Article Directories - Your Likes And Dislikes

what really annoys me are the directories that only accept unique content. they have no clue. i've had accounts banned and all articles removed from various directories because the owners still follow the misguided believe that any duplication is evil and should be sent to hell.

I want/like an article directory that has 24/7 LIVE author support.

I want/like an article directory that protects the links in my resource box.

I don't like an article directory that's too self-centered - that is, an article directory that doesn't want me to submit my articles on my blog to them.

I like directories with instant posting, I don't like to wait 1 week to see my article posted

Would be helpful if Article Directories automatically syndicated my blog's content via my RSS feed - but I understand this exposes them to a lot of abuse.

The main thing for me is how much the search engines like the article directory and how much traffic the article directory is getting. I like article directories for two reasons, one is traffic and two is backlinks. If it is easy to submit to and quick, then I will use it regardless because it is easy and quick. I, honestly, hate EZA and the way it works, but they get a ton of traffic and they are the best by far so I use them. However, I love the ones that take me literally seconds to submit my articles.

I would love to see a bulk feature that is easy to use to upload like 100 articles at a time.

Benjamin Ehinger

Original Content Issues? I thought this was pretty straightforward, am I missing something here?

Rather pay for directory with no competing ads (links). Many directories will have 12 Adsense links and 2-12 other ad links which sort of tend to dilute the two most directories allow.

(But I am aware, that is probably because I am a lousy writer and cannot write well enough to not have ads distract the reader. Lol).

Nice thread. We spent of our time during the holidays making a modified phpLD that works purely as an article directory script. If you have any feedback, I'd love to hear. It is not available for sale at this time, but it will be soon.
Thanks!

For me, it's a trivially simple issue.

I have only one criterion that really matters enough to make the decision, and to overwhelm most other possible factors: I need to submit my work to the directories that webmasters use as article directories, i.e. depositiories of available, free content for their websites. That's why I'm submitting it, after all.

And as it so happens, there is only one that most webmasters habitually use as their first port of call for quality content for a quality website, and that's Ezine Articles, so that's the one I use.

There are a lot of other things about it that I like, too, and some other benefits. There are also, of course some downsides and things that I'm not so keen on at all. But no factor is anywhere near the scale of the one described above.

Decision made.

Nice easy one.

Alexa's point is the most important, of course: any article directory capable of facilitating syndication/republication of the content you submit to it, is most desirable. EZA just about stands alone in this regard, as even the "next best" directories for this purpose don't provide for anywhere near the level of widespread syndication that they do.

If you can place emphasis on the marketing of your directory not only as a place for the submission of content, but for the sourcing and collection of free content for webmasters, then I suspect this would encourage many more serious, professional article marketers to submit content there. Probably much higher quality content at that.

A couple of other desirable article directory "traits":-

(1) Good search-engine authority (not just a high-PR homepage!). This takes time to build up, of course, but is probably the second most desirable thing any article directory has to offer. But it requires long-term commitment - something fly-by-night article "directories" obviously don't have, with their "reel it all in and make bank ASAP" mindset. Even those for whom potential article syndication is the strongest motive for submitting will probably see this as a benefit. Oftentimes, when you're starting a new site and/or haven't yet built enough backlinks to a given page, it's good to be able to temporarily leverage the authority of another site to achieve some good search-engine rankings, and harness some "instant traffic".

(2) Strict, rigorous quality-control. EZA and Buzzle seem to have about the strictest quality control and acceptance criteria of all article directories, but Buzzle (for other reasons) is pretty much a no-no for a lot of article marketers, anyway. Don't let your directory get cluttered up with crap articles, because not only will this probably hurt its authority in the long-run, it makes harder the ability for those looking for content to find the good stuff - and probably lowers their will to even try. To be honest, even EZA let a lot of crap through, but I suspect that's simply due to their sheer size and popularity, and the fact their editorial team are overworked and understaffed. Still, that's not really an excuse. A good chunk of the articles they accept could do to be rejected in the first instance, and (in my opinion) a lot of what is present already could be removed. But it depends on your values as a directory owner. EZA get a lot of search-engine traffic, and they bank healthily from Google AdSense, Chitika, etc. Their primary concern clearly isn't to provide the best possible article syndication potential for their users. But that doesn't mean that yours shouldn't be, and that you couldn't benefit just as well from it being so, from a profit perspective.

When I submit an article I'm primarily interested in getting readers...syndication is a big plus and the backlink is nice, but I want my articles to get read and someone take action on them.

Instant approval? NO, I'd rather have a human bean confirm that my stuff is indeed worthy of their reputation, I expect no less.

My biggest gripe is the directories that are so riddled with adsense that a reader can barely follow the flow of my thoughts for having to navigate around the damn ad blocks.

And forget about the ones that place a big ad block between my article and my resource box, once I see that I never return.

The 3 things that bother me the most in article directories (including the most popular ones) are:
1. Spun articles - I see nothing wrong with writing a good quality article with good content and then "spinning" it a time or two to re-submit later on. But I see more and more articles on the directories that have been spun so much that they no longer make any sense at all. Some "authors" will spin and re-spin already spun articles so much that the "article" becomes completely illegible. A good example can be found on Ezine in the "fishing" category. The "top" author has over a thousand articles, but if you actually look at them, it is about 10 different articles spun over a hundred times each. To me this is an outrage.
2. Unknowledgeable "authors" - There are probably millions of articles out there that have been written by people who have absolutely no idea what they are writing about. These articles are full of mis-information and untruths, and it becomes completely obvious that they were written purely for SEO or article marketing purposes. Some "top authors" are famous for this, achieving top status for having the most articles in a category, but their articles are pure garbage.
3. "Authors" who take #2 type articles and do #1 to them - resulting in absolute worthless gatherings of words that are purely a waste of internet "space", and of no help or interest to anyone. Yet the directories still accept them happily, and the "authors" are bumped up another notch on the top authors list.
Just my 2 cents worth.:rolleyes:

I use article directories for two distinct reasons, traffic and backlinks.

For traffic i stick with the top 10-20 and make sure the is some differnce between the articles I submit.

For backlinks, I'll just take an article, maybe even a PLR article, add my link(s) and blast away with AMR or another submission tool. The articles with get indexed and so will your links.

So to sum up Article marketing should, in my opinion, be used in different depending on what you are looking for, traffic or backlinks or both!