Ezine Articles Is banning Like Crazy, Are YOU Next?

[DAS_Matt]

As it always is in business you'll need to adapt or die.

[Jeremy Kelsall]

If you are not spinning tons of articles a day, have an abundance of articles in problem resolution, and generally use your head - you will be fine.

The sky isn't falling....

[Alexa Smith]

This is a storm in a teacup.

I welcome it, myself: it might make it slightly easier to read the tea-leaves.

They'll quietly get rid of a lot of crap, and people who write it, and end up with a slightly better article directory than they have now. It'll help them and their huge number of remaining contributors a little, and not make the slightest difference to anyone else.

[mmurtha]

You know what I find very funny? The people complaining about EZA don't get the entire picture.

I used to own a fairly large article directory, and some of the junk that got passed off as articles was just that - JUNK! Back 3 yrs or so I was not accepting the junk anymore. As a result, it helped the people who wrote good articles because the search engines were listing them well, plus the PR for the site was still rising.

The people using spinners, PLR articles, or plain copying other people's regurgitated stuff are screwing the hand that feeds them. You can't expect a site owner, whether it is an article directory like EZA or something else, to post junk and still be on top of the search engine listings. That isn't going to happen, particularly where Google is concerned.

All you are doing is messing someone else's livelyhood up!

And you think it is the owner's fault. Well it isn't. All you can blame is you if you are using these tactics.

Try writing good solid information that will help someone else. Then you will get your articles accepted, and get the traffic and sales you want.

If you don't know how to write well, try outsourcing the work. And if the people you are outsourcing to don't write well or are skimping, get yourself another company to write for you.

Even at that, be sure to double check their work and don't just take their word for it!

Btw I think Chris Knight is absolutely doing all of us a big favor by weeding out the junk articles and the people who submit them to his site. It's the best news I heard in a very long time!

Good going Chris, and thanks!


Mary

[Steven Wagenheim]

Originally Posted by mmurtha

You know what I find very funny? The people complaining about EZA don't get the entire picture.

I used to own a fairly large article directory, and some of the junk that got passed off as articles was just that - JUNK! Back 3 yrs or so I was not accepting the junk anymore. As a result, it helped the people who wrote good articles because the search engines were listing them well, plus the PR for the site was still rising.

The people using spinners, PLR articles, or plain copying other people's regurgitated stuff are screwing the hand that feeds them. You can't expect a site owner, whether it is an article directory like EZA or something else, to post junk and still be on top of the search engine listings. That isn't going to happen, particularly where Google is concerned.

All you are doing is messing someone else's livelyhood up!

And you think it is the owner's fault. Well it isn't. All you can blame is you if you are using these tactics.

Try writing good solid information that will help someone else. Then you will get your articles accepted, and get the traffic and sales you want.

If you don't know how to write well, try outsourcing the work. And if the people you are outsourcing to don't write well or are skimping, get yourself another company to write for you.

Even at that, be sure to double check their work and don't just take their word for it!

Btw I think Chris Knight is absolutely doing all of us a big favor by weeding out the junk articles and the people who submit them to his site. It's the best news I heard in a very long time!

Good going Chris, and thanks!


Mary

You are so right Mary.

And besides, you don't have to write crap articles to get booted out of
EZA...

Just have an email address that bounces.

Actually, I've been reinstated...until the next time my email goes boing.

[cclou]

Well, I had four articles accepted today, so I guess I'm still welcomed by them. I'm happy that Ezines is working to make it a better article directory. It will probably help me in the long run. But I find their war on marketers a bit disingenuous. Chris Knight is a marketer and doesn't run the site for his love of the language. I consider myself both a writer and a marketer, and I don't see anything contradictory about that.

[Victor Edson]

Watchout, those Nazi's read these posts, lol.

They reall have become duche bags. I have always submitted quality self written articles in my niche(gaming). And recently I started getting articles turned down for the most rediculous things.

My article provided a positive review and gave a link to learn more...unacceptable!

My article provided a quality recommendation to use one free product instead of another...unacceptable!

Here I thought I could give people quality advice on a topic, and provide a link to a related website...what a knuckle head I was.

I have even had articles turned down because when the article was read it created the desire to follow the link at the bottom for more information.

