Ezine Articles Rules Driving Me Crazy

by tomfinster

Posted: 14 years ago 26 replies

INTERNET MARKETING

I have a question regarding ezine articles. I have read the editorial guidelines because I was confused about anchoring an affiliate link with a top-level domain which I now know we can do... so I set one up However, I am a little confused:confused: about what there trying to say about the website URL'S.

So what I have done is copied a section of ezine editorial and pasted it here so it would be easier for me to elaborate on...
-------------------------
WEBSITE LINKS/URLS - There is a total limit of (4) active or inactive links allowed in the article, which consists of both the BODY and the RESOURCE BOX.

Maximum of (2) "Self-Serving" active or inactive links/URLs to a website that you own, control, or have an interest in.
Maximum of (2) active or inactive non-self serving links/URLs to a website that you do not own, control, or have an interest in which adds value to the article.
Confine your self-serving links to your RESOURCE BOX.

iv. We do not accept articles with active or inactive links in the first 1-3 paragraphs. Please put your active links in the resource box below the article body. The article BODY is your "GIVE" and the RESOURCE BOX is your "TAKE."
-----------------------------
I don't EVEN know where to start? Firstoff, what do they mean by Self-serving? Is our own blog -or- youtube page considered self-serving, or is a clickbank redirect considered self serving?

Also, what is the difference between active and inactive links?

They state that we can put an affiliate link in the article body just as long as it's a top-level-domain, but do they impede us or hurt us in any way... like for SEO reason on google?

By them initially reviewing it, do they give it any kind of score to helping it get found?

if I knew that they were giving my article a worse score just because I put in an affiliate link in the body, then I wouldn't put an affiliate link in the body... and I would just have my blog or squidoo in my resource box.

There's a lot of questions here... Thanks if you made it this far!

I appreciate any kind of input kindly!

Thanks again,
Tom

#articles #crazy #driving #ezine #rules

Shannon Spoon

14 years ago

A self serving link would be a redirect to a ClickBank product i think. A non-self serving links would be a blog. I don't see why it would hurt to put a link in the article body. I think it would only help you.

Thanks
1 reply

Signature

Click here if you want your website ranked on page 1 in Google

{{ DiscussionBoard.errors[1944137].message }}

Jeremy Kelsall

14 years ago

Your making it more difficult than it has to be....

Write article ----> put link in the resource box --------> Submit article

[ 1 ] Thanks
2 replies

Signature

A Blog With Reviews, Drama, and a Few Swear Words.

{{ DiscussionBoard.errors[1944150].message }}

areaK 14 years ago

Originally Posted by Jeremy Kelsall

Your making it more difficult than it has to be....

Write article ----> put link in the resource box --------> Submit article

Absolutely agreed. You're over complicating it and various article sites have various rules but the one that is consistent is you can have a link in your resource box so just do this and you forgo all of the headaches and frustrations.
- Thanks
{{ DiscussionBoard.errors[1946510].message }}

Mohammad Afaq

14 years ago

Originally Posted by Jeremy Kelsall

Your making it more difficult than it has to be....

Write article ----> put link in the resource box --------> Submit article

Don't weave around and listen to what Jeremy has to say. Just write and article, put a link into the signature with a good call to action and submit it.

Simple

Thanks
1 reply

Signature

â€œThe first draft of anything is shit.â€ ~Ernest Hemingway

{{ DiscussionBoard.errors[1947553].message }}

Lauryn

14 years ago

Originally Posted by alextsui

Errr... sorry to be a bit out of topic but is that your real avatar picture? I could swear you look like Morgan Freeman.

Alex

Agreed

Originally Posted by Zanti

Have to agree with Jeremy and Lauryn on this. Every article I've submitted has been accepted. I only put two links in the resource box. Done deal.

Lauryn, thank you for your service to our country.

Brian

Thanks, but it's not necessarily me yet, more like my husband...but troop morale... (he's in the desert) is a full time duty.

I hope to be active this year.

Originally Posted by mohammad111

Don't weave around and listen to what Jeremy has to say. Just write and article, put a link into the signature with a good call to action and submit it.

Simple

Agreed. . .

