UAW Authors - I would love to publish your article but ...

39 replies
On a few of my blogs I have the UAW (Unique Article Wizard) plugin set up so that I receive articles on specific niche topics. I have it set up so that the articles are posted as drafts, and I go in daily and approve or delete the ones I don't want.

I wish I could say that I post many of them but the sad truth is that I end up trashing 95% of the articles that are submitted. Why?

It's not because my standards are too high - I don't expect literary perfection. It's not because the articles aren't interesting. It's not because the articles are off-topic.

It's because the vast majority of them are CLEARLY written for the sole purpose of promoting a product. Hang on - I'm an affiliate marketer and a product owner too. I don't have a beef with people writing articles to sell something.

My beef is that the articles don't share a single shred of helpful information for the reader. Most of these articles are short, rambling pieces that go on for 300-400 words but don't really say anything at all. Their sole objective seems to be stringing the reader along to the link at the bottom.

I'm sorry but I CAN'T post those articles in my blogs! I just can't subject my loyal readers to that senseless dribble.

You know what kind of articles I'm looking for?

1) Articles that share some helpful tips or insights.

These don't have to be earth-shattering, just a good tidbit or two that make the reader feel like they didn't waste 4 minutes of their life.

2) Articles that offer a helpful technique or idea they can apply in their own life.

The ideas can be simple - in fact, simple is even better than complex.

3) Articles that are interesting to read, perhaps those who share some of the writer's experiences with the subject matter.

Again, nothing too elaborate - maybe just a lesson learned or an insight gained.

4) Articles that show a wee bit of creativity - not rambling monologues that reiterate what the reader already knows.


We know that upper arm flab is gross. We know that it sucks to break up with your ex. And we know that you're just dying to inspire us to scroll down and click on the link where you have surely hidden the secret that tells us how to resolve the problem. But your article doesn't seem as if you know what you're talking about so maybe your link doesn't have anything to offer either. :rolleyes:

All right, I'll stop whining now but if you want your articles to be published anywhere but the article directories and low-quality autoblogs, please do your best to share something worthwhile with the reader.

You don't have to use perfect spelling and grammar. You don't have to write like Stephen King. Just give the reader something they can appreciate. One little nugget of wisdom, wit, insight, help or encouragement.

If I could have more articles like that for my blogs I would be thrilled to post them - even if there is an affiliate link or a product owner's link at the end of it - the way I see it is the affiliate or product owner actually deserves the sale for helping me to make my readers happy.

Thank you for reading.

Wendy
#article #authors #love #publish #uaw
  • Profile picture of the author Jeremy Kelsall
    Originally Posted by WritingMadwoman View Post

    Their sole objective seems to be stringing the reader along to the link at the bottom.
    Article Marketers after my own heart

    Isn't that the purpose of an article?

    As someone that mass submits daily, I can honestly tell you that nothing that I put out there is a literary masterpiece or even very informative for that matter.

    If they want info, they have to click the link.

    Informative articles < 15% CTR

    "sales article" > 25% CTR
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    • Profile picture of the author WritingMadwoman
      LOL I get it Jeremy, I do! And I'm not saying that my own articles are literary masterpieces either. Not at all. And yes, my sole aim in writing the article may be to ultimately make the sale or gain the subscriber. BUT - if the article itself is completely pointless or difficult to read (rambling nonsense), it won't go any farther than the article directory itself. Which is fine if that's your goal. But I assume that some of these authors are submitting to hopefully get their article published in newsletters and blogs that have a large readership. More eyeballs, more sales - unless the article makes the reader feel like sticking a pen in their eye.

      Wendy
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      • Profile picture of the author keefer
        Originally Posted by WritingMadwoman View Post

        More eyeballs, more sales - unless the article makes the reader feel like sticking a pen in their eye.

        Wendy

        The problem I have had with sticking a pen in the eye is:
        • Its painful
        • It stops you from being able to read, at least with the sore eye.
        Writing long rambling articles defeat the purpose of the article. For me the article should be short, informative and leave me wanting to find out more so compelling me to click on the link.