I think EZA needs to realize what made them what they are today. It was all the people who put in hours of hard work creating their site that had made it what it is today.

I've reached a level of success within my niche, and now that I'm starting to get into the make money online niche, I'll definetly be pointing my readers to other article sites, and highly discouraging them from using ezinearticles.

There are better options out there for link building and traffic generation.

[TristanPerry]

Originally Posted by TheRichJerksNet

Ok wait a minute.. I'm confused...

You still submit to EZA (blog post by the way and not articles) but you admit that you wish google would slap them.

So if I was paying your rent then you would be my friends as long as I kept paying that rent even though "secretly" you do not like me... Is that what you are saying ?

I don't know, I am just a little confused by your post.

James

I don't think that analogy can be made. I'm not "secretly" using EZA or anything. And at this point I'm considering whether to switch to another article directory (I probably will), since as I've said they seem like unprofessional children at the moment.

In truth I only ever used EZA for backlinks (but I never spammed; hence why I've never had an article rejected for being too thin), hence why I'm not too concerned about this change. I can just as easily go elsewhere, and probably will.

There's nothing "secretive" in what I'm doing really. I used to write and submit ~250-300 word articles (all unique, on different topics) to them to get backlinks for micro niche sites. However they are now acting unprofessionally (re: their comments), and have made clear (which is their right) that they want longer, more in-depth articles (which are no good for quick backlinks).

I'm not using them, and still am not too sure how you got to such an analogy?

So in summation, to answer your question: no, that's not what I'm saying. I was using EZA for a particular purpose (to get backlinks), and it seems like they're now taking another direction (which is fair enough), hence I'll stop using them/use them less.

Originally Posted by Victor Edson

There are better options out there for link building and traffic generation.

You got that right ...

James

[Liam Hamer]

Of my 57 articles, probably 40 of them are below 400 words. I always try to deliver quality though, my job(the way I see it) is to help the reader dissect their particular problem or need and even if they don't click the link in my resource box, they come away with at least some kind of small gain - perhaps a better understanding of their problem/situation/need. Recently I've also branched out in niches too. Although I don't think this whole situation will affect me(at least I hope not), I still take it as a sign that I should submit more to other directories and put more content on my own sites and blogs. I started out by submitting to EZA, GA, Articlebase, Amazines etc but when I saw most of the traffic was coming from EZA I got into the habit of only submitting my articles there. Putting all your eggs in one basket is usually not a good idea, no matter what shape your 'basket' is in

I'm really sorry for people who get their accounts banned and articles deleted, but I think a lot of good can come from this too. As someone said earlier in the thread, it should speed up approval times and lessen niche competition EZA and Google clearly have a great relationship, I guess this is one of the ways they are protecting this relationship.

[Cash37]

Articlebase and GoArticles are just as good

[Jeremy Kelsall]

Originally Posted by mmurtha

You know what I find very funny? The people complaining about EZA don't get the entire picture.

Mary, I'm not usually one to disagree with you, BUT when content creators are giving content to another site who openly states that they don't like marketers - what other picture is there to see?

Originally Posted by mmurtha

The people using spinners, PLR articles, or plain copying other people's regurgitated stuff are screwing the hand that feeds them. You can't expect a site owner, whether it is an article directory like EZA or something else, to post junk and still be on top of the search engine listings. That isn't going to happen, particularly where Google is concerned.

I would agree with this as well if it were not for the fact that almost every directory brother owner and his brother is trying to sell their writers...wait for it...wait for it....SPINNERS AND PLR.

Originally Posted by mmurtha

Btw I think Chris Knight is absolutely doing all of us a big favor by weeding out the junk articles and the people who submit them to his site. It's the best news I heard in a very long time!

Good going Chris, and thanks!


Mary

Yeah, thanks Chris!!

Thanks for talking down to any and all marketers that are not "big" enough for you - YOU ROCK.

It's like the rest of us live in the projects and this dude lives up on some big hill or something.

[pheonix44]

I'm just gonna say this and them I'm done. EZA is good I'll give them that, but they are acting like the hot girlfriend who believes she's the only girl you can get. It seems to me that they're going to find a reason to not be happy no matter what you do.

