i

Hi TheRichJerksNet. I'm quickly coming around to your way of thinking. I haven't actualy lost my account yet - just the ability to post more articles until this is sorted. If I had posted these articles on my site first it might have helped to prove that they are mine but it would not have prevented EZA shooting first and asking questions later.

The articles in question aren't that important to me so I'm not losing much by cutting them free but I'm now getting worried about all my other articles that do provide me with loads of traffic. If the same thing happened to them what would I do?

Do you have any suggestions what I can do retrospectively or would I be completely stuffed? This is a very real problem to anyone with articles on EZA.

When I was submitting to EZA I had my account suspended once also. On my site AP (which does have an article directory) I posted an article under a pen name and then posted that article to EZA. All I had to do was prove that I owned AP and the account in question was a dummy one that I created for testing purposes.

My account was put back to full action after 2 or 3 replies, not much trouble really. Just a matter of proof who was who and etc...

Personally I do not submit to EZA anymore becaise I do question some things they do and I do not like the way they try to force people into thinking you must provide them all your high quality content before posting it someplace else. To me this is a question on their ethics because they are in fact misleading people and hurting others business by telling them this. To me I do not want them associated with my business for these reasons.

As far as what I would do right now.. Personally I would take the articles I have on EZA currently and rewrite them to be at least 30% unique and then repost them all on my site. If they deal with a different niche then create a new blog or site for them.

For example:

Let's say you have an article about "save my marriage" and you have a domain name save-my-marriage.com with all your info posted there and this is the domain name you point to in your resource box.

I would go in 2 directions now.

1. Install a blog save-my-marriage.com/savemarriage/ - Post all my articles here and point them to the main domain.

2. Purchase another domain name save-my-marriage.info and install a blog and point everything to save-my-marriage.com

Again as I said though I would rewrite them since you do have the originals posted on EZA.. By doing this your are creating "new originals" and since these are your articles there is no questions about it.

Once you have done option 1 or 2 above (doing both would be more powerful ) then build backlinks to the new blog(s) which all so point to your main domain.

The current articles on EZA I would leave as is...

I hope that helps you ...

James

[internetmarketer99]

Interestingly, I just had my account re-instated after being suspended TWICE in a month.

The first time, I started submitting some articles that were on one of my sites - something I didn't used to do. Bang! Suspended.

I wrote and told them they were MY articles on MY site. They took two weeks and several emails, but finally re-instated it.

Then less than 1 week later, SAME THING! Except, after the first time, I had been careful to edit any articles on my sites to add an author byline right below the headline. Still, Bang! Suspended.

Wrote to them AGAIN, and was reinstated, this time in a few days. All this ended me up with 30 articles sitting in their queue...

Arrgghhh...!

Mark

[howdo-i]

Originally Posted by TheRichJerksNet

As far as what I would do right now.. Personally I would take the articles I have on EZA currently and rewrite them to be at least 30% unique and then repost them all on my site. If they deal with a different niche then create a new blog or site for them.

For example:

Let's say you have an article about "save my marriage" and you have a domain name save-my-marriage.com with all your info posted there and this is the domain name you point to in your resource box.

I would go in 2 directions now.

1. Install a blog save-my-marriage.com/savemarriage/ - Post all my articles here and point them to the main domain.

2. Purchase another domain name save-my-marriage.info and install a blog and point everything to save-my-marriage.com

Again as I said though I would rewrite them since you do have the originals posted on EZA.. By doing this your are creating "new originals" and since these are your articles there is no questions about it.

Once you have done option 1 or 2 above (doing both would be more powerful ) then build backlinks to the new blog(s) which all so point to your main domain.

The current articles on EZA I would leave as is...

I hope that helps you ...

James

Thanks James, that's quite helpfull and it's similar to what I have been doing for some time except that I rewrite the articles to 85-90% different. The problem I have is that I have yet to get Google to rank any of them to anywhere close to where they put the EZA articles. Yahoo likes me much better but Google - nah. Oh and I also rewrite them another 85-90% and post them to about 20 other places.

In summary I think that you are telling me that I have to be prepared for the possibility of one day losing my EZA articles.

