Ezine Articles Is banning Like Crazy, Are YOU Next?

[AnniePot]

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

Well said Mark - you've hit the nail on the head

Your own blog/website should be the repository for all your best work. Write great, unique content and keep it at home. Google will find it and reward you. Why put it out where it can be re-posted minus the 'requisite' resource box (I've had this happen repeatedly).

EZA has been going down the tubes lately with the content it's been publishing. Many articles have been close to unreadable.

[acrasial]

Originally Posted by Kay King

I can see the headline now -

"500 WF members abandon EZA in a mass attack of analysis paralysis. chiponshoulder fatique and whatif-itis."

EZA would do this: Literally, if everyone just deleted their accounts from there and boycotted it. Now I am talking about the effective marketers, and also the people who seemingly are the top "expert authors" on EZA as well. They most certainly would think twice then.

It's like a relationship, EZA needs people to write quality articles, create good content etc... so they can make some moolah from adsense etc... Then the writers need traffic to help them with their marketing, so that they too can make some moolah.

If one just suddenly removed themselves, the other would most certainly be standing there like this:

Now EZA didn't exactly remove themselves yet, but instead they handed some divorce papers to a few writers...

Then there are a bunch of writers sitting there with this look: saying "How dare you reject me!... after all I did for you! I loved you!"

Just like a dysfunctional relationship...

Then some of these people would go around thinking "You cheated on me Ezines, how could you! You were so disloyal!"

[JayXtreme]

Originally Posted by acrasial

Just like a dysfunctional relationship...

ahhh... the memories...

[acrasial]

Just imagine this: The Ezine Articles Relationship Story:

In the perfect world, in a perfect place somewhere:

Once upon a time, there was a man named Ezine Articles and a woman named Writer'S. They fell in love, and soon developed a very good relationship. They had alot in common, and were always able to get each other out of the rough times. In fact, Ezines helped writers further her business, and Writer'S helped Ezines further his business too!

They spent many days together, progressing and working through all the kinks. Although neither always liked what each other did, they always made compensation and tried to improve day by day.

Finally they tied the knot and got married, and life was great and fantastic.

But then one day....

Ezine Articles is told by a friend that Writer'S was with another man. Naturally Ezines inquires of his friend, who this man was, and what he looked like. Ezines is told that the man was some bozo' named "Bad Content". Appalled, Ezines comes home and asks Writer'S about it, but she promptly replies: "I love you! I would never cheat on you! You know that!"

So Ezines tries to trust her again, and they continue on and everything seems fine for now, although Ezines keeps his supicions still.

After some time passes, Ezines comes home and finds Writer'S in bed with not one, not two, but three guys! Not only was Bad Content there, but so was some guy named Plagiarism, and even some stickly looking loser named "Thin Content".

Apalled, Ezine articles kindly asks his Wife to leave. She doesn't want to, and starts crying, and starts telling him how much she loves him! She even freaks out in front of him. But Ezines has seen enough, so he kicks her out and tells her they are through.

Writer'S gets angry, and decides that it's all Ezine's fault for not trusting her enough, and for not warning her sooner. She starts blaming him, and calling him a "Jerk", thinking to herself that it's all his fault anyways. She then continues to get more hateful, although she still wishes she hadn't cheated on him.

But it's too late to take anything back now.

[Ryan700]

Originally Posted by ryanman

.......but they're also asking you to remove any previous articles which might have been low quality according to them.

So in a way- They are saying...They want you to remove all articles which were accepted by their staff months ago only because now due to their new terms...It's not longer useful.

Okay, I don't see anything in Ezine Articles blog Something Unexpected that says they want you to remove any articles which might be low quality. Not in Christopher Knight's posts or in his replies to people. I suspect that if they want to remove a "low quality" article they will email you and let you know that it was rejected and your article will end up in "draft mode" so you can rewrite again to their new standard.

Originally Posted by ryanman

Here is a great point from a poster on ezines blog-

------------------

Chris, and team:
Re: “In the past, we’ve grandfathered existing articles in when new quality levels are set, except when a live article is edited, today’s standard is applied to that content. That means we would typically have allowed old articles that would no longer be accepted with today’s standard, to remain live in the site. We’ve reached a point where we can no longer allow that to happen.”

It’s problematic to expect article authors to *retroactively* go back through hundreds of articles submitted in good faith that were reviewed by a human editor and approved. Think about that for a moment — every article that’s “live” on the EZA system was reviewed by an actual person, in addition to whatever automated content filters are in place.

You’re asking authors to comb through articles that have already been submitted in an effort to make them conform to rules that are constantly changing, somewhat arbitrary, and subject to being confusion — so confusing, in fact, that your *OWN* paid staff members once deemed such content as acceptable.
----------------------

This last part about "You're asking authors to comb through articles that have already....." was never said by Chris Knight. I think this is an assumption made by the author.

This is the part that seems to be the underlying theme in his message:

In the past, we’ve grandfathered existing articles in when new quality levels are set, except when a live article is edited, today’s standard is applied to that content. That means we would typically have allowed old articles that would no longer be accepted with today’s standard, to remain live in the site. We’ve reached a point where we can no longer allow that to happen. At risk are articles that are highly derivative based. If you’ve written original articles from your head and didn’t use any software article rewriter, you should have nothing to worry about.

