Ezine Arrrgghhhticles!!

27 replies
You know, I have a lot of time for ezine articles they provide a very valuable service that I am grateful for but there is one thing about them that just makes me feel like I am going crazy. That thing is their unbelievably inconsistent editorial guidelines.

I had an article under review for over a week and then I got an email saying "Your article does not adhere to the following Editorial Guideline, Section 2.a.".. This is the guideline that states that my article body does not live up to the title. I thought that is strange because in actual fact it was extremely relevant to the title.

Anyway, never mind I thought, I will just rewrite a few bits and include more stuff related to the title. The reviewer sent back another email saying that it still did not deliver on the promise of the title. So I rewrote the title to make that extremely relevant to the article body. Guess what? A day later I got another email saying basically the same thing..

At this point I was ready to bang my head against a wall but I rewrote it another 3 times and each time I know for sure it was an extremely good article. It more than lived up to the promise of the title. In fact after the final rewrite, that latest article bore no resemblance to the original article anymore! They still rejected it and I decided to just give up on it at that point.. It was almost like they were not actually reviewing it, either that or they were having a laugh at my expense.

Has anyone else ever experienced this with ezine articles and what did you do about it? I never usually have a problem with them and in fact they are pretty quick at reviewing these days but this situation has just got me outraged!
#arrrgghhhticles #ezine
  • Profile picture of the author JasonGiorgini
    How about this one Steve.

    I had an article pending since 9/01/09

    The progress meter hadn't moved. I sent them a email yesterday saying, "I was thinking about purchasing the premium service, just wanted to get an article live to gauge how it ranks in the Search Engines.

    The very next day, my article was in Final Review.

    John
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    • Profile picture of the author ivana
      Originally Posted by Rich*******s View Post

      How about this one Steve.

      I had an article pending since 9/01/09

      The progress meter hadn't moved. I sent them a email yesterday saying, "I was thinking about purchasing the premium service, just wanted to get an article live to gauge how it ranks in the Search Engines.

      The very next day, my article was in Final Review.

      John
      good one, I will try that one next. Imagine, some of mine got approved on Saturday
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    • Profile picture of the author TristanPerry
      Yep, they can be odd like that. I've also found it annoying since 3 (out of my 4) rejected articles got rejected simply as a "General error". The e-mail sent said to login and check the reason why it was rejected.

      "General error" obviously isn't helpful. I've e-mailed them to ask why, but each time it tends to take me around 4 days before I get a reply.

      So once I just re-submitted the article exactly, but this time it got rejected however it included an exact reason on it! Must have been the same editor and realised that I wasn't going to wait around for over half a week to find out, via their contact form, why the article got rejected.

      Originally Posted by Rich*******s View Post

      How about this one Steve.

      I had an article pending since 9/01/09

      The progress meter hadn't moved. I sent them a email yesterday saying, "I was thinking about purchasing the premium service, just wanted to get an article live to gauge how it ranks in the Search Engines.

      The very next day, my article was in Final Review.

      John
      Hehe, yep they do work like that.

      I had an article on pending since the 16th of August. It was still pending early this month. I e-mailed them once, no reply. I e-mailed again, no reply.

      I e-mailed again, saying I've waited long enough - and been ignored enough times -and was thinking of leaving them. The article got approved within 24 hours.
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  • Profile picture of the author netcatapult
    That is really odd... I have never experienced anything similar to that. Ezine is usually pretty quick and will let me know what the problem is. Anytime an article gets rejected, the first revision usually does the trick. I can see how annoying that could be. I hope its just a fluke!
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  • Profile picture of the author Pedersenmt
    I think they have a good service, but now, they are taking a lot longer in reviewing articles. I know Chris, and he is a great guy.
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  • Profile picture of the author FriendlyRob
    I once had an article rejected because the word "I" appeared in the article. I know that you think I'm exaggerating but apparently by saying "I", I was self- promoting in the body of the article. Of course we all know that you can only self-promote in your resource box.
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  • Profile picture of the author Big JP
    I'v got an article still in review, its been 6 days already! By the time they aprove my article, there will be others already dominating my keywords, and I'll be left in the dust
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  • Profile picture of the author willyboy104
    How about this one. I had an article accepted several weeks ago then I wanted to change a link so I did and put it back up for review. Now they won't accept it because there is too much advertisement in the body of the article.

