Ezinearticles decline continues

116 replies
Looks like the Ezinearticle traffic decline continues full force.

ezinearticles.com 5,863,495 UVs for October 2011 | Compete
#continues #decline #ezinearticles
  • Profile picture of the author Micah Medina
    This is one of those cases where images lie.

    You're looking at a site that's (roughly) stabilized at 6 million for the last few months after a precipitous decline. This graph doesn't use zero as the baseline, instead choosing to cut it off at around 6 million to give viewers the impression that traffic has gone down 90% when that clearly isn't the case.

    If a person can't make any headway with that much traffic, though... the problem is them and not EZA.
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    • Profile picture of the author BlackRob
      Originally Posted by Micah Medina View Post

      This is one of those cases where images lie.

      You're looking at a site that's (roughly) stabilized at 6 million for the last few months after a precipitous decline. This graph doesn't use zero as the baseline, instead choosing to cut it off at around 6 million to give viewers the impression that traffic has gone down 90% when that clearly isn't the case.

      If a person can't make any headway with that much traffic, though... the problem is them and not EZA.

      How interesting, 6 million people look at ezine articles? I wish that amount looked at my websites, that kind of traffic is fantastic, but as Micah said, the stats have been cut off at that mark to give you that impression.

      Concentrate on writing and submitting articles to them, and piggy back some of that traffic.

      Hope this helps.
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  • Profile picture of the author Joseph Robinson
    Banned
    Heck, it's still doing a lot better on the "competitive rank" metric (the one that I care most about, and that's not saying much). As in 5 million visitors better. If you were counting on ezinearticles traffic to be your traffic, the problems go much deeper than you can imagine.

    That traffic that they're losing btw? It has to go somewhere. You know where it has been going? To the sites of marketers who put their quality content on their own pages first.
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  • Profile picture of the author Rod Cortez
    Originally Posted by abbadox View Post

    Looks like the Ezinearticle traffic decline continues full force.

    ezinearticles.com 5,863,495 UVs for October 2011 | Compete
    Not really because it doesn't measure how many people syndicate other author's articles because not everyone uses the EZA platform when they're grabbing article content. And despite what that link shows, EZA's traffic is actually increasing. I'm not sure where they're getting their information but it's not even close to accurate.

    RoD
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    • Profile picture of the author nm5419
      Originally Posted by Rod Cortez View Post

      Not really because it doesn't measure how many people syndicate other author's articles because not everyone uses the EZA platform when they're grabbing article content.
      What about when people publish content? Their only automated system seems to be a Wordpress plug in of some sort.

      And where else can one grab EZA content? From the RSS feeds? Those things publish mere snippets of content. You aren't suggesting that people import feeds willy-nilly without actually visiting EZA and reading what they're broadcasting, are you?

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  • Profile picture of the author abbadox
    Not really because it doesn't measure how many people syndicate other author's articles because not everyone uses the EZA platform when they're grabbing article content. And despite what that link shows, EZA's traffic is actually increasing. I'm not sure where they're getting their information but it's not even close to accurate.
    Please explain where you getting your information?.
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    • Profile picture of the author Rod Cortez
      Originally Posted by abbadox View Post

      Please explain where you getting your information?.
      Vintage Research Inc., Jupiter Research, and my own personal results from having thousands of articles on EZA under different pen names. That's where. The latter being the most relevant to this forum.

      RoD
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  • Profile picture of the author nicheblogger75
    All I know is I have 210 articles published on EZA and I was getting a steady 1500-2000 visitors per month from them before the update. Now, I'm lucky to see 200. I think the proof is in the pudding. I don't even bother with article marketing aas a means of traffic anymore.
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    • Profile picture of the author Richard Van
      Originally Posted by nicheblogger75 View Post

      All I know is I have 210 articles published on EZA and I was getting a steady 1500-2000 visitors per month from them before the update. Now, I'm lucky to see 200. I think the proof is in the pudding. I don't even bother with article marketing aas a means of traffic anymore.
      Or you're using EZA for traffic when a lot of successful people use EZA for what it's mean't for - Getting your articles published on blogs/websites/Ezines Etc.Etc, that actually have interested readers, often your target customers.

      Why do people think that all their prospective purchasers spend their days trawling EZA for solutions to their problems? Do you? I certainly don't.

      The only proof in the pudding is that you haven't used article marketing in every way you could, in fact you've barely started if you thought article directory traffic was what article marketing was about. For your information, I don't use directories for traffic either but I get an awful lot of traffic from article marketing, my definition is just different to yours.
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      • Profile picture of the author nm5419
        Originally Posted by Richard Van View Post

        Or you're using EZA for traffic when a lot of successful people use EZA for what it's mean't for - Getting your articles published on blogs/websites/Ezines Etc.Etc, that actually have interested readers, often your target customers.
        EZA's traffic is decreasing. That means fewer people are using it for anything - including "what it's meant for."
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        • Profile picture of the author Richard Van
          Originally Posted by nm5419 View Post

          EZA's traffic is decreasing. That means fewer people are using it for anything - including "what it's meant for."
          In your opinion and according to the one piece of evidence the OP provides.

          With respect, Rod has a lot of knowledge on this so his opinion is very valid too, it just doesn't fit in with your opinion.

          Besides, you missed my point. I barely use EZA. I go direct to the blogs/sites and Ezines where my prespective customers are and get my articles syndicated there. That is the only place I want them, in front of eyeballs who want to read it.

          I don't care if EZA's traffic goes up, down or to the moon.

          So the fact is this. You have the one source the OP provides that says it's decreasing, this fits in with your opinion conveniently. Rod has 3 sources, one is his own articles, that fits in with my opinion.

          Besides my response was directed at nicheblogger and his opinion that article marketing was all about traffic from directories. It isn't.

          Incidentally, Chris Knight is a Warrior, you can settle this arguement by just asking him, he owns it after all. That way we can all get back to work instead of argueing over lots of different bits of data on whether traffic is up, down or whatever.
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          • Profile picture of the author nm5419
            Originally Posted by Richard Van View Post

            In your opinion and according to the one piece of evidence the OP provides. With respect, Rod has a lot of knowledge on this so his opinion is very valid too, it just doesn't fit in with your opinion.
            Sorry, I didn't make an opinion. I stated a fact. Ezinearticles.com Site Info

            Originally Posted by Richard Van View Post

            Besides, you missed my point. I barely use EZA. I go direct to the blogs/sites and Ezines where my prespective customers are and get my articles syndicated there. That is the only place I want them, in front of eyeballs who want to read it.
            I see, and that sounds like the sensible thing to do, considering the fact that EZA's traffic is going down.

            Originally Posted by Richard Van View Post

            You have the one source the OP provides that says it's decreasing, this fits in with your opinion conveniently. Rod has 3 sources, one is his own articles, that fits in with my opinion.
            Rod pointed to sources that can't be publically validated, so they're pretty much moot.

            Originally Posted by Richard Van View Post

            Incidentally, Chris Knight is a Warrior, you can settle this arguement by just asking him, he owns it after all. That way we can all get back to work instead of argueing over lots of different bits of data on whether traffic is up, down or whatever.
            No thanks. I can read charts.
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            • Profile picture of the author Richard Van
              Originally Posted by nm5419 View Post

              I see, and that sounds like the sensible thing to do, considering the fact that EZA's traffic is going down.
              Oh no, I've been doing it for sometime, I never really considered it a place for targeted traffic anyway. Especially with EZA's goal being for your prospective customer to click on the AdSense. Like I said, EZA is hardly the place where everyone goes to get solutions to their problems is it?

              That's why a lot of people come here for IM advice, instead of trying to find solutions on EZA.

              No thanks. I can read charts.
              I can too but I spend most of my time testing ways to make money and grow my business, instead of worrying about Chris Knights and other people business. I mind my own business

              You sound familiar by the way, have we had a similar conversation before?