        If you can't get me, and others, to click on the link then the article is wasted.
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        • Profile picture of the author RoddyM
          @ Jeremy "The mentality of many people, myself included when using a service like UAW is that noone is going to see the content that gets submitted. More or less, it is a backlink service."

          Speaking from someone who tried the UAW plugins on an article directory and on a dozen or so wordpress blogs, you have just explained why I made a bad decision.

          So here was the implicit deal - I provided and promoted my sites for your back links, and you provided the content through UAW to attract some traffic and advertising clicks. I was let down by the low quality. The sites performed poorly. After a few months, Google agreed the quality was pathetic. It delisted most of my sites with UAW content. One that survived had its PR dropped from PR2 to 0 overnight. I suspect it was a manual review of all my sites. My non-UAW sites continued as normal.

          Folks, don't waste your time and money being a UAW publisher. It's a one sided deal, and not in your favor ... and it is easily found by Google. There are many far superior business models.

          UAW should clamp down hard to preserve its publishing network ... but will it?
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  • Profile picture of the author DonDavis
    If your article is a rambling POS, then why would a reader of the article expect anything more when they click thru to your site? I don't write award winning content in my articles either, but you have to show them enough to entice the click.
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    • Profile picture of the author WritingMadwoman
      That's my thinking too Don, thanks. From a reader perspective, I have to feel like the author of the article at least knows what he or she is talking about, and then I'll definitely click. Some of these articles I'd be hitting the back button so quickly I'd leave skid marks.

      Wendy
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      • Profile picture of the author N4PGW
        When I add articles to ParagonRV, I read the articles. I guess that because of the niche, I get a better percentage of articles. I don't have it automated so I have to manually cut and paste the html into WP and then clean it up a bit to my satisfaction (the formatting, not the article.) I have seen similar articles to what you discribed.

        "when traveling you need to know your family is safe....you don't want an accident...you don't want to get stranded..." (finally) "my book tells you how to get there safe and sound."

        If I find an article about how to make sure your trailer is hitched securely and then it offers a book about safely traveling with a camper, then I post it. As long as there is a nugget of useful information or enjoyable reading, I post it.

        I hope to make a profit with my website, not make it a teaser for others.

        (if you look at the site, don't expect much, I need to recharge the article base and get it kickstarted again.)
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        • Profile picture of the author WritingMadwoman
          Originally Posted by N4PGW View Post

          "when traveling you need to know your family is safe....you don't want an accident...you don't want to get stranded..." (finally) "my book tells you how to get there safe and sound."

          If I find an article about how to make sure your trailer is hitched securely and then it offers a book about safely traveling with a camper, then I post it. As long as there is a nugget of useful information or enjoyable reading, I post it.

          I hope to make a profit with my website, not make it a teaser for others.
          This is exactly what I was referring to, thanks for providing a great example. It's not that I expect the marketer to give it all away in their article but if the article doesn't share ANY helpful information then I just can't share it with my readers. Not if I want them to come back for more anyway!

          Wendy
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      • Profile picture of the author vicone
        Just give the reader something they can appreciate. One little nugget of wisdom, wit, insight, help or encouragement.
        I check hundreds of articles each week looking for suitable content that I can place on my blogs. Whilst I can understand the value in not putting the full solution in the article, I like to think that my readers will enjoy the material which is posted whether I write it or use a "guest" author.

        Many articles, unfortunately, are not only thin in substance and ideas but often fail from overkill, such as a 300 word article which has a resource box nearly as long, or those which push the author's website throughout the article.

        Ivan
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        • Profile picture of the author WritingMadwoman
          Originally Posted by vicone View Post

          I check hundreds of articles each week looking for suitable content that I can place on my blogs. Whilst I can understand the value in not putting the full solution in the article, I like to think that my readers will enjoy the material which is posted whether I write it or use a "guest" author.

          Many articles, unfortunately, are not only thin in substance and ideas but often fail from overkill, such as a 300 word article which has a resource box nearly as long, or those which push the author's website throughout the article.