    Funny thing is I have not even changed ANYTHING in the body of the article. I do believe some ezine article reviewers don't even check the articles...its blatantly obvious.
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    • Profile picture of the author TristanPerry
      Originally Posted by willyboy104 View Post

      How about this one. I had an article accepted several weeks ago then I wanted to change a link so I did and put it back up for review. Now they won't accept it because there is too much advertisement in the body of the article.

      Funny thing is I have not even changed ANYTHING in the body of the article. I do believe some ezine article reviewers don't even check the articles...its blatantly obvious.
      Ouch! That's a classic example of different editors having very different practises.

      I remember someone saying that their article got rejected since they purchased a domain, used that in the resource box, and re-directed the domain to their affiliate link (which is 100% fine, according to EZA's guidelines). However one editor rejected this article saying it wasn't allowed! (Even though it clearly is)
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      • Profile picture of the author adamv
        I had a couple rejected over the weekend too with the "general error" as the reason. I do get the fealing that some of the articles are not even being reviewed.
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        • Profile picture of the author JeffMitchell
          Hmmm.. Since I have been a Platinum member I not had 1 rejection or even had to wait more than 3 days for approval. (except for weekends).

          Maybe the guys at EA are getting bored and just trying to have some fun like you said.

          OR

          Maybe it is a disgrundled employee trying to destroy the EA name...lol

          Jeff Mitchell
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  • Profile picture of the author willyboy104
    Edit: I think if ezine articles were a little clearer on why articles get rejected it would help lower the submission count. I mean if you want to put "general error" then fine but give a link to a good IN DEPTH explanation of what the heck general error means!

    Blagh they are annoying me at the moment I have a lot of ideas that would help them run the site better but I am watching the dark knight and frankly cant be bothered
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    • Profile picture of the author Liam Hamer
      Steve - I can understand your frustration, a similar thing happened to me yesterday. An article came back with 'multiple problems', one of them was that the article wasn't 'original or informative' enough and the other was that I had apparently promoted a product or company in the body. I've never had this problem with 33 other articles, a lot of which are written in a similar style. I rewrote some parts of this one, and thought all would be well(even though I think they were wrong to reject it) and this time it came back again with 'not enough original or informative content' and also 'doesn't fulfill the promise of the title' :rolleyes: Again, I completely disagreed, so instead of editing it I just deleted it. I figured I just got a fussy editor. There was NO WAY that article didn't meet all the rules and guidelines, and quite honestly the reasons they gave were pretty laughable.

      It's worrying to hear it happening to others, I hope this isn't going to continue. Maybe the server problems and being backlogged has something to do with it. I think whoever read over our articles maybe got out of bed the wrong side I'm not going to stress over it, but if it happens again it is going to serious cause for concern.
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  • Profile picture of the author Marhelper
    Oh yeah, it is just part of the game you have to play with ole' EZA. Stay patient and keep writing away.
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    • Profile picture of the author Steven Wagenheim
      Here is what you do.

      Rewrite the title so that it fits into this format:

      3 Tips To...
      3 Ways To...

      and so on. Just pick one.

      Then, make each paragraph of the article one of the 3 tips.

      Finish with a summary of the 3 paragraphs.

      If they still reject it for the same reason, point out the format of the article,
      with each paragraph and ask to speak to Chris Knight.

      If you are truly writing a quality article and are getting a BS reason like
      that, then it needs to be brought to a higher authority so that the editor
      in question can be explained how they're not doing their job correctly.

      And before anybody jumps on me for bashing the editors, I have been
      submitting articles there for over 3 years. I have over 2,000 articles on
      that directory.

      I had one article rejected for a totally asinine reason. I demanded to have
      a senior editor look at it and a day later I got an email from the senior
      editor apologizing for the rejection, that is was in error.

