Archive for the ‘Writing’ Category
Top Article Directories of 2009
If we want to decide what the top article directories of 2009 will be then we need to look at what makes a top article directory.
So the first question is:
What do you want from an article directory?
- One of the things you want is high-quality back links. There’s no point in having a back link from a low quality site, in fact according to Google it may even be possible to harm your site with a really bad back link. However, I don’t think we need to worry about that from many article directories. In addition if no-one visits the article directory then any article there is unlikely to get syndicated, so there will be no back links for reprinting.
- Another thing you want from an article directory is qualified traffic to your own website. To get that qualified traffic you need the article directory itself to rank well with Google. Which leads us quite nicely to my next question:
What will Google be looking for in 2009
The latest buzzword from Google is “user experience“. Google got to the top of the search engine pile by providing the best results. That’s also how they’re aiming to stay there. Whilst they won’t reveal the secrets behind their search engine rankings they do tell us a lot about the sort of things are looking for. Right now they’re looking for a good user experience.
There has been a lot written about the mechanics of the Google search engine. But unless you actually work for Google most of it is just speculation, so let’s take a commonsense approach.
What makes a good user experience
As far as I can tell there are two major parts to a good user experience.
What your page looks like
Whilst it is true that the Google search engine is basically a robot, which means it can’t actually look at a page in the same way human does, it still has humans programming it, clever humans! So whilst Google won’t decide that your colour scheme is bad or that it doesn’t like the look of your graphics, it will still be analysing the “look” of your page.
Google will have ideas about things like the amount of advertising on a page, the amount of graphics on a page, the amount of multimedia on a page, the amount of links on the page, and, of course, the amount of actual content on your page. They are going to have some way of measuring all of these things and deciding what balance gives a good user experience.
What the content of your page is like
This is where the quality content debate comes in. Whilst Google may not be able to tell if you actually know what you’re writing about, they will have other things that will tell them, or at least give them a good idea, if your content is any good. If people are only on your page for a couple of seconds Google will conclude that your article is rubbish. Google will also be able to look at things like spelling, and grammar.
There are also of whole host of minor considerations, such as where the links on your page lead to.
So now we have an idea of the sort of thing Google may be looking for let’s have a look at some article directories.
Ezine Articles
Ezine articles is the undisputed king of article directories. Every serious article marketer submits their articles to ezine articles. I doubt very much that they are going to topple from the top in the next year.
However, ezine articles are beginning to show the disadvantages of that size. They have a crop of new editors, and as they grow they are only going to need more new editors, and some of those new editors are a little trigger-happy. They also have to have a whole crop of people whose job it is to make sure that their system isn’t gamed, and another crop of people to keep the basic infrastructure going. But do remember that as the largest article directory they get tons of junk submissions every day so you have to feel some sympathy for their editors!
Looking at the content half of a good user experience, ezine articles has tightened its standards a lot recently. Many articles that were accepted in the past will no longer be accepted today. They seemed to have a number of petty rules, such as how money words you may including anchor text (that’s the clickable bit of text when you include a link). But they are also tightening up on spelling, grammar and basic English. They have rules about where your links may point, delivering on the promise made in your article title and many subjects that they won’t allow you to write on.
But, and this could be where ezine articles will face the stiffest competition. The look of an ezine articles page is terrible! The actual article seems to be put into the page as an afterthought, in between all the ad sense ads. Each article page is cluttered with these ads, and navigation links, the article is just squeezed in. The only graphics the ezine articles header, and possibly a banner advert. Ezine articles do not allow you to add pictures, videos, multimedia or anything but the most basic commands such as bold and italics to add interest to your article.
I’m sure ezine articles will address this in the future, they have to. But don’t expect this to be a speedy process. Ezine articles spends a lot of time making sure that its pages are compatible with a lot of out of date browsers, so adding things like pictures and multimedia will be challenging.
Ezine articles does seem to have taken note of the need to provide a good user experience, but so far they are focusing on what content authors bring to the table, and neglecting what they bring to the table. It’s for this reason that I expect ezine articles to face some serious competition over the next year, and if they don’t react fast enough they may be tumbled from the top.
Buzzle
Buzzle has been quietly sneaking up the rankings. You don’t get such quick traffic as you do from ezine articles, but I have noticed that in some niches you actually get more article views from Buzzle than you do from ezine articles.
Buzzle is a little bit different from the traditional article directory. They don’t allow syndication of articles. So you won’t find your article from Buzzle repeated elsewhere. In addition Buzzle also insists that articles submitted to them are completely original. And something that I find highly annoying, if they reject your article they simply delete it, no friendly e-mail, no chance to resubmit.
However, Buzzle does keep up with the changes on what Google is looking for, they have tightened up their guidelines, and they have recently started accepting an image for each article.
It can take a while to become an author for Buzzle, as part of the application process is to submit a sample of your writing, which is then reviewed by their staff. They also warn you that if they continue to reject your articles then your account will be cancelled.
I can see Buzzle becoming a serious competitor to ezine articles.
- Buzzle submission guidelines (This may be available only if you are signed in as an author)
Website-articles.net
This article directory is really an article marketer’s club – with a directory attached. The main draw here is the information shared with the members. There is a monthly newsletter, a private forum, and regular updates from the owner about what’s going on in the world of article marketing and article writing, and insights he has gained from watching the statistics of an active article directory. As an example, there has been a recent posting on how to use keywords in article titles, and what format is getting the best article view rates. I’d love to share, but the members of this site are sworn to secrecy!
