from the desk of . . . Ken Nadreau

Got a question from an Article Submitter Pro customer who was asking about the growing number of article directories that aren’t accepting articles anymore. He thought it strange because it seemed to him they’re in the business of article intake, so he wanted to know what was up?

I told him that most article directories “hand” moderate their submissions and sometimes they’ve just taken in more than they can handle. So they shut down for a time to give them a chance to catch up.

However, there’s a couple of other underlying reasons for this shut down as well . . .

First of all, someone somewhere along the line interpreted the term “unique” to mean reworded, so in regard to articles, authors have taken up the practice of merely spinning articles so the paragraph arrangement and wording are a little different, but every article produced says basically the same thing though often not as well as the original.

Secondly, and more importantly, the “one click and walk away” automated article submission software that lets the user blast all these spun articles en masse, often in a way that wreaks havoc on a directory’s format, have overloaded the systems of many an article directory.

Now some article directory owners have gotten smart and added a captcha on their submission forms to force a human presence to get through the process and block the “one clickers”. But some, for one reason or another can’t or won’t, so they get inundated with badly written, poorly formatted articles and are forced to shut down until they can delete or repair them all.

Unfortunately, this whole mess could be avoided if . . .

1. People understood what “Unique” meant

Articles are supposed to be informative. Open any magazine and you’ll see every article either teaching something, notifying about something newsworthy, or entertaining. None are written to just be words on the page, or content fillers. And you’ll never, ever find a magazine where all the articles are variations of the first one.

In fact, any author worth his or her weight, who hopes to make it to the pages of a well read, popular magazine would make the effort to inform readers of something they may not have thought of before or didn’t know.

In other words, articles that make it to the pages of prestigious magazines strive to make their work unique. Not unique in the sense of being different than what they’ve written previously, but unique in the sense that what they write takes their readers down a different path than what anyone else has written before.

Or to put it in plain English, an entirely different viewpoint.

Words are words, but thoughts and insights are what blaze new trails and find new frontiers. Its all about concept, not paragraph arrangement!

2. People understood what Article Marketing was all about

Fundamentally, authors write articles to be read. But why?

Ask any journalist and they’ll tell you its all about gaining a following. Anything they could possibly write about could be written about by anyone, so its not about “getting the message out.” Most events are swarmed with writers, so there’s little chance anything could happen in the world that people wouldn’t hear about anyway.

So its not so much the message, but how the message is conveyed that attracts people to one author or another. Its what makes one blogger more popular than another, one novelist famous while another starves. Its about branding, and its about being an expert in the field one is writing in.

Likewise, article marketing is about conveying a message in such a way that makes people trust you know what you’re talking about. Its about becoming an expert in your niche, and so much so that people will trust what you recommend.

Trust is the key, and its also the hardest thing in the world to merit. Anything you do to detract from being viewed as an expert will kill your chances of success. Plain and simple!

Thus its important to remember that everything you write in an article, and how you write it will stick to you. Write just for the sake of getting a back link, and people will notice. Write as a teacher and people will notice that too and respect you for it. Teach them something they didn’t know and you’ll gain a following.

3. People paid attention to the trends

Alright, its probably time to cap this off, but I wanted to stress to you and to the person who asked this question in the beginning how important it is to take all of this seriously. The article directories are closing their doors for a reason, and its time we all took notice.

Article Marketing is a great way to build a business and it’d be a shame if it all went away because of some foolish notion that submitting articles was like placing ads in classifieds. Its not!

Variations may be great for AdWords ads, but not for articles. People are looking for solid information, and the majority would happily follow someone who could provide it in the best possible way. If we’re going to use article marketing, then we need to be that person.

So take heed of the fact that the article directories are taking every measure possible from preventing articles coming in from “one click” submission software. They don’t like them, so why would you run the risk of using one?

Find a “happy medium” and use a semi-automated article submitter so you can get through the security, make sure your articles are being formatted correctly on each directory, and get them into the right category (another peeve of directory owners).

Pay attention to the doors closing, because the article directories have had enough of spun articles. Be the author who submits only truly unique and informative articles. You’ll be happy you did when your following starts building and sales begin coming in.

Article marketing gives you an edge, up to now afforded only to the best writers in the best magazines. You can open new doors for your marketing career if you handle things professionally, learn from the mistake of others, and follow the course of logical common sense.

The article directories that have had to shut down will reopen eventually. They pretty much have to or close completely. We’re already witnessing a drop in page rank for those who have been forced to stop taking in new content. So its inevitable.

But you need to ask yourself whether you’re going to be part of the cure for these directories and article marketing in general, or are you going be part of the problem that’s causing the vanishing article directories and follow all those who have no concept of what its all about?

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