              Thanks for the link too, I won't waste my time looking at it, I'll take your word for it. Like I said in my first post, it makes no difference to me anyway.
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              • Profile picture of the author nm5419
                Originally Posted by Richard Van View Post

                Like I said, EZA is hardly the place where everyone goes to get solutions to their problems is it?
                I can't say what EZA is 'hardly' used for (and neither can you). I certainly use it for information, so I can only assume others do as well.

                Originally Posted by Richard Van View Post

                That's why a lot of people come here for IM advice, instead of trying to find solutions on EZA.
                Well I can't argue with that if we look at the numbers. WF has a very high Alexa rating -- higher than EZA's!

                Originally Posted by Richard Van View Post

                I can too but I spend most of my time testing ways to make money and grow my business, instead of worrying about Chris Knights and other people business. I mind my own business
                :rolleyes:

                Originally Posted by Richard Van View Post

                You sound familiar by the way, have we had a similar conversation before?
                I dunno. Doubt it. Perhaps. Who knows! Man, I've been on the Internet for over 16 years! I have no clue what I said to who anymore.
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                • Profile picture of the author Richard Van
                  Well it has been nice discussing this with you, I think we can say we're unlikely to agree on anything much.

                  I dunno. Doubt it. Perhaps. Who knows! Man, I've been on the Internet for over 16 years! I have no clue what I said to who anymore.
                  I just mean't you sounded similar to someone I spoke to here but it was before you joined, that's why I was curious.
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          • Profile picture of the author trnz
            Richard Van wrote:
            "I go direct to the blogs/sites and Ezines where my prespective customers are and get my articles syndicated there. That is the only place I want them, in front of eyeballs who want to read it."
            I have been using Ping.fm and Posterous to syndicate my blog. I have several niche sites I put my blog on, one at a time. This takes time and stops me doing more sites. Do you have a tool that lets you post on a lot of sites in one go?
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      • Profile picture of the author Sangfroid
        Originally Posted by Richard Van View Post

        Or you're using EZA for traffic when a lot of successful people use EZA for what it's mean't for - Getting your articles published on blogs/websites/Ezines Etc.Etc, that actually have interested readers, often your target customers.

        Why do people think that all their prospective purchasers spend their days trawling EZA for solutions to their problems? Do you? I certainly don't.

        The only proof in the pudding is that you haven't used article marketing in every way you could, in fact you've barely started if you thought article directory traffic was what article marketing was about. For your information, I don't use directories for traffic either but I get an awful lot of traffic from article marketing, my definition is just different to yours.
        Hi Richard,

        You seem to have a great strategy. How does one get an Article
        Syndicated and more importantly published on a relevant Blog? :confused:

        Forgive the question, I am new to Article Marketing.
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        • Profile picture of the author AnniePot
          Originally Posted by Sangfroid View Post

          Hi Richard,

          You seem to have a great strategy. How does one get an Article
          Syndicated and more importantly published on a relevant Blog? :confused:

          Forgive the question, I am new to Article Marketing.
          May I suggest TiffLee's excellent free ebook:
          http://www.warriorforum.com/warrior-...ml#post5553489

          It will give you a great introduction to true "Article Marketing".
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          • Profile picture of the author JohnMcCabe
            Originally Posted by NY1 View Post

            5) Those that utilize a third party site for any reason at all should be aware of the financial health of that site. In the business world, financial health is not determined by whether or not you get syndicated a lot. They make absolutely no money off of that event. It depends on the profitability of that business. If the revenue of that site is down significantly- that generally means the financial health of that site is also down significantly.
            I'm not stepping into the middle of your ongoing feud with Alexa. She's quite capable of holding her own.

            What I'm doing here is trying to make sure that the bold part above does not get lost in the debate. If you are going to put some of your eggs in someone else's basket, keep one eye on that basket. Be prepared to lose those eggs.

            If you scan the subject lines for a few pages, you see more than a few "what happened to ________" and "is Site X down" threads. People have invested time and money into third party sites that suddenly either vanish or quit working, and the owners of those sites disappear. If those who bought into the site put too much of their business's success on the continued availability, they go down when the site goes down.

            Even if EZA ends up on the scrap heap of Internet history, something else will fill the void as long as some people want access to 'free' content and others are willing to provide it. Just ask the folks at Hotbot and other defunct search engines...
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    • Profile picture of the author Steve Faber
      Originally Posted by nicheblogger75 View Post

      All I know is I have 210 articles published on EZA and I was getting a steady 1500-2000 visitors per month from them before the update. Now, I'm lucky to see 200. I think the proof is in the pudding. I don't even bother with article marketing aas a means of traffic anymore.
      You should still bother, but not by just throwing articles up on EZA and hoping for a RBox click through. Use them to get syndicated on sites that people actually frequent, and approach site owners to synbdicate your content, until you can get some sites that want your articles regularly.

      RE: those traffic stats, I was surprised that Go Articles only gets 147K uniques a month now. WOW, that's a heck of a drop.
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  • Profile picture of the author celente
    I have over 1400+ articles on EZ and I have been seeing a rather dramatic decline.

    Give a pat on the back to google and the idiotic article spinners that still seem to be posting their crap services in here, even though EZ and google and telling you you are waisting your time with it. Good job. LOL
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  • Profile picture of the author nm5419
    Ouch! That's gotta hurt. But someone asked a good question, and that is where is that traffic going?!
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  • Profile picture of the author Jealee
    Are you saying that EzineArticles is no longer a good place to drive traffic? Hmm...
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    • Profile picture of the author Richard Van
      Originally Posted by Jealee View Post

      Are you saying that EzineArticles is no longer a good place to drive traffic? Hmm...
      Well where would you want prespective customers going?

      1. To your article on EZA where EZA's sole goal is to get your prospective customer to click on the AdSense ads.

      2. To the site they visit all the time, because they're fans of it, like you do here, and get an endorsement from the site owner, recommending all your prospective customers to read your article and visit your site.

      I like 2 better.

      That's not the point though. The thread is about whether or not the traffic is in decline. Whether or not it's been a sensible place to get targeted traffic, whether EZA's traffic has been going up, down or sideways, at least for the last few years, is another arguement altogether.
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      • Profile picture of the author badyari121
        ezine articles had a very big set back when panda update was launched,it was badly hit due to the duplicate content being published by the authors.
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    • Profile picture of the author nicheblogger75
      Originally Posted by Jealee View Post

      Are you saying that EzineArticles is no longer a good place to drive traffic? Hmm...
      Not at all. I guess it's good for syndication which equals backlinks, but other than that article marketing is just not worth my time anymore. I've focused that time on other methods and my business has greatly increased by leaving article marketing where it now belongs - by the wayside.
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  • Profile picture of the author Raindance
    Compete.com only measures traffic from US. The stats which you have are not of global traffic. If just US is giving them 5mn then the rest of the world must be giving another 8mn, at least.
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  • Profile picture of the author Guru_Marketing
    Abbadox is right. The traffic to Ezine is declining.

    Ezinearticles.com Traffic and Demographic Statistics by Quantcast (on the range, click on "all")

    Ezinearticles.com Site Info (in the traffic stats tab, go to reach and choose "max" on drop-down menu.

    Here's more info:



    ____________________________________________


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    • Profile picture of the author Alexa Smith
      Banned
      There's no question that EZA traffic has declined hugely and is continuing to decline slightly.

      To those who misuse article directories by attempting to use them for their own traffic (I know that will sound pretty loopy to the successful article marketers here, but there are honestly people who completely misunderstand what an article directory is and why they exist), that might be some sort of "problem". (And that's why there are so many threads here with titles like "Is Article Marketing Dead"?).

      To those of us using EZA every day for its intended purpose, of course, it's a good thing rather than a bad thing, because it reduces the risk of our potential customers finding an article directory copy of one of our articles rather than the one we want them to find, which was originally published and indexed on our own site, while still enabling us to list our work there as "available for syndication" - which is of course why article directories exist.

      Here are two scenarios to compare (a click-through rate of 25% from EZA is assumed in these examples) ...