      They have new people there all the time. They make mistakes. I've seen
      them first hand.

      If you believe in your article, don't freaking rewrite it 10 times. Demand a
      senior editor review it, and THEN if it's still not acceptable, to explain
      EXACTLY why.

      Without the people who are contributing content to EZA, it would be an
      empty web site. So stand up for what you believe in.

      Sometimes they'll reject an article because it violates one of their
      editorial policies, like self promotion or knocking a product, or even
      promoting EZA itself. They don't allow it as I have had one of those
      articles rejected. That's fine. But some of the reasons you will get are
      just plain ridiculous and you need to speak up.

      I hope this helps you in getting your article accepted.
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      • Profile picture of the author Steven Wagenheim
        Oh, and one other thing.

        Those of you bitching that EZA is taking too long to approve your articles
        and that by the time they do somebody else will be dominating for those
        keywords?

        They put the freaking articles on your own blog or submit to another
        directory.

        EZA doesn't owe you or anybody else (other than Premium Members) a
        speedy review time.

        If you don't like their service, you have other options.

        Use them.
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        • Profile picture of the author XRay
          Originally Posted by Steven Wagenheim View Post

          Oh, and one other thing.

          Those of you bitching that EZA is taking too long to approve your articles
          and that by the time they do somebody else will be dominating for those
          keywords?

          They put the freaking articles on your own blog or submit to another
          directory.

          EZA doesn't owe you or anybody else (other than Premium Members) a
          speedy review time.

          If you don't like their service, you have other options.

          Use them.
          Well said Steven, well said .
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      • Profile picture of the author badfun
        Originally Posted by Steven Wagenheim View Post


        If you believe in your article, don't freaking rewrite it 10 times. Demand a
        senior editor review it, and THEN if it's still not acceptable, to explain
        EXACTLY why.

        Without the people who are contributing content to EZA, it would be an
        empty web site. So stand up for what you believe in.
        I have to agree with Steven on this one; I have fought with the editors several times over very well written articles that were rejected for ridiculous reasons. Without making any changes they were re-assessed and published.

        I've done plenty of freelance writing in the past and dealt with editors, and had many an argument. Sometimes they change things that get published without making sense any more due to their changes.

        At least at EZA they just tell you what the problem is. They have an enormous number of articles submitted everyday, so obviously there are a lot of people involved.

        If it's a good article, fight for it.
        brent
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    • Profile picture of the author cimbah
      I currently have two articles pending with Ezine. One was submitted 9/2/09 and the other 9/4/09. I emailed them over the weekend to ask why it was taking so long to get them approved and they emailed me back today saying they have experienced an increase in article submissions over the past few weeks and are working diligently to get them reviewed and approved.

      The first article from 9/2/09 is in the process of being reviewed but the second one hasn't even been started yet.

      I started submitting some articles to some other places that are taking just as long to review and approve my articles. It must be an epidemic!
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  • Profile picture of the author maverick8
    well yesterday i edit 53 articles at ezine. All i did was change 8 words in the resource box. All the these article were once accepted at ezine. But after i edited them every single one was rejected. They got accepted 2 weeks ago. This is what irritates me. The inconsistency. As soon as i find another article directory that shows CTR and has a good PR. I will be changing.
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  • Profile picture of the author davidomni
    Banned
    I am a super noob when it comes to article marketing,
    I must say I am glad to read this thread
    "If they still reject it for the same reason, point out the format of the article,
    with each paragraph and ask to speak to Chris Knight."
    >Thanks Wags for your insight! I will be sure to use that one!

    Anybody got a good list of high PR article sites that won't g
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  • Profile picture of the author bannor32
    I have never had an article rejected by EZA until this past Friday. Usually I submit ~500 word articles that are well written, but aren't exactly earth-shattering in terms of originality.

    As an experiment I decided to write a 2,500 authoritative article on a subject about which I am quite knowledgeable to see what kind of impact an extremely high quality article would have on traffic (both to the article on EZA and to the website linked in my resource box). I also wanted to test how many extra backlinks I could nab from others republishing the article via Ezine Publisher.

