Put Your Crappy Content Away, Ya Lazy Bum!
The times, they are a changin’. Although it hasn’t officially happened yet, there have been whispers in quite a few places for a while now that things are changing in the world of article marketing, specifically in the article directories and very specifically, with Ezine Articles. And in my personal opinion, it’s a change for the better.
Here’s what’s rumored to be happening: submission standards are about to get a whole lot higher. To put it in a nutshell, the minimum standard for articles to get approved (which, historically, has been pretty darn low) is going to be longer and better. No longer will you be able to throw together a crappy 250 word article full of spelling and grammatical errors and call it a day. Soon, that kind of sloppy work won’t get approved any more.
And what’s more…
The changes are reportedly retroactive!
Meaning if you’ve got crappy articles approved in the past, unless you update them and make them acceptable, they’ll disappear.
What do I have to say about this?
Well, I say it’s about damn time. I’ve said many times, on this blog and on the other sites I own, that putting quality content out there is the real key to succeeding in online business. And I use article marketing to promote my products, but when I mention that I’m an article marketer, people lump me in with those other bozos littering the article directories with crap content and giving the rest of us a bad name.
For my own article marketing, I’ve long held a stipulation that all the articles I use be at least 400 words long, always be completely original, and have really useful information for the reader. Keyword density should be between 2-5%, but is usually around 2.5-3.5%. Because I’ve been doing things this way for a long time, I know that, when the changes do come, I don’t have to worry about any of my old articles being taken down.
HOT TIP –> The MOST IMPORTANT thing i do however, is write the content first and then go back and keyword optimize it. If you write for a keyword the content will suck… create a title first, write a worthwhile piece of content and then go back and keyword optimize it. Your content will get both published and read!
So that’s my advice for anybody using article marketing right now – if you’re not already, make the change and start writing quality articles NOW, before the new rules come into play. Do this for two reasons; one, because quality is always better than crappy (in terms of your reputation and your bottom line), and you should have been doing it this way all this time anyway; and secondly, so that when these changes do come you’ll be ahead of the game and not one of the people left in the lurch when all of their articles get dumped.
NEW Update: Just saw a new update to the ezinearticles guidelines as we speak…
Expert Authors can now earn the ability to link-up 4-word and 5-word phrases* by submitting lengthier (over 400 words) high-quality articles.
BOTTOM LINE:
- If your article is shorter than 400 words, each text link may only contain a maximum of 3 words*
- If your article is longer than 400 words, each text link may only contain a maximum of 5 words*
* Important Note: Any common words, including to, is, in, on, it, and, at, by, a, an and others will now be excluded from the word count.
PS – If you are wondering why i am focusing on EzineArticles here… cause they are the grand daddy of all article directories and you NEED to be using them (IMHO).
So what’s your thoughts?
If you enjoyed this post, make sure you subscribe to my RSS feed!
Split Tests Simplified & Explained – First, A/B Testing
So what test should you start using?
Google’s Website Optimizer gives you two options: and A/B test or a multivariate test. But it’s not as [...] Continue Reading…
If you enjoyed this post, make sure you subscribe to my RSS feed!
7 Steps for Successful Split Testing – Kinda Science-y Stuff
This is a continuation of the Trusted Expert posts on testing…
For testing purposes and the examples we give, we’re going to be using Google’s [...] Continue Reading…
If you enjoyed this post, make sure you subscribe to my RSS feed!
Maintain Your Trusted Expert Status – The Importance of Testing and Where to Start
Every single page of you website has elements in it which affect how people view your website. And each of those elements came [...] Continue Reading…
If you enjoyed this post, make sure you subscribe to my RSS feed!
SEO & Being a Trusted Expert
You may not realize it, but the things that will make you a Trusted Expert will also help you with your SEO (Search Engine [...] Continue Reading…
If you enjoyed this post, make sure you subscribe to my RSS feed!