      Scenario A: 100 people put into Google a keyword from one of your articles, and they find listed in the SERP's an article of yours in EZA. They click on the link in Google's SERP's and that takes them to your article inside EZA. Whatever happens to them from there (i.e. whether they read all or some or none of your article, whether they click on an EZA AdSense advertisement, whether they get distracted by something else there, whether they read someone else's articles too, whatever ...) we know that on average 25% of them click your resource-box link and arrive at your website, and that the other 75% don't. You lost the other 75%. Only 25 people out of the original 100 ever arrived at your website.

      Scenario B: 100 people put into Google a keyword from one of your articles, and they find listed in the SERP's an article of yours on your own site. They click on the link in Google's SERP's and that takes them to your website. 100 people arrived at your website.

      Both scenarios start off the same way, with 100 potential customers, but scenario B gives you four times as much traffic as scenario A.

      The reality is that, by going about it the right way, you actually get to choose which copy they find in Google's SERP's: the one that brings you 100% of the traffic or the one that brings you only 25% of the traffic.

      It's not a very difficult decision to make, is it?

      But to do that, you have to understand how article directories work and what they're there for, and NOT try to use them for their own traffic (nor indeed, for their own backlinks, which is - if anything - even more misguided! ).

      Articles don't go into EZA to be found through Google!

      All explained here, anyway ------> http://www.warriorforum.com/main-int...ries-work.html
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      • Profile picture of the author DamenRabat
        @abbadox

        It had never occurred to me to check up on Ezine´s traffic stats. Probably because I do only use them for back links as opposed to expecting direct sales or even recruiting customers.
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        • Profile picture of the author NicoleBeckett
          Originally Posted by DamenRabat View Post

          Probably because I do only use them for back links
          ...which means you're getting a PR0 link for every article you publish. And, unfortunately, when most people say they use the article directories for links, it means that they throw up some kind of half-coherent article that's designed just to get a quick link from EZA (or GoArticles, or ArticlesBase, or wherever they're publishing) - instead of writing articles that are good enough to get syndicated and wind up building all kinds of links (most of which are going to be higher than PR0 and a whole lot more relevant to your site, to boot).

          I hope you're not one of them. Otherwise, you're missing out on countless link building opportunities!
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        • Profile picture of the author 3genter
          Originally Posted by DamenRabat View Post

          @abbadox

          It had never occurred to me to check up on Ezine´s traffic stats. Probably because I do only use them for back links as opposed to expecting direct sales or even recruiting customers.
          I have never really seen much traffic from EZA, but felt the backlinks were of some value, maybe not after Panda??
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      • Profile picture of the author jimmel196
        Originally Posted by Alexa Smith View Post

        There's no question that EZA traffic has declined hugely and is continuing to decline slightly.

        To those who misuse article directories by attempting to use them for their own traffic (I know that will sound pretty loopy to the successful article marketers here, but there are honestly people who completely misunderstand what an article directory is and why they exist), that might be some sort of "problem". (And that's why there are so many threads here with titles like "Is Article Marketing Dead"?).

        To those of us using EZA every day for its intended purpose, of course, it's a good thing rather than a bad thing, because it reduces the risk of our potential customers finding an article directory copy of one of our articles rather than the one we want them to find, which was originally published and indexed on our own site, while still enabling us to list our work there as "available for syndication" - which is of course why article directories exist.

        Here are two scenarios to compare (a click-through rate of 25% from EZA is assumed in these examples) ...

        Scenario A: 100 people put into Google a keyword from one of your articles, and they find listed in the SERP's an article of yours in EZA. They click on the link in Google's SERP's and that takes them to your article inside EZA. Whatever happens to them from there (i.e. whether they read all or some or none of your article, whether they click on an EZA AdSense advertisement, whether they get distracted by something else there, whether they read someone else's articles too, whatever ...) we know that on average 25% of them click your resource-box link and arrive at your website, and that the other 75% don't. You lost the other 75%. Only 25 people out of the original 100 ever arrived at your website.

        Scenario B: 100 people put into Google a keyword from one of your articles, and they find listed in the SERP's an article of yours on your own site. They click on the link in Google's SERP's and that takes them to your website. 100 people arrived at your website.

        Both scenarios start off the same way, with 100 potential customers, but scenario B gives you four times as much traffic as scenario A.

        The reality is that, by going about it the right way, you actually get to choose which copy they find in Google's SERP's: the one that brings you 100% of the traffic or the one that brings you only 25% of the traffic.

        It's not a very difficult decision to make, is it?

        But to do that, you have to understand how article directories work and what they're there for, and NOT try to use them for their own traffic (nor indeed, for their own backlinks, which is - if anything - even more misguided! ).

        Articles don't go into EZA to be found through Google!

        All explained here, anyway ------> http://www.warriorforum.com/main-int...ries-work.html
        I, following the advise of Alexa and other experienced article marketers her on the WF, always publish my articles on my website first and then to other sites only after verifying it has been indexed on my site. The problem is that I find my article posted on other sites that rank much higher than mine so that site gets the click. I wouldn't mind if they kept my resource information intact but I find that they rarely do. I am basing this only on a whopping 12 articles which I currently have on EZA. I have attempted to contact the owners of these sites to offer my writing services in exchange for continued business and and intact resource box. I usually never get a response. At that point I either have to spend my day filing DMCA complaints or do nothing at all. It's frustrating!
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        • Profile picture of the author Alexa Smith
          Banned
          Originally Posted by jimmel196 View Post

          The problem is that I find my article posted on other sites that rank much higher than mine so that site gets the click.
          In the short term, especially when your site's newish, this can be a problem, for sure.

          Of course, it was a big problem for article directory marketing, too, which is part of the reason why people trying to use article directories for their own traffic always lost so much of their traffic. :p

          Take a long term view, Jimmy: the higher those sites rank, the more worthwhile their backlinks are to you in the long run. Sooner or later you end up outranking almost all of them, and have been building your business rather than anyone else's. And meanwhile, of course, since they tend to be relevant sites for your niche (of course, otherwise they wouldn't want your article in the first place?), you can get some traffic from them anyway.

          The ones who don't keep your links intact aren't really doing you any harm in the long run. Meanwhile, just keep a "fill-in-the-blanks" DMCA notice ready to send out. It does work, about 99% of the time.

          With the "autoblog" ones, you'll so rarely get a reply from those thieves that you may as well just send the DMCA notice in the first place, and save all the time by not bothering with the attempted email first.

          It can be frustrating in the short term, but in the long run it pays off big time, and you're building up a genuine, asset-based business, and unlike all the people who rely on search engines for all their traffic, your business will never be "one algorithm-change away from a potential disaster".
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  • Profile picture of the author Kurt
    I think the concern for article marketers is the financial health of EZA. It's kind of ironic...Article writers don't depend on SEO and algos, but it appears EZA totally does. If EZA stops making money from Google traffic and Adsense ads, then there's little reason for them to be in business, unless there's another revenue model that will work.

    While writers only care that publishers still visit, I doubt publishers click on many Adsense ads, which is what EZA is concerned about. And if SEOers need to be concerned about a single algo change, doesn't this mean EZA should have the same concern?
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    • Profile picture of the author JohnMcCabe
      Originally Posted by Alexa Smith View Post

      The ones who don't keep your links intact aren't really doing you any harm in the long run. Meanwhile, just keep a "fill-in-the-blanks" DMCA notice ready to send out. It does work, about 99% of the time.

      With the "autoblog" ones, you'll so rarely get a reply from those thieves that you may as well just send the DMCA notice in the first place, and save all the time by not bothering with the attempted email first.
      Quick tip...

