Ezine Articles Adapts Real Time Submission Rejection

[Steven Wagenheim]

Well, it looks like I may be just putting up my articles on my own blog from
now on because this is getting ridiculous.

I'll try my hardest to keep this short.

I just tried submitting an article to EZA that was immediately rejected saying
that it was similar to another article I had written and gave me the article
number and title.

Well, just out of curiosity, I checked the other article to see if I had in fact
maybe written about something I'd already written about.

Well, I read the other article. While it was on the same subject (I've
written many articles on the same general subject) 3 of the 4 points in
this article were totally unique to the article itself and the 4th point was
totally rewritten.

If this is what EZA has come down to, then ultimately we're not going to
be able to write very many articles on any subject at all, no matter how
much we know about it.

In order to keep this within the guidelines of acceptable posts in this forum,
what do you think?

Has EZA gone overboard and over the line?

Both articles were of incredible quality and yet the second one, I can't
submit because one of the paragraphs had similarities to a paragraph from
another article.

I think this is absurd.

What do you think?

** EDIT ** This was NOT an editor rejection. This was a software
rejection immediately upon hitting the submit button.

[Ricter]

I'd have to read the articles, which I'd like to do, since this issue has a major bearing on one's ability to get their product visible above all the noise, and make money.

[Steven Wagenheim]

Originally Posted by Ricter

I'd have to read the articles, which I'd like to do, since this issue has a major bearing on one's ability to get their product visible above all the noise, and make money.

I'd prefer not to post the articles because then this turns into a self
promotional pitchfest and the thread gets deleted.

Trust me, I have been writing articles for EZA for years and have written
similar articles and have NEVER had an asinine rejection like this.

Disgusted doesn't even begin to explain how I feel.

[Lance K]

Originally Posted by Steven Wagenheim

In order to keep this within the guidelines of acceptable posts in this forum,
what do you think?

Has EZA gone overboard and over the line?

Both articles were of incredible quality and yet the second one, I can't
submit because one of the paragraphs had similarities to a paragraph from
another article.

I think this is absurd.

What do you think?

I think it sucks for you as the author. But I also think that it's EZAs site and they get the final word.

[Lance K]

Originally Posted by Steven Wagenheim

Trust me, I have been writing articles for EZA for years and have written
similar articles and have NEVER had an asinine rejection like this.

Disgusted doesn't even begin to explain how I feel.

They needed you and your content more in the past than they do now.

It's like any relationship...the side that needs the other one less has all the power.

[kenj]

Hi Steve

I understand the frustation. I just brush the dust from my feet and go to Isnare.

I think that EA is sometimes cranky and fussy but you have to love the value you get from the articles they do accept

[Ernie Lonardo]

It sucks Steve...but there isn't much you can about it.

I know your articles are top quality, it seems EZA is losing focus on what they are all about. Quality articles is what makes the site survive and without fresh content coming in, they are only killing themselves in the long run.

Who knows...maybe you caught an editor on a bad day.

But judging from what you have shared on this forum about article marketing...it seems the traffic is too good to give up?

[Steven Wagenheim]

Originally Posted by Lance K

I think it sucks for you as the author. But I also think that it's EZAs site and they get the final word.

You're absolutely right. They do....and they're also going to lose a TON of
authors.

See, I'm not talking about a spun article here.

I'm talking about an almost completely unique article with one bullet point
that just happens to mentioned in another article and even at that, it was
totally rewritten.

This is going to be the death of EZA...Mark my words on it.

[Steven Wagenheim]

Originally Posted by Ernie Lonardo

It sucks Steve...but there isn't much you can about it.

I know your articles are top quality, it seems EZA is losing focus on what they are all about. Quality articles is what makes the site survive and without fresh content coming in, they are only killing themselves in the long run.

Who knows...maybe you caught an editor on a bad day.

But judging from what you have shared on this forum about article marketing...it seems the traffic is too good to give up?

This wasn't an editor rejection Ernie. This was an IMMEDIATE REJECTION
FROM THEIR SOFTWARE UPON HITTING THE SUBMIT BUTTON.

Apparently, they have software that now scans all your articles and if it
finds anything even remotely similar, it rejects you.

[Emailrevealer]

I've been getting a lot of rejections lately also. I had one that was rejected twice for the over use of a keyword but I was writing a review of three products that all had the same phrase in their names. How could I avoid reusing the phrase?

[Ernie Lonardo]

OH sorry Steven..

that changes things a LOT.