          Ivan
          I agree totally Ivan. It takes me a long time to find usable articles nowadays - it used to be easier a few years ago. Another annoyance is when an article writer obviously put a lot of time and thought into the title - I get excited thinking, "ooh, that sounds like a good one" but the creative thinking obviously stopped right after they finished the title. *sigh*

          Wendy
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          • Profile picture of the author Kay King
            Wendy -

            What timing! I just had a long conversation about UAW with a client about two hours ago.

            As I told him, from what I've seen (and I use UAW) a great majority of those using it are not getting the benefits from it they could be getting.

            You cannot use inferior articles - and that includes the rewrites. Because of the way the articles are intermixed by UAW, all three versions need to be top notch.

            You need to use good titles and also create additional titles in UAW - at least 20 more titles. You need short bios that lead to your site but aren't product ads - and you need a couple hundred of those.

            My impression is that many using UAW are using it as article submission and not taking time to learn some of the more powerful functions. If you are unwilling or unable to write or buy top quality articles AND top quality rewrites, the results will be no better than doing a mass article submission with a one off software.

            It might surprise some in IM but a manufacturer or large product site using UAW will not blink at paying $50 for a 500 word article, two rewrites and submission to their UAW account.

            I'd expect you would find the articles submitted through UAW are no different than articles to any article directory. Some are very good and worth reading or putting on your site - and many aren't. The good ones work well for those blogs and sites that publish them because there are so many unique variations.

            kay

            To be fair: I've never done a submission for IM, MMO or "buy my make money fast product" with UAW. So far, the ones I've done have been for companies offering physical products and not trying to sell through the article itself. The goal is branding, links and traffic.
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            • Profile picture of the author vicone
              Another annoyance is when an article writer obviously put a lot of time and thought into the title - I get excited thinking, "ooh, that sounds like a good one" but the creative thinking obviously stopped right after they finished the title. *sigh*
              I suspect the keyword research is largely responsible for this. The authors have the tools to identify demand and are clever enough to jazz up the keyword to make an interesting title.

              However, I notice that some of the cleverest in content and structure are in the most competitive markets. For instance, many of those sending readers to **** Berry websites are very well crafted from the title through to resource box. Many of these get tens of thousands of views and are worth studying just to appreciate their artistry. But how many **** Berry articles do we really need (as readers)?

              Ivan
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            • Profile picture of the author WritingMadwoman
              Originally Posted by Kay King View Post

              Wendy -

              What timing! I just had a long conversation about UAW with a client about two hours ago.

              I'd expect you would find the articles submitted through UAW are no different than articles to any article directory. Some are very good and worth reading or putting on your site - and many aren't. The good ones work well for those blogs and sites that publish them because there are so many unique variations.
              Thanks Kay! Occasionally I do find a few good articles and I approve them - I just wish there were more of them!

              Wendy
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    • Profile picture of the author Jeremy Kelsall
      Originally Posted by DonDavis View Post

      If your article is a rambling POS, then why would a reader of the article expect anything more when they click thru to your site? I don't write award winning content in my articles either, but you have to show them enough to entice the click.
      I'm not sure why they do...but, they do.

      I wish some of the article directories would let me submit articles that were 10 words long and a resource box. I'd even be willing to make the 10 words all run together and make no sense whatsoever.

      I tend to target niches where people want to buy stuff...not research it.

      When someone has their credit card out...they are looking for a link. I give it to them.

      The mentality of many people, myself included when using a service like UAW is that noone is going to see the content that gets submitted. More or less, it is a backlink service.

      If I wanted people to see it, I'd put it on my own site or on EZA.
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      • Profile picture of the author Kay King
        You're right, Jeremy - that is the mentality of many using UAW and I think in the IM niche and similar topics I wouldn't bother with it.

        It's a lot different in some other categories.

        I doubt if you ever wrote a POS because you write with personality. Ten words and a resource box sounds reasonable to me.
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        • Profile picture of the author zerofill
          The Jeremy & Don articles do a few things very well usually...if we work hard at it...lol

          1) They give no solution to the problem.
          2) They are legible but written for search engines.
          3) They make the reader want to click away (Especially useful when you write for search engines with a lot of AdSense on your site and not for readers)

          There are times when we write something that is meant to be a presell...