    I was quite curious to see if the results would be worth the considerable time and effort that went into crafting the article. I was shocked when I received an email telling me my article was in problem status because the website I was linking to in my resource box was essentially commercial in nature, favoring products over information. Yes, there are product pages on the site, but the site also contains 140 blog posts related to the subject. I have several other articles on EZA pointing to this same website, and the front page is a static page that hasn't been altered since those previous articles were accepted.

    Frustrated with their editorial inconsistency I sent them an email with several examples of poorly written articles (by other authors) that led directly to product pages with no content whatsoever. Often these websites had absolutely nothing to do with the subject of the article on EZA, and even the anchor text in some cases was completely unrelated. So far there has been complete silence from them.

    In the meantime I will refrain from creating any high quality articles for them, and keep it as content for my own websites.
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  • Profile picture of the author davidomni
    Banned
    >> give you as much headaches as EZA?

    Thanks Warriors!

    (there is something wrong with editing posts)
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  • Profile picture of the author XRay
    Originally Posted by Steve Crooks View Post

    You know, I have a lot of time for ezine articles they provide a very valuable service that I am grateful for but there is one thing about them that just makes me feel like I am going crazy. That thing is their unbelievably inconsistent editorial guidelines.

    I had an article under review for over a week and then I got an email saying "Your article does not adhere to the following Editorial Guideline, Section 2.a.".. This is the guideline that states that my article body does not live up to the title. I thought that is strange because in actual fact it was extremely relevant to the title.

    Anyway, never mind I thought, I will just rewrite a few bits and include more stuff related to the title. The reviewer sent back another email saying that it still did not deliver on the promise of the title. So I rewrote the title to make that extremely relevant to the article body. Guess what? A day later I got another email saying basically the same thing..

    At this point I was ready to bang my head against a wall but I rewrote it another 3 times and each time I know for sure it was an extremely good article. It more than lived up to the promise of the title. In fact after the final rewrite, that latest article bore no resemblance to the original article anymore! They still rejected it and I decided to just give up on it at that point.. It was almost like they were not actually reviewing it, either that or they were having a laugh at my expense.

    Has anyone else ever experienced this with ezine articles and what did you do about it? I never usually have a problem with them and in fact they are pretty quick at reviewing these days but this situation has just got me outraged!

    Yes I've been through the same thing with EZA before. And like you, I went through the rewrite thing a few times until the lightbulb came on. I realized that as the creator/owner of the articles, I have control over where my content appears. So I removed the articles from further consideration at EZA and posted them to Hubpages, Squidoo & Weebly. It worked out very well for me .
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  • Profile picture of the author acedalright
    I can safely say I have had nothing but good experiences with Ezinearticles.

    There aren't many high PR article directories that dofollow and get indexed, but Ezine articles is one of them, so it's a must use situation.

    Try Buzzle as well, although be warned, if the reject your article they just delete it with out saying so much as a word.
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  • Profile picture of the author Talinn
    EZA has a lot of editors, some senior, some not. I had a similar experience as Steven Wagenheim - when I demanded that a senior review it, it went live and they apologized.
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  • Profile picture of the author LegitBlogger
    I can understand ALL of your pains and I also experienced
    similar, especially in the beginning of my submission to
    EzineArticles when I only had a couple of dozen articles.
    Right now I have thousands of articles submitted with them
    and have a premium membership, but have the problems
    stopped?

    Of course not. I still get articles rejected now and then, but
    it's gotten easier now. I now know lots of things I didn't
    know before, including how to ensure my team prepare
    articles that won't get rejected. And if they do get
    rejected the first and second time, I sometimes just
    delete and use the article elsewhere. Heck, with 30-70+
    daily submissions to EzineArticles, no need bickering
    over a few rejections, don't you agree?

    So - in a nutshell, EzineArticles sucks at a LOT of
    things, but they are the REAL DEAL when it comes
    to getting that much needed TRAFFIC to our sites,
    so should we "throw out the baby with the bath water"?

    I don't think so,
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