Also, I don't know if this has been mentioned yet, but when you do your signature... customize it, and give a call to action that will read like the end of the article as opposed to a marketing signature. Sometimes, when you entice them to click on a link at the end of the article as opposed to "your site" they'll respond better.

Thanks
1 reply

Signature

I Go Hard = "Slanguage" for putting forth a lot of effort.

Don't be an arse and try to flip something you clearly have no knowledge of against me.

{{ DiscussionBoard.errors[1947602].message }}

Mohammad Afaq 14 years ago

Sometimes, when you entice them to click on a link at the end of the article as opposed to "your site" they'll respond better.

That's what I meant when I said to write a signature with at good CTA (call to action).

And it really is true because if you write an article about getting back with your girlfriend then the visitors won't care if you are a successful internet marketer or whatever. Only think they want is a method to get back with their girl and that's what will grab their attention and force them to click.
- [ 1 ] Thanks
Signature

â€œThe first draft of anything is shit.â€ ~Ernest Hemingway
{{ DiscussionBoard.errors[1947607].message }}

Lauryn

14 years ago

I just keep the anchor text links in my signature and bypass the craziness.

Thanks
1 reply

Signature

I Go Hard = "Slanguage" for putting forth a lot of effort.

Don't be an arse and try to flip something you clearly have no knowledge of against me.

{{ DiscussionBoard.errors[1944152].message }}

Zanti

14 years ago

Thanks
1 reply

Signature

Brian Alexzander ~ Irie To The Highest - Respect
"Irie"...the ultimate positive, powerful, pleasing, all encompassing quality/vibration

A Candle Never Loses Any Of Its Own Light... By Lighting Another Candle

{{ DiscussionBoard.errors[1944170].message }}

alextsui

14 years ago

Originally Posted by Zanti

Errr... sorry to be a bit out of topic but is that your real avatar picture? I could swear you look like Morgan Freeman.

Alex

Thanks
1 reply

{{ DiscussionBoard.errors[1944809].message }}

Zanti 14 years ago

Originally Posted by alextsui

Errr... sorry to be a bit out of topic but is that your real avatar picture? I could swear you look like Morgan Freeman.

Alex

Yes, it's me. I wish I was making Morgan Freeman type of money right now. But soon.

Maybe there's some way I can monetize the similarity, any ideas?

Brian
- Thanks
Signature

Brian Alexzander ~ Irie To The Highest - Respect
"Irie"...the ultimate positive, powerful, pleasing, all encompassing quality/vibration

A Candle Never Loses Any Of Its Own Light... By Lighting Another Candle
{{ DiscussionBoard.errors[1947652].message }}

patey88

14 years ago

Originally Posted by Tom Pregon

I don't EVEN know where to start? Firstoff, what do they mean by Self-serving? Is our own blog -or- youtube page considered self-serving, or is a clickbank redirect considered self serving?

Also, what is the difference between active and inactive links?

They state that we can put an affiliate link in the article body just as long as it's a top-level-domain, but do they impede us or hurt us in any way... like for SEO reason on google?

By them initially reviewing it, do they give it any kind of score to helping it get found?

if I knew that they were giving my article a worse score just because I put in an affiliate link in the body, then I wouldn't put an affiliate link in the body... and I would just have my blog or squidoo in my resource box.

An active link is clickable. An inactive link is where the URL is typed out so readers can see it, but it is not clickable. Think of it as a text reference to a website.

You cannot put an affiliate link in the body, or a link to your video or blog or anything else that benefits you in any way. You also cannot put links to other ezinearticles, in case you were wondering.

You could put a link to wikipedia, or some other huge site that obviously has no relationship to you, that you obviously couldn't benefit from, in the body, as long as you put it in the 4th paragraph or after. I have never tried this, but that's what the rule is saying.

Sorry I can't help with your questions about "scores" because I don't understand what you're asking. But I can say that after your article is accepted, it will get indexed by google.

Patey88

[ 1 ] Thanks
1 reply

{{ DiscussionBoard.errors[1944215].message }}

tomfinster 14 years ago

Thanks Patey88,

This helped a lot!
- Thanks
{{ DiscussionBoard.errors[1944421].message }}

Zack Lim 14 years ago

I agree with Jeremy.

