Guys, What Is Your Plan B If EzineArticles.com Become More Strict?

[robert25]

Day By Day, it’s becoming difficult to get content approved by ezinearticles.com, now they are not approving content which is written twice (Though Its Unique! Not Re-written).

In a current situation, it is very difficult to scale marketing efforts. People like me who submit 20 articles a day is in a dilemma. Here on Warrior forums there are tons of Article Marketer those who are senior to me and earn more than me, so I need your advice. Can you people tell me what’s your Plan B if ezinearticles.com doesn’t be as profitable as it was previously?

Though other article directories are there like ArticleBase.com and Goarticles.com but those don’t pull that much of traffic. And SEO efforts pay after 3-4 months. If you guys point me to the right direction it will be great help for me.

[Amfire]

Plan A) submit to your own sites, and then resubmit/Bookmark to multiple places.

Plan B) Submit to one specific directory/Web 2.00 property, When they hahher out look for another plan!!!

I have had good success with plan A, yet to implement plan B

[Hamida Harland]

I would imagine most people's Plan B would just be to submit less, but better quality articles to Ezinearticles. If you used to submit 20 articles, why not submit 5-10 REALLY good articles instead - you should still get the same results. If you're in this for the long run though you're better off writing as much as you can for your own sites instead.

[JBorhez]

Hey Robert,

I just finished watching this short video of Christopher Knight.

Derivative Content Be Gone

[acrasial]

Plan A: When the going gets Tough, get tougher.

Plan B: When the going gets tough, the tough get going.


I pick Plan A.

[BIG Mike]

Simple - adapt to thier policies and continue using them or identify alternatives to them if you're unwilling/unable to adapt.

And whatever you do, learn from this experience to understand that you need to diversify your efforts as much as possible - certainly if you find a "Free Ride" with a place linke EZA, use it for as long as you can, but don't lock your entire business model into complete reliance on them.

Unfortunately, that's an all too common scenario in IM - over the years I've watched as many folks have been literally put out of business because they depended entirely upon a thirdy party service as the foundation of their business model.

[ivana]

What is an article? Information right? this information has to be great, and your link to the site has to be something that will help them even more right? Well you can guest blog with the quality content! You can swap content if you are building a list, with another list owner. You can paste great guides, tutorials in niche forums to get more traffic, etc.

The quantity article method works, but the quality article method works 10 times better!

[Revolves]

Submit articles to your own website first, and then to EZA (regardless of whether they get approved or not). This way, your website will fill up with content, and on the whole, you'll start getting a good amount of traffic.

Also, don't underestimate other article directories. I've ranked on page one for articles submitted on other directories, while the same article on EZA could not get there (even with the advantage of submitting articles months ago to EZA). Don't blindly follow the herd mind.

As BIG Mike said, don't lock your sources in to one place. Why do marketers insist of building credibility? Because EZA may go, so may Google, but as long as you're alive and don't do anything disastrous, your credibility won't go. And that alone can give you success.

Regards,
Revolves

[Kevin Riley]

Originally Posted by robert25

People like me who writes 20 articles a day is in a dilemma.

My advice: Quit churning out articles. I barely write 20 articles in a year, let alone a day. That's just insane. What the Internet needs - and what will help your rep - is great articles. Go for quality over quantity.

Analogy. I eat small, delicious pieces of Kobe beef - dripping with juices and it melts on your tongue. I'd much rather eat a few small slices of this fabulous morsel, than chew my way through a massive steak that has little flavour. If the quality isn't there, the quantity is not going to make up for it.

[robert25]

@BIG Mike, I really understand what you mean to say. I had put my eggs in one basket and now it is becoming a big problem. Though I had done some SEO still its not paying as good as EzineArticles.com.

Sooner or later I have to re-think of this business model and make out for an alternative. Right now, as per your suggestions I am developing a alternative plan. Which will be well diversified and I will share at this thread when ever I am done.

[robert25]

Originally Posted by Kevin Riley

My advice: Quit churning out articles. I barely write 20 articles in a year, let alone a day. That's just insane. What the Internet needs - and what will help your rep - is great articles. Go for quality over quantity.

Analogy. I eat small, delicious pieces of Kobe beef - dripping with juices and it melts on your tongue. I'd much rather eat a few small slices of this fabulous morsel, than chew my way through a massive steak that has little flavour. If the quality isn't there, the quantity is not going to make up for it.