Steve

[howdo-i]

Originally Posted by internetmarketer99

Interestingly, I just had my account re-instated after being suspended TWICE in a month.

The first time, I started submitting some articles that were on one of my sites - something I didn't used to do. Bang! Suspended.

I wrote and told them they were MY articles on MY site. They took two weeks and several emails, but finally re-instated it.

Then less than 1 week later, SAME THING! Except, after the first time, I had been careful to edit any articles on my sites to add an author byline right below the headline. Still, Bang! Suspended.

Wrote to them AGAIN, and was reinstated, this time in a few days. All this ended me up with 30 articles sitting in their queue...

Arrgghhh...!

Mark

So posting on your own site first isn't a guaranteed solution either.

I just discovered that you can't use the Wayback machine on ezinearticles.com as they block access by robots.txt.

Steve

Originally Posted by howdo-i

Thanks James, that's quite helpfull and it's similar to what I have been doing for some time except that I rewrite the articles to 85-90% different. The problem I have is that I have yet to get Google to rank any of them to anywhere close to where they put the EZA articles. Yahoo likes me much better but Google - nah. Oh and I also rewrite them another 85-90% and post them to about 20 other places.

In summary I think that you are telling me that I have to be prepared for the possibility of one day losing my EZA articles.

Steve

Steve,
Also the point is do not give all your love to EZA and do not give away your authority..

Build everything on your site first and then after you have it there and you build backlinks to everything on your site then share it with others... It is good that you rewrite your articles because one never knows what the furture holds...

Now you just need to build backlinks to your site first before doing so to any articles on article directories. This means build backlinks to your site without article directories first.

Example go pay MyArticleNetwork.com the $47.00 a month (I have an affiliate link if someone wants one), post on scribd.com , create thousands of bookmarks, and other normal link building. Do all this before posting to any article directory.

This will help you rank better, keep the authority to your sites, and all around will improve you ability to convert...

James

[howdo-i]

Originally Posted by TheRichJerksNet

Steve,
Also the point is do not give all your love to EZA and do not give away your authority..

Build everything on your site first and then after you have it there and you build backlinks to everything on your site then share it with others... It is good that you rewrite your articles because one never knows what the furture holds...

Now you just need to build backlinks to your site first before doing so to any articles on article directories. This means build backlinks to your site without article directories first.

Example go pay MyArticleNetwork.com the $47.00 a month (I have an affiliate link if someone wants one), post on scribd.com , create thousands of bookmarks, and other normal link building. Do all this before posting to any article directory.

This will help you rank better, keep the authority to your sites, and all around will improve you ability to convert...

James

Thanks James that is also helpful. This experience could end up being a watershed in my business.

I should also add that all the content on my own sites are 100% unique (well 90% but that's only because the keywords are the same). So I have 100% unique content on EZA and 100% unique content on my own sites. Perhaps I should also be posting the same articles from EZA on my own sites as well as the unique stuff.

Steve

[sashas]

Okay that's pretty ****ty.

I've got a few issues with broken links before. Same problem: issues with my hosting provider.

[Floyd Bogart]

It happens!

All you can do is chalk it up to education and move on...

[FriendlyRob]

None of this makes sense to me. I have submitted and resubmitted articles, literally hundreds of times and never had a problem. If your articles were previously published, they should know that your article could have been used without proper credit.

It just never occurred to me that they might consider an article like that plagiarized, at least not by you.

[Sylviane]

Originally Posted by howdo-i

It isn't any fault of ezinearticles.com but I've just had my account suspended and I want to warn others before they fall into the same trap as I did.

As I said it isn't EZA's fault but it isn't really my fault either - here is what happened.

A little while ago EZA put some of my articles into problem status due to broken links in articles. The problem turned out to be a server issue where my landing pages were located. My host fixed the server problems and I resubmitted the articles to EZA.

Most of the articles I resubmitted were reapproved and all was well except for 2 articles where EZA found duplicates with no accreditation to me. The articles in question were obviously taken from EZA and republished elsewhere on the Internet without the resource box.

My articles, which are all 100% uniquely my work, were first published on EZA in 2006 so I had no reason to think that resubmitting them would be a problem but I was wrong.