This just means to me that previously articles that were approved and then resubmitted were sometimes not re-approved - it's happened to me. Now, they say that some of the articles that you may have written and submitted will come up for review and may be rejected according to their new standards. He did not say to go back and cull any "low quality" articles from your library. I assume that this job will be huge and they will probably automate this with software and email people as to which articles they have that will need to be brought up to "snuff" or risk losing this article in their directory.

[pheonix44]

You're a very talented writer acrasial. I hope you're putting this creativity to use to make some cash.

[Steven Wagenheim]

Since this train wreck is still going on, let's take a look at it from another
point of view...EZA's.

You're Chris Knight. You have this article directory with tons of authors
submitting articles and generating you tons of Adsense money. Life is good.
You have a PR 6 or whatever the hell it used to be (PR is dead now) and
you're the top of the heap.

Then Google comes knocking on your door, usually in the form of a not so
nice email, informing you that 80% of the content on your site is crap and
if you don't clean up your act soon, your site is going to go the way of
those other dinosaurs. I think they were called MFA sites (MFA stood for
Made For Adsense but really should have stood for Mother F*****G
Attrocities)

So now you're in a real pickle. You have this business that has been
built over a great deal of time, you have tons of staff, you're paying out
a small fortune in salaries and suddenly you're looking into an abyss the
size of the Big Dipper.

What do you do?

I know what I would do.

For starters, I'd make it a Premium Directory ONLY.

I'd then require authors to submit 10 articles of their work before they
even get approved.

I'd then go through my directory and delete every piece of crap on it.

Yes, I understand that they allowed this to happen, and for that, they
have nobody to blame but themselves. Nobody forced them to approve
all those articles.

But the day of reckoning is here folks. It's either us or them. And trust me,
I don't think Chris Knight likes any of us more than he likes to eat.

This is business...nothing more, nothing less. He's not being vindictive.
He's not out to screw you because his hemorrhoids are acting up.

He is fighting to keep the integrity of his directory so that Google doesn't
land his whole shootin match into the supplemental index.

Anybody who doesn't get that shouldn't be in business anyway, because
they obviously have no understanding about business.

[Allen Graves]

Originally Posted by Steven Wagenheim

For starters, I'd make it a Premium Directory ONLY...I'd then go through my directory and delete every piece of crap on it.

Now there's a nice idea!

LOL

Allen

[Jill Carpenter]

OR current members can stay - but they must submit x amount of articles per year to keep any free accounts active, and these articles must be approved.

This way, they will get good content regularly without alienating those who may not be able to pay and who really do want to just submit some great content.

Once someone stops submitting, they risk being erased.

[Chris Stigson]

I think this is good! It opens up for a lot easier rankings if you know what you are doing. I'm sure some of my articles will get kicked out, for the simple reason that I didn't know how to write a few years back and those will surely be gone...

No matter what, I think quality is a great thing and all my courses are based around establishing value.

[Alexa Smith]

Originally Posted by acrasial

I love this:

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".

You say "yet" as if there's some sort of "conflict" or "contradiction" there.

There isn't at all.

They're telling people to increase their word-count (wisely, in my view - I get proportionally far more sales, across different niches, from much longer articles), but not to increase it for word count sake (also wisely, in my view - valuable content is far better than "padding").

Chris Knight isn't saying "write more but write less": he's saying "write more, and give better and more valuable content". Nowhere does he advise people not to increase their word-count, he simply advises them not to increase it for word count sake.

They're gradually moving in the right direction, here. This is potentially a real win/win. It will be good for EZA, and in the long run that's good for all of us who are willing to use their service sensibly.

[Ryan700]

I just had this idea. Instead of rewarding people by posting the top authors by the amount of articles they have written they should come up with a page of top authors that are most read.
I bet if that information was available - instead of clicking on each article to see how many readers viewed it - it would shed a whole new light on the "top authors". Then the cachet of being a top author by quantity will lose it's sparkle.
There are people who have goals of getting to the top author's page in their niche. It may be useful to them to get more exposure but to the reader ,in some cases, it is no guarantee that they will even find a readable article.

[TheGodfather]

Hey guys,

I say that we break from the chains of EzineArticles and show them who made them what they are today!

If it wasn't for us, both affiliate and Internet marketers, they would not have risen and gained the power that they have today. We were the ones posting most of the content and we murder one's who made them rise in their rankings.

They have decided to terrorize us now, with their "new rules" and will not stand for it!

"The customer is always right" or so the saying goes, it's what founded capitalism to degree that it is developed today!

Who are they, too tell a paying customer that his money, his contributions, he is value to the niche is no longer welcome because "the feel" that he isn't providing enough unique content.

I say that we take the power back that they claim to have and show them, by moving to another article directory, that we steal are the ones who made them and can break them. It is time to make them walk the plank and let them see what it is like to be on the edge of ruin.