Sorry for my mistake, I submit 20 articles a day, I don't write that much. I had hired dedicated writers to write articles.

[andrew_writes]

I've been having the same problem with EA and in an effort to stick with them I looked for a solution and found one on the directory itself.

All this time I've been writing for them I never knew that they had a training program that comes in audio and pdf and is very comprehensive.

It's under the Author Resource menu and is free.

EA is basically telling you exactly what they want to get all of your articles approved, all the time.

Right now, it's worth the effort to follow their strict directions because the rewards can be greater than those attained from any other directory.

Also, I've been having a problem with using subdomains in my resource box as the moderators seem to think they are affiliate links.

I don't have a solution for that one since every support ticket I have put in about the situation has been ignored.

The sub domains don't redirect or anything but they still think "affiliate link" and it is not cost effective to purchase a new domain for every affiliate campaign.

Any help on this topic will be appreciated.

[marlon]

Hi,

Darwin didn't say the smartest, fastest, or strongest species survived.

He said the one that adapted.

So adapting is part of marketing and business. You really aren't IN business until you can adapt.

I'm not an seo marketer. But I have been intensely studying it for a new product I'm doing.

The reason you're using ezinearticles.com is to get backlinks or to get direct clicks.

If it's for backlinks, there are dozens of ways to get backlinks to a web site. To get the same hit as you do with ezine articles, you may need to outsourcer. But you're probably doing that with your articles anyway.

Another alternative is to get backlinks to the articles you DO produce so you get more juice from them. There's a wso right now on how to get thousands of backlinks fast. And it's a very clever backlink strategy for ezine articles.

Now, if you're getting backlinks and traffic to your own article, maybe you look for another article directory that isn't laden with ads but still has high pr.

There's an old wso for "organic seo". He had a lot of clever backlink ideas.

Marlon

[tommen]

If the article directories wont accept my articles anymore, then I just post them on my blog and use social marketing to get more traffic.

[BIG Mike]

Originally Posted by Kevin Riley

My advice: Quit churning out articles. I barely write 20 articles in a year, let alone a day. That's just insane. What the Internet needs - and what will help your rep - is great articles. Go for quality over quantity.

Analogy. I eat small, delicious pieces of Kobe beef - dripping with juices and it melts on your tongue. I'd much rather eat a few small slices of this fabulous morsel, than chew my way through a massive steak that has little flavour. If the quality isn't there, the quantity is not going to make up for it.

Best advice I've heard all day - and it's a surefire way to benefit in the long-term.

[Phil Leotardo]

I think you can still submit as many articles. I just upgraded to a Premium membership about a month ago. My account was flagged a few weeks ago and they took away my Platinum status and downgraded me to Basic Plus, which I earned right away a few months back. (I stopped including lists and aimed for 250 words per article - all words with no lists or anything in bold, italic, or underlined. The EZA guys aren't into that monkey business anymore. In their view, that stuff was spun whether it was or wasn't - and that doesn't cut it anmore.)

I figure it has to do with Google coming down hard on them, but the reason doesn't really matter. It's their site, and if I want to take advantage of their traffic I have to play nice.

I followed the instructions EZA gave me when they downgraded my account and had Platinum status back by the end of the week. I asked them right away what it would take to get back to Platinum status. They told me 25 articles. (I write all of my articles myself without a spinner and submitted 25 within the next day or so.) When I reached my limit of 25, I was no longer able to submit. So, I emailed them and asked them to upgrade me again and that was done in a matter of minutes.

All I do now is make sure each article has something in bold type, underlined, and has at least one kind of list in the article. Obviously, I think, churning out article after article isn't a long term business plan, but I can still submit all the articles I want.

I think, with words written in bold, italic, or underlined, and including at least one kind of list, you will never have a problem. I haven't. One thing I am finding, though, is that I reach a point of diminishing returns by posting so many articles, so I like what Hamida had to say.

My goal now is to follow what has worked for Hamida and Rebecca L. I have read just about everything these two ladies have written and they have a very good handle on things. To the best of my knowledge, they suggest Niche Marketing on Crack as a starting point and go about things that way.

Pumping out articles without properly building up sites is not the way to go, I think. I got my first few $100 days doing that, but the writing itself is brutal and once the last article is published, it's back to grinding it out. I feel like Sysiphus. Yeah, it may be good for short term money, but the day I stop submitting articles is the day the income goes down dramatically. Anyway...