Even EZA doesn't know what they want and this is confusing. I think it's better to find other ways to use your content. Sure it might be more work but I believe you can purpose your content in a way to get the same surge of a couple hundred views to your articles as you would from them being on the recently published page of EZA.

What do you get from them per article? Maybe 100 views 250 views unless you backlink build. Don't you think if you're a serious content marketer you can get these same views if not way more? Even if you had to pay for some kind of membership site so be it. There are many ways to get your article on the front page. I've put up articles in here that have gotten me 1000 views in a few days.

It seems like they want people to write mini research papers to give to them and even then they still won't be happy. All I know is one thing, wherever there is a demand there will always be a supply or someone will create one. If that one goes down someone else will create another one and so on. Right now there is a strong demand. Lets see what happens when the smoke clears.

[AllyW]

My take is, this is WAAAYYY overdue. Recently went to EZA to research something, and I didn't find one single article that was of any value. Not one. And the grammar, punctuation and overall quality of writing was atrocious, about a C- 8th grade level. There is a whole lot of garbage on EZA. If you are a lousy writer, don't use article marketing, do something else.

Originally Posted by pheonix44

I'm just gonna say this and them I'm done. EZA is good I'll give them that, but they are acting like the hot girlfriend who believes she's the only girl you can get. It seems to me that they're going to find a reason to not be happy no matter what you do.

Even EZA doesn't know what they want and this is confusing. I think it's better to find other ways to use your content. Sure it might be more work but I believe you can purpose your content in a way to get the same surge of a couple hundred views to your articles as you would from them being on the recently published page of EZA.

What do you get from them per article? Maybe 100 views 250 views unless you backlink build. Don't you think if you're a serious content marketer you can get these same views if not way more? Even if you had to pay for some kind of membership site so be it. There are many ways to get your article on the front page. I've put up articles in here that have gotten me 1000 views in a few days.

It seems like they want people to write mini research papers to give to them and even then they still won't be happy. All I know is one thing, wherever there is a demand there will always be a supply or someone will create one. If that one goes down someone else will create another one and so on. Right now there is a strong demand. Lets see what happens when the smoke clears.

Exactly and how many of those views are "real possible customers" - I venture to bet many are other maketers and competition..

Look at the post above mine "research" yep there you go folks.. I have seen it said many times people go to eza to "research" - These are not customers...

James

[Kay King]

I don't build backlinks to articles but to my sites instead. I have articles that have well over 1000 views without any backlinking - all I did was submit good articles.

There is no requirement that anyone use EZA - you can run a business online and never submit an article to EZA.

But - if you want to use EZA - you go by their rules whether they change or not and whether you like them or not. For every person that says "I won't use EZA any more" there is another person thinking "I'll use EZA more because the site quality will be better".

kay

[Steven Wagenheim]

Originally Posted by Kay King

I don't build backlinks to articles but to my sites instead. I have articles that have well over 1000 views without any backlinking - all I did was submit good articles.

There is no requirement that anyone use EZA - you can run a business online and never submit an article to EZA.

But - if you want to use EZA - you go by their rules whether they change or not and whether you like them or not. For every person that says "I won't use EZA any more" there is another person thinking "I'll use EZA more because the site quality will be better".

kay

Once again, the voice of common sense and reason.

That's about it in a nutshell folks. You can bitch and complain all you
want about what EZA is doing. I don't have any personal love or hate for
them myself. They are just an article directory where I submit my articles.
If I can't submit them there, I'll go someplace else.

They are not the be all and end all.

Nothing in this world is.

Not Google, not EZA, not Twitter, not Digg, not WordPress...

NOTHING.

Any one thing, if it died tomorrow, we could still earn a living online.

The sooner people understand that, the better off they will be.

[4success53]

Remove previous articles, too?

Isn't that going a little too far?

I had the same thing happen to me as clintmyers. I had original, copyscaped articles that were not approved due to similar articles already written.

And Steven your account was suspended due to an email bounce?

Now, I am getting mad.
Maybe everyone needs to use another article directory at the same time?

[Alexa Smith]

Originally Posted by Kay King

For every person that says "I won't use EZA any more" there is another person thinking "I'll use EZA more because the site quality will be better".