Christopher Knight has emphasize many times already in his teleseminar and training with this point:

The article is the component where the author give valuable content to the reader and the resource box will be the component where the author will receive the reward when the reader clicks on the link to go to the author's website.

There shouldn't be any problem with the EzineArticles team if you follow Jeremy's model:

Write article ----> put link in the resource box --------> Submit article

Zack
- Thanks
Signature

FREE Affiliate Marketing Mini Course Reveals The Fastest And Honest Way To Make Your First $1000 Online

Click Here To Get FREE Instant Access
{{ DiscussionBoard.errors[1944536].message }}
Tomwood 14 years ago

A self serving link is anything that brings a benefit to you that includes links to your own sites even if they are not monetized.
- Thanks
Signature

FREE >>As We Thinketh << as a man thinketh for the 21st century The missing chapters are actually the best
{{ DiscussionBoard.errors[1944552].message }}
Mrs S 14 years ago

I admit when I first read those rules they left me feeling pretty confused - which is why I just decided to keep my links to the resource box. I am currently using a TLD redirect to a ClickBank sales page with no issue.
- Thanks
- 1 reply
{{ DiscussionBoard.errors[1944562].message }}
- tomfinster 14 years ago
  
  Actually, I found out that you can definitely link out to an affiliate product just as long as you have or buy a Top-Level-Domain. For example, you can't use a subdomain.blahblah.com -or - blahblah.com/blahblah
  
  It doesn't even have to be a redirect, you can use it as regular forwarding.
  
  Just make sure that you are not hard selling that link and it is after the 3rd paragraph.
  
  I've been anchoring them in and letting it flow through and I just got 3 articles approved. I also got one of my articles approved that was kind of a hard sell and posted the whole URL. I guess it all depends who's reviewing it.
  
  I find that adding affiliate links in the body is REALLY important... People coming to your article may be just looking for a link and may quickly just click on one of dozens of advertiser links screaming at them right on the right side of the page because they don't see a link in your article... or maybe your resource box is too far down to see a link.
  
  So, I definitely think that adding a link in your body can turn out to be more beneficial.
  
  Thanks for your input
  
  [ 1 ] Thanks
  
  {{ DiscussionBoard.errors[1947724].message }}
Marhelper 14 years ago

It comes down to K.I.S.S
- Thanks
Signature

Senior Home Care San Diego
{{ DiscussionBoard.errors[1946625].message }}
Midas3 Consulting 14 years ago

Originally Posted by cjmo75

I didn't notice a loss in any sales by not using them, so, they know what they can do with all of their regs..

Sort of agree, it's not the rules as such but the inconsistency that's more awkward to deal with, some of the human reviewers there are frankly mental.

That said, I submitted a 900 word article 2 days ago.

It's now sat at no2 in Google for "product name - review" .

I did a whopping 2 social bookmarks.
1 x 2.0
5 x one ways
2 x Blog comments
1 related article on a decent site backlinked to it.

That's it. I've not even checked if some of the above has even gotten picked up yet, and I don't really care.

The product launches Monday..

I'll pick up a few grand from this one, the article took me around 2 hours, I actually did have to review the product carefully.

Not bad for a few hours work.

So while I sort of agree, EZ and some other sites have rules that I'll suck up when it suits me.
- Thanks
{{ DiscussionBoard.errors[1946641].message }}
Kris Turner 14 years ago

I've submitted hundreds of articles to EZA and never had one turned doen for any reason (except a couple of times when it was their error). As has already been said: write a good article, put 2 links to your sites in your resource box, and then repeat.
- Thanks
Signature
{{ DiscussionBoard.errors[1946824].message }}
areaK 14 years ago

I didn't know they really turned down articles LOL...but then again, I don't jump through all of the hoops, as mentioned above, link in the resource box and keep it moving and you probably won't have many linking issues with any site that way.
- Thanks
{{ DiscussionBoard.errors[1947219].message }}

TimG

14 years ago

The links within the body of your article really only serve to add credibility to your article because generally they link to another source to help validate your own article. However, even though you can't benefit directly from that link others can (say a partner perhaps

).