My measures may be drastic, I may be an extremist, but there is no other way than to show them that we made them who they are today!

"It is time to make them an offer they just cannot refuse"

Sincerely,
TheGodfather

[Kay King]

Great story, Acrasial -

cliffnotes version:

girl cheats
girl lies
girl cheats again
girl gets tossed out on her bumpkiss

....but it's not her fault (so she thinks)

girl begs for another chance
girl whines "not fair"
girl gets angry
girl complains bitterly

Doesn't change the fact that girl is a liar and a cheat

[bitsdawg]

Hi, I haven't been here much, but I had to jump in here. I agree with many different points of view on this thread.

1. EA needs to clean up its crap for lots of reasons. They are diluting their own SE ranks by publishing a lot of crap. They are also ruining their reputation with publishers, authors, and readers. Sometimes more is not better, and even SE bots are much smarter than they used to be. Besides, I love the fact that competition will decrease!

2. I found out from publishing my own small article website that 80% of submissions are written in "robot language" or something like that, and that makes editing painful and editors grouchy. Plus, after getting my own rankings batted down one, I learned it is better to publish 10 fair to good articles a day than those 10 articles plus 100 gawdawful ones.

3. And finally, EA isn't the only place to publish articles. In fact, I do better by mixing it up and using different resources. Besides, how hard is it to get another EA logon id and work your way up to Platinum status? I'm sure any clever marketer could figure out how to do that if they cared that much.

[Steven Wagenheim]

Originally Posted by TheGodfather

Hey guys,

I say that we break from the chains of EzineArticles and show them who made them what they are today!

If it wasn't for us, both affiliate and Internet marketers, they would not have risen and gained the power that they have today. We were the ones posting most of the content and we murder one's who made them rise in their rankings.

They have decided to terrorize us now, with their "new rules" and will not stand for it!

"The customer is always right" or so the saying goes, it's what founded capitalism to degree that it is developed today!

Who are they, too tell a paying customer that his money, his contributions, he is value to the niche is no longer welcome because "the feel" that he isn't providing enough unique content.

I say that we take the power back that they claim to have and show them, by moving to another article directory, that we steal are the ones who made them and can break them. It is time to make them walk the plank and let them see what it is like to be on the edge of ruin.

My measures may be drastic, I may be an extremist, but there is no other way than to show them that we made them who they are today!

"It is time to make them an offer they just cannot refuse"

Sincerely,
TheGodfather

You're welcome to the lead the way. For every 1 person who leaves,
there will be 10 to take his place.

EZA does not need any of us to survive. Those who believe that are
either naive or seriously delusional.

Yes, we made them, but they're now left with 2 choices if my theory as
to why this is all going down is correct.

They can weed out all the crap and become a "respected" source for
information.

Or they can continue to let the crap in and let Google slap them into the
next Galaxy for being nothing more than a glorified MFA site.

When confronted with nothing to lose by pissing off those who want to
submit crap to their directory, they'll gladly piss you off and hope for a
chance at remaining listed in the SERPs.

My friend, that's what it all comes down to. And if you don't get that, well,
there's not a lot I can do.

[cesarsan]

But as people pointed before there are still lots of almost unreadable articles being approved by their *human* editors. Articles that wouldn't be acceptable by the Word spellchecker standards. Where's the quality?

Frankly people, if you do NEED ezine articles for your business you are doing something very wrong.

I don't think they are worthy all the work and headaches. Treat them like just another article directory, Googgle will slap them sooner or later so be ready for that.

[Alminc]

I hate EZA!

They 'reinstated' my basic plus account 4 times, I submitted nearly 100 articles (only
quality articles, 450+ words) and they are still not giving me the platinum status.

I am not going to submit more good articles to those #¤!@!!

There are other article directories, thanks God!

[Steven Wagenheim]

Originally Posted by Alminc

I hate EZA!

They 'reinstated' my basic plus account 4 times, I submitted nearly 100 articles (only
quality articles, 450+ words) and they are still not giving me the platinum status.

I am not going to submit more good articles to those #¤!@!!

There are other article directories, thanks God!

Hey, here's a thought.

Did you ever try writing to them and ask them why they weren't
upgrading you to Platinum Status?

You might actually get an answer.

[mmurtha]

Originally Posted by Steven Wagenheim

You're welcome to the lead the way. For every 1 person who leaves,
there will be 10 to take his place.

EZA does not need any of us to survive. Those who believe that are
either naive or seriously delusional.

Yes, we made them, but they're now left with 2 choices if my theory as
to why this is all going down is correct.

They can weed out all the crap and become a "respected" source for
information.

Or they can continue to let the crap in and let Google slap them into the
next Galaxy for being nothing more than a glorified MFA site.

When confronted with nothing to lose by pissing off those who want to
submit crap to their directory, they'll gladly piss you off and hope for a
chance at remaining listed in the SERPs.

My friend, that's what it all comes down to. And if you don't get that, well,
there's not a lot I can do.

Hey Steven,

Yeah, I totally agree with you there - they don't need any of us to survive. And 10 more will come in place of every person who leaves. EZA is a successful business, and has been established for years now. There are all kinds of people outside of the IM arena that use EZA too, so we are not sustaining them either.