So my advice to anyone about to resubmit articles to EZA for any reason is to check that noone has stolen your article before you do it.

Steve

Yep, it's always a bit tricky to re-submit old articles. Beside a case like yours here there is always the reason that EZ rules have changed over time and keep on changing on a regular basis.

So my personal advice would be, unless you really have, leave your old articles alone.

[howdo-i]

Originally Posted by rob123

None of this makes sense to me. I have submitted and resubmitted articles, literally hundreds of times and never had a problem. If your articles were previously published, they should know that your article could have been used without proper credit.

It just never occurred to me that they might consider an article like that plagiarized, at least not by you.

I agree with you. They have been showing these articles for 3 years so how could I have plagiarized them?

Steve

[badfun]

yeah unfortunately making ANY change to articles can result in them being refused. It has happened to me as well. I suppose what you will have to do is re-write them a bit, so that they are not exact duplicates of the others that got ripped off.

I agree with JJ, it IS their fault. However, it is probably not worth the hassle to fight for it. Just resubmit with changes and you're golden.
brent

[ozespirit]

Yes, I had the same thing happen. If you remove an article, it is best to totally reword it before resubmitting as well as give it a new title otherwise you will likely be suspended. It took me some time before they reinstated my account

[howdo-i]

Originally Posted by ozespirit

Yes, I had the same thing happen. If you remove an article, it is best to totally reword it before resubmitting as well as give it a new title otherwise you will likely be suspended. It took me some time before they reinstated my account

Hi ozespirit

Did you get them to accept the articles or did you withdraw them? What took the time in getting the account reinstated?

Steve

[howdo-i]

Update -

EZA have just reinstated my account for which I am thankfull. They insist that it is my responsibility to enforce the "oversight" of the thieves who have stolen my article however. I can not resubmit these articles until all the instances are accredited to me.

I may just delete the articles and move on. It is ironic that it is the victim who comes off worst in such a situation but I see little profit in fighting.

Steve

Originally Posted by howdo-i

Update -

EZA have just reinstated my account for which I am thankfull. They insist that it is my responsibility to enforce the "oversight" of the thieves who have stolen my article however. I can not resubmit these articles until all the instances are accredited to me.

I may just delete the articles and move on. It is ironic that it is the victim who comes off worst in such a situation but I see little profit in fighting.

Steve

Glad you got it resolved Steve... I tell you though this is something I would not do to one of my Authors. Especially since you have been providing them quality content for 3 years.

I have said it once and I will say it again Authors should be treated like gold when they are providing you quality content on a constant basis...

James

[Chris Stigson]

Holy smokes. I'd be like "half out of business" (not really) but a lot of the automated income would be gone definitely. Crap. That's like 3 years of hard work gone? Oh my goodness, that's not fun. Hope it will work out for you!

[howdo-i]

Originally Posted by TheRichJerksNet

Glad you got it resolved Steve... I tell you though this is something I would not do to one of my Authors. Especially since you have been providing them quality content for 3 years.

I have said it once and I will say it again Authors should be treated like gold when they are providing you quality content on a constant basis...

James

Especialy since I attract 80,000 visits a month to EZA pages that use my articles. I guess that's just small potatoes to them. And it's been more than 4 years actually.

Steve

[sikaz]

Recently my articles,three of them,were placed on suspension.But l wrote to inform them asking what the reasons were.They wrote back and things were adjusted.

Now the articles are on EZA for people to read.

This is really a lesson for all of us to learn from.I'll suggest that you should use your article on your blog first before adjusting it and sending it to EZA ,

[howdo-i]

Originally Posted by Chris Stigson

Holy smokes. I'd be like "half out of business" (not really) but a lot of the automated income would be gone definitely. Crap. That's like 3 years of hard work gone? Oh my goodness, that's not fun. Hope it will work out for you!

This has been a salutary experience for me and I shall be far more concerned with building traffic to my own properties from now on. But EZA has been very good for me in terms of visitors to my site and hence earnings so I do have a lot invested and as you point out - a lot to lose if it went pear shaped.

