Ezinearticles is toughening up

by smile
42 replies
4 days ago I submitted articles to ezinearticles and they are still stilling in the que normally my articles are approved in 24 - 48hours, however this is not what is really bothering me.

First I have noticed your article now have to be at least 400 words, no more of those crapping 250 word articles, this change I feel is a good move to help clean it up.

However what got to me was I got an email from them today 10 March Australia time saying that there is a problem with one of my articles. The problem was they didn't like that fact I was promoting a landing page, they said it wasn't relevant enough, didn't contain enough content etc.

I have been with EZA since 2007 and have never been rejected for promoting the wrong website or that it was not relevant.

If EZA are going to stop me promoting my landing page, I am going somewhere else, which is a real disappointment as EZA have served me well until now
#ezinearticles #toughening
  • Profile picture of the author Chri5123
    Originally Posted by smile View Post

    4 days ago I submitted articles to ezinearticles and they are still stilling in the que normally my articles are approved in 24 - 48hours, however this is not what is really bothering me.

    First I have noticed your article now have to be at least 400 words, no more of those crapping 250 word articles, this change I feel is a good move to help clean it up.

    However what got to me was I got an email from them today 10 March Australia time saying that there is a problem with one of my articles. The problem was they didn't like that fact I was promoting a landing page, they said it wasn't relevant enough, didn't contain enough content etc.

    I have been with EZA since 2007 and have never been rejected for promoting the wrong website or that it was not relevant.

    If EZA are going to stop me promoting my landing page, I am going somewhere else, which is a real disappointment as EZA have served me well until now
    Obviously I don't know the specifics or what you are promoting on that site regarding the quality but if you have been writing articles to that page since 2007 that is not good!

    They are certainly in "panic mode" after the Google update and I think a lot of people will be moving on if it continues.

    I am not talking about spammy articles either, I have submitted a few articles that I put on my blog - over 1000 words and REALLY good content if I do say so myself and got the message "Your article does not provide enough unique and informative content."

    The way I look at it is this:

    I realize they have to think what is BEST for their business and there is no doubt that they need to clear up the bad articles in there, however it is affected the REAL article marketers and this is a shame.

    Most people will not have time to keep messing about changing their articles around for Ezine while we are trying to grow our OWN business.

    Sure it will calm down soon though.

    Chris
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  • Profile picture of the author Brian Lett
    I am actually really surprised that they have taken such measures. I am gathering that they are taking their recent treatment by Google rather personally. Nonetheless, I am not sure how the relevance of your landing page is of any concern to them. Essentially, Google punished their directory for having articles with either duplicate content or too little substance. So long as you are providing them with unique articles, full of substance, as I am sure you have been, they should take measures not to lose you.

    As "Chri5123" said above, EzineArticles appears to possibly be in panic mode. As a result, they are running the risk of throwing the baby out with the bath water.
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  • Profile picture of the author johngibb123
    Banned
    [DELETED]
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    • Profile picture of the author Akin Alabi
      We had the Google slap.

      Now, its the EZA slap.
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      • Profile picture of the author Alexa Smith
        Banned
        As you can see from about 15 other recent threads here, on the same subject, many professional article marketers here are welcoming these changes from EZA, think they're long overdue, and that they don't go quite far enough.

        It's true that some people who were trying to "do article marketing" by depending on article directories for traffic and backlinks may not be too pleased, but the reality is that their model of article marketing (which was only ever really "article directory marketing" and not actually "article marketing" at all) honestly wasn't a very viable one in the first place.
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  • Profile picture of the author smile
    Obviously I don't know the specifics or what you are promoting on that site regarding the quality but if you have been writing articles to that page since 2007 that is not good!

    They are certainly in "panic mode" after the Google update and I think a lot of people will be moving on if it continues.
    hahaha no i haven't been promoting the same site since 2007, but thanks anyways.

    I agree they are in panic mode, I just didn't realize how bad it was getting, I guess Google really hit their business.

    Thanks to everyone else who left a response
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  • Profile picture of the author yukon
    Banned
    Or, promote your own site instead of some directory milking Adsense at your cost/time.
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  • Profile picture of the author Anup Mahajan
    Looks like EZA is going to have a quality score similar to Adwords... They are certainly in a panic mode and so we can expect some drastic changes in the way they review and approve the articles. But even then I didn't expect them to reject an article due to the quality of the target/landing page. If they are going to do that, they better come up with some guidelines on what kind of sites/pages are acceptable.