[Heuristic]

Originally Posted by Steven Wagenheim

Then Google comes knocking on your door, usually in the form of a not so
nice email, informing you that 80% of the content on your site is crap and
if you don't clean up your act soon, your site is going to go the way of
those other dinosaurs.

I can't imagine that Google would send them a personal email. Yes, they are Ezinearticles, but they are still nothing more than a grain of sand in the vast Google universe. Do you think Squidoo got an email before Google slapped them silly a few years back? I think when something like this happens, it just happens. Boom - gone.

[cclou]

Originally Posted by Kay King

Great story, Acrasial -

cliffnotes version:

girl cheats
girl lies
girl cheats again
girl gets tossed out on her bumpkiss

....but it's not her fault (so she thinks)

girl begs for another chance
girl whines "not fair"
girl gets angry
girl complains bitterly

Doesn't change the fact that girl is a liar and a cheat

Extended version:
Girl was from Country X. Guy decides that all girls from Country X are evil, and insults them and says that only girls from Country Q are worth dating.

Some citizens of Country X get miffed, even though Guy certainly isn't the only (or even the best) fish in the sea.

[Steven Wagenheim]

Originally Posted by steve39

I can't imagine that Google would send them a personal email. Yes, they are Ezinearticles, but they are still nothing more than a grain of sand in the vast Google universe. Do you think Squidoo got an email before Google slapped them silly a few years back. I think when something like this happens, it just happens. Boom - gone.

Maybe, but you don't have to be a genius to read the writing on the wall.

Perhaps he's noticed a drop in traffic. Maybe he realizes that he has to
increase the quality. I don't know. I'm just guessing. Obviously he didn't
just wake up with a bug up his ass one day and decide to not allow anymore
crappy articles.

There has to be a reason behind it...and a sound business one.

[Neromancer]

Banned in the USA . . . jeesh

[Adam Carn]

I'm new to EZA and haven't got banned yet but they don't allow me to put my site ListSwapper.com in my resource box and their reason is totally rediculous.

Adam

[Slin]

I have had no articles banned, in fact I believe my articles are usually pretty dang helpful.

In fact most articles I have read on ezine are helpful, I mean you are limited as what you are allowed to do (Step by step instructions with pictures is impossible)

However, they should not be changing the rules and then getting rid old articles that do not follow the new rules! If they change their wordcount rules then all of my future articles will meet their standards.

But my old articles should still be up, as I honored their standards at the time I wrote them.

But so far...no problems

[Steven Wagenheim]

Okay, I have been writing to Chris about this issue and have just now heard
back from him and he has allowed me to share this with the forum and my
personal blog ONLY.

The decision to accelerate our quality standards faster than we normally do have come from pressures I've been feeling that we're letting down our million daily visitors with substandard articles that just don't cut it any more.

Imagine for a moment that you work hard for a decade to get a million people to come to your party every day, every month with hopes to grow the size of the party... but if the quality of your content isn't up to par or above par, those millions slowly bleed away to other sites.

We feel immense pressure to protect all of the efforts 200k+ members have invested with us for the benefit of those million daily visitors, and we can't do it over the long-term if we don't significantly raise quite a few very specific standards that will be shared in our blog as we work through the data to guide us as to highest perceived return for lowest disruption to ideal members.

Lastly, I may have chosen my words wrong as we're not in a war with marketers. We're marketers too and I love sales & marketing personally. The fight is with thin content / derivative article plr rehashed producers who pump us thousands of garbage articles a day and burn up a thousand+ labor hours weekly to sift through what our AI can't as efficiently yet. In the short-term we're prepared to take whatever hit we must in order to ensure a happier long-term for our end users. If the end user is happy, all other needs works itself out.

Sincerely,
Chris Knight, CEO
http://EzineArticles.com/
Ask Christopher Knight A Question

Hopefully, this will clear up any assumptions that people have, including
myself, as to why all the changes.

For the record, I agree with Chris 100%.

[TheGodfather]

Originally Posted by Steven Wagenheim

EZA does not need any of us to survive.

Well let's do some math: let's take an assumption that there are about 10.000 Internet marketers using EzineArticles as premium members.

Premium membership costs about 97 $ per month that equals to roughly 100.000 $ per month of loss should they choose to leave the EzineArticles.

Would you, or any other business, risk and income of 100.000 $ a month in order to "clean up" your own act, and after that to get even more crap from probably the same article writers.

If anything, what they should actually do, is a fire the article quality team that actually allowed that kind of "crap" to be even published on the site. The users it self are not to blame for posting such content, but the editors that actually published the article live on the site should take most of the blame for not doing their job right.

The premium members that paid 100 $ for membership should not be banned, nor should their accounts and subscriptions be closed down-that's just very bad working ethic.

Would it be so hard, since they have such huge income, to hire some additional editors that would go to each of the categories search for the articles that were approved but didn't meet the standards and just delete the articles from the site. It will take several weeks or maybe a few months but they wouldn't need to ban all the users out there that paid them to be efficient.