      When you send the notice cc: the host. Not blind bcc:, put that right in the open. While you may never get a direct response, you might be surprised how fast you get action.
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  • Profile picture of the author DonPlourde
    Originally Posted by abbadox View Post

    Looks like the Ezinearticle traffic decline continues full force.

    ezinearticles.com 5,863,495 UVs for October 2011 | Compete
    I have seen a steady slow down in the traffic I received from Ezinearticles, this is not a new phenomenon, but something that has been ongoing for a while now. I am in the opinion That you are further ahead to keep your content on your own servers and promote those pages. The benefits of posting fresh content on your site and generating links to your articles are far greater then trying to appease Ezine with all their rules and dislike of affiliate marketers.
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  • Profile picture of the author Marhelper
    Wow, 20% decline in 3 months ... not good. I have over a thousand articles on EZA from years ago and still get good traffic.
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    • Profile picture of the author Steve Faber
      Originally Posted by Marhelper View Post

      Wow, 20% decline in 3 months ... not good. I have over a thousand articles on EZA from years ago and still get good traffic.
      Noticed your sig.... I thought teens got pregnant the same way as everyone else....
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  • Profile picture of the author abbadox
    My guess and it is just a guess but I expect Ezinearticles to go the same way as DMOZ, at one time a very important site but now totally irrelevant.
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    • Profile picture of the author JohnMcCabe
      Originally Posted by abbadox View Post

      My guess and it is just a guess but I expect Ezinearticles to go the same way as DMOZ, at one time a very important site but now totally irrelevant.
      You may be right. EZA isn't exempt from the flow of evolution. What won't change is the model behind it, the same as the model behind search engines. If EZA goes the way of DMOZ, something will take its place.

      Nature abhors a vacuum...
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  • Profile picture of the author andynathan
    Bigger question? Does this indicate the death of article marketin sites or just the death of Ezine articles?
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    • Profile picture of the author Joseph Robinson
      Banned
      Originally Posted by andynathan View Post

      Bigger question? Does this indicate the death of article marketin sites or just the death of Ezine articles?
      Bigger bigger question: Didn't you see the other two threads on the "death of eza" on the front page before you went to dig up this one? Aye dios mio. :rolleyes:
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    • Profile picture of the author nm5419
      Originally Posted by andynathan View Post

      Bigger question? Does this indicate the death of article marketin sites or just the death of Ezine articles?
      Not sure how much plainer I can make this, but Google just shat all over the age-old premise of article marketing. Ezine articles is but one piece of the drain it's being flushed through.
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  • Profile picture of the author Nino
    They are stupid enough to realize that there aren't the articles that make the decline? IT
    S THEIR OWN FREAKING SITE....

    What Google wants? Good Customer Experience right?

    They put 101 ads on the page...
    They allow you the right to publish articles...and if they are approved after 5 days they will put 100 ads on the page.
    What visitor would like to see so much ads on a page?


    In my visitor opinion I wouldn't visit EzineArticles in a million years! As an internet marketer I would visit for content and niche ideas. They need to change something and make it quick...and I don't reffer here only a new template!
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  • Profile picture of the author whengcans
    Well, Ezine will make actions on that case. Just leave it to them.
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    • Profile picture of the author nicheblogger75
      Originally Posted by whengcans View Post

      Well, Ezine will make actions on that case. Just leave it to them.
      I'm betting they won't, and could care less. I don't think they're that keen on what Internet Marketers htink in the first place. We can say what we want, but they are making tons of money off Adsense.
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  • Profile picture of the author Dann Vicker
    Its pretty much obvious now that the best way to go about article marketing is by syndication and guest posting. Its not only ezinearticles. Hubpages and squidoo have also taken bad hits
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  • Profile picture of the author x3xsolxdierx3x
    Ezine Articles - in fact, ANY site - will become what you put into it.

    Sure, authority and ranking is definitely a factor in success when using a site like EZA, however, there are many here who's income has actually gone UP (and, in some cases, drastically) after Panda. While many scream doom and gloom from the roof-tops, others are capitalizing by using the site(s) in the manner in which they were intended.
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  • Profile picture of the author abbadox
    Originally Posted by abbadox
    My guess and it is just a guess but I expect Ezinearticles to go the same way as DMOZ, at one time a very important site but now totally irrelevant.
    You may be right. EZA isn't exempt from the flow of evolution. What won't change is the model behind it, the same as the model behind search engines. If EZA goes the way of DMOZ, something will take its place.

    Nature abhors a vacuum...

    I agree that something will step up to take it's place... The question is what?...
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  • Profile picture of the author Randall Magwood
    I wonder if the invention of the my.ezinearticles.com interface is an attempt to boost their website traffic and transform to an article directory/social marketing site. In any event, i keep hearing people saying that they wont have alot of competitors with everybody leaving... thereby allowing them to get their hands on all of the traffic. Does this makes sense to anyone? How does one dominate EZA due to the fact that alot of people aren't using it anymore?
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    • Profile picture of the author Joseph Robinson
      Banned
      Originally Posted by Randall Magwood View Post

      I wonder if the invention of the my.ezinearticles.com interface is an attempt to boost their website traffic and transform to an article directory/social marketing site.
      It is an article directory; and always has been. What did you think it was?

      Originally Posted by Randall Magwood View Post

      In any event, i keep hearing people saying that they wont have alot of competitors with everybody leaving... thereby allowing them to get their hands on all of the traffic. Does this makes sense to anyone? How does one dominate EZA due to the fact that alot of people aren't using it anymore?
      If your intent (or anyone else's intent) is to use ezinearticles for it's own traffic, you are going about things the wrong way! The point of EZA, and all article directories really, is to act as one of many platforms for getting your content syndicated.

      Take a look at the posts made by this lady, she explains this more than once a day it seems.
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      • Profile picture of the author nm5419
        Originally Posted by Joe Robinson View Post

        It is an article directory; and always has been. What did you think it was?
        my.ezinearticles.com is not an article directory, and has never been. Did you look at the link?
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        • Profile picture of the author Alexa Smith
          Banned
          Originally Posted by nm5419 View Post

          my.ezinearticles.com is not an article directory, and has never been.
          As can be seen from its url, it's a subdomain of ezinearticles.com.

          Measure Article Performance With My.EzineArticles.com
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          • Profile picture of the author nm5419
            Originally Posted by Alexa Smith View Post

            As can be seen from its url, it's a subdomain of ezinearticles.com.
            How very insightful!!!
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        • Profile picture of the author Joseph Robinson
          Banned
          Originally Posted by nm5419 View Post

          my.ezinearticles.com is not an article directory, and has never been. Did you look at the link?
          Did you? It is merely ezienarticles login page. A different user interface does not change ezinearticles into an article directory. That is what it already was.

          Are you sick or something? If this is the best attempt at trolling you can do, it might be time to retire buddy. I think being proven wrong again and again is starting to get to you. :rolleyes:

          EDIT:

          Originally Posted by Alexa Smith View Post

          As can be seen from its url, it's a subdomain of ezinearticles.com.

          Measure Article Performance With My.EzineArticles.com
          Dave is just grasping at straws at this point.
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          • Profile picture of the author nm5419
            Originally Posted by Joe Robinson View Post

            Are you sick or something? If this is the best attempt at trolling you can do, it might be time to retire buddy. I think being proven wrong again and again is starting to get to you.
            Show me where I've been proven wrong.
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        • Profile picture of the author Pole
          This has been quite a problem for me as well. If you want, you can go premium, that might make a difference. Ezine is the BEST article directory, but you could submit one article to several other free submission sites for more exposure. I recommend GoArticles!
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  • Profile picture of the author Randall Magwood
    Seems like i struck a cord with you. By the way the link in your post is invalid.
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    • Profile picture of the author Joseph Robinson
      Banned
      Originally Posted by Randall Magwood View Post

      Seems like i struck a cord with you. By the way the link in your post is invalid.
      Worry not, you didn't strike a chord with me. You may want to look at what you are saying though; and research it a bit further. If you are trying to get traffic from EZA itself, well then you are missing the point.