    Regards,
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  • Profile picture of the author AlexF
    They should be in panic mode because looking at some reports about the "Farmers Update" - EZA was one of the biggest losers on the internet from this update.

    Google Farmer Update: Quest for Quality - SEO-Blog

    I think they have done a great job dealing with the issue as fast as they did and hope that Google will appreciate is as well

    Overall it just means that article marketing just got more expensive.
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  • Profile picture of the author Dahlia Valentine
    I'm not an EZA fanatic at all.

    But I will say this... despite Google's Farmer update, I am noticing that brand, spanking new articles are showing up in Google on the first page for their targeted keywords.

    Yesterday I saw an article that had been submitted March 4th, in the #6 position for a low competition keyword. I also saw another one submitted on March 6th in the #7 position for a low competition keyword.

    Yes, EZA is cracking down. But isn't that what Internet marketing is all about? Nothing in this business stays the same for more than a few years anyway. Change is inevitable in Internet marketing.

    EZA might be a little tougher now, but the articles listed there are STILL gaining rank. If that's what you're looking for (the Google rank advantage), then you might just have to adjust your strategy to go with the new changes.
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  • Profile picture of the author aaronngoh
    It seem like this is the way that internet marketing is undergoing another major changes.

    writing useless content to just get traffic or back link will be a history of the past soon.

    It is time to change strategy and look elsewhere for traffic to your site
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    • Profile picture of the author Nevik Kingh
      Originally Posted by aaronngoh View Post

      It seem like this is the way that internet marketing is undergoing another major changes.

      writing useless content to just get traffic or back link will be a history of the past soon.

      It is time to change strategy and look elsewhere for traffic to your site
      I agree that the tired tactic of just submitting regurgitated and useless content to article directories for the purpose of driving traffic and building backlinks is most likely a dying practice. At the same time, however, I believe that submitting quality articles still remains a viable solution for accomplishing those things. In fact, after all the dust settles and directories weed out the spammers, I'd say that those article marketers who opted to stick it out and continue to submit quality content will reap the reward of an even higher traffic generating payoff due to a combination of less competition (from the hoards of spamming *******s) and an influx individuals revisiting these sites with renewed faith in the quality of their hosted content.
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      • Profile picture of the author Reach Fame
        You can have the similar effect on driving traffic to your site just by keeping a blog, like wordpress.com. In fact, people will click on your site or your link much more than they would when they land on your article on ezinearticles.com...Why? Because when they land on your article on ezine, they get distracted by everything else, like google adwords, and other links...that's the goal of ezinearticles and that's how they earn their money!

        So, if i were you guys, i would just create a blog and put your original articles there instead of any other article directories.
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        • Profile picture of the author Alexa Smith
          Banned
          Originally Posted by Reach Fame View Post

          You can have the similar effect on driving traffic to your site just by keeping a blog, like wordpress.com. In fact, people will click on your site or your link much more than they would when they land on your article on ezinearticles.com...Why? Because when they land on your article on ezine, they get distracted by everything else, like google adwords, and other links...that's the goal of ezinearticles and that's how they earn their money!
          I agree with all that part.

          Clearly when someone finds one of your articles by putting one of your keywords into a search engine as their search-terms, you want them coming to your site rather than going to an article directory, to read it.

          Originally Posted by Reach Fame View Post

          So, if i were you guys, i would just create a blog and put your original articles there instead of any other article directories.
          Here you've lost me completely. Why "instead of"? Why not "in addition to"? Just ensure that the copies of the articles on your own site always outrank those in the article directories? That's really easy, and it's getting easier all the time.
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  • Profile picture of the author Nevik Kingh
    Originally Posted by Chris Kent View Post

    You are the second person I have seen say this here in 24 hours, that they seem to no longer like single page websites.

    I have never used Buzzle before, never even done a split test between EZA and Buzzle before (as I was always happy with EZA). Now, I will give them a try to see how they perform in comparison.
    I hope you'll let us know what your findings are. I've been debating on looking for an equivalent alternative to EzineArticles.com. My main attraction to the directory, up until now, has been Google's apparent love affair with them evidenced by the preferential treatment they've historically received in Google search results. Other aspects of Ezine have been kind of aggravating, including their inconsistent review standards. Nothing's more irritating than waiting four or five days to get your article approved only to find an email saying that what you've been doing day in and day out for years arbitrarily isn't up to snuff with this submission, only to have the very same "deficiency" accepted without a peep from another article the very same day.
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  • Profile picture of the author dailysnatch
    I've been with EZA for more than 2 years now. I get decent traffic just by submitting high quality and unique articles since EZA tend to come up in the first 2 pages of SERPs. But last Feb, everything changed due to a slight modification in Google's algos. Some articles dropped in rankings and even some were de-indexed.