Very true. I admit that I tend to identify instinctively with the latter camp, with all this recent news from EZA, and I'm definitely in favour of the site's quality improving. I also completely agree, though, with the points above about giving valuable content to a site that openly says it's at war with affiliate marketers. But there you are: I'm the one who decides to what extent my content's going to become valuable (and to whom) by the things I do with it and especially by the order in which I do them.

Originally Posted by 4success53

Remove previous articles, too?

Isn't that going a little too far?

I had the same thing happen to me as clintmyers. I had original, copyscaped articles that were not approved due to similar articles already written.

And Steven your account was suspended due to an email bounce?

Now, I am getting mad.
Maybe everyone needs to use another article directory at the same time?

Dude - You should have been using 30 or 40 article directories at the same time... Putting everything into one site is the fasteat way out of business..

James

[Steven Wagenheim]

Originally Posted by 4success53

And Steven your account was suspended due to an email bounce?

That's right. And you know what? Chris can write to me and tell me that
he's banning me because I'm ugly.

It's HIS directory.

I suggest people look up the word "mine" in the dictionary.

It's one of the most powerful 4 letter words in it.

[Allen Graves]

Oh no, Steven - don't start people on 4 letter words! LOL

Interesting thread, interesting happenings.

<just watching>

Allen Graves

[Ian Jackson]

When posting on a blog instead is mentioned, can I safely assume this would be a WP blog - on one's own domain/site, rather than say WP.com or Blogger.com?

[4success53]

James,
Need to clarify.

I did submit my articles to other directories besides EZA.

You are right, you should not put all of your eggs in one basket. So true.

[4success53]

Steven,
I guess we all need to check that our email addresses are working.

[madison_avenue]

Eza still needs articles in the more controversial niches because these are high paying adsense niches. It requires sticky and substantial content, which encourages the reader to read the article on it's site. EZA can then judiciously place adsense ads all around this substantial article.

However if the article it places is merely a taster or a tidbit which is merely bait to get the reader to click a resource link away from eza as soon as possible, then EZA deplores these sort of articles.

Remember EZA is an adsense site and it wishes to be viewed as a content rich site by google not a MFA site with thin content. The talented article writers amongst us, and there some of them present on this thread, will be the kingpins in this changing environment.

[Jonathan Mizel]

I gave up the article game long ago in favor of buying the traffic I need. That way, I don't have to rely on the "kindness" of strangers like G or EZA, and I can scale up my volume while others are getting slapped and delisted.

Jonathan

[Lokki08]

Hi Warriors

I want to share my experiences about Ezine Articles. I stated to write first article already in this month and got accepted in 7 days. Then I wrote and submitted another article two days after first one was online and that took about 15 days to get into phase 4 out of 5. What happened next is that somehow my article were reviewed again and I got email from Ezine Articles that what went wrong.

I fix those problems and resubmitted my artcile again and surprise in 2 days my article were accepted and was already online. When my second article were approved I got somehow Expert Author status. I don't know how in the world I got that but I'm satisfied and happy

[Allen Graves]

Originally Posted by madison_avenue

The talented article writers amongst us, and there some of them present on this thread, will be the kingpins in this changing environment.

As will a select few article directories that evolve and conform.

The rest will wither and die. Watch...

Allen

[mayapearl]

Originally Posted by MarkH45

Before everyone starts jumping off bridges, there is a place where you can write whatever you want, don't have to wait for approval, and can have an unlimited amount of affiliate links.

It's your blog!... start using it

You are so right!
Write for your blog first, then write articles to support your blog.
EZA is a pain, but I have to agree with them a little, there was far too much c*** out there, it got to the stage where I just wouldn't bother reading any of the articles, they got to be so bad. In one instance I checked out someone who had written hundreds of articles most of them total rubbish, just the same articles with slightly different entry words, I wonder if she got banned too!
Just my two bits worth,
Maya

[Jill Carpenter]

Originally Posted by Steven Wagenheim

Now we'll see who's left standing after the smoke clears.

Why did I just picture you on a dirt road with the tumble weed rolling behind you - your trusty puppet in one hand and a gun in the other. I actually heard the hollow sound of the barrel as you gently blew over it. Nice hat by the way.

Originally Posted by Jeremy Kelsall

James hit the nail on the head with his post....

I'm hoping that they start to mass delete articles by the tens of thousands like they are threatening to do...