Myself, I have written several articles to the EzineArticles in a niche that isn't saturated, and I wrote it from my own perspective, by that I mean it was original content with about 400 or 500 words per article. And since then they have banned me from the the article directory. Let me also emphasize that I was a basic member, I've posted only 3 articles, no articles had any problems getting approved and I followed all their guidelines.

Should you look a while back on the forum, I already started a similar topic on the subject off the EzineArticles banning users.

If you take a look at their terms of policy you will notice that they reserve the right to delete your account for any reason without prior notice. If you think about it a little bit they can charge you to 97 $ and then ban you for no reason and not even refund you. Because you agreed to their terms of service that gave them the right to take your money and have you banned.

What I suggest is that all the members from the warrior forum gathers together and united create an article directory [with all our SEO experts] and make it similar to the EzineArticles market model, by that I meant the free and the paid versions of the accounts. The money that we would gather would be used to pay several chosen members who would administer the site, check articles for quality, and make sure that no crap is posted there.

Who is with me!?!

TheGodfather

[seolake]

That's a great idea to have a new article directory made by the professionals.

Originally Posted by TheGodfather

Well let's do some math: let's take an assumption that there are about 10.000 Internet marketers using EzineArticles as premium members.

Premium membership costs about 97 $ per month that equals to roughly 100.000 $ per month of loss should they choose to leave the EzineArticles.

Would you, or any other business, risk and income of 100.000 $ a month in order to "clean up" your own act, and after that to get even more crap from probably the same article writers.

If anything, what they should actually do, is a fire the article quality team that actually allowed that kind of "crap" to be even published on the site. The users it self are not to blame for posting such content, but the editors that actually published the article live on the site should take most of the blame for not doing their job right.

The premium members that paid 100 $ for membership should not be banned, nor should their accounts and subscriptions be closed down-that's just very bad working ethic.

Would it be so hard, since they have such huge income, to hire some additional editors that would go to each of the categories search for the articles that were approved but didn't meet the standards and just delete the articles from the site. It will take several weeks or maybe a few months but they wouldn't need to ban all the users out there that paid them to be efficient.

Myself, I have written several articles to the EzineArticles in a niche that isn't saturated, and I wrote it from my own perspective, by that I mean it was original content with about 400 or 500 words per article. And since then they have banned me from the the article directory. Let me also emphasize that I was a basic member, I've posted only 3 articles, no articles had any problems getting approved and I followed all their guidelines.

Should you look a while back on the forum, I already started a similar topic on the subject off the EzineArticles banning users.

If you take a look at their terms of policy you will notice that they reserve the right to delete your account for any reason without prior notice. If you think about it a little bit they can charge you to 97 $ and then ban you for no reason and not even refund you. Because you agreed to their terms of service that gave them the right to take your money and have you banned.

What I suggest is that all the members from the warrior forum gathers together and united create an article directory [with all our SEO experts] and make it similar to the EzineArticles market model, by that I meant the free and the paid versions of the accounts. The money that we would gather would be used to pay several chosen members who would administer the site, check articles for quality, and make sure that no crap is posted there.

Who is with me!?!

TheGodfather

[Alexa Smith]

Originally Posted by TheGodfather

let's take an assumption that there are about 10.000 Internet marketers using EzineArticles as premium members.

There's an interesting club for you to join here: you'll fit right in.

[TheGodfather]

Originally Posted by Alexa Smith

There's an interesting club for you to join here: you'll fit right in.

there is really no need to be offensive

[Heuristic]

Originally Posted by TheGodfather

Well let's do some math: let's take an assumption that there are about 10.000 Internet marketers using EzineArticles as premium members.

Premium membership costs about 97 $ per month that equals to roughly 100.000 $ per month of loss should they choose to leave the EzineArticles.

Would you, or any other business, risk and income of 100.000 $ a month in order to "clean up" your own act, and after that to get even more crap from probably the same article writers.

If anything, what they should actually do, is a fire the article quality team that actually allowed that kind of "crap" to be even published on the site. The users it self are not to blame for posting such content, but the editors that actually published the article live on the site should take most of the blame for not doing their job right.

The premium members that paid 100 $ for membership should not be banned, nor should their accounts and subscriptions be closed down-that's just very bad working ethic.

Would it be so hard, since they have such huge income, to hire some additional editors that would go to each of the categories search for the articles that were approved but didn't meet the standards and just delete the articles from the site. It will take several weeks or maybe a few months but they wouldn't need to ban all the users out there that paid them to be efficient.

Myself, I have written several articles to the EzineArticles in a niche that isn't saturated, and I wrote it from my own perspective, by that I mean it was original content with about 400 or 500 words per article. And since then they have banned me from the the article directory. Let me also emphasize that I was a basic member, I've posted only 3 articles, no articles had any problems getting approved and I followed all their guidelines.

Should you look a while back on the forum, I already started a similar topic on the subject off the EzineArticles banning users.