    It's quite ok if teh word count increased from 250-400. Actually, it's good since it's hard to make a good article with just 250 words. Hope that the EZA gameplay won't change or else people will look for other options.
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  • Profile picture of the author indiatext
    This is really true mate. Ezine has not only introduced some more constraints on editorial guidelines but their article approval time has also increased considerably.
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  • Profile picture of the author spectrecom
    Originally Posted by smile View Post

    4 days ago I submitted articles to ezinearticles and they are still stilling in the que normally my articles are approved in 24 - 48hours, however this is not what is really bothering me.

    First I have noticed your article now have to be at least 400 words, no more of those crapping 250 word articles, this change I feel is a good move to help clean it up.

    However what got to me was I got an email from them today 10 March Australia time saying that there is a problem with one of my articles. The problem was they didn't like that fact I was promoting a landing page, they said it wasn't relevant enough, didn't contain enough content etc.

    I have been with EZA since 2007 and have never been rejected for promoting the wrong website or that it was not relevant.

    If EZA are going to stop me promoting my landing page, I am going somewhere else, which is a real disappointment as EZA have served me well until now
    I thought that it was a bit unfair of Google to hit E-Zine so hard, the quality is pretty good.

    There are LOTS of far WORSE offenders who seemed to have a dodged a bullet in their latest algo update.
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    • Profile picture of the author Alexa Smith
      Banned
      Originally Posted by spectrecom View Post

      I thought that it was a bit unfair of Google to hit E-Zine so hard, the quality is pretty good.

      There are LOTS of far WORSE offenders who seemed to have a dodged a bullet in their latest algo update.
      What Google did is all automated.

      There wasn't a committee of people sitting there round a table saying "Let's hit EZA" ... "No, their content's pretty good, let's hit these other people instead" ... :rolleyes:

      There's no intention or volition on a search-engine's part, as far as any specific company is concerned, when they change their algorithm. There's a general underyling plan, which in this case was to lower the rankings of content-farms, and they've achieved that. But they didn't (and couldn't) "choose whom to penalise".
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      • Profile picture of the author Chri5123
        Originally Posted by Alexa Smith View Post

        What Google did is all automated.

        There wasn't a committee of people sitting there round a table saying "Let's hit EZA" ... "No, their content's pretty good, let's hit these other people instead" ... :rolleyes:

        There's no intention or volition on a search-engine's part, as far as any specific company is concerned, when they change their algorithm. There's a general underyling plan, which in this case was to lower the rankings of content-farms, and they've achieved that. But they didn't (and couldn't) "choose whom to penalise".
        ^ This.

        Which is why (I believe) they are cracking down on the pages that you are linking to in your sig.

        I would say over 60% of EZA content links through to a standard sales page with a pitch and then of course a "buy now" button.

        Although a sales pitch does indeed do it's job (well the good one's anyway) they do not provide solid info on a subject.

        They tell you WHAT you will get IF you purchase the product.

        So a well put together site with QUALITY info, clearly laid out in pages and easy to navigate with a subtle solution to the problem while building your list will be the way to go with EZA I think.

        Chris
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        • Profile picture of the author Richard Van
          Originally Posted by Chri5123 View Post

          ^ This.

          Which is why (I believe) they are cracking down on the pages that you are linking to in your sig.

          I would say over 60% of EZA content links through to a standard sales page with a pitch and then of course a "buy now" button.
          But what if the said sales page was just a sticky on a blog with 400 pages of highly relevant content also posted there, that all link to the pre-sell page but the pre-sell page doesn't link to them?

          How do you know this is a standard single page site or not?

          Is Google judging sites by the home page or the content now?

          Edit: Sorry, were you talking about the OP's signature or Alexa's?
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          • Profile picture of the author wtatlas
            Originally Posted by Richard Van View Post


            Is Google judging sites by the home page or the content now?
            A couple of months ago, before the recent changes, I had an article rejected by Ezine because the resource box had a link to a sales page that was a duplicate of another page on another site.

            This came about as I had created a new site on the same topic but with a different domain name and I wanted to get the new one indexed quickly. My intention was to rewrite the sales page, change the graphics, etc., as soon as I had the time.