Man, will that be one hell of a google slap when the spiders come and find that tens of thousands of pages are gone

YES! and the poor saps like me who feel so far behind may actually have a chance. LOL

[SPress]

I think this is actually great news.

EZA was getting absolutely buried in useless drivel. They were long overdue to start tightening the rules up. I think it also shows a lot of foresight on the owners part.

Sure, they may get a lot of google love presently, but how long is that expected to last if the quality of their content continues to swirl down the toilet?

In the long run (and immediately as well) they've done all of us a service by enforcing some standards.

Cheers,

Steve

[jimfurr]

For back link purposes these are all very close
in effectiveness (and there are others too):

Home Page PR:

EzineArticles.com = PR6
GoArticles.com = PR6
ArticleBase = PR5


Content Marketers:

I was following a test by a Warrior a few months back and
she had everybody write 1 post a day, (for 30 days),
to their brand new blogs.

Before the 30 days was up, they were seeing
100+ visitors to their New blogs!

Isn't THAT what You Really want to do...

Build your own quality space on the net
and stop building someone else's
business, (EZA.com).

Jim ><>

Originally Posted by jimfurr

For back link purposes these are all very close
in effectiveness (and there are others too):

Home Page PR:

EzineArticles.com = PR6
GoArticles.com = PR6
ArticleBase = PR5


Content Marketers:

I was following a test by a Warrior a few months back and
she had everybody write 1 post a day, (for 30 days),
to their brand new blogs.

Before the 30 days was up, they were seeing
100+ visitors to their New blogs!

Isn't THAT what You Really want to do...

Build your own quality space on the net
and stop building someone else's
business, (EZA.com).

Jim ><>

Yep that is what you should be doing but many will never see that ...

I would like to point out one thing though.. what good is a PR 6 when you can outrank it easily ....

James

[Jay Jennings]

Originally Posted by Jonathan Mizel

I gave up the article game long ago in favor of buying the traffic I need. That way, I don't have to rely on the "kindness" of strangers like G or EZA, and I can scale up my volume while others are getting slapped and delisted.

All things being equal I'd buy traffic, too. But if we compare your bank account and my bank account we'll see, sadly, that all things are not equal. =:p

- - -

Although I'm going through a "debate" with EZA right now over something I see as idiotic, in general I like the direction in which they're moving.

Jay Jennings

[Steven Wagenheim]

You know what all this bitching and complaining really comes down to?

People don't want to take a good long, hard look in the mirror and admit
that they don't want to do work.

They don't want to have to put the brain power into sitting down and
writing an outline for their article, making a list of bullet points, gather
research material, and write the kind of article that they'd be proud to
have run in Time or Shape, or Best Health.

People want to whip together a 5 minute piece of crap to get a backlink
and somebody to go to their site, regardless of whether they've written
anything worth a brass furling. My apologies to Basil Rathbone.

Well, the roosters have come home to roost and now everybody who has
been screwing the pooch is wondering why the pooch is finally kicking
back with its hind legs and biting at your nuts.

You folks brought this all on yourself and now you're looking up in surprised
amazement like the Cosby kids after the mother screams "I have had
enough!" to their acting like jackasses.

If EZA ever kicks me out of their directory, it'll be because I have a big
opinionated mouth.

Not because I write crappy articles.

End of rant.

[redicelander]

Originally Posted by TheRichJerksNet

Yep that is what you should be doing but many will never see that ...

I would like to point out one thing though.. what good is a PR 6 when you can outrank it easily ....

James

I saw you on some other topic saying you should not use sites like ezine. So is your philosophy to just post articles only on your own blog? My next question is, what to do for backlinks?

[acrasial]

How would YOU like to go through and remove MANY of your articles, in a competitive niche on EZA because they tell you to?

This is what they are telling people to do! They are saying that now it's not acceptable, when the same people, same editors, and of course the same WEBSITE accepted these not too long ago.

I love how they just kicked themselves in the balls here... because literally they are saying that their editors accepted JUNK before, when the whole point of hiring an editor, was to weed out junk in the first place. Now everyone has to pay, because the editors just let any old thing pass through?

OH and they blame us then, for this.