Steve

[howdo-i]

Originally Posted by sikaz

Recently my articles,three of them,were placed on suspension.But l wrote to inform them asking what the reasons were.They wrote back and things were adjusted.

Why were they put on suspension? Were they already published?

Steve

[danwan]

Very interesting... When I think about my Ezine Account. That would be terrible if that one get's banned.

I don't agree with the submit to blog first approach. Because one of my articles wasn't approved because it was available online (my blog)

Cheers
Dan

[howdo-i]

Originally Posted by danwan

Very interesting... When I think about my Ezine Account. That would be terrible if that one get's banned.

I don't agree with the submit to blog first approach. Because one of my articles wasn't approved because it was available online (my blog)

Cheers
Dan

I can see the potential problem of putting an article on your own site first and as it seems to make very little difference which one gets indexed first I'm considering putting them on my own site after they are approved by EZA.

Steve

[fxmmorale]

Wow 80,000 visits a month from you alone?

That's alot of adsense income...


for them.

[Alevoor]

Originally Posted by howdo-i

... I can't see how else they can realistically enforce their TOS...

This is the whole point. Just because they don't have a system in place, they enforce TOS like medieval enforcement agencies did. Don't you think they need keep a copy of the article in their database, even if it means inactive until and unless you decide to permanently delete your article?

I couldn't convince them or they were not ready to budge, in my case too.

Originally Posted by howdo-i

...It seems that the only time they check is when you resubmit the article but that could change I guess...

What could change? I guess you meant the article. That's what they require for comparison but if they are willing to refer back to your original submission date, I think everything settles down in your/our favor.

[Alevoor]

Originally Posted by fxmmorale

for them.

for them, yes. but howdo.i isn't going to benefit any lesser. hehe

Originally Posted by howdo-i

I can see the potential problem of putting an article on your own site first and as it seems to make very little difference which one gets indexed first I'm considering putting them on my own site after they are approved by EZA.

Steve

This is exactly what EZA wants you to do ... They want you to give them all the unique free content and give the authority to them.

There are many many benefits of posting on your site first, not just to prove that it is your content but also to build your authority. I know Jay could explain this better than me but the fact is and yes I said fact.. It is a huge mistake to post your content anyplace else before you do your own site...

James

[howdo-i]

Originally Posted by Alevoor

This is the whole point. Just because they don't have a system in place, they enforce TOS like medieval enforcement agencies did. Don't you think they need keep a copy of the article in their database, even if it means inactive until and unless you decide to permanently delete your article?

I couldn't convince them or they were not ready to budge, in my case too.



What could change? I guess you meant the article. That's what they require for comparison but if they are willing to refer back to your original submission date, I think everything settles down in your/our favor.

Well they do have a system in place. The articles are still in their database complete with the original 2006 submission dates. I'm a bit confused as to why they can't use this to establish that I am the original author. It seems that this kind of TOS enforcement where you are guilty until you prove your innocence is commonplace on the Internet.

What I meant about things changing was the real possibility that EZA might start checking for originality regularly and not just when an article is submitted or resubmitted. They already have a robot checking for dead links on a regular basis. If they did that then a good proportion of the articles would dissappear from EZA. It doesn't sound good for anyone except the article pirates.

Steve

[spicer]

I find it hard to believe that they cannot verify that the date of the pirated article is after the date you posted to EZA. I would think that they could be opening themselves up to a major class action lawsuit (causing loss of income) if they keep suspending the authors account who original created the article and rewarding copyright thieves. Also as someone mentioned it sure is not a way to treat a loyal customer that has brought them consistent money month after month for years.

[howdo-i]

Originally Posted by spicer

I find it hard to believe that they cannot verify that the date of the pirated article is after the date you posted to EZA. I would think that they could be opening themselves up to a major class action lawsuit (causing loss of income) if they keep suspending the authors account who original created the article and rewarding copyright thieves. Also as someone mentioned it sure is not a way to treat a loyal customer that has brought them consistent money month after month for years.

Exactly. One of the pirated articles displays a date in 2009 which is clearly after the 2006 submit date on my article - sigh.

I wonder if I can send a personal email to Chris Knight about this as it's clearly a concern to many of us.

Steve