I guess EZA authors should express their rage over this and send EZA feedback. They wont know it's a problem unless they are told.

Originally Posted by Steven Wagenheim

You're absolutely right. They do....and they're also going to lose a TON of
authors.

See, I'm not talking about a spun article here.

I'm talking about an almost completely unique article with one bullet point
that just happens to mentioned in another article and even at that, it was
totally rewritten.

This is going to be the death of EZA...Mark my words on it.

[NiallR]

Hi folks,

I've been thinking about this a lot lately - the whole EZA issue that is.

Now I've been lucky in that I've never had a spare of rejections - just one or two minor hiccups with them. Some of those were editiorial faults on their part. Some were editorial faults on my part.

Here's the thing. If you really feel EZA has gone overboard then maybe it's time for somebody to step up to the plate and start their own article directory?

Surely there's a market for a niche publisher friendly article directory?

Any thoughts?

And yes I've made the first moves on doing this myself. I'm just letting the domain age a bit first :-)

[Steven Wagenheim]

Originally Posted by NiallR

Hi folks,

I've been thinking about this a lot lately - the whole EZA issue that is.

Now I've been lucky in that I've never had a spare of rejections - just one or two minor hiccups with them. Some of those were editiorial faults on their part. Some were editorial faults on my part.

Here's the thing. If you really feel EZA has gone overboard then maybe it's time for somebody to step up to the plate and start their own article directory?

Surely there's a market for a niche publisher friendly article directory?

Any thoughts?

And yes I've made the first moves on doing this myself. I'm just letting the domain age a bit first :-)

I agree...where's Allen Graves?

[John Piteo]

I haven't had this problem yet. I don't understand why they would reject your new article when someone can copy my articles, spin them slightly, submit them and be accepted. This software must be something new. Maybe they need to turn down the power on it a little.

John P

[Emailrevealer]

Why can't we all as a group band together and build back links to the Warrior aticle submission section and help that grow into the best article submission site?

[Lance K]

Originally Posted by John Piteo

I haven't had this problem yet. I don't understand why they would reject your new article when someone can copy my articles, spin them slightly, submit them and be accepted. This software must be something new. Maybe they need to turn down the power on it a little.

John P

I'm guessing it takes the author into account. Someone else would have a better chance of spinning your article and having it accepted than you would.

[Vyliss]

I've always been a bit annoyed at EZ and now they've rejected upgrading me to plantinum status for the 2nd time. I think I have to go 25 articles without getting one rejected to get that status :/ Which is like nearly impossible now when you're talking about Ez .. errr.

Another one of my accounts were suspended also and not even sure why :/

[Marian Berghes]

I am thinking on moving away from EZA, what you said Steve never happened to me but I got alot of articles rejected because bogus reasons. I have had alot of articles rejected because the "you are not allowed to promote your name,product......" and all that stuff, in articles that I was giving content and I did not mention any product at all in the article body or title, plus a dozen other reasons....so I don't know what kind of reviewers EZA has... but I am currently testing other article directories to see how they do...if I find just one that could bring in similar results...I am leaving EZA behind.

Originally Posted by NiallR

Hi folks,

I've been thinking about this a lot lately - the whole EZA issue that is.

Now I've been lucky in that I've never had a spare of rejections - just one or two minor hiccups with them. Some of those were editiorial faults on their part. Some were editorial faults on my part.

Here's the thing. If you really feel EZA has gone overboard then maybe it's time for somebody to step up to the plate and start their own article directory?

Surely there's a market for a niche publisher friendly article directory?

Any thoughts?

And yes I've made the first moves on doing this myself. I'm just letting the domain age a bit first :-)

A user friendly one is coming your way soon, even one that allows you to advertise yourself in the body of the article ...

[JL Melvin]

I've had trouble lately getting some articles accepted too.

2 of my articles were rejected and it took me 3 more submissions until they were accepted. I'd re-write them and then re-submit. I also sent an email asking them what specifically was wrong with my article.

Needless to say it was a big pain in the butt, but they eventually got published.

There response to me in a nutshell was they are raising the bar on the submission requirements for quality content.

Jeff

[John Taylor]

I think I'd have spent the time writing another article,
blog post or ezine instead of posting a rant on this forum

John

Personally I am not impressed but as many of you know I am not a marketer... This is one article on EZA approved 9/17/08

Article(s) Views: 97
Profile Views: 54
Articles Published: 2
URL Clicks: 7
Votes: 1

It says 2 published but there is only one, the 2nd one was rejected just because the mention of The Rich Jerks in the body .. No link, no url just the 3 words.