A number of people are put off by the $10 a month charge for being a member. I am very happy about this. It keeps the dilettantes and spammers away! This means that the owner of the directory does not have to spend time every day wading through crappy articles that were not worth submitting in the first place, and that he certainly won’t be approving for publication. Instead he can spend his day approving articles, and in a rare instance that he can’t approve an article sending a decent e-mail telling you how to correct it so that he can approve it. He can also spend his time improving the directory.
The article pages in this directory are a joy to look at, there is no advertising, and the article takes centre stage. The article can include things like video, audio and especially pictures.
The owner here is in regular communication with his members to find out their ideas and where possible to implement them. This owner is the biggest asset to the article directory, he is actively working to improve it and get a good Google ranking. Being an active article marketer too he can see the perspective from both sides of the fence.
This directory is small now, but it also has a cap on membership. This directory is providing an excellent user experience, both in the look of the page and content on a page. This directory will provide a serious challenger to Buzzle and ezine articles.
- website articles submission guidelines (These are currently under review as what is permitted in each article is under review and new features are added)
- Sign up for website articles membership
Searchwarp
Searchwarp is more of a community with an attached article directory. As such it is stamping down on articles that are too commercial. Its submission guidelines make it very clear that the purpose of each article is not to sell anything. And they also exclude a number of categories such as credit cards, gambling, affiliate marketing programmes and pharmaceuticals.
Despite, or perhaps because of this, this directory is ranking quite well. In addition this directory allows you to include an image with your article.
If you can fit your article into their guidelines than they are a good source of traffic, and their popularity with Google is rising.
There are a few other article directories that are currently providing me with traffic. However, all they offer is a basic text article without the ability to add images or multimedia. I am watching them carefully to see how they adapt to the demands of the market.
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Using Mind Maps To Write Articles
I’ve been asked a lot about this subject on twitter. Mind map software, using mind map software and especially about using mind map software to write articles. So here it is “how I use mind map to write articles”. This won’t make much sense to you unless you understand the basics of what a mind map is. Also, I use MindMapper there are a lot of different mind map softwares available this is just the one I use. Different software will have different capabilities.
About My Articles
When I sit down to write articles I usually write them in sets of between five and 20 articles (usually between 10 and 15). I use mind maps to help me organise my research and outline my articles. I then use Dragon NaturallySpeaking to actually write the article, and finally I use the ubiquitous word to edit it. My articles are usually in the 500 to 600 word range. This is how I do it, I hope it’s helpful for you. But mind mapping isn’t for everyone, some people just find it more trouble than it’s worth. So take from this article what you can use and ignore the rest.
The Research
If it’s a subject I already know well I can mainly skip the very first part of the research and move straight on to titles. If I’m writing about a subject I’ve recently written about them I can just pull up my research map.
For a subject that is new to me I open up a blank mind map and title it with my subject. Then I go to Google and start my research. Whenever I find a useful website I copy its address into the mind map, for every branch of the mind map there is a note section — which is one of the reasons I use a mind map rather than simply bookmarking sites. As I start to see subtopics then I can add branches to my mind map for these and organise each website into an appropriate branch.
This means that at a glance I can see how much information I have for each sub topic, what the subtopics are, and where I need to do more research.
Then The Titles
Once I have a grasp of the subject I will open up a new mind map that will form the basis of my outlines for actually writing the articles. The title of my mind map will of course be the subject. Then I will think of my titles. I have a titles swipe file, templates swipe file, and of course my research to help me find suitable titles.
One of my favourite resources at this stage is my templates swipe file. I have a mind map whose initial branches titles and whose sub branches are subtitles or parts of the article. Four example a sample title will be “Don’t Make These (Blank) Mistakes In (Blank)”. This will then have some branches of :
- introduction
- mistake one
- About the mistake
- Why it is a mistake
- What you should be doing instead
- mistake two
- About the mistake
- Why it is a mistake
- What you should be doing instead
- mistake three
- About the mistake
- Why it is a mistake
- What you should be doing instead
- conclusion.
I can simply copy this branch over to my subject map and fill in the blanks.
Now The Subtitles
As soon as I’ve got all the titles and templates that I want I can look at each article individually and fill in its subheadings. I should be able to fill in the subheadings from the research that I’ve already done, or because they come from one of my templates swipe files. This is usually a very quick part of the process. I know what I want to say in the article — because of the title. A lot of my articles will be from templates so while I will need to do is fill in the blanks for the sub heads.
Final Bit Of Research — The Notes
A subject I know well, or that I find very simple I probably won’t need to make any more notes. I will be able to go straight to writing the article at this stage.
If I don’t know the article well I will probably go into the notes section each sub branch, look at my research notes and make a few notes of my own stop I usually do this in bullet points format, after all it’s just from me.
Onto The Writing
Once I have all my articles and outlined I then export the mind map into word. I then simply print it off, fire at Dragon NaturallySpeaking and write my articles. Then I can edit them in word and have a finished article.
So there you have it that is how I do it. If you have any comments, need any more explanations, or just want to tell me how wonderful I am please leave me a message in the comments and I’ll get back to you as soon as I can. I hope you found this helpful. If you want to follow me on twitter