      Then again, your business. Not mine. :rolleyes:
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  • Profile picture of the author chrislangley
    It's a little sad, but in response Ezinearticles have now made their submission requirements even more strict
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    • Profile picture of the author Alexa Smith
      Banned
      Originally Posted by chrislangley View Post

      It's a little sad, but in response Ezinearticles have now made their submission requirements even more strict
      Nothing sad about that, Chris, really. In the long run, it's a good thing, not a bad thing, for your business.

      An article that doesn't comply with EZA's minimal literary and editorial standards has no chance of being syndicated from EZA to any quality websites or ezines which can produce targeted traffic for the author - so there's nothing lost at all. And without any syndication from EZA happening, there's certainly no other point (from its author's perspective) in having the article sitting there, anyway.

      http://www.warriorforum.com/main-int...ries-work.html
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  • Profile picture of the author Ryan David
    EZA was at it's peak during the adsense hayday and just got greedy. They allowed garbage content and it eventually littered the entire site. Any time I run across an EZA article in the SERPS, it's a useless piece of garbage.

    I'm sure they still do ok, but it'll never get back to where it was. It grew at the rate it did because "Article Marketing" was the in thing to do for SEO.
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    • Profile picture of the author nm5419
      Originally Posted by Ryan David View Post

      EZA was at it's peak during the adsense hayday and just got greedy. They allowed garbage content and it eventually littered the entire site. Any time I run across an EZA article in the SERPS, it's a useless piece of garbage.

      I'm sure they still do ok, but it'll never get back to where it was. It grew at the rate it did because "Article Marketing" was the in thing to do for SEO.
      I completely agree. The writing quality is just horrendous, and I can't imagine anyone who's serious about building an online reputation wanting their content sitting next to anything in that collection.
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  • Profile picture of the author Randall Magwood
    Before Panda, i was getting at least 50+ clicks a day just from Ezinearticles alone with not alot of articles. After Panda, my clicks have gone down dramatically, but the number of website owners who are using my content has not dropped. I guess they still get what they want while Google still finds a way to screw us all.

    I think they'll recover in time, in a similar way that Hubpages has. I'll still be using Ezinearticles though for my own personal reasons.
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  • Profile picture of the author abbadox
    I started this thread awhile back and today I decided to check back and see if the decline continues:

    ezinearticles.com 4,764,379.0 UVs for January 2012 | Compete


    Looks like EZA is still on the decline, does anyone think they will survive the next year?.
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    • Profile picture of the author Alexa Smith
      Banned
      Originally Posted by abbadox View Post

      does anyone think they will survive the next year?.
      Yes, I think they'll survive well beyond that.

      Don't take it personally but I also think that (like most people) you're making some mistaken assumptions about their "decline" (perhaps you're heavily influenced by their reduced traffic, which tells only one part of the story?), are ignoring some of their non-AdSense income-sources and don't altogether appreciate how their business model works - sorry.
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      • Profile picture of the author livethedream
        I was using Ezinearticles for two years but got fed up with their stupid rules so I stopped using them as now submit to file sharing sites. Have you noticed how articles from their site rarely show on page one anymore even for low comp keywords. There was a time when you could get an Ezine article ranked on page one easily.... not anymore....
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        • Profile picture of the author Alexa Smith
          Banned
          Originally Posted by livethedream View Post

          Have you noticed how articles from their site rarely show on page one anymore even for low comp keywords. There was a time when you could get an Ezine article ranked on page one easily.... not anymore....
          For article marketers, that's an advantage, not a disadvantage.

          No article marketer wants their potential customer traffic going from a search engine to an article directory rather than from a search engine to their own site: those are not the people for whom articles are submitted to directories at all. :rolleyes:

          Who'd want their own site to be outranked by an article directory? That isn't what article directories are there for, at all.

          Thanks to the benefits of the Panda updates of 2011, we can now submit copies of our articles to Ezine Articles without the danger of that happening. It's made it much easier to rank our own sites for ourselves instead of EZA's site for them, and it's now easier for us to use article directories for the purpose for which they exist.

          http://www.warriorforum.com/main-int...ml#post5075780
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      • Profile picture of the author Alexa Smith
        Banned
        Originally Posted by NY1 View Post

        how would that not make them on the decline?
        I didn't say that they weren't on the decline.

        Their owner has even commented openly on their blog, some time in 2011, that they were on the decline - nobody's denying that. :rolleyes:

        Businesses as long-lasting and successful as theirs inevitably have some upturns and downturns. Their long history, in an industry in which hundreds of others come and go, gives "the big picture".

        I was answering the question "Do you think they'll survive the next year?"

        I do think they'll survive the next year.

        They're extremely well-established and successful, owned by an insightful expert, and have at various times throughout their very long (in internet terms) history been on the decline before, and have always successfully adapted to changing circumstances and bounced back. So I think the odds are in their favor. They've done it before and I'm pleased that they're showing some signs of doing it again now.

        I also made the simple, factual point that they have other income sources in addition to AdSense, which had at that point not yet been mentioned in the thread.

        Originally Posted by NY1 View Post

        Correct me if I am wrong with fact and evidence please, not spin, propaganda, or plain ol' gut feeling "cause it makes sense."
        I can't do that - but that's just because you seem to be inviting me to substantiate something I hadn't actually said in the first place: the question I answered was "Does anyone think they will survive the next year?". I do think that, and have given my reasons for thinking so. I'm not telling you to think the same thing, if you don't want to. Hope that's ok with you.
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        • Profile picture of the author discrat
          I believe EZA is still worth it to write articles and get sales and funnel traffic to your sites.
          However, I stopped using EZA over 2 years ago. The payout versus the work was not high enough for me.

          And I would rather keep my Articles on my own blogs and own the material !!
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          Nothing to see here including a Sig so just move on :)

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          • Profile picture of the author myob
            All I know is that EZA has been working extremely well for me for over 12 years. It continues to passively generate 260-300 new syndicate outlets a year, and has also significantly contributed to almost ten times that amount each year as a highly regarded portfolio showcase to publishers using it for sourcing content. In my business model, there is no sign at all of any such degradation, as direct traffic from EZA has always been a non-issue for article syndication.
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        • Profile picture of the author Alexa Smith
          Banned
          Originally Posted by NY1 View Post

          as I read it seemed to be making the speculative assertion that their decline was not substantial.
          No ... not at all: I have no idea how substantial it's been. They say they're employing far more staff than they were a year ago, anyway, so let's hope they're working their way out of it.

          Originally Posted by NY1 View Post

          Maybe I am on the wrong site to be talking about this. Lol, I usually feel that way here.
          LOL - maybe, I don't know: I sometimes feel that, myself, too.

          I don't understand most of your post, to be honest, and don't know what African spiritual songs have to do with it, but it doesn't really matter.

          I don't know if there's necessarily a "wrong site" to be on, anyway, on this question. It's all opinion, isn't it?

          Many posting above clearly think EZA will have no problem lasting the year (and more); others apparently don't. It seems that perhaps you just have a "minority perspective" on the issue. Nothing wrong with that.
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    • Profile picture of the author drmani
      Originally Posted by abbadox View Post

      Looks like EZA is still on the decline, does anyone think they will survive the next year?.
      Having known Chris 'Sparky' Knight since around 1996, as one of
      the smartest online entrepreneurs of my acquaintance, I'd be
      willing to bet it'll not just "survive the next year" but do a lot
      more.



      All success
      Dr.Mani
      Signature
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  • Profile picture of the author Kierkegaard
    Just last year I could easily expect 1000+ visitors in the first few days of posting a 500 word article to EZA (with a 100+ from GoArticles). Now it is more like 70+ from EZA (and I don't bother with GoArticles any more).

    Post 100 articles and I'll get 7000 visitors direct from EZA.

    These articles act like flyers handed out to attact people onto my site. Once on my site they find the articles proper.

    (It's like handing out flyers outside a bookstore to get people to come inside and attend an event, such as a talk by an author).

    It takes 10mins to write one of these flyers/articles and 5 or 6 a day is a simple hour or so work. In 3 weeks you'll have a 100 live flyers/articles.