James

[ramkarthik]

I had a different situation.

I got a mail from Ezine Articles saying that a link in one of my articles is down. I checked it and yes, it was down. In the mail, they had asked me to change the link and resubmit the article. I did the same. I went to my admin page, changed the link in the author bio and resubmitted it to them. It said there is already an article with the same content and it suspects that the article is duplicate.

Guess they should stop trying those software programs and continue doing the work manually.

[Jeremy Kelsall]

Originally Posted by Steven Wagenheim

I agree...where's Allen Graves?

Allen already owns an article directory - and a damn good one too! No adsense ads or anything on the pages. I won't post the link here as I don't want to seem like I am "promoting" him, but it is a very good directory.

There are other alternatives.

[Steven Wagenheim]

Originally Posted by John Taylor

I think I'd have spent the time writing another article,
blog post or ezine instead of posting a rant on this forum

John

Actually John, I didn't let it go to waste. I posted the article on my blog,
which is what I am going to be doing a lot more of now.

To everybody who said to me that I should stop submitting so much to EZA
and instead build up my own VRE, you were dead right. I should have listened.
I was stupid.

I'm not going to be stupid anymore.

I'll still submit to EZA, but I will also build up my own VRE.

Fortunately, it's not too late.

I have plenty of content to populate it with.

[stevecl]

The Ezine articles Slap.

The words Eggs & Basket spring to mind.

steve

[Alexa Smith]

Originally Posted by John Taylor

I think I'd have spent the time writing another article, blog post or ezine instead of posting a rant on this forum

I don't think I would, John. I think a thread in this forum is a particularly useful, helpful and appropriate way to bring quite a wide range of opinions from article-writers to EZA's attention, and I welcome that. Thanks and good luck, Steven.

[kkchoon]

I have similar problems myself, when they rejected me few times, I just delete that article!

Write again and submit the same topic in different words, got accepted. And they have good traffic, so I don't mind they rejecting me.

My rejected article is posted on other hundreds of directories, I don't care...

[radhika]

Originally Posted by John Taylor

I think I'd have spent the time writing another article,
blog post or ezine instead of posting a rant on this forum

John

People should know the ridicules ...

If EZA rejects my article, I will just delete it from there. I don't want to change a sensible article just because to get listed in EZA. After all they have their own rules.

Ex: If I am explaing herf links in email like how to tips, I always include herf links like this so they won't be counted as ACTUAL links:

<*a href="ht*tp*//*.site.com/*>Anchor text<*/a*>

Still they reject that format and sees it as URL. I won't even use real web site names. I always use site.com, yoursite.com etc.

So if they reject it, I just delete it from there instead of arranging my article according to their rules.

.

[remodeler]

I moved on from EZine 2 months ago and have no regrets whatsoever. After 2 years I finally got fed up and moved on. Posting a few of these articles on a couple of the other article directories as well as using the rest for blog posts, squidoo, hub pages, etc, has done wonders for my traffic. They are going to put themselves under with all the tactics and nonsense. But that's there problem to address. There's many other ways to get traffic without having to deal with all the Ezine drama.

[flnz400]

You still haven't done that? If you bought 4 or 5 niche specific domains, and just pasted half of "however many thousand articles" you've written (drip feed 2+ per day), it could become pretty potent.

They don't even half to be new.

To save time if you're not into hiring VA's, assuming you have all your articles saved on your pc in text files or similar, there's a wordpress plugin that automatically imports the articles. I forget the name right now.

Originally Posted by Steven Wagenheim

Actually John, I didn't let it go to waste. I posted the article on my blog,
which is what I am going to be doing a lot more of now.

To everybody who said to me that I should stop submitting so much to EZA
and instead build up my own VRE, you were dead right. I should have listened.
I was stupid.

I'm not going to be stupid anymore.

I'll still submit to EZA, but I will also build up my own VRE.

Fortunately, it's not too late.

I have plenty of content to populate it with.

[Jeremy123]

We should try and submit articles to other directories
and give EZA some competition.

The gurus are a little at fault for always saying EZA
is number #!, all they talk about is EZA and how it is
the best article directory.

This probably has caused some newbies who are lazy
to submit crap spun articles.

[naonline]

Originally Posted by Jeremy Kelsall

Allen already owns an article directory - and a damn good one too! No adsense ads or anything on the pages. I won't post the link here as I don't want to seem like I am "promoting" him, but it is a very good directory.