          But for the most part 1 & 2 are pretty much it and it does very well for us.

          And yeah if we could do it with 10 words and a resource box...I would love that.
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      • Profile picture of the author WritingMadwoman
        Originally Posted by Jeremy Kelsall View Post


        The mentality of many people, myself included when using a service like UAW is that noone is going to see the content that gets submitted. More or less, it is a backlink service.

        If I wanted people to see it, I'd put it on my own site or on EZA.
        I suspected this Jeremy! I've never used UAW so I wasn't sure if you had to do an extra step for your articles to be submitted to people's blogs? I'm guessing not from what you just said - if you submit to their service, you broadcast your article to sites that request articles on that topic. Got it!

        Okay, now that makes more sense to me. Some of these authors don't want to be published, just a backlink.

        Wendy
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  • Profile picture of the author fitz10
    I have to agree with Don here. If I see a crappy article that is all about the sale I assume that the link in the resource box will more or less be the same. On the other hand, when I see genuinely useful information being offered I think, "Wow, this guy or gal probably has something really interesting on their site if they're offering this information here".

    I personally find that while some of my sales oriented articles get more people coming to the article, my more informative pieces have a higher CTR to my website.
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  • Profile picture of the author TJ Cox
    I don't know but should you complain about the quality of free content?

    UAW is amazing for backlinks but when I look for good quality content to publish on my own blogs- I'm not expecting to get it from a free wordpress plugin.
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    • Profile picture of the author WritingMadwoman
      Originally Posted by slash30 View Post

      I don't know but should you complain about the quality of free content?

      UAW is amazing for backlinks but when I look for good quality content to publish on my own blogs- I'm not expecting to get it from a free wordpress plugin.
      Good point Slash, I should point out that UAW is by far NOT my only source for content. I write my own high quality content, sometimes use guest authors, even a bit of high quality PLR. But I like to include some good reprint articles too. And I do get them from other places besides UAW.

      Wendy
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  • Profile picture of the author DonDavis
    ^^ But yet you track the CTR of your mass submissions?
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    • Profile picture of the author Jeremy Kelsall
      Originally Posted by DonDavis View Post

      ^^ But yet you track the CTR of your mass submissions?
      No, I track the CTR of the ones I get through at EZA

      UAW and services like it are little more than ethical spamming.

      I submit the article there and set it to submit to 50 directories a day. After 3 weeks, I go back, change the categories and submit it to 50 more directories a day.

      Result?

      Backlinks for months to come
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      • Profile picture of the author reapr
        Originally Posted by Jeremy Kelsall View Post

        No, I track the CTR of the ones I get through at EZA

        UAW and services like it are little more than ethical spamming.

        I submit the article there and set it to submit to 50 directories a day. After 3 weeks, I go back, change the categories and submit it to 50 more directories a day.

        Result?

        Backlinks for months to come
        lol ethical spamming ... yup numbers game the better articles go to the good directories the highly spun ones go to the lesser ones. I tracke the better directories EZ and Go and AB but it is almost imposable to track the lower level directories unless one article has came out of the blue which does happen on the rare occasion.
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        • Profile picture of the author zerofill
          Originally Posted by reapr View Post

          lol ethical spamming ... yup numbers game the better articles go to the good directories the highly spun ones go to the lesser ones. I tracke the better directories EZ and Go and AB but it is almost imposable to track the lower level directories unless one article has came out of the blue which does happen on the rare occasion.
          And you shouldn't have to track those ones...You know more then likely they won't rank and you know you did it solely for backlinks and not for traffic funnels .

          EDIT: That is what a lot of people don't ever seem to get with backlinks...your building them for the sole purpose of boosting another property when you submit to the junk directories. Not to get traffic from those junk directories...
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          • Profile picture of the author reapr
            Originally Posted by zerofill View Post

            And you shouldn't have to track those ones...You know more then likely they won't rank and you know you did it solely for backlinks and not for traffic funnels .