I don't think this even relates to content, because they are saying that alot of what was acceptable back then, when re-submitted now would not be acceptable... and I just think about their statement of outdated topics... they tell you now not to write on anything which could easily become outdated...


So this means that even if you had a really fantastic article, covering every point, if they think it can become "OUTDATED", they can easily refuse it, or tell you to delete it.

They are also cracking down on hot and competitive niches- which in turn they are telling people NOT TO write on their own things! They are also telling people to DELETE their own articles related to this.

Does this mean that everyone out there has bad articles then, because they literally cracked down on EVERYONE in the hot niches...

I love this:

Do not increase your word count for word count sake. More words that say nothing is not better than fewer words that say nothing.

Yet they are telling people to increase the word count, and saying that less is not something to be proud of, all at the same time! This was posted on Chris' blog as well... from "our war with affiliate marketers"... so it goes like this: "write more, but write less, don't increase your word count, increase your word count".

[RebeccaL]

If you do get told to remove your articles, or they get deleted from EZA, dont let them go to waste. Submit them to the top 10 other article directories. That content can still be used, EZA is not the be all and end all.

[Allen Graves]

Id get them deleted before your entire account is deleted for you, INCLUDING those articles and all the rest of them.

Crap gets old and it stinks.

Allen

Originally Posted by redicelander

I saw you on some other topic saying you should not use sites like ezine. So is your philosophy to just post articles only on your own blog? My next question is, what to do for backlinks?

All your answers are right here - Article on site or EZA first ?

All 9 pages .. Get a cup of coffee, pen and paper.. Take notes and create a plan and follow it ...

James

[Steven Fullman]

Listen to you all.

You really think "marketing" is the be all and end all, don't you?

Chris K is running a public service website. He wants the articles on his site to be beneficial to members of the public.

Informative. Helpful. Insightful. USEFUL.

Some folks here reckon he's being unreasonable.

Take a look in the mirror. The world doesn't revolve around your shallow desire to make money from a naive audience.

Here's a sample WSO:

1. Write some crap. As little as possible
2. Don't give the reader any valuable info
3. Pimp your resource box

If I were Chris Knight, I'd ban you too.

Article marketing is essential. And it's essential you do it right. Doing it right means NOT being some kind of short-term bloodsucker.

Not only does it devalue the service for the average Jane consumer, it ends up in debates like this once you've screwed it up for your peers.

Steve

Originally Posted by Steven Fullman

Listen to you all.

You really think "marketing" is the be all and end all, don't you?

Chris K is running a public service website. He wants the articles on his site to be beneficial to members of the public.

Informative. Helpful. Insightful. USEFUL.

Some folks here reckon he's being unreasonable.

Take a look in the mirror. The world doesn't revolve around your shallow desire to make money from a naive audience.

Here's a sample WSO:

1. Write some crap. As little as possible
2. Don't give the reader any valuable info
3. Pimp your resource box

If I were Chris Knight, I'd ban you too.

Article marketing is essential. And it's essential you do it right. Doing it right means NOT being some kind of short-term bloodsucker.

Not only does it devalue the service for the average Jane consumer, it ends up in debates like this once you've screwed it up for your peers.

Steve

Yeah you go Steve .. Could not have said it better.

I love it when others want to control someone elses website ..lol Did many of your know the time you have spent here complaining about a adsense farm site, you could have been posting your articles to real directories that treat their authors good and you could have been getting traffic by now ...

James

[Steven Fullman]

Originally Posted by TMG Enterprises

I'm sorry, but reading articles in a directory is not research. The directory does not fact check that information whatsoever and if you are relying on using them for research, you are playing with fire.


Tina

Tina,

If it weren't for us (that's the "royal" us), maybe article directories COULD be a valid research medium...

Steve

[Steven Fullman]

Originally Posted by TheRichJerksNet

Yeah you go Steve .. Could not have said it better.

I love it when others want to control someone elses website ..lol Did many of your know the time you have spent here complaining about a adsense farm site, you could have been posting your articles to real directories that treat their authors good and you could have been getting traffic by now ...

James

Two words:

Entitlement Mentality.

Steve

[Steven Wagenheim]

As a marketer, I am also a consumer as well.

When I need to research ANY topic, article directories are the LAST place
I look.