The links in your resource box are designed to drive traffic to your websites which if you have provided quality content in your article body and a strong call to action in the resource box works extremely well.

I always have one active link in the resource box and generally one in-active link in the following format http://www.nameofmysite.com althought this is more to gain traffic from sites where they add the article but fail to create active hyper links.

Also, another technique I like to use is something I call the "Use your illusion" resource box which is where I actually use the last paragraph in my article as the resource box with everything blended in so it looks like the article naturally flows right into the call to action without the stoppage that most resource boxes create.

Hope that made sense.

Respectfully,
Tim

Thanks
1 reply

Signature

Article Marketing Soldiers - The Best Selling Article Marketing Product On The Warrior Forum Is Now Looking For Affiliates! Make Over $25 Per Sale With This High Converting Product.

Make More Money And Spend More Time With Your Family By Becoming A Scentsy Consultant - I Provide Personal Assistance And Help With Growing Your Business.

{{ DiscussionBoard.errors[1947490].message }}

genietoast

14 years ago

Patey88 explained that very well.

Remember that your article also serves as content for anyone who wants to copy it and paste it onto their blog (provided they leave your resource box in tact). Bloggers don't always have time to write.

It's also the reason why your article shouldn't sound like a product review or a promotion. I've seen a few authors get away with it, but generally no. Your article content is meant to be informative or educational. You're not writing another sales page.

Imagine how bloggers would feel about self-promoting links in the body of an article that visitors can click off to. Who's going to pay attention to their blog? I can see their point.

Nonetheless, this is still a benefit for you because you get free traffic from someone else's site.

So having a top-level domain in your resource box is a good idea because sometimes bloggers will copy your article and not all of the code and links copy over with it. Not a typical problem, but it sometimes happens.

You can also use anchor text in your resource box, cloaking your link:

Example: Feel free to visit my website if you want to know more hot golf tips.

Hot Golf tips would be your anchor text. This is great for SEO. By the way, EzineArticles won't allow you more than three words as anchor text. And you must have a top level domain underneath your anchor text, not an affiliate link. I tried that. They said no.

Besides, www.joebillybob.com/?affiliateID=234i115$ just looks ugly anyway.

Thanks
1 reply

{{ DiscussionBoard.errors[1947538].message }}

TimG

14 years ago

Originally Posted by genietoast

You can also use anchor text in your resource box, cloaking your link:

Example: Feel free to visit my website if you want to know more hot golf tips.

Hot Golf tips would be your anchor text. This is great for SEO. By the way, EzineArticles won't allow you more than three words as anchor text. And you must have a top level domain underneath your anchor text, not an affiliate link. I tried that. They said no.

Besides, www.joebillybob.com/?affiliateID=234i115$ just looks ugly anyway.

That's the general rule but if your article is longer then 400 words they allow you to go up to 5 words within the anchor text.

Tim

Thanks

Signature

Article Marketing Soldiers - The Best Selling Article Marketing Product On The Warrior Forum Is Now Looking For Affiliates! Make Over $25 Per Sale With This High Converting Product.

Make More Money And Spend More Time With Your Family By Becoming A Scentsy Consultant - I Provide Personal Assistance And Help With Growing Your Business.

{{ DiscussionBoard.errors[1947671].message }}

pcpupil 14 years ago

I just submitted 3 articles the other day.
All 3 where accepted 3 days later.No issues at all.
Like Jeremy said,and others,
write article,spell check and review,2 links to my site in resource box.
Done deal,articles where about 4-500 words.Mostly about 500 though.
Have had roughly 30-40 views in the last 3 days.
Most all article directorys,or sites have basiclly the same rules.
Some have better or easier.
Im going to start my own article site just to use for myself,that way i make up the rules.
- Thanks
Signature
I will be your Digital Assistance for cheap.PM me.
I can help relieve your work load.Pm me
{{ DiscussionBoard.errors[1947542].message }}

Ezine Articles Rules Driving Me Crazy

Trending Topics

Is Wordpress Website Secure? - Emmanuel Katto

Check out DeepL Write

Meta ad revenue increases by 27% in Q1 2024

Google Search CPC up 13%

Newbie