    What is the difference between traffic coming from these flyers/articles and traffic coming in from quality indepth articles that have been syndicated. Quite a lot actually

    The biggest difference is that when someone acts after reading a flyer - they spend money. This approach to article marketing will get you sales, no doubt about it.

    70 people visiting your site because they want to buy what you're selling is better than 70,000 visitors coming along to read more of your quality articles.

    But this isn't an Either/Or () situation. Both approaches to article writing work extremely well.

    Don't be put off buy less traffic, understand how to better use it.
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  • Profile picture of the author StephanieMojica
    Before Panda, I could count on EZA to drive traffic to my squeeze page. After Panda, I rarely get any traffic from my EZA articles. I think all sites such as EZA were dramatically harmed by Panda, so I'm not spending too much time writing new articles for sites such as EZA.

    Stephanie
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    • Profile picture of the author Alexa Smith
      Banned
      Originally Posted by StephanieMojica View Post

      After Panda, I rarely get any traffic from my EZA articles.
      That's true for many of us, Stephanie. But for article marketers, that's an advantage, not a disadvantage.

      No article marketer wants their potential customer traffic going from a search engine to an article directory rather than from a search engine to their own site: those are not the people for whom articles are submitted to directories at all. :rolleyes:

      Who'd want their own site to be outranked by an article directory? That isn't what article directories are there for, at all.

      Thanks to the benefits of the Panda updates of 2011, we can now submit copies of our articles to Ezine Articles without the danger of that happening. It's made it much easier to rank our own sites for ourselves instead of EZA's site for them, and it's now easier for us to use article directories for the purpose for which they exist.

      http://www.warriorforum.com/main-int...ml#post5075780
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  • Profile picture of the author sureshots
    Every time I read something about ezinearticles.com I can't help but laugh, The time spent writing for ezine articles should be spent writing for your own blog. Had I followed all that B.U.M marketing advice I would still be working a 9 - 5 job!

    Start a blog and write there and or get people to write for you slap some adsense or infolinks on that bad boy make people pay you to advertise on your Blog and you'll see in an easy $1000 in profits in no time. The only reason ezinearticles stays afloat in my opinion is because they have a lot of internet marketers referring people to them to get "powerful back links". I'm not going to act like I haven't or wouldn't use EA but it's not all what it's cracked up to be.
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    • Profile picture of the author Alexa Smith
      Banned
      Originally Posted by sureshots View Post

      he time spent writing for ezine articles should be spent writing for your own blog.
      "Should be"? It is.

      Successful article marketers are submitting their work to Ezine Articles only after first publishing it on their own sites (and thereby building up their own sites, and acquiring the cumulative SEO benefit of all the initial indexations), and often having it syndicated to other relevant sites, in ezines, and so on. http://www.warriorforum.com/main-int...eza-first.html

      Submission to EZA is just a potential "little extra", at the other end of the article marketing process. Depending on it for its backlinks is clearly of virtually no value. And depending on it for customer traffic is actively counterproductive and most unwise. http://www.warriorforum.com/main-int...ml#post5068872
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  • Profile picture of the author Chris Worner
    The only thing in decline is Ezinearticles editorial standards. I just came across an author who has submitted seven articles, who has been awarded platinum author status despite every single one of his 'articles' containing copious amounts of spelling and grammatical errors. The content quality of these articles is even worse; mediocre generic garbage.

    -Chris
    Signature

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    • Profile picture of the author Alexa Smith
      Banned
      Originally Posted by Chris Worner View Post

      The only thing in decline is Ezinearticles editorial standards.
      Yes, I hear you there.

      They've been taking on a lot of new editorial staff, and I suppose they have to go through some sort of on-the-job training processes ... but it does make some of the acceptances pretty inconsistent and unreliable while it's going on. :rolleyes: :p

      The author you saw could have had ten articles at one point, three of which were subsequently removed without taking away his "Platinum" status?

      Or of course it can be a pen-name. Once your account is "Platinum", if you start a new pen-name, that name's first article will show "Platinum author: 1 article" (which is always a give-away that it's a pen-name).
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    • Profile picture of the author myob
      Originally Posted by Chris Worner View Post

      The only thing in decline is Ezinearticles editorial standards.
      Admittedly, Ezinearticles does have quite minimal editorial standards. As far as I know, this has always been so. However, barely coherent content is more of a problem for the authors, not EZA's editorial staff. Dysfunctional writers perhaps may be the ones primarily affected by this decline in overall traffic. Throwing up mediocre generic garbage sprinkled with keywords just doesn't have the pizazz like it used to, does it? :rolleyes:
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  • Profile picture of the author abbadox
    I asked the question: "Will Ezinearticles survive another year", and maybe that was not the right way to ask. I am sure Ezinearticles will still be online in a year but the right question to ask should be will it be worth bothering with. I continue to compare the fate of Dmoz to Ezine. I think they are on the same path. Dmoz is all but dead and Ezine has recently been diagnosed with a terminal condition so it is only a matter of time before the amount of revenue coming in does not cover operational expenses.
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    • Profile picture of the author myob
      Originally Posted by abbadox View Post

      Ezine has recently been diagnosed with a terminal condition
      The ill and handicapped are not qualified to make such a diagnosis.
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    • Profile picture of the author Alexa Smith
      Banned
      Originally Posted by abbadox View Post

      Ezine has recently been diagnosed with a terminal condition so it is only a matter of time before the amount of revenue coming in does not cover operational expenses.
      I don't doubt that as article marketing analysts go, you're an excellent carpet cleaner. I'm only going to say this once, and it's my last reply to you: you have absolutely no idea what you're talking about.
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      • Profile picture of the author Alexa Smith
        Banned
        Originally Posted by NY1 View Post

        What happened to the people that used to post that actually had some business knowledge deeper than syndicating articles?
        Since you ask ...

        Many of them are no longer here, typically because they depended on SEO to build their own businesses, and discovered - some of them to their very great cost - that a business which is dependent on Google as its primary source of traffic is one algorithm-change away from an accident, maybe from a disaster. Their places were taken by thousands of others who habitually repeat the same mistakes and even imagine that article marketing is a form of SEO.

        The "internet marketing beginners' world" is full of people who imagine that attempting to use article directories for their own traffic and/or their own backlinks is "article marketing", and when it inevitably lets them down, they very reasonably (but completely mistakenly) assume that "article marketing doesn't work any more" (because that's what they read in the Warrior Forum).

        Meanwhile, as anyone interested can see for themselves, increasing numbers of others who take the trouble to learn what article marketing actually means (meant before all the SEO-based nonsense polluted it, and still means now) find that they're actually making a decent living from it and building a genuine, asset-based business which produces residual income from work already done, without being dependent on the vicissitudes of Google.

        All the way through this thread, people have been arguing with me and criticising me for denying that EZA's income has dropped. At no point did I say that. On the contrary, I think it's highly likely that that's true. My opinion is that they'll recover. I've given many reasons for that opinion. Many others with more experience than I have seem to agree fully. Is that "analyzing a business"? (I didn't call it that, but it seems to matter to you, for some reason).

        I know you're not really criticising me for that (because (a) it's self-evident and (b) everyone who knows the first thing about it agreed with me anyway): you're criticising me for rudeness, because my struggle for clarity and lack of ambiguity in telling the eighteenth person that he's missed the point came across as rude. I'm not complaining about your criticising me for that: you were right - I did probably come across as rude. Still, look on the bright side: it gave you one of those very welcome opportunities to point that out. Curious that however many people say the same thing, it's always my posts you like to seize on, to do that. I said that someone had no idea what he was talking about. I was right, but unnecessarily outspoken. The post above mine called him "ill and handicapped", but predictably enough, I'm the one at whom you decided to take a shot.

        Many thanks, as always, for the pleasure of your company and the stimulating standard of debate, and have a good weekend.
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        • Profile picture of the author Kurt
          Originally Posted by Alexa Smith View Post

          Since you ask ...