[M Thompson]

Originally Posted by JBorhez

Hey Robert,

I just finished watching this short video of Christopher Knight.

Derivative Content Be Gone

There are so many holes in his argument that he could use it as a sieve!!

Briefly without knowing the stats for live articles , It could be that a 300 word article Is LESS likely to go into problem status.

With out knowing the reasons they are in problem status the stats mean nothing.

And finally the only stats that count is what is the CTR of 800 word articles compared to 300 word articles.. much less i suspect

If you want the full verison of my view on that video....


lies damned lies and statistics

[jrrich814]

Well, to play Devil's Advocate here, I can see their (EZAs) point. Crappy, poorly written and nearly incomprehensible articles seem to be the norm there.

Some of the writing I've seen appears to have originated from illiterate eight-year-olds' on Folger's coffee while typing the article on their cell phone...

...At the Mall during lunch!

Ezinearticles is looking to improve their branding. I'm sure that they see the Social Networking model eating away at their market and are going for higher quality content to keep their audience.

I personally have no problem with this move. Keeps us all on our toes.

Regards,
--JR Rich

[Mohsin Rasool]

Hi Warriors,

I like the idea of Quality over Quantity....
But here is one thing just made me think:

Quantity over Quality was the idea of Chris? Please do not mind I am not saying this..
My friend bought Article Marketing Course from EZA site months/year ago where he was taught go for
QUANTITY that is it...!

I have not written myself more than 5 articles in past 5 years so I love the idea of Quality over Quantity...but i just wanted to know is it true that ONCE EZA official course
recommended this Quantity Articles model?

Sorry if this was unrelated post....
Mohsin

[Steven Carl Kelly]

Personally, I don't need a Plan B because I never post articles to EZA and don't have any intention ever to do so. But my advice is this: quality beats the absolute living hell out of quantity every single time.

My best work consistently produces the best return.

[robert25]

Originally Posted by M Thompson

There are so many holes in his argument that he could use it as a sieve!!

Briefly without knowing the stats for live articles , It could be that a 300 word article Is LESS likely to go into problem status.

With out knowing the reasons they are in problem status the stats mean nothing.

And finally the only stats that count is what is the CTR of 800 word articles compared to 300 word articles.. much less i suspect

If you want the full verison of my view on that video....


lies damned lies and statistics

Yes, you are right! CTR will surly go down, eventually less visitors to landing page.

[Phil Leotardo]

Originally Posted by robert25

Yes, you are right! CTR will surly go down, eventually less visitors to landing page.

Both of guys are thinking of things from your perspective, and that really doesn't matter if you want to continue to use EZA. You can think about about the different angles and ramifications until the cows come home, but at the end of the day EZA has changed their submission guidelines. It is what it is and that's all there is about it. Just make the best of what the situation is today.

[John Tighe]

I have to agree with the guys who are saying quality over quantity.

By way of example, not only is the last article I submitted in the top 10 for real estate (and still climbing), it is ranked number 3 on Google for the primary keyword (house price crash) and number 1 for the secondary keyword (house price crash 2010).

Also, I was able to submit it to the newsfeed on a major property site and it brought in 1700 new visitors in 24 hours (the link to that submission is number 3 on Google for the secondary keyword).

Now the catch is it took me several hours to research and write. I then had it proofed by a couple of people whose judgment I trust - because there are always things you miss - and made amendments.

But I'm in no doubt that the results are better than I would have gotten from 20 mediocre articles or even a 100 !

The other crucial thing is you've got to have a great headline otherwise no one is ever going to open it to see what you wrote in the first place! Once they've clicked on your article then it's the quality of it that will lead to conversions.

If your article is good you will have no trouble getting it approved whatsoever! Get you writer to focus on 1 or 2 really good articles rather than 20 crappy ones - remember you get what you pay for.

[M Thompson]

Originally Posted by Phil Leotardo

Both of guys are thinking of things from your perspective, and that really doesn't matter if you want to continue to use EZA. You can think about about the different angles and ramifications until the cows come home, but at the end of the day EZA has changed their submission guidelines. It is what it is and that's all there is about it. Just make the best of what the situation is today.

Phil the thing is they haven't changed the submission guidelines

You can still submit a 250 word article. So there is no point is chris using stats that make no sense to justify longer articles.

If they do change the limit to 500 words then i'll change my business model but until then I'll stick to what i know works ... and before you ask out of over 2000 articles i have never had 1 rejected.