There are other alternatives.

Agreed, and you won't have to wait 3 weeks to get approved/rejected!

Nick

[Marian Berghes]

Steve it's kinda funny that you mentioned that you should build your own VRE since you have this on EZA: Internet Marketing Tips - Build Your Own VRE
By Steven Wagenheim
"So stop wasting your time building up somebody else's virtual real estate and build up your own"
So you thought of this back in 2007...you should have done it then

[ladyjane]

I just had my first rejection from Ezine, but was able to get it reversed. I wrote four articles about rooibos tea, and was told they didn't accept sales copy. I sent them an email back explaining that rooibos was the name of a plant....not the brand name of a product (which is what the editor thought it was)! A second editor then looked at the articles and admitted that yes, they were rejected in error, and approved them right away. It was all a bit annoying, I must admit, because the articles were initially rejected due to an editor's ignorance.

[Steven Wagenheim]

Originally Posted by Marian Berghes

Steve it's kinda funny that you mentioned that you should build your own VRE since you have this on EZA: Internet Marketing Tips - Build Your Own VRE
By Steven Wagenheim
"So stop wasting your time building up somebody else's virtual real estate and build up your own"
So you thought of this back in 2007...you should have done it then

Yeah, well I had started to with my Home Biz Center, but then I got lazy
and stopped. Bad, bad, bad. I should have kept going, but I was getting
more traffic from EZA than to my site so I figured, screw it.

I just didn't give it enough time. I was impatient, lazy and a whole lotta
other things.

I won't make that mistake again.

[Nick Brighton]

After 6 months, traffic levels from 20 EZine articles: no more than 10 per day
After 6 months, traffic levels from 20 webpages on own domain: 20-30 per day

Go figure.

P.S

This is yet another warning signal that article marketing is not only temperamental, but also crude. Why crude?

Because hard work results in no loyalty, recognition or special treatment from EZine articles.com . They sure are happy to collect thousands upon thousands in Adense and related sales though aren't they? Guess who's funding that? You.

The fact that they suspend credible authors without warning, and often without solid grounds, is awful. Where's the customer retention? Where's the loyalty? Where's the community spirit? More like a faceless corporation in my mind.

Eggs and basket indeed.

P.P.S

The sad thing is, they do not need a bunch of marketers to survive as there will always be an abundence of people who will write and publish on their sites till the end of time.

I can see why they want to strip out the junk because they have to consider ezine owners and other publishers who want quality content. If there's too much similiar content, there's no republishing going to happen and that will kill off the entire purpose of their site.

[Jesus Perez]

The giants in my book (ie, Problogger.net, Copyblogger.com) did not build up their empire with EZA or any article directory. They did it with good content. This will always be the rule of the internet: good content wins.

Steve, you have the ability to build this empire with your writing. You do not need EZA anymore. It needs you.

[johntanyishin]

Anyone working for ezinearticles?

I suspect that they had a staff change, if not changes in some of their rules.

JTYS

[Ben Roy]

I'm not disagreeing with anything that's been said, but I would like to quick explore the other side of the coin. As a software developer I can tell you that ANY automated system can occasionally produce false positives. It doesn't matter what it is. Steve, if you've submitted thousands of articles and this is the very first one that's been rejected as a duplicate, I think you're doing pretty well. Maybe overreacting a little bit?

If it was a person that reviewed and rejected this, then I think you'd be more justified. But why so worked up over a single article rejected by an automated system? Heck, Adobe Flash crashed on me the other day, but it doesn't mean that no one should ever use a flash app again.

Why not send it in to them, let them know that you don't believe the articles are duplicates, and ask them to review their automated process? Then go ahead and submit your 15 other articles that weren't flagged.

Amazing...

money making goals has been developed by The Rich Jerks. - original rejected...

money making goals has been developed by several internet marketers. - Changes approived in 1 hour...

Now to me and again I am not writer... I don't consider myself one anyways but I think that is a little overboard of being strict just by 3 little words ..

James

[Steven Wagenheim]

Originally Posted by Ben Roy

I'm not disagreeing with anything that's been said, but I would like to quick explore the other side of the coin. As a software developer I can tell you that ANY automated system can occasionally produce false positives. It doesn't matter what it is. Steve, if you've submitted thousands of articles and this is the very first one that's been rejected as a duplicate, I think you're doing pretty well. Maybe overreacting a little bit?

