Final Blow to Ezine Articles, I've had enough!

Mr. Daydream,
From your post, it seems you have not been
using Ezinearticles correctly.


I strongly suggest that you read this thread:

How Article Directories Work



Best wishes.

Yeah, FYI, I did edit my post to be less of an ass, LOL...

The "About the Author" box is really not that big of a deal
to me.

Either way, you shouldn't be trying to get traffic from EZA itself,
which is what it sounds like you are trying to do? Because
I haven't noticed a drop at all after the change.

Readers that feel a connection through what they read,
and who still want to learn more, still click on the links.

Glad to see that you have seen the light like many of us have years ago. There are far better ways to syndicate and distribute your articles.

I understand.

The "about the author" business wasn't the most pleasant of changes. I could have done without it, myself, really. But I can live with it.

The point Mike is making above, and I'm making here, is that if your CTR was 21% and has gone down to 8% and that's bad for you, then - respectfully - you're really not using EZA as it should be used. It isn't there for customers - it's there for publishers. It's a bad idea to get any potential traffic coming to your site via an article-directory. This isn't the purpose that article directories are intended to serve, at all. For what it's worth, if this development, which seems adverse at the moment, prompts a different use of EZA, it may turn out to be to your benefit in the long run?

This post, in particular, may clarify what I mean?

And this post, too, may be "food for thought"?

I put all my articles in EZA (about 1,600 of them, now, I think - I lose count) and I get tremendous value from doing so, but I really don't want potential customer traffic coming to my site that way ...

I liked it, also. It's become much easier to rank the original copies of all those articles first published on my own site now, with no fear of EZA ever outranking me, no fear of customers finding them, and far more traffic at my own site as a result, while still having copies of all the articles in EZA, too (after I've done everything else I want with them), for publishers to take for further syndication. This is where all Google's "Panda updates" of 2011 did article marketers such a favour.

For an article marketer, Mr. Daydream, that should be a good thing, not a bad thing.

Anyone who has a problem with this new Author Box - please go an comment on the ezine articles blog post.

Author Resource Box Changes

EZine is just full of web sewage. I can't remember ever reading a useful article on that site.

I have to agree with Alexa and Mike's comments in that you should not be using Ezine Articles as a traffic source...I suppose many IM marketer have been lucky enough to have received good levels of traffic from this source in the PAST however recent Google updates and changes to Ezine Articles format have in fact seen this "direct" traffic drop off substantially. I would recommend you don't toss the towel in yet my friend and instead an adjust your approach. Take the "long game" view and make the focus maximizing the "reach" of your articles with various article syndication tactics.....plus I have found that if article is good enough it will turn your reader into a rabid dog and they will scrounge and claw over your article to find your "more info" links.....

I like how some of the replies here include "you're not using E-zine Articles as it should be used" or something along that line. I think you're using the article directory as a link building method. If that's the case, then that doesn't always mean you're going to get traffic. The reason why it dropped might be because of something else other than that "About the Author" box that everyone was talking about.

What other sources to syndicating articles are there? Anyone have any comments on Squidoo and Hubpages?

Hmmm...I'm not seeing that about the author box that you're talking about...All my articles still look exactly the same. Maybe it's just me. And I really never pay attention to my EZA stats, so I submit that I have inferior knowledge if you check yours regularly.

As others have consistently pointed out (The consistency with which you address these threads is impressive, Alexa), an article syndication model will get you much greater TRAFFIC return on your work, and you'll be less dependent on all other secondary sites to your own because of it. When you're focus is on spreading your content around instead of driving traffic through EZA, you'll end up getting the best of both worlds.

Perhaps Mr. D don't know how to use EZA properly that's why...

Things just don't seem the same since EZA got slapped around by the Panda. Article marketing used to be such a great traffic treasure trove...

I consider EzArticles to be a SEO — never have considered them for traffic.

Getting two links from an "authority" site backed with original content (ie, your article) is of tremendous value. For example, I was climbing the rankings for "reno personal trainer" and was at page 4. After a single published article in ezinearticles.com my page jumped to #9 on the first page. I attribute that jump to that one article alone.

Ezine Articles still work, can't say that I get a ton of traffic from there but I do get some reads and the click through rate is 6%.
But I never expected to get a ton of traffic from there anyways, I use it for backlinking and as a part of my Linkwheel strategy

If you are talking about the traffic then don't blame EZA. There are times that click rates go down or up--this mostly depend on your product. Another thing would be the interest of the readers, what they are reading might not be of their interest.

Brother, its good you have seen the light. Now look for other ways and don't forget to be creative.

Ezinearticles has been dying for ages now.... if you use them to get 1 link back... then good. But I wouldn't count on them for anything else.

How many things have you looked up lately that have had Ezine articles pop-up as a #1 resource?

Not much... Ezine doesn't rank well anymore.

I stopped submitting to ezine a year ago after Google decided that it was a "content farm".

It really isn't such a big deal - ezine was just one of many different traffic sources and since it will always take either time or money to produce a unique article, it never really was free.

EzineArticles SUCKS! I stopped using it ever since Panda. Look at the kind of crap they've got on there - 99% of the articles on there are complete garbage

Excellent thread!

Love Alexa's comment, "The last thing an article marketer wants is to send potential customer traffic from a search engine to an article-directory copy of one of our articles". The link she gives after that explains.

Gives me a whole new perspective on the usage of the articles I've written.

Ernie G.

I haven't seen the "About the Author" section on my articles. Where are they located at?

It has been relocated, and now lives between the end of the article and the Resource Box. The issue for many people is that they want their resource box to read as a natural part of their article, without interruption, in the hopes that they have a higher click-thru-rate on their links.

Personally, I haven't noticed much of a difference, and if your business depends on that at all, well... You're probably not making that much money anyway, so it is time to adapt.