            Their reason for rejecting the article was that "there was a problem with duplicate content". I pointed out to them that the article was original, written by me, and their TOS regarding duplicate content only refers to articles, not the website that a link points to. I also confirmed that the link was not an affiliate link but went to a site that I own.

            I may as well not have wasted my time as I received the usual standard type of reply that doesn't address the issue but just re-states what has already been said. I withdrew the article.

            It seems to me that, new rules or not, their interpretation of their own guidelines can be pretty liberal.
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            • Profile picture of the author Andrew Skelly
              i for one am happy that seo is getting tougher...it means better search results and less seo competition. Come to papa #1 position
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      • Profile picture of the author Britt Malka
        Hi Alexa,

        Just out of curiosity and hoping to learn something useful, how come you don't use article marketing to promote the two sites, you have in your signature?

        Originally Posted by Alexa Smith View Post

        Alexa Smith ...

        ... writes many things that snap, crackle and pop ... and even the occasional course-review like "Online Income Simplified".
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        • Profile picture of the author Alexa Smith
          Banned
          Originally Posted by Britt Malka View Post

          Just out of curiosity and hoping to learn something useful, how come you don't use article marketing to promote the two sites, you have in your signature?
          Hi Britt, I'll send you a p.m. later to explain. I think I might fall foul of the forum rules by replying openly about my own sig-file - don't want anyone to accuse me of "advertising".
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          • Profile picture of the author Britt Malka
            Originally Posted by Alexa Smith View Post

            Hi Britt, I'll send you a p.m. later to explain. I think I might fall foul of the forum rules by replying openly about my own sig-file - don't want anyone to accuse me of "advertising".
            Great, thank you very much, and oh, yes, I didn't consider the "advertising" issue.
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  • Profile picture of the author celente
    I dont think this will effect me too much. I produce quality articles and my writers do this time and time again. If you do this an adhere to their rules you should be no worse off.

    The reason so many people are in here complaining shows me that their standard of article is not that good. Or too short and just verbatim articles.

    Stick to quality people, if you can do that and stick to these small changes you will be right.
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  • Profile picture of the author cypherslock
    Free News, Magazines, Newspapers, Journals, Reference Articles and Classic Books - Free Online Library is similar to EZA, with PR7. Though it does seem they have less constraints with the subjects they'll allow. Nothing illegal obviously, but you have more leeway with them.
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    • Profile picture of the author jgant
      I too have noticed slower article approval times.

      In the event EZA gains the reputation as by far the most difficult directory in which to get articles approved, then perhaps in time links from EZA will be more valuable???? Of course this is assuming EZA retains the dofollow links.

      Other benefits for such a reputation may include higher article rankings in the search engines and higher user trust. By higher user trust I mean that people will discover the content on EZA is good and therefore will be more inclined to click into EZA. Higher user trust would be the ultimate beneficial result for writers who publish on EZA. I suspect this is EZA's primary aim along with higher search engine rankings.

      Moreover, I also suspect that as quality on EZA improves, syndication rates will increase. Publishers will have an easier time finding articles they would like on their sites.

      For all these possible benefits a stricter EZA approval process may provide, I continue publishing there.
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  • Profile picture of the author clever7
    I’m sorry you have this problem. I’m only having advantages with the Google change. However, even though I have more traffic from Google, and even though many of my EZA articles are still sending traffic to my websites, I should see more article links at statcounter. I should have the same traffic I always had from all my articles, but EZA’s system is not working as it usually does.

    They are delaying again to accept my articles, while my articles are usually approved the next day or the same day. They accepted my 7 pending articles together after delaying a week, but again, the new ones are still waiting… I submit articles to EZA since March of 2007. I’m a regular content producer; I write unique content. However, I’m sad because this is happening. Google traffic is good, but everything we can get is even better. Why should I lose the traffic I had from EZA?

    I’m really sad because this change provoked many problems to many people, even though it seems to be better for me. Better in a way, however my article readers are already my fans, while Google visitors are ignorant internet users who may not be able to evaluate my work. Facebook friends and blog readers are better visitors than Google users (for me).

    Conclusion: if we get more traffic from Google but we lose traffic from other sources, is this change really good?

    The traffic to my websites keeps increasing – I see more links from Google at statcounter everyday. However, this traffic is not being converted because it is too green. They won’t buy my ebooks without reading my reports and articles, free ebooks, etc. They have to think… My article readers are better visitors. They already know something about me and my work. Wish EZA will recuperate its position online.