[nitin22]

The way I think is, you have to continuously change with time. Big G is not the same as it was in 2003. So if ezine is changing you also have to change your strategy of writing articles. Because in due course of time only the fittest will survive

[ivana]

Johntighe, made his first post here, and makes a killer statement! Couple of people on this thread tried to explain the quality of the article over the quantity, and it seems to me those messages are ignored.

Get 10 quality articles ranked HIGH in google, and you will have better results than writing 100's of articles!

I've tried both methods, BUT 10 over 100, I will take any time!

[John Tighe]

Thanks Ivana - glad you liked the post!

[AnniePot]

I've always treated EA as a completely different entity from the others. They provide me with the best results, so I see it in my own interest to provide them with my best work.

Every week, throughout the week, I work on one EA article (returning to it during spare moments each day). At the end of the week I submit it to EA, and I believe it represents the best work I can produce.

I have never had an article rejected, or any of it's content questioned. My worse EA encounter was once when I inadvertently cut and pasted directly from Word (I normally pass it through Note Tab to stip out all the Word nasties). Their automated system paused the process and directed me to clean out some Word formatting.

On the other hand, I write and submit a much larger volume to other directories on a daily basis.

[Phil Leotardo]

Originally Posted by M Thompson

Phil the thing is they haven't changed the submission guidelines

You can still submit a 250 word article. So there is no point is chris using stats that make no sense to justify longer articles.

If they do change the limit to 500 words then i'll change my business model but until then I'll stick to what i know works ... and before you ask out of over 2000 articles i have never had 1 rejected.

I'm with you, Mark, and I agree with the premise of your stance. I don't think I'll run into trouble with 250 word articles unless you submit 20 in one day in the same niche, like I was doing. They're not into that anymore. Why worry about the why of it? It's not going to change a thing.

Seriously, everyone knows that if you submit 20 articles in one day in a single niche that each article is going to be saying basically the same thing. Even if you submit only 3 a day in a niche, by the fifth day you've exhausted all you can say. So, to me, all you can do is stay within EZA's new guidelines and make them look nicer and longer. I can deal with that.

I know all about the quality and quantity argument. And whether it's a good long term business model or not, some people blast a ton of articles for the initial traffic and sales - because it works. Ask Robert25, I'm sure he can attest to that. For some people, including myself, it is a means to make enough money to reinvest and explore a better long term business model.

I just don't want my account banned, so I'll just get used to writing longer articles. You can't beat that initial traffic, and until I get better and smarter at doing this, I don't have a choice but to adapt to EZA's guidelines.

[BigRedNotebook]

Quality vs. quantity?

Why not try quality AND quantity?

[Alexa Smith]

Originally Posted by robert25

What Is Your Plan B If EzineArticles.com Become More Strict?

Possibly to use them a little more than I do now.

I do think they know how to run their own business. If they can to some extent weed out the poor quality stuff and the people habitually submitting it, my guess is that that's going to end up being good for my business, in the long term, rather than bad, so it's possible I might want to start submitting everything I write for myself there again, after publishing it on my own sites first, obviously.

I already have to be totally EZA compliant in all articles I write for clients (my payment usually being conditional on EZA acceptance) and I'd welcome any improvement in overall quality there, for many reasons.

I write longer articles than their average anyway, because I find that although shorter articles often have a higher click-through rate, longer ones produce considerably more sales. I think that's because they're effectively doing a good job at sorting out potential buyers from just "readers".

[hukumat]

If your content is unique and under their TOS then why not they will approve it... Surely they will....bcz everyone want quality these days...

If incase then I'll surely go with goarticles.com and articledashboard.com

[Dennis-White]

Put more articles on web 2.0 sites, and my own with a ton of backlinks pointing to my articles shouldn't be a problem

[TheRichJerksNet]

Have a party in Chris' name for getting rid of all the wannabe so-called self proclaimed experts that submit junk articles. Then send a Congrats to Chris for taking the steps needed to clean up his own directory and get rid of the "Bum Marketers" that use the site to post trash just for backlinks.

After that I will sit back and laugh at all the wannabe experts that run around posting threads asking "what can I do now eza banned me" ...

James

[Martin Luxton]

This is a thread that regularly appears in different guises

"Help! I'm gaming/spamming Google/Craig's List/Yahoo Answers etc and now I've been banned. It's not fair - they're destroying my business."