If you take a look at their terms of policy you will notice that they reserve the right to delete your account for any reason without prior notice. If you think about it a little bit they can charge you to 97 $ and then ban you for no reason and not even refund you. Because you agreed to their terms of service that gave them the right to take your money and have you banned.

What I suggest is that all the members from the warrior forum gathers together and united create an article directory [with all our SEO experts] and make it similar to the EzineArticles market model, by that I meant the free and the paid versions of the accounts. The money that we would gather would be used to pay several chosen members who would administer the site, check articles for quality, and make sure that no crap is posted there.

Who is with me!?!

TheGodfather

YouTube - Animal House - Bluto's Inspiration...

[TheGodfather]

just like steve39 said, LET'S DO IT!

[Alexa Smith]

Originally Posted by TheGodfather

there is really no need to be offensive

I meant to be entertaining - not offensive (the clue was in the smiley) - I apologise. I had some difficulty believing that anyone could seriously imagine that EZA might have 10,000 premium members. Maybe you're right, but I'd be very surprised if they have 1,000, myself.

Only problem with your post and this is what Steven meant..

1. For every 1 that leaves 10 will join because all your marketers out there has pushed EZA for years and told every single newbie "You Must Submit To EZA"... You cannot make that kind of exposure just go away. It is hammered in some people's mind.

2. Although 50%+ of their traffic is from marketers, competition, article rippers, and so called researchers - The other 35% or so that is consumer traffic clicks on adsense ads, those ads alone keep EZA in profit. They do not need the $97 a month to survive.

3. I still have no idea why this thread is even going on .. It is pointless - How many of your still posting have actually worked today ? I see some huge post which takes time to write, you could have spent that energy on writing a new article and getting traffic from it...

James

Originally Posted by TheGodfather

Well let's do some math: let's take an assumption that there are about 10.000 Internet marketers using EzineArticles as premium members.

Premium membership costs about 97 $ per month that equals to roughly 100.000 $ per month of loss should they choose to leave the EzineArticles.

Would you, or any other business, risk and income of 100.000 $ a month in order to "clean up" your own act, and after that to get even more crap from probably the same article writers.

If anything, what they should actually do, is a fire the article quality team that actually allowed that kind of "crap" to be even published on the site. The users it self are not to blame for posting such content, but the editors that actually published the article live on the site should take most of the blame for not doing their job right.

The premium members that paid 100 $ for membership should not be banned, nor should their accounts and subscriptions be closed down-that's just very bad working ethic.

Would it be so hard, since they have such huge income, to hire some additional editors that would go to each of the categories search for the articles that were approved but didn't meet the standards and just delete the articles from the site. It will take several weeks or maybe a few months but they wouldn't need to ban all the users out there that paid them to be efficient.

Myself, I have written several articles to the EzineArticles in a niche that isn't saturated, and I wrote it from my own perspective, by that I mean it was original content with about 400 or 500 words per article. And since then they have banned me from the the article directory. Let me also emphasize that I was a basic member, I've posted only 3 articles, no articles had any problems getting approved and I followed all their guidelines.

Should you look a while back on the forum, I already started a similar topic on the subject off the EzineArticles banning users.

If you take a look at their terms of policy you will notice that they reserve the right to delete your account for any reason without prior notice. If you think about it a little bit they can charge you to 97 $ and then ban you for no reason and not even refund you. Because you agreed to their terms of service that gave them the right to take your money and have you banned.

What I suggest is that all the members from the warrior forum gathers together and united create an article directory [with all our SEO experts] and make it similar to the EzineArticles market model, by that I meant the free and the paid versions of the accounts. The money that we would gather would be used to pay several chosen members who would administer the site, check articles for quality, and make sure that no crap is posted there.

Who is with me!?!

TheGodfather

[Alexa Smith]

Originally Posted by Hijynx427

It's ridiculous that ezine articles is against having spun articles up on their site

I think I'd better stop posting in this thread. It's becoming really difficult to tell who's serious and who's ironic: I just can't believe half of what I'm reading here.

[Jay Jennings]

But from a marketer's point of view, this may decrease click through's and conversions, because there is so much to read. We all go through those moments where we see a long post, or something long and we go ..."aaaah... it's so long". And guess what? Most people won't in fact read it and will move on.

That doesn't mean that the content was bad, or that the person writes in a boring manner.

Yes it does.

And in answer to your question, I read your entire post and this entire thread (and yes, I still got a lot of work done, Steven! =;). Why? Because article marketing and that world is something that's important to my business.

If you can't get people to read "past the fold" then your articles are not very good or not targeted to the right market.

Ezine articles claims to be AT war, with everyone who is an affiliate marketer

As I read on another blog today, content isn't king, CONTEXT is. And you're taking that out of context. In context the title of EZAs blog post is, "Our War With Affiliate Marketers Who Add No Value."

And what's wrong with that?

Jay Jennings

[redicelander]

Originally Posted by Alexa Smith

There's an interesting club for you to join here: you'll fit right in.

Goodness, lady, you are smug. Happy with your retorts? In how many threads can you use this stupid joke? Grow up.

[waqyum]

Does that mean we need to move to other article submission sites.