    About your landing page, just add a few articles; make it look like a web page and not just a place where you collect email addresses. Improve your page so that you may have advantages with Google’s change, and so that you’ll keep getting traffic from your EZA articles. Simply get adjusted to the new rules, and improve your landing page by adding good content, a few pictures, etc. This is going to be better for everyone.
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  • Profile picture of the author jurojin
    There is no "somewhere else", articlebase , goarticles or others can't even compare with the ranking power and traffic potential of ezinearticles (check the Alexa rank for each). What you need to do is to find a way around this non-relevant issue they have.Instead of sending to a landing page directly, send it to a good review for example, or an article optimized to sell but not to spammy in terms of numbers of banners/ads. I've had problems with EA in the past, some articles were in pending for 1-2 weeks, but other than that it remains a major source of targeted organic traffic for me.
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  • Profile picture of the author anthony2
    I been doing article marketing for a long time and I really don't
    focus on EZA anymore. With Ezine Articles It seems like there are always some new
    rule. So I put my focus on the other top article directories and its been
    working out fine for me.
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    • Profile picture of the author Steven Wagenheim
      "Sung to the final verse of American Pie"

      Bye Bye Article Marketing Guy
      Wrote my teaser...didn't please her
      And they won't tell me why
      I guess I'm gonna have to wave to E-zine bye-bye
      Cause my home business is sure gonna die

      Afterward...
      And they all looked around shocked, confused, and surprised. :confused:

      Who'd a thunk it?
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  • Profile picture of the author talfighel
    Originally Posted by smile View Post

    4 days ago I submitted articles to ezinearticles and they are still stilling in the que normally my articles are approved in 24 - 48hours, however this is not what is really bothering me.

    First I have noticed your article now have to be at least 400 words, no more of those crapping 250 word articles, this change I feel is a good move to help clean it up.

    However what got to me was I got an email from them today 10 March Australia time saying that there is a problem with one of my articles. The problem was they didn't like that fact I was promoting a landing page, they said it wasn't relevant enough, didn't contain enough content etc.

    I have been with EZA since 2007 and have never been rejected for promoting the wrong website or that it was not relevant.

    If EZA are going to stop me promoting my landing page, I am going somewhere else, which is a real disappointment as EZA have served me well until now
    Join the club my friend.

    I personally am done with them. They asked me to change a few things on my new article which I did and they are still not happy. I don't have the patience to deal with them and I know for a fact that many have the same problem.

    All I can say is:

    MOVE ON....
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  • Profile picture of the author SylviaBuetow
    Happy to receive the benefit of your experience. I was planning to write articles linked to sales pages. Now they have to link to a page on a website?
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  • Profile picture of the author Dwight Anthony
    Isnare is another top quality site that people pass up a lot. You need quality articles but their PR is even higher than EZA last time i checked.
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  • Profile picture of the author bahama
    Well hopefully the cream will rise to the top. I just recently started writing articles and I honestly have a hard time in not making them less than 600 words. And I strive to make them something useful, helpful and hopefully interesting to a reader. Hopefully wont have anything worry about.

    As far as article directories go-if some of you were solely depending on just 1 company(ezine in this case) for everything you may want to rethink and spread out more

    Diversify FTW!
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    • Profile picture of the author Alexa Smith
      Banned
      Originally Posted by bahama View Post

      As far as article directories go-if some of you were solely depending on just 1 company(ezine in this case) for everything you may want to rethink and spread out more

      Diversify FTW!
      Indeed - absolutely.

      And diversify beyond article directories, too.

      Many of us here are successfully using article directories (especially EZA) as a way of getting our syndication beyond article directories. "Article marketing" is a whole lot more than "article directory marketing".
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      • Profile picture of the author Paxton
        It's not only article directories that are getting flooded with pretty cra**y content. There's a fair amount of rubbish on video sites for example.

        Interesting to see if any type of "farmer" filters get applied to YouTube. Not holding my breath though...
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        • Profile picture of the author Paxton
          Granted, it's tough on Ezine (kind of) but a pretty good wake up call.

          Don't stick all your eggs in one basket and don't assume that compliance with a site's TOS means you're safe.

          TOS change and sites hurt (like EZA) will change their TOS without a second thought.

          They want us for as long as they need us. When they don't need us anymore, that's when we get the boot.

          It's the way of the world unfortunately. Nobody owes me a living so I never assume anybody is gonna give me one.

          Diversify, create better content and in the end we'll be grateful for the farmer. I know I am.
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