There is a lot of kerfuffle going on because the biggest article
directory (EzineArticles) has issued new rules about the quality
of articles it will now accept.

Most article marketers submit their work to EzineArticles because
it is the most effective single place to get back links and
traffic from. But that also means that a lot of ‘writers’ (term
used very loosely) submit utter garbage.

EZA do manually review articles before publishing them but their
rules have been a bit vague and garbage has been getting through
- in huge quantities.

So now they are sharpening up their act.

They now say that articles under 400 words are unlikely to be
approved – and all the fast buck merchants are up in arms because
they’ve been writing 250 word pieces.

To put it into perspective, my short review of the ‘Complete
Guide to Website Building’ up above is 418 words. Hardly a huge
article!

250 words is barely a blog post!

EZA are also – horror of horrors – saying that articles have to
deliver quality content and not be rehashed, respun or repurposed
versions of other ‘articles’ the author has already submitted.

Well doh! Why would that surprise or upset anyone?

I have nothing against repurposing content or spinning it to make
multiple versions from the same source, but for goodness sake –
you don’t them post them all on the same directory! There are
thousands of article directories out there, and sending a
different version of your work to each one is a sensible plan.
But not all to EZA!

Common sense, folks.

Writing articles is one of the best uses of your time and efforts
as far as Internet marketing is concerned. But only when done
properly.

If you follow advice from people who tell you to take short cuts,
or advise you that you don’t have to work, or suggest that you
can get away with poor writing and that quantity is more
important than quality – then you are listening to the wrong
people.

Writing articles is a skill. You need to work at it and put out
the very best work that you are capable of doing.

Put yourself in the place of your reader – they have searched for
information on a subject and have found your article. Do they
want to read a hastily cobbled together 250 words of unresearched
nonsense that is only out there to attract poor quality
backlinks, or do they want to find a well researched, 400-750
word, clearly written answer to the question they are asking?

Working out which one is best shouldn’t be too hard and I totally
applaud EzineArticle’s new policies if they begin to teach the
ever growing number of ‘writers’ that quality will always win out
over quantity in the long run.

And I don’t know about you, but I’m in this game for the long
run.

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