[TheGodfather]

James,

The reason why my posts are so long is because I can write them really quickly since I use a voice recognition system that allows me to type extremely fast by using my voice in all it took several minutes to write that article and I really don't think that those several minutes with jeopardize my work.

Personally I will do my work in advance and have it posted on my site/blog on a scheduled date so I don't have to worry for some time about "work".

If EzineArticles does not need the 97 $ a month to survive than the white the heck do they have the membership option available if not for profit?

Alexa, a site that promotes the earth to be flat, and telling me that I would fit in such a society, is offensive no matter how well intended your remark was. Well, since you apologized the only thing left is for me to accept your apology and I do-so apology accepted.

As for the 10.000 members that paid the 97 $ a month, it was just a figurative number used to describe my point.

TheGodfather

[MikeCollins]

Wow, I can't believe I just read 4 pages of this! It's amazing how much of a controversy this is causing. Let me just say a few things and then I'll quietly go back to my corner.

1. Too many marketers (myself included) have fallen so in love with EZA that we've become dependent on it. Imagine what would happen if their servers exploded one morning and everything was gone without a trace. Bottom line...you should be using EZA as part of your marketing plan. But if you're totally reliant on it you're asking for trouble.

2. A few people mentioned that no one goes to EZA when researching a topic. That's not true at all. If it was none of us would be submitting articles there would we? As marketers we know how article directories work but the general population has no idea and accepts their content as fact. My wife and I had a baby just 2 weeks ago and my wife was looking up some newborn topic or something. She showed me an article from EZA and I said, "What are you crazy? Any schmuck could have written that."

3. There is a lot of crap on EZA. I realize they accepted it in the past but Chris deserves credit for trying to eliminate the garbage and increase standards across the board. In the long term its a sound business decision. It makes it a bit harder for us marketers, but in the end maybe it's a good thing.

[waken]

Originally Posted by pheonix44

You're a very talented writer acrasial.

In fact She is!

[Ryan700]

Originally Posted by Steven Wagenheim

Obviously he didn't just wake up with a bug up his ass one day and decide to not allow anymore crappy articles.

Oooops! I guess it's my fault! I'm the one that told him he had crappy articles on his site! lol! He must have checked it out!

[acrasial]

Originally Posted by Ryan700

Oooops! I guess it's my fault! I'm the one that told him he had crappy articles on his site! lol! He must have checked it out!

This is funny. (the above).

On a completely different note:

I notice on here that every time a thread is posted, and people enjoy it's topic, once it gets to page 3, people start hating the topic. Not only this, but everyone comes in and starts telling how useless the thread is suddenly, and then some people even throw in a few videos. All of you sat here partaking in it, so not sure why you are complaining.

Likewise with the Ezine Articles problem, everyone sat there at one point and time partaking in a relationship with them as well, and are now complaining about something or rather related.

Maybe some are NOT complaining about being banned, but they are complaining about the competition, or about crappy articles they see getting passed through, or about weird guidelines being put in place, or about the people complaining about EZA... either way someone's still complaining.

It sure does get old, but I enjoyed the thread, regardless. I love how others always come in and say "imagine if you had worked" or "written an article with these books".

People will do what they want to do. If they damn want to write an article for themselves, the sure will. If they want to come get some entertainment, they will do that as well.

Now back to EZA, alot of people are saying to BOYCOTT it, or simply back up their articles elsewhere (on their own website, blog etc...), and others are saying not to put their eggs into one basket. I hope then, that someone at least got something out of this thread, aside from thinking it's stupid, even after they sat in here and argued.

There are many options here, for anyone who hates, loves, or simply doesn't care about Ezine Articles, and everyone can take what they like from this.

At the end of the day, it's still someone ELSE'S website, not your own.... so no one can REALLY complain when the rules change, or their articles disappear... and even if Ezine Articles got slapped- NO ONE can complain, because it's not their website.

It's like going into someone else's home, sleeping there, maybe you pay rent too (platinum membership). You eat there, live there and are fine. A few roomates make a problem, and then they end up accidentally burning the entire house down.

Now none of you have a place to live, so what are you going to go back to the land lord and complain then? or are you going to go find a damn place to live which YOU own?

[Steven Fullman]

Originally Posted by TheGodfather

Well let's do some math: let's take an assumption that there are about 10.000 Internet marketers using EzineArticles as premium members.

OK.

Originally Posted by TheGodfather

Premium membership costs about 97 $ per month that equals to roughly 100.000 $ per month of loss should they choose to leave the EzineArticles.

OK.

Originally Posted by TheGodfather

Would you, or any other business, risk and income of 100.000 $ a month in order to "clean up" your own act, and after that to get even more crap from probably the same article writers.

Yes, Sir. If it was damaging the long term potential of my business.

Originally Posted by TheGodfather

If anything, what they should actually do, is a fire the article quality team that actually allowed that kind of "crap" to be even published on the site. The users it self are not to blame for posting such content, but the editors that actually published the article live on the site should take most of the blame for not doing their job right.

Here's where you're going wrong. You blame the site for publishing "crap"

Look, do you come from a publishing background?

I do.