People who do this don't have a business to destroy while EZA, Google etc do have a business to protect.

Martin

[Dan C. Rinnert]

Part of the reason I think EZA is "cracking down" on people is because, for too long, many IMers have had a very loose definition of what an "article" is.

How many times have you seen the advice to write an article and then rewrite it ten different ways so you get ten "articles" out of one?

Too many IMers, that meant they had 10 articles on their hands. To a writer or editor, what that really meant was that they had 10 revisions of a single article. A writer might write and rewrite an article a dozen times and then submit the best one for publication. From there, an editor may make or request additional revisions.

For IMers, they've taken that concept backwards. Instead of polishing an article and submitting their best work, they instead essentially submitted each of their drafts as a separate article.

People have looked too much at the quantity angle. It's better to have ten articles than one, because of the backlinks. But, what does EZA get in exchange for providing those backlinks? Ten cruddy articles? You may be getting a backlink, but they're getting garbage. Why should they trade something of value (a backlink) for something of no value (trash)?

Now, if they can raise the quality of the site overall, that also raises the quality of the backlinks. So, you may be getting fewer backlinks, but you may be getting a higher quality backlink. Seems a fair trade to me.

[BlueSquares]

EZA is completely and totally dependent on Google to survive.

Seriously, if Google dropped them from their results, Premium subs will disappear and authors will disappear.

So instead of depending on EZA...which depends on Google...why not just skip the middleman?

Get your sites ranking in Google without EZA.
Control your own content, and word count, and "derivative" work.
Control your own real estate.
Flip it when you get bored.

Give EZA the finger. They're playing "king" when, in reality, they depend on a bigger "king" to remain in business.

The real question should be:
EZA, what's YOUR Plan B when Google gives you the finger? lol...
At least I have PPC, PPV and other article directories to fall back on.

[aboutalhah]

What is your plan B?

I'm sorry, but you are asking the WRONG question here.

The reason why you are so frustrated and anxious (and searching for a plan B) is that you took a really BAD start in your online business.

It's not your fault, some marketers continuously tell you to write articles, write articles and... write articles.

Big difference between a money maker and a business.

This is the question you should ask. How I took what I earned from my article marketing efforts and turn this into a real business (that I can sell)?

As for plan B and EZA... no comment.

I hope you "get" my advice.

all the best with your online business.

Franck

[LIndaB]

I have no problem with Chris improving the quality of articles in the directory. However, what I would really like to see is him improve the quality of the page my articles sit on. A good start would be to get rid of that gigantic adsense block that sits right above my article. He already has 3 other blocks on the page. If this were done on any of our sites, we would be accused of building adsense farms. If he wants better quality articles, then I would think he would want visitors to actually be able to find them. Right now, they are hardly above the fold.

[Steven Carl Kelly]

Originally Posted by LIndaB

I have no problem with Chris improving the quality of articles in the directory. However, what I would really like to see is him improve the quality of the page my articles sit on. A good start would be to get rid of that gigantic adsense block that sits right above my article. He already has 3 other blocks on the page. If this were done on any of our sites, we would be accused of building adsense farms. If he wants better quality articles, then I would think he would want visitors to actually be able to find them. Right now, they are hardly above the fold.

I think the site owner would much rather have people clicking on the Adsense links than on any links in your article or resource box.

[TheRichJerksNet]

Originally Posted by LIndaB

I have no problem with Chris improving the quality of articles in the directory. However, what I would really like to see is him improve the quality of the page my articles sit on. A good start would be to get rid of that gigantic adsense block that sits right above my article. He already has 3 other blocks on the page. If this were done on any of our sites, we would be accused of building adsense farms. If he wants better quality articles, then I would think he would want visitors to actually be able to find them. Right now, they are hardly above the fold.

Linda,
EZA is an adsense farm ... There are so many distractions that it is sick. Not just the google ads but all the other links that are supposed to be related but are not.

Getting rid of all adsense would seriously increase the quality but that is just my opinion... I personally have no love for adsense either..

James

[bdgbdg]

Originally Posted by Hamida Harland

I would imagine most people's Plan B would just be to submit less, but better quality articles to Ezinearticles. If you used to submit 20 articles, why not submit 5-10 REALLY good articles instead - you should still get the same results. If you're in this for the long run though you're better off writing as much as you can for your own sites instead.

Which wouldn't be too bad, really...