            EDIT: That is what a lot of people don't ever seem to get with backlinks...your building them for the sole purpose of boosting another property when you submit to the junk directories. Not to get traffic from those junk directories...
            What are backlinks? I thought this was about articles ... lol.

            Yeah your correct in your statement. It is odd though to see any junk sacrificial spun articles see more than a pr1 and on rare occasions a pr2 I would say most 95% or more stay at pr0 unless throwing some social or blog comment luvin' to them ... but their sacrifice served their purpose.
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            • Profile picture of the author zerofill
              Originally Posted by reapr View Post

              but their sacrifice served their purpose.
              Haha love that...yes...

              They made the ultimate sacrifice with their lives...those poor spun bastages LOL
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              • Profile picture of the author reapr
                Originally Posted by zerofill View Post

                Haha love that...yes...

                They made the ultimate sacrifice with their lives...those poor spun bastages LOL
                Yeah the worse part is like seeing a stray puppy at your front door. That is an article you mass spun and submitted and is now in your approval cue at your own blog or directory, as usual I take it in clean it up, give it a little substance then give it a home.
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              • Profile picture of the author VegasGreg
                Have you ever tried the articles from Automatic Article Marketing instead of UAW?

                I have been using AMA on a few sites and I like most of the quality received. You do get the occasion junk and the wrong category posts, but overall not bad. I have yet to try UAW, but was going to use that one on my next site.


                Originally Posted by slash30 View Post

                I don't know but should you complain about the quality of free content?

                UAW is amazing for backlinks but when I look for good quality content to publish on my own blogs- I'm not expecting to get it from a free wordpress plugin.

                Well, as a publisher, we are giving value in allowing links in exchange for the value of good quality content. So, yes, I do expect a little better.

                Some writers actually pay good money to post an article on my sites with a few backlinks.
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                • Profile picture of the author WritingMadwoman
                  Originally Posted by VegasGreg View Post

                  Have you ever tried the articles from Automatic Article Marketing instead of UAW?

                  I have been using AMA on a few sites and I like most of the quality received. You do get the occasion junk and the wrong category posts, but overall not bad. I have yet to try UAW, but was going to use that one on my next site.
                  Greg, no I haven't but I'm definitely going to check it out. Thanks!

                  Wendy
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  • Profile picture of the author reapr
    To the OP. I am with you on this one. There are many out there that 300-500 words equals content. Words do not equal content. I want an article that has some meat and potatoes or at bare minimum a good appetizer ... not one that is just leaving me a few crumbs to follow. Many of these deleted articles could have said it in one sentence.

    I have several blogs that use the same plugin "UAW and I find myself deleting at least 80% or all articles for that reason and one other.

    The other reason is some people hoping to get covered in more directories are using so many tags many that are not even directly relate to the article itself. The point it is much easier to delete that to deal with it ... besides there are enough articles to sort through that do it right.

    Unfortunately the deletion rate keeps getting higher not because of my standards getting higher but because of those two reasons.

    When I first started dealing with accepting articles about 80% a few years back were acceptable now it is the other way around. Not to mention there is a lot of spun cr@p that is not even readable.
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  • Profile picture of the author jacksonlin
    Ahh... it's free content.

    What's there to complain about?
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  • Profile picture of the author anwar001
    I am an article marketer too and agree that writing informative content is the way to go. If you write useless and pointless articles, you will have to write a lot more articles to get the same results as you can get from a few good quality articles.
    I believe this to be true based on whatever little experience I have from trying out both the things - writing informative articles as well as not-so informative ones.

    By the way - people who are using UAW or AMA articles on their blogs, do you get a nice stream of traffic and good rankings on such blogs which only have content from these services? I am curious to know as I am interested in trying out autoblogging.
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  • Profile picture of the author sbucciarel
    Banned
    That's exactly why I don't use other people's articles as content. I've yet to find an article directory that wasn't full of this type of article. Great for conversions for the writer perhaps, but very poor as content for anyone else.