That should tell you something about the quality of the content that I find
at MOST directories.

And I use the word "quality" in the loosest sense.

Need health info?

I go to WebMD.

Need debt relief info?

I go to debtreliefinfo.org

Need marriage counseling info?

I go to marriage-counseling.com. The guy is a clinical psychologist...not
a hack.

I do not go to submit-your-crap-articles-here.net

[DogScout]

I don't have an account there right now. I do have one problem with them though.
They do not allow an adjective as a name, even if it is your legal name. This rules out any Native Americans with traditional Native American names! Even if it is the name on the birth certificate, they refuse to accept it.
That means if you were born Great Elk (as an example, since he is famous and writes under his own name... or did before he passed) you are only allowed an account if you use a pen name.
I emailed them even though it is spelled out in their public TOU. They seemed unaware of the ramifications of having published discriminatory policies and didn't care whether it was a real name or not.

So while I am sure this new rule enforcement will be better in the long run, they're rules are a bit arbitrary and discriminatory for my taste. & It is only a matter of time before someone brings them up on Federal Discriminatory Civil Rights Violations, so I am not sure it is worth my time to write for someplace whose policies are designed to doom them to extinction sooner or later. Someone who knows him ought to get him to comply with Federal law?

Just a thought

(But I agree with Steve, it sounds like he wants to have a quality site. I think anyone can agree that is a nobler and better way to go about making money than with junk and Adsense people click just to find a way out of the article! It could be he might just force some to step it up and I would bet in the long run their income will increase. He is probably doing you a favor and you just don't see it yet. He has more than just article guidelines to change though. IMHO.)

[Bill_Z]

As far as I'm concerned I will take it for what it's worth. I will still use EZA and count on them for some traffic but they are not the only answer. I really don't mind these changes at all, it's their site and they can do what they want. The only laughable part in my opinion is the fact that they ask authors to go back and delete content that has already been approved. They should have thought long and hard about this point, because it's laughable.

[Fun to Write]

Originally Posted by DonDavis

I think it is rather obvious that EA is trying to avoid a Google slap of their own. The real trouble comes if Google decides that the content on the EA site is no longer suitable to be shown in their SERPS. Maybe Chris received a "courtesy call" from Big G?

This is what I suspect. I think something big is blowing in the wind and this is a canaryin the mine shaft for everyone who does article marketing. EZA has a lot of influence in the article directory niche and I think they got the "word" from Google insiders to clean things up now.

Possibly a bigger slap is coming for Big G soon.

It's all about delivering quality content now for the search engine visitor. Article directories that throw up any ole content may find themselves deindexed.

[Steven Wagenheim]

Originally Posted by DogScout

I don't have an account there right now. I do have one problem with them though.
They do not allow an adjective as a name, even if it is your legal name. This rules out any Native Americans with traditional Native American names! Even if it is the name on the birth certificate, they refuse to accept it.
That means if you were born Great Elk (as an example, since he is famous and writes under his own name... or did before he passed) you are only allowed an account if you use a pen name.
I emailed them even though it is spelled out in their public TOU. They seemed unaware of the ramifications of having published discriminatory policies and didn't care whether it was a real name or not.

So while I am sure this new rule enforcement will be better in the long run, they're rules are a bit arbitrary and discriminatory for my taste. & It is only a matter of time before someone brings them up on Federal Discriminatory Civil Rights Violations, so I am not sure it is worth my time to write for someplace whose policies are designed to doom them to extinction sooner or later. Someone who knows him ought to get him to comply with Federal law?

Just a thought

(But I agree with Steve, it sounds like he wants to have a quality site. I think anyone can agree that is a nobler and better way to go about making money than with junk and Adsense people click just to find a way out of the article! It could be he might just force some to step it up and I would bet in the long run their income will increase. He is probably doing you a favor and you just don't see it yet. He has more than just article guidelines to change though. IMHO.)

I am sorry to hear about this. I think not being able to use your real
name, even if you provided them a fax birth certificate is wrong and if
they are in some legal violation, it will come back to haunt them.

However, like it or not, it's their site and they can do what they want.

If what they want ends up ultimately getting them shut down (either for
legal or economical reasons, such as no contributors) then that's their
prerogative too.

See, in a capitalist society, it all works out in the end.