          Many of them are no longer here, typically because they depended on SEO to build their own businesses, and discovered - some of them to their very great cost - that a business which is dependent on Google as its primary source of traffic is one algorithm-change away from an accident, maybe from a disaster. Their places were taken by thousands of others who habitually repeat the same mistakes and even imagine that article marketing is a form of SEO.
          You mean like ezinearticles.com? :rolleyes:

          However, what Alexa's continually leave out of the equation is that for everyone that loses during a algo change, someone else wins.

          While Alexa is obviously a "glass half empty" person, I'm more of a "glass "half full". It isn't like Google says after each change that they are eliminating Ranks #2, 4, 5 and 8. There's still 10 top 10 spots, and there always will be.

          For everyone that lost after Panda, like EZA, someone else gained. And this is why my own method of SEO which I've taught over the years is not to have one way to "optimize" pages, but rather use ALL reasonable options.

          Using a variety of reasonable options protects SEOers from these changes. If one "style" of SEO falls out of favor, they have other pages that will become more favorable.

          This is also why link diversity is so important. What Google likes today, they may not tomorrow. Plus, a good linking strategy brings traffic directly from multiple resources and isn't dependant on Google for 100% of it's traffic.

          But back to the OP's point...I do find it ironic that those that defend EZA and it's losing business, are also the ones that blast the very same traffic/revenue model EZA is dependant upon. I guess EZA is stupid for making all those millions of dollars over the years and not building a "business". LOL
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          • Profile picture of the author Alexa Smith
            Banned
            Originally Posted by Kurt View Post

            However, what Alexa's continually leave out of the equation is that for everyone that loses during a algo change, someone else wins.
            On the contrary. Far from "leaving it out of the equation", I (and many others, of course) have been saying here for a year that throughout the "Panda updates" of 2011, the article marketers were the winners, and the article directory marketers (as so many of them have themselves so openly and so repeatedly been commenting) the losers.

            Many of us have explained the reasons for that, and in quite some detail - though they're not exactly very "mysterious".

            Originally Posted by Kurt View Post

            While Alexa is obviously a "glass half empty" person, I'm more of a "glass "half full".
            "Verily, my cup overfloweth".

            Originally Posted by Kurt View Post

            It isn't like Google says after each change that they are eliminating Ranks #2, 4, 5 and 8. There's still 10 top 10 spots, and there always will be.
            Exactly so. And on the "vacant places principle", the more Google hammers the article directories, the easier it becomes for article marketers to rank our own sites well.

            Originally Posted by Kurt View Post

            For everyone that lost after Panda, like EZA, someone else gained.
            Exactly so.

            Article marketers gained; article directory marketers lost.

            There've been 500 threads clarifying this: "Where have you beeeeeeeeeeeen?!"

            Originally Posted by Kurt View Post

            And this is why my own method of SEO which I've taught over the years is ...
            This thread may not quite be the optimal place for business promotion, actually. It seems to me that on this subject Warriors are traditionally pretty quick to identify who posts out of their own commercial motivation and who's genuinely independent and has absolutely nothing to gain financially from the perspectives they represent here.

            Originally Posted by Kurt View Post

            This is also why link diversity is so important.
            http://www.warriorforum.com/adsense-...ml#post5680781
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            • Profile picture of the author Chris Lengley
              In the entire world, this forum is the only place where I get answers before asking questions.
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        • Profile picture of the author myob
          Originally Posted by Alexa Smith View Post

          The post above mine called him "ill and handicapped", but predictably enough, I'm the one at whom you decided to take a shot.
          Perhaps that post was much less unambiguous. I have seen no indication that EZA is on a continued downslide, despite the reduction in traffic. On the contrary, this reduction in traffic is apparently due to the success of Panda in eradicating the SEO riff raff. Only the ill-equiped and handicapped writers seem to have been affected.

          The benefits of EZA go far beyond SEO backlinks (of which are actually rather insignificant by comparison) including wide exposure, media sourcing, business credibility, syndication, brand equity, lead generation, joint ventures, daily email alerts in 400+ niches, RSS feeds, etc. In addition, Chris Knight will soon be adding targeted advertising services in selected niche categories.

          Those who understand this business will continue to succeed. The rest will continue to sit, spin and wonder why their method is no longer working.
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        • Profile picture of the author CDarklock
          Originally Posted by NY1 View Post

          1) Just because people do not post here, it does not mean that their business failed or was based entirely on SEO.
          You've reversed cause and effect. Not posting doesn't mean their business failed. Business failure means they're not posting.

          2) Just because some people complain about losing their SEO traffic to Panda updates does not mean all did.
          Nobody is saying that everyone lost everything. But pre-Panda there were a lot of people in here saying that article directories would never die, and Alexa was one of a tiny few people saying anything can die.

          And then Google killed the article directories.

          Not outright. They killed the ones that were full of garbage. But those happened to be precisely the ones that all the dillholes were jumping up and down about being the key to massive profits, because said dillholes were merrily crapping them up with spun PLR garbage.

          We saw it coming, we warned them it was coming, and they just kept right on dancing around the altar of crappy articles from China and India at 50 cents per hundred words, throwing them through one spinner after another and heaping them onto a massive pile of flaming trash.

          Well, we don't want to say we told you so, but... okay, yes. Yes, we do want to say we told you so. Because we damn well did.

          3) Just because your point of view is more popular in Warrior Forum does not make it right nor does it make it the truth.
          Nor does that make it wrong, nor does that make it a lie.

          (4 and 5 are basically incoherent.)

          6) Finally, the consensus from the self proclaimed article syndication experts seems to be that if someone does not agree with you and myob, that they must be unsuccessful.
          "Just because a point of view is more popular in Warrior Forum does not make it right nor does it make it the truth."

          Now, granted...


          ...but I'm pretty familiar with Alexa's position on this matter because you sort of can't be a writer on WaFo without hearing all about it.

          Her position is that using article directories as a source of backlinks and traffic has been wrongly positioned as "article marketing" when in fact there are several other ways to market products and services with articles, including the syndication method she herself prefers.

          Which, incidentally, does not have a damn thing to do with SEO. So when people go around saying "article marketing is all about SEO," she waves a hand and goes "excuse me, but no, it's not." Which a lot of people take to mean SEO is not important or doesn't work, when in reality Alexa - like myself - simply feels that SEO is exactly the same kind of reliance on a third party that screwed the former EZA tycoons into disappearing from the forum.

          Nobody is saying that you shouldn't ever do anything that relies on a third party. The argument from our side is that there should be no single point of failure (SPF). When you have an SPF in your business, whether it's your list provider or a search engine or your host or your domain registrar, then one company can make one decision and your business falls over dead.

          The concept that rests on that SPF isn't dead. Article marketing isn't dead. Even article directory marketing isn't dead. Hell, EZA isn't dead. But if your business depended on the abnormally high ranking even complete crap got on Google when you posted it on EZA, your business is dead.

          And that's a pretty damn specific death, when you think about it.

          What we're saying isn't that you can't possibly build a business that relies on a third party site. It's that when you build your business entirely on a single esoteric concept, this is monumentally stupid and you should start doing some better risk management.
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          • Profile picture of the author Green Moon
            Originally Posted by CDarklock View Post

            What we're saying isn't that you can't possibly build a business that relies on a third party site. It's that when you build your business entirely on a single esoteric concept, this is monumentally stupid and you should start doing some better risk management.
            That is particularly true when your business model is to rely on one third party site (such as EZA) to generate your traffic from another single third party (Google). It is bad enough to rely primarily on search engine traffic, which many sites do (including mine, unfortunately), but to rely on one site or even one method of getting links (article marketing), you are in big trouble.
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  • Profile picture of the author Cataclysm1987
    EZA was toast a while ago. Google is trying to monopolize the open content syndication market.