Most of "the crap" probably came from folks who CONNED their audience into believing you can "publish" a bunch of nonsense on EZA and retire two months later.

Short term-ism gone mental...but then again...newbies are DESPERATE for a short term fix, aren't they?

I reckon EZA has changed their rule as a direct response to the type of articles some shady "marketers" are encouraging their customers to write...

I.E. Not worth reading.

...and that's pretty damaging to an article directory. Especially the biggest one on the web...

Originally Posted by TheGodfather

The premium members that paid 100 $ for membership should not be banned, nor should their accounts and subscriptions be closed down-that's just very bad working ethic.

You pay, therefore you're exempt?

Uh? No.

You pay for certain PRIVILEGES...within the rules of the site.

Break 'em, you're toast. Just like the free members.

Originally Posted by TheGodfather

Would it be so hard, since they have such huge income, to hire some additional editors that would go to each of the categories search for the articles that were approved but didn't meet the standards and just delete the articles from the site. It will take several weeks or maybe a few months but they wouldn't need to ban all the users out there that paid them to be efficient.

That sounds like a whine. So it's the editors fault...or the LACK of editors...

It's never the contributor's problem, eh?

Originally Posted by TheGodfather

Myself, I have written several articles to the EzineArticles in a niche that isn't saturated, and I wrote it from my own perspective, by that I mean it was original content with about 400 or 500 words per article. And since then they have banned me from the the article directory. Let me also emphasize that I was a basic member, I've posted only 3 articles, no articles had any problems getting approved and I followed all their guidelines.

Sorry to hear that.

Originally Posted by TheGodfather

If you take a look at their terms of policy you will notice that they reserve the right to delete your account for any reason without prior notice. If you think about it a little bit they can charge you to 97 $ and then ban you for no reason and not even refund you. Because you agreed to their terms of service that gave them the right to take your money and have you banned.

Standard fare.

Originally Posted by TheGodfather

Who is with me!?!

TheGodfather

Who's with me?

Steve

[bob_sikorski]

Google is on the war path about all the "junk" content people are publishing. That goes for review sites as well as article marketing. The bottom line is: Submit quality content, google will accept it. Submit poor content and google won't.

It will be interesting to see how many article directories are still in business by the first of the year.

Originally Posted by bob_sikorski

Google is on the war path about all the "junk" content people are publishing. That goes for review sites as well as article marketing. The bottom line is: Submit quality content, google will accept it. Submit poor content and google won't.

It will be interesting to see how many article directories are still in business by the first of the year.

Come on now Bob... They just made a deal with twitter to post all the spammy tweets on search results ... Let's get real quality content they are not after, they have more in the works and more planned then what we know.

James

[shirland]

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

That is so true, just may write whatever you want on your blog. I myself have notice that EZA have been very slow in publishing articles. I know that these month are the best time but on your blog you may PUBLISH anytime you want. Great Advantage.

[TheGodfather]

Originally Posted by Steven Fullman

Here's where you're going wrong. You blame the site for publishing "crap"

Well isn't that what they are PAYING their EDITORS and QUALITY REVIWERS?!?

It's as much as their fault as it is ours. But, then again, it was up to THEM to act on the "crap" when it was posted and not approve the article. Put it in the problem section and tell the author to correct the articles or better yet stop writing crap.

In the capitalism the saying goes: "the costumer is always right" so if you PAY them for their EXPERT editors to READ your article as soon as possible and publish it if it fits into their QUALITY criteria, then you should at least not be banned, you should have at least be permitted to use up your "membership", for which you PAID for ($97 per month ain't cheap) or they should divide your membership into equal parts and refund you for the rest of the remaining days that the membership wasn't used up.

From where I come from, that is done by all the serious and professional businesses. I work for a telephone company in telesales and it is completely normal to refund the costumer or bill him less for the month for which he couldn't use the service, EVEN THOUGH our terms of service state that we may unplug you for any reason what so ever....

Like I said... it's just bad business ethics.... This way by banning premium members and degrading the platinum and basic + members they are just pissing of people. Perhaps not someone who relies only on them but the marketers and "experts" that write a lot of content and that contributed to the directory.

It's like: you climb a mountain, and once you got all the way to the top i come to you and say: "sorry but I don't like the way you climbed up here, your left foot was very annoying me for no apparent reason... you'll have to climb again..."

just a bunch of BS from EZA that is trying to show us who's boss, not realizing that we are the ones that are in charge.

And even so, if for every one of us that left there would be 10 other "marketers" who'd come in our place... they will soon be banned also...

Peace,
TheGodfather

[susanm]

from Something Unexpected:

"Our next big pass at curbing low-value content submissions will come in the form of banning certain types of content that are currently in too high of market supply (think “Acai berry” type articles) and other commonly spammed articles with highly derivative content (think penis enlargement, get your ex back, dating articles, some types of finance articles). We’ve been slow to reach this point because we’re looking for ways to allow legitimate good ideal members to submit content on these topics while singling out the gamers who only want to submit really thin low value content."

Does anybody else find it funny that they only want their ideal members to submit articles on penis enlargement?