If it was a person that reviewed and rejected this, then I think you'd be more justified. But why so worked up over a single article rejected by an automated system? Heck, Adobe Flash crashed on me the other day, but it doesn't mean that no one should ever use a flash app again.

Why not send it in to them, let them know that you don't believe the articles are duplicates, and ask them to review their automated process? Then go ahead and submit your 15 other articles that weren't flagged.

Here's the bottom line Ben. I don't have the time to go through all that
nonsense. If they're moving to a software approval process then this is
no doubt going to happen again and again and I just can't be bothered. I
have more important things to do.

The articles that are rejected, I'll just submit elsewhere and/or put them
on my own site.

[Jesus Perez]

Only at WF do you see this...

[jem]

Originally Posted by ramkarthik

I had a different situation.

I got a mail from Ezine Articles saying that a link in one of my articles is down. I checked it and yes, it was down. In the mail, they had asked me to change the link and resubmit the article. I did the same. I went to my admin page, changed the link in the author bio and resubmitted it to them. It said there is already an article with the same content and it suspects that the article is duplicate.

Guess they should stop trying those software programs and continue doing the work manually.

That's exactly what just happened to me ramkarthik! And it really was nothing like the article in question.

[Ben Roy]

Originally Posted by Steven Wagenheim

Here's the bottom line Ben. I don't have the time to go through all that
nonsense. If they're moving to a software approval process then this is
no doubt going to happen again and again and I just can't be bothered. I
have more important things to do.

The articles that are rejected, I'll just submit elsewhere and/or put them
on my own site.

I think that's fair.

So you know, they have been using this software approval process for months, which was kind of my point. This isn't new. It's just the first time that one of your articles has been accidentally flagged. I had a copy/paste mixup a couple months ago where I tried to resubmit an article and it was kicked out by the automated software.

If *I* were EZA, I'd have an automated process that checked for dupes.

[Eric Lorence]

I think people will continue to pay and put up with the difficulties at EZA because of their several million page views a day and decent PR.

Considering the thousands upon thousands of dollars that site has earned for several members of this forum, they probably have earned the right to be as selective as they need to be to improve their business.

While there are several other great directories to submit to, none of those can match EZA's 275 Alexa rank, Though there are a small few that are close. Just submitting to a new directory will not improve many peoples business.

Steven, as well established as you and your sites are, you will have no problem simply writing for your own sites and building good traffic. But for many lesser known's, EZA will continue to be the go-to directry for a long time to come.

Just my opinion, Best of success!

[Jon Alexander]

Originally Posted by Steven Wagenheim

Well, it looks like I may be just putting up my articles on my own blog from
now on because this is getting ridiculous.

I'll try my hardest to keep this short.

I just tried submitting an article to EZA that was immediately rejected saying
that it was similar to another article I had written and gave me the article
number and title.

Well, just out of curiosity, I checked the other article to see if I had in fact
maybe written about something I'd already written about.

Well, I read the other article. While it was on the same subject (I've
written many articles on the same general subject) 3 of the 4 points in
this article were totally unique to the article itself and the 4th point was
totally rewritten.

If this is what EZA has come down to, then ultimately we're not going to
be able to write very many articles on any subject at all, no matter how
much we know about it.

In order to keep this within the guidelines of acceptable posts in this forum,
what do you think?

Has EZA gone overboard and over the line?

Both articles were of incredible quality and yet the second one, I can't
submit because one of the paragraphs had similarities to a paragraph from
another article.

I think this is absurd.

What do you think?

** EDIT ** This was NOT an editor rejection. This was a software
rejection immediately upon hitting the submit button.

have you tried 'spinning' it? I hear contentboss is quite good...

:-) :-) :-)


sorry Steve, but that's just too funny!

[Lance K]

Originally Posted by alexa_s

I don't think I would, John. I think a thread in this forum is a particularly useful, helpful and appropriate way to bring quite a wide range of opinions from article-writers to EZA's attention, and I welcome that. Thanks and good luck, Steven.

This forum doesn't exist for the purpose of establishing a unified front of article writers.

[PassiveCashGal]

Maybe they will send you a coffee mug! I'm sorry I just had to make a comment in regards to the other ezine post. I hope they realize the value they are losing by rejecting your work. Take care.

[waken]

Originally Posted by Lance K

This forum doesn't exist for the purpose of establishing a unified front of article writers.

But it sure does help to alert article writers on the latest happening...
Share opinions, and perhaps solutions that some might have come up with that others do not..