    Meanwhile Youtube, Blogger and Google Plus are doing quite well despite having plenty of Copyright infringing content and duplicate content. Hmmm...
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  • Profile picture of the author perfectpixel
    Banned
    the problem is google views many of the revenue sharing sites as content mills, every time there's a google slap rankings for articles drop
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    • Profile picture of the author Alexa Smith
      Banned
      Originally Posted by perfectpixel View Post

      the problem is google views many of the revenue sharing sites as content mills, every time there's a google slap rankings for articles drop
      That's not a "problem" at all: as explained in post #82 above, for article marketers that's actually an advantage, not a disadvantage. Nobody in their right mind is trying to use article directories for ranking.
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  • Profile picture of the author User-Name
    From an S.E.O standpoint

    I would never post an article on my own site less then 850-1000 words.
    Other then the keyword benefit from LSI if my content is unique and interesting I will keep the surfer on my site (google loves the enhanced surfer experience).
    I would use Ezinearticles to post 300-500 word article to get the surfer away from there as soon as possible.
    Google ranks the content to ad/noise ratio high in its algorithm.
    That needs to be addressed on Ezinearticles with that volume of traffic You can be sure they are looking at it seriously.


    Ezinearticles was once a great gauge if you typed in your keywords and an Ezinearticles listing was high you knew it would take little work.
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  • Profile picture of the author celente
    Ezine in our marketing campaign only makes up about 3 % of what we are doing with our article marketing. Back in 2010 it was about 85%.

    Think syndication, do not think article spamming or directory spamming is going to give you good results any more. Google has leveled the playing field and sick of people spinning, Although people are still doing it.
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  • Profile picture of the author hellow0rld
    Has pr dropped? I don't think it's an issue personally as I would prefer my own sites are optimised better. I haven't used eza in ages, as someone mentioned already, you can only read so much on diet pills.
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  • Profile picture of the author Danny Woolard
    Do you have to put anything special in the resource box to get an article syndicated? Like a disclaimer saying your ok with it being syndicated?

    I've uploaded a few articles but just assumed a link and brief description back to my home page is good enough.
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    • Profile picture of the author Alexa Smith
      Banned
      Originally Posted by denutza View Post

      Do you have to put anything special in the resource box to get an article syndicated? Like a disclaimer saying your ok with it being syndicated?
      Not if it's an article directory, no.

      That's what article directories are there for.

      By submitting your article there, you're authorizing anyone to syndicate it.

      The articles generally need to be written for syndication, though, for people to want them.
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      • Profile picture of the author Michael Oksa
        Originally Posted by Alexa Smith View Post

        Not if it's an article directory, no.

        That's what article directories are there for.

        By submitting your article there, you're authorizing anyone to syndicate it.

        The articles generally need to be written for syndication, though, for people to want them.
        That is mostly true. To be more precise, you're authorizing anyone to syndicate it within the Terms of Service set forth by the article directory.

        For example, Ezinearticles.com's TOS states the following:
        Agree to limit the number of articles reprinted to no greater than taking 25 articles from our site per calendar year per unique domain that you own. In addition, for domain owners of many domains, you may not reprint more than 250 articles per year (10 sites x 25 articles reprinted per domain).
        I'm guessing a lot of people are not aware of that particular rule.

        It may be a fine point in regards to authorization, but one worth mentioning.

        All the best,
        Michael
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        • Profile picture of the author Alexa Smith
          Banned
          Originally Posted by Michael Oksa View Post

          I'm guessing a lot of people are not aware of that particular rule.
          Yes; I'm sure they're not.

          My understanding is that EZA's lawyer included that one, when they opened, just to make sure that they'd have a clearcut legal remedy if ever anyone "syndicated" every single article from the site and then "set up in opposition but using all EZA's content". Not a pleasant prospect.
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  • Profile picture of the author Marhelper
    Wonder what their current numbers are? I can only get up to May, 2012.
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  • Profile picture of the author abbadox
    I started this thread back in Dec 2011 and the reason I started it was I believed at the time and still believe now that article directories are going to fade away. They serve no real purpose and I just checked again today and the ezinearicles.com decline continues. Over the last three months alone they have lost an additional 5.93% of the their traffic.

    Here is a link:

    Ezinearticles.com Site Info

    If you write quality unique content that people actually find useful why would you want to post it on a site like ezinearticles.com, you would be much better off posting it either on your own site or a site that is focused on your niche.
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    • Profile picture of the author JohnMcCabe
      Originally Posted by abbadox View Post

      I started this thread back in Dec 2011 and the reason I started it was I believed at the time and still believe now that article directories are going to fade away. They serve no real purpose and I just checked again today and the ezinearicles.com decline continues. Over the last three months alone they have lost an additional 5.93% of the their traffic.
      While directories like EZA may be losing search traffic, I don't think the major, established directories will fade away completely. Rather, they will find their natural level as they fulfill the role for which they were created.

      Regarding the secondary and trivial directories, without the support of publishers and website owners, you may be correct.

      Originally Posted by abbadox View Post

      If you write quality unique content that people actually find useful why would you want to post it on a site like ezinearticles.com, you would be much better off posting it either on your own site or a site that is focused on your niche.
      Hard to argue with this, as it's one of the main premises behind the practice of content syndication for targeted traffic. Given the way many syndicators operate, posting to directories is actually the final step in the process. Our quality content goes on our own sites first, then it's distributed to our syndicates. Finally, a copy is posted to one or more directories for whatever passive syndication benefit there may be.
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    • Profile picture of the author Alexa Smith
      Banned
      Originally Posted by abbadox View Post

      If you write quality unique content that people actually find useful why would you want to post it on a site like ezinearticles.com
      To achieve further syndication of one's articles.

      That's the purpose for which article directories exist ...

      ... to provide relevant niche sites, authority sites, ezine publishers and others with their content needs, and to enable authors to announce the availability of their work for syndication, in order to get them (and their link) in front of the maximum possible quantity of already-targeted potential customer traffic without depending on search engines. That's what an article directory is.

      Originally Posted by abbadox View Post

      you would be much better off posting it either on your own site or a site that is focused on your niche.
      It's not an either/or - naturally one does both those things first.

      The mechanism (including the place of Ezine Articles in the overall scheme of article marketing) is explained in this post: http://www.warriorforum.com/main-int...ml#post5035794

      No article marketer, for all the reasons explained in this post, would want to try to use an article directory to get potential customer traffic visiting their own site via an article directory at all (we all lose most of that traffic: the article directory makes its own living from the people who don't get as far as our own sites, after all). That's not who those copies are there for.

      http://www.warriorforum.com/main-int...ml#post5068872

      The undoubted decline in potential customer traffic to article directories is actually a good thing for article marketers, not a bad thing.
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  • Profile picture of the author Joseph Robinson
    Banned
    If I can make a quick point: traffic is definitely going down, but it's not traffic the syndicators care about. Publishers in most niches still come to EZA to find new stuff, and as long as they're visiting that traffic number can keep on dropping .
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  • Profile picture of the author rslayter
    We just have to look even harder for "what is working now." Ezinearticles used to be easy. Not so much now days. Blast Google
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  • Profile picture of the author clever7
    Wish this decline at EZA really meant that this traffic is going to our websites. In the past, it was very easy to get at Google's page one for our main keywords with an article at EZA, but the same doesn't happen with our websites or blogs today.

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  • Profile picture of the author Ephrils
    I have to agree with the sentiment of this thread in that Ezine's heyday and glory days are over. They still command a lot of traffic, but that is filtered through different niches to the point where any article clicks you get are next to nothing. I use to use them for backlinks and a lot of them, but that benefit died ages ago. I think its better to focus on your own sites, post your own articles there first, then maybe give it to them. I wish it were still the days of submit to Ezine and get instant benefits. Any idea where else we can go for their former linking/authority power?
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  • Profile picture of the author abbadox
    The ezinearticles decline continues as expected. Just checked Alexa today and ezinearticles is down another 8 1/2% for the last three months and with the next Penguin update just starting I think it is really going to hurt ezinearticles.
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