    It's probably also why EZA is cleaning house. I suspect that they want articles that are a bit more informative and interesting rather than articles that just shill a product.
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    • Profile picture of the author WritingMadwoman
      Originally Posted by sbucciarel View Post

      That's exactly why I don't use other people's articles as content. I've yet to find an article directory that wasn't full of this type of article. Great for conversions for the writer perhaps, but very poor as content for anyone else.

      It's probably also why EZA is cleaning house. I suspect that they want articles that are a bit more informative and interesting rather than articles that just shill a product.
      I really like using other authors' articles - it's just getting harder and harder to find good ones. Maybe I need to hire a fleet of really great writers and flood UAW with high quality material to push out the crap. LOL

      Wendy
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      • Profile picture of the author JohnMcCabe
        Originally Posted by Jeremy Kelsall View Post


        Informative articles < 15% CTR

        "sales article" > 25% CTR
        Invisible article = 0% CTR

        Originally Posted by anwar001 View Post

        By the way - people who are using UAW or AMA articles on their blogs, do you get a nice stream of traffic and good rankings on such blogs which only have content from these services? I am curious to know as I am interested in trying out autoblogging.
        I'm just finishing up a test where I added about 400 UAW articles to one site, which already had some of my own content on it. I even did as Wendy does, and took the submissions in draft mode to read before posting. So the worst crap never saw the light of day.

        95% of the traffic comes from 15-20 articles. Some of the others get an occasional view when they pop up for a weird search, but the viewer (they aren't there long enough to call them 'readers') almost always bounces within a few seconds.

        I'm rotating in a variety of different ads - YPN, Chitika, Amazon, Clickbank. Virtually all of the income comes from about a dozen articles. About half of those are mine, half come from 1-2 of the dozens of UAW submitters (can't bring myself to call them writers or authors).

        I'll be ending this test run at the end of this month, and then there will be a purge where the non-performing articles get dumped - along with the backlinks.
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        • Profile picture of the author WritingMadwoman
          Originally Posted by JohnMcCabe View Post

          Invisible article = 0% CTR

          I'm just finishing up a test where I added about 400 UAW articles to one site, which already had some of my own content on it. I even did as Wendy does, and took the submissions in draft mode to read before posting. So the worst crap never saw the light of day.

          95% of the traffic comes from 15-20 articles. Some of the others get an occasional view when they pop up for a weird search, but the viewer (they aren't there long enough to call them 'readers') almost always bounces within a few seconds.

          I'm rotating in a variety of different ads - YPN, Chitika, Amazon, Clickbank. Virtually all of the income comes from about a dozen articles. About half of those are mine, half come from 1-2 of the dozens of UAW submitters (can't bring myself to call them writers or authors).

          I'll be ending this test run at the end of this month, and then there will be a purge where the non-performing articles get dumped - along with the backlinks.

          John, 0% CTR for an invisible article - very funny!

          Interesting test you did, so according to your own results the articles from UAW are performing quite below your own (I assume higher quality) articles. I can't say I'm surprised! I'm curious who are the people who read these articles and are interested enough to click through and buy something? Maybe it works like that only for certain niches.

          Wendy
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          • Profile picture of the author JohnMcCabe
            Originally Posted by WritingMadwoman View Post

            John, 0% CTR for an invisible article - very funny!

            Interesting test you did, so according to your own results the articles from UAW are performing quite below your own (I assume higher quality) articles. I can't say I'm surprised! I'm curious who are the people who read these articles and are interested enough to click through and buy something? Maybe it works like that only for certain niches.

            Wendy
            Some of the top performers are mine, some are not. What they do have in common is higher quality and longer length. The 250-400 word fillers tend to bounce fast, while the 500-800 word higher-quality articles generate clicks and/or additional page views.

            EDIT:

            I do need to add one thing. The site is not as tightly themed as it should be. It's about 10 years old and takes a kind of "Reader's Digest" approach with silos covering several different topics.

            The next test will be a brand new site on a tighter theme. I expect it to finish up